What I’m Watching: Doom Patrol

Doom Patrol: Season 1, Episode 5 “Paw Patrol” (B+)

There just isn’t another show like this one right now, and it continues to astound me. The world was about to end when the last episode ended, and what better way to combat a freakish eye in the sky than by rewriting history? It’s not common to have a villain who acknowledges their frustration with having not been featured in the past two episodes and moaning about not wanting to deal with flashbacks, but Mr. Nobody wasn’t the villain for most of this hour, mainly because this isn’t how he wanted to see his enemies eviscerated. Interrupting the flashbacks and turning Jane into Dr. Harrison was an incredible introduction to the revised timeline in which she created a cult of her own to bring back the Recreator to defeat the Decreator. It’s a crazy concept I can’t even fully process, one which is further complicated since it led right into Jane meeting the Chief, an event we know must have happened differently in the original timeline. The Chief’s return didn’t feel real, and Mr. Nobody making it so that he would vomit anytime someone mentioned his name was a clever way of keeping distance between. Putting Victor in a terrible position and ripping the Chief out of the room was a harsh return to reality at the end of the episode, and the brief glimpse of the Chief is going to keep them all on edge. Apart from everyone, Rita nearly achieved a breakthrough with Elliot, but her failure to do so triggered her involuntary powers, which is always going to be her main weakness when she feels like she has it all together.