Three episodes in and Doom Patrol finally delivered on its trademark weirdness. Not that the two previous episodes hadn’t been weird, of course, but they failed to give meaningful progression to the story in a new way and felt more like rehashes of the past that had the characters going in circles. This episode introduced a new villain while also having them go on a bizarre adventure. By Doom Patrol standards it was pretty tame, but it was still fun in all the right ways.
Rita (April Bowlby) is still reeling from being ousted as team leader. Her spirits are raised when she is lured to a theater in recognition of her work. Instead, she is seemingly sucked into the movies where she has to relive the scenes alongside other actors that are trapped in the film. Eventually, the other members of the Doom Patrol show up to help her, but they get trapped, too. Even though they escape, the villain who orchestrated this plot got what she wanted. Also, Cyborg (Joivan Wade) meets with old friends, further questioning the decisions he’s made in his life.
It wasn’t a particularly pivotal episode, but it was fun in a way the previous two hadn’t been. Being sucked into a movie and having to live it over isn’t uncharted territory. It’s been done in several stories, but that doesn’t mean these characters going through it is uneventful. So far, the character with the most uncharted territory is Rouge (Michelle Gomez), who became pretty depressed when she realized it was her fault they all got trapped in the movie. Other characters, such as Jane (Diane Guerrero) and Larry (Matt Bomer), are also dealing with their own insecurities. Overall, the characters are still moving slowly down their respective journeys. The movie motif was a nice way to progress things along, even if it was a bit tame. Hopefully, future episodes take a bigger leap in terms of their plot.
Doom Patrol streams Thursdays on HBO Max.
Three episodes in and Doom Patrol finally delivered on its trademark weirdness. Not that the two previous episodes hadn’t beenCOMICONRead More