Never a dull day in the Doctor's life, though having to tell two brigadiers that the solution to assaulting soldiers involved a condiment with a straight face, that's a new one, and unsurprisingly, they looked at him like he grew another head, Brigadier Perry found it preposterous, and Brigadier Ramsay found it deplorable that the good Doctor would joke around during a crisis.
Well, not for the lack of trying, and the more Theodore thought about it, maybe prefacing the discovery that they needed crates of mustard wasn't such as a good idea, but he was earnest telling them that it was their only hope of possibly rescuing the soldiers from their affliction.
"Say we believe you, what then?" Brigadier Ramsay eyed Theodore with contempt.
Weakly shrugging his wide shoulders, Theodore tells the brigadier, "Well, we can start by gathering every mustard bottle you have in the kitchen."
The brigadier wasn't amused at this, his tense soft hazel eyes staring into Theodore's icy blue eyes, before Brigadier Perry pulled him away, forcing him in a makeshift holding area with Lila.
"I'm telling the truth!" Theodore tried asserting that he's right, but the brigadier wasn't listening, as he's forced to sit next to Lila while he watched the brigadier give the corporal their orders.
Crossing his arms, Theodore sat with one leg over the other as he turned to Lila, who then said, "I guess they're not mustard fans."
Shaking his head as he exhales, Theodore responded with, "Apparently."
The brigadiers didn't know what to make of the unusual plan of using a condiment to save the affected soldiers, but unfortunately, they didn't believe Theodore, despite everything his father did helping them at their darkest hours.
Wisened up, the brigadiers wouldn't let Jamie or Ròs go near them, making clear instructions to the others that they weren't allowed near the two for whatever reason, making the psychic paper unusable.
He hardly knew the two, it was too much of a gamble for Theodore to use telepathy to covertly speak with them.
Couldn't sneak messages to them, either.
Making it even more difficult for them to piece together a new plan amid the looming affected soldiers hallucinating that the unaffected counterparts were enemies.
"Al, we hit a snag," Theodore calls out to him as he sat with Lila, watching the soldiers move around, high alert.
Al already guessed there's trouble with the plan, noting that while Brigadier Perry might've saw reason if Theodore pushed him further on the subject, Brigadier Ramsay isn't the type to change his mind, however.
Coupled with the redactions Al found in his files, well, it'd appear there's more to the man than meets the eye, and he's not willing to share the details.
Theodore's best bet would've been the daughter, but with her and Jamie blocked from communicating with them, that's never happening.
Al's working on a way to secure the necessary ingredients, but he asserted they needed the satellite on the hill to ensure the parasites don't survive outside the soldiers' bodies.
It's a tall order, he knows, but Al swears it's their only chances, but with the roadblocks, Theodore isn't sure how they're able to do it.
"Trust me kid, your dad went through worse scenarios than this, you'll figure it out. Meanwhile, I'll be sure to throw up a few air fresheners after all this. Yuck!" Al believed in Theodore's capabilities getting out of this situation, it's only a matter of piecing together a plan, while he's doing that, Al's investing in air fresheners due to the abundance of mustard needed.
"Of all things that saves us, it's mustard," Lila should've been shocked at the revelation that a condiment's their only hope at saving the soldiers, but after her experiences with Theodore, it wasn't the weirdest thing that they've done to save people.
Shrugging, Theodore responded that they have this going for them, it's relatively easy to find in abundance, and won't kill them.
"Well, the brigadiers aren't listening, so what, now?" Lila asks Theodore while he shifted in his spot, resting the opposite leg over the other, uncrossing his arms.
His icy blue eyes blinking, Theodore quietly pondered their options, the pocket watch losing the last of its charge meant they couldn't sneak out, he didn't feel any energy to use in creating a temporary rift to escape through, and even then, he wasn't sure if it's strong enough to take them outside.
Ebb and flow, all that.
Their hands tied, Theodore silently pondered their solution, amid the soldiers meandering around areas of the cafeteria, uneasy.
He tried coming up with ways for Al to lure the affected soldiers out of the building, since he and Lila couldn't do it themselves without risking their lives, but Al says he couldn't be sure they'd all come out of the building, pointing out with the parasites, they don't perceive the world the same as them, that they probably wouldn't see a holograph of Dean Stockwell standing in front of them.
Had to be a breathing person to bait them, preferably, someone who smells like what attracts them in the first place, bring them all to the satellite, with some ingenuity from Al, they won't be able to escape the trap.
"What if I parley with Brigadier Ramsay?" Theodore gave a suggestion to Al.
Mumbling to himself briefly, Al outwardly says, "I don't know if it'll work, kid."
Harkening back to what he said about him, Theodore pointed out, "Those redactions in his file, he'd have to known my father, that's the only reason for him acting this way. I can use that, Al."
Brigadier Perry didn't know his father because of his age, Brigadier Ramsay, he's old enough to have at least encountered his father a few times throughout his military career.
Why else would've he come out here when the system flagged Theodore, no one else?
"That's a good thought, kid, but I wouldn't know what to get him with, I can't find the unaltered files," Al commended Theodore's breakthrough, before reminding him that he couldn't find out what Brigadier Ramsay knows.
Chewing on his inner lip, pondering this, Theodore says, "I'm a telepath, remember, I doubt he'd know my father was, too."
It's a gamble, but they're not doing much sitting around here, so with Lila in on the plan, Theodore put on a brave face, and demanded an audience with Brigadier Ramsay.
His thunderous voice's enough to stop everyone in their tracks before the brigadiers hear the disturbance as he shouted for Brigadier Ramsay, visibly annoyed, and Theodore once more demanded an audience with Brigadier Ramsay.
He sees Brigadier Ramsay's unwillingness to grant an audience, before Theodore pulled multiple cards from his father's old deck, and it's enough for him getting sequestered from Lila as Brigadier Ramsay ordered an area for them to speak in.
"If you just let me, explain!" Theodore widened his eyes, attempting to plead with Brigadier Ramsay, "I can save your soldiers, but you have to trust me!"
Brigadier Ramsay stiffly answered with, "You think I'm daft enough to trust you, after everything you done?"
Anger in his voice, Theodore briefly glimpsed into the brigadier's mind, seeing flashes of scenes.
Scenes involving incidents happening, the forefront of them all, his late father.
There were some involving the disapproval when his father wouldn't let them take the TARDIS for their own research, however, Theodore caught glimpses that Brigadier Ramsay agreed with his father about not letting UNIT take the TARDIS.
Perfect.
"You helped me," Theodore began as Brigadier Ramsay paced around the sequestered area, "if not for you, I'd lost my TARDIS. You think I'd forget that?"
Playing on the brief glimpses into Brigadier Ramsay's mind, Theodore implored him to see reason, reminding him of his help keeping the TARDIS with him, not UNIT.
"I didn't do it for you!" Brigadier Ramsay slightly raised his voice as he stopped in place, turning towards Theodore with anger in his soft hazel eyes, "you and your damn theoretical!"
Subtly wincing, Theodore realized instantly that he might've overstepped his bounds, however he couldn't see much in the brief glimpses in the brigadier's mind.
"You, of all people, know I'd never turn my back on UNIT, despite everything you've tried and done, I'm always there for you, my theoretical has no bearing!" Theodore fired back, pointing out that of all the things they've done to him (his father) it didn't stop him from coming to their aid.
Snorting, Brigadier Ramsay retorted with a dry retort, "Yes, Doctor, but it always seems like trouble follows you."
He accused Theodore for this, claiming that any time an incident happened, he's always the forefront.
An unusual thing for him to do, but in his situation, Theodore needed everything he can to maneuver through the conversation without Brigadier Ramsay shutting him down, throwing him back in the sequestered area with Lila.
He glimpsed into Brigadier Ramsay's mind once more, mindful of where he went, what he witnessed, finding more contextual scenes that shows why the brigadier ardently refused to believe him.
Unfortunately, due to the nature of his glimpses, Theodore couldn't see or hear everything, but he managed to see a memory with a younger brigadier, talking to someone, their figure fuzzy since Theodore didn't have access to the whole memory.
It wasn't his father, evidently, he saw him clear as day in previous memories, this was someone else.
The brigadier's arguing with them about something, their voice muffled.
"You're wrong!" Brigadier Ramsay shouts at the fuzzy shape of a person, but then Theodore heard a muffled response that sent chills down the brigadier's spine, and the memory faded.
It's not enough for Theodore to pick out the details, he couldn't glimpse into the brigadier's mind one more time, fearing that he risked injuring the brigadier due to the nature of glimpsing.
"If you truly hated me, you wouldn't have helped me," Theodore pointed out, "out of everything you done, not once, you turned against me. Walter, I want to help you, do you understand me?"
Pleading with him once more, Theodore brought up the opportunities Brigadier Ramsay had to turn against him, to help capture him, to steal his TARDIS, yet he never did.
He'd helped him more than he helped him.
There's a subtle shift in the brigadier's soft hazel eyes as he processed what Theodore told him, seemingly breaking through a barrier, and it's falling into place.
Cogs turned in the brigadier's head, Theodore sees them, clear as day, though the brigadier wasn't happy, Theodore sees he successfully brokered with him.
Gritting his teeth, Brigadier Ramsay called out to everyone in the kitchen, as he began giving commands, much to Theodore's relief, as he alerted Al that he managed to talk it through.
"Good on you, kid! I've got everything mixed up and ready. Just a warning, it'll clear your sinuses like no one's business and possibly stain every white shirt on base!" Al acknowledged Theodore's success, before telling him that the collected mustard's mixed up and ready.
It's not the weirdest thing Al did, but it's the smelliest thing he had to use.
Don't worry, Al didn't touch the mustard in the cabinets, Theodore's pastrami sandwiches live another day with a smidge of mustard.
"How are we on the satellite?" Theodore inquired, leading Al to inform him that he hit a snag, he should've expected it, but he's only one machine with a brain that even Einstein would've been envious.
Frowning, Theodore goes, "What's wrong?"
He heard a frantic, "They took it over! I can't access the mainframe!"