Twelve even said to Clara "Immortality isn't living forever. That's not what it feels like. Immortality is everybody else dying." The sad irony is in that very episode, he then visited this very fate on Ashildr because he couldn't bear to lose someone else yet abandoned Ashildr because he couldn't face what he had done.
His refusal to accept the loss of Clara led to Hell Bent, where he actually plucks her out of time (although Clara is also scattered throughout time and space, she never stops being Schroedinger's Companion), forcing Clara to let him go for a second time and take away her memory so he will be able to move on from his grief.
Yet in this episode, he was able to save two strangers from a messy, cold death. He was given proof that Bill and Nardole weren't dead because their memories were alive and they would never be gone as long as the Doctor remembered them. It wasn't all for nothing.
And then finally, just as Clara's memory saved Bill from being mind wiped, Bill's memory gave Clara back to the Doctor.
Yet if you should forget me for a while And afterwards remember, do not grieve: For if the darkness and corruption leave A vestige of the thoughts that once I had, Better by far you should forget and smile Than that you should remember and be sad.
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Twelve even said to Clara "Immortality isn't living forever. That's not what it feels like. Immortality is everybody else dying." The sad irony is in that very episode, he then visited this very fate on Ashildr because he couldn't bear to lose someone else yet abandoned Ashildr because he couldn't face what he had done.
His refusal to accept the loss of Clara led to Hell Bent, where he actually plucks her out of time (although Clara is also scattered throughout time and space, she never stops being Schroedinger's Companion), forcing Clara to let him go for a second time and take away her memory so he will be able to move on from his grief.
Yet in this episode, he was able to save two strangers from a messy, cold death. He was given proof that Bill and Nardole weren't dead because their memories were alive and they would never be gone as long as the Doctor remembered them. It wasn't all for nothing.
And then finally, just as Clara's memory saved Bill from being mind wiped, Bill's memory gave Clara back to the Doctor.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.