Doom Patrol Season 3 Episode 9 recap: Evil Patrol

The following article contains SPOILERS for Doom Patrol Season 3, Episode 9

Rita tries to rally her teammates into stopping the Brotherhood of Evil, while Madame Rouge finds some allies in this week’s episode of Doom Patrol Season 3.

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

The episode opens with a flashback within Sisterhood of Dada’s hideout that looks to be shortly before the video was made that led to Laura De Mille believing she was a bird with Shelley Byron. We also see Rita expressing her raw self by wanting love but also wanting to be hidden from the world.

This flashback blends right into where episode 8 left off with a confrontation between Rita and Madame Rouge where Rita calls her lover’s killer a fraud and power-hungry. Laura De Mille tries to go her separate way from Rita, but the former Golden Age starlet admits she hid the time machine away, so she has nowhere to go. De Mille makes a claim that she will join the Brotherhood of Evil, but this will be hard since, according to Rita, Niles Caulder defeated them ages ago, but audiences know that the robot, whose name is The Brain, and the militant gorilla, whose name is Monsieur Mallah, are still lurking about even today. De Mille transforms into a bird and escapes Rita’s grasp.

Doom Patrol Season 3 Episode 9: Recovering from the Eternal Flaggelation

Cliff, Jane, and Larry are all celebrating the former pilot’s newfound paternal duties he has for raising the parasite that was within him for a couple of episodes. This scene jumps from adorable to suspenseful when it turns out the scene is all part of Larry’s subconscious and fear of being a good father after failing twice over already. Larry makes a promise to the parasite that he will be better for it.

Victor Stone is still in the recovery room after he had his surgery, removing all of the Cyborg technology from his external layers. Silas is there and is reminiscing about all the times he has seen Vic in the hospital room, including the last one when Silas was accosted outside STAR Labs by one of its new security guards because he is Black. Vic’s father finally admits he made the decision to make him Cyborg after the accident because it was better than being a Black man in this world. Vic resents him for that because it took away his humanity, and before Silas can respond, Victor leaves the room.

Down in The Underground, Jane and Kay are discussing how the personas left and how Kay believes she does not need them anymore. Kay heads up to the surface, leaving Jane to herself at the station. Because it is Kay in control, this ruins Rita’s plans to try and stop The Brotherhood of Evil, and that is not even mentioning the fact that Vic has no powers and Larry is nesting a newborn. So this means only Cliff is the same person he was before the Eternal Flagellation, which does not help Rita’s quest to defeat Madame Rouge and her sinister team.

Speaking of the villains, Madame Rouge arrives at Boca Raton, Florida, to see The Brain and Monsieur Mallah are living comfortably in a retirement complex. While The Brain is very welcoming for Laura, Mallah is anything but. The Brain shugs off Rouge’s complaints, which only makes her all the more ticked off, and inspires the two villains to put on their big bad pants and to come out of retirement. Rouge tries to use The Brain’s resources, but he won’t give her everything until she proves herself again with a new mission.

Doom Patrol Season 3 Episode 9: Bringing down the Brotherhood of Evil

The eponymous team’s planning stage, something that never goes right, is reaching all-new levels of bottoming out considering the recent changes in the roster. Rita, who has a fire under her and is the only one who knows the true threat, is struggling to inspire her distracted teammates. She finally makes a breakthrough with Cliff when the doorbell rings, and it is Cliff’s daughter, Clara. This understandably upsets Rita since now she is back to square one. The reason Clara is there is to return her father’s website meds and to inform him he needs to see a real doctor.

Vic and Kay have a conversation in the interview room where Niles interviewed each of her personas. They both share their respective feelings of finally being who they were supposed to be after not being at the proverbial wheel for a good chunk of their lives. The scene ends with Kay being interviewed by Vic so she can experience what her personas did before her. Rita and Larry are talking, and Rita explains how she has changed while witnessing the new dynamic of Larry and his parasite baby. Just before she leaves, Rita has a lightbulb moment and exits the room with gusto to follow through with this idea.

While Clara and Cliff are setting up an appointment over the phone, Rita pulls him aside and questions if Clara is actually his daughter or if it is Madame Rouge using her shapeshifting abilities. While his daughter was not Rouge, it turns out the baby was Laura De Mille. This revelation leads to a hilarious fight with the Doom Patrol and Madame Rouge, who has an adult head but a baby’s body. She takes down Cliff using some electrocution before kidnapping him in front of Clara’s eyes. Rita delegates tasks before trying to inspire a powerless and petrified Jane.

Doom Patrol Season 3 Episode 9: The Brotherhood of Evil’s plan revealed

Within the Brotherhood of Evil’s retirement home, Madame Rouge and The Brain explain their master plan to a newly conscious Cliff. The Brain plans to use Cliff’s blueprints (something he bought during Cliff’s gambling addiction era) and put himself in the miracle that is Robotman’s body before infiltrating the Doom Patrol and taking them all down from within. Madame Rouge looks to be back in the good graces of the Brotherhood before she is sedated herself, and Cliff is put back unconscious by Monsieur Mallah. The transition was a success because the next thing we see is Robotman, now voiced by The Brain, wheeling Madame Rouge into a van with Cliff’s brain in a jar.

On their journey to Florida, Vic, Larry, Jane, and Rita all end up airing their dirty laundry about one another. Nobody confirms their joy for Vic’s new appearance, and they all look to Rita about why they are really going to Boca Raton, because to Rita, it is not primarily to save Cliff. Rita explains she was the one that caused everyone to die at the resort and how her only goal is to stop Madame Rouge. The tensions are rising within the team with Jane’s brain split between her surface stress and the fact that Kay is in The Underground alone with something mysterious.

The episode ends with a French song playing over quite a lot of groundwork for the finale next week for Doom Patrol Season 3. The Brain is enjoying his new body by dancing around the Boca Raton complex, and Monsieur Mallah pushes Madame Rouge and Cliff’s jarred brain off a cliff. But most importantly, Kay finds out she has powers when she uses a supersonic scream to defend herself against the mysterious force down in The Underground. This scream is also done by Jane on the surface, which leads to the Doom Patrol’s bus flipping over and likely injuring everyone on it.

What happened to Madame Rouge and Cliff’s brain? Is the Doom Patrol ok? Do Jane and Kay share this supersonic scream? Leave your thoughts and opinions below! 

Stream Doom Patrol Season 3 on HBO Max and catch up before the finale next Thursday!