It\u2019s finally here \u2013 and Empire of Death had a whole heap of questions to answer after last week\u2019s episode of Doctor Who<\/a> left our heroes at the mercy of Sutekh<\/a>, the almighty titan.<\/p>\n How would the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) defeat a god-like being who was now far more powerful than when last they met? Was Susan Triad (Susan Twist<\/a>) simply another harbinger of Sutekh, or something more? And would Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) finally unmask her birth mother?<\/p>\n The answer to all of these lies below, so read on if you came away from the episode a little fuzzy \u2013 we\u2019ve done our best to unpack that wild and unpredictable rollercoaster ride\u2026<\/p>\n In 1975 serial\u00a0Pyramids of Mars<\/a>, the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) and Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) first encountered Sutekh, one of a race of Osirans, beings of God-like power who are worshipped by many cultures across the universe, including on Earth in ancient Egypt.<\/p>\n On the planet Mars, the Eye of Horus \u2013 an Osiran device beaming a signal that held Sutekh prisoner inside a pyramid on Earth \u2013 was destroyed, unleashing the villain \u2013 but in a final showdown, the Doctor was able to extend the terminus of the time tunnel down which Sutekh is travelling into the far future.<\/p>\n Sutekh appeared to age rapidly and eventually perish, as the Fifteenth Doctor recalls in Empire of Death: \u201cI cast you into the time vortex \u2013 I sent you forward to your own death.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cInstead I found a home,\u201d Sutekh explains. \u201cI clung to your infernal machine and for so many years, I hid \u2013 I have travelled with you for all this side, riding the spine of your ship, staring into eternity and evolving into my true Godhood.\u201d<\/p>\n It appears that Sutekh has had a grip on the TARDIS ever since the events of Pyramids of Mars, existing as a silent, malevolent companion to the Doctor all this time and accompanying the Time Lord on his travels.<\/p>\n Now unleashed, an evolved Sutekh uses the being that was once Susan Triad to unleash his \u201cdust of death\u201d \u2013 a horrific substance that extinguishes all life it comes into contact with, starting with Kate Stewart<\/a> (Jemma Redgrave) and all UNIT personnel, followed by Ruby\u2019s adoptive mother Carla Sunday<\/a> (Michelle Greenidge), Carla\u2019s mother Cherry (Angela Wynter) and the enigmatic Mrs. Flood<\/a> (Anita Dobson).<\/p>\n The dust continues to spread until it has consumed all life on Earth \u2013 and eventually, the universe.<\/p>\n Sutekh reigns over his empire of death \u2013 but the \u201cgod of all gods\u201d has an Achilles\u2019 heel\u2026 his curiosity.<\/p>\n Like the rest of us, Sutekh is unable to see the face of Ruby Sunday\u2019s mother and is determined to learn her identity, even keeping the Doctor and Ruby alive as long as it takes to get answers.<\/p>\n Having used a DNA testing programme established in 2046 by sinister prime minister Roger ap Gwilliam<\/a> (Aneurin Barnard) to finally establish a familial link, Ruby \u2013 transported alongside the Doctor to UNIT HQ \u2013 teases Sutekh with the reveal of her mother\u2019s name, distracting the Osiran just long enough to gain the advantage\u2026<\/p>\n Ruby lassoes Sutekh with \u201cintelligent rope\u201d \u2013 recovered earlier from the time window\u2019s remembered TARDIS<\/a>, a version of the craft \u201cmade of memories\u201d and \u201cheld together by hopes and wishes and luck\u201d \u2013 while the Doctor uses a whistle \u2013 also found in the remembered TARDIS \u2013 to unleash the heart of the TARDIS, vanquish Sutekh\u2019s harbinger (Genesis Lynea) and regain control of the ship.<\/p>\n Taking flight, the TARDIS drags\u00a0Sutekh into the vortex, where the Doctor unleashes his own inner \u201cmonster\u201d and leaves his nemesis to die \u2013 trapped, Sutekh burns up in the vortex, apparently gone for good this time.<\/p>\n Sutekh was defeated, but what about the horrors he\u2019d unleashed across the universe?<\/p>\n Happily, by dragging Sutekh into the vortex \u2013 the pathway to all of time and space \u2013 the Doctor is able to \u201cbring death to death\u201d and so \u201cbring life\u201d \u2013 in effect, Sutekh \u2018kills\u2019 the death he had already wrought and life is restored across the universe, with everyone who\u2019d perished \u2013 including Kate Stewart, Carla, Cherry, Mrs. Flood, and the likes of Melanie Bush<\/a> (Bonnie Langford), Morris Gibbons<\/a> (Lenny Rush) and Rose Noble<\/a> (Yasmin Finney) \u2013 all revived.<\/p>\n Having invaded the TARDIS, Sutekh was exposed to all of the ship\u2019s \u201csecrets\u201d \u2013 including memories of Susan<\/a> (Carole Ann Ford), the Doctor\u2019s granddaughter.<\/p>\n Inspired, the Osiran \u201ccreated an apparition of her, universally\u201d \u2013 a woman who resembled Susan was brought into existence anywhere the TARDIS landed, with the combined might of Sutekh\u2019s power and the TARDIS\u2019s perception filter enabling the woman\u2019s various guises to be birthed as real beings who fitted into history.<\/p>\n If the TARDIS landed in the same spot more than once \u2013 e.g. Earth in 2024 \u2013 then the woman would be reborn each time, getting \u201cstronger and strong\u201d with each reincarnation \u2013 hence why the latest iteration, Susan Triad, was a genius and world-renowned tech entrepreneur.<\/p>\n Post-Sutekh\u2019s defeat, Susan Triad continues to exist \u2013 her history, life and family intact. As Mel explains, \u201cThe god of death created life.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s possible we haven\u2019t seen the last of this Susan either, with Kate noting that her \u201cvery good brain\u201d could be put to use as UNIT\u2019s latest recruit.<\/p>\n Thanks to Roger Ap Gwilliam\u2019s system of compulsory DNA testing, the Doctor and Ruby are able to find a record of Ruby\u2019s mother and UNIT is later able to use their advanced tech to confirm the familial link.<\/p>\n Ruby\u2019s mother is an ordinary human being, one Louise Miller<\/strong> \u2013 played by Faye McKeever<\/strong> \u2013 who left the infant Ruby at the church on Ruby Road, where she hoped she would be safe. Louise\u2019s step-father was \u201ctrouble\u201d and the then-teenage mother didn\u2019t feel she\u2019d be able to protect her child.<\/p>\n As to how exactly Louise was able to remain hidden from the time window, from Sutekh, from anyone who attempted to see under her hood, it seems that the intense interest in her from such powerful forces somehow reshaped reality around her.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was important because we think she\u2019s important,\u201d the Doctor explained. \u201cThe whole of creation was turning around to her [and] it made her sheer existence more powerful than Time Lords and gods. In the end, the most important person in the universe was the most ordinary \u2013 a scared little girl, making her baby safe.\u201d<\/p>\n Louise wasn\u2019t pointing at the Doctor that night, but at the lamppost behind him \u2013 she was pointing at the name of the road, indicating her desire to name her child \u201cRuby\u201d.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not clear why Louise wore a hooded robe the night she dropped her baby off (purely for the drama?) or how exactly anyone else knew to call Ruby by that name when no-one was around to see Louise point at the sign, but maybe we can chalk that one up to the same cosmic forces that made an ordinary woman so significant and powerful in the first place.<\/p> Doctor Who will return to BBC One this Christmas. <\/strong>Previous seasons are available to stream on BBC iPlayer<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Check out more of our\u00a0Sci-Fi<\/a>\u00a0coverage or visit our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Streaming Guide<\/a>\u00a0to see what\u2019s on tonight.\u00a0<\/strong>For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to\u00a0<\/strong>The Radio Times Podcast<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n How did the Doctor undo the power of the dust of death? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":53640,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/06\/doctor-who-empire-of-death-ending-explained-how-was-sutekh-defeated-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/06\/doctor-who-empire-of-death-ending-explained-how-was-sutekh-defeated-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/06\/doctor-who-empire-of-death-ending-explained-how-was-sutekh-defeated-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/06\/doctor-who-empire-of-death-ending-explained-how-was-sutekh-defeated-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/06\/doctor-who-empire-of-death-ending-explained-how-was-sutekh-defeated-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/06\/doctor-who-empire-of-death-ending-explained-how-was-sutekh-defeated-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/06\/doctor-who-empire-of-death-ending-explained-how-was-sutekh-defeated-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"How did the Doctor undo the power of the dust of death?","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/53639"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How did Sutekh survive?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Sutekh](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2024\/06\/Screenshot-2024-06-17-at-12.00.15-e24f68b-e1718800632425.png?quality=90&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"Doctor")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>How was Sutekh defeated?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Sutekh](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2024\/06\/Screenshot-2024-06-17-at-11.59.16-aacc282.png?quality=90&resize=620%2C335\" "\\"Doctor")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>How did everyone come back to life?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Who was Susan Twist\u2019s character?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Susan](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2024\/06\/Screenshot-2024-06-17-at-11.57.45-5ececbd-e1718806630978.png?quality=90&resize=619%2C413\" "\\"Susan")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div> Who was Ruby\u2019s mother?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Doctor](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2024\/06\/480406-121a0f4.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413\" "\\"480406,Doctor")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"