Doom Patrol “Fame Patrol” Review

Season 4 Episode 8 – As Dorothy and Casey team up for a new mission, the Doom Patrol’s pursuit of Immortus leads them to a superhero parade.

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. The team wakes up back in their dimension, with all the Immortus cultists dead following Isabel’s powerful scream which destroys Orqwith.

2. The team follows Isabel as they walk down road. They are unsure whether or not she really is Immortus. To get her attention, Cliff repeatedly calls out to her name in different ways only for her to ignore him. Angry with him for willingly giving up his longevity and dooming them all, Jane rebuffs Cliff and tells him that this is all his fault. Cliff attempts to shift blame to Larry by saying it’s a little bit of his fault too, only for Larry to brush past him in an annoyed fashion.

3. Dorothy attempts to console Casey, who is not shaken by her father’s death, but upset that Wally is dead too, as he could have explained how she manifested into the real world. Dorothy says while she may not know while Casey is here, she’s glad that she is there nonetheless and promises to figure everything out with her.

4. Deric calls an Uber to get back to his wife and kids and he and Vic part on much better terms than before. Before he leaves, Deric says to Vic that he can still be Cyborg, just not the old one.

5. When Rita gets Isabel’s attention by calling her by her actual name, a driver pulls up and exclaims that the Doom Patrol found Isabel Feathers.

6. Isabel is interviewed on a talk show called “World of Wut” where she explains that she was stuck outside of space and time. Her voice quickly becomes much more demonic as she states more ominous and creepy things. Realizing what she just did, she rewinds the reality of this moment and starts over again, with nobody remembering it except Laura for some reason.

7. After starting over, Isabel quickly reveals herself to be an arrogant and fame hungry woman which only elevates the danger of the situation with her Immortus powers.

8. Cliff remembers that he left the fridge with the zombie butt open and is horrified to discover that it escaped. He attempts to cover himself up by saying it wasn’t just his fault for losing his longevity only for everyone to shut him down and say that it really is his fault.

9. Rama appears in Larry’s room and is reveals to have been disassembled. Keeg uses his radiation to reform him and is able to get him back to his form.

10. While looking for the zombie butt, Dorothy offers Cliff the wheelchair that Niles used. An outraged Cliff refuses and accuses Dorothy of trying to make him the new Niles, as everyone hates him for screwing everything up. To Dorothy’s shock, Cliff reveals that he spoke with Niles’ ghost. Realizing that he shouldn’t have revealed this to her, Cliff tells her to stop pitying him and leave him be.

11. Rita and Vic go to the studio where Isabel is being interviewed. They find her signing autographs for a group of people. The crowd quickly goes to them and an angered Isabel rewrites the moment to where she is the one introducing the Doom Patrol so she can still be in the spotlight.

12. Jane soon finds out that she lost her access to the Underground. When walking through the train tracks, she sees Casey suddenly appear and soon finds her in her room organizing the puzzles. Casey says she wants to help Jane to which the latter angrily insults her in pushes her away. Before leaving, Casey informs Jane that the puzzles are organized by color.

13. Rita goes on World of Wut with Isabel and the two repeatedly try to steal each other’s thunder. When Rita starts to get more attention, Isabel uses her Immortus powers to threaten Laura and Vic, saying that if Rita doesn’t back off, she will kill her in a gruesome manner before rewriting the moment once more.

14. Dorothy finds Cliff struggling to go up the steps from the very first episode of the show. Cliff tries to turn her away, saying he doesn’t deserve love for all the mistakes he’s done, to which Dorothy refuses to give up on him and promises to help him with his problems.

15. Jane apologizes to Casey for her behavior and offers to go with her to the parade.

16. While Rama and Larry bond together and promise to help each other with their current problems, Rama urges Larry to go to the parade with his friends with the little time he has left. A romance is definitely blooming between these two and I am all for it.

17. Laura attempts to confront Isabel and interrogate her on how she became Immortus. Isabel soon gets angry and reveals that she can rewrite history so that she dies today before leaving to get the key to the city.

18. While on the parade float celebrating them, the Doom Patrol each reveal some very unnerving things that could end up being catastrophic. Larry and Rama are both destabilizing and will blow up the world if they aren’t fixed, Jane can’t access the Underground anymore and Cliff reveals that he never killed the zombie butt and accidentally let it escape, to the shock of everyone who berate him for his stupidity once more. Jane in particular gives him a very angry shove.

19. Isabel finds out that she will not get the key to the city, but rather give it to the Doom Patrol, who will earn their own holiday called Doom Patrol day. Furious that she is once again pushed out of the spotlight, she does another sonic scream as the episode cuts to black.

What I Disliked

Nothing to report this week.

Favorite Moment

My favorite moment has to be the parade itself. It’s not only wonderfully bizarre but it’s nice to see the team finally get recognition for being heroes. I especially loved the moment when Cliff says he had no idea they had actual fans, to which Larry says it turns out “a very small, very select group of people” care about them. That was such a meta reference to the fans of the show itself and I absolutely loved it.

Standout Character

I have to give the MVP award to Immortus. I was initially disappointed that Isabel was revealed to be the true big bad of the season and final villain of the show and while I definitely would have preferred something a little less silly, she definitely establishes herself as a credible threat that the team should tread lightly over.

Verdict

A once again fantastic episode that sets up Immortus as a force to be reckoned with. After several episodes that show the dread of the Doom Patrol losing their longevity, this is the episode that really showcases the dangers of that happening, as they have to deal with not just one problem that can cause the end of the world, but multiple. It’s going to be a crazy four episodes.

Rating 10/10