Warner Bros. Television
DC Universe’s Doom Patrol continues to be appointment television every week. And after last week’s cliffhanger with the eye of the De-Creator opening above Cloverton, it was torture waiting a week to find out what happened next. Thankfully, the latest episode, ‘Paw Patrol’, paid off beautifully, and we got to learn a little more about Jane who appears to possibly be immortal … or at least ages very slowly.
Because the episode takes us back to 1977 and we see Jane (possibly Hammerhead) rocking out in a punk club and taking no prisoners when some of the patrons begin to hassle her. That gets her dragged back to the mental hospital where we see Jane has a pretty abusive relationship with the orderlies, who take great pleasure in giving her a taste of her own medicine. In the present with the Eye in the Sky literally blinking people and objects out of existence, an old woman with an oxygen tank lights up a cigarette, takes a look at the eye and walks away. She seems significant.
While the denizens of Doom Manor are trying to get Kipling to tell them how to stop the Apocalypse, it becomes clear he really has no answers. And on top of that, they’re each dealing with their own issues — Larry is still unraveling over what he saw on Caulder’s videotapes, Cliff wants desperately to just be a dad (to Jane) and not a brain in a metal shell, Vic wants to be a real superhero, and Rita has finally found some strength and resolve in her connection with Elliott … who then also gets blinked out of existence while Rita is talking to him. That’s got to shatter her newfound confidence a bit. Cliff and Jane have been returned to their proper forms by the Archons of Nurnheim, and one toss of a snowball reveals exactly where the two are, inside a snow globe.
And while the world is going to hell, the episode finally gives us a glimpse into the hell Mr. Nobody is putting Chief through. But the torture — spinning Caulder around their space like a centrifuge — comes to a halt when Nobody realizes the De-Creator has been activated, and the two nemeses band together to stop the end of the world. With a bit of time travel and the assistance of Jane, but the right Jane so pinpointing her in time must be exact as she must start a new cult, the Cult of the Unread Book, to counteract the Cult of the Unwritten Book.
There is a lot going on with all the various moving parts to this story but it all hinges on a part of Jane we haven’t been introduced to as of yet, Dr. Harrison, a personality with the powers of persuasion who is needed to start the new cult with a belief in the Re-Creator. The casting for Doom Patrol has been spot on after some changes made from the Titans introductory episode, and the addition of Diane Guerrero as Jane is nothing short of miraculous. Guerrero has already shown us a few of Jane’s very different personalities, and she’s had an episode where Jane flashes through several of the 64 within her. With this episode she gets to show us a new one in Dr. Harrison and it’s amazing how even the slightest physical transformation can make Guerrero seem like a completely different person, and her acting is superb. I’ve not really seen Guerrero in anything else (although she’s appeared in Orange is the New Black, Jane the Virgin and Superior Donuts) but over the last few episodes I have become a huge fan.
I liked how the episode also tied together the past and the present. That old lady with the oxygen tank? Of course she was significant because as a younger woman, she was also in the same mental hospital with Jane and was chosen by Dr. Harrison to come and find her when the time was right. And somehow the woman found Jane, and Cliff, in Nurnheim with a terrific bit of dialog: ‘Honey, I just traveled all the way from Jersey to Barcelona, cut open a priest, climbed inside him, and landed in a snow globe, and now I’m standing here talking to a friggin’ robot man.’ And with the help of a ciggie and an oxygen tank, she blows up that snow globe and sets Jane and Cliff free … although we don’t know if the lady made it out alive.
Warner Bros. Television
The whole thing is wrapped up a bit too quickly and conveniently when it becomes clear-ish, and perhaps they’re all making things up as they go along just to make them happen, that the Unread Book is not a human this time but a dog, and the writing is not visible to anyone who can’t mutter a few magical words over the dog. Luckily Kipling can do just that and the Re-Creator opens its eye and the two eyes have a staring contest while those who were blinked away return … except perhaps Elliott. These poor Clovertonites have been put through the ringer! With order restored, Jane (maybe) is back at the manor painting when she seems to be struck by a thought, saying ‘What the fuck is the Doom Patrol?’ It seems Nobody has planted something in her head.
Besides Guerrero’s performance, we also got to see Timothy Dalton in action again as Nobody released him from his prison, temporarily, to help save the world … because what good would all this torture be with nothing to come back to? Dalton again is terrific as he works with Kipling to enact the plan to save the world, but still turns on his fatherly charm with Vic, and breaks hearts when he is forced to return to Nobody’s prison, leaving his family behind once again. And his connection with Jane, as he saves her from having a lobotomy in 1977, just feels so authentic. Chief really cares for these people, and Dalton makes us believe it. But even with all the warmth he exudes, Dalton is not above having a little fun with the character, especially when it becomes clear that Nobody has planted something in his mind that makes him vomit any time someone says Nobody’s name. Poor Vic just can’t seem to understand this has he constantly says Mr. Nobody until the others finally stop him. Just another way this series is skillfully balancing the serious with the absurd, perfectly walking that very fine line.
Doom Patrol streams on DC Universe.
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