Act 3: Regeneration and Recovery
The scene switches to the morgue, where the Doctor's sheet-covered body is wheeled in and registered for an autopsy. The morgue attendants chat and joke briefly as they take care of the registration, noting the time they received the body as 1:00 AM, talking about the upcoming New Year's Eve staff costume party; one of them is going as "Wild Bill" Hickok, a gunfighter of the 19th-century American West. (These details become important later!)
Meanwhile, in Bruce's house, Bruce is still snoring, and the Master's ghostly snake-form crawls up the side of the bed and launches himself into the man's open mouth, essentially killing him and taking over his body. Bruce's wife, facing away from him, is visibly glad her husband has stopped snoring, and settles back down into sleep, having no idea of what has happened.
In the morgue, one of the attendants is working the (pretty boring) night shift, watching Frankenstein on a small TV set up in one of the side offices. But as the movie progresses, with Dr. Frankenstein about to lift his creation up to the lightning, a similar drama is unfolding in the tiny room holding the Doctor's body; an electrical-like energy sparks and zaps around him, propelling the sheet off his face. Then his face and body begin to contort and change, slowly and subtly, until a completely different body has regenerated. As Dr. Frankenstein says, "It's alive!", the new Doctor's eyes open, and he sits up on the gurney, visibly disoriented.
The morgue attendant, still watching the movie, hears a banging sound from the main morgue room; at first, he thinks one of the other guys is playing a trick on him, but he finally gets up and goes to investigate. The banging noise is coming from the second body room, the one the Doctor is in--its steel door vibrates with the impact of a fist against it. Then a dent appears--and another, and another, as if someone inside is trying to kick the door down. On the sixth kick, the door falls, revealing a very live occupant--the Eighth Doctor--who has clothed himself as best he can in the sheet that covered him.
Seeing this impossibility, the attendant cries "Oh my God!...God, no!" and faints (hilariously). The Doctor, still disoriented and looking more than a little frightened himself, steps over the attendant and stumbles out of the morgue.
Who am I? Who am I?!
The first thing Eight encounters upon leaving the morgue is the side office where Frankenstein is still playing; a woman screams onscreen, startling him, and he quickly moves on down the hallway, humming faintly to himself as a comforting mechanism. An analog clock in the hallway reads 1:12 AM as he walks under it, still shivering with cold and further set on edge by the sudden lightning and thunder outside. He eventually finds his way into a disused storage room of the hospital, which sports a broken window, leaking overhead pipe, and random stuff littered all over the floor...including several discarded and shattered mirrors, in which Eight catches sight of himself.
He gives a startled shout at first, and then looks again, realizing it is his own reflection he's seeing. "Who am I?" he whispers, terrified. Turning sharply, he sees another shattered mirror on the floor, reflecting multiple images of him; finally, he sinks to the ground, with a despairing shout of "WHO AM I?" And at the same time, in Bruce's house, the Master has taken over Bruce's body and has awakened with the knowledge that the Doctor has regenerated...
But what was he? How can we learn from him?
In the following scene, it is early morning, with the fog rolling in across the Golden Gate Bridge. Grace is asleep on a couch in her office, having worked the whole night; meanwhile, a much calmer Eight is in the staff locker room, still dressed in the sheet but looking to change that with a borrowed outfit. The first locker he opens has a scarf resembling the Fourth Doctor's--he tries it briefly, then puts it back. In the second locker, Eight runs across a scary-looking Richard Nixon mask, which he quickly tosses aside...and then, in the third locker, he finds a long, velvety green coat, plus a white shirt and grayish-tan trousers. (This are parts of the Wild Bill Hickok costume; we hear echoed parts of the conversation between the morgue attendants from the night before.) Though Eight puts aside the complementing gun belt and wide-brimmed hat, the rest of the costume is apparently clothing he can live with!
At the same time, across town, Chang Lee is in a junkyard examining the items he stole from the Doctor, and he's visibly confused by what he finds--a strange cylindrical tool of some sort, a vintage-looking pocket watch that plays a tinkling little melody when opened, and a silver tab with an odd etched design on it. "Weird," he whispers.
Meanwhile, at Bruce's house, his wife awakens to see her husband standing at the window, ranting under his breath about "I must find the Doctor...I need the Doctor's body."
"Sense of humor, no more snoring? You don't need a doctor," she jokes. "Come back to bed, honey."
"My name is not 'honey,'" he replies, stiffly.
"Oh well, what would you like me to call you then?" she asks, still playful.
"'Master' will do," the Master replies, completely serious.
Bruce's wife decides to play along, saying "Well, come back to bed, Master." Then the Master turns, revealing his changed eyes--a vivid green, and with a pupil slit more like a snake's eyes than a human's. She screams, and the Master grabs her, shushing her as he strangles her easily with one hand offscreen. Then, after the thud of her body hitting the floor, he smiles and turns back to the window, whispering, "Ah, Doctor, soon I will have all your lives..."
Back in the morgue, Grace is speaking with the morgue attendant who saw Eight bust out of the body room; now not only has she lost a patient to death, but now they have literally lost his body...
Pete (the attendant): (insistent) It wasn't the same guy.
Grace: You probably saw the guy who stole the body!
Pete: (deadpan) He was wearing a shroud and a JD tag on his toe.
Grace: (shaking her head) Somehow, I don't think the Second Coming happens here.
Pete: Right, you think he's gonna go to a better HOSPITAL?! You know what? I'm going home.
Grace: (as he turns to go) Hey Pete, stop by Psychiatric and pick up some more mind-altering drugs.
Pete: (distracted) Yeah, sure. (leaves)
A few minutes later, as a custodian is mopping in one of the narrow and crowded hospital hallways, Grace is trying to follow up with some of the other medical staff. One of the people sitting on a waiting room bench in the hallway, however, is barefoot and shivering, with a tag still on his toe...it's Eight, now dressed in the Wild Bill Hickok costume, though he looks less like a Wild West gunfighter and more like a 19th-century poet or composer. He catches part of what Grace is saying to one of the other staff members--"some creeps made off with the John Doe that died last night"--and he recognizes her voice. He gets up and staggers toward her, flooded with tattered memories of seeing and hearing her as she operated on him, hearing the music of Madame Butterfly swirling around him in his memory, but Grace is already talking with her supervisor, who encourages her not to report the theft of the body just yet, to "give him some time." (Hearing the word "time" triggers Eight's memory even further--he suddenly remembers many clocks sitting in an ornate room, but he doesn't know where or why.)
In the supervisor's office, Grace and her boss go over the strange X-ray which seemed to show two hearts, and they have quite a difference of opinion...
Supervisor: We don't need to advertise our mistakes, do we?
Grace: What are you saying?
Supervisor: (studying the X-ray) Two hearts...no wonder you got lost.
Grace: Exactly.
Supervisor: Or maybe...this really was a double exposure. In either case, I can't afford to lose you. (uses a cigarette lighter to burn the X-ray, drops it in the metal trash can)
Grace: (horrified) Wait, what are you doing?
Supervisor: (coolly) What I should have done last night.
Grace: Am I having a bad dream here? ...I lose a patient, then I lose his body, and now you have just destroyed the only evidence--
Supervisor: That you were careless?
Grace: (indignant) No, that I had no way to know--
Supervisor: (losing patience) Stop! A man died last night because you "lost your way!"
Grace: (angry) You bet I did! You saw the X-ray, the guy had two hearts!
Supervisor: And now without a body or an X-ray, no one need know he was even here.
Grace: You can't do this!
Supervisor: Let me take care of this, Grace.
Grace: (firmly) No.
Supervisor: (warningly) Believe me, I know what is best for all of us.
Grace: (pleading) But what was he? How can we learn from him? (she rakes a hand through her hair) Ugh, I've gotta find his body.
Supervisor: And I have to keep this hospital open.
Grace: No. No. If you do this...I'll quit.
Supervisor: (smiling slightly) You don't mean that. (leaves the room, as the X-ray crumples further in the trash can)
In the next scene, Grace, carrying a box of her possessions, stalks toward the hospital elevator, visibly angry. She Hold the elevator. She gets into the elevator, and Eight joins her, standing a little too close for comfort but not saying anything for a bit. When he does speak, it's to say one word: "Puccini!"
Grace glances at him, surprised (and a little discomfited by his closeness), and he continues, "We've met before."
"I don't think so," she replies, clearly passing him off as a weirdo. But Eight is undeterred: "Yes, yes, yes, I think so. I know you. You're tired of life, but afraid of dying." She returns his strange words with an equally strange look.
Now outside, walking through the doctors' parking deck, Grace is walking steadily to her car, with Eight kind of dancing around her trying to keep up, desperately trying to get her to help him:
Eight: There was music...Madame Butterfly. (insistent) You were there, I saw you last night!
Grace: (resolute) It wasn't me.
Eight: (pleading) I don't know who I am, but I know that you know me--
Grace: (sharp) Please go away!
Eight: Please, you're my only hope!
Grace: I'll call security!
Eight: Do you know who I am?
Grace: (shouting) I don't care who you are! Leave me alone!
Eight: Please, you must help me--you're a doctor!
Grace: (laughs mirthlessly) Well...my oath just expired! (she opens the trunk of her car) Stand back.
Grace dumps her stuff in the back of the car, and by the time she's done, Eight has apparently vanished. She looks around for a minute, then, satisfied that he's gone, gets into her car and sighs with relief...only for Eight to let out a pained yell from the back seat, where he's been lying down. Grace screams--"Aah! Get out, get out!"
"It's my hearts!" Eight cries, agonized. Grace lays down on the car horn, alerting other people that she's in trouble, but as this strange man pulls open his shirt, Grace can see a wound on his (otherwise perfect) chest, and something artificial emerging from the wound. Eight begins to pull it out, wincing, revealing that it is a long, thin tube made of plastic or metal. Grace, horrified, lets off the car horn, breathing, "It can't be!" She recognizes the tube as the missing part of the cardiac probe, which snapped off during the failed operation the night before.
"What is this?!" Eight demands, holding the piece of probe out so that she can see. Grace is too shocked to answer, and he softens his tone, begging, "Please, I have two hearts. You have to get me out of here before they kill me again. Please, you have to help me--DRIVE!" He doesn't have to tell Grace twice; she starts the car, driving fast out of the parking deck and away.
Meanwhile, the Master approaches the hospital nurses' station, now dressed as Bruce but with a pair of sunglasses to hide his snakelike eyes. Getting the attention of the nurse on duty, they have the following conversation:
Nurse: Hey Bruce! (jokingly) Why the shades?
Master: (speaking stiffly, like he's not used to talking) I had a bad night.
Nurse: (laughs...awkward pause) Did you want something?
Master: (falsely pleasant) What happened to the gunshot wound I brought in? I have orders to move him.
Nurse: He died.
Master: Oh, yeah. (peels off a fingernail and flicks it away as he speaks) Well, I've got orders to move his body.
Nurse: (supremely weirded out)
Master: Where is it? (demanding) His body?
Nurse: (blurts) Well, haven't you heard? The body's gone--stolen!
Master: (pressing) Okay, where are his things?
Nurse: (defensive) The kid that brought him in ran off with them!
Master: (steps back a bit, realizing) The Asian child.
Nurse: (laughs, nervously) The Asian child? {tries to joke) Bruce, you're sick!
Master: (grins) Thank you. (walks off creepily)
Meanwhile, Grace arrives at her house with Eight in tow. "You all right?" she asks as she unlocks the door and they walk in.
"Better, yes," Eight replies, much calmer. "Now that I don't have a piece of primitive wiring in my cardiovascular system." He smiles.
"Primitive..." Grace says, with a rueful laugh. Then she finally looks around the living room, which is in disarray with furniture obviously missing. "I don't believe it," she says, turning in a circle to take in all that's missing. "He's taken all his stuff!"
"Who?"
"Brian," Grace says, tiredly.
"Your boyfriend?" Eight asks.
Grace thunks a box of belongings down on a nearby table. "EX-boyfriend." She looks at him. "Listen, why don't you have a seat and open your shirt--I want to listen to your heart."
"Hearts," Eight corrects her gently, beginning to unbutton his shirt (again). "Plural."
"Right, right..." Grace says, still a little skeptical. Her eyes fall on another area of the living room which is empty; in frustration, she exclaims, "He's taken the sofa!" Then, visibly gathering herself back together, she says, "Come on, follow me," going up the short set of stairs from the sunken living room to the dining room.
Eight follows her after a moment. "Now I'm remembering more!" he says as he ascends the steps. He glances around and notes, "Lovely view," as he reaches the top of the stairs.
"Maybe you have selective amnesia brought on by shock," Grace says, musing.
"Maybe," Eight replies. "I can't remember." They sit down on two convenient dining chairs, and Grace places her stethoscope on his bared chest, trying to listen for his heart rate. After a few moments, Eight glances up to the opposite wall, spotting a framed sketch hanging there. "Ah, Da Vinci. He had a cold when he drew that," Eight remarks, identifying it.
Grace looks annoyed that he's talking while she's trying to listen. "You're still fibrillating badly."
"No, I'm not." Eight's voice is gentle as he corrects Grace, shifting her stethoscope to the right on his chest. "Here." She leans in to listen again, and after a moment he fiddles with a random CD lying on the dining table...a CD which happens to be the Madame Butterfly disc. He reads the title, and then cries out, "I remember! I was with Puccini before he died!"
"Name-dropping," Grace says wryly, still trying to hear his heart rate.
"No, no, I was, I was!" Eight insists, his expression half-confusion, half-realization; he falls quiet.
Grace rolls her eyes...but then, she truly listens to what's coming through her stethoscope, and realizes Eight is telling the truth about at least one thing. "Oh my God," she whispers.
"You see, that's no echo," Eight says, briefly addressing her before continuing on, "He died before he could finish Turandot. Alfarno finished it based on his notes! It was so sad..."
"You have two hearts!" Grace interrupts, absolutely bowled over. She scrutinizes him. "Who are you?"
"I was dead too long this time," Eight says, in an almost-but-not-quite reply to her. "The anesthetic almost destroyed the regenerative process."
All Grace can say is a quick "Yeah...right...", though she's not really understanding anything he's saying at this point. Finally, her scientific self reasserts itself; she's got to investigate this further, find out who this man really is. She gets up, beginning to speak her train of thought aloud: "I'm going to get a syringe, I'm gonna take some blood, I'm going to..."
"No, no, no--Grace, Grace, Grace, Grace, Grace!" Eight says, trying to break her train of thought so she'll listen to him. When she turns to him, he says, "Don't you see, I have thirteen lives."
"Please! OK, you're trying to tell me that you've come back from the dead?" Grace is right back to being skeptical again.
"Yes," Eight says, relieved that she finally understands.
"No, sorry, the dead stay dead, you can't turn back time," Grace responds, her expression like "I'm not about to hear this raving."
"Yes, you can." Eight speaks quietly, but he is firm on this point.
Incredulous, Grace says, "I'm not a child, don't talk to me like I'm a child." The clock in her house begins to chime as she speaks. "Only children believe that crap, and I...am a doctor." Satisfied that she's won the argument, she turns to go back to her medical supplies.
"But it was a childish dream that made you a doctor," Eight replies. Grace turns to face him, stunned at the truth he's just revealed. He regards her steadily. "You dreamt you could hold back death. Isn't that true?"
Grace does not answer him--cannot answer him--and so she turns away. Absently, Eight turns back toward the table, humming one of the strains of one of the songs from Madame Butterfly, picking up and studying an object on the table...and then says something else stunning: "Don't be sad, Grace. You'll do great things." All she can do is stare wonderingly at the back of his head.