Warner Bros. Television
I really like the word ‘penultimate’ for some reason. It’s just a cool word and if you read any of the other posts on this site, you’ll see it come up frequently where next to last TV episodes are concerned. And this week is the next to last episode of the first season of Doom Patrol and they went ahead and put that right in the title, ‘Penultimate Patrol’. And now it seems like we finally have the various individuals inhabiting Doom Manor realizing they work better as a team. Of course, they’re still having to deal with Mr. Nobody’s mind games and determining what’s real and what’s not is a challenge.
We also got a little more background on Nobody this week as the episode starts in 1946 and Eric Morden is delivering the disappointing news to his girlfriend/wife that the Brotherhood of Evil has rejected all of his plans to take over the world, even a giant robot. In fact, the Brotherhood has ‘fired’ him because The Brain doesn’t feel Morden is intelligent enough to be among their ranks, and because of that his lady friend also dumps him. Ouch. Was all this the catalyst for Morden to become Mr. Nobody … especially considering his friend said he was just a nobody?
In the present, Rita has finally put her foot down and told everyone that they need to be a team if they want to find Chief. And now that his memory has been jogged following the death of his wife, Flex Mentallo is ready to help them find Niles. Hopping into their bus, the group (minus Vic) finds a street in the middle of nowhere: Danny is back! And Flex knows them too. This is the first time the rest of the group has met Danny and it’s all a little weird for them — especially because they had set out to find the Beard Hunter and there he is on Danny Street. He claims, however, that since he’s been with Danny he no longer has the urge to consume beard hair and he can’t help them with finding Niles.
But Danny finally admits they know where Chief is: the White Space. But Danny didn’t reveal this information the last time Larry was there because they were afraid of Mr. Nobody. Flex knows how to get to the White Space, which is that empty space between the frames on a comic book page, and all it takes is him flexing just the right muscle. Everyone agrees to venture into the White Space, but Flex flexes the wrong muscle and ends up giving everyone on Danny Street an orgasm. Cliff even fakes his, because he can’t feel anything, so he didn’t feel left out. (This was a bit of unnecessarily bizarre action that seemed to have no purpose, but perhaps it will.) But Flex tries again and Larry, Rita, Jane and Cliff all end up in the White Space.
And it’s there they have to confront some hard truths as Nobody separates them and plays with their minds, placing them in the exact moments before each of the accidents that made them what they are today. Larry was back with his wife and kids before his flight. Rita was in her tent before shooting the scene that ended with her plunging into the water. Cliff was in his mobile home right before reconciling with his wife. Jane was in a mental hospital with all the furniture piled up against the door so no one could get in to the rec room. But Nobody was also speaking to each of them, promising them that if they chose to stay in this moment, Niles Caulder would fade from their memories and they could go on with their lives as they were supposed to be. Larry could have been with John, Rita would have regained her stardom, Cliff would have his family and Jane wouldn’t experience more trauma that dredged up the darker parts of her personalities. Everyone could live blissfully and never know Chief existed.
Warner Bros. Television
But nothing about these scenarios felt right to any of them — well, Jane had some issues with one of her parts that wanted to stay in the safety of this world but Hammerhead ultimately won out — and they eventually told Nobody to go fuck himself and they ventured back out into the White Space. Still separated and being led by the nose by Nobody’s narration, Rita finally realized that it was time she narrated her own story and managed to talk her way into finding the rest of the group. And then they found Niles, who was pleased they had managed to come together but still felt they were on dangerous ground. Nobody appeared to them as he did in 1946 and the group pretty much laughed at his appearance, but he showed them what he was really made of and … poof he was gone, zapped into nothing by Vic who somehow found them. That’s it? That’s how this story ends?
A year later back at Doom Manor, the group is now obviously a team complete with red and white uniforms of sort preparing for their morning meeting. An alarm goes off and Vic says the meeting has to wait as a giant robot is on a rampage. The robot looks exactly like the one Morden had presented to the Brotherhood of Evil (in fact, the Brotherhood’s return was what was on Niles’ agenda for the day). With Niles directing them, he says they should attempt to talk to it first and as Cliff ‘speaks robot’ he thinks he’s the best one for the job. All that happens is the robot incinerates all of them while Niles watches helplessly from the bus.
And then the scene starts over, Niles suggests a different method but the team all ends up dead again. And it stars over and over and over, clearly now another of Nobody’s mind games. When they realize what’s happening and Niles manages to break the cycle, Nobody reminds them all that he controls everything, even the streaming service this TV runs on! Yes, we’re getting very meta again. But Nobody knows something the team does not that he hopes will ultimately defeat them, but it’s up to Niles to tell them exactly what that is. After some hemming and hawing and the group telling Niles he can be completely honest with them, he reveals …
Their accidents were not accidents. He was behind each and every one of them. Talk about taking the wind out of their sails. But perhaps we should have seen this big reveal coming after Vic’s talk with his father. Silas Stone admitted that Vic had every right to mistrust him and that a lot of his ‘memories’ are not real. Silas reveals that Vic’s mother did not die immediately. They were both taken to Star Labs but Silas was faced with the reality that only one of them could be saved, and he chose Vic because that’s what his wife would have wanted. But there was more to that decision — Vic was saved because he was the one who was young enough and strong enough to handle the cybernetics … and that was all Niles’ decision.
So now this group who spent 13 episodes, as Nobody reminds them, searching for this man they believed has helped them deal with their injuries and abilities now learns he’s the reason they are who they are now … is really going to complicate things moving forward into the season finale. But perhaps, again, we need to ponder the notion that this is yet another of Nobody’s mind games. He can’t be that evil, can he?
Doom Patrol streams new episodes each Friday on DC Universe with select titles, including the original series, now available in 4K HDR.
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