Doom Patrol season 2 premiere: Where is the team now?

The team is back and ‘fun-sized’ in Doom Patrol Season 2.

The quirky band of misfits returns to screens in Doom Patrol Season 2 and they have issues! In season one, the Doom Patrol learned that Niles Caulder / The Chief (Timothy Dalton) engineered the accidents that transformed their bodies – all in the hopes of retaining immortality to care for his daughter Dorothy (Abigail Shapiro). They’re not only reeling from this devastating betrayal, but also from the fact that almost all of them… are miniature sized.

Doom Patrol season 2 kicks off with three new episodes on HBO Max, each building on Niles’ desperate need to remain immortal and protect his daughter. All he wants is the ability to live one day more than Dorothy, is that too much to ask?

We’re introduced to new villains from the comic books, but none are as compelling as Dalton’s Niles. Over these three episodes, Niles is painted as an equally deplorable and tragic figure. Will the rest of the season lean into telling this character’s story? Niles didn’t feature much in the premiere season, but he’s the best part of season 2 at the moment.

I was surprised at how much action was woven in with character development in these three episodes. Despite that, there’s still plenty of lore and world-building thrown in, sometimes to distraction. Doom Patrol is at its best when the focus is on the characters.

At the moment, it seems the writers are struggling a little bit to give Cyborg his due, and much of Larry’s arc is a retread from the first season. But we’re not going to be the judge of that. Read on for an episode-by-episode recap of season 2.