Doom Patrol Episode #7

Therapy Patrol

The seventh episode of Doom Patrol shifts the focus away from the search for the Chief and plants it squarely on the individual members of the group. It opens up with Cyborg making the rounds, waking everyone up and telling everyone that a group meeting will take place in fifteen minutes. After thirty plus minutes of watching flashbacks and internal struggles of each individual as they prep for the meeting, everyone finally makes it downstairs and Cliff (freshly recovered from a violent spell) suggests talking about each other’s problems.

The session is a mix of humor, heartbreak, and yelling and ultimately the team makes a few steps forward and just as many back. Mr. Nobody is in their heads and is using their own shortcomings and doubts against them. In one case, he literally has an operative at work inside someone’s head.

We get to learn a little bit more about each member of the team as they talk about their issues. Cliff is pretty much an open book. Larry remains somewhat distant (at least with the group, but he’s making progress on his own). Rita and Vic also make some headway with their own individual problems. We only see a brief flashback of Jane and then watch as she battles her other personalities. She is then dealt a harsh dose of reality by Cliff. It’s one of the most serious and sobering moments of the episode.

With all of the talk going on, you’d believe that this might be a boring episode. You’d be wrong, as the character development is strong and full of violent spats between individuals and the group as a whole. This is a solid episode that gives us a nice break from the depressing revelations uncovered last week.

At the end of the episode, Mr. Nobody’s plant is revealed and in true Mr. Nobody fashion, it’s an absurd revelation. Heck, there’s even a Princess Bride reference that’s adds just a touch more humor to the reveal.

Once again Doom Patrol has proven that it’s a unique superhero series. It doesn’t rely on standard comic book devices to build its story. The heroes are multi-dimensional and the villain is interesting. If you haven’t checked this series out yet, I highly recommend giving it a chance.

As always, thanks for reading. Look forward to more Doom Patrol coverage next week and I’ll be posting about the upcoming CyPhaCon convention in just over two weeks!