Warner Bros. Television
As season finales go, I can’t say this was my favorite but in all fairness it wasn’t supposed to be the season finale. Doom Patrol was yet another show that took a hit because of the production shutdowns caused by the pandemic. They were a few scenes away from completing filming on Episode 10 but were not able to finish, so this week’s ninth second season episode, ‘Wax Patrol’, serves as the finale. And yet, it still manages to leave us with a pretty intense cliffhanger.
In the show’s two seasons, we almost got the full group working together as a team, not that Cliff was really into saving the world at the same moment he was about to head to Florida for his daughter’s wedding. But there’s a possibility there will be no wedding if the world comes to an end, so Cliff is forced to bite the bullet with the hope that they can do their hero thing and he can get there in time. So with Miranda allowing Flit to come to the surface, the team is teleported to the carnival where Niles and Dorothy are in desperate need of help. But neither of them are anywhere to be found.
Who they do find is a carnival covered in wax and Willoughby Kipling, who basically tells them they’re too late to do anything because whatever is going on with Dorothy will unleash their own imaginary friends … and Kipling is promptly assaulted by his own: a Punch & Judy puppet (hey, he was a kid in the 15th Century) that drags him into the darkness. So in order to find Chief and Dorothy, the team decides to do the one thing you never do in a situation like this — split up. Larry is the only one who doesn’t seem worried because he didn’t have any childhood imaginary friends.
And then he’s the first one encased in wax after coming upon the also waxy Kipling. Rita encounters her friend Mademoiselle Roxy who seems to have been some kind of paper cutout with her mother’s eyes from a photo she had cut them from. Rita says it’s been 90 years since they’ve seen each other. Roxy was a sort of wish board for Rita, something to aspire to and now Rita is quite satisfied to tell Roxy that she’s got special powers. But Roxy is more interested in rehashing the past, particularly Rita’s acting career and how she got her first job while insisting the two tap dance together.
Vic finds his friend Doctor Cowboy, who looks exactly like his father Silas. Doctor Cowboy wants to play the same games he played with Vic as a boy but he also knows Vic has ‘girl problems’ but when Vic asks him for advice, Doctor Cowboy reminds Vic he’s not there to offer advice, just to affirm whatever Vic thinks is the solution to any problem. Cliff has his own hands full with a very belligerent Jesus, angry that Cliff ‘forsook’ him by quitting Bible camp when he was six years old. Cliff told him the only reason he was there was because it was a place to get away from his always bickering parents, but when his dad came back home that’s where Cliff wanted to be. Certainly Jesus should understand that. Before Cliff was able to state his case though, Jesus gave him an ass-kicking, tearing off Cliff’s right arm in the process.
Meanwhile, Miranda gets pulled back to the Underground by the others, angry that she went to the carnival with the others. Miranda claims she’s there to make amends, to do what’s best for the girl, but why would she want to make amends with the thing that killed some of their own? And they also want to know where Jane is because she seems to have gone missing like Scarlet Harlot and Lucy Fugue. Miranda insists she knows what Kay wants and storms out.
We did get more interesting backstory for Miranda. We already know that she and the others were created by Kay to help her deal with the physical and sexual abuse of her father. So seeing Miranda meet a nice guy, fall in love and move in together, telling herself and the others that it’s a good thing for all of them, was actually sweet. But, again, Miranda let her guard down too much and the guy turned out to be a total jerk, turning their housewarming party into a partner swapping evening of free love. Not someone a woman with insecurity issues around men needs. And this betrayal by a man and Miranda’s utter failure to protect Kay in this situation is what led to Jane becoming the primary. Jane, meanwhile, is still in the well, encountering the bodies of the others Miranda tossed in there previously. But as she tries to get to the surface, she sees something glowing at the bottom of the well so she swims down to retrieve it — a necklace. And as she struggles to pull it from the muck, she finds something terrifying — the withered corpse of Miranda. Back in the Underground, Kay is at Jane’s station as Miranda approaches her. Kay says Jane isn’t there and then she questions Miranda’s identity. When ‘Miranda’ shakes her head and calls Kay ‘Sweet baby’, it’s clear that this is somehow Kay’s father.
Warner Bros. Television
Back at the carnival, Rita, Miranda and Vic have been encased in wax, and Jesus blew Cliff into pieces before covering him in wax. Niles is still trying to locate Dorothy, who’s been hiding, trying to concentrate hard enough to keep the Candlemaker at bay. But he’s already there so there’s not much she can do. But she does hear her father calling for her and then her mother shows up, presenting Dorothy with a pair of red boots, telling her it is time. Niles tries to argue that Dorothy is still a little girl and she can’t beat the Candlemaker. The others couldn’t, so how can she? But Dorothy makes the decision to accept the boots and when she puts them on, the Candlemaker appears. Slava offers her a weapon, but Dorothy creates her own. She approaches the Candlemaker who tells her to prepare to meet her fate, and as Niles watches in utter devastation, the Candlemaker snatches Dorothy and drag her into the fire.
And that’s where we end the season. Overall, it was a very strong season with great performances and a compelling and coherent story arc with Dorothy, played wonderfully by Abigail Shapiro, being the main focus. And now we wait. Will there be a third season? Has the show performed well enough on the HBO Max platform? Those are questions that will hopefully be answered soon. There is a lot of internet speculation disguised as factual information that the show has been renewed for two more seasons and will shoot back-to-back, but we’ve seen no official confirmation about that. Our best guess is that any renewal news will come on August 22 when DC unveils its virtual convention, Fandome, because as if this writing HBO Max has only renewed two of its original series so far, Love Life and Legendary. So it will be a waiting game, but we hope to have some good news in a couple of weeks. Be sure to follow Hotchka’s social media pages on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for up-to-date information!
Doom Patrol‘s complete first two seasons are available on DC Universe and HBO Max.
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