What I’m Watching: Doom Patrol

Doom Patrol: Season 4, Episode 5 “Youth Patrol” (B+)

This team can’t get through a single episode of normalcy without having something truly crazy happen to complicate it all. Rita waking up to find aging spots prompted her to a de-aging spell, but of course she didn’t know just how powerful it was and that it would keep going until they were young enough that they never existed at all. Leave it to Cliff to bump into her so that they all ended up being affected, even Rouge, who lied about holding her breath so that it wouldn’t affect her and instead just used her abilities to change back. Willoughby wasn’t having any of it, but it was fun to watch as he too fell victim to its effects and tried to find a way to stop it before it was too late. I enjoyed Jane and Cliff bonding with the high school stoners before Jane got younger and Cliff acted as a human keg, and now it looks like baby Jane has had whatever essence is needed for Immortus sucked out of her by the subtitled bunny as Willoughby was restored to his true form. While this was all happening, it was typically dizzying to learn more about Mr. 104 as he and Larry kept swapping memories of being interrogated and then forced to use their abilities to kill the other soldiers around them. I’m glad to see that they were able to find common ground and that Mr. 104 is apparently intent on being an ally, willing to jump in and follow Larry into that green portal he got pulled into to whatever fate awaits him there.

What I’m Watching: Doom Patrol

Doom Patrol: Season 4, Episode 4 “Youth Patrol” (B+)

It’s hard to remember what each character’s fate is on this show, even if, unlike so many others, its season have returned very consistently each year since its 2019 debut. It’s nice to see Dorothy again, who didn’t want Maura and Danny to treat her like a kid anymore. It was interesting to see how the villains from Dorothy’s comic book came to life and showed up, and rather than conjuring Candlemaker to save the day, she brought the hero, Space Case, to life instead. I recognized Madeline Zima, who appeared as a child in “The Nanny” and then starred in “Californication,” as Casey, and I think she’s terrific in this role. It’s good to see made it out of this episode with Dorothy and will hopefully continue on with her to reunite with the rest of the cast in subsequent installments. Casey’s belief that her dad can change and that she wants to meet whoever wrote their story and make them write a new one is a clever and inventive idea, though it seems like there’s much more to this than it seemed, showing once again that everything is connected. Her father the villain went straight to the comic book artist along with Dr. Janus to deliver what he took from Dorothy, and now it appears that Immortus will somehow put everything back the way it’s supposed to be when he rises. I still don’t know what that means exactly, but it’s seeming more and more doomsday-like with every new tidbit of information that’s revealed.