Doctor Who: Why the Surviving Osgood is Human

One of the questions surrounding Osgood since it was announced that she was returning to Doctor Who is which one is she? There was the regular, human Osgood, then the Zygon that had copied her. Their ability to work together, fostered when the human Osgood handed the Zygon her inhaler to keep from giving her away, was a key step towards ensuring that the humans and Zygons could coexist.

Osgood was so determined to keep the peace between both factions that she refused to state which one she was, even after her other half had been killed. Even the Doctor, her idol, was unable to pry the secret away from her, only getting the cryptic response that he would be able to figure it out if he looked hard enough.

However, even without saying anything, we may have figured out which version of Osgood remained. When Bonnie released her hold on Clara, she needed someone else to copy. Osgood, who needed a second version to be able to truly safeguard the Osgood box, was the perfect candidate. As such, we now have a second Osgood yet again.

In this copying, it would appear to point out that the human Osgood survived. The copied humans were kept alive in their different pods, allowing the Zygons to assume their places during the rebellion. Even before, the Zygons copied people that were alive.

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It is also important to note that there is never any mention of a Zygon cloning another Zygon. For all of the different beings that are out there, it has not been mentioned that a Zygon is able to copy another copy of that person. Perhaps it is because of the idea that each copy made will be less and less similar to the original, where the twentieth copy turns out nothing like the first, sort of a doppleganger version of the telephone game.

Even if the second and third generation Osgoods would be virtually identical to the original, something would likely be lost in translation over time. No matter how good the Zygons are at mimicking the appearance of other creatures, there are still peculiarities that would be lost unless the original was to remain. In keeping the human, or whatever other species alive, that ability to become the replacement would be much easier.

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Even if it has not specifically been stated, it would seem that we know which version of Osgood remained alive on Doctor Who. After all, the Zygons need a human to be able to duplicate.