Doom Patrol Archive - Season 4

All recaps written by Chuck Duncan

Episodes 1 & 2 :: Doom Patrol / Butt Patrol

Let's Talk About 'Doom Patrol':

• Vic seems to be the only person left in The Future.
• Jane is still 'on vacation' in The Underground so Dr. Harrison is psychoanalyzing the team.
• Shelley, aka The Fog, takes Jane, Vic and Larry to the forest where they make some surprising discoveries.
• Rita has named herself the leader of the team and insists on giving everyone nicknames.
• Madame Rouge's time machine is coming in handy as they can hop quickly to the past to stop a crime before it happens.
• Vic and his dad are bonding over a project that is sure to make Cliff a happy robot.
• Why did the woman who played Rita in Cloverton's production of 'Our Town' end up in the time stream, crashing into the time machine?
• The crash knocked the time machine off course and they find themselves in a terrible future of their making.
• Future Vic has been attempting to find a way to fix the past and a time machine has just landed in his front yard.
• Jane was able to see the future and has decided that it's time she returns up top, even if she still doesn't know where Kay is.
• The team needs a plan to deal with the Butt-pocalypse, but they may have more to worry about than that.

Doom Patrol is back for a fourth season and it's just grand seeing the dysfunctional superheroes once again, thankfully not falling prey -- yet -- to the supervillain now running their parent company. The two episode season premiere wastes no time in setting up what the team will face this season, bookended by two major crises (although they aren't aware of the second one yet). The episode kicks off in The Future, how far we don't know but the 'Omega Man' Vic is a bit older, showing some gray in his hair (we do know it's long after a cataclysmic event in 2019). But what happened to leave him a sole survivor is not yet known.

In the present, Jane is still 'taking a break' in The Underground so Dr. Harrison is stuck with what is unofficially, yet officially, the Doom Patrol with Rita taking the reins as team leader ... because no one else wanted the job. And they've had seven successful missions despite the utter lack of respect she gets from her teammates to whom she's blessed with the nicknames we've always known them by (even though no one wants a nickname). Rita is ElastiGirl, Jane is Crazy Jane, Cliff is Robotman, Larry is Negative Man. Since Vic has ridded himself of his Cyborg tech ... he's just a glorified assistant now. And because of the ire between Rita and Rouge, Rita has bestowed upon her the nickname Dog Shit McGiven. Rita has also managed to connect the giant robot brain (from the Season 3 finale) to the time machine so they can control where they want to go. She's also solved the time travel memory loss issue with ... jellyfish placed on top of their heads while traveling, except Rouge always refuses to use it so she can briefly forget who these people are. She does have a note written on her hand telling her to 'Do whatever the shrill ginger says'.

Dr. Harrison has also diagnosed the team with various conditions. Rita is a textbook perfectionist/narcissist with survivor’s guilt and PTSD, because she fears to lose another loved one. Cliff is a grade-A simpleton due to poor breeding, the Florida education system and race car fumes. Vic is diagnosed with personality dysmorphia and social cowardice. She believes Larry is the first person to experience Stockholm Syndrome as a host to a parasite. His diagnosis is good old self-loathing with a healthy dash of co-dependency. Rouge's issues go deep as she has to live with the fact that she betrayed her friends Malcolm and Rita in the past, and relegated hundreds of people to obsolescence. Her pain is quiet, but always there. Diagnosis -- self-loathing doormat with sociopathic tendencies. And while the team battles one bad guy after another, it's usually Dr. Harrison who saves the days, reasoning with the bad guy who can't possibly be mad at her since they don't even know her. Works every time. In the end she calls the team the Doomed Patrol, the El Dorado of psychological dysfunctions.

As Rita tries to keep them together as a team, unaware that she's being just a tad overbearing with the way she orders everyone about (believing her tactics are what have made their missions a success), they are still dealing with their own issues. Jane is just hanging out in The Underground at Kay's grandmother's house being berated by Dr. Harrison for not going out there with everyone else to find Kay. Jane's take is that Kay constructed the place and if she doesn't want to be found, she isn't going to be. She's just trying to figure out what the girl needs. H thinks Jane is just on vacation and avoiding her responsibilities ... or maybe it's sour grapes because Kay disappeared under her watch.

Vic and his dad are bonding over a project, but some of Silas' comments get under Vic's skin, thinking his dad is trying to upset him as a revenge tactic for removing his tech. Silas assures him that is not what he's doing. They finish their project and reveal to the team ... Cliff's new arm. Cliff thinks it looks like the same shitty arm he had but Vic tells him this one has a bonus: the sense of touch. In one finger, but over time the nanobot should grow and give him feeling in the entire hand. Wanting to test it out with various items, Cliff refuses because he wants the first thing he touches to be his grandson Rory so he put an oven mitt on his hand ... which he is technically touching. Damn it! But it's so soft. Before he can touch anything else, he wants to take the time machine to Florida so he can touch Rory, which Rita resists but bows to pressure. Rouge also tells her that once they return it would perhaps be best if she leaves since the two can't get along. Rita insists she wear the jellyfish this one time so she doesn't forget that promise. And that's when things go awry. Planning to arrive in Florida five minutes into the future, the woman who plays Rita in the Cloverton Players' production of Our Town is in the time stream and no one knows why. Well, Rouge does because when she first arrived in Cloverton the woman was watching her have a massive wazz (Google it) and she fell into the time hole. Her collision with the craft has had the not great effect of knocking them way off course into the future we saw at the top of the episode. They are stuck because Shipley is overheated but they have no idea where they are or why it looks like a post-apocalypse town. That sign Rita spies may have a clue with its 'Cloverton's 2019 Decimation' header. Some loud roars make them seek shelter in their old, familiar home.

They are trapped by Future Vic because Cliff couldn't keep his hands off of a dish of Vienna sausages and Skittles, but he releases them and tells them it all started 20 years ago, Cloverton was the epicenter and it just spread -- The Butt-pocalypse, zombie butts that they inadvertently created, but they thought they had killed all of them. They ask Vic where the rest of the team is and he says they just hang out in their rooms, so they all go to see if they can talk to themselves and learn more about the Butt-pocalypse. But the only thing they find are their ghosts. Rita's tells her she wasn't such a great leader after all, Harrison's tells her that her arrogance got Kay killed and she should have taken the girl away when she got control of Jane's body, but instead she was focused on her little lab rats. Cliff wants to know if his ghost gets to fuck with the sex ghosts, but he just mostly watches and comments. He does tell Cliff that his daughter and grandson took a boat and are safe in the Atlantic ... not really. They're dead, but he insists that Cliff doesn't want to know how they or he died. Sadly, Cliff learns he never gets to touch Rory. Larry finds his ghost hiding in the greenhouse and learns that Keeg is no longer in him. But Keeg shows up, all grown up, and his baby Keeg releases to communicate with his grown self. There are a lot of electrical flashes and Future Keeg is gone while Baby Keeg returns to Larry, who still doesn't know what's going on. Rouge has no ghost since she wasn't there when everything went down, but she does find some paperwork and plans. Future Vic is trying to build his own time machine. He tied up Vic but he managed to find Rouge to tell her Future Vic is going to steal the time machine. Future Vic had earlier chatted with the ghosts and told them to keep themselves occupied, but Dr. Harrison says that maybe they can talk to themselves to avert this future ... which cracks up all of them. As if!

Vic makes his way outside to confront Future Vic, but as the others arrive so do the zombie butts. Cliff says they kicked their asses before and they can do it again, but Future Vic tells him that's what he said last time and one of them cracked open his head and ate him like an egg. Finally, someone tells him how he died! Everyone decides the best thing they can do is leave and try to stop this from happening but Vic wants to stay and fight. Suddenly Silas appears but it was Rouge who had transformed long enough to distract Vic so ElastiGirl could do her thing and drag him back to Shipley. Future Vic comes to the window and points to his left before a zombie butt kills him. When they return to their present, Vic sees his future self had carved 'You can't have it all' onto the side of Shipley. In The Underground, Jane was able to watch everything that happened in the future, and she told Harrison that she was right, Jane just needed a break because being the primary is hard but if H tries to stop her from going back up she'll chuck her face first into the well. Jane is surprised when Harrison begins to turn to dust, revealing it was Kay all the time. She seems upset and tells Jane not to follow her, and the next thing Jane knows she's in her bedroom with a bag of jigsaw puzzle pieces.

Rouge asks Rita if she thinks it was just totally random that they saw that woman in the time stream, but Rita has no idea. Rouge suggests they try to find out and Rita comes to the horrible realization that this means Rouge is not leaving as promised, which makes her face melt. Vic has decided he's going to live his life and hang out with some old friends, and Cliff promises he will touch Rory after he stops the Butt-pocalypse, but until then he won't touch anything else. Fuck you, the future! Meanwhile, Willoughby Kipling is summoned to convene with the Knights Templar as guinea pig Bumbray has a message. The Flora and Fauna have made an urgent discovery. A sheet of paper appears before Willoughby and he says what's on it is a hoax. Bumbray says the Flora and Fauna don't make mistakes, like he does. Willoughby counters that the prophecy only mentioned the butts, but if this is real it can mean only one thing ... we're all well and truly fucked. Then we see it's a photograph showing a large grassy area with 'Immortus Will Rise' mown into it.

Let's Talk About 'Butt Patrol':

• There's something odd going on at the Ant Farm in 2016, 2017 and 2019.
• Rita's plan to stop the Butt-pocalypse is to return to the scene of the crime where it all started but no one is on board.
• The group decides that maybe they need a new leader.
• Dr. Yu arrives at the Ant Farm in 2017 to try to establish communication with the butts.
• Rouge and Cliff go off on a secret mission to stop the future from happening, while Vic and Jane go off on their own mission, leaving Rita and Larry behind to deal with their own issues.

Another fun episode that time hops around to see how things progressed to the point of a Butt-pocalypse. At the Ant Farm in 2016, they seem to have the butts contained but as one of the workers enters the room where they are allowed to congregate while they are in another area, he sees a hole in the wall and is unable to get out before they kill him. In 2017, a Doctor Yu arrives, a linguist who is contracted to establish communication with the butts. It seems like no time at all passes before she has them calm and performing showtunes, in particular 'Shipoopie' from The Music Man. She believes the butts aren't killing machines but when a general knocks on the window it completely riles up the butts. Yu is told she's done some good work but the government is still going to weaponize the butts. Yu insists that she can change their minds. Time passes and in 2019 the butts are rampaging through the Ant Farm. Yu calmly sits in the lunch room eating, and through the door window we can see Cliff running around in a panic. Yu is told to get above ground before the exterminators arrive. She goes to a cabinet and finds the butt she names Nicholas hiding in a cabinet (he's one of the conjoined twins butts that had been separated at some point, and she knows that he and his brother butt do feel a familial connection). In the present, Yu arrives home and makes herself a huge bowl of cereal ... but it's for Nicholas, whom no one knows exists.

The Doom Patrol are still trying to find a way to save the future. Rita wants to add more color to Jane's outfits and she really wants Cliff to cut down on the cursing. And anything they created, they can just as easily destroy but no one wants to go back in the past to the Ant Farm to make that happen. In fact, Vic thinks it's time for new leadership. Rita says they should put it to a vote and ... no one votes for her. She thinks Vic wants the job but reminds him again that he has no tech so he's basically useless. Jane doesn't want it, Larry and Cliff are unqualified so who ... Rouge? Vic is adamant that he can handle the job, but Cliff says they don't need a former superhero to guide them they need a former supervillain, and Rouge is the only one qualified since she wasn't there so she's not responsible for the future. Rita believes that Darren Jones is responsible for spreading the zombism since Jane bit him ... or Rita bit him, doesn't matter, but the team is settled on Rouge as leader, so Rita refuses to participate since she's not wanted. Rouge suggests they all take a breath before they go to work, just to regroup and get their thoughts together. Vic agrees to one hour, but when they all go to their rooms, Rouge calls Cliff over and asks him to go on a secret mission with her to kill Darren Jones. She doesn't need the others because Cliff is indestructible. Cliff is totally on board. Why they are riding bicycles to find Darren is unknown but the visual is humorous, and it gives them a reason to be wearing bike helmets spritzed with some scent to keep zombie Darren from smelling their brains. But Cliff is distracted by an old rusty car on the side of the road, Rouge seeing it as sort of a metaphor for their lives, but Cliff just sees a car. While they argue, Darren Jones rides by on a tractor.

Meanwhile Vic has located a target that he believes is the start of the Butt-pocalypse, and learning that Rouge and Cliff left on their mission, he invites Jane to join him on his. If she doesn't have to listen to Rita and Larry arguing, she's in. Plus it means she doesn't have to work on that puzzle with all gray pieces that have no edges or corners. Rita is pissed at Larry for stabbing her in the back, but he says she was a shitty leader, giving orders, handing out gold stars, it was all a misguided vanity play. He reminds her that when she returned from the past, she treated them all like strangers and he still feels that way. Plus he's trying to keep Keeg from separating from him because that's all he has left. That cuts Rita deeply, telling him that being team leader was all she had left and now thanks to him she has nothing.

When Jane and Vic get to their destination to meet his contact, Jane asks him why he's so hot to do this. To be team leader? Everyone made it quite clear how they felt about that, several times. So is he going to save the world and what, go backpacking in Europe? Vic keeps saying he's going to leave them but he always finds a reason to stay. Vic asks her how Kay is doing and tells her they all met her a few months ago and she asked him to record an inteview like the ones Niles used to do. Jane needs to see it.

Cliff and Rouge follow zombie Darren to .. his farm? Cliff is surprised he can still understand zombie-speak (luckily we get subtitles), and Darren grunts that he knew when he became a zombie he would have to eat human brains, but as an Agent of Normalcy he couldn't allow himself to do that so he revoked his zombi-ism. Can he do that, Rouge ponders. Now he works the land, tending the farm, far from tempting brains. But he knew this day would come and he asks Cliff to kill him. Cliff says he came to fight, not perform some weird mercy killing. Darren asks him to please tend to the heirloom tomatoes when he's gone. Cliff has no idea what to do so Rouge pulls off his helmet and Darren immediately smells Cliff's brain, turning ravenous and attacking Cliff, forcing him to do what he came to do -- kill the zombie. And as his hand smashes into Darren's skull he realizes he can feel the cold blood. He lost his oven mitt as they tussled, but the mission is complete and they can go home. Butt-pocalypse averted. Right?

Vic and Jane finally meet their contact, the Butthunter who a year earlier rounded up all of the escaped butts. And he finally got the last one, which was difficult because it didn't seem like the others, like it was sick or dead, but not quite. He turns over the large cooler to Vic and Jane, thinking they are undercover agents from the Ant Farm. When they get back to the manor, Cliff and Rouge return and announce they have stopped the Butt-pocalypse by killing Darren, and Vic and Jane say they have stopped the Butt-pocalypse because they have the zombie butt on ice. Rogue is pleased, saying that her style of leadership is working since everyone has the freedom to do what they want. (She doesn't really mean that.) She asks Cliff to dispose of the zombie butt but when he opens the cooler and sees the butt face, it makes him a little sad. He also feels bad about feeling Darren's cold blood but ... his eyes were warm. Rogue watches Cliff from the stairs, but she seems just as conflicted as he is. Jane watches the video of Kay, talking about how the others in The Underground were supposed to protect her, but maybe they need a new purpose now. Vic asks her what Jane's purpose is, and Kay says that if anyone can put the pieces together, it's Jane.

Episode 3 :: Nostalgia Patrol

Let's Talk About 'Nostalgia Patrol':

• Rita continues to wallow in despair after being rejected as team leader until a surprising offer literally lands on her doorstep.
• Jane is shocked to see Shelley's eye in the puzzle pieces, and even more shocked by a foggy manifestation.
• Vic makes his way to Detroit to see his old pals but the reception is much chillier than he expected.
• Larry doesn't know what to do about Keeg hiding in the walls, and tells Rouge that she needs to deal with her own issues before offering solutions to his.
• Madame Rouge's time machine is coming in handy as they can hop quickly to the past to stop a crime before it happens.
• Rita attends the Rita Farr Retrospective Film Festival but becomes more of a participant than she expected.
• Rouge wants the group to begin team building exercises, but it's really an excuse to help her fix her relationship with Rita ... if they can find her.
• Minor comic book villains Dr. Janus and Mr. 104 are introduced.

So the Butt-pocalypse has been averted, right? Right? Well, we still don't really know what Cliff did with the frozen zombie butt so we'll have to wait and see if that figures into the remainder of the season. We have bigger fish to fry in the coming weeks with the reveal that certified 'Big Bad' Immortus is on the way. But apparently he's going to need some help getting here, and that's where this week's episode figures into that. (And for the uninitiated, Immortus and Nile Caulder had a long history as Niles helped recreate a potion that extended Immortus' life indefinitely. But Nile sabotaged the formula when he learned Immortus was evil and the two parted ways, leading to Immortus being a sworn enemy of the Doom Patrol.)

This episode, 'Nostalgia Patrol', is really Rita Farr's episode (and a tour de force for April Bowlby) which involves everyone but Vic, who has gone off to Detroit to reconnect with his old school buddies ... except even though he was invited, they seem less than happy to see him, perhaps because he's just Vic now, not Cyborg. The animosity seems to come from the fact that his three buddies remained in Detroit to sort out their own lives while Vic left to become Cyborg, even though he never asked to become that. But Vic really wants to reconnect and when the chance comes for them to play a game of laser tag like old times, against a team of teenagers who are the current champions, Vic and his friend Deric finally have a real conversation about what they've been though over the past decade -- although in the middle of the game which leads to their loss. But in the end Vic feels accepted, and Deric gives Vic the robot the four of them created since the originally agreed to share custody of it. Vic only arrives back at Doom Manor after the rest of the crew has gone through their own wild ride.

And that all starts with Rita, still hurt and angry that the title of Team Leader was taken away from her and bestowed upon Rouge, her now sworn enemy. But Rita is pleased to learn that there are people out there who appreciate her when a flyer for a Rita Farr Film Retrospective at the Cloverton Art House lands on her doorstep (and eagle-eyed viewers can quickly glimpse that it is a Dr. Janus Production). Wasting no time to meet her adoring fans, Rita is off to the movies. Meanwhile Larry is still dealing with Keeg separating from him and hiding among the wiring of the manor -- and he's not too keen on Rouge offering him advice on how to deal with the situation while she has her own situation with Rita to deal with -- and Jane is trying to ignore the pile of puzzle pieces on the floor but is drawn back to them once again, this time finding a piece with an eye on it, and eye she recognizes as Shelley, aka The Fog, from the Sisterhood of Dada. Suddenly Jane is enveloped by a fog and ... has an orgasm? It's all a bit much for her and she tries to talk to Cliff about it but the last thing he wants to do is talk about orgasms.

Enter Team Leader Rouge, or DeMille, with a plan to make them stronger together with TRUST: Team building, Respect, Unity, Solidarity, Tea time. Of course her team building part of the exercise is actually her way to repair her relationship with Rita. Rouge has really been devastated by the rift that has grown between them, truly remorseful for everything she's done over the decades, and even more upset that Rita won't stop for a minute to try and heal things between them. She cajoles the rest of the team into helping, but Larry says no. Rouge suggests that he needs to fix his own issues with Rita as well so he really has no choice. Keeg can wait. But Rita is nowhere to be found in the manor but they do have the flyer and Cliff and Jane are not even sure Cloverton has an Art House because they can't think of anyone in town who would be interested in (or intelligent enough) to want to go there. But that must be where she is, so that is where they will go.

And Rita is at the Art House but all of her adoring fans must be late because it's just her and several tubs of popcorn (she's got four movies to get through, after all). As the first film unspools, 'Secret Rendezvous', Rita begins remembering the making of the film but doesn't notice the green mist filling up the theater. She smells cotton candy and passes out, waking up in the movie. It doesn't take her long to realize the situation, but as the other actors go through the scenes she eventually plays along. But she does notice some things are not quite right, however she accepts a necklace from one of her co-stars and continues with the scene. When the others get to the theater, Larry shows that he is an invaluable encyclopedia of Rita Farr's films, and as things grow increasingly bizarre on screen Larry knows that what they are watching is not the actual movie. They see Rita asking questions of her co-star and him telling her to just say her lines, but suddenly he disappears from the scene and Rouge knows something is amiss. Rouge jumps out of her seat and the green mist begins to envelope the others, but she shapeshifts into a bird to make her escape, now angry with herself for leading her team into a trap.

Rita is transported to another of her films, a horror film that gave her nightmares, particularly the disturbing child who shit his pants that they had to work with. Larry finds himself in the first movie, approached by a man who is not Rita's co-star but someone who says he can help Larry find and save Rita. The man also gets very personal with Larry, questioning how he can live being in bandages all the time and having no human contact, and Larry begins to feel like maybe there is something a little more to this man than he thought so he willingly follows him. Cliff and Jane, however, are in the same horror movie as Rita and while they claim to not be frightened, the appearance of the creepy child sends them cowering in a closet. Cliff wants Jane to confront the kid but she reminds him that he's made of metal so he has a better chance at surviving but before they can do anything the doors fly open and ... it's Larry and the mysterious stranger. Rita is confronted by the kid who tells her to do what she's told so they can all get out of this trap, and again she is transported to another film.

Rouge is back at the manor drowning her sorrows after being unable to find a way to help everyone. She does notice the name Dr. Janus on the flyer and finds a file on them that Niles had, listing some of Janus'a abilities: creates artificial realities and hallucinations. Janus also has a fragile ego and lacks empathy. And how to fight Janus? Oh, Niles has all of that information redacted, not a great help to Rouge. While she goes off to get a bigger bottle of booze, Keeg appears out of the chandelier and looks over the dossier, possibly being able to see the redacted information.

Rita wakes up in a science fiction film, and Larry, Cliff and Jane are there with the mystery man. Judging by the costumes, Cliff thinks Rita was on Star Trek but it was just a cheap sci-fi flick with derivative costumes. Larry 'helpfully' tells everyone the film was also her first box office failure. Rita thanks them for coming but tells them they are in danger because this is a trap. Jane says they know that, motioning to the costume, and Larry says they are there to save her from Dr. Janus thanks to the help of his friend ... what's your name? The man says to call him Mr. 104 ... you know, the Periodic Table of Elements? No? Sheesh. (Element 104 is Rutherfordium, named after Ernest Rutherford, one of the first to explain the structure of atoms. It is also a radioactive metal that does not occur naturally, which could explain his attraction -- science joke! -- to Larry, and is only used in research. Apparently 104 used to be 103, aka Lawrencium ... Larry? ... which also does not occur naturally and has no known biological role and no use outside of research.)

Larry explains that Dr. Janus is trying to collect Rita's emotional juices in the necklace she was given earlier, but Rita says Janus won't have much luck on this film since she only took the job for the money. Mr. 104 says that perhaps they should up the stakes then, and Larry, Cliff and Jane are transported to a small cell above a fire pit with only a rickety old bridge for Rita to cross to reach them. Dr. Janus appears and tells Rita she has something that was never hers in the first place, something that was stolen from someone very special and they intend to get it back. Rita says her choices are to impassively watch her friends die a fiery death or she attempts the impossible? Fuck that! She realizes that she needs her friends and they need her so she will cross that bridge and emote her heart out, filling the necklace to its capacity. Once the necklace is full, Janus claps and the necklace flies off of Rita's neck and into her hands. She leaves them with the words 'Immortus will rise.' Rita continues to try to save her friends but one of the board breaks and she falls through the bridge, managing to hang onto one board, her feet dangling just above the flames. Mr. 104 seems to have a change of heart and grabs one of the ropes holding the bridge up and Larry begs him not to let go. Suddenly Keeg appears, apparently erasing the hallucination they are all in but the situation is dire and 104 may not be able to hold on much longer. Keeg flies to him and enters his body and there is a blinding white flash ...

The four of them are back in the theater but Rita is still unconscious. They get her back to the manor, but Larry tells Vic and Rouge that they don't know what's going on. The only thing that Rouge is certain of at this point is that Rita should definitely be the leader of the team ... if she survives.

Episode 4 :: Casey Patrol

Doom Patrol is always a series that surprises, week after week you never really know what bizarro new twist or character will be introduced. This week's episode throws us a real curve ball because, well, there's not a Doom Patrol member to be seen. Nope, halfway through Part 1 of Season 4 and we're off to visit Danny the Camp (formerly the Street), that interdimensional, non-binary, all-inclusive refuge space where we last saw Niles Caulder's daughter Dorothy, placed in Danny's care after Niles' death. It seems odd to place a stand-alone 'what's Dorothy up to' episode at this point in the season, but it's actually another piece of the season's Immortus puzzle.

As the episode begins, Maura Lee Karupt and Asa are on this side of the veil that separates Danny from the 'real world' and they see that hatred and bigotry are as strong as ever as they attempt to paint over some hate speech that had been spray painted on a mural. When they return to Danny, who appears as an ambulance in our world, Dorothy is relating a story to the other Danny-zens about a magical necklace she wears that once belonged to her father, a necklace which kept him alive for a hundred years so he could be with her since, at that point in time, she was never going to age. Dorothy regales them with the tale of how she retrieved the necklace, which her father traded before his death to help her and the Doom Patrol, so that she could remain in contact with her father and tell him all the things she never had a chance to say. The man who had the necklace refused, so she called the Candlemaker to help her take it back, and with the artifact in hand Crystal Palace and the Dead Boy Detectives helped bring her father back so she could talk to him. No matter how impossible the odds, love always wins.

But Maura Lee can see that Dorothy, who is now beginning to age and is becoming a very moody adolescent, can see that she's having some real daddy issues, resentful of the fact that Niles is dead and she's been stuck in this world of Danny, which is supposed to be a safe space for those who need it but to Dorothy it just feels like a prison. Her only 'out' is through her imagination, reading the 'Space Case' comics, idolizing the heroine of the story Casey Brinke, wishing Casey could come to life and liberate her from this place. But Danny may not be as safe as they think as bug-like drones somehow pass through the veil and begin infecting the Danny-zens, turning them into helmeted zombies, with only Maura Lee and Dorothy spared because they were inside Dorothy's trailer.

With this terrifying turn of events, Casey is somehow materialized out of the comics and into their world in all of her 1940s 'gee whiz' cheesy glory (played with some real wide-eyed spunk by Madeline Zima). Maura Lee's initial reaction to Casey's over-the-top 'gee whiz' demeanor is to tell her she's 'up at Katy Perry and I'm going to need you to bring it way down to Alicia Keys.' Casey is able to neutralize the drones and suddenly realizes that she's no longer a two-dimensional character, now experiencing the sensation of hunger for the first time, gleefully chowing down on a gyro and savoring the flavors. She could get use to this new form. But when Casey springs back into superhero mode to take out another of the infected Danny-zens, Dorothy and Maura Lee have to explain to Casey that in the real world death is permanent. This, of course, is an alien concept to Casey because she's battled her comic book nemesis 143 times ... and he always comes back. That realization hit her like a ton of bricks, especially after Dorothy relates Casey's entire backstory to her including the fact that the villain Torminox is actually Casey's father, who has been transformed into a monster. An object appears in the sky and Casey sounds the alarm that Torminox is there as all of the drones are suddenly reactivated. She tells Dorothy and Maura Lee to run while she deals with the threat and the make their way out of Danny.

But Torminox (Tyler Mane) appears and demands Dorothy's necklace. She refuses and he takes out his anger on Danny, shrinking down the ambulance and putting it into a little box. Casey was able to escape just in time and Torminox is surprised to see her. He tells her he has no quarrel with her, and asks her to leave with a 'please' which stops her in her tracks. He's never said 'please' before. Seeing that she has no choice, Dorothy calls forth Candlemaker, saying he's probably angry with her and perhaps more worried that he'd attack her than save them from Torminox and his drones. But he does appear and buys them time to hide out in a warehouse, but now for the first time Casey is conflicted on how to deal with the villain, knowing that if she kills him she kills her father, and she has always hoped that she can find a way to turn him back into the man she knows and loves. Candlemaker is no match for Torminox, who shrinks him down and puts him into another small box. Looking out the window, Maura Lee sees a boy painting on the mural they just fixed but when confronting him he tells them he was just trying to fix it, telling Maura Lee that not everyone around there feels the same way the vandals do. Maura Lee's heart is touched and they thank him, but is then struck with an idea, asking the boy how much paint he has.

They summon Torminox who offers them their friends in exchange for the necklace. Casey confronts him, reminding him that he was something else once and directs his attention to a new mural, one that depicts a happy moment from her childhood when he was still human. Torminox seems to be touched by the memory and tenderly says her name ... and he grabs her by the neck and threatens to kill her unless Dorothy hands over the necklace. Dorothy tells him the necklace is all she has left of her father and she needs it to tell him all the things she needed to say but never did. Torminox could not care less and Maura Lee is confused because Dorothy had told them all she had spoken to her father. Dorothy admits it was all a lie, she and Candlemaker never went to retrieve the necklace, it was Crystal and the Dead Boys who got it for her, and she actually hadn't spoken to the Candlemaker in months. She locked all of her friends away, which explains her reluctance to call him forth in the first place -- and now he's locked up in a little box. Maura Lee asks why she did that and Dorothy says it was because they reminded her too much of her father, all of them, Danny, the Doom Patrol, all remind her of what she lost. She hoped that if she'd been able to conjure up Niles even for a few minutes she'd be able to tell him how much she loved him, but the more time passed, she realized there was more she needed to say.

Dorothy tells Torminox she's not the person she used to be, she's confused, she's scared and she's angry, and her father was supposed to help her through it all. He kept her a child for so long and now that she's finally growing up, he's not here ... and she hates him for that. She wanted to say all of these things to him, but maybe some things are better left unsaid. This emotional response does seem to have had an effect on Torminox and he lets Casey go when Dorothy gives him the necklace. Dorothy tells him that Casey needs her dad, and 'fuck you for turning your back on that.' Torminox really seems conflicted as he motions to the drones to turn over the boxes, and with that they transport away.

Danny is restored and apologizes for not being able to protect the Danny-zens. Maura Lee tells them not to blame themselves. Danny has already done so much for everyone there, but no matter how hard they try they can't protect them from everything. Maura Lee tells the group they know how hard things can be out there, but tonight they were reminded that there are still good people in the world, people who want to help, true allies, and if they really want to change the world, they need to start living in it. It's time for them all to move on to something new, including Danny. Every since they became an ambulance, they've been doing triage. They all know that Danny will always be a safe space to heal for anyone and everyone who needs it but it's time they start making safe spaces of their own in the real world. Danny replies that they might be right. Asa asks if this means thay have to leave, but Danny replies only when they are ready. Another Danny-zen asks what if they're never ready? Maura Lee begins singing Wilco's 'White Light' and everyone joins in.

Inside Dorothy's trailer, she and Casey are both internalizing their daddy issues and Dorothy asks if there's anything she can do. Casey says that everything she and her dad ever said, felt or suffered through was never really theirs. But at the end, she did see something in his eyes just for a second. She really believes he can change and she wants to meet whoever wrote their story and make them write a new one. Dorothy says she could use a change of scenery. They both exit the trailer as Beth Ditto's 'We Could Run' plays on the soundtrack, surveying the landscape, Dorothy watching Maura Lee and Asa chat. She looks over and sees a sign with a message from Danny telling her it's okay, they will tell them all goodbye for her. A convertible appears attached to the trailer and Danny tells Dorothy it's time for a new adventure. getting a bit emotional, Dorothy thanks Danny and she and Casey hop into the car. Casey asks where to and thinking for a moment, Dorothy replies, 'Cloverton.' A portal appears and a teary-eyed, but smiling, Maura Lee watches them leave.

Cut to -- a 'Space Case' comic book on a table, a young man making a new drawing. Dr. Janus approaches and places the necklace with Rita's emotions inside on the table, saying 'Immortus will rise.' She steps back and Torminox appears, placing Dorothy's necklace on the table. He tells the artist that he's done what was asked but he needs to be the man he was for Casey. Is the artist certain Immortus can help? The artist, his face still unseen, says that when Immortus rises their pasts will be cleansed, they will have everything they've ever dreamed of. Immortus will rise. Torminox walks away and we see a reversed drawing of the mural depicting him and Casey.

Episode 5 :: Youth Patrol

Doom Patrol yet again proves that it is the most original and creative series on television, and we have to hope that the suits at Warner Bros. Discovery can see this because it has to be an expensive show to produce and we know CEO David Zaslav is doing all he can to slash costs at HBO Max. So if you're a fan, tell your friends to watch the show too. Or if they don't want to watch, just tell them to play it while they do other things so at least it looks like people are watching! We need to keep original series like this on the air!

This week's episode, 'Youth Patrol', gives several members of our beloved misfits some clarity about their lives, where they've been and where they may be going ... and that last part is not what any of them expected. The main plot of this episode involves the entire group except for Larry who, fortunately (for the moment), left to find Keeg. Rita was still unconscious from their trip through her cinematic catalog so he wasn't able to give her a hug goodbye, but Vic told him he could hug her when he got back. The question is will she be there, or anywhere, when he gets back?

Larry has been having odd flashes, visions or perhaps memories but he's not sure what he's seeing but he believes it has something to do with Keeg. As he makes his way through the forest, calling out to Keeg, he has more visions that takes a toll on him, causing him to collapse ... but there is someone else in the forest with him. Larry finds himself back at the Bureau where he was once experimented on and sees Mr. 104 undergoing the same kind of interrogation/experimentation. Larry seems to be getting some clarity on his visions as he sees Mr. 104 being forced to 'augment' some test subjects -- but he's really just killing them with his powers. He seems to be drawing all of the liquid out of their bodies. The Bureau agents are also fascinated that he sincerely believes he moved to London from India to study organic chemistry. Larry is so horrified by what he sees that it jolts him awake in a cabin with Mr. 104. Keeg lights up in 104's chest but Larry is prevented from approaching, being thrown back and held against the wall by Mr. 104, who tells Larry he's been trying to get Keeg out but he won't leave. Keeg does burst out of 104, enters Larry for a split second and returns to his new host.

Larry is again at the Bureau but this time he's in the chair, reliving the trauma, the same trauma that Mr. 104 experienced as Larry is forced to kill volunteers so the Bureau can see the extent of his powers. Me. 104 watches and is moved by Larry's emotional reaction to the process, and after the subjects die horrible deaths -- bleeding from their eyes, noses, ears -- 104 transports himself into the room. A panicked Larry doesn't want him to die too but Mr. 104 assures him that with his abilities he can change his skin to lead and Larry can't hurt him. That calms Larry and almost seems to make him think that perhaps he can finally have some type of human contact. After all, when the two first met Mr. 104 was very intrusive when asking about Larry's lack of human contact, and in the real world both of them are unconscious on the floor of the cabin, their hands barely touching. When they both come to, 104 tells Larry it's not the first time he's seen a piece of his past, and that Larry has a little guardian angel but it's not Keeg, it is the spirit that previously inhabited him. 104 also admits that he joined Dr. Janus to stop causing suffering and now he's a beacon for it. He's trying to reverse his condition but the things his body can do is taking a toll and one day he may not be able to control it. Larry asks what happens then and the reply is chilling -- a mass extinction event. The only way he can stop it now is to fulfill his promise to Immortus and return the 'longevity'. Larry has no idea what he's talking about but he knows a 'Devil's bargain' when he sees it. 104 tells Larry that what they were forced to do at the Bureau, and the memories they are forced to live with, aren't right and Immortus can make that all go away but Larry isn't sold on the idea, asking 104 to let him help him because he knows what his new 'friend' is going through. Larry believes there is another way to fix things that doesn't involve a pledge or violence. He finally introduces himself to 104, and 104 introduces himself saying his name is Rama. And that is all that was needed for Keeg to return to Larry. Larry asks Keeg if that was his plan all along, to unite these two men who can give something to each other, but before anything more can happen a pair of scissors appears and cuts open a portal sucking him in with Rama jumping in after, not ready to lose someone he's just made a connection with.

The rest of the team find themselves in a giant pickle -- not literally although on this show it isn't out of the realm of possibility -- when Rita wakes up to see that she's aged a bit, and Willoughby pops up with some very bad news: Immortus is rising and, surprise, it all leads back to them. Jane also decided to try to recreate that feeling she had when The Fog, aka Shelley, appeared and found herself dragged to the Underground. But she wasn't brought there, she came all on her own ... no pun intended. But she returns, a bit sweaty, and joins the others in the kitchen as Willoughby begins to lay out the end of the world scenario. Cliff thinks he's talking about the zombie butts and those asses were kicked so they saved the world. But this isn't about the butts, it's about Immortus and the end of reality as they know it. Laura does recall the Immortus Project but says nothing ever came of it. Willoughby assures her that is not the case and the Doom Patrol is the Immortus Project -- minus her and 'Track Suit' (Vic). Turns out that necklace Niles wore to keep him alive for more than a century was a piece of the ancient deity, and he acquired it from Eric Morden, aka Mr. Nobody, after Niles shot him. All was well and good until the DP got shrunken and he needed small pieces of the artifact to bring them back to normal. Have they never wondered why they've looked the same for decades? They have longevity, a la Immortus. But the necklace was stolen -- and as we saw last episode Dorothy had it then was forced to hand it over to Torminox who gave it to 'the artist' -- and Immortus needs the rest of the pieces to rise ... and yes, those pieces can be extracted from the Doom Patrol members. Like a blackhead. But as long as they don't lose their longevity, the necklace cannot be reconstituted and Immortus cannot rise. The question is posed if longevity could be extracted by, say, being drawn into a catalog of your past filmography or confronted by someone named Dr. Janus, but Willoughby dismisses the question wondering if their stupidity has no depths. Of course that is exactly what happened to Rita. The necklace wasn't taking her emotions, it was taking her longevity, and that was also handed over to 'the artist'.

But Rita isn't going to let a little aging stop her, rooting around in Niles' office to see if she can find something to reverse it. The worst place to look is in a box labeled 'Experimental. Untested. Dangerous.' but she finds a vial that she believes will help ... and then she's startled by Cliff, who is startled by her face, and she drops the glass vial which causes the liquid to turn into a smoke and they are all de-aged, except for Laura. Rita is thrilled but she hasn't worn glasses since 1937. Vic is unhappy to find he has braces, Cliff is dressed like a cowboy and Jane looks like she just shopped at Hot Topic. Willoughby looks like a squire from the age of Shakespeare, yet they all look the same which suggests it was clearly not a good de-aging spell hence it being locked in a box with the warning labels on it. But Willoughby does have one as yet unseen change which he reveals: a full, flowing head of hair as chaos magicians are follicly gifted. Laura explains her unchanged appearance as her Bureau training kicking in: 'If you see a cloud of smoke, don't breathe, don't choke.' Simple. Unfortunately, the spell Rita broke was a 'kepriax' (sp?) and it's really bad. How bad? It's a curse, actually, that will continue to de-age them to ... nothing. To before they were a glimmer in their fathers' eye. Willoughby's old mentor Miss April may be the only person who can help them but he can't seem to get his powers up to full speed to find her. Laura asks if the rumor is true that chaos magicians don't get their full powers until they lose their virginity, and Cliff is wondering if Willoughby got his V-card unpunched by the spell. Willoughby isn't happy with the jibes but the powers kick in and he locates Miss April's traveling tea room in ... Toledo. Well, it's just two towns over so into Cliff's beater they go.

With time of the essence, Cliff and Jane manage to get hooked up with some high schoolers at a gas station, Jane referring to one of them as 'Euphoria' (hey, some network cross promotion!). One of them loves Jane's Woodstock vibe, and another says Cliff looks like his racist grandfather ... but fresh as fuck. The kids will share their weed with them if they buy them a six-pack and a bottle of brandy which of course they agree to. Rita and Laura go to the ladies room and Laura tries desperately to talk to Rita now that they are alone, but Rita is not going to discuss anything while she's being stared at by a used condom on a broken diaper changing station. She is sure, however, that once they find Miss April, everything will be back to normal but Laura isn't sure Willoughby said Miss April could actually fix them and that Rita needs to lower her expectations. If there was a perfect de-aging spell, Niles would have found it, no? Rita wants to remain in denial and leaves Laura alone, talking to herself. But she chases Rita through the parking lot and tells Willoughby they'll catch up later.

Jane and Cliff bring their new friends to the car because they've been invited to a party. Umm, have they forgotten they're on a mission? Jane, Cliff and Vic ask why is saving the world always on their shoulders, like stopping the Eye in the Sky or it will delete everyone on Earth? One of the kids notes that all happened during their homecoming. Willoughby has had enough and tells them to get in the car without the cast of 'Freaks and Geeks After Dark' so he doesn't have to return to his father's 'hairy goosh'. Well that's a lovely picture, innit? Cliff starts mocking him, and Vic calls him a 'square', which they all begin chanting before Jane changes the chant to 'virgin'. Willoughby gives in and says they can go to the party -- for five minutes. The party appears to be at the high school pool. Cliff is a hit, helping kids do keg stands, and Vic isn't sure this is legal (who's the square now?). Jane tells him to loosen up and he does, taking off his shirt and cannonballing into the pool. In jeans. Even Willoughby is starting to have a good time.

After some dancing, Jane sits at the edge of the pool smoking a joint, and Vic joins her. She notices he's actually ... smiling? Guilty! And to prove he is cool, he takes a hit and starts coughing, confirming to Jane that he was indeed a teenage nerd, captain of the sports teams, Mr. Goody Two-Shoes. For her, Miranda was the teen, so Kay shipped her off. This is her first experience with teen-hood and it's like that janky carnival ride that makes you want to puke but also don't want to get off of. The experience is reminding Vic of his high school friends in Detroit, but things are different now. But why do they have to be? If Jane could have the smallest chance of that kind of connection with people, she'd do everything she could to get it back. Vic reminds her that he has a few things on his plate, but she tells him the world is always going to need rescuing, and when you're out there saving the world who in the fuck is saving you? That was deep ... and she is pretty lit. But she's right. Vic excuses himself and she takes another hit, exhaling a large cloud of smoke. Everyone around her fades away and the cloud produces a light show while colorful blocks appear on the surface of the pool. She decides to walk across them, and midway she finds Kay sitting there, arranging other blocks in the air. Jane gets very emotional and apologizes to Kay for using her body as if it were her own but it's always been Kay's. Kay smiles, touches Jane's face and tells her it's their body. Everyone fades back in and Jane is still at the edge of the pool, realizing she is super high. She looks across the room and sees a much younger Willoughby and he looks and sees a much younger Jane as they hit the next stage of the de-aging to pre-teens.

Laura and Rita are at a bus station, presumably getting tickets to Toledo, but Rita is now much younger as well. Laura joins her on the bench and admits that the spell did work on her, but she didn't like what she saw as a teenager and used her powers to look like herself, but underneath the facade she isn't okay at all. Rita calls her out for just being a typical control freak and if she had Laura's powers she'd be anything she wanted so no one could find her. Laura says it's not that simple. When people found out about her powers, many of them she thought mattered to her left her. Her teenage years were full of heartbreak which her mother said stained her soul. For her the heartbreak was a void, a chasm that kept her from finding any true connections, maybe that's why she's the way she is, maybe she has become the chasm. But weren't she and Rita friends? Laura was the one person who made Rita feel like everything was going to be okay and she misses that. She misses Laura but Laura hurt her and she'll never have her best friend back ever again. Laura misses Rita too and has never stopped thinking about how she hurt Rita, what she did to Malcolm and the Sisterhood. She is so very sorry but doesn't feel she deserves an ounce of forgiveness. Laura begins sobbing and has revealed her true, now younger self. Rita seems moved by Laura's genuine emotion and moves over on the bench to give her a hug.

Back at the party, Jane and Willoughby now sense the urgency to their mission and try to get Cliff -- who looks the same but has obviously mentally de-aged -- to come with them. Cliff, however, is enjoying the time with his new friends and tells Jane that if she and the others were truly his friend then maybe once in a while they'd ask him if he's okay, which he clearly is not. He's got a fucking over mitt taped to his hand! Having had enough of them, he moves the party to a new location But where is Vic now? He's somehow made his way back to Detroit, knocking at his friend Derek's door. But when Derek opens the door he sees the Vic from his childhood.

Willoughby and Jane finally leave the party but he's having a tantrum about not wanting to die like this. Jane just wants him to shut up so she can turn into a pile of goo in peace. The Knights Templar appear, and one of them tells Willoughby he's been a naughty little boy but they are there to rescue him. He brings out Bunbury who tells him that if he wants his magic back, he'd better get in line. The generous offer doesn't come without a bargaining option so do not test the guinea pig's patience. Willoughby approaches Bunbury, who blows some powder in Willoughby's face, returning him to normal. Bunbury calls Jane to him to have a chat. Jane, however, panics and runs but before she takes more than a few steps a blue-pink cloud of smoke appears and she runs into it. When it clears she's a baby on the ground. The Knight puts Bunbury on the ground and he approaches her. Baby Jane starts crying and Willoughby tells Bunbury to just take when he needs and be done with it. Bunbury raises his paw over Jane's face, his eyes light up and it looks like he may be extracting Jane's longevity. But we're left to wonder is it for safe keeping, or are the Knights working with Immortus? And if that's the case, was Willoughby simply attempting to extract everyone's longevity?

Only one more episode left until the mid-season finale!

Episode 6 :: Hope Patrol

And here we are at the mid-season finale point of Doom Patrol and everyone has a lot to unpack as it becomes clear that only Larry and Cliff still have their longevity, and somehow Willoughby was able to reverse the de-aging spell as everyone is back to normal. But did he do it? No one really knows and no one really lingered on the issue because they all have major issues to resolve this week.

Jane & Cliff

Jane is happy to be herself again but not thrilled that her hair has some gray in it. And while she wants to kick into action, she is getting no help from Cliff who is just concerned with fixing his car and getting to Florida to touch Rory. More on him later. Fed up, Jane goes to The Underground to have an audience with Kay but finds all of the others doing jigsaw puzzles ... because that's what Key told them to do. Jane is flabbergasted by their behavior and tries to get them to rise up and maybe live a little but they're as much help as Cliff was. Jane decides it's time to pay a visit to Shelley at the Sweets Shop, and finally she gets a warm welcome. Shelley hoped Jane would come back but wasn't going to try to force her. Jane struggles to admit that she is feeling something for Shelley, and when she finally gets up the courage to give her a kiss ... she can't. And she doesn't know why, and it's pissing her off, so she leaves.

After ignoring Jane, Cliff finds himself talking to the hand, his hand, which has now somehow become a sort of Jiminy Rory, talking to Cliff and basically giving him a hard time for not helping Jane. But Cliff, perhaps feeling that this is some manifestation of his Parkinsons, tries to ignore his hand as well. But it gets to him and he begins to talk back, saying that he's a bad person and he really doesn't deserve any kind of friendship, love or happiness. But the hand shows him that's not true because of one recent act -- Cliff didn't destroy the frozen zombie butt. He took pity on this thing that was once alive, and even though it is a zombie butt, he still couldn't disrespect its frozen carcass. Realizing that maybe the hand is right, Cliff goes to Jane to apologize, to really mend some fences with her, even removing the oven mitt from his new hand to hold hers, and then they both agree it's time to kick some Immortus ass and get her longevity back. But before they do, Willoughby appears and warns them that they have to protect Cliff and Larry. He also tells Jane that Bunbury was trying to protect her by taking her longevity, but Immortus' minions came to get it, apparently killing the furry creature and doing a number on Willoughby. Even more reason for them to go look for a fight!

Vic

Vic's friend Derek is giving him a ride back to Cloverton -- and it's still not clear how Vic got himself to Detroit -- after Vic did eventually revert to a baby, and Derek had to change his diaper. A little something Vic asks him to never talk about again. Derek is curious as to why, out of anywhere he could have gone, did Vic chose to come to his place all the way in Detroit? It was a weird night, Vic says, and it's not every day they get hit with a youth spell. Derek begins to see this as some 'Level 9 magic' from one of the games they used to play. But when they return to Doom Manor, they find something unusual -- even for Doom Manor -- in the kitchen: the portal that opened up and took Larry and Rama.

Larry & Rama

The last time we saw Larry, he was being sucked into a portal with Rama jumping in to save him. Where they ended up was a land in another dimension called Orqwith, Larry being led through the weird forest by men (?) in black head-to-toe leotards with giant scissors for hands, the scissors at Larry's neck. Rama catches up and tell the Scissormen to release Larry, that he's his target and he'll bring him to The Sacrarium himself but when they refuse he uses his powers to tarnish their scissors. Rama says they need to go and cut a portal back to Earth, and Larry is totally confused. Rama says Larry was probably brought there because they felt he was taking too long to bring Larry in himself to extract his longevity. Larry asks if that's what happened to Rita and wants to know exactly what Immortus is. Rama says Immortus is hope, hope that they can each have some desperate wish they've had but given up on. Immortus has shown them a vision of the things that lie before them, and when they usher him onto this plane he will make their wishes come true. Larry bluntly tells Rama he's describing a genie. Is Immortus a genie? Rama says even Larry has a wish, to perhaps never be separated from Keeg? But how does Rama know Immortus has this power? He tells Larry that the temple they just saw rose from the ground when Dr. Janus deposited Rita's longevity. Larry says it's usually not a good sign when a bone temple spontaneously rises from the ground, bur Rama says they all have to put their faith into something. Larry asks why Rama saved him, and he said because hurting people wasn't part of the plan, and that others have forgotten that. Rama asks Larry if he meant it when he said he would help him find another way to stabilize his molecules, and Larry says he does because no one has experience getting out of impossible situations like he and his friends. Larry promises that after they stop Immortus, they will help him. He can put his faith in Larry. Rama says Larry has his faith and he opens a portal back into the kitchen.

When they exit, Cliff is there and he wants no part of the guy who zapped them into Rita's movies and put them on the path to losing their longevity. Larry assures Cliff that he can trust Rama and Cliff begins to feel a little sexual tension between the two men. Larry tries to brush it off but then asks Rama is there is sexual tension -- there might be -- but before Rama can convince Cliff he's on their side, Keeg emerges, pushes Larry back through the portal and when Rama runs after him Keeg causes a huge explosion that knocks Cliff backwards into the pantry. Keeg then goes through the portal. Vic and Derek arrive and see the portal, and Vic kicks into superhero mode, telling Derek to stay behind. But Derek knows that Vic is vulnerable without his tech so he grabs a knife and goes in behind Vic.

Rita & Laura

Rita and Laura are still at the bus station, back to their adult selves, but Laura has to assume that when they reverted to babies either the bus driver didn't see them on the bench or the human race has gotten to a point that no one would lift a finger to help two babies apparently left on the bench. But when Rita asks if there is another bus to get them home, Laura tries to convince her they have a mission to carry out. Rita just wants to lay down and make peanut brittle. Laura tells her enough of that nonsense, they will get her longevity back and save the universe. Laura suspects that someone at the Bureau picked up the Immortus Project where Niles left off, finding a way to actually conjure Immortus, and to stop all of this they have to go back to where it all began -- the Bureau. Rita is not down with that, but Laura tells her their friends are in danger and ... they are heroes, are they not? Rita gives in and Laura asks her how they get in. Rita says that's the leader's job but Laura tells Rita she is the leader. Laura was only the leader for one little moment out of necessity, but Rita is the true leader. Laura knows how to play to Rita's vanity.

Cut to the Ant Farm, and Rita is disguised as a dirty bucket of water while Laura as transformed herself into an old male janitor. Rita is able to snatch a key card so they can get access to the Records Department, and when they get there they find an empty space where the Immortus Project records are kept. Laura looks at the card to see who last checked them out and is stunned when she sees the date -- January 13, 1955 -- and the borrower, Asset 34771, which she quickly tries to hide from Rita, telling her it's a dead end and time to go home. Nothing to see here, maybe one of the others can find out more but it's time for them to go. Rita finds this reversal in Laura's gung-ho behavior a bit suspicious and demands to know who checked out the records. Laura gets emotional and tells Rita is was Wally Sage, the man she once deemed a weapon and the man who killed Malcolm. It all started right there with Wally, and now this is all happening because she put him there. Rita tries to tell Laura it's not her fault, but Laura says it was she who doomed him and others to that hell, and now her past has come to exact penance. Laura begins to question her life just as Cliff did, wondering how she deserves anything but a life of pain. Rita snaps into leader mode -- and friend mode -- and says if they have to confront their pasts that's what they'll do even if Laura obviously does not like confronting her past. Rita says she's the leader and Laura has to do what she says so she will take them to Wally's cell and deal with it.

When they get to the cell, the walls are covered with pages and pages of drawings and one that Rita discovers is Malcolm's last moments is particularly disturbing. Also written on one wall is 'Enter the Kingdom of Orqwith' and on the other is 'Immortus will rise'. It seems to these eyes that Wally is most likely the artist to whom Dr. Janus and Torminox gave Rita's longevity and Dorothy's necklace. Wally is nowhere to be found but they hear a noise and see a face peering at them from another cell door within the cell. Laura transforms her finger into a key to try to get the door open, abd when she does she asks Wally to come out. Wally just says 'so much pain, it will all be over soon'. Laura says they didn't come to hurt him, but he emerges and says they already hurt him. When Rita sees Wally's disfigured face, the shock causes her to blob out. Laura quickly transforms into a bird to get above Rita and her blob form engulfs Wally. When Rita returns to normal, she does not know what happened to Wally and when she turns to look in the cell, Laura sees papers stuck to the back of Rita's coat. One has a drawing of Wally with a terrified look on his face. Rita panics and is certain she smushed Wally, but Rita tries to calm her. They don't know what happened but they have to leave because the alarms are going off that intruders have been detected.

Orqwith

Everyone but Rita and Laura end up in Orqwith. Larry and Rama are in The Sacrarium, and Vic and Derek are trying to come up with a plan when they see the Scissormen. Derek had earlier noticed the odd flowers that Vic told him not to touch, but again he notices them and points out they appear to be made of paper, and like in any good game they are there for a reason. In fact, the paper flowers have pens in the middle so Derek figures that if he draws something it will become real. He starts small, a butterfly, and his assumption was right as it jumps off the page.

Larry is taken to a room where there are three figures in long robes and large head coverings, their faces hidden. Larry is placed on a table and Keeg activates, suddenly transporting Larry to The Future. He's back in the manor being torn apart by a horde of zombie butts. He gets away and flies to space because his radiation was leaking. He tells Keeg he doesn't know what to do, but it looks like Keeg does as he flies them to the sun. In the present, Larry asks if this is what future Keeg showed him, and now he thinks that to save the world he has to destroy Larry? He says Keeg doesn't have to worry about that because they stopped the Buttpocalypse so they can deal with whatever is coming, just like they stopped The Brain, the Decreator, Mr. Nobody ... oh, it never ends, does it? Does Keeg think it's inevitable, that Immortus can keep them together forever? Keeg causes Larry to glow a bright white and he tells Keeg that he trusts him. Immortus can have his longevity.

Vic and Derek are still working on how to save Larry, coming up with drawings on several sheets of paper that represent the robot they built in school, with a shoulder mounted laser turret, of course. There is a rumble so they assemble the papers and they fly away, reassembling, bringing the robot into reality. Mr. Invincible is online and awaiting orders. Vic tells Derek to do the honors and he instructs Mr. Invincible to take out the Scissormen. Mr. Invincible orders the Scissormen to drop their weapons and they have five seconds to comply. Cliff and Jane show up, and Cliff has a mini keg on his hand for some reason. Cliff says he's not taking any chances and his special hand is only meant for loving now. Jane says ew, and Cliff wonders who is on their side. Her money is on the robot. He's outnumbered and has a huge stick up his ass. Cliff says the robot is a kindred spirit. But when Mr. Invincible is about to fire, he bursts into dozens of pages, confusing Cliff and Jane, and putting Vic and Derek into the clutches of the Scissormen. The doors to the Sacrarium open and the three robed and hooded figures emerge. Jane tells Cliff to look alve but he points out that whatever god that just destroyed the other robot can destroy him too. Jane just gets sassy with the figures, telling them they look steamy, questioning if they've interrupted bath time. One of them slowly walks down the stairs, stops and removes his hood. It's Wally, and he tells Cliff he's the final piece of the puzzle. And then both Cliff and Jane are held by the Scissormen. Cliff didn't see that one coming. They walk to pair up the steps and Jane assures Cliff they've got this. It's nothing like a rabid horde of zombie butts. And then the Rory hand decides to chirp up, asking his Pop-Pop if he remembered to close the freezer door all the way. Jane has no idea who Cliff is talking to, but Cliff has an 'Oh, fuck' moment. Back at Doom Manor, the zombie butt is in fact thawing out, making its way out of the freezer and into parts unknown. For now.

And when does Doom Patrol resume? Apparenly only Immortus knows. Stay tuned and we will return when the show does.