Warner Bros. Television
Doom Patrol turned out another fantastic episode this week by introducing television viewers to Danny. Of course, if you’re not up on your Doom Patrol comics, you’ll be asking yourself ‘who is Danny?’ And that certainly is not an easy question to answer, and it takes a little time for Vic and Larry to come to terms with the fact that Danny isn’t exactly a who. And while they are off finding out what Danny is, Cliff is being introduced to Karen, another of Jane’s parts.
We pick up this week with the fallout from the not-so-successful group therapy session that sent Jane out the door while Cliff suffered the effects of a rat running around his insides, and everyone is still more than a little freaked out by The Hangman’s Daughter’s painting of Vic standing over all of their dead bodies, a premonition of the future courtesy of Mr. Nobody. Meanwhile, while Larry seems to have forged some kind of truce with the spitit that resides in him, now he’s dealing with some PTSD from his time at The Ant Farm where the Department of Defense is attempting to find out exactly what that thing is inside of him.
And in another of the show’s flashback sequences, we’re introduced to Agent Wilson who discovers a street in the middle of nowhere, about a block long. Wilson is working for what appears to be some sort of military group bearing the same patch insignia we saw Larry pull out of his drawer with the sword and key. Wilson finds this street, Danny Street, is a bright, colorful, happy place, greeted by signs and banners addressing him directly. Wilson’s commander is obviously reading to launch a full out attack on the street but Wilson is able to hold them off long enough for him to explore a little more. But they lose communication and before the commander can act, Danny Street has vanished.
In the present, a cake arrives at the manor from ‘Danny Cakes’ on Danny Street with a note looking for Niles. Larry discovers a map in icing on the cake and he and Vic decide to see who is looking for Niles and if they can help find him. When they arrive on Danny Street, it’s not the same place it was before, now bleak and monochromatic, but the street communicates with them through signs and lights. They are guided to Peeping Tom’s Perpetual Cabaret where they meet Maura Lee Karupt, a drag performer who explains that Danny is a sentient, gender-queer street that travels the world to give a home to those who are different and ignored by society. But Danny is constantly on the run from the Bureau of Normalcy — the group that was experimenting on Larry — but Danny is in danger of dying as it is kept alive by the joy and happiness of its residents. Now being on the run with the fear of being destroyed, Danny needs Niles’ help to survive.
Warner Bros. Television
This whole segment of the episode about Danny and an inclusive society is pretty remarkable because it treats the characters as real human beings, not the ‘freaks’ they’ve been seen as in ‘normal’ society. Inside the Perpetual Cabaret, which needs to continue with its performances to keep Danny alive, we get to learn more about Danny and Maura Lee through a terrific performance by Alan Mingo, Jr. (who starred as Lola in Broadway’s Kinky Boots) who brings a heartbreaking sadness to the role, revealing she was Agent Wilson and coming to Danny made him realize who he truly was, that joy he felt becoming Maura Lee replaced by the sadness of Danny being chased around the world by the Bureau for no other reason than to destroy ‘the freaks’. There is a true moment of Joy when Larry, sitting in the Cabaret feeling sorry for himself while Vic goes back outside to see what he can do to save Danny, is told he has to sing if he wants to stay. Larry replies, ‘I don’t sing,’ but a mic is forced on him and next thing you know he’s on stage belting out a rendition of Kelly Clarkson’s ‘People Like Us’, joined by Maura and a bevy of showgirls. It’s an uplifting moment until the scene snaps back to reality and Larry is still sitting at the table.
But the fantasy — or was it reality? — pushes Larry to join the fight as the Bureau makes its way into town, unaware of who they are about to face. Maura Lee feels that the only way to save Danny is to return to the Bureau as Agent Wilson but Vic and Larry join the ‘Danny-zens’ to stand up to the Bureau, spurring Wilson to rejoin them as Maura and reveal her true self to Agent Jones, and promptly kicks his ass. Larry also warns Jones to tell the Bureau that Danny is off limits but Jones says he’ll just add Trainor’s name to the list of people they’re hunting. Larry says he’s already on that list and tells Jones to give the Bureau his regards with a punch to the face. Now that Danny has been saved, Vic asks for help in finding Niles but when Danny learns Mr. Nobody is involved, it’s a big sayonara and he and Larry are transported back to the manor.
Warner Bros. Television
Elsewhere Cliff is introduced to Karen, who lives in a perpetual romance novel of her own design. Karen invites Rita to a party at her house because they’re best friends — and according to Rita they most certainly are not — and it turns out it’s to be an engagement party as Karen, again, rekindles a romance with the same guy she’s dumped more than a hundred times already. Rita drags Cliff along, but Karen doesn’t want to give him the time of day, forcing him to stay on the porch while Doug and his unhappy parents and sister express their displeasure with this whole affair, especially when Karen proposes. Turns out Karen can hypnotize people and she’s hypnotized Doug over and over again, and this time she’s also done it to the family to get them on board with the wedding. She’s even zapped Rita with her glowing blue eyes, but when Rita brings Cliff in, he has a bit of a meltdown, demanding to know if this marriage is what Jane wants. Karen tried to hypnotize Cliff but the trick doesn’t work on a robot. Suddenly Hammerhead appears, tries to kill Doug but Karen is back and stops her before being dragged away by an unseen force, deep into the depths of Jane’s many parts, with Jane left in what looks to be a catatonic state in the end. Is she, as she feared when visiting the original Doom Patrol, now irrevocably broken?
Doom Patrol streams new episodes each Friday on DC Universe.
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