Doom Patrol season 1, episode 12 review: Cyborg Patrol

In the most comically bizarre episode of Doom Patrol this week, Cyborg finds himself in The Ant Farm, a prison run by Negative Man’s old friends at the Bureau of Normalcy.

They could’ve called this episode “Ant Patrol,” but here we are anyway.

No, actually, the title fits with the way the series dovetails everything together so neatly. Captured in the last episode — “Frances Patrol” — Cyborg is now a prisoner of the Bureau of Normalcy, who see him as a possible asset.

This brings his father, Silas Stone, back into the equation, and he has to break into the Bureau’s prison for metahumans, The Ant Farm. However, he needs the help of the rest of the team to do it. Trade with the government may be the only answer — but only maybe.

“Cyborg Patrol” (no, really)

Everyone questioned putting Cyborg in the show; he has more to do with the Teen Titans and Justice League, after all. But the showrunners, Geoff Johns included, obviously saw something we didn’t. And looking at it now, let’s face it, if you’re not familiar with the Doom Patrol comics, you would never know Victor Stone was never part of the team before.

He surprisingly manages to not only blend in, but become a component as essential to both the team and show as Jane or Cliff. And Vic reflects aspects of both, which could be why he is such a fine fit. A man trapped in a machine, he struggles with his sense of self: not knowing the line between flesh and cybernetics, where one begins and the other ends, and the limitation of his Grid’s influence.

More from DC Universe

• James Gunn’s Superman: Legacy casts more major DC characters
• New Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom trailer pushes Arthur to his limits
• 7 actors who could replace Ezra Miller as The Flash in the DC Universe
• Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League will have a battle pass (and that’s a bad sign)
• Harley Quinn renewed for a fifth season on Max (and it’s well-deserved)

On the human end is what has made Cyborg so identifiable as a character for so many years — his agitated relationship with his dad. Silas (Phil Morris) is overprotective, but he has the best intentions or thinks he does, and Victor wants to be independent. You can’t blame him when constant tabs are kept on him, and he spends half his time in a lab.

Ray Fisher, the actor who played Cyborg in Zack Snyder’s Justice League hoped we would see more of that play out on the big screen. Studio cuts put a stop to that, and we got the Justice League movie we saw, reshoots and all. Doom Patrol picks up the slack and makes the father-son soap opera an indispensable subplot the show wouldn’t be the same without.

Military-industrial prison complex

Another important wending arc is the Bureau of Normalcy, and what would dramatic science fiction be without government secrets and experiments? The Bureau has ties to Larry’s past and, being on his tail, are onto his new family, too. And come to find out, it isn’t entirely personal.

As we learned about Jane’s mind, the full breadth of the Bureau’s operations is made manifest. They keep metahumans (to them, their oddities) prisoner and conduct experiments with government funding like they’re run by William Stryker. A whole bunch of superpowered beings is kept under their watch, including one that may have something to do with the next episode.

The most bizarre and untested ideas can be put into the stew that is Doom Patrol and, somehow it comes together. Cyborg and his “origin story” are such a part of the show that, when all is said and done, his association with the group will be solidified, if it isn’t already. Joivan Wade plays the Vic Stone we deserve and the team needs.