The end times are nigh! There’s a giant judgey eye in the sky! Things are so bad that even a cockroach is preaching about it! Just another day at the office for the members of the Doom Patrol, really.
WARNING: Spoilers for this episode of ‘Doom Patrol’ lie ahead, obviously. If you haven’t seen the episode and don’t wish for any of its content to be spoiled for you, the time to turn back is NOW!
RECAP: Picking up right where last week’s cliff-hanger left us off, the De-Creator has been summoned, and the Eye in the Sky is judging and decreating as it sees fit. Some people get judged and “poofed” away in a wisp of fiery ash, and even some inanimate objects get judged as well – including Willoughby Kipling’s flask, from which he was just about to drink his worries away. Womp womp!
As the De-Creator’s power ramps up, he’s able to de-create more and more things and his power will eventually extend to the Donkeyverse, where Mr. Nobody still has The Chief at bay – specifically, spinning upside-down in a white-washed area of nothing for the villain’s entertainment. The two come to the same dread agreement: the De-Creator must be stopped at any cost, even if that means creating an uneasy alliance to pool their resources and get the job done.
What’s the best way to fight an organized religion with a specific goal, they wonder? The answer seems clear: go back in time and start a competing organized religion with the opposite goal so that the two religions can go head-to-head and “cancel each other out,” for lack of a better term. So Mr. Nobody pops back to the late 1970s, where he draws forth one of Crazy Jane’s personas, Dr. Harrison – a strong empath who is able to plant suggestive ideas in people’s heads when they hear her tell them what to do. Dr. Harrison is tasked with creating the Cult of the Re-Creator, whose job is to write The Book of Re-Creation.
The plan starts off going fairly well – except that most of the original members for the Cult of the Re-Creator are mental patients, since Jane is in a mental hospital and all, and they had some fairly… unique ideas about how to achieve the goals of their new religion. They wrote the Book of Re-Creation on a living being, but not on a human, like the Cult of the De-Creator did – that’s too obvious, as someone might see the tattooed text and try to stop them. Also, they made sure the text would be hidden until a magic spell could unlock it. Actually, these ideas are pretty good – those mental patients aren’t half bad!
Where everything starts to fall apart, sadly, is that when the De-Creator has been summoned, Dr. Harrison is stuck inside of Jane who is stuck inside of Nurnheim with Robotman. The rest of the team, with Niles Caulder returned to them in a short-term, world-saving capacity, is able to free Jane & Robotman, find the Book of the Re-Creator (it’s a doggy, aww), and summon the new God, who takes his place as a second eye in the sky alongside the De-Creator. It’s an odd look for the world, to be sure.
The Re-Creator is able to re-create everything that the De-Creator de-created, and after a prolonged “staring contest,” both gods are summarily returned to their respective home realms. The day is saved! Sadly, though, The Chief must honor his end of the bargain with Mr. Nobody and return to the Donkeyverse – and it appears the villain has planted one more time-travelling, doom-impending trick in Jane’s subconscious…
OBSERVATIONS:
- It was great in this episode to get much more back-story filled in on Jane, but seriously now: where is Rita’s back-story? The absence of information on what should be a very intriguing character is wearing thin – this is, for me, the single biggest gripe I currently have against this show.
- Mark Sheppard is always a great guy to have on your series, and he brought Willoughby Kipling to life on-screen in a way that few could have. I sincerely hope we get to see him back on the series soon.
- This is an aspect of the show that has gone largely un-commented on, but I think the individual episodes’ titling sequencing is phenomenal. “Donkey Patrol” and “Puppet Patrol” made me chuckle, but as a parent with two children under 10 years old at home, “Paw Patrol” made me outright guffaw (and wish that the animated ‘Paw Patrol’ was anything like this show!).
- Great to see Alan Tudyk back in action – and clearly, Mr. Nobody has a bigger plan in place to take down not only The Chief, but the team as well. And now, thanks to the closing scene showing the villainous suggestion planted in Crazy Jane’s head, the “Doom Patrol” moniker has officially been uttered in the show, hooray!
CLOSING THOUGHTS: We are one-third of the way through the season (DC has announced it will be a 15-episode season), and all in all, ‘Doom Patrol’ is a pleasant surprise so far. This is exactly the kind of show that the DC Universe service needed at this time, and it’s my hope that people do use the service and get to see this show, along with the other great content provided therein.
PRINCIPAL CAST FEATURED IN THIS EPISODE:
Timothy Dalton as The Chief
Brendan Fraser as Cliff Steele/Robotman
Diane Guerrero as Crazy Jane
April Bowlby as Rita Farr/Elastigirl
Matt Bomer as Larry Trainor/Negative Man
Alan Tudyk as Mt. Nobody
Joivan Wade as Victor Stone/Cyborg
‘Doom Patrol’ features new episodes on Fridays via the DC Universe streaming service.
