Doom Patrol, Season 1, Episode 15: Chief Patrol
Mmmm, not the biggest fan of the finale, no. Don't get me wrong, it's still utterly enjoyable and I certainly wouldn't use the sort of language that whatever reviewer Mr. Nobody read about this show -- this season finale is many things, but certainly not boring or un-entertaining. Interesting, weird, and more than a little bit gross, but it's certainly an enjoyable one.
Of course, the thing is that Doom Patrol as a show has always been one that prioritized characterization (and weirdness) over plot. So yeah, Mr. Nobody's plan really doesn't make sense because as we learn here, his main goal is to break the heroes. To make Chief suffer and become a nobody. Which is why despite his reality-warping, fourth-wall-breaking powers, all Mr. Nobody did was to literally just fuck around with the Doom Patrol's lives and watch as they work through emotional problems, only to break these emotionally-stable people down by revealing Niles' huge secret towards them.
And after a bit of an acknowledgement and a scene with Caulder talking to Joshua Clay prior to Larry's accident (designed to 'intercept' the Negative Entity), we flash-forward six months. Everyone's sort of living on their own, but it feels sort of... hollow? Larry and Rita are roomies, with Larry being buddies with the Negative Spirit and letting him fly out. Rita's actually living a great life as a drama teacher, but her students are cunts that bully her. And as the two that have stuck with Caulder the longest, we get to see them show up in other flashbacks... like the night before Caulder went off to 'collect' Jane, where the Bureau has continued to go along with Caulder's Immortus Project, a way to create immortals (that's the theme between all our Doom Patrol members, huh)? Of course, as time went on, Caulder began to develop a bond with his charges, actually became the mentor he paraded himself as. But at the same time he also, as Joshua pointed out, someone who caused all these accidents and certainly didn't stop Jane from being turned into Crazy Jane.
And then we get to see him working on Cliff's brain, clearly guilt-wracked about what he's doing (and he's also buddies with Elinore Stone) but also someone who still caused the accident in the first place. Or, at the very least, profiteering from them. The conversation between Caulder and Silas Stone was also very well-acted. As a character that's been built up as an unfeeling, manipulative dad all season long, turns out that Silas is just someone who's bad at expressing himself when Caulder's the huge hypocrite. Again, like the rest of his team, Niles Caulder grew. He grew to accept he's a shitbag human being, too. He did cause a lot of harm and came to regret it.
The rest of the team in the present day aren't enjoying a life that's as fulfilling as Larry and Rita (sans student bullying, of course). Vic hides out in an apartment, dodging his dad's calls and pretends to be doing something. Jane goes off to Joshua to beg for a cure, and gets a metahuman suppressor that she takes and ends up knocking herself out... and we're treated to that creepy scene with all the Janes laying down in the peaceful field. Cliff, meanwhile, is obsessed with looking after Jane, just slipping her pizzas and giving her space.
And Mr. Nobody? After his huge plan of 'winning'... ends up with him reading the Forbes review of the Doom Patrol show while on the shitter, gets angry, rants about cable, and then gets into an argument with Ezekiel the talking religious cockroach and Admiral Whiskers, the rat that fucked Cliff's mind in that one episode... and Mr. Nobody has nothing better to do since he has completed his grand plan, which is to ruin Niles Caulder's life. Okay? After the Brotherhood of Dangerous Animals is formed, Mr. Nobody goes off to remember one hanging plot thread, which is Niles' mountain-dwelling immortal girlfriend. Oh yeah. That.
Again, it's not that things like Oyewah, Admiral Whiskers or Ezekiel are random plot developments... but they kind of get re-introduced so randomly and it sort of fits with Doom Patrol's style while at the same time kind of feel random. Speaking of random, via a song that plays in everyone's head and gathers the group at Doom Manor (we do get a touching Jane/Cliff reunion) and the revelation that Mr. Nobody has trapped Danny the Street in a painting because... uh... okay? Sure?
And there we have the final 21 minutes of the show, where after a bit of an apology, the non-Chief heroes ranting about how shit Chief is and how they ruined their lives, the Doom Patrol enter the painting. Apparently Chief has a daughter, the daughter has been stashed with Danny all along (that's why Beard Hunter went there, okay, that's a plot thread tied up) and Mr. Nobody's got them both. And... because of one thing or another, Mr. Nobody's drunk in a bar, Beard Hunter's running around, and also both Ezekiel and Whiskers are kaiju-sized CGI monsters rampaging around the city.
And the ending sure plays the 'weird' factor up to hilt. Rita manages to convince Mr. Nobody to narrate again so that they can get out of the painting world (while also counting on Nobody's hubris to forget to leave an escape clause). Beard Hunter gets killed by the horned creature because apparently Chief's daughter also inherited her mother's power. And, most memorably and disgustingly, Ezekiel and Whiskers get a huge make-out session complete with French-kissing just so that all members of the Doom Patrol can get together inside Ezekiel's cockroach stomach, so that they can survive the Negative Spirit detonating its energy so that they can all escape the painting. Also they are all shrunken becuase of Ezekiel.
It's bizarre, it's pretty damn gross, and... eh?
While I do appreciate the huge twist in the previous episode, and the massive amount of dressing-down Chief got in this one... and, sure, Alan Tudyk is entertaining as all hell and the giant CGI creatures rampaging was sure something, this episode is just so damn weirdly paced. I would've liked more exploration of how the Patrol dealt with Caulder's betrayal, more buildup to Caulder's daughter (and it's not like she's much beyond a plot device in this episode) and more resolution for Mr. Nobody beyond "he won, he got bored, he got drunk, now he's trapped". On the other hand, I guess such an atypical conclusion is appropriate for Doom Patrol? I did enjoy this madcap journey, if nothing else.
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
- The "Immortus Project", presumably, is tied or a reference to General Immortus, yet another member from the Brotherhood of Evil, who is, well, an immortal man who can't die. General Immortus is actually the antagonist of the very first Doom Patrol story to be published.
- The Chief in the comics also engineered the accidents that created the original Doom Patrol members, but is a lot less repentant than the Chief here.
- The bit with the paintings is a reference to how in the comics, Mr. Nobody was associated with paintings and had trapped entire cities in paintings.
- In the comics, after being destroyed, Danny the Street did spend some time as Danny the Brick.
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