Critic's Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
4.5
Everything about Doom Patrol Season 4 Episode 12 holds true to the style and messaging of the series.
For a run of forty-six episodes that time traveled, invaded the Afterlife, and rewrote reality multiple times, it is a surprisingly cohesive series that manages to maintain its focus on the team, its members, and the lessons they learn as they strive to be the heroes they never asked to be.
Cliff would call it f*ckin' corny, but it's genuinely hard to say goodbye to this ragtag misfit bunch of bad luck bags. And yet, letting them each find their peace feels incredibly right.
Of course, they have to get past Immortus/Isabel and the Butts, and, in typical Doomie fashion, the most absurd solution proves the key.
What does an egomaniacal spotlight hog like Isabel Feathers need? An ensemble chorus of choreography-obsessed theater-kid Butts, of course!
While it's unlikely anyone could've predicted the Shipoopy/Possibilities mash-up number, Immortus's need for stardom dovetailing with the Butts' penchant for song and dance is a remarkably natural pairing.
The genius of this incredibly improbable resolution is that every argument made around the Doom Manor brunch table in the aftermath is valid.
Cliff: Holy f*ckadoodledoo. I guess we can add ‘vanquished an interdimensional time god’ to our list of achievements. To us, the Doom Patrol! Motherf*ckin’ god-slayers, yeah!
🔗 permalink: Holy f*ckadoodledoo. I guess we can add ‘vanquished an interdimensional time god’ to our list…
Yes, the Doom Patrol saves the world. Again.
But also, yes, they are the reason/cause of both the Butts being out in the world and Isabel becoming Immortus.
Larry: As the resident wet blanket of truth, I feel like it’s my job to point out, wasn’t it actually the Butts who saved the day?
🔗 permalink: As the resident wet blanket of truth, I feel like it’s my job to point out, wasn’t it…
So, as Rita explains in her final team meeting address, they must break the cycle of cause and effect they've all been trapped in for so long.
And even as they diverge to their various paths, their past acts continue to reverberate through their lives.
It's fascinating to consider that — after the many evil opponents the team has tangled with over the years — neither Immortus nor the Butts are truly villainous.
Larry: So, what’s first? Immortus or Butts?
Rouge: No, no, no, no. No, no, NOOO! [turns into a bird and flies away]
Cliff: Hey! Fleeing isn’t one of the options! Goddammit.
Immortus: You’re back? How?
Vic: Might as well start with the screaming time god.
🔗 permalink: Might as well start with the screaming time god.
Immortus wants fame and adulation. The Butts wish to live in peace… and occasionally break out in song.
Yes, Isabel is willing to — and has already — obliterated many in pursuit of her dream, and Teddy the Butt has committed to total world Butt domination — a Pax Butticus, if you will — but these are reactions to a world unwilling to let them be happy.
Given everything she wants, Immortus is incredibly benevolent. In fact, she's everything Rama, Wally, and the other acolytes believed her to be when they endeavored to bring her back on Doom Patrol Season 4 Episode 7.
Funny how that worked out.
A powerful theme of coming full circle is woven throughout this curtain call.
It's elegant and subtle, and one would never have expected it in amongst all the f-bombs, blob gas jokes, and toenail snacking.
Larry: Fingernails?
Immortus/Isabel: [laughs] No, silly. Toenails.
Larry: Oh, great.
Immortus/Isabel: There’s one for each of you. Just eat one and you’ll be sad little bags of old no more.
🔗 permalink: There’s one for each of you. Just eat one and you’ll be sad little bags of old no more.
But that's also in keeping with this series. It's always been a heartfelt exploration of humanity wrapped in the crudest, foulest, most potty-humor clothing.
And where The Chief brought them together, calculated the traumatic circ*mstances to birth their superhuman identities, and left them with a burdensome legacy, he also pushed them into lives that far overshot anything they would've experienced as normies.
Keeping in mind that Rouge is a born metahuman (by DC terminology) and Vic's enhancements are the technological "privilege" of being Silas Stone's son, Niles's Doom Patrol 2.0 are the result of exposure, experiment, and total amoral sentiment.
Doom Patrol Season 4 Episode 11 provided several key pieces that close the loop on Jane's and Cliff's narratives.
Jane: All right, this is hard to explain, but it’s all of us up here now. The entire Underground, breathing, existing, all at once. I don’t feel like just Jane anymore.
Larry: Well, if you’re not just Jane, what should we call you?
Jane: There’s one word I keep hearing in the back of my mind. Our minds. Kaleidoscope. But I guess it’s kind of a mouthful.
Vic: What about ‘Kay’?
Jane: I like that.
🔗 permalink: What about ‘Kay’? I like that.
By traveling back so Niles can witness her healing, Jane reunites with Kay and the other Underground alt personas and seeds hope in Niles so that he never commits her to Joshua Clay's care.
Now, as Kaleidoscope, Kay for short, Jane no longer doubts herself because the responsibility of care is shared among all sixty-five identities. And "the girl" can be known by her own name again. Wow.
Larry's existence since merging with the Negative Energy Spirit has been all sorts of agony. He has struggled to rise above the self-loathing of his closeted gay identity, the losses of his true love, his perceived failures as a father, and the fact his unbandaged presence is assured death for those closest to him.
Connecting with Rama on Doom Patrol Season 4 Episode 6 is probably the happiest we've seen him since his memories of the last time he kissed John Bowers.
Larry: You’re the only person who saw me. Right from the beginning, you saw all the sh*tty, f*cked-up pieces of me, and you still loved me. Like I wasn’t even broken at all.
Rita’s Ghost: As someone who has loved and lost, I can tell you one thing for certain. There’s always more love out there. Always. Especially for you. I promise.
🔗 permalink: As someone who has loved and lost, I can tell you one thing for certain. There’s always more…
However, in the interim, his relationship with Rita has sustained him. Often overlooked due to petty bickering and bruised egos, he and Rita form the "Mom and Pop" core of the team.
Larry: Deep down, we all know it’s true. Every crisis we solved, we created in the first place. Rita’s right. Until we’re better as individuals, we’ll continue to cause harm. To the world. Each other.
🔗 permalink: Deep down, we all know it’s true. Every crisis we solved, we created in the first place….
When they back each other up, the team steers steady, which is why Rita felt his betrayal cut so deeply when he voted against her as team leader on Doom Patrol Season 4 Episode 2.
Rita fading away after the comedy of errors that is her funeral pyre is Larry's last tether to the human world.
Going supernova with Rama in his arms is the most spectacular romantic conclusion two radioactive co-parents of a negative energy being could wish for.
Rita’s Ghost: Dying has a way of clarifying things. I’ve realized now what my life’s purpose was. It was to lead you to the first step of the rest of your lives. Mission accomplished.
🔗 permalink: Dying has a way of clarifying things. I’ve realized now what my life’s purpose was. It was to…
Rita finding Malcolm waiting for her in the Afterlife (again) is precisely the Hollywood ending little Gertrude Cramp would've envisioned for herself, and I loved that for her, but after the incredible arc of aging April Bowlby masterfully crafted for Rita, her return to youthful form seems almost a step backward.
Rouge: What about the Doom Patrol?
Rita’s Ghost: I don’t think this was ever meant to be our final stop. We’re all on our own extraordinary journeys and we all have so far to go. If we stop here, we’ll just keep falling into the same cycle, making the same bad decisions and feeling the same pain. We’re screw-ups! But that doesn’t make us bad people. Just means we need to work on ourselves before we can really help others. We have spent so much time trying to save the Doom Patrol. We’re destroying ourselves. Moving on is one of the scariest things in the world, but we have squared up against the most treacherous villains in the known universe.
Vic: She talking about the testicl* monster?
Kay: Maybe the rollerskating dude.
Rita’s Ghost: We have all grown more than capable of facing our own demons.
🔗 permalink: We have all grown more than capable of facing our own demons.
As it is, Rita went out the leader she set out to be. She took care of the team when they needed taking care of, despite them usually not caring or appreciating it. And when the time came, she made the decision they didn't want to make.
There's a beautiful irony that the two team members left living on Earth set out to walk two completely opposing paths.
Vic has seen and interacted with his future self and knows his path is one of hope and growth.
As Cyborg 2.0, his mission is to foster bright new minds who will exceed his own accomplishments. As Cyborg 2.0, he'll never walk alone.
Rouge: Do you think someone can be both good and bad?
Vic: I used to think that there were no shades of gray. Only black and white. But being here has done a lot to change my perspective. I learned that the line between the two can be razor-thin. Hard to spot sometimes. Even harder to toe.
Rouge: How will I know where the line is?
Vic: I’ll let you know when you’ve gone too far.
🔗 permalink: I’ll let you know when you’ve gone too far.
In contrast, Rouge is unsure of her place in the world, not wanting to be a villain but suspecting she is one anyway.
Rouge: That’s the story of my life. I come. I do damage. And I run. That’s what I do.
🔗 permalink: That’s the story of my life. I come. I do damage. And I run. That’s what I do.
In many ways, she's more like Immortus or the Butts than the Brotherhood of Evil. Her instinct is to survive, and that leads her to make problematic choices.
As glorious as her return to the Ant Farm is, my lasting memory of Rouge will be the look of gentle joy on her face when Rita's Ghost sets out the team's last assignment.
Michelle Gomez came to the Doom Patrol like a scenery-chewing, spotlighted wrecking ball, and her Rouge has been the chaotic catalyst that revitalized the team in its final adventures.
Rita: You just left them?
Rouge: Yeah, just ran away. Just like the future said I would. Because I survive at all costs. That’s what I have always f*cking done!
Rita: No. I refuse to accept that. As long as we’re alive, we can change. You’re a shapeshifter, for crying out loud. You of all people should know that.
Rouge: I’m a selfish coward. That seems to be the one thing I can’t shapeshift away.
🔗 permalink: I’m a selfish coward. That seems to be the one thing I can’t shapeshift away.
It's easy to see how Rouge could recruit a new team of morally flexible, vigilante metahumans down the line. She has Rita's playbook on how to be a team leader and loads of experience.
In my perfect future, she manages to hook up again with some members of the Dadas, and they take up residence with Danny for bohemian shenanigans when not being a pain in the non-Butt-wielding backside of the Bureau.
Cliff: We may all be fractured, but doesn’t mean we can’t be whole.
🔗 permalink: We may all be fractured, but doesn’t mean we can’t be whole.
Finales are special. Season finales can be tricky, but nailing a series finale takes a whole other level of foresight and narrative finesse.
When Doom Patrol premiered in February 2019, Cliff Steele, aka Robotman, was the first member we met and the last member Niles added to the team.
Closing out the series with Cliff's final moments — living out his grandson's future in an Immortus crystal-facilitated fast-forward vision — effectively providing him with all the life experiences he missed out on because of Niles's interference is a brilliant and compelling bookend to the story we've been shocked, shaken, and scandalized, but always engaged by all these years.
Cliff Steele was an intensely flawed and persistently f*cked-over character. No matter his intentions, his choices were invariably bad, and the consequences that followed were always the worst.
Cliff: What about you? What are you going to do now?
Kay: I don’t know. Um, maybe get a sublet? Paint?
Cliff: That is so f*cking lame! I’m serious. You’re like unstoppable now. You could be a superhero or some sh*t. Take over the Justice League. Pants Superman.
Kay: I don’t think that’s what we want.
🔗 permalink: I don’t think that’s what we want.
A deep brain ache hatches at the thought that Niles only sought out Cliff in 1988 because Cliff broke his back in that bar in Paraguay in 1948. Because Niles had turned him into Robotman in 1995.
Because he'd known Cliff would be Robotman since 1948.
Ow.
Doom Patrol has always been a series that defies description.
From farting albino donkeys named Peanut Butter to non-binary psychic shapeshifting neighborhoods, from sex ghosts providing back-up to musical epiphanies to testicl* monsters and longevity-bestowing skin tag turds, it has opened our minds to the weirdest, wackiest, most wondrous possibilities.
And somewhere along the way, it's made us care about a cast of self-centered, traumatized screw-ups.
I guess that's the superpower at the soft, chewy core of it all.
Did the finale put it all to rest for you, Fanatics?
Who would you like to spend another hour with?
Danny? The Dadas? The Dead Boys? Dorothy? (There's a pattern here I wasn't even looking for.)
Can we all agree there probably will never be a show like this again?
Hit our comments with your biggest WTF moments from the series! Let's compare notes!
