WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Doctor Who: Flux, "Chapter Two: War of the Sontarans," which aired Sunday on BBC.
Yasmin "Yaz" Khan (Mandip Gill) has evolved a lot since her early days as a police constable from Sheffield who largely tagged along with the 13th Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) on her adventures. By Doctor Who Season 12, Yaz started tackling alien threats independent of the Doctor -- a skill she continues to bring with her in Doctor Who: Flux.
In "Chapter One: The Halloween Apocalypse," Yaz demonstrates she is skilled at getting out of deadly traps by herself. This proves to be a useful skill for rescuing Dan Lewis (John Bishop) from a Lupari cage. In "Chapter Two: War of the Sontarans," Yaz continues to demonstrate more of the skills and strategies she learned from her travels with the Doctor. When she is mysteriously transported to the planet called Time, she reveals her secret for dealing with dangerous situations without the Doctor's help: she has "WWTDD" (what would the Doctor do) written on her left hand.
At first glance, "WWTDD" seems rather insignificant. As the episode progresses, however, it becomes clear what this acronym does for Yaz when she finds herself separated from the Doctor: it allows her to take control of dangerous situations where she can easily lose her life. This becomes clear in the scene where Yaz finds herself in the Temple of Atropos and is immediately greeted by a floating, triangular orb.
While the orb is non-threatening and only asks her if she can repair the Mouri system, Yaz still thinks about what the Doctor would do in this situation. She then confidently tells the orb she is there to make repairs. Yaz, of course, has no clue how to repair the Mouri system but that doesn't stop her from wanting to figure it out. This could potentially reveal the other significant detail about the "WWTDD" acronym: it's symptomatic of Yaz's own feelings for the Doctor, which creates a mental safe space for her to work through unfamiliar situations.
When Yaz is escorted to the room containing the Mouri, she encounters Inston-Vee Vinder (Jacob Anderson) who also has no clue how to repair the Mouri system. This gives Yaz a companion of her own with which she can share ideas the way the Doctor would. With another person present, this allows Yaz to start thinking about the situation at hand and start asking the right questions. In doing this, she is able to rule out any number of problems and narrow down the list of potential solutions to eventually make her way back to the Doctor.
Though Yaz is not successful in her task of repairing the Mouri system before Swarm and Azure arrive, she nonetheless still puts in her best effort. When she is confronted by Swarm and Azure, she knows better than to trust them right away and avoids giving away any potential information that could harm the Doctor. She even risks her own life to protect the Doctor when she is forced to take the place of one of the Mouri, which could potentially reveal more of her own strategies in "Chapter Three: Once, Upon a Time."
To see Yaz think quick on her heels, new episodes of Doctor Who: Flux air Sundays on BBC.
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