#motoe

"Can I talk about planets now?" I finally finished my Mummy on the Orient Express piece :D Prints of this piece are available in my Inprnt shop :D

The only times we've ever seen Clara wearing really noticeable lipstick is (in no particular order):

The Day Of The Doctor

The Bell's of St. John

The Snowman

The Caretaker

Mummy On The Orient Express

The Zygon Invasion/Inversion

Notice how there's only three (or maybe a few more, sorry if there's any I happened to miss) where her lipstick is the most noticeable in Twelve's era. Contextually, those three episodes were both very intense in regards to the dynamic between The Doctor and Clara. In the Caretaker, Clara was caught between her devotion to Danny and The Doctor after her secret life with the Doctor is exposed to Danny, with Mummy On The Orient Express being their 'last space date hurrah', while the Zygon S9 two parter highlights how The Doctor almost lost his Clara to a Zygon threatening to declare war on humanity and his subsequent relief at getting her back.

Now if we were to look at this under a whouffaldi lens, it is plausible to speculate that Clara wore very noticeable lipstick in both episodes as a way to subtly please either Danny or the Doctor in the separate two episodes. It would be reasonable to think, considering how long they'd been dating at this point and how rare it was for her to do it anyway, that Clara's primary motivation for applying really noticeable lipstick in the Caretaker was to try and indirectly tease Danny throughout the school day. It's unusual that teachers would bother wearing very bright lipstick while teaching anyway so it does stand out when you least expect it. This can be proved for MOTOE too where Clara is wearing it to match her saucy flapper dress.

The same could be said for the Zygon two parter. During the exposition of the Zygon Invasion, we see Clara driving back to her apartment looking way hotter than she usually dares to be, wearing a particularly flashy black and white outfit (a potential sly mirror to Twelve's taste in black and white suits?!) while wearing the same overly bright red lipstick we saw during the Caretaker. It seems unlikely she would wear such a provocative outfit without having a specific reason for it. I genuinely can't place why else she would suddenly feel compelled to wear that specific outfit that day if she wasn't intending to impress a certain someone...

So what do you guys think of this observation (as far-fetched as it may sound)?

Kevin: am I not your child?

It was supposed to be their last hurrah. Things take a turn for the weird and wonderful, however, and the entire course of Clara's life changes in the blink of an eye.

⸻

Author's Note: The title is a Peter Capaldi song.

Also, I literally went and listened to that scene, writing down every single line. I should be thanked for that hard work because it took ages.