His father always told him, never expect anything to go according to plan, they always never do, and he should be as adept as him in finding ways to maneuver through the adventure when the plan inevitably falls apart.
Unfortunately, his father never had to deal with the instance that the antagonist in the adventure's an embodiment to body horror wrapped up as a plague doctor that isn't wearing an outfit that retained some semblance of intelligence.
Theodore and Commander Ryan managed to get inside of the storage with hopes of taking up the tranquilizers, but they discovered smashed bottles on the ground, like someone took their arm and went down the aisles knocking off the bottles of tranquilizers.
Commander Ryan hesitated at the thought the UNIT did it and Theodore agreed with him as he showed the commander claw marks on the ground leading up and down aisles that the bottles fell from.
Aghast, Commander Ryan remarked, "You mean it did this?"
The Plague Doctor went out of its way to destroy the bottles of tranquilizers and it brought up a question of when, because the doors into this storage's sealed off, nobody could've gotten inside, and someone would've noticed the broken glass when they searched the rooms before sealing them on a patrol.
Didn't make any sense until Theodore found the lock into the room's completely marred by long claw markings.
"It picked the door?" Commander Ryan flinched as Theodore showed him the claw marks.
His icy blue eyes glistened in the torch light, Theodore responded that the Plague Doctor likely followed the officers as they patrolled the area, when they went to the door to the storage, maybe one of them talked about the tranquilizers, resulting in the Plague Doctor sabotaging their chances at subduing it again.
"It knew?" Commander Ryan's astonished as Theodore tells him the Plague Doctor figured out that they're trying to subdue it, again, and did the only logical thing it could think of, destroy the bottles.
The chaos and confusion, no doubt the Plague Doctor sought an opportunity to ensure that they couldn't put it down with the tranquilizers.
Pointing his finger, Commander Ryan asks if Theodore's implying that the Plague Doctor still retained some semblance of intelligence, and Theodore replied that he's not sure, but it's smart enough to recognize the importance of those bottles.
Commander Ryan reminded Theodore that they're planning on killing it and there's a look on Theodore as he shoved his hands in his pocket, looking around.
He said, "It knows."
Staring at him with confusion, Commander Ryan asked what he meant, and Theodore replied that the Plague Doctor wasn't stupid. It knew that they put it under and with some vague intelligence, did what any logical creature would: suppress the use of the tranquilizers.
It'd also know that they'll want to execute it, but something stuck out, nobody's died since the Plague Doctor escaped.
It only killed Isaac, but no one else.
Didn't make sense, any creature would've attacked if it's in the same position as the Plague Doctor, but not the Plague Doctor.
Darkness everywhere, the teams spread so thin, they can't hope to corral the Plague Doctor.
Perfect opportunity for hunting them, but it's not.
Perhaps because they haven't attacked it, it's not feeling the desire to attack, but it only raised questions, and Theodore didn't have any answers.
He's baffled as much as Commander Ryan's until he stumbled across a suggestion.
"Why wouldn't it try to escape, why is it still here?" Theodore asks an aimless question to Commander Ryan and the commander processed the question as he thought about the answer before shrugging.
Chewing on his inner lip, Theodore tells Commander Ryan, "I think there's some credence to your theory, commander, come along, we've got much to do."
He walked off, leaving the commander scrambling as he tried to follow the aloof giant as he walked with his hands in his pockets.
Trying to keep up, Commander Ryan asked what Theodore meant and the aloof giant never answered him, he just hurried onward, while Commander Ryan struggled keeping up with him as they went through the quiet halls.
Making through areas that weren't blocked off, they found a cart pushed against the end of the hallway they entered, and as they flashed light on it, they spotted blood on the tools on the edge of the cart and on the wheels.
His eyes widened, Commander Ryan panicked while Theodore remained calm as he studied the blood on the cart and cart wheels.
Pointing his torch, Theodore sees the trail, and concluded that the blood's not fresh, and they'll have to follow the trail, much to the commander's dismay.
Unfortunately, Theodore wasn't taking critiques and he followed the trail of blood until they found there's multiple trails of the same blood, as if the cart's moved since making contact with the blood.
Moving on, Theodore followed the freshest blood trail leading up to a lab he recognized as one Isley runs.
As he neared, he saw movement, and Commander Ryan reached for the handgun on his belt, before Theodore prevented him from grasping the handle.
Slowly, Theodore went towards the lab doors and cautiously opened them, inside, he sees the plants, and at first, he didn't see anything, until he saw two shadows huddled in the corner of the lab, shivering.
Poking his head in, Commander Ryan called to and immediately heard the voices of Roy and Roger and he's relieved.
"What happened?" Commander Ryan asks them as he hurried inside while Theodore followed behind him.
Roy told him how he ended up impaled by tools on the cart that crashed into him. Left him stuck near a wall as he's trying to keep himself calm, then he explained that Roger and the woman he was with found him.
Roger added that they tried to make it to the command centre, but they couldn't, the Plague Doctor appeared further behind them, coming towards them, and they weren't able to escape it.
The woman came up with a plan and had them hide in the lab while she grabbed one of the plants that made her sneeze terribly, hoping to lure the Plague Doctor towards her and not them.
"What do you mean?" Commander Ryan pressed Roger for answers and he told the commander that the woman came up with a theory that the Plague Doctor hunted sick individuals.
It'd explain why Isaac and the first victim ended up in the state they're in, the Plague Doctor hunted and killed them, tore them up, and ate afflicted organs and whatnot. Only when UNIT attacked it, it took more lives, not to hunt, but out of defense.
It clicked in Theodore's head as he remembered the toxins in the talons, how it never rejuvenated after use, because the Plague Doctor gets it from eating those sick.
When it first arrived, it presumably didn't have the toxins until the first victim, when UNIT hunted it, it used the toxins against them, until it's gone again and the Plague Doctor comatose.
Isaac's death ensured further rejuvenation of the toxins, for the next time the Plague Doctor uses it, and when it's depleted again, like clockwork, it'll hunt for the next individual that showed some form of sickness.
"W-where did the woman go?" Theodore asked them where Lila went after taking one of Isley's plants and Roy told him that she's trying to lure it to the hanger.
"It didn't come after you?" Commander Ryan asked if the Plague Doctor attempted to hunt them and the two replied that it attempted to come into the lab before turning its attention to the woman.
Describing it the best he can, Roy gestured weakly as he said that the Plague Doctor opened the doors and stood in the doorway, they watched in horror as the tall Plague Doctor walked inside, like a bird, and became hesitated as it neared a table, unable to enter further, it turned and left the lab.
"It just turned away and left?" Commander Ryan raised a brow as the two men nodded while telling him that it saw them there, no question, but once it smelled one of the plants, it hesitated.
Roy and Roger stayed where they sat even when it left, in case it lingered outside, waiting for them to leave, and when they saw the doors opening again, they thought it's trying to draw them out.
Theodore asked them where the Plague Doctor stopped and they told him towards one of Isley's planters. She kept them separated by geniuses and they butchered the genius, but Theodore figured out which planters.
He studied the planters until he stopped where the men said the Plague Doctor stopped shy of and in front of Theodore, he sees that it's the planter with rosemary.
Theodore asked for confirmation and the men affirmed that it's the planter that made the Plague Doctor hesitate coming further into the lab and leave instead.
Cogs began turning in Theodore's mind and he grabbed the planter off the table, hoisting it up while leaving his torch in its place.
"I want you two out of here. Return to the command centre," Commander Ryan orders the men as helped them up from the ground as Roy let out a whimper, holding his abdomen.
Nodding, the two men wearily exited out of the labs while Commander Ryan looked towards Theodore holding the planter of rosemary.
He asked what Theodore intended to do with the rosemary and Theodore told him that he's got a plan of his own.
If Lila's luring the Plague Doctor towards the hanger, then she's going to hide in the TARDIS, while hoping that the Plague Doctor stuck around until Lila came up with the second half of her plan.
Which, he's going to twist her ear once this adventure's over, as he explicitly told her not to do something like this, but he knows that Lila saw an opportunity preventing more deaths and took a gamble.
She's not sick, but maybe, the Plague Doctor doesn't know that, it's only after her because she's sneezing, and Theodore hoped it's this.
Holding the planter in his large hands, Theodore ran behind the commander as he led him through the halls.
In his head, Theodore reached out to Lila, and she didn't respond to him initially until Theodore shouted for her before she finally responded to him with, "A little busy here!"
Relieved that Lila's alive, Theodore quickly asked where she's at and she responds that she's almost near the hanger, but there's something going on that she can't understand.
"What's going on?" Theodore asks her.
Lila replied quickly as she's trying to keep pace while holding a telepathic conversation with Theodore, "No bull, I'm starting to hear a woman humming. Don't ask me how the hell I'm hearing her, but I am. I can't tell you where it's coming from, but it sounds like it's coming from somewhere outside, I think. I think the thing hears her, too, it keeps looking out the window. Like there's something out there, but I can't see and I'm not stopping to check."
Hearing Lila described something bizarre as a woman humming outside, Theodore tells her to keep pace, and hurry towards the TARDIS. He tells her that the TARDIS tends to break its own rules when there's emergencies, even if Lila can't open the door with her clammy hands, the TARDIS might let her open it without the key.
Not that she should lose the key, but in an emergency, it's beneficial that the Doctor and his companion don't risk death trying to get inside the TARDIS with sweaty hands.
Theodore tells her that he and the commander were on their way towards the hanger, he has a plan to give them time, and Lila asks what he's planning.
As he held the planter, Theodore responds that he thinks that the Plague Doctor doesn't like a particular smell. It's intense enough that it left Roy and Roger alone because of it.
"It went for them, after I'm sneezing up a storm?" Lila's baffled that the Plague Doctor abandoned chase for her to attempt hunting Roy and Roger, but a plant staved it off, and Theodore affirmed that it's that.
Guess it thought it could hit two birds with one stone, pun unintended, and when it couldn't, it went after her as she intended.
Lila asked about Roy and Roger and relieved once Theodore told her that they're okay, shaken, but okay, they're heading back to the command centre.
She's happy, but not happy when Theodore tells her that UNIT remains heavily spread thin, trying to get the power back on, and attempting to hunt the Plague Doctor.
"So, what's the good news?" Lila asks him.
Theodore could hear it in her tone of voice when he told her that Hammond's considering ordering decaf coffee for the break room.
"Don't play with me, spaceman," Lila flatly responds.
Running, Theodore calls to the commander as the commander turned his head briefly, acknowledging Theodore.
Holding the planter in his arms, Theodore told the commander that he wanted him back at the command centre. He wanted Commander Ryan's help in getting the power on and getting the hanger open, and Commander Ryan asks why Theodore wanted the hanger opened.
"Your theory," Theodore replied.