Doom Patrol “Hope Patrol” Review

Season 4 Episode 5 – With the end of existence imminent, a determined Doom Patrol seek to get their longevities back and save the universe.

Please note, our reviews are based on likes and dislikes. These contain significant spoilers. If you haven’t already watched the episode, we recommend that you click off the article and come back once you have watched the episode. Enjoy!

What I Liked

1. Jane wakes back up at the manor and sees Cliff working on his car. Jane discovers that her longevity has been taken and starts to freak out. Cliff downplays her fears and says that there’s no point fighting her possible death and that she should just focus on working out her issues. Hurt by his lack of empathy, Jane storms off. It is a bit sad to see Cliff being so dismissive of Jane’s problems but it is nonetheless interesting to see as he has been at her side for so long.

2. Cliff starts to imagine the oven mitt on his hand talking to him. This was hands down the funniest moment in the episode for me. It’s partly sad to see Cliff slowly losing it due to the Parkinson’s disease, but seeing him talk to the oven mitt was an absolute joy to watch. The Elmo-like voice that Brendan Fraser uses for the oven mitt was just absolute perfection.

3. We find out that Cliff never actually killed the frozen zombie butt, with him feeling too guilty over killing Darren Jones earlier. On one hand, it is immensely stupid that Cliff refused to kill the butt as doing so would prevent the possible apocalypse, but on the other hand it’s understandable that he doesn’t want to become a monster and would rather just keep it there instead of having to murder it while it’s defenseless.

4. Jane goes to the Underground and finds the other personalities working on puzzles, seemingly not bothered by the fact that their longevity is gone. An enraged Jane refuses to go along with them and instead promises to live her best life as opposed to just sitting and doing a puzzle.

5. Rita and Rouge go investigate the Bureau of Normalcy for information about Immourtus now that the former’s longevity is now gone.

6. Larry ends up in Orqwith, a bizarre dimension where the members of the Immortus cult reside. He is soon captured by the Scissormen, guardians of the dimension who serve Immortus. Orqwith has always been my favorite storyline in the Doom Patrol comics, which makes me so excited to see how the show will tackle both the location and the Scissormen during the rest of the season.

7. Mr. 104 is able to save Larry and takes him back to the manor through a portal, only for Keeg to push him right back in and send away Mr. 104. Vic sees Larry fall into the portal and goes in to save him, with his best friend Derrick following him.

8. Rita and Rouge are able to work together to infiltrate the Bureau. With how much these two have been at each other’s throats during this season as well as the previous one, it’s refreshing to see them cooperate and work well together.

9. We find out that the head of the Immortus project is Wally Sage, the meta-human that Rouge forced to be a weapon for the Bureau and the one who accidentally delivered the killing blow to Rita’s love interest Malcolm.

10. Rita sees Wally in a cell and starts to blob out from the traumatic memories of him. After accidentally crushing him, the two discover that the real Wally is in Orqwith.

11. Now captured and being drained of his longevity, Larry finds out that Keeg is in favor of Immortus with it being revealed that the future Keeg showed him Larry dying from being ripped apart by the zombie butts, with Keeg being forced to fly him into the sun before his radioactive skin can kill everyone. This shocks Larry, who decides to trust Keeg and give up his longevity.

12. Jane shows up at Shelley’s candy shop and attempts to express her romantic feelings to her, only to get cold feet at the last minute. It’s a moment that greatly makes sense for Jane’s character as it is very hard for her to open up with anyone, with romance being an especially difficult topic for her to associate with.

13. Kipling shows up at the manor bloodied and beaten, revealing that the Immortus cult took Jane’s longevity and killed Bunburry the rabbit (with Kipling only being able to save his foot). An annoyed Jane and Cliff decide to go through the portal and confront the cult, with Willoughby only being able to wish them good luck.

14. Vic and Derrick attempt to save Larry, Cliff and Jane by creating a life-like version of their toy model robot. While it at first seems that it may work and save the day, it is quickly destroyed by Wally, who captures them all.

15. At the worst possible time, Cliff finds out from his oven mitt that he forgot to close the freezer. We soon see the zombie butt now defrosted and active making its way out of the manor to go eat people’s brains as the episode ends.

What I Disliked

Nothing to report this week.

Favorite Moment

After running back to the manor before she can truly express her feelings to Shelley, Jane sulks in her room. Cliff enters and has a heart to heart with her. He apologizes to her for his dismissive attitude earlier and says that the only thing that matters is being there for the people that he loves. When Jane says that she’s unsure if she herself even deserves to be loved, Cliff takes off the oven mitt and holds her hand, saying that if somebody loves her, there isn’t anything she can do to stop them. Touched, Jane happily agrees to Cliff’s offer on going to fight the Immortus cult members.

Standout Character

I have to give the MVP award this week to both Cliff and Jane. This part in which they hold hands is easily my favorite scene of the season so far and already in my top ten moments in the entire show. It’s a beautiful moment for both characters. Jane is far more receptive to Cliff than she was at the start of the series and with him now being able to feel and initially saving his first interaction with his grandson, seeing Cliff hold Jane’s hand was just a heart melting sight. The dynamic between Jane and Cliff has always been my favorite and this episode just solidifies that.

Verdict

While it’s an absolute shame that the show is going on break for now, this was a fantastic episode to leave on. It has beautiful character interactions between people like Jane, Cliff, Rouge and Rita, with the characters making far more progress than ever with each other. The cliffhanger also sets up the second half of the season phenomenally, with both the butts and Immortus becoming even more of a threat than ever. It’s gonna be a long wait for the next episode.

Rating 10/10