'Doom Patrol' Season 3 Episode 8 Review: Bitter truths, revenge mark a great episode
Spoilers for 'Doom Patrol' Season 3 'Subconscious Patrol'
It's Thursday once more which means it's 'Doom Patrol' time! The HBO Max show is one that keeps on giving with each episode filled with wonderfully curious happenings that never fail to excite. 'Doom Patrol' follows the downtrodden weirdos from the DC universe who get powers after being experimented on.
Episode 7 served as the mid-season finale where we saw the Sisterhood of Dada set the Eternal Flagellation into motion with it being bad for anyone that goes against their thoughts. Rita (April Bowlby) hesitantly releases a weird bird-like creature with Malcolm's (Micah Joe Parker) face, representing the deceased Sisterhood member. As the creature is set free, it splits into smaller versions of itself as they crash into the Doom Patrol members' faces, transporting them into the known. Read on to know what we thought of the eighth episode of the series.
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Episode 8 of the season took the members of the Doom Patrol into the memories that pain them as they get switched out with their subconscious selves. Vic (Joivan Wade) is taken back to a childhood memory where he faces racism as his dad tells him to keep his head down. The poor kid was only looking for a Black superhero toy to associate with. This showed the lack of representation of Black heroes in entertainment.
Crazy Jane (Diane Guerrero) is now a puppet in adult Kay's imaginary world. Larry (Matt Bomer) is at his wedding day, which is clearly a day of regret for the gay man who was not accepted by his parents and married a woman. Rita has gathered all the subconscious selves of the Doom Patrol as she tells this is a part of the Eternal Flagellation which is a global phenomenon that will rid the world of evil as everyone is forced to confront themselves until they make a breakthrough. Larry points out the somewhat evil action as Rita says the Sisterhood is not evil but Madam Rouge (Michelle Gomez) is.
April Bowlby is fantastic in this episode as she emotes anger and frustration of having lost her lover while out for revenge. Matt Bomer was refreshing to see after so long as his character Larry, who's always wrapped in bandages, is usually played by Matthew Zuk while Bomer voices him.
We also see the transition of Laura De Mille into her villain persona Madam Rouge when she joins the Brotherhood of Evil after being kicked out by the Bureau of Normalcy. The episode was also quite emotional as we see the superhero gang face their worst traumas and regrets as they come to accept hard truths and forgive themselves in the process of healing.
On the more exciting front, Rouge is on a mission to travel in a time machine to 2021 that the Brotherhood reverse-engineered from an old drawing to steal Niles Caulder's inventions and bring them back to 1949 so as to invent them first and rule the world. Rita had tried to get the subconscious beings to help stop her but was turned down. 'Doom Patrol', as usual, had great dialogues, one of them being, "Art is bulls***t. Art is a narcotic you suckle while life, ambition, and purpose pass you by". Michelle Gomez marks a fabulous delivery.
As the members return to the present, one member's mind is in discord. Jane was told by Kay that she causes her pain and trauma and wants her to die. Jane, who has been the primary persona and was always protecting her, can't accept this. We see her go to the Underground to meet Kay only to find all the other personalities gone. This is one major turn in this character's story and we can't wait to see what happens next. The episode ends on a cliffhanger as we see Rita confront Madam Rouge. A fabulous episode all around that really had a heavy serving of story.
'Doom Patrol' airs every Thursday on HBO Max.
