Doom Patrol S01E05 Review: Jumping Through Flashbacks (Literally)

Doom Patrol, Season 1, Episode 5: Paw Patrol

So the second part of this odd two-parter involving this bizarre world-ending, vaguely SCP-esque Cult of the Unwritten Book ends up being resolved in a way that's... interesting? I'll withhold judgment about how I feel about Mr. Nobody until we see more of him, because at this point I'm really not entirely sure about him. Alan Tudyk is a fantastic actor and the scripting is, of course, top-notch, but I've never really liked characters who have these supposed god-like abilities to interfere with events in the past or alter the timeline and whatnot and somehow still has to be a relatable antagonist. I dunno. At the moment, the Decreator feels like 'big enough' of a threat for Mr. Nobody to directly intervene so that it doesn't fuck up his plans for the Doom Patrol, and it seems like he basically set up a stable time loop utilizing Crazy Jane's multiple personalities, but... I dunno. It kinda feels like it fits the vibe of the general weirdness surrounding this particular superhero team, but at the same time it also feels like it's going to be something that the show's going to have to deal with sooner or later. So far, the meta, fourth-wall breaking jokes work. For now.

There's the typical weirdness of everything going on, of course. A giant eye in the sky vaporizing people on the ground, that random talking cockroach showing up for another cameo as he argues of cheese production in a world without humans with a rat, and the utterly convoluted way that the Dr. Harrison persona and her cult of mental asylum patients end up modifying Mr. Nobody's otherwise-simple but crazy plan to insert a change in history that'll be kinda unnoticeable for the rest of the world, but will defeat the Decreator..

So Nobody goes to the past in order to create the cult of the Recreator, implanting the cult in the mind of one of Jane's personalities, Dr. Harrison. The eventual steps, of course, end up involving a dog, Chief showing up in the present day while vomiting all the time he hears Mr. Nobody's name; the ghostly horse deity from the previous episode flirting with Chief; and a second giant godly eye that leads to a staring contest. Also, one of her mental patients helps Cliff and Jane beat up weird supernatural cultists in a snow globe. It's that sort of storyline. The cult-apocalypse stuff and the time travel stuff is... it just sort of happened. I don't really have a whole ton to complain about it, but at the same time I'm not in a hurry to praise it either. It is ridiculous and dr. Harrison revealing herself to be as hammy and loony as any given Crazy Jane personality gets a thumbs-up for me.

The flashback sequences of this episode now focuses mostly on Crazy Jane's time in the asylum and how she was continually tormented and beaten up by the asylum's staff until, well, Chief shows up and smuggles her out of the asylum, kindly-Professor-X style. It shows that for all of the spooky suspicions that the audience and the Doom Patrol members have been asked to consider about the Chief in the past couple of episodes, at the very least some of his attempts to help out these troubled super-powered beings are genuine. You do believe that Chief's calming words to Jane in the past is genuine; there's a degree of sadness when he has to tell Victor that he can't stick in this superhero business and see the world in black-and-white, regretting that he had to be the one to pop that bubble. Hell, even at the end of the episode when Mr. Nobody comes to interrupt a tender farewell and rip Chief back into the weird empty space they hang out in, you believe his grief. I guess that's where we're going with Chief. He's a kind, nice mentor who's trying to give these rejects of society a home. He's also a manipulative bastard that is using them for his own gain.

The other characters, as usual, get to work through their own issues. Vic is still mostly continuing more of his storyline from the previous episodes, angsting about not wanting to be a mere 'cyborg', a weapon and a fascination for his father to work on, and holding out hope for Chief only for Chief to essentially tell him what everyone else has been telling him -- that the world isn't black and white -- is well done. Rita trying to make friends and at least let that tattooed cult kid Elliot have one good day that isn't a lie in his life, only to have the kid be vaporized by the spooky eye god, is heart-breaking and amazingly acted. Cliff and Jane (well, Hammerhead) sort of kind of work through their issues, with Jane telling Cliff that she doesn't want to be reduced to being a cheap substitute for Cliff's missing daughter. And Larry, of course, continues to torture himself and/or be tortured by the Negative Man entity.

Ultimately, of course, the Decreator is defeated and the cult is banished and/or killed. They were really more of a parody of a threat, more of a plot device to further the Chief/Nobody/Doom Patrol storyline. Kipling sort of tips his hat and buggers off after his guest star bit is done and, of course, Mr. Nobody re-abducts Chief to restore the status quo and Cyborg's hand blows up after Mr. Nobody's little time-slowing bit. The episode was definitely very choppy, and it feels like it's just trying to ramp up the weird parts while not really playing into taking the cult anywhere as narratively straight as the previous episode. It was absolutely delightful to see Dalton and Tudyk play off each other since they're fantastic, and I still enjoyed the episode. I just really do hope that they keep this momentum and Mr. Nobody doesn't evolve into Mr. Plot Hole by the time the season is over.

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Another one of Crazy Jane's personalities -- Dr. Harrison, with blue eyes and a skunk stripe in her hair, whose powers appear to be some sort of mind manipulation. 
• The Recreator comes from the same comic book arc that involved the Cult of the Unwritten Book.