DC Universe’s Doom Patrol season 1, episode 6 recap: Doom Patrol Patrol

The real Doom Patrol appears in this week’s episode as Rita, Larry and Jane visit old friends of Niles Caulder. But sometimes, your eyes can deceive you.

The Decreator has been vanquished, but in all this upheaval Rita Farr/ Elasti-Girl made a connection with Elliot that may have changed her. She remembers her life before Doom Patrol. Following the accident that changed Rita on a molecular level in the pilot episode of the show, she tried to return to acting by asking Sydney Bloom of Bloom Studios to cast her in an upcoming film. When he attempted to take advantage of her, Rita’s body broke down, killing Bloom. Bloom’s secretary covered for Rita and sent her away.

Cliff Steele/ Robotman is still on the search for his daughter, turning to his surrogate daughter at Doom Manor, Crazy Jane, for help. Jane wants nothing to do with him, however, as she’s intent on discovering more about the term ‘Doom Patrol’ which Mr. Nobody had shared with her in the previous episode. Through Niles Caulder/ The Chief’s tapes, she hears Chief refer to the Doom Patrol. Who were they?

Victor Stone/ Cyborg is mad at Robotman for switching on his reset button. Now, half his configurations don’t work because his father has switched them off. Jane comes to Cyborg for help to find out more about the Doom Patrol. They were a minor superhero team active from the early to late ‘50s and then they disappeared. Rita, of course, has heard of the team – she had a brief affair with Steve Dayton/ Mento (Will Kemp). Larry Trainor/ Negative Man is outraged that Jane is following Mr. Nobody’s orders, but Jane doesn’t care and whisks both Larry and Rita to Doom Patrol headquarters.

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Steve Larson, the innocent tourist who joined the team in Fuchtopia and got turned into the Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man has turned into the world’s worst criminal. Cliff watches a news piece where Larson’s dinosaur head attacks him during a robbery. Larson was arrested for the crime, while the dinosaur head was charged for ‘aiding and abiting’.

Doom Patrol Ep. 106 — “”Doom Patrol Patrol”

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Cyborg’s father attempts to reboot Vic’s system while repairing his arm cannon. Silas continues to deride Vic’s need to save Niles, but during their conversation, Silas says that the JLA doesn’t know about the Brotherhood of Evil that Mr. Nobody is part of. Do we believe him? While doing the diagnostics, Silas will power Vic down, so Vic asks Cliff to keep an eye on him. Once Vic is asleep, Silas sows the seeds of discord by telling Cliff that his body would have been even better than Vic’s if Niles had listened to Silas. The two start arguing about Vic risking his life for Niles, and Cliff walks away in a huff. So much for keeping his promises.

The reboot goes off without a hitch, and Silas decides to allow Vic to ‘be his own man’. Grateful for Cliff’s help, Vic creates a social media profile for Cliff so he can follow his daughter’s activities. As we all know, social media can be a curse – Cliff finds that his daughter calls another man her father.

Josh Clay (Alimi Ballard) is in charge of Doom Patrol’s headquarters. This place looks exactly like it did 1950s, even the characters haven’t aged. Curious. After the team retired, Niles came up with the idea for meta-humans to be trained there. Mento, Rhea and Arani (Jasmine Kaur) stayed on as teachers. Arani takes Larry on a tour of the place revealing that she is married to Niles. Jane, on the other hand, plugs Josh for information about Mr. Nobody. Nobody was the Doom Patrol’s last case.

Meanwhile, Rita is desperately trying to avoid Steve Dayton. She recalls their first meeting in 1958 when Niles had asked Steve to help Rita’s condition. Niles believed her lack of cohesion may have been a psychological problem; Steve’s psychic helmet was supposed to help. Initially, Steve’s experiments worked, and a delighted Rita took the opportunity to begin a romance with him. Rita’s thoughts are interrupted by Steve, who bounds over to greet her and takes her to the Doom Patrol trophy room. Among the trophies is the metallic body of the Brain – a long-time nemesis of the Titans.

While Steve recounts the horrifying battle with Nobody, Rita informs him that Niles has been taken by this same enemy. This leads to Steve breaking down and revealing that everything Rita, Jane and Larry have been looking at is an illusion. Steve is an old man struggling to keep his powers in check, while Arani is an angry withered old woman (played by Madhur Jaffrey, no less!) who attacks Larry with her fire powers for destroying the peace. The past haunts Rita in the form of a young actress, Marybeth, taking her life, while the voice of the man who hurt Jane as a child torments her. Larry is confronted by an agent hoping to experiment on him. The trauma sends the Negative Spirit fleeing to save the day; it removes Steve’s helmet and the visions disappear.

Josh explains why Nobody was Doom Patrol’s final case. They lost to him and he got inside their heads; leading to the team lashing out at each other with their powers. This place was never a school for meta-humans; it was a safe place for the team. Josh is their physician and also a meta.

Rhea now lives her life in a catatonic state, while Arani is encased in ice, still under the false notion that she is married to Niles. Rita takes the opportunity to confront her own emotions. She believed she deserved to be punished for Marybeth, but now she needs to face her past so people like Mr. Nobody can’t use it against her. She returns Steve’s helmet to him, restoring the illusion of the school.

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Josh tells Jane that Niles pretty much abandoned the team after the Nobody fight. So, why would he send Jane here? Josh believes that’s something Jane needs to find out from Niles directly; she can’t give up looking for Niles because that means Nobody would win.

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