Doom Patrol season 4 episodes 1 and 2 recap & review

In season 4 of Doom Patrol, the team of heroes learns about a grave event that devastates the planet in the future and they work towards avoiding that fate. The episodes are now streaming on HBO Max.

Episode 1 recap: Doom Patrol

Cyborg is seen walking by himself in a post-apocalyptic landscape in the future when he suddenly finds himself in grave danger. In the present, Dr Harrison is in charge of Jane’s body and has been for a while now.

She uses her time with the team to analyze and diagnose her fellow teammates with various conditions that she believes they are suffering from due to their past traumas.

Rita has taken the position of team leader and Madam Rouge has joined the team as they travel through time in Shipley and fight bad guys with a perfect record.

Madam Rouge has joined the team as penance for her past betrayal and hopes to be truly forgiven by Rita. Cyborg is forced to take a backseat on missions because he doesn’t have his cybernetics anymore but he’s not too happy about it.

In her mind, Dr Harisson meets Jane and accuses her of hiding in Kay’s memories because she doesn’t want the pressure of being the primary. Jane claims that she’s there to find Kay and nothing else.

Vic and Silas build Cliff’s new hand and this time they give it the sense of touch in one finger. They tell him that eventually if all things go well, the sensation will spread to his entire hand.

He puts on an oven mitt and says that the first thing he wants to feel is the skin of his grandson. The team get onto Shipley and make their way to Florida but they see Isabel Feathers in the timestream and their ship is knocked off course.

They find themselves in the year 2042 and when they visit the house, they learn that Victor is the only one alive and the world was overrun by zombie killer butts in 2022.

They head back to the present with one goal in mind, ensure that they do things differently and not make the same mistakes their future selves made so that they can save the world.

Jane is back as the primary as Kay asks her to stay away and she wakes up with a pouch of puzzle pieces. Kipling and the others observe a photo referring to the urban legend of Immortus and they worry about its implications.

Episode 2 recap: Butt Patrol

In 2016, a man puts on a safety suit and enters a room in some kind of scientific facility where an unknown creature is being held. The man notices that there is a breach in the interior and he begins panicking and is eventually killed by the creature.

In the present, the team asks Rita if she’s open to a change in leadership and she has no choice but to go with the majority decision. The others then ask Rouge if she’s willing to lead because she used to be a ruthless villain.

Rita is appalled by this decision and refuses to go on the mission with them. Her original plan was to track down the zombified Darren Jones and take him out because he might be connected to the zombie butts.

Rouge agrees with that plan and tells everyone to ready themselves for an hour before they head out. She then pulls Cliff aside and tells him that they’re going on their own because he’s the only one required.

Victor looks for a way to help through his computers and he intercepts a transmission about a surviving killer butt that is due for collection. Larry is having trouble with Keeg who heard something distressing from their future self.

Rita is also badgering him about going against her in the vote for leadership. Victor gets ready to leave when Jane runs into him and he asks her to come along as he gets that surviving butt.

There are flashbacks to the facility, which is called the Ant Farm, across the years as the bureau brings in a linguist and anthropologist named Dr Margaret Yu to gain control of the extremely dangerous killer butts.

She manages to teach them music and learns so much more about the behaviours that develop an attachment to them but the bureau wants to weaponize these creatures and transfer Dr. Yu. Cut to 2019 when the Doom Patrol faces the butts in the facility and Dr. Yu finds one of the butts she named Nicholas hiding in a cabinet.

While they’re waiting for the target, Victor and Jane talk about what’s going on in their lives and what they plan to do once the world is saved. Victor says that he just wants to take some time for himself.

He talks to Jane about Kay and tells her that they all met Kay a while ago and had an interview recorded which could help. The contact shows up and they get their hands on the butt just before the real agents show up to collect.

Cliff and Rouge eventually reach Darren Jones’ barn but Jones was expecting someone to come eventually and asks Cliff to kill him. Cliff finds it difficult so Rouge takes off his scented helmet forcing Jones to attack.

Cliff fights back and crushes his skull and he realises that he removed the mitt from his hand. He has an even harder time accepting the fact that he killed someone and felt the sensation of their head.

Everyone in the house seems to be going through a lot of things but they do manage to kill Jones and get their hands on a killer butt. Dr Yu in the present day is shown to have another killer butt just living with her in harmony.

Review

• The fourth season of Doom Patrol starts off in trademark insanity and the performers are comfortable in the roles at this point that they are consistently entertaining.
• Brendan Fraiser voicing Cliff is an easy highlight and his loud and eccentric character is one of the best in the series. There’s a lot of depth in the character motivations this season and that is good writing.
• The episodes are paced well and make sure to cover all the bases without adding too much filler stuff.

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