This Saturday, the mid-series finale of the seventh series of Doctor Who aired and with it we had to say goodbye to the Ponds. The first married couple in the TARDIS left the show in a real tear-jerker ending that, despite the sadness, provided a satisfying and finale ending to the “Story of Amelia Pond” that Moffat began in the series five premiere “The Eleventh Hour”.

At the end of “The Angels Take Manhattan”, Rory is zapped back in time to some undetermined time by the Weeping Angel and Amy decides to follow him. She asks her daughter to keep on eye on the Doctor while he pleads her not to go, explaining that doing so would create fixed time and he would never see her again. Amy says a final goodbye to her Raggedy Man, and fans of the series are left a sobbing mess. But, the Doctor does get a letter of sorts in the afterward of the book he was reading, in which Amy explains that she and Rory are happy but asks him to go back to the little girl who is waiting for him.

That’s where you have to look all the way back to the first season. One of the story elements surrounding Amy in that series was that she went a little crazy waiting all that time for the Raggedy Man to come back, as the Doctor never showed up again until she was grown. At the end of Amy’s story, Moffat takes things full circle all the way back to that first episode. Only this time the Doctor does come back to relay the older Amy’s message to her younger self. Changing one wrong, in perfect Quantum Leap style.

No one knows of Moffat was planning this from the beginning. Obviously no companion will stay with the Doctor forever, but having this idea, this “out”, tucked away to perfectly cap off Amy’s story was pretty brilliant. It provided a great closure to one companion’s story, that gave you a smile in the midst of tears.

The two-and-a-half series run of the Ponds will likely be fondly remembered by Who fans.