Warning: Spoilers ahead for Doctor Who season 15, episode 8, "The Reality War."Jonathon Groff's Rogue pops up again in Doctor Who season 15, episode 8, "The Reality War," and although his cameo is little more than a glimpse into the Doctor's timeline, it quietly reveals the strength of their romantic connection. First appearing in Doctor Who season 14, episode 6, "Rogue," Groff's character quickly became a new love interest for Ncuti Gatwa's Fifteenth Doctor. They are forced to part very soon after developing feelings for one another, with Rogue now lost in another dimension. He returned in "Wish World" and was vital in bringing the Doctor back to consciousness.

end of "The Reality War," it's unclear where and how the Doctor and Rogue will reunite, but one moment in Gatwa's final episode really drives home how strongly the Doctor still feels for Groff's bounty hunter character.

The Fifteenth Doctor Never Told Anita About Rogue

Fifteen still wasn't ready in "Joy to the World" to talk about losing Rogue

Doctor Who Christmas specials, Fifteen spent a full year on Earth with Anita, and he told her countless tales about his adventures through time and space. So, Anita learns quite a lot about the Doctor's life, especially when it comes to his more recent exploits. Therefore, it's especially interesting when Anita is using the Time Hotel to try and find the Doctor, and she seems not to know about Fifteen's relationship with Rogue.

Anita's return in "The Reality War" quietly confirms that she fell for the Doctor during their time together, and that she was crestfallen to discover that he was spoken for.

Losing Rogue clearly affected the Doctor deeply, and this is proven even further by the fact that Fifteen didn't tell Anita about him. It was still fairly recent from Fifteen's perspective, and probably still too raw for him to talk about. While it's obvious that Anita is surprised to see the Doctor and Rogue together, I think it's fair to say that heartbreak was the thing she felt the most. Anita's return in "The Reality War" quietly confirms that she fell for the Doctor during their time together, and that she was crestfallen to discover that he was spoken for.

Even if Anita had worked out that Rogue was gone and therefore out of the picture, she probably also realized that the fact that the Doctor hadn't mentioned him meant he wasn't ready to move on. So, even though she had worked up the courage to find the Doctor and tell him how she felt, Anita was smart enough to know that her timing was off, and that she was better moving on, which her pregnancy proves she did.

Can Doctor Who's Rogue Arc Be Resolved Without Ncuti Gatwa?

The Doctor & Rogue's love story won't be the same with Billie Piper leading the show

Rogue's brief return in "Wish World" made it seem like a proper comeback for Jonathon Groff was on the way, which would reunite him with the Fifteenth Doctor. With the surprise twist that "The Reality War" turned out to be Gatwa's final episode, it now seems incredibly unlikely that any comeback for Rogue would bring him into with the version of the Doctor he fell in love with. The Sixteenth Doctor is now implied to be played by Billie Piper, which changes how the dynamic between Rogue and the Doctor would feel.

Rogue's relationship with Fifteen was presented pretty strongly as a gay romance, so replacing Gatwa with Piper would result in a very different tone during their potential reunion.

There's nothing to say that Rogue won't still feel the same way about Piper's Doctor as he did about Fifteen's. However, Rogue's relationship with Fifteen was presented pretty strongly as a gay romance, so replacing Gatwa with Piper would result in a very different tone during their potential reunion. That said, River's feelings for the Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Doctors withstood the character's ever-changing faces, so it's not completely out of the question that Rogue and the Doctor's love can transcend physical appearances in Doctor Who season 16.