This is a Dynamike Network podcast. Hey everyone, Marvelous Joe here at the top of the episode.
With the approaching holiday season, we're officially underway with this year's holiday charity drive
and lead up to our charity dual episode in a few weeks, which is gonna be Alfred Pennyworth
versus Edwin Jarvis. This year, all donations will be going once again to Pop Culture Classroom,
a nonprofit organization that delivers educational resources to school districts, teachers, and
community organizations using comics, graphic novels, and related pop culture media. Their
mission is to inspire a love of learning, increase literacy, and build community through the tools
of popular culture and the power of self-expression. To donate, visit our official store through
dynamicduel.com where you'll find two donation options. One, if you're Team DC, and one if
you're Team Marvel. Or you could go directly to dynamicduel.com slash donate DC, one word,
or... dynamicduel.com slash donatemarvel, which are linked in our show notes. We're making
the charity drive a competitive duel this year, except the only stat is which side can donate
the most. Everyone who donates will receive a digital poster featuring original art of
Alfred and Jarvis drawn New Yorker style by Johnny DC. One lucky random donor will win
a framed print of the Alfred versus Jarvis art that we'll announce during that December duel
episode. Which fan base is the most charitable? Right now, Marvel is still ahead. with four
more donations than DC. So Marvel guys, let's keep it going. Let's keep it going. DC guys,
y'all are a bunch of slackers. I said it. On with the show.
Hi and welcome to the Dynamic Duel Podcast, a weekly show where we review superhero films
and debate the superiority between Marvel and DC by comparing their characters in stat-based
battle simulations. I'm Marvelous Joe. And I'm his twin brother Johnny DC. And in this episode,
we're going to review season 4 of the Mac series Doom Patrol, which ended actually a few weeks
ago, but we're just getting to the review now. It was a fantastic season. I mean, not the
best probably, but the show is just so good. I don't know if I would say it's my favorite
DC show now that Sandman has been made, but it's definitely up there, and this season did
not disappoint. We'll talk all about season 4 later on this episode. Before that, we're
going to break down the comic book movie news to come out this past week, of which we just
have one news item, and that is the official trailer 2 for the Suicide Squad Isekai anime
animated series. As always, we list our segment times in our episode description, so feel free
to check out the show notes if you want to skip ahead. to a particular topic. As our listeners
may know, our duel simulator is so advanced that it's gained sentience and has named itself
the Artificial Lifeform for running extensive duels, just a rather very intelligent simulator
9000 or Alfred Jarvis 9000. He has a quick message for our listeners, so listen up. Why hello
there. Do you love listening and chatting about Marvel and DC? Then become a part of the dynamic
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your Pip Cheerio.
Yes, Senjou World is currently on break right now for the month of December, but definitely
check out that podcast if you want to find out who'd win between your favorite anime characters.
And just released yesterday was the newest show in the Dynamike Podcast Network called Console
Combat, in which hosts John and Dean find out who would win in fights between your favorite
video game characters. That means right now you can listen to their initial release of
episodes, including Nathan Drake from Uncharted vs Tomb Raider's Lara Croft. Hitman's Agent
47 vs. Ezio Auditoria from Assassin's Creed, and Gino from Super Mario RPG vs. NES from
Earthbound. Visit dynamicpodcasts.com or click the link in our show notes to listen to all
the shows in the Dynamike Podcast Network. But with that out of the way, quick to the No Prize!
A No Prize is an award Marvel used to give out to fans. Our version, the Dynamic Duel No Prize,
is a digital award we post on Instagram and in our email newsletter. for the person that
we feel gave the best answer to our question of the week. Last week we asked if Brainiac
is the villain in Superman Legacy, who would you cast as the character and why? We got a
lot of great answers for this one, it seems like you guys were really excited to cast a
potential villain for the new DCU, so let's go ahead and run down our honorable mentions
as well as the no prize winner. Our first honorable mention goes to, Miggy Mathingian, who said,
Hey what's up guys, it's Miggy, and I would cast Mads Mikkelsen as Brainiac. Imagine the
zeal of the first Doctor Strange villain, the intelligence of the banker from Casino Royale,
and the poison evil of Hannibal Lecter. And I think that would be a perfect Brainiac villain.
He's also done a bunch of these like tentpole blockbuster movies, so he would have no trouble
doing it. All right, thanks guys. Yeah, Mads Mikkelsen is a fantastic actor. As many of
you know, he was Casilius in the first Doctor Strange film. but he has yet to play a role
in DC to my knowledge. And I think he'd make a fantastic Brainiac for sure. Yeah, the guy
does a lot of villain roles, but luckily he's a good actor. So they all feel somewhat different.
And I think he could bring actually quite a bit to the role of Brainiac. So I agree, great
answer. Our next honorable mention goes to Jacob Bell, who said. What's up guys, Jacob, Jacob
Bell here. I'm gonna go with Oscar Isaac. for the role of Brainiac. I think that we know
how he can act. We know he's a great actor. We know that he has the look. I think his look
would be perfect for Brainiac in particular. I know that X-Men Apocalypse wasn't a great
movie, but we know that he has that in him. And I think a second chance would be awesome.
And I think this role in particular, Brainiac would be perfect for that. So I'm gonna go
with Oscar Isaac. You know, when I first heard Jacob Bell's answer of Oscar Isaac, I was like.
I mean, that guy's like in everything. Hasn't the guy already played a DC role? And no, he's
played three different Marvel roles. He's in the MCU as Moon Knight, he was in the Fox X-Men
universe as Apocalypse, and he's in the Sony Spider-Man universe as Spider-Man 2099. But
he has yet to do a DC role. Yeah, I mean, I agree. He might be a little overexposed right
now, but if I heard the news that he was cast as Braniac. I wouldn't hate it to be honest,
because I think he's a fantastic actor. Yeah, I go back to his villain role in Ex Machina.
Oh yeah. I think, just take that role and apply it to the character of Brainiac, that cold
calculating persona. I think that'd be fantastic. It'd be perfect. For sure. Great answer, Jacob.
Our next honorable mention goes to Lizzie Dyer Arnie. Who said? Hey, it's Lizzie. Definitely
inspired by Invincible for this week's Question of the Week. I think Zachary Quinto would make
an excellent Brainiac. He's a good villain and he can play a great character without emotion
as we've seen in Robot Uninvincible and as Mr. Spock. Also, he can nail the monotone voice
that is needed to play Brainiac. He'd be great in the DC universe. So yeah, when I think of
robotic actors, Zachary Quinto is definitely one of the few that comes to mind first. His
turn as Spock was fantastic. Also, his villainous role in... the Heroes TV show has also sold
me on this answer, I think he would be great in the role. Yeah, plus I don't know, for some
reason, Zachary Quinto just seems like a DC type of guy. Like he seems like he'd fit well
into that universe of characters. Maybe because I'm associating his co-star Chris Pine with
the Wonder Woman movies, but still I think yeah, Zachary Quinto would be fantastic in the role.
Before we reveal the no prize winner, we want to give a quick shout out to Brandon Estregard,
and Travis Herndon for calling in and leaving their answers. You guys all gave great answers,
there was no wrong answer there. But the winner of this week's No Prize is Andrew Shunk, who
said, Hey guys, Andrew Shunk here. The person who I think should play Brainiac is Damien
Lewis. His acting in the movie Dreamcatcher was awesome. His acting in Homeland and the
show Billions, he can play a very smart character. and is very cunning and has an evil side. So
I think he'd be an excellent brainiac. Yeah, I don't know how much of a household name Damien
Lewis is. I think if you Google him, you'll certainly recognize his face, but he is the
lead actor on the Homeland series, and he's won a ton of accolades over the years and has
really been poised to break out on the film scene. I think he has the look for the character.
I think he looks hyper-intelligent. and sinister, he would just absolutely shine in a Brainiac
role. Yeah, he was not my first choice for the role. But now that Andrew Shunk has given this
answer, I have a hard time thinking of someone who could do the job better. You're right.
He's not a household name, but I think he absolutely has above and beyond what it takes for the
role. If he was cast tomorrow, I'd be like, oh, that's freaking perfect. Awesome. More
perfect casting for this movie. So congrats to Andrew Shunk for winning this week's No
Prize. If you the listener want a shot at winning your own No Prize, stay tuned to later on this
episode when we'll be asking another question of the week. And now that that's done, on to
the news.
Okay, so last week we got to our first full trailer for the anime animated series, Suicide
Squad Isakai. I had forgotten that this was a series, I was thinking this was a movie for
some reason, so that was a nice surprise. Animes are known for their lengthy series. I'm not
sure how long this one is going to run, but it looks like it's going to be pretty damn
cool, so hopefully it fits good a long time. Of course, Isakai is a specific anime subgenre
where the main character or characters travel to a foreign land or a new world. In this case,
it looks like the Suicide Squad is traveling to a Japanese mythical fantasy world, which
is interesting. I've never quite envisioned those characters in that specific setting.
Yeah, it seems like it's just part of a plan by Amanda Waller. Like she wants to send the
squad there for some reason. I'm sure that'll be a mystery, but the characters that are in
this series look pretty badass, including Harley Quinn, Joker, Peacemaker, Clayface, Deadshot,
and King Shark. Clayface was a huge surprise for me. Of course, he's a pretty prevalent
character in the Harley Quinn animated series, as is King Shark also in this series. I'm really
curious to learn more about why they chose the specific characters that they did. It's really
interesting to see how these characters play into the Japanese archetypes. Seeing King Shark
as the big dumb brute is actually really satisfying when he's in anime mode. And same thing goes
for the gun-toting badass that is Deadshot. And Harley Quinn, who's like, you know, the
manic pixie girl here. And that's what she always is, but it just feels fresh when you see it
in the anime style. Yeah, it's a hella cool style. The voice work in the trailer is Japanese
and it's, you know, pretty good voice work. I tend to be more of a fan of the subs over
the dubs, and we'll see if they have both as an offering. We have no idea how we're going
to be able to watch this yet. whether it's going to be available on iTunes or maybe even Max
or another streaming platform. Crunchyroll maybe? Maybe, maybe. That would be cool for anime
fans if it was. But sad for me because it's another platform for me to subscribe to, to
review this. Because I want to review the hell out of this. I loved Batman Ninja. Yeah, the
recent animated series My Adventures with Superman was heavily inspired by the anime style as
well. And that was great. I've yet to come across anything DC and anime that isn't awesome. Hopefully
this will be as well. Still not sure how everything is gonna work out in this fantasy land, but
that brings us to our question of the week.
What is your favorite alternate universe slash dimension for Marvel or DC? Yeah, there's a
ton of them out there. For Marvel, like off the top of my head, there's like, you know,
the Microverse, Kahn, Lunn, the Astral Plane, places like that, you know? And of course DC
with the Multiverse, you have Earth 2, 3, 4, on and on and on, but you also have places
like Azeroth and Gemworld, the Phantom Zone. Let us know what your favorite is. Yeah, record
your answer at dynamicduel.com by clicking on the red microphone button in the bottom right
hand corner of the screen. which will prompt you to leave us a voicemail. Your message could
be up to 30 seconds long, and don't forget to leave your name in case we include you on the
podcast. We'll pick our favorite answer and award that person a Dynamic Duel No Prize that
we'll post to Instagram and our email newsletter. Be sure to answer before December 9th.
But I think that does it for all the news for this episode, so let's go ahead and get into
the main event where we review Season 4 of the DC Maxx series, Doom Patrol.
Okay, so the Doom Patrol concluded its fourth and final season last month. Despite originating
on the now-defunct DC Universe streaming app, the show survived a transition to HBO Max,
finishing up on the platform now simply known as Max, all while maintaining its dark, absurdist,
laugh-out-loud, funny yet introspective tone. It's been consistently good in its past seasons,
a show that I've recommended highly to anyone who'll listen. And this final season, in my
opinion, was a worthwhile conclusion to an emotionally beautiful show, albeit one that also defies
the action-focused tropes of the superhero genre. Yeah, if you're looking for an action superhero
television show, this is not it. If you're looking for weirdness, humor, and just saying what
the fuck a lot, this is the show for you. It's a little bit more of a mellow, live-action
version of the Harley Quinn show. Sure, yeah. But better, I think. It's more of a character
study. than an action series. Absolutely. Since we'll be talking about how the series ends,
make sure you watch the series, including the entire fourth season, before listening further
because we will be going into spoilers. And the way these characters' stories ends is just
so beautiful, you don't want to ruin it for yourself. Be sure to absolutely watch season
4 before listening to this review. Now if you haven't finished the show, I totally get it.
The release schedule for this fourth season was as absurd as the show itself. with the
first episode of the season debuting in early December of last year, 2022, and the series
ending almost one year later. I really like this show, but I didn't even start watching
season 4 until they started releasing the second half of it in October. It's like, as HBO Max
transitioned to Max, they forgot about Doom Patrol and the Shuffle, which is super discouraging
as a fan of the series, and I feel like there has been little to no talk about it because
people simply forgot about it. With Superhero Fatigue maybe unofficially setting in this
year, it's especially bad for a show as good as Doom Patrol to be overlooked or dismissed.
Though with this review coming out almost a month late, I guess we're as guilty as anyone
for diminishing the importance of the show. Yeah, I blame you on that one. We should have
reviewed this like a month ago. Well, there's so much that came out and there's so much to
talk about. I don't know. Apologies to anyone who's a major fan who's been waiting for this
review. Because it's an important show. I think it's so unique to the genre and more perhaps
intellectual or at least psychological than really anything else out there right now from
DC or Marvel. I mean sure, the show has zombie butts, but the show also makes you question
the humanity of the butt race. Yeah, the butts are creatures that have shown up since season
1. of Doom Patrol and I was hesitant watching the trailers for this season, seeing them and
feeling that they had kind of overstayed their welcome by this point, like the gag had kind
of run its course. And I feel that about a lot of the jokes within the show, like the what
the fuck thing was just so overblown. But as the season progressed, I think they made brilliant
use of all their long running jokes. Yeah, some of them become definitely eye roll worthy as
we're now in season four. But I gotta say I'm gonna miss them for sure. Yeah, for sure. The
show holds kind of a special place in my heart, even as a Marvel fan, just for its uniqueness,
quirky. There's really nothing else like it. And I'll miss it. And I thought Loki season
two went out with a bang. This is one of the most emotional, powerful endings to superhero
television, television show, nay, any television show that I think has ever been made. I will
agree. I think they went out with an absolute bang. And I think they went out at just the
right time as well. I think four seasons is probably good for a series, especially one
that started to sort of rehash some of the same storylines over and over. That was something
I noticed, you know, each season kind of tends to be where like, oh, they're facing this huge
threat and, you know, they become depressed, but they kind of like rally together at the
end and bring themselves together to overcome, you know, whatever the threat is. You can only
do that so many times. And I think they just about hit the wall with this season. but they
also do a lot to make it feel special, I would say. Yeah, a lot of closure at the end, a lot
of great resolution. Absolutely, and I would also say this is probably the most existential
season of The Four, in that, you know, thematically, it revolved around mortality, which was appropriate
for a show in its final season. You know, the stakes and threat of death felt more tangible,
because as an audience, we knew any one of our favorite characters could be killed off in
the final episodes. And it turns out a couple of them were. Did you cry? I will reveal that
later. I'm not ready to. Fall my fucking eyes out, man. Oh, man, I was not even prepared
for how this show ended. I was not even ready, but it got me so hard in the feels. And I felt
like I was ugly crying, which I don't do. Like, I wouldn't say I'm terribly sensitive when
it comes to emotional filmmaking, but. after spending four seasons with these characters
and getting to know them inside and out and backwards and forwards and the way the show
said goodbye to the characters, I almost think wasn't fair. Like they went so far pulling
the heartstrings that I don't know if I'll ever recover from this final season. Yeah, I mean,
they definitely pulled on the heartstrings, but in a way that didn't feel manipulative,
I felt. Right. Oh, it was totally earned. Yeah, absolutely. It was a masterclass on how to
do a perfect resolution for your characters. I think your words are really well said and
I'm glad that I'm not the only one who cried because yes, since you admitted it, I will
admit that I did as well. You got to be a machine, a robot man, not two, I feel like. Now of course,
regarding the theme of mortality, you know, the Doom Patrol this season visited in the
first episode, the future and learned that they're all dead without learning how they died. So
when they returned to the present... You know, they were focused on preventing that future
while also over the course of the season, aging rapidly and having to deal with their bodies
and minds failing them. As I get older, I find myself growing increasingly nervous about the
aging process as like my knee starts to like not be a normal knee and just like hurt for
no reason. Just weird random stuff like that, you know, you don't even think about in your
20s. Aging is not a graceful process. And I think they kind of showed that in this show.
Yeah, I think long-standing fans of Dynamic Duel know that we started this podcast on our
30th birthday. We are now 37, and there is a world of difference, let me tell you, between
30 and 37. Your body just basically wants to die. Yeah, especially after a heavy night of
drinking. But yeah, considering that throughout the entire series, we're dealing with characters
that have lived over the span of decades and have never aged, I think the stakes were sufficient
this last season when their longevity was taken away. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. You know,
their whole superpower has essentially been longevity, or at least that was the main one
that Nels Calder was sort of manipulating them for, created them for. So for that to be taken
away from them definitely changed the dynamic of the show. And as good as this show is and
this season was, it was 12 episodes, which was probably two or three episodes too long, I
feel. You know, past seasons have ranged from 9 to 15 episodes, and I feel like they never
quite figured out the right amount of episodes to tell their story. Some seasons have felt
way too short, you know, blame COVID for that. But some have also felt like they dragged on,
you know, just to fill an episode quota. Yeah, season two felt too short, season three felt
too long for sure. And I would say the first half of season four actually reminded me a
lot of season three. I was getting a little bit nervous that they weren't going to be able
to stick the landing on this final season. But by the time the latter half of season four
rolled around, I was like, OK, they really hit their stride in this season. And it's starting
to remind me more of the better seasons, seasons one and two. I agree. I agree. There were some
early episodes in the first half, like Dorothy Spinner's episode that I thought was great,
probably because I'm just a huge fan of Dorothy Spinner. But yeah, I would agree that once
the show came back from its break, the pacing definitely improved. Yeah, I don't care about
Cyborg playing laser tag with his friends and all the dramatic bullshit that they're going
through. I agree. I agree. I think some of the episodes this season could have definitely
been condensed into half episodes. If only to make room to explain events that happened off
screen. Like, I still don't know how Cliff and Jane got into Orquith. And also, I would have
liked them to have fleshed out more of Dorothy's story, because I really feel like we didn't
get to say goodbye to her at all. No, yes, you just kind of disappeared after the Immortimus
episode. Yeah. And I don't like that. I don't like that. I would have liked to have said
goodbye. Now, I may have felt differently about the episode count if there was a little more
action this season overall. I think seasons 1 and 2 had a good amount of action, though
season 3 and 4 were kind of lacking that department. There weren't really any big standoffs, I guess
is what I mean. Even at the end, when we finally saw Vic fire a laser and Jane transform into
Silver Tongue, that battle was interrupted by a bunch of singing butts. Which probably sounds
good on paper, since the vibe of the show is more of a study of humanity than an action-packed
superhero spectacle, as we've mentioned. And of course, that's what I like about it, but
I'll admit the final battle felt fairly underwhelming in a way that say like Ezekiel the cockroach
versus a giant rat didn't. Right. Well, I mean, the final battle was a cop out. How they resolved
that with essentially two major antagonist villains and threats of the season joining together
and making friends and everything being okay. That's a huge letdown. But you don't really
watch Doom Patrol for action. True. Very true. You know, the show did a tremendous job of
wrapping up the character story arcs and felt much more cathartic and satisfying than what
we got from some other DC shows like Titans. But let's talk more about the characters and
their character arcs in our character breakdown. Starting with Cliff Steele aka Robotman, who's
played by Brendan Fraser and Riley Shanahan. Brendan Fraser does the voice, Riley Shanahan
is actually the guy in the suit. The two of them together combined make the character of
Cliff way more likeable than the character has any right to be. Like Cliff is a fairly frustrating
character in that he reliably makes bad decisions, even though his heart may be in the right place.
But the final scene was so incredibly moving and beautiful and satisfying in that Cliff
finally got what he wanted. that I felt a profound sense of loss once the credits started rolling.
Like I was just sitting there in my bedroom, just like sad. Devastated, right? Like how
dare this show just end with Cliff's eyes going dark, you know? That was the final shot. He
got to see in that time crystal his grandson's entire life play out and he was like, this
is me coming home and then he dies and it's devastating. Like I was emotionally wrecked.
Like, how could they do that? I don't know if it has to do with the fact that I have a daughter
now. And just thinking about her becoming a grandparent down the line and everything like
that and how her life is gonna play out, all the joys and sadness and everything. It just
destroyed me. I think things like that definitely hit harder since I've become a parent. Although
I've been a parent for a while, bit longer than you now. But no, I agree. I think that definitely
contributes. You start to think a little bit more about mortality, a little bit more about
legacy. a little bit more about your children's lives and how you could improve that and what
you could do for them and things like that. I think that was Cliff's whole arc this season.
You say that you were devastated, but I wanna make sure we were devastated in the best way.
Like we were sad, but it was a happy sad, like a heartwarming kind of sad. My heart was warmed,
but also shattered into tiny little bits. That were warm. They were warm little bits. Yeah,
but no his arc, you know, he lost his arm last season and he got a new one at the very beginning
of this one built for him by Vic and his father Silas that had a sense of touch. Cliff created
a hand puppet for himself using an ovedment so that the first thing he would touch would
be his grandson Rory. But with him still suffering from Parkinson's disease, he distracts himself
throughout the season with other projects and tasks and the knowledge and fear that he's
dying soon and desiring to leave some kind of legacy for his family before that happens.
At a certain point in the season, Cliff gets so depressed about his mental condition that
he gets suicidal, which was sad. But by the end of the show, and like we mentioned the
final scene we see, the fact that he finally got his wish to be able to see his grandson
grow up, and the fact that he's so at peace with that, that he just dies, I think is the
perfect ending. for Cliff. Yeah, at first I thought it was a little bit tragic considering
the characters got their youth back. They were restored to their former vitality only for
him to travel to Florida and realize that the Parkinson's is coming to claim him. I was like,
that doesn't seem fair. Like he's talking about how he thinks maybe he moved to Florida to
die. But when it happens, it was beautiful. Cliff can sometimes get a little grating over
the course of the show, but I felt largely that he avoided that this season. I think mainly
because the amount of stupid decisions he made was kept to a minimum. Even though he made
some huge dumbass decisions like keeping the butt alive and stuff like that, but it came
from a very touching place, I think. So when you can identify with Cliff's actions, he's
endearing. When you don't identify with them, he is super annoying. And I feel like this
season went with the former a lot more. And you know, even when he does make mistakes,
more often than not, they're accidents, right? So like leaving the freezer door open was an
accident. Breaking the chief's spine. That was crazy. I was not expecting that. It happened
so fast and I was like, wait, what? Poor Tim. First of all, I was so glad to see Timothy
Dalton back in the role as the chief. Right. But to see the guy thrown into the corner of
a bar was so freaking shocking. I couldn't believe it when I saw it. But then even after that,
you know, Cliff made the correct decision in leaving Kim with his longevity. Even though
he probably felt like that was another bad decision, it was also the right decision. So it's stuff
like that where he makes up for some of the frustration associated with the character.
Yeah, in the end, like kudos to the writers and to the performers for creating one of the
most endearing, yet frustrating, asshole, yet teddy bear type character. Just a lot of conflicting
emotions regarding Kim. Just a fantastic creation. I would love it so much if this show won a
couple of Emmys. Like it deserves it, you know? I don't know if it'll happen, but I would love
it if it did. At least for writing. Yeah, I think it would deserve it for sure. And you
know, some acting. Speaking of that, let's move on to Rita Farr slash Elastigwomen played by
April Bowlby. I've said it before, but April Bowlby deserves an Emmy for her performance,
maybe more so last season. But she is consistently amazing in a role where she has to perform
as someone almost constantly performing. Oh yeah, her performance is just a masterwork
of technical acting. I'm surprised I don't see her more often in stuff. Right? April Bullby.
Because she just seems like a good enough actress to do almost anything. And I wonder if she's
almost too good in this role. I hope she doesn't get typecast or anything and that we see a
lot more of her now that the show is over. Yeah, she needs to be in movies, I feel like. Yeah.
Now after traveling back in time last season, Rita has lived the longest out of anyone else
on the team and took it upon herself to lead the team, though early on this season the team
betrays her and chooses Laura to take Rita's place as leader. A majority of the conflict
this season for Rita came from her relationship with Laura, who committed the ultimate act
of betrayal last season in being responsible for the death of Malcolm, Rita's lover. Now
I'd say Rita's character took a step back. from last season and that she somewhat goes back
to her self-centered D.Va personality. Ultimately, as she says herself, she wasn't right to lead
the team in battle so much as lead them into lives beyond the Doom Patrol because she cares
about them. And in the final episode, after she herself dies, she disbands the Doom Patrol
and is able to reunite with Malcolm in the afterlife, which I was really happy to see. I don't know
if I like the funeral pyre scene because I felt it was somewhat disrespectful. But you know,
as Laura mentioned during that scene, like there's nothing really beautiful about death. Yeah,
I mean, it kind of subverted the emotions that the viewer was feeling seeing one of, you know,
their beloved characters pass on. But it did it in the best way possible in the show's trademark
humor. And really, you got further payoff later on that episode when you saw her reunite with
Malcolm. I don't begrudge them that great bit of comedy. Yeah, it was so good. For my money,
it was the best gag in the whole show. Definitely the best gag of the season, I would say for
sure. Moving on to Larry Trainor, aka Negative Man. He was played by Matt Bomer and Matthew
Zuck. We can't really see their performance. We don't get any facial performances or anything
like that. I would say, though, it's still a good performance and that it's still moving.
Last season, Larry nurtured a giant cocoon that eventually hatched into an infant negative
spirit entity named Kieg Bovo. After being forced to abandon his prior family, Larry became very
protective over Kieg, who seemingly becomes angry with Larry after conversing with his
future self in the first episode of the season and believing that he may be responsible for
Larry's death. With Larry afraid that no one will be there to care for Kieg if he dies,
Things become more complicated when Mr. 104, aka Rama, enters the scene as a villain allied
with Immortus to capture the team's longevity. Though Larry and Rama find a connection in
that they're both dying and can't harm each other with their radiation, Larry rejects Rama
after the promise that Immortus would grant their wishes proved to be a lie. By the end,
however, Larry regains his longevity and, deciding that he is actually worthy of love, rescues
Rama from the bottom of the ocean, and the two seemingly merge in space with Keeg, the three
of them able to exist together as a ball of energy or like a miniature sun out in space.
Larry has lived up to his name as Negative Man throughout the series, consistently being something
of a downer, so it was nice to see that the writers found a way to give him a perfect ending,
like the others, like no downside. Yeah, after spending a lifetime of going through so much
shit, it was nice to see all these guys really get the ending that they deserved. There is
no exception. And I thought it was really cool that he turned into a star, you know? Yeah,
very poetic. Moving on to Crazy Jane, aka Kay Chalice. She was played by Diane Guerrero.
Normally- I'd be praising Diane's Emmy worthy performance as not only Jane but other alternate
personas of the character but we really didn't get to see any of that this season and that's
always sort of been like my favorite part of the performance that is Crazy Jane. Well we
had the psychiatrist lady in the first couple of episodes but yeah that quickly went away.
Right. At first I thought Jane's arc here was going to be a healing journey from the incident
that caused Jane to exist to begin with, which was sexual trauma when her boyfriend took her
to an orgy and she had to defend herself. And so I thought it was going to be like this kind
of sexual awakening into a relationship and finding her new purpose in that and kind of
healing from the hurt that she felt previously. And it kind of went that route, but it really
went about it in an awkward way with scenes of like, masturbation that were kind of hard
to watch. Yeah, I think it was supposed to be awkward too, though. You know, her arc this
season was interesting in that Kay wanted her to find a purpose for herself outside of protecting
Kay. Because as we came to learn, Kay and the Underground were healing from the ancestral
trauma that Kay had sustained as a child. You know, but with Jane cut off from the Underground,
she wasn't able to heal like the others. and was left to face the conflicts of the season
alone, attempting to mature and age in a body she felt didn't really belong to her. And I
think that's where sort of some of the awkwardness came from. But by the end of the season, Jane
realizes that K's body was hers, that it belonged to all of the personas, as they also remembered
the trauma they'd endured. And Jane was able to merge with the other personas to form one
persona named Kaleidoscope, or K for short. and was willing to risk romantic love once
again. It was such a beautiful ending for the character above and beyond what I thought was
possible, though I did think her relationship with Casey felt a bit rushed. Yeah, but they
seem like a good match for each other. Actually, you know what? They didn't really have any
chemistry at all, but I like to believe that all of these characters kind of got their happy
ending, so I'm choosing to believe that they were just meant to be. I guess they did have
the connection that they both felt like they weren't real people, so there's that. Moving
on to Vic Stone, aka Cyborg. He was played by Joyvon Wade. I've honestly never really cared
for this show's take on Cyborg, though I do think Joyvon gives a good performance as the
character. But removing Cyborg's tech is probably the least interesting thing you could do with
the character. And I think this season took a little too long in getting Vic to realize
he should be Cyborg. Like you, I didn't care for the whole reuniting with old friends story
arc. just felt like an unnecessary subplot, but I guess having an old techie friend was
a good way to introduce upgrades to the character. I just wish that friend was an established
comic character, like William Magnus or something like that, you know? That would have been exciting.
Yeah, I think like I mentioned in my review for the She-Hulk television series, it's not
very interesting watching a superhero actively try not to be a superhero, especially when
that superhero is badass, you know? Right. Exactly. I do suppose that having Vic realize this dream
of giving back to the community as a mentor figure was as satisfying a conclusion as the
character could have had, though a more perfect ending, I think would have been a cameo from
the Titan show characters, at the very least a Beast Boy, you know, just like the cameo
that cyborg had in the Titan show. Yeah, I was expecting something like that. I was expecting
that kind of crossover, but it never happened. And so it made the crossover in the Titan show
feel even more pointless and empty. Absolutely. Especially considering the fact that, you know,
this version of the Doom Patrol is an alternate version from the one that debuted in Titans.
But now we know that Beast Boy can traverse the multiverse. So why not do it? Right. Or
instead of the Titans, maybe it would have been cool to see him graduate from the Doom Patrol
into the Justice League. You know, that would be a cool ending for him, too. I guess I shouldn't
say boom. Booyah. Moving on to the final character, Laura DeMille, AKA Madame Rouge. She was played
by Michelle Gomez. The women. Actresses in this show kill it. If you can't have Timothy Dalton-Snyles
Calder in the show, Michelle Gomez is a fantastic runner-up. Yeah, she's fantastic at portraying
the inner conflict of Madame Rouge. Oh yeah, 100%. Great character actor, you constantly
know sort of like what emotion she's feeling. Just with her eyes and her facial features,
it's fun to watch Michelle Gomez give the performance. Now Laura had a bigger role this season than
probably any other character on the team. In a way, I think she supplanted Rita as one of
the show's five main leads. Not only was she the team's leader, giving her more agency than
many others on the show, but she was put in positions such as facing off against Immortus
first or making others realize that they were in an alternate musical reality that gave her
more screen time. She questioned whether she was good or bad as she continued to feel guilt
over her past actions and I'm still not quite sure how I feel about her conclusion, you know,
where she essentially tries to burn down the ant farm. Like, okay, that's kind of in keeping
with the character, but was she successful or did she go out in a blaze of glory and get
killed in the process? We'll never know. I like to think she was successful. She was good enough,
I think, to bring that whole thing down and the Brotherhood had normally needed to be brought
down. In the end, I think she kind of transformed into an antihero type character, which is pretty
cool. Oh, that is cool. Yeah, I'll take that. That's an acceptable answer. She kind of found
that happy medium for herself where she's doing moral good through amoral actions, like the
Punisher or something like that. You know, the Brotherhood of Normalcy and the Outfarm is
an evil organization. They do a lot of evil shit and she will burn them all alive with
a flamethrower if she has to. I think that's great. I think that makes sense for her. Yeah,
and that sounds really dangerous for the character, which is fantastic. I wish we could almost
see her continue her journey. It was at times frustrating seeing her struggle with her morality,
like when she would often bail on the team to go drink vodka or something like that. It wasn't
terribly exciting to watch, but I really chalked that up more to the season having too many
episodes than anything really regarding the performance of the character. I agree. I feel
the same way 100 percent. But now that we've talked about each of the characters, let's
get into our story highlights.
Hey guys, Johnny DC here to remind you that this show is partnered with cufflinks.com to
save you money this season on your Marvel and DC men's accessories. You can get 20% off anything
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You can do that too for less. Again, by visiting cufflinks.com and using the code dual 20 at
checkout to get 20% off. Thanks guys. Episode one was titled Doom Patrol. Rita for struggles
to lead the Doom Patrol now a superhero team against a villain known as codpiece. After
the battle, Vic and Silas stone successfully repair Cliff's robotic hand granting him a
sense of touch. Cliff proposes using the time machine to travel to his grandson Rory in Florida.
But after colliding with Isabelle Feathers, an amateur actress from their hometown of Cloverton,
in the timestream, a malfunction sends them to the year 2042. They encounter an older version
of Vic, who reveals that zombified werebots have destroyed the world and that the other
members of the Doom Patrol have died, except for Laura DeMille, who abandoned the team.
While the Doom Patrol are distracted, speaking with their spirits that now haunt Doom Manor,
Future Vic tries to use the time machine to travel back to the past and stop the Butt Pocalypse.
The team manages to stop him and travel back in time just as they escape a horde of were-butt
zombies. In the present, Jane becomes the dominant persona of her body once again and Larry's
new young energy spirit, Keeg, refuses to communicate with him. Meanwhile- Willoughby Kipling meets
the Knights Templar and learns of a prophecy about the impending arrival of Immortus. The
fight against Codpiece was freaking hilarious. Like they find him disgusting to fight, you
know, but like there's that part where Elastigirl has to like point his gun away from the team.
And so she has to like grab his crotch weapon kind of thing and like pull it away. I was
dying of laughter. I was rolling. I thought it was funny when Laura DeMille went up against
him. and her like crotch laser is tiny and he's like just staring at it for a while. And he's
like, are you trying to body shame me? It was such a good moment. Trying to clear up any
like time travel paradoxes or anything presented here. I guess I do have a question in that
the Doom Patrol actually didn't do anything to stop the apocalypse. It was the actions
of that one scientist lady that taught the butts to like musicals. Right. So why did the apocalypse
happen in this future timeline? I guess the only difference was that this team crashed
into Isabelle Feathers while going through the time stream and that created the Immortus paradox
wherein her villainy resulted in a kind of cancellation of the Werebup apocalypse, right? Yeah, I think
Isabelle Feathers has everything to do with any kind of paradox. Her introduction to the
timeline kind of threw everything for a loop. I also really laughed when they crashed into
Isabelle Feathers in their time machine. And Madame Rouge was like, oh God, she likes to
watch people pee. That's right. It was such a throwaway thing in season three when Isabelle
Feathers fell into that hole. It was interesting that they brought that character back to be
like, be the main bad guy for the season. Yeah. It turned out to have quite the ramifications
for this entire season. Oh yeah, absolutely. The next episode was titled. Butt Patrol, in
which Rita attempts to lead the team in preventing the bleak future they witnessed, but the team
rejects her leadership and makes Laura the new leader to Rita's dismay. Laura and Cliff suspecting
Darren Jones, the former head of the ant farm, to be the cause of the zombie chaos, embark
on a solo mission to find and stop him, while Jane and Vic pose as Bureau of Normalcy agents
to contact the Butt Hunter, keeper of the last living zombie werebot. At the manor, Keeg brushes
off Larry while Rita confronts him for supporting Laura. Larry spills about Rita's leadership
flaws and his desire for a good relationship with Keeg, while Laura and Cliff find Darren,
now a zombie farmer, whom Cliff regretfully kills. The team reunites at the manor with
Vic and Jane, securing the last zombie were-butt, Frozen, which Cliff is tasked with destroying,
though he's unable to bring himself to do so. Unbeknownst to everyone, One more were-butt
lives in hiding with a former employee of the Bureau of Normalcy named Dr. Margaret Yu. Now
I have to ask, was like the butt hunter supposed to be like a twin brother of the beard hunter
or something? They didn't look similar but they were both bizarre characters. I just love that
they exist. It's just freaking hilarious. Maybe they could team up and fight crime together.
Do you know if the butts have any roots in the source material? I don't believe that they
do but I could- totally be wrong. I haven't read like all of the Doom Patrol comics. So
maybe, but I don't think so. The visual of them singing and dancing was just so bizarre. I
think I mentioned this every time we review a season from the show, but like just thinking
about popping someone randomly in the middle of one of these episodes and see them witnessing
some of the strangeness that is within the show would be actually an enjoyable experience because
they would be going, what the fuck? No, honestly, legit. That is my wife who tends to pop in
as I'm watching the show. I think it might be just a little bit too weird and absurd for
the average viewer, but absolutely when she sees stuff from the show, she's like, this
is a really weird show. Moving on to episode 3, which was titled Nostalgia Patrol, Vic reconnects
with his old pals, including his former best friend Derek, who calls out Vic for keeping
his distance post-accident. Though Derek gives Vic an old toy robot they built together for
safekeeping. Rita receives an invite from a film festival showing the classic movies that
she starred in, which she attends, only to get physically sucked into the world of her films.
To help Laura make amends with Rita for taking over leadership of the team, the Doom Patrol
attends Rita's screening, but also gets sucked into the movies, though Laura manages to escape.
Within the movie verse, they meet Oliver Truman, who reveals that Dr. Yanis is attempting to
drain Rita's emotions. The team finds Rita, but Truman, revealed to be a villain named
Mr. 104, aka Rama, traps them on the set of the movie Spartacus 452. Yanis urges Rita to
save her pals, siphoning emotions for a mortis. Keek swoops in, rescuing the gang, but Rita
goes unconscious before they are all teleported back to reality. This was probably my least
favorite episode, though I would say that one of my favorite moments of the entire season
was the scene where Cliff and Jane were in the horror film. And they're like, this isn't scary
at all. And then they're like, oh, holy shit. When they like saw the kid, we're hiding in
the closet from him. I do like when the show kind of explores different genres in that way.
literally taking us into an old romance movie, then an old horror film, then like a 1970 sci-fi
film. That's always interesting to see, but yeah, the Vic stuff here really sapped the
momentum of anything interesting that was happening. Also my least favorite episode. Honestly, if
I was Vic and I was around like those crybaby friends, I'd be like, well, thought you guys
were cool. Fuck you guys. And just walk out. Yeah, same. I'm like, I'm a goddamn superhero.
I don't need this shit. But also like I'm an adult. Right, right. Whatever. Next episode
was titled Casey Patrol. Sometime after parting ways with the Doom Patrol, Dorothy has managed
to reacquire her father Niles Calder's necklace, which was used to keep him immortal in order
to conjure his spirit and reunite with him. While staying with Danny the Street and their
residents, she distances herself from the rest of the community. One night, a swarm of cybernetic
bugs invades the street. converting the residents into robots, minus Dorothy and Mara Lee. Dorothy
realizes the robots are the same ones from her favorite comic book series, Space Case, and
manages to materialize the heroine Space Case, aka Casey Brink. Dorothy and Casey explain
to Mara Lee that the attack is orchestrated by Torminox, Casey's nemesis who is also her
father. The trio confronts Torminox in real life, but Casey hesitates to take him down.
while he manages to capture Dany and defeat the Candlemaker easily. Later, Casey attempts
to plead with Torminox, but he ignores her while demanding Dorothy's necklace. She hands it
over while revealing that she had never reunited with Calder, and she was trying to distance
herself from Dany and the others to not be reminded of him. After Torminox retreats with the necklace,
Mara Lee gathers the community and implores them to embrace the real world when they are
ready. Casey and Dorothy decide to go to Cloverton to find the author of the Space Case comic
book. Unbeknownst to them, the author is working with Yannis and Torminox and preparing for
Immortus' arrival as the author tells Torminox that Immortus might help them live out their
dreams. Now, I didn't know that Space Case was going to be in this season at all. I remember
you talking about her going into your Danny the Street backstory in their duel episode
against
Yeah, I was surprised as well. I was also surprised by the origin they gave her and that Danny
didn't bring her to life. But Dorothy did. I thought that made a little bit more sense.
Yeah, I do love how Moralee kept misnaming Torminox. She was calling him like TurboTax and Tampax
and stuff like that. Yeah, that was funny. That was good. How do you feel about Sabretooth
being Torminox? I didn't realize that until the end credits. You know, he was covered in
such heavy makeup and prosthetics. I didn't even recognize Tyler Mane. Yeah, neither did
I. I did like this episode again, because I think I'm just a fan of Dorothy. So I'm glad
she kind of got an episode all to herself, just so we could get like a recap of what she's
been up to. Even though, you know, the recap we got at the beginning of the episode turned
out to be a lie. I was a little bit surprised that she ended up back on Downey the Street,
considering that for the longest time, she felt that living there was a prison. True. Right.
I know she clearly felt that way back on him again that she had just wound up in another
prison. After spending time with the dead boy detectives, I'm surprised they didn't just
have her go straight back to Doom Manor. Right. Moving on to the next episode, titled Youth
Patrol, Larry attempts to track down Keeg and encounters Mr. 104, who has been forced to
host Keeg in his body. Through Keeg, Larry learns that Mr. 104 was once a man named Rama, who
was constantly being experimented on by the Bureau. As a result, Rama has joined forces
with Yanis and pledged to a mortis. hoping to reverse his condition before it goes out of
control and causes a mass extinction event. Larry pleads with Rama to find an alternative
solution. Just as King returns to Larry's body, a dimensional portal sucks him in and Rama
follows in pursuit. At the manor, Kipling reveals to the Doom Patrol about Immortus, who is an
ancient deity capable of eliminating reality. He also reveals that Calder once spoke of having
a piece of Immortus. which he used as a catalyst for his necklace, as well as his experiments
on Larry, Rita, Cliff, and Jane to retain their longevity. Rita wakes up and finds that she
is aging, prompting her to look in Calder's office for a remedy. She breaks a vial containing
a de-aging spell, which also affects the Doom Patrol and Kipling. The team set out to find
Kipling's mentor to reverse the spell, but the team, driven by their youthful demeanor, decide
to attend a pool party. Rita and Laura break off on their own and finally make amends after
a tearful conversation. After talking to Jane about friendship, Vic decides to go and see
Derek, though he turns into a child by the time he gets there. As the de-aging spell accelerates,
Bunbury and the Knights Templar arrive at the party and turn Kipling back to normal while
Bunbury proceeds to extract Jane's longevity after she turns into a baby. I thought this
was a great concept for an episode. For some reasons, you know, seeing superheroes de-aged
into their kid forms is always a fascinating type of character study. Like with the X-Babies,
that's what it reminds me of from the comic books. That was pretty interesting. But yeah,
just another great way to explore these characters. Of course, Cliff, ever the tragic character,
you know, gets his brain de-aged while his body is still a giant robot. But yeah, I thought
it was interesting just hearing like the different things that they went through as teenagers
and growing up and stuff like that. Particularly the character of Jane, because it was interesting
that she never really had a child. That was all, you know, Miranda's time, the former main
dominant persona. So one thing I found interesting in this episode as well was that this whole
concept of Immortus as this like powerful deity, of course, he's not that in the comics. General
Immortus was the one responsible for the chief's paralysis in the comics. He's just a bad guy,
essentially. Not an all-powerful bink. It just seemed more like the Marvel version of Immortus
to me, who is a Time Lord variant of King the Conqueror. It's almost like the DC writers
got confused with the Marvel character. I was kind of confounded by that the entire season.
I didn't even know Immortus was a character in Marvel Comics. Yeah. What a bunch of fucking
copiers. Dude, obviously this show ripped off that version of Immortus for this season. Like,
what are they trying to do? They probably didn't even know Immortus was a Marvel character like
me. Obviously, they're a bunch of Marvel fans that wrote for the show. You don't know. You
don't know things. Moving on to episode 6 titled Hope Patrol. After the de-aging spellers reversed,
Cliff advises Jane to make the most of her remaining life instead of pursuing Immortus. She visits
a member of the Sisterhood of Dada named Fogg, aka Shealy, and attempts to confess her feelings.
But is conflicted. between her desire to live for herself and her self-imposed duty to protect
K. Larry is taken to the pocket dimension Orquith by the Scissorman, mindless drones with scissors
for hands. Rama saves him and takes him back to the manor via a portal before Keeg intervenes
and takes both of them back. Rita and Laura infiltrate the ant farm to learn more about
the Immortus Project. but find its records missing, having been borrowed by an inmate named Wally
Sage, a metahuman who was labeled a weapon by Laura in the past and also Malcolm's killer.
They visit Wally's cell, but upon seeing Wally, Rita panics and transforms into a blob, seemingly
killing Wally. Vic and Derek return to the manor and pursue Larry through the portal, while
Cliff convinces Jane to continue their fight against Immortus. An injured Kipling arrives
informing the two of them that Bunbury was killed by Amortis' agents who took Jane's longevity,
but they ignore his warning. Keeg reveals to Larry his vision of the future where he was
forced to kill the latter to protect the universe. Believing that Amortis can allow the two of
them to stay together, Larry allows his longevity to be extracted. Meanwhile, Vic, Derek, Cliff,
and Jane are captured by the Scissorman, while they are greeted by Wally and two other Immortus
agents. Cliff realizes that he didn't close the freezer all the way, causing the werebots
to thaw and get loose. Now there's quite a few questions that this particular episode brings
up, like the fog, aka Sheely. I don't understand how she made that connection with Jane. Like
all of a sudden a door in Jane's room leads to the fog. Yeah, and how did she end up in
Jane's puzzle? Yeah, in that earlier episode. And why did she do that to Jane? That was weird.
And who did Elastigwomen crush in that cell if it wasn't Wally? Oh, that turned out just
to be a creation of Wally. A false construct of him. Okay, that wasn't clear to me. Yeah,
I mean, we didn't learn that until later episodes. But also, we never learned how Cliff and Jane
get into Orquith. Yeah, you have to kind of just assume that maybe Flit took him there
or something? No idea. And they even mention it in a later episode. how like they don't
know how they got there. It's just like a throwaway line. But the fact that they called it out,
they should have realized that they probably should have explained how that happened. Yeah,
Laura and Rita had to build their own portal generator using the notes that they got from
Wally's cell in order to even get to Orquith, which seemed pretty complicated, you know?
Exactly. Should not have been easy, right? I did like the fact that they introduced the
Scissorman in this episode, even though I think it's a terrible adaptation of the Scissorman.
Like in the Doom Patrol comics, the Scissorman are very, very dangerous characters. They could
literally like cut you out of the comic page and then you just cease to exist. They're very
different in the show. I did like how Vic's friend was able to conjure up weapons just
by drawing them and stuff like that. Yeah, that was cool. Again, it would have been cooler
if it was William Magnus. So that last episode was where things ended with the mid-season
hiatus that- It turned out to be almost a whole freaking year. So episode seven entitled Orquith
Patrol was where people started to get to watch the show again. Rita and Laura escape the ant
farm with Wally's drawings, though the former becomes depressed, believing that she had committed
murder. Laura later convinces her to help her build a gateway to Orquith to help the others.
In Orquith, the group manages to escape captivity. Vic and Derek split from the group to find
Larry, while Jane and Cliff go to find Wally. They encounter Wally, who shows Cliff a vision
of a potential future where he can be happy with Clara and Rory, prompting Cliff to cave
and willfully surrender his longevity. As Sage, Torminox, and Dr. Yannis finish their ritual,
Rita and Laura reunite with the group and they are also joined by Dorothy and Casey. As the
ritual finishes, Rita is shocked to find that they have summoned Isabelle Feathers. her theater
rival who is pushed into a time hole by Laura when she initially arrived in the present day.
With the wardens possessing her, Isabel kills Sage, Torminox, and Dr. Yanis, and unleashes
a scream that destroys the Orquith dimension. I was so pissed off at Robotman when he caved
and let them take his longevity. Yeah, rightfully so. Like, he knew he was being manipulated
and he still went with it. I don't know if it's a result of his brain deteriorating, but I
just hated it. The next episode was titled Fame Patrol. The gang wakes up and finds themselves
in the real world and follows a confused Isabelle, who is discovered by a local driving by. Isabelle
later gets on TV and talks about her return to the audiences of Cloverton. Believing at
Mortis to have been a lie, the group returns to dealing with their personal problems. while
also accepting their mortality. Larry is contacted by a disembodied Rama and helps him reassemble
himself with Keeg's power. Cliff panics as he attempts to find the zombie butt he didn't
kill, while also struggling with his Parkinson's condition as Dorothy attempts to help him.
Casey tries to be a friend to Jane, who is lost in her own mind and unable to reach the underground
and offer counsel only to be rejected. The group later decides to attend a parade celebrating
Isabelle's return. Upon arrival, the townsfolk hails them as heroes, much to Isabelle's chagrin.
Meanwhile, Laura notices that Isabelle has been rewinding time to manipulate reality in her
favor, and only she is able to notice. When Isabelle finds out from Mayor Claire Delaire
that the parade is intended to celebrate the Doom Patrol finding Isabelle, she snaps and
unleashes another scream. It's never explained why Madame Rouge is the only one able to see
how Immortus is manipulating time. I don't know why. Well yeah, and same goes for the next
episode. How she was able to snap out of the false reality too. There was something going
on there, I guess, where maybe because she didn't have her longevity taken or something like
that, I have no idea how to rationalize it. But again, it was like one of those things
that made Laura almost feel like she was the main character of the show. Yeah. I actually
thought the scene where Isabelle rewinds time for that first time was pretty frightening.
Like that was scary. Yeah. Straight from a horror film. The next episode was titled, Immortimous
Patrol. Isabelle puts the Doom Patrol, Dorothy, Casey, and Rama in an illusion of a perfect
world where they live out a holiday in honor of her, named Immortimous Day, and constantly
break into musical numbers with help from corporeal versions of the sex ghosts. During a number,
Laura's old memory is triggered, breaking her out of Isabelle's spell. She helps the others
regain their memories, though some of them remain uncertain whether they wish to remain in Isabelle's
perfect world. Later, Isabelle visits Doom Manor and attends the Doom Patrol's dinner, but the
group renounces her illusion, leaving her distraught. Isabelle returns the group to their normal
state while taunting that they are doomed. Again, also terrifying. Not much happens in this episode
because you know they're all stuck in an alternate reality, but I did enjoy the heck out of this
episode. Yeah, I didn't know there was gonna be a musical episode this season. It's funny
watching these actors like sing and dance because I feel like it gives somewhat of an insight
into the theater kids that a lot of them probably were during their school days. Right. Yeah,
Joyvon, definitely a theater kid. Yeah, Diane Guerrero. Yeah, Abigail Shapiro, the actress
who plays Dorothy as well. Brendan Fraser. Definitely not a theater kid. Yeah. And same, I would
say, with Michelle Gomez. Michelle Gomez can't really sing. That was a little bit painful,
but I think it's supposed to be funny. Yeah. Out of all of them, I would definitely say
that Vic killed it. My favorite scene, though, was like as Vic was like doing his song, a
dance number all of a sudden, like peace started lighting next to him and getting interupted
as Cliff was just like, oh, I'm just trying to fill my dick in the window. I still can.
And then Madame Rouge opens up the door. She's like, what are you doing? He's like, singing.
And then that final shot with negative man coming into frame down below. He's like, you okay
up there?
I also really liked the confrontation at the dinner table between all of them. That was
a really interesting scene I felt. The following episode was titled, Tomb Patrol. After seemingly
killing the last were-butt, the butt hunter encounters a were-butt named Teddy, who tasks
him with a mission. Vic meets with Silas at Star Labs and asks to be upgraded into Cyborg
again. Isabelle invites the Doom Patrol to her one-person play in Cloverton. While Laura learns
that Isabelle's source of power, the group's longevity, resides in a skin tag behind her
neck. She proposes to the others that they should attend Isabelle's play in an attempt to recover
their longevity, but they refuse out of fear and wish to spend their remaining lifespan
in peace. Meanwhile, Dr. Yu returns home and informs the where-butt Nicholas of Teddy's
plan to start a war with humankind. while also revealing that she had been turned into a were-butt.
Laura attends Isabelle's play alone, where the latter is ridiculed by the audience, causing
her to snap and make them disappear. Laura talks to Isabelle and convinces her that not everyone
will love her the way she wants. Isabelle, however, believes that she should pursue the path of
villainy and gain love through fear. While reminiscing their past adventures, Rita realizes that Laura
has gone off on her own and tells the team to help her. She then collapses and falls unconscious,
leaving Larry, Jane, and Cliff to go to town and help Laura. As they arrive at the theater,
they are surrounded by Teddy and the Wherebutt horde, but an upgraded Vic returns to assist
them. The team runs inside the theater, where Isabelle sends them and Laura through a time
portal. These last three episodes were fantastic. I really felt like they were paced well and
the story really dove into high gear, leading up to its conclusion. I did think it was pretty
gross that Niles's necklace that he wore was a petrified skin tag that was on the back of
Isabelle's neck. Like, I'm trying to think of how that happened. Like, she was falling through
the time stream and the skin tag must have fallen off. in time, I guess, and Niles, you know,
managed to get his hands on it. It's just like this weird paradox, I guess, of how Niles got
his longevity from Immortus. And yet Immortus needed that piece of himself from the Doom
Patrol members to return to time, essentially. Yeah, it's kind of like a chicken egg situation.
Right. Exactly. Episode 11 was titled Portal Patrol. In the time stream, Keek manages to
detect three time portals. leading to different longevity skin tags. The team splits up and
enters each portal while Vic stays behind to resummon them when needed. Laura enters the
ant farm in 1949, where she attempts to steal Calder's necklace, but encounters her younger
self. After getting caught, Laura attempts to convince 1949 Laura to give up her work at
the bureau, but fails. Laura beats up her younger self relentlessly until Vic recalls her. Jane
and Larry enter Doom Manor in 1996, where the former encounters Calder and receives counsel
from him. After revealing that the other personas are gone, Jane is convinced by Calder to admit
the truth, that she and the other personas were born after Kay was raped by her father. Upon
acknowledging her trauma, Jane is reunited with the other personas as they all ride Driver
8's train out of the underground and to the location that Kay was building as they see
kaleidoscope images outside the window of Driver 8's train. Larry encounters the negative spirit
who controls 1996 Larry's body to talk to him and Kieg. The spirit assures Larry that he
and Kieg would be fine in the future before he is recalled. Cliff visits Paraguay in 1948
and finds Calder and Kipling in a bar. They briefly fight Nazi soldiers sent to kill Calder,
but Cliff accidentally breaks Calder's spine on the counter, causing his legs to be paralyzed.
Redden with guilt as well as Kipling stating that Calder will die if the necklace is taken,
Cliff decides not to take the necklace. In the time stream, Vic sends a distress signal which
reaches Derek in the future who helps him locate a time portal to return to the present day
with help from his students and a future Vic. After the group reunites, Jane and a combined
persona called Kaleidoscope does a pep talk as they collectively agree to return to fight
Isabelle. and the were-butt horde. What was the more shocking paralysis scene? Niles Calder
in this episode getting slammed against the bar or Professor Xavier in X-Men First Class.
Oh geez. I actually think the Robot Man one was better because I kind of felt like the
first class one felt just so random, you know, just like a stray bullet for Magneto tagged
Professor X and it's like, oh, now he's paralyzed. But with this one, I think it was. a little
bit more not only humorous in a way, but Robo-Man was definitely more guilt stricken than Magneto
was. That doesn't mean it was more shocking. The correct answer was Professor X in X-Men
First Class. Clearly a better scene. Anything between Doom Patrol and X-Men, Doom Patrol
wins. Sorry. Okay, okay. The final episode was titled Dunpatrol. The Doom Patrol prepares
for their last stand against Isabelle and the Werebutt horde, but Dr. U and Nicholas arrive
and start to sing. prompting the Werebuts to sing along. Annoyed by the butts, Isabel starts
singing, causing the time portal to become unstable and engulf the entire theater. The Doom Patrol
returns to their home to celebrate, but Isabel returns an hour later, having spent a thousand
years in the time stream where the Werebuts were helpful in her tour throughout time. She
offers the team toenails, which grant them longevity. Rita, however, passes away from old age and
her ghost requests the team to disband and cremate her body. Afterward, each member goes their
separate ways. Cliff returns to Florida to reunite with Clara and Rory. Larry and Keeg find Rama
and take him to space where they spend their last moments together before Rama's energy
explodes. Jane goes to space with Casey and affirms her feelings. And Loro returns to the
ant farm and murders every employee with a flamethrower. In the afterlife, Rita reunites with Malcolm.
At Clara's home, while helping Clara with the car, Cliff's arm freezes up and he sees a vision
of Rory's future in the gift Immortus gave him where he goes through similar experiences as
he did. Feeling satisfied, Cliff's body finally shuts down. A great final episode. For my money.
It's actually better than the final episode of Loki season 2, which I thought was fantastic.
If every episode of this season was as good as episode 12 of Doom Patrol, it would be a
perfect five-star show because it was so satisfying, so well done, so well written, so well acted.
It was perfection. I don't know if this last episode was perfect. You know, again, at the
beginning, the final battle was kind of Deus ex Machina in a way, but I would say, yeah,
definitely the conclusion to all of the characters arcs was above and beyond what I would have
imagined for the characters and immensely satisfying. At first my impression was that there were
too many endings. It was starting to feel kind of like Return of the King, you know? Just
ending after ending after ending. Like when I thought the show was over, I realized I was
only halfway through the episode. So I was like, what the hell do they have left to do? I'm
so glad they took the time to really go through each character's resolution though. Yeah. They
didn't just cop out by having the show end when Larry turned off Rita's movie or something
like that. They really explored many different epilogues of the Doom Patrol. And my initial
impatience grew into gratitude at getting to see where they went. Oh, yeah, absolutely.
It made the entire season. And honestly, it kind of made the entire series because the
fact that we got to be with these characters over the course of four seasons, through their
different arcs, through their different trials and tribulations. and just be with them as
they finally attain peace was one of the most magical and beautiful things I've ever seen
on television. It was incredibly cathartic. It made all four seasons absolutely worth it.
I mean, they were already great, but it just brought it up an entire notch in my book. That
all said, I don't think this season was as strong as maybe like the first two seasons. I think
there was a slight dip after COVID. So It was great, not perfect, and ultimately, you know,
the show's existential, mortality-focused final season culminated in a satisfying conclusion
to this absurdist, humorous, and often emotionally profound series. I'm giving it 4 out of 5 stars,
a fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Yeah, I would also give this season 4 stars out of 5. It
just lagged a little bit in the middle episodes, and I was almost about ready to give this season
like 3 or 3 and a half stars. But those final three, four episodes were just so incredible,
so amazing that it rose up the quality of this entire season. I'd like to give it a higher
rating, honestly, because by the time the show ended and even now, I still look back on it
with fond feelings. But, you know, just as I was writing the review, I realized all the
different balls that they had dropped, small balls, which sounds weird to say. But things,
you know, like Dorothy's conclusion. Just some plot holes that popped up in different episodes
and some unnecessary subplots Just prevent it from being as good as it could have been but
still really damn good I think if this season was six episodes like Loki season 2 was like
the Disney plus television shows typically are it would have been A near perfect season. I
don't know. It's a lot to fit in six episodes. Maybe nine episodes. I could see that Yeah,
I could see that too, but that does it for this review guys Let us know what you thought about
Doom Patrol season 4 by writing to us at dynamicduelpodcast.gmail.com or by visiting us on Instagram or X. I wanna
know if there's anybody out there that saw the last episode of season four and didn't cry.
Because it would just be mind blowing to me. Yeah, that would be a tremendous act of will.
Yeah. You gotta be like pinching yourself and be like, don't you cry, don't you cry, just
to make it through it. You can find links to all of our accounts by checking out our show
notes or visiting our website at dynamicduel.com. And on our site, you could also find a link
to our Patreon page. where you can join our Dynamic Duo tier and chat with us and fellow
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our Dynamike Podcast Network. If you can't join Patreon, you can still support the show by
signing up for our e-newsletter, also at dynamicduel.com, so you'll never miss an episode. Please guys
don't forget to visit our website and leave a donation for Pop Culture Classroom which
will get you a digital poster of our upcoming charity duel episode in a few weeks, Alfred
Pennyworth vs. Edwin Jarvis. In our next episode we will be reviewing the Amazon Prime Holiday
Film, Merry Little Batman. I actually had a chance to see an early screening of this with
my family in the movie theater and it was good times. It was really fun, really cute. Definitely
check it out if you have Amazon Prime. and listen to our review. Yeah, I can't wait to watch
it when it comes out December 8th. But that does it for this episode, guys. We want to
give a big thanks to our executive producers, Ken Johnson, John Storowski, Zachary Hepburn,
Dustin Balcom, Miggie Bantanghian, Brandon Estergard, Nathaniel Wagner, Levi Yatin, Nick Obanto,
Austin Wazilowski, AJ Dunkerley, Scott Camacho, Adam Spies, and Andrew Schonk for helping make
this podcast possible. And we'll talk to you guys next week. Up up and away, true believers.
What the fuck?