HBO Max
It’s been almost 14 months since we last saw the Doom Patrol, left encased in wax as The Candlemaker came for Dorothy. It wasn’t a bad season finale, but it wasn’t the season finale as the series was forced to shut down due to the pandemic with just a couple of scenes left to film for the tenth episode. There was some question as to when or if that final episode would air, and now as HBO Max launches the third season of the show, we know exactly where the Season 2 finale landed — as the Season 3 premiere.
And, oddly enough, it really doesn’t feel like a season premiere episode because by the end it really does end on several cliffhangers that set up the second episode of the season which is the true Season 3 premiere. So let’s just breeze over the ‘first’ episode of the season to bring us up to speed.
Possibilities Patrol
Dorothy leaves with The Candlemaker, and once they’re gone the wax covering the rest of the gang melts away. But … Niles Caulder is dead. Which causes a lot of conflicting feelings among the group. He saved their lives, but he turned them into ‘monsters’, a fate none of them asked for so the feelings of grief they feel initially give way to massive amounts of anger. The only one not affected at the moment is Jane because she’s still in the Underground dealing with Kay and Miranda — who, it turns out, isn’t Miranda but a manifestation of Kay’s abusive father. Jane does manage to defeat him, but does this mean Kay no longer needs Jane?
On the surface, Cliff is dealing with the hand tremor he’s been having and now there’s no one to fix it with Niles being dead and all. But on the positive side, he’s now a grandfather so he’s going to pack up and head to Florida to make up for all the time he lost with his daughter. If only that pesky Niles Caulder ghost would leave him alone. Larry is grappling with his Negative Energy being and all the drama he had with his family, deciding that it’s time for him to leave Doom Manor as well. Jane returns and is just as angry about Niles being dead, but deep down she’s even more angry she didn’t get to say goodbye, but she and Rita bond over their mutual hate of Niles. For her part, Rita tried to return to the play ‘Our Town’, but was so offended by how the ‘Blob Lady’ was being portrayed that she finally revealed that she was the Blob Lady. It didn’t go over well. Victor is just focused on Victor, still trying to convince everyone they’re a superhero team but also finding himself in hot water after helping Roni evade the authorities. He believes he’s just helping someone get a second chance in life, but his father, STAR Labs and the authorities think differently. Silas tells his son to just lay low while he tries to fix everything.
And in a surprising turn of events, Dorothy returns after having had a word or two with The Candlemaker after dragging him to her original home. She tells him it’s time for them to stop fighting and … it works. But now she also has to deal with the death of her father. She knows she can’t leave his body there or it will decompose, so with the help of Danny (in the form of an ambulance) they are transported back to their Arctic home where Dorothy buries his body. What she doesn’t know is that later Willoughby Kipling digs up the body and cuts off the head, implying that it will come in handy at some point. Back at the manor, the ghost of Niles is about to join a couple of sex ghosts as a third, but the act of Kipling removing his head caused his spirit to be sucked into … well, we don’t know. Rita keeps hearing some kind of alarm going off, and finally tracks it down to a panel in the bookcase. She finds a key and a message from Niles telling her that basically he’s put her in charge, but she’s too angry to even consider that and ignores the alarm. But perhaps she should have paid attention as somewhere far from the manor, a machine of some sort drills up through the road and an unknown woman emerges.
Vacay Patrol
HBO Max
The true Season 3 premiere begins in 1949 at the headquarters of the Brotherhood of Evil where The Brain and Monsieur Mallah are the only remaining members since Niles Caulder killed the rest of them, and Eric Morden (aka Mr. Nobody from Season 1). Now they need to stop something from happening and they have a target — Rita Farr. And there is one person who they can count on to take out the target: Garguax. Along with his ‘servant’ Samuelson, they are sent to a resort to await Rita’s arrival. The music for these scenes, and Garguax’s ominous intro music played on a record player slung around Samuelson’s neck whenever they enter a room, is amazing and hilarious at the same time, showing that the series has lost none of its quirkiness. Garguax even makes friends with the vacationers at the resrot who don’t even seem to be all that concerned by his green skin (or the bright red skin of Samuelson).
But time passes and Rita never arrives. By 1957, the ever vigilant Garguax gets news that the Brotherhood was defeated by the OG Doom Patrol. Nevertheless, he persists. 1964 … 1971 … 1991 … ever vigilant.
In the present, Rita is still bothered by that pesky alarm, so disturbed that she blobs out into a planter. Larry is floating in space, with the Negative Spirit taking Larry to its home. Cliff is in Florida spoiling his grandson, but his daughter notices his hand twitching. He brushes it off and goes outside but locks up when the sprinklers come on, and Clara’s wife is not happy. Victor is still looking for Roni when all of the lights on his body armor turn blue. He’s been shut down for letting a criminal go free. So with everyone in a funk, Rita suggests it’s time to go on vacation and before Victor can get his laptop, The Secretary (another of Kay’s people who look like Jane on the surface) arranges a stay at the Codsville Mountain Resort. Which just happens to be the same place Garguax is waiting. In the Underground, Kay tells Jane they should go on vacation too, so she returns and they are all off to fates unknown. And on the way they stop to pick up Cliff (courtesy of Flit, who gets them from Ohio to Florida and back to wherever the resort is).
Sadly, the resort is way past its heyday. There are no real attractions, and no cell service. They seem to be the only people there as well, but there must still be a small staff preparing food for Garguax and Samuelson. It’s not until Cliff decides to hit the sauna that he meets Garguax, and after chatting they both learn they have a mutual enemy — Niles Caulder. Cliff has also gotten some terrible news that his tremors may be the onset of Parkinsons, which his grandmother had. He may be a robot body, but he still has a human brain.
At dinner, they all encounter Garguax and he sees his target. But … it’s been so long, and she seems like a good person that he’s just not interested in killing her anymore. For what? The Brotherhood is gone. Samuelson says he’s failing the mission, but Garguax says the mission failed them because they never got the signal they had been expecting. Samuelson is not happy that they are now just packing up and leaving after 80 years. In the dining hall, Rita begins to dance in her seat and gets up and takes to the very small dancefloor. Victor, Jane and Cliff join and it’s a moment of pure exuberance for them, finally letting go of all the grief and anger they’ve been holding in for so long. But as Garguax and Samuelson are leaving, the finally get the signal. Garguax wants to ignore it, but Samuelson is hot to get their giant ray gun warmed up to take out the target. Garguax gets back to the dining hall and says ‘Run’ before Samuelson shoots him in the back. He starts blasting away, killing Vic, Cliff, and Jane. Rita makes it to an exit, but outside that same drilling vehicle comes out of the ground. At the exit door, Rita encounters … herself, who says ‘sorry’ and pushes her back in the room where Samuelson kills her too. On the Negative Spirit’s world, Larry finds himself whole again, for a moment, and then encounters his irradiated self. They touch hands and Larry is back to normal and the other one is the Negative Spirit. But Larry knows now that he’s going home without his companion.
Dead Patrol
HBO Max
Larry is back at the manor, feeling a bit empty now and not knowing what to do with himself. A knock at the door comes, and there are four boxes on the porch. Opening them, he finds the remains of his friends. A bit freaked out, Larry isn’t sure what to do so he props them all up at the dining room table and ‘mummifies’ them with his bandages. And then he gets another guest — Dorothy! She’s a bit disturbed by what Larry has done, but has an idea about contacting a medium after Larry is spooked by seeing and hearing Rita call out to him from the pancake batter he’s mixing.
Rita, Vic, Cliff and Jane wake up in a netherworld, on a boat being ferried across a river. They realize they’re dead. But something happens and three of them pass out, and when Rita sees what’s waiting on the other side of the river, she pretends to faint as well. When it’s safe to open her eyes, Rita finds them bound by the hands, hanging in a room with other dead bodies. Back at the manor, Dorothy contacts Danny and they bring back … The Dead Boy Detectives, which are two ghosts — Charles and Edwin — and a medium, Crystal, who isn’t dead. Using personal objects of their dead friends, Crystal hopes to communicate with them, especially Rita since she’s the one Larry saw in the pancake batter.
It works, and Rita is thrilled to hear from Larry, revealing their location which Edwin says is the ‘tunnel of souls’, meaning they’re not completely dead just yet, still being processed for their journey. And the only way to save them now is to cross over, something Edwin and Charles are hesitant to do because Death with a capital D is looking for Edwin. Crystal convinces the boys to do it for Dorothy, who has lost both of her parents and needs Rita and the others back with the living.
Since Rita is the only one of the four conscious, she is rescued by a man with a melty face who asks if she remembers him. She does … not, but he tells her she has to hide and avoid the weird angler fish creatures at all costs, and escape when she can. Of course she can’t leave her friends behind, but they’re all having their own moments in a sort of dream state, on their path to the afterlife. Vic runs into his mother, they discuss the ‘choice’ Silas made in creating Cyborg and Vic’s choice to help Roni, but as Vic is getting comfortable with his mother she tells him his path lies ahead. She’s in her place but he has to move on.
Jane, and Kay, arrive at an old farmhouse which turns out to be Nay’s Abuelita’s home. They are greeted by the old woman who is happy to see Kay and also invites Jane into the house. While Kay is doing her thing, the two women talk about how the older woman tried to protect Kay from her father, and how Jane did a good job of doing the same. But again, this is not their place to stay and they have to move on, but before they do Jane sees a cabinet of dolls. Abuelita made Kay all of the rag dolls that became Kay’s parts, and then she shows Jane the Jane doll, telling her that she knew she would be the strongest because … that’s Abuelita’s name. But not it is time for them to go.
Cliff wanders and an older man in a pickup stops to offer a ride and that turns out to be his father … who doesn’t seem surprised to see the predicament Cliff has gotten himself into. He gets out of the truck and shows Cliff something unusual — three Pegasuses (Pegusi?) flying across the sky. And then he shoots one, much to Cliff’s horror. Even more disturbing, when Cliff mentions Clara and the baby, his father reveals that after Cliff decapitated himself and his wife, it gave his father the chance to bond and have a relationship with Clara they never had. If Cliff still had a heart, that news would have torn it right out. But … he must follow his path as well.
Charles and Edwin will need a guide to find Rita, and Dorothy assumed Larry’s Negative Spirit would be the logical choice, but he’s not there so they have to knock Larry’s soul out of him to astral project into the Netherworld. While they search for Rita, Crystal and Dorothy concentrate on all of the objects they’ve set out, hoping to communicate with the nearly dead. Crystal also finds a chocolate bar that Dorothy has been keeping to remind her of her father, and she encourages the girl to keep searching for him regardless of how the others think of him. On their paths, Jane, Vic and Cliff spot the items that Crystal has set out for them and as they touch the item, it glows, giving Crystal and Dorothy hope that the boys will be able to bring them back. This also brings them back to consciousness in the tunnel, and Cliff manages to punch a hole in the ceiling in the hopes of getting them out, but he finds himself surrounded by the fish creatures.
But it’s not a dire situation as the three manage to kill the creatures and find Larry and the ghost boys. Except killing the creatures alerted more creatures and, even worse, a being who works for Death shows up to collect Edwin. She looks like a woman, but she has the strength of Hammerhead and a crazy jaw that unhinges like the Predator. But the melty-faced man intervenes, giving them all a chance to make a run back to the river. They do make it to the boat and begin crossing, but the woman unhinges that jaw and spews something in their direction. But they don’t melt, or burn or anything else — it was just vomit. And then they all wake up in Doom Manor, a bit confused as to why they’re all covered in bandages.
With Larry and the Dead Boy Detectives saving the day and reuniting ‘the team’, Dorothy decides that Doom Manor is not her place and she’s going to go with the detectives who are closer to her own age, hoping to find a way to communicate with her father. They all bid her a fond farewell as they teens, dead and alive, board Danny for parts unknown. With everything back to ‘normal’ at the manor, the five are surprised to see a woman walking down the stairs and into the kitchen as if she lives there. Asking who she is, she answers with the question ‘who am I?’ We know it’s the woman from the end of the first episode who will be revealed as Madame Rouge, but for now she’s still a mystery.
And with that, the three episode Season Premiere comes to an end. Doom Patrol is still firing on all cylinders with its quirky humor and heartfelt drama. HBO Max now has two series with flawed superheroes but it’s not hard to see which of the two shows is the superior one. Doom Patrol is much better written, acted, and produced, each episode looking like a movie. It’s a show that can make you laugh and cry at the same time, a show in which you actually connect with this strange collection of characters. Where Titans is cold with almost no one to root for, Doom Patrol is warm and inviting, allowing viewers to connect with each of the characters. I’m at the point where I watch Titans just out of duty, but with Doom Patrol I look forward to and savor every minute. Let’s see where the rest of this season takes us! And, by the way, it’s nice to see they’ve finally added Riley Shanahan and Matthew Zuk to the opening credits (beginning with Episode 2, which really shows that it’s the first Season 3 episode). These two have played the characters of Cliff and Larry on screen and unseen, perfectly coordinating their movements with the voice work of Brendan Fraser and Matt Bomer. Congrats guys!
New episodes of Doom Patrol drop Thursdays on HBO Max.
What did you think of the season premiere? Sound off in the comments below!
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