Doom Patrol (TV Series)

From Mental Block

Doom Patrol is an American web television series developed by Jeremy Carver for DC Universe. Based on the DC Comics superhero team of the same name, the series features Jane (Diane Guerrero), Rita Farr (April Bowlby), Vic Stone (Joivan Wade), Larry Trainor (Matt Bomer / Matthew Zuk), Cliff Steele (Brendan Fraser / Riley Shanahan), and the Chief (Timothy Dalton) as the members of the eponymous Doom Patrol. Although Bowlby, Bomer, and Fraser reprise their roles from the DC Universe series Titans, the two shows are set in separate continuities.

The series premiered on February 15, 2019, exclusively to DC Universe. Following the conclusion of the first season, it was announced that the second season would air on both DC Universe and HBO Max, with the two streaming services releasing episodes simultaneously in 2020.

Plot[edit | edit source]

Doom Patrol follows the unlikely heroes of the eponymous team who all received their powers through tragic circumstances and are generally shunned by society. Most members of the team were treated by the Chief, a medical doctor who gave them residence in his mansion to help protect them from the outside world. Their name derives from an earlier Doom Patrol team that was formed by the Chief.

The first members of the Doom Patrol to be introduced in the series are Jane, the dominant identity of a traumatized woman with dissociative identity disorder; Rita Farr, who struggles to prevent her body from turning to a gelatinous state; Larry Trainor, who has an entity of negative energy living inside of him; and Cliff Steele, whose brain was placed in a robot body following a car crash. The team is later joined by cybernetically-enhanced superhero Vic Stone.

Paw Patrol (Season 1, Episode 5)[edit | edit source]

Mr. Nobody releases Caulder from captivity so the two can work together to stop the Decreator. Mr. Nobody travels to 1977 and uses one of Jane's personalities, Dr. Harrison (whose power is persuasion), to create a Cult of the Rewritten Book, which will create a counterpart to Elliot that can oppose the Decreator. Back in the present, Cliff and present day Jane escape Nurnheim with instructions left by Dr. Harrison. Meanwhile, Caulder, Kipling, Vic, and Larry find Elliot's counterpart, a dog, which Kipling uses to summon the Recreator, who brings back everything previously disintegrated by the Decreator. Just before Caulder leaves, Mr. Nobody freezes time and self-destructs Vic's arm cannon. In the past, Caulder rescues Jane from a mental institution in which she was being tortured, and promises to keep her safe. Unbeknownst to Caulder, Mr. Nobody tells Jane to find the Doom Patrol.

Danny Patrol (Season 1, Episode 8)[edit | edit source]

Cliff and Rita seek out Jane, who is under the control of Karen, a perky but unstable personality with the power to make people love her. In their search for Caulder, Larry and Vic come across a sentient, genderqueer, teleporting street named Danny, which is being hunted by the Bureau of Normalcy. Larry remembers his own experience with the Bureau, which experimented on him in the 1960s after his accident and gave him the first glimpse of his negative energy spirit. Former Bureau agent Morris Wilson has become a drag queen named Maura Lee Karupt who helps keep Danny going by sustaining a party atmosphere. She faces off with her former partner, Agent Darren Johnson, to stop the Bureau's persecution of Danny. Jane and Karen fight for control of her mind, but soon Jane snaps, leaving her catatonic while her consciousness is dragged into the Underground.

Cyborg Patrol (Season 1, Episode 12)[edit | edit source]

Silas arrives looking for a missing Vic, who the team soon realizes has been taken by the Bureau of Normalcy. Determining that Vic is being held at the Ant Farm, Silas devises a plan to rescue him, and enlists the others to help. At the facility, Vic is tortured and Grid reboots twice, further disorienting him. Silas and the team infiltrate the Ant Farm with Jane and Larry posing as agents of the Bureau bringing in Cliff as a prisoner. Darren and his team surround and subdue the team with specialized weapons, Silas having tipped them off in exchange for access to his son. Vic is furious at what Silas has done, but Silas's "betrayal" is part of the rescue plan. Rita, who has been hiding in her elastic form inside Cliff, sets him and then Larry free. Karen emerges in Jane, and uses her power to escape before Jane reemerges. They free all of the Bureau's other prisoners, creating enough chaos for them to flee. Silas and a confused Vic argue, and Vic beats his father senseless. Mr. Nobody appears, having orchestrated Grid's reboots, and taunts Vic that he has just killed his own father.