“I’m sorry, my lord. There’s no sign of the Captain beyond -” He gestured to the hat in Thomas’ hands, and Thomas felt as though something in his stomach unclenched. He was not dead, then. He had gotten away, or been taken alive – he had to have, because Miranda was missing, and it was all coming apart, just as it had done last time, only this time it wasn’t James that had been left to pick up the pieces. This time it was Thomas, and he was not equipped for this – not ready to face a world in wh

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ich both of the people he loved were gone, taken from him by forces
outside of his control, and it occurred to him suddenly and horribly
that James had not been either. – To the Upper Air, for the DVD
commentary!

So – at this moment in the story, Thomas is getting something that’s going to be very, very important – a taste of what it is that Miranda and James have faced. It’s the moment that he realizes what it is to have the people he loves taken from him so very abruptly. It’s also me playing with a question – what happens if it’s not James that’s left to keep going when everything seems lost but Thomas? We’re really kind of exploring who Thomas is as a person, here – how he clings to hope because it’s all he’s got left at this point, and that feels very true to him as a character. I certainly think canon Thomas must have done exactly that, because he got through ten years of absolute hell somehow. There’s something that’s meant to be very forlorn about this scene – it’s Thomas standing outside a ring of people, holding James’ hat as if it might have an answer to a question he’s only just realized he doesn’t know how to answer.