“Season 1 Episode 4. “As the team recovers from the fight at Fuchtopia, Willoughby Kipling, an old friend of Niles’, unexpectedly conscripts the Doom Patrol into helping him avert the end of the world by stopping a cult, but the team fails and the apocalypse begins.”
The Good & The Bad
The Good
1. Doom Patrol continues its crazy, fun, and weird vibe with episode 4. This cult episode is about a boy named Elliot, who is a book essentially. His ”parents” have lied and told him he will be a hero, then the mother slices the fathers throat and we go from there. Shortly after we are introduced to a weird fellow. Willoughby Kipling, sort of reminded me of John Constantine, who wants to help with the current situation. His demeanour and overall character felt like Constantine, I liked that. His attitude to the situation was hilarious. Especially when Victor is doing a weapons check, and he counts his alcohol was a nice touch.
2. Jane and Cliff both continue to impress me as every episode passes. With Jane she’s so unpredictable, more so when she’s in the Hammerhead persona. Her and Robot Man head to “Nurnheim, Nernheim” (please tell me in the comments if I have misspelt that) and everything goes wrong. The little moment when Hammerhead tells him of the carnage he pursued in the previous episode showed the realisation of everything. They then get taken to the parents, who, as Cliff calls them, “Giant Clowns”. Robot Man just tails down a barrage of insults that had me crying of laughter as the show continues to do. We later realise they are trapped in a snow globe, where the city lays. I enjoyed this entire ark with all the characters involved.
3. Larry’s energy got more background. More so on the TV the energy keeps turning on for Larry. We later see the energy talking to the chief, stating it’s torture living inside of Larry. The never ending question of what this is all about is edgy. I like it. Is the energy trying to be a hero or not? Does it want Larry to embrace it? So many questions about this is interesting to say the least. I’m excited to see where this leads, especially after last episode when we see more of a connection between the two.
4. The R Rated sides of things deserves to go on this list. The insults, the creativity, the same style of show we got from TITANS continues to amaze me. We see every insult from every corner of the earth being used, Kipling flew into this with everything, I love it.
5. I liked seeing Rita be more involved. She talked Elliot down from the roof, after he agreed it was better if he committed suicide. We see her actually gain slight control over her powers when she stops Kipling from killing Elliot, shortly after he allows Cyborg to be captured from the masked hunters. Everything seems to be coming together for her, and I’m intrigued to see her gain more control over her powers, and use it to fight.
6. As you guessed by the title, it’s a cult like episode. Elliot is a book, his parents want him to be read so the world can end. Cyborg steps up to help the team actually come together to stop it from happening by helping Elliot. Robot Man and Jane are stuck in a snowglobe, and the episode left on a major cliffhanger. What do you think will happen next?
The Bad
1. As much as I love Doom Patrol, I still feel like we have no real direction of where we are heading. I get that we’re understanding the background of the characters, however we know the main villain yet we haven’t seen him all that much. Kipling shows up, he’s an interesting character as I stated above, and it’s like we are just thrown in to another story without any real movement on the main story. I mean, we barely even get a mention of the Chief who is still missing, we get the odd one and that’s it. The team doesn’t seem so enthusiastic to go and find him. This is my major bad of the season as a whole. I do however like this is going to be an ark for a bit but it was all of a sudden for me. Doom Patrol is still so much fun, and every episode delivers on it, even if they do feel like filler episodes.
The Verdict
Another strong episode from Doom Patrol. Seeing each member slowly gain control over their powers begs me for more. I never read the comic series so this is an entirely new experience for me, and a good one at that. I’m happy to see we have an ark that will continue over to the next episode. I’m eager to see Cyborg get his eventual upgrades.
Holy Shit Moment
This Holy Shit Moment comes when we finally see Cyborg fight. I’ve been eager to see this since he was cast. When he pulls his canon out, I got so excited. Then he used a self inserted grenade to wield off his attackers. I loved this. Jovian Wade for me so far has been an incredible asset to Cyborg.
Let’s give a gentle nod to the singing blue horse. That will be all.
Rating: 9/10
