I liked it quite a bit, but the emotional continuity from "The Girl Who Waited" is terrible, especially considering Amy's speech about the faith she has in the Doctor.

Sufficiently terrible, in fact, that I'm arbitrarily declaring that "The Girl Who Waited" takes place between the next-last and last scenes of this episode. It makes sense the Doctor would want to take the Ponds someplace special before dropping them off for good.

the emotional continuity from "The Girl Who Waited" is terrible, especially considering Amy's speech about the faith she has in the Doctor.

It was definitely weird that that didn't come up in that scene.

and I don't get how the faith just "went away", especially since she knew that he was telling her this to make her be less faithful.

and I don't get how the faith just "went away", especially since she knew that he was telling her this to make her be less faithful.

Right. There would be a faith recursion loop. I suppose one could question the nature of faith. I tend to think of it is as something deeper than a habit of conscious thought, but if one thought that that is all faith is AND that the Doctor might possibly be putting a little Timelord psychic oomph behind his words, it might do the trick.

It was an odd episode to me, emotionally. The scene with Bitty Pond was sweet, but I think whenever you put Matt Smith and that kid together, I kind of melt.

I was a little, huh, when he dropped off Amy and Rory, but I didn't really think it was the actual end of their run, because it didn't feel big enough to me. I mean, he didn't even really say goodbye to Rory, which, the character maybe is supposed to be OK with that, but in terms of the show, I would find that odd.

I did like the thread about how the cowardly dude was not harmless, but actually a bit dangerous. I expected it to be played purely for laughs, but it wasn't. Nicely done.

The plot didn't really make much sense - but the idea that people's faiths were killing them intertwined with how the Doctor sort of lives off his companions' faith in him (and often ends up wrecking their lives) - I thought that was really nicely done.

and I don't get how the faith just "went away", especially since she knew that he was telling her this to make her be less faithful.

For me, I kind of interpreted it as the faith that the minotaur needed was not the normal faith that we have in the people we love - but the larger faith that some people build their whole view of the world on. Amy loves Rory, but she's always defined herself by the Doctor - by wishing that he'll rescue her and take her to far away places and give her a perfect life. At the end of the episode, she still loves the Doctor, but I think she sees him more as a friend and not as the answer to all her problems.

I felt like I was supposed to get something philosophically from this episode that just did not work for me. Rory doesn't have faith in anything? Amy's faith in the Doctor can be done away with just like that?

For me, I kind of interpreted it as the faith that the minotaur needed was not the normal faith that we have in the people we love - but the larger faith that some people build their whole view of the world on.

Yeah, I guess that's what they were going for, but I'm not sure anybody sold it especially well, or explained it very well. I agree with JenP that it was an emotionally odd episode. As has often happened these past couple of seasons, the emotional stuff just didn't quite convince me.

Donde esta Peter Bishop? [link]

And if you haven't seen the latest tease from Ari Margolis, check it out. [link] The last 17 seconds kills me.

aurelia, that video is just so freaking cool. Kudos to the person or persons who made that happen.

Where is Peter Bishop???

I love that video, and I'm so excited for Fringe to start again. I just re-watched season 1 and 2 this past week.