Yeah, I really liked 'Listen' even if that Clara bit towards the end in the cottage confused me a bit and was unnecessary.
I was liking Capaldi's Doctor but this episode made me love him!
You mean the barn? It wasn't unnecessary, it was what tied the whole episode together! The kid was The Doctor when he was young, and the barn was the same place he came back to as the War Doctor to activate The Moment to end the time war. Clara inadvertently became the reason The Doctor became obsessed with this dream being real, along with being a big influence on his life.
That was absolutely bloody brilliant!
My two cents - the monsters probably are real. The fact that all the characters seem to conclude that they are not doesn't mean anything - that's the whole point, the things stay hidden. I think that's probably the vibe that Moffat was going for.
And yes, it's very strongly implied that Osron is Danny and Clara's great grandson. But this is Moffat, and if it's very strongly implied then it is almost certainly not that simple. Blob, never trust Moffat!
It's not directly implied that Clara gets together with Danny (and I didn't mention so because I don't believe it's the case), and they expect and want fans to make that extrapolation, but that possibility felt like a bit of a red herring to me, so I agree it's not going to be that simple. Danny could just as easily have a kid with someone different, or it could be something different altogether, something more timey whimey, especially if he becomes a companion. But I like the possibilities it leaves open for the future.
And I personally think we were supposed to conclude the monsters could have been real. The reveal with Clara to me made it obvious it was never supposed to be something more, and for it to be monsters downplays the importance of that scene in the barn with Clara imo. They were careful to give everything a rational explanation, so that after you've been along for the same emotional ride that The Doctor and Clara went through, and they give you the twist, you can look back with a more rational and informed point of view and realize there was nothing to be afraid of, just like how that fear works in real life. It was quite clever. You knew in your head all along there was a reasonable explanation, but you went along with everything at the time. The episode played the audience perfectly.
Also, how the hell can they time travel to Gallifrey? That planet is gone from space and time, right? Isn't the Doctor's new life goal to find it? That would seem unnecessary if he could just time travel back to it with the Tardis.
The TARDIS was being controlled by Clara, I assume still without the safeguards in place, and it locked onto that place from The Doctor's history. I'm sure it was a dangerous thing to try, and it could have been so catastrophic for The Doctor (or anyone else like Clara) to do anything there due to paradoxes, that it's effectively impossible to attempt. That's why Clara had to immediately get The Doctor to leave.
It seems that Clara had always been part of those events somehow, which I think she realized once she accidentally grabbed the young Doctor's foot, which somehow avoids any further paradoxes for her, because it was self fulfilling. There have been little loopholes to connect to Gallifrey before, such as The End of Time, so it's not unprecedented.
Aside from Robot of Sherwood, this has been a great season so far. It's well on track to possibly be the best season of the modern series, and I think a lot of these episodes will only get better once we see how they fit into the grand scheme of the story arc.