What I’m Watching: Doom Patrol

Doom Patrol: Season 1, Episode 9 “Jane Patrol” (B)

I feel like this show has spent nearly half its time so far either within someone’s mind or in an imagined reality that’s been deliberately manipulated to mess with the person experiencing it. In Jane’s case, I actually find the external display of the personalities as expressed by Diane Guerrero and the unpredictability with which they emerge to be far more compelling than seeing them all with different faces interacting with each other, and I think I might have preferred for Guerrero to have played all the parts if we were going to experience it this way. I liked how it all started, with Larry mocking the notion of shrinking “Magic School Bus” style to get inside her head before the spirit did just that to Cliff. Once he was in there, however, things got very, very dark, particularly with the creepy three-headed sisters and the “sweet, sweet baby Kay” anthem that kept loudly haunting her. Ultimately, it was most therapeutic for Cliff, who got to inhabit his old body for a while, which was strange, and then later discovered that he wasn’t a man anymore. Cliff accepting that part of himself was what Jane needed to be able to see that she could stand up to the monster father that has terrorized all of her personalities for so long. The ending of the episode indicates that Jane hasn’t completely gotten over her trauma, which is completely understandable, but she does seem ready to focus back on the hunt to find the Chief and stop Mr. Nobody.