Doom Patrol S04E09: 'Immortimas Patrol'

© MAX

Praise Immortus! It's a Doom Patrol musical episode!
by Chuck Duncan

Doom Patrol delivers the episode we never knew we needed -- a musical one! With a revised opening theme with words! And it answers the question that we left off on last week: did Isabel/Immortus destroy Cloverton with their yell? Nope, she/he/they just put the Doom Patrol in another alternate universe but one much nicer than Orqwith ... sort of. The only catch is that everyone bursts into song for no reason and every day is Immortimas! And the sex ghosts are back!

We've come to expect crazy from Doom Patrol at this point, so a musical episode celebrating Immortimas really isn't the craziest thing this show has done. Of course, not knowing it was a musical episode when it started was a little ... odd. The episode opens with what seems like Christmas as Dorothy sings and the sex ghosts join in but it's clear that this is a day celebrating the birth of Immortus, no matter how much it looks like Christmas. It gets even weirder when Jane and Casey join in -- when has Jane ever been this happy?! -- but is there something brewing between these two? As they, Dorothy and the ghosts do some choreo down the hall, Rouge is in the great room handing out ... Ugly Immortimas Sweaters, for the price of a hug. Very unlike Rouge, and even Jane hugs her. Reluctantly. Human Cliff arrives for his sweater and it turns into a big production number in the room, all singing the praises of Immortus. What fresh hell have the team gotten themselves into?

Vic arrives with gifts, human Larry is awakened by Keeg and he sings about picking out the right outfit and how he is excited to have a boyfriend. The production continues in the great room now with illustrations telling the story of the birth of Immortus, in the form of Isabel Feathers, with Rita and Rouge having their best time. Note that Rita looks like her old, eternally youthful self compared to how we left off with her. The number finishes with Rouge landing in what appears to be an accidental split. Casey and Jane move to the foyer to set up the, um, Immortus Nativity Scene? It comes with Scissormen cutouts and inflatables! But their song seems to confirm that Casey definitely has the hots for Jane, but Jane isn't quite sure she feels the same way.

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Rita and Rouge are preparing for Immortimas dinner with the expectation that Immortus will come (although everyone seems to be treating Immortus as Santa Claus now). Rouge keeps saying "if" she comes, but they break into song again while Rouge is signing and addressing Immortimas cards. Rita gives her a stamp to put the return address on the envelopes (Doom Patrol, 80 Drake Way, Cloverton, OH 43191 ... umm, that zip code is in Mexico, BTW), but stamping envelopes nudges something in Rouge's memory, specifically her arrival in the time machine and pushing Isabel into the time stream, Rita (or Bindi) choking her out, and her work at the Ant Farm designating meta humans was weapons. Sufficiently weirded out by the end of the number, after everyone leaves the room she checks a calendar and discovers ... every day is Immortimas! Just as she was the only one able to recall things after Immortus reset them, she now is the only one who seems to realize they are again trapped in a universe of Immortus' making.

Dorothy and Vic bond over making a huge gingerbread house version of Doom Manor, but she says some things about him being Cyborg that also seems to trigger some very real memories for him but he plays it off to not freak out Dorothy. Cliff goes to look for some porn videos and sings a delightful song about his ... dick and masturbating, but the only videos he can find are of Isabel reading Immortimas stories. Apparently that's good enough for Cliff to get his rocks off. Except he's got a bit of strokus interruptus when Rouge walks in and catches him with his pants down, literally. When he scurries away she notices something about the paused video -- the pause reveals in the overscan that there is another video image and it shows Larry, but as he truly is. It's actually one of the old interview tapes with Niles. She runs into Larry in the hallway and has to burst his boyfriend bubble by showing him the video. It's enough to shake him out of his reverie because the next time we see him he's got his bandages back on.

Casey finds Jane painting, but Jane has no idea what it is on the canvas. We can see clearly that it is a subway train car so she is painting The Underground, which is buried in her mind at this point. She doesn't even know she's just one of dozens of different personalities. She keeps staring at the image which becomes a kaleidoscope. Rouge, however, has called a team meeting with everyone but Dorothy -- even though no one knows why she is calling them a team. The bandaged Larry enters and everyone laughs at him, but Rouge tries to get them back on track. She explains that they are superheroes called the Doom Patrol (cue more laughter), but no one is taking her seriously. Getting nowhere, she dismisses Rita to continue whatever she's doing to prepare for Immortus' arrival and Casey joins her. Now that she has the attention of the rest of the group, Rouge shows them their interview videos, and that hits them like a ton of bricks. She also has to remind Vic that he was Cyborg and it takes him a second to recall his own reality. Now they just have to convince Dorothy, Rita and Casey of the truth.

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Vic takes the reigns with Dorothy, trying to break this to her as gently as he can without destroying her because she obviously loves all of the pageantry that comes with celebrating Immortimas and being with her 'family'. She knows that what he's telling her is true, but she doesn't want to change anything that will erase her happiness. Vic gets a solo number interrupted by Rouge, then Cliff urinating on him, accidentally, and then Larry ... and the poor guy never gets to finish his song. Jane tries to gently break it to Casey that there really can't be anything between them at this moment because right now she doesn't even know who she is. Larry is lamenting, in song, this cruel twist of fate as Mr. 104 arrives to celebrate the day and meet Larry's family, but Larry very quickly makes him realize that they are currently in some fantasy world concocted by Immortus. Rama is saddened to be shaken back to reality, and that he won't meet Larry's family, but no matter what they are still boyfriends, as demonstrated in their own big song and dance number.

Rita is finally told the truth as she watches her own interview video, and Rouge tells her that it was the hardest to reveal that truth to her because she was so happy. Now that Rita knows the truth, it puts her footing with Rouge back on shaky ground. Cliff also has to face reality and calls his daughter just to hear her and Rory's voice but is he really talking to them or is this just all part of the Immortus fantasy world? He seems to think it's not real and isn't any happier once they hang up, especially after she wishes him a Happy Immortimas. Then he has a duet with his Robotman self, with some assist from his oven mitt puppet.

But the time has arrived -- Immortus is at the door. What do they do: tell Isabel they know this is all fake or just play along for the time being? Rouge is all for laying it on the table, but everyone else is fearful of the reaction since Immortus has already destroyed one pocket universe. Try as she might, Rouge is thwarted by the terrified others and they play along as Isabel enters. Before dinner -- and Isabel remakrs that she didn't know this party had a theme when she saw Larry in is bandages -- Isabel says it will be fun to go around the table and have everyone say what they are thankful for, and she starts saying she's thankful for herself. Larry says he's thankful for his boyfriend, and after some side-eye from Isabel, adds that he's thankful for Immortus as well. When it gets to Rouge, she's had enough and tries to be honest but Isabel put her in a Force chokehold like Darth Vader to keep everyone in line.

It takes Rita, of all people, to finally burst the bubble and everyone else follows (even though Cliff still tries to play nice), and Isabel takes control of them and marches them into the hallway so she can have her own big power ballad with the team and the sex ghosts as her puppets. At the end she gives them what they want and in a flash Rita is old again, Cliff is a robot, memories are restored, and Rita finds one little souvenir from Immortus floating down from the ceiling -- a signed photo of Isabel inscribed 'You're DOOMED! Love, Isabel XOXO', with Rita exclaiming, "Son of a bitch" and the end credits music reorchestrated with the lyrics "You're all doomed."

That can't be good.

New episodes of Doom Patrol stream Thursdays on Max.

Note: This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. We support the strike and emphasize the importance of actors and writers, and ensuring they and fellow creatives are compensated and treated fairly for their work. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn't exist.

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