Warner Bros. Television
In the short history of Doom Patrol — and with this week’s episode the total count of episodes is just 19 — there have been some loopy episodes but I think this week’s episode, ‘Sex Patrol’, is the loopiest yet. And I loved it! Even Cliff has no idea what’s going on … but he was on Ecstasy, so he may have an excuse. But there are parts of this episode where you will probably find yourself asking ‘what’s going on?!’ But the insanity of the episode is in no way a bad thing because as a whole it works well offering both laughter and tears.
The whole episode is basically about the team trying to restore Danny, now a broken brick, back to their full street existence. The group alone is not having much luck but out of the blue all of the Dannyzens show up to assist in making their friend whole again. They try throwing a party — and Rita is none too thrilled to have to suddenly plan the event at the last minute — but it’s definitely not the blow out one would expect, more a subdued cocktail party. But Dorothy, who has to go to bed in two hours and is promised Danny will be restored before that time, gets Niles to play their favorite song to give Danny inspiration … and this was the first time in the episode I started weeping as Dorothy sings a lovely rendition of ‘Pure Imagination’ that opens the doors in the great hall of Doom Manor into Danny’s nightclub. It’s a start but Maura Lee Karupt knows they have to kick it up a notch so the club goes into full swing with Goldfrapp’s ‘Ooh La La’ playing.
While everyone is helping Danny heal, the rest of the group has their own issues to deal with. Cybog has returned from Detroit but can’t get Roni out of his head while grappling with his own sense of self. While having a chat with Maura Lee, the writers have given her a really profound piece of dialog that totally holds a mirror up to what we see happening in our society right at this moment, pretty prescient considering this was filmed last year. But Maura Lee tells Cyborg how people on the street yell at her and call her names and she finally confronts one of the bigots and tells him he hates her and her trans sisters because they’re just like him … human. Cue more waterworks from me. That’s deep and oh so true.
Dorothy has been shuffled off to bed even though she wants to remain at the party, telling her father she could always hear the parties but was never allowed to go to one when he hid her away with Danny. But now her ‘friend’ Candlemaker is whispering in her ear to get out of bed and go to the party. Candlemaker also tells her that if Danny is restored, Niles will make her a prisoner there again. She doesn’t believe it, but she does get up and returns to the party and asked Danny to be honest with her — were they her friend or her prison? Danny responds that they wish they could say they were just her friend. That drives Doroty to pick up and hammer and contemplate smashing what’s left of Danny but she doesn’t.
During the party, Larry finds himself being grinded into by a hot guy who says he’s probably ripped under all those bandages and Larry responds that if he takes them off, everyone in the room will melt. Probably not the best icebreaker when someone is coming on to you. Cliff, meanwhile, is still sulking about the disatrous visit with his daughter in Florida and Niles offers to help him loosen up for the evening with a little drug therapy … or Ecstasy. Cliff does not turn him down and has the best time of his life at the party, even when things get weird(er).
Jane is still being held prisoner in the Underground while The Hangman’s Daughter is holding down the fort up top but when she tells Cliff that they’re going to leave, his questions about where they’re going to go and how they’re going to eat freaks her out a bit so Hammerhead has to take over and she’s not down with this party going on, especially when things get really weird.
Rita was taken with how Flex Mentallo was able to flex his muscles in such a way as to move furniture and hoist Dorothy in the air to hang a mirror ball, so she decides to pull him aside and ask how he can have that much control. He says it’s simple, he just makes his mind go blank. She asks if he can help her do that so she takes him to her bedroom and explains that the only way in the past she’s been able to do that is when she was, bluntly, having an intense sexual experience. Flex says he can try to help but they have to keep it contained to that room or else it could be dire for everyone at the party. But she can’t do anything with Flex watching so she makes him face the wall and flex. It seems to work until Rita has a vision that jolts her out of her own ecstasy but she wants to try again. This time, she is taken back to her childhood when a producer was coming to her house to possibly give her a job. She wants to perform for the man but her mother tells her she should focus on her other talents, and then Rita catches her mother having sex with the producer, realizing that she only got the job because her mother put out. It was devastating but that may have been what’s been giving her a mental block all these years.
Warner Bros. Television
But while she was reliving that, Flex was creating a super-sexual event that alerted a sex demon known as The Shadowy Mr. Evans and the SeX Men, a ‘Ghostbusters’ type of group there to stop the sexual event from destroying the universe, hoping to stop it before The Shadowy Mr. Evans gets there. But Cliff already danced with the shadow, thinking it was an hallucination. If the demon gives birth and the baby cries, the world will face a global sextinction with one huge orgasm. By this point, the manor is being overrun by sex ghosts and a portal has opened in Rita’s room where Mr. Evans is about to give birth. The Hangman’s Daughter has already switched places with Scarlet Harlot who then had to find out from one of the Sex Men, Agent Cuddles, what was going on. That brought Hammerhead back in a fit of rage.
With the sexual energy so strong in Rita’s room and the baby now born, Larry told Cliff he was the only one who could stop it because he couldn’t orgasm. Cliff said he was too high and thanks for embarrassing him in front of the SeX Men. Plus there was no way he was going to kill a baby. Agent Kiss tried but barely got past the threshold before the orgasmic sensations took him down so Hammerhead stormed into the room and fought the orgasm hard enough to shove the baby back inside Mr. Evans, closing the portal and saving the world. A jubilant and stoned Cliff was so happy he gave her a big hug which prompted Hammerhead to turn this madness all back over to Jane.
When all was said and done, Danny had regenerated themselves but not into a street. Now Danny is a tire, perhaps as a way to keep Niles from imprisoning Dorothy again, but the Dennyzens were ready to follow Danny anywhere and they all laid their hands on Danny and disappeared. An exhausted Rita, nearly passed out on the staircase, tells Dorothy she should really be in bed but Dorothy asks her if she was being honest when, earlier, she told Dorothy she was beautiful. Rita, half asleep, repeated what her mother told her, to focus on her other talents. Ouch. Dorothy said she doesn’t want to grow up — even though at the ‘age’ of 11, she’s really 100 and three-quarters — and she asks the Candlemaker if she has to. The Candlemaker angrily tells her not to ask him, but to ask her little girl friends. So, what becomes of Dorothy now? We’ll have to stay tuned to find out!
Doom Patrol streams new episodes each Thursday on DC Universe and HBO Max.
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