Doom Patrol Season 3, Episode 5 recap: Dada Patrol

The following article contains SPOILERS for Doom Patrol Season 3, Episode 5.

While on a mission for their unwelcomed guest, the eponymous team all experience challenges to their identities in this episode of Doom Patrol Season 3.

Check out our recap of last week’s episode here!

This episode begins with Jane walking in on Kay, explaining to the therapist persona Dr. Harrison that she wants to go up. Jane and Harrison duel over if that’s right, and the therapist makes the point in saying Kay’s decisions will impact every persona.

Also, Cliff is learning about the internet while seeing baby photos of his grandchild and taking meds he got from a pop-up ad online. Because he will always be reckless, Cliff thinks he can fast-track these sketchy meds by taking a lot at once. Let’s see how this goes.

Silas Stone resets Grid for Victor, so he has Cyborg’s full capabilities once again. When Papa Stone explains, “Cyborg was never a means to reinvent” his son, the two are on a call. Vic and his dad look to be on the path of reconnecting with Silas realizing how selfish and reckless he was while actually listening to Vic’s problems, and I find that very wholesome. In Larry’s room, Rita checks out his bump, but the contusion is gone from his torso. However, they find it wandering around his hand, which means it is not a regular tumor.

Doom Patrol Season 3 Episode 5: Learning about the Sisterhood of Dada

Laura DeMille calls a team meeting and requests the Doom Patrol to kill the Sisterhood of Dada, who they let escape at the Ant Farm in Season 1, Episode 12. The team doesn’t like it because, you know…killing people, so DeMille compromises and just has them try and infiltrate the Sisterhood.

They eventually agree when the caveat is added that after they do this, DeMille will be gone. Rita stays behind, and Laura informs her about Rita being seen in the video, which means that she is not just Rita the actress but also Rita the world-renowned time traveler.

On the way to the Sisterhood, Cliff gets all loopy from his meds and causes chaos, mainly around the bump on Larry, which appears on the back of his neck. They arrive at their destination, and Cliff, Jane, and Vic all go searching while Larry stays with the bus since he is practically powerless without the Negative Spirit.

Cliff wanders off alone and appears to be hallucinating, and at first, audiences do not know if this is because of the meds or the mystical forest. However, when we see Jane looking for Cliff, and she hears Kay and the other personas and later Vic seeing some strange things, that is when audiences figure out that something is up with the forest. Cliff sees a Japanese woman trapped in a glass box while Vic sees someone modeling clay with a folded-up bike on his back.

Doom Patrol Season 3 Episode 5: Identity Crisis

Jane approaches a sweet shop and finds a woman calling herself Shelley Byron or The Fog, and this is the name of the other woman in Laura DeMille’s video. Jane tries to complete the mission by saying she wants to join the Sisterhood of Dada, but Byron has one simple question for her, “Who are you?” Jane tries just saying her name, but that doesn’t cut it.

This Shelly Byron character appears to be aware of everything since she confronts Jane, saying she knows Jane is here for The Eternal Flagellation. She also explains she does not want to hurt Kay but accepts her and Jane into her group without any other personas holding them back.

After being transported through an ice cream truck, Cliff talks with the woman whose name we eventually learn is Sachiko. This encased woman has a unique question for Cliff, and that is “What are you?” The two speak in fluent and perfect Japanese to one another, which looks to be because of Sachiko’s abilities.

The two bond over fearing their own death and feeling empty inside and useless. While Sachiko is scared of Cliff and inside her glass box, Robotman still tries to go in for a hug. Back at the bus, Larry has his own hallucination of police before seeing his elderly son, who we met last season.

During this time, Vic talks with the bicycle man, who we find out is named Lloyd. This sculptor asks Vic his own unique question, and that is, “Why are you?” Cyborg gives a very white-meat superhero answer, and Lloyd calls him out on it while being humorously patronizing. The bicycle man offers to explain what The Eternal Flagellation is if he sits and stays awhile.

Lloyd begins talking in riddles, but it comes down to the fact that Vic doesn’t know why he is because the Cyborg superhero has derailed Vic’s true identity. Vic is offended that Lloyd is telling him that he doesn’t experience oppression as a black man, but as Lloyd keeps talking, Vic’s ego is checked.

Doom Patrol Season 3, Episode 5: Rita and Laura building their connection

Back at the mansion, Rita and Laura share some martinis, well Laura drinks the gin from the bottle, and DeMille shares what she found out after Niles Caulder demands she stays away from his team. Rita doesn’t believe any of it because of her disdain for the Chief and trusts Laura as the person she has met. This might be misplaced since even Laura doesn’t know who she is or what the trip to the Sisterhood of Dada will give her for answers.

Rita shares this identity crisis since the former starlet has been saved by an ally in the afterlife and made Laura’s video. While getting drunk, Rita admits to Laura that she was the one who broke the amnesiac’s time machine. The two get all dressed up like mechanics to fix it, and this whole thing is very adorable.

At the candy store, Jane discovers that The Eternal Flagellation is a form of vengeance against the world since Shelley was wronged and used against her will. The two appear to be bonding when Hammerhead begins banging on the window. Jane tries to leave not to upset Hammerhead or the other personas, but Shelley is still trying to sell her mission of freeing Jane to her own thoughts and not needing the personas.

Doom Patrol Season 3, Episode 5: Shelley Byron does NOT like Laura DeMille

Stuff really hits the fan when Cliff mentions Laura DeMille’s name to Sachiko. After this, Hammerhead breaks through the glass window, Vic is blown around by the bicycle man, and Cliff is punched through the Japanese woman’s glass case. As the personas break into the candy store, Shelley tells Jane that she will see her soon and give Laura DeMille her best and disappears in a puff of fog.

This salutation from Shelley to Jane actually releases the entire Doom Patrol of their trances, and it turns out they never left the bus. Larry, however, experienced some real stuff since he is holding his son’s sick body in his lap. The titular team return to the mansion very ticked off after they all saw and heard some harrowing things.

Back in their separate spaces, Vic is looking at his body in disgust, Cliff is taking too many pills and clicking on pop-ups, Jane is being shunned away from Kay by the other personas, and Larry is taking care of his son while his neck bump begins to glow like maybe it has been the Negative Spirit all along.

Rita, however, has the honor of closing out the episode by drunkenly walking to Laura’s fixed time machine and turning it on. I feel like this is leading the audience to believe this will be the Rita from Episode 2, but I feel like that might be a misdirect, and we will get some new stories dealing with Elasti-Girl.

Where do you think Rita is traveling to? Do you think Cliff will have some bad side effects from taking all of these pills? Let us know in the comments below!

Stream Doom Patrol Season 3 on HBO Max with new episodes every Thursday!