Doom Patrol S01E02 Review: An Ass's Ass

Doom Patrol, Season 1, Episode 2: Donkey Patrol

Writer's Note: This was originally released early in 2020, but since I'm going to commit to finishing the season, I'm doing a bit of a redo on the first two reviews for Doom Patrol that I did.

After all the introductory stuff of the pilot about out main cast, this one introduces the more-well-known-to-the-general-public Cyborg, a character who's been receiving a lot of love from DC in the past half-decade, appearing in practically every single team-up project that DC has. This one mgiht be one of the ones that truly attempt to explore Cyborg's trauma in depth, and it even plays to the powers of our main villain, Mr. Nobody.

Episode 2 picks up right where we left off after the pilot, with a bizarre farting donkey and a gigantic portal that sucks in the city of Cloverton, including a random talking cockroach that is never mentioned again for the rest of the episode. It's weird, it's random, and yet it's sort of on-brand for the tone that this show is going for. And that tone? Is that all of the superheroes of the Doom Patrol are, well, sort of reject not-quite-heroes, and throughout the episode it's only Cliff Steele who tries to really get everyone to get their superhero game on, but Rita and Larry are more keen to just sit back and lounge around in their mansion because, hey, why bother when the Chief's probably going to solve everything without their help? And Crazy Jane's switching around like a half-dozen personalities and powers, so she isn't much help. These guys are certainly not the inherently heroic jump-into-the-fire-to-save-a-kitten Superman or the Flash, and there's a neat degree of relatability, with a combination of the Doom Patrol blaming themselves for not following Chief's orders of keeping themselves hidden leading to Mr. Nobody finding them.

But the thing is, the Doom Patrol are heroes, as unlikely as they are, and I really do appreciate the episode showing just how much they actually do doubt themselves. Cliff throws his whole screentime in trying to get Jane to basically help out and bring out some of her personalities who have the right powers to figure out what's going on, but the other two adult members of the Doom Patrol are more evasive. Rita hyper-fixates on her daily routine with the mantra that everything's going to work out. Larry, meanwhile, keeps trying to book a ticket out of town, but every time he attempts to leave, his alter-ego parasite thing keeps knocking him out -- that montage at the bus ticket booth is absolutely hilarious.

Cliff, meanwhile, isn't giving up. He's gone through the self-pity party in the pilot episode, and it's some pretty amazing acting even through the robot suit proxy as Robotman tries to bond with the many, many fractured Jane psyches as he tries his (robot) hand at making a sandwich. One of the nastier Jane personalities call out that Cliff is just trying to ease his own guilt or to find his own dead daughter in the closest available substitute, and that might be right... but at least Cliff's trying, y'know? Also, Diane Gurrero is amazing selling the various Jane personalities.

Enter Cyborg. I was genuinely baffled when the show announced that Cyborg was going to be part of this show instead of Titans, where it would make more sense, but the show uses Cyborg well. The fact that he's basically the same superhero concept with Robotman is brought up a lot of times, and while the specifics of the origin story is different, Cyborg is far more modern and high-tech with his machinery, still retains part of his humanity, and is a far more successful hero. Cyborg still has some daddy angst in this continuity, though, again, his problems feel far, far more manageable than the chronic mid-life-crisis emotional slump that the Doom Patrol has. Also, unlike the Doom Patrol, he's acquaintated with Chief Niles Caulder in a far more positive way than the rest of the Patrol.

The superheroing in this episode is a jarringly stark contrast to the more serious character drama. But what do you expect when the whole climax of the episode is the Doom Patrol attempting to access a dimension that can only be accessed from a smelly donkey with a magical wormhole within it, and their attempt to investigate basically amouts to "pour Rita into the donkey".

And then, of course, Mr. Nobody does his insane thing. Mr. Nobody is an interesting character, a fourth-wall-breaking sarcastic shit who narrates the episode as much as he participates in it, sort of like the whole character concept of Deadpool, but I kind of think that his obsession with 'stories' and manipulating them is part of his whole deal? I'm not that familiar with Mr. Nobody from the comics. But whether the hallucinations he shows our heroes are true or just there to press the most triggering emotional buttons, we're not sure. But now Cyborg has the little niggling doubt that his father Silas (who he already has a falling-out with) might have even altered and tampered with his memories to get rid of the more... brutal parts of his origin story. The gory dismemberment is a bit much, but that is kind of the point -- is Silas Stone that demented to turn his son into an abomination just to get on with that 'career superhero' thing? What little we see of the real Silas does make him feel like an overly-ambitious career helicopter parent, so even if this is Mr. Nobody exaggerating somthing that's there, it's a neat sentiment that Victor is probably feeling deep within.

Rita, meanwhile, gets shown an empty crib after being shown an idyllic 'what-could-have-been' life, and I'm curious to see what that's all about, with the implication that Rita's narcissism might have led her to... abandon her child? Or at least harm a baby in some way. Poor Rita. Larry goes through his worst day in his life, yelling and screaming at Nobody as he does so, as Nobody mocks the fact that the all-American-hero, military veteran and Air Force star, has to hide what he truly is -- someone who now doesn't even have agency over his own body.

A couple of short "fuck you, villain" speeches, and they manage to cause the donkey to explode and return the whole town of Cloverton... but Niles Caulder is still missing, and while they have a victory, the Doom Patrol has to contend with the emotional fallout from their encounter with Mr. Nobody's memories-n-doubts hallucinogenic ride.

Eventually, though, self-acceptance is the main part of this episode. In addition to the whole 'we can be heroes' bit, there is both Robotman and Cyborg being half-machine abominations to different degree, there's Rita touching her goopy Cronenberg face, and best of all is Larry (who is a man who spent most of his life hiding the fact that he's gay) finally unwrapping his mummy bandages to confront a part of himself, confronting the Negative Man within him and setting some ground rules. It's a pretty great episode, and while the large amount of... unique humour and pacing does make Doom Patrol a particularly hard series for me to review and talk about, but I definitely enjoy the show a fair bit.

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• There's a lot of these, so we're going to be very brief. Any of y'all checking out a Doom Patrol episode review already know what half of these are so... we get references to the following: well-renowned DC writer Grant Morrison; Bruce Wayne the billionaire; The Flash; ARGUS; STAR Labs; all of whom we've covered multiple times before on this site.
• Also, Cyborg makes his debut but I'm pretty sure I've talked about Cyborg's origin story like five times over in this blog. This episode makes Victor's obsession with the Justice League kind of into a running gag; in post-New-52 comics, there is significant push for Cyborg to be a member of the JLA despite the character being most associated with the Teen Titans in the comics. 
• Crazy Jane's personalities over these first two episodes. At least one of them seems to be able to crawl on walls, but it's not specified which one. All of these originate from the comics. 
• "Crazy Jane", the primary personality that doesn't have any real powers. 
• "Baby Doll", with twin pigtails and has a happy child-like personality. 
• "Flaming Katy", who is a woman made out of flame.
• "Flit", who can teleport and her personality is... impatient? 
• "Hammerhead", the one with super-strength and a skull tattoo on her chest. 
• "Hangman's Beautiful Daughter", who likes to paint, and is mild-mannered.
• "Katy", the original personality that apparently hides in the Underground. 
• "Lucy Fugue", who has somewhat bluish skin and can control electricity. 
• "Penny-farthing", who has a stutter, a British accent and is all timid and stuff. 
• "Silver Tongue", who has silver lipstick around her lower face, and can make metallic blades shaped like the words she speaks. 
• "Sun Daddy", who is a size-shifting woman in a different dress with the head of a sun... and also on fire. 
• "Spinning Jenny", who is always screaming and bashing her head into things.
• "Scarlet Harlot", whose personality is extremely flirty and sexual.  
• "Sylvia", who is constantly terrifeid.
• Cyborg calls his system Grid, as he does in the New 52 comics.