Doom Patrol S01E11 Review: Sudden Gator-Induced Death

Doom Patrol, Season 1, Episode 11: Frances Patrol

Hmmm. This is kind of a strange one. The titular 'Frances' in Frances Patrol is, honestly, the B-plot of the episode. Instead, this episode focuses a lot on one of the longer-running character threads... Larry Trainor, his relationship with the mysterious Negative Spirit within him, his relationship with the fact that he's a gay man with self-loathing issues, and the question of whatever happened between him and ex John.

Both of the Cliff and Larry storylines, by the way, also have the very important theme of showing to us that the members of the Doom Patrol... are kind of time abyss immortals. We've seen the Chief running around in 1910, making him at the very least 110 years old. We've seen Rita basically remain the same since the '50's thanks to her blob flesh-moulding powers, and we've seen Rita meet the aging, geriatric Mento even though she stays the same. (Jane and Victor are a bit of an exception since they're newer recruits) And this episode really hammers home just how long Robotman and Negative Man have been around as well. Intellectually, we know that Larry's accident and transformation happened a long time ago in a much less tolerant world, but there is a completely different impact when we see Larry interacting with the old and dying John. And while we've seen Cliff ranting about his daughter being raised up by Buck... turns out that Clara Steele isn't just gone up to become a teenager, but she's a straight-up adult. Cliff didn't just miss five or ten years, he's missed nearly the entirety of his child's life.

And that, I think, is the lesson that the Negative Spirit (and Danny) has been trying to teach Larry. Self-acceptance, and to let go of what Larry thinks he is 'supposed' to be. It's an interesting story in that this isn't just a gay man trying to find his place in the world -- because between Danny's community and the Doom Patrol themselves, they're all ready to accept Larry. But first Larry has to accept himself. Sure, the Negative Spirit keeps bringing Larry to see different illusions. Sometimes it's a memory of a diner where Larry and John shared happy moments. Sometimes it's a completely different fantasy that's a 'what-if' dream if the two of them had a happy ending. But ultimately, what Larry realizes is that it's not just the period and the then-current social climate that prevented Larry and John from having a relationship... it's Larry himself who prevents himself from finding real love, putting it away and wrestling with it for 60 years. (This is contrasted beautifully in the episode by jumping to a scene of Cliff's daughter Clara giving a speech about carpe diem and seizing life.)

Ultimately, Larry goes and seeks out John, finding him an old man, six decades after when Larry and John were young. John had moved on, and while it's not explicitly said, is living with a woman that is implied to be his wife. And yet John still holds up a torch for Larry, is absolutely overjoyed when he sees his ex, and, in true dramatic storytelling fashion, finally passes on after that one last meeting with Larry. If nothing else, it's a reconnection, reconciliation and closure, allowing Larry to at least say what needs to be said with John before it's too late. It's a nice, bittersweet ending, with the subtle implication (that I missed during my first viewing) that the Negative Spirit has been channeling John's dreams and showing them to Larry.

Meanwhile, someone else who's trying to reconnect is Cliff. Dragged by Rita to Florida, Cliff is still coming to terms with the fact that Bump (who his wife cheated on) is raising Clara. It's obvious to Rita and the audience that Bump's honestly probably a good surrogate dad considering what little we saw of Clara's life from Cliff's cyber-stalking attempts, she seems to have a pretty good life.

In typical Doom Patrol fashion... Bump is fucking dead in this episode while Cliff was wishy-washy-ing about seeing his daughter. Killed by a fucking alligator of all things. And sure, I know people die from gator attacks in real life, but there's still a moment of comedy in the very somber speech talking about Bump's death at the hands of Frances the gator. And Cliff's attempt to meet with Clara and reconnect keeps causing him to go one step forwards, three gigantic leaps back. Cliff talks a big game, but the real thing is that he's still utterly immature and unwilling to process what's going on with him. As he says here, he doesn't think he's fit to be Clara's dad, at least not without some huge, big gesture to make up for the fact that Cliff's been absent from Clara's entire life.

Which is why Cliff heads off to the swamp to beat up Frances the gator and get Bump's precious golden watch out from the gator's gullet. It's a huge gesture, an almost fairy-tale or video-game like 'do this to earn the side character's loyalty'. And while Rita urges for something less overdramatic like talking to Clara (two thumbs up to Rita for braving the swamp via rowboat to talk to her bullheaded friend), ultimately Cliff does fight a gator, get the watch... and chickens out, leaving the watch behind on a table for Clara to find without introducing himself. And I guess it's a form of maturity as well as Cliff decides that the best thing he can do is to walk away from Clara -- kind of the opposite to what Larry did in his journey, but a poignant one nonetheless.

The 'main plot', such as it is, gets pushed forwards. Jane, with a bit more clarity after "Jane Patrol", goes off with Victor since they don't have any real angst to work through. They hunt down Flex Mentallo's wife Dolores, only to find out that she's a robot with an elbow cannon! And the Bureau of Normalcy employs robots with elbow cannons, because those are so normal! This leads to Vic being zapped and abducted and experimented by the evil Bureau of Normalcy. Dun dun dunn, I guess. (Also, I guess Animal Vegetable Mineral Man and his struggles in court after his arrest is going to be a fun running background gag. I appreciate that.)

Ultimately, while the Vic/Jane/Mentallo stuff is kind of just whatever setup, I really do appreciate the character work that goes into Cliff and Larry. Honestly, the character stuff is what I'm here for.

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Flex Mentallo is a character and a member of the Doom Patrol in the comics, explicitly created to parody Charles Atlas advertisements that are commonplace in comics at the time. In the comics, the Man of Muscle Mystery shows up within Danny the Street as an amnesiac, and after going through a mysterious body-building regime, Flex found out that flexing specific muscles would allow him to alter reality in different ways. Later on it's revealed that Flex Mentallo was accidentally brought to life from a psychic child's drawings. 
• Crazy Jane was assaulted by people who want to look at their elbows in Doom Patrol #36, except instead of having robotic cannons, those elbow-guys had some sort of bizarre meta-physical tear that can trap Jane.