Every time the Doctor restarted the puzzle, he began from exact second he first arrived. He had to relive that pain of realizing Clara is gone over and over and over and OVER.
Grief is torture.
The puzzle was meant to break the Doctor into confessing about the Hybrid. He sees that impenetrable wall that was put there as a way to say “fuck you, here’s your exit and you’ll never break this.” That’s why the wall didn’t reset. It was intended to make him think trying to escape the hard way was futile.
But the Doctor didn’t give up. He got close, but he didn’t give up.
When somebody is in pain for a long time, they can get very angry.
The Doctor turned his pain in to power by letting it piss him off. He did the equivalent of pushing a splinter deeper into his soul to stay awake, and inch by inch he punched that wall. He soldiered on because that’s what he’s always done and that’s what he saw Clara do.
He faced death over and over, he faced his grief over and over, and he still kept going. He faced the things that horrify him the most, and he got through it.
The Doctor has become a man who survived his worst fears.
Let’s see the Time Lords try to fuck with him now.
