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At the end of The Pyramid at the End of the World Bill learns that The Doctor was lying and is still blind so she rushed back to the Alien Monks and confirms that they can restore his sight and giving them her consent to rule the world (she represented The Doctor who at the time was President of the World).

The Monks killed anyone who didn’t give consent out of love, and we see Bill survive, which means behind her consent there was love.

It was my impression that Bill is a lesbian, especially from what she said in Knock Knock

Paul: Just if you need any er, of my help, or my whatever, you know?
Bill: Yeah. Er, I get that you’re into me, but, um, sorry, you’re not my type. It’s just, er I tend to go for girls, usually, so
Paul: Oh. Oh, right! I was never in with a chance. Awesome!

So what was Bill’s love? Is she actually Bi or is love in this case not in the romantic sense?

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    Just because someone is LGBT+ doesn't mean they can't feel platonic love. Also, the love could be for Earth itself, not just the Doctor.
    – Tim
    Commented May 31, 2017 at 4:10
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    @Tim - Nah, it’s for the Doctor. I think it’s fairly clear that she views herself as sacrificing the world so that the Doctor can be saved (since the Doctor had already as good as dealt with the bacterium, at least as far as he and Bill knew).
    – Adamant
    Commented May 31, 2017 at 4:12

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Her love for the Doctor

It’s not romantic love. Yes, Bill is lesbian (there are a variety of interview statements to that effect, and she’s said as much on the show), but that doesn’t mean she can’t love the Doctor, any more than someone can’t love a parent or child or sibling.

It’s made fairly clear that the Monks are referring to Bill’s love of the Doctor, since their statement about her acting out of love comes right after she offers the world to them in exchange for healing the Doctor’s eyes and saving his life:

BILL: Just give him his sight back! You can have the world just make him see again. I consent.

MONK: You act out of love. Love is consent. We must be loved.

Doctor Who, “The Pyramid at the End of the World”

Bill loves the Doctor as a friend (or possibly to some extent as a parental figure), but not romantically.

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    Interesting how they say "We must be loved", yet love for a specific individual, not one of the Monks, not even human, is sufficient.
    – DisturbedNeo
    Commented May 31, 2017 at 8:53
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    @DisturbedNeo I expect this "technicality" to be explained more in details in the future episodes
    – Edelk
    Commented May 31, 2017 at 11:54
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    Fair point. Wibbly Wobbly Lovey Dovey.
    – DisturbedNeo
    Commented May 31, 2017 at 12:29
  • “any more than someone can’t love a parent or child or sibling” or a friend. “Love” is a fairly overloaded word in English.
    – Paul D. Waite
    Commented Jun 10, 2017 at 12:47
  • @Edelk Just for completeness sake, the next episode shows that they needed the "love is consent" thing to form a psychic anchor in a human that they could use to invade the minds of other humans and maintain the facade through that human's bloodline.
    – Kevin Fee
    Commented Aug 1, 2017 at 22:19

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