It’s war on Earth with a race that can hide and disguise themselves among us. This episode gives us a follow up story that began during the special episode called The Day of The Doctor. In that episode, the Zygons were planning on occupying the planet, but UNIT, the three Doctors, and Clara stopped them. This resulted in a cease fire treaty among the humans and the Zygons. Operation Double is the title of the cease fire treaty and it is about be broken.
A splinter group known as “Truth and Consequences” have rebelled against the treaty saying it is a violation of who they are and are unwilling participants to this agreement. The Doctor, Clara, and UNIT try to stop this faction to avoid a war. Petronella Osgood brings everybody together when she is taken by the rebel group and a mysterious box called the Osgood Box plays a major motivation in determining how this conflict will end.
This conflict spans across the world from New Mexico to Turmezistan with The Doctor, Kate Stewart, and Clara traveling to these locations to uncover the truth and handle whatever the rebel Zygons have in store. The Doctor wants to resolve this situation with open negotiations, but Stewart from UNIT wants to bomb the rebels and asks questions later. Unbeknownst to them, the rebel Zygons has a trick up there sleeves that will put the human race in extreme jeopardy.
The Doctor visits one of the Zygons Occupied villages to talk with the rebel group, but is met with Zygons that can manipulate the UNIT soldiers mental and emotional state to the point where they are lured into a trap and kill them. Unfortunately, UNIT is ordered to bomb the village to eliminate the threat. The Doctor finds Ogood in the village and he captures one of the rebel Zygons and leaves before the village is bombed.
Stewart goes to the town of Truth and Consequences, New Mexico to gather information about the town. She meets a deputy who tells her that Osgood was here a while back but is gone. She tells her about the mass number of British immigrants that came to this town. The locals found these Brits rather odd. She tells them that these immigrants changed from humans to some sort of alien. She shows what happened to the locals and takes her to a row of dumpsters with leftover bodies killed by the strange Brits. Stewart is faced with a mystery of what happened to all the Brits, but the deputy tries to have her killed because she turns out to be one of the Brits, a Zygon.
Clara and another UNIT soldier, Jac finds a cave filled with pods. Clara orders more UNIT soldiers to her location and wants to destroy them because they are a threat, until she sees herself in one of the pods. Jac begins to question the pods and why they are there. Clara confesses to Jac that she is actually Bonnie, a Zygon and took Clara appearance, and the pods have humans inside. She orders her fellow Zygons to destroy the UNIT soldiers and Jac. Bonnie (Clara Zygon) is part of the rebel group and wants to break the cease fire treaty.
The Doctor is on his Presidential plane with Osgood and a rebel Zygon. He asks the Zygon what it wants. It says they want the world. It then tells him that we’ve already begun. For about a year, the Zygons have been taking over the population in the U.K. They’ve been keeping humans alive in pods. They won the first battle and they will win the war.
Bonnie (Clara Zygon) is still in the cave when Kate appears and reports that the North American Truth and Consequences town have been neutralized. Bonnie goes outside and sees the Presidential plane. She calls the Doctor and tells him that UNIT is gone, Kate Stewart is gone, and Clara is gone. Her last action is firing a surface to air missile at the plane.
This episode gives us a picture that the Zygon Rebellion is winning and The Doctor is dead. The next episode is the conclusion of this epic story. Is the Doctor dead? Is Clara alive? Will the human population be overrun by shape shifting Zygons? We shall see.
