Doom Patrol season 2, episode 4 review: Sex Patrol

“As long as you’re around, everything is going to be okay.” Spoilers for Doom Patrol season 2, episode 4 follow.

As the Doom Patrol reunites after going on their separate ways last episode, they are immediately met with another problem, Danny the Brick has been broken.

Luckily though, the denizens of Danny, the Danny-zens, are here to help make him whole again.

Here’s everything that went down in Doom Patrol season 2, episode 4 “Sex Patrol”.

How to save a street

With Danny the Street now reduced to just a brick, things didn’t really seem like they could get much worse than they already were for the sentient place. Then a giant spider jokingly scares Dorothy causing her to drop Danny, breaking them into two pieces. Luckily though, this is Danny that we’re talking about, so nothing is even close to being lost, which is where the Danny-zens come into play.

One of the best episodes of season 1 of Doom Patrol was “Danny Patrol,” so to see what is basically the sequel to that episode feels absolutely wonderful. The Danny-zens are just as wonderful as ever and there’s a genuine joy emanating from several portions of this episode due to those characters.

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Even when all seems lost regarding Danny’s recovery, it never actually feels that way in this episode, simply due to the Danny-zens simply not allowing themselves to act like everything is lost. It’s a fantastic shift in tone for the series after the relatively dour opening three episodes, but there’s never a lack of a serious emotional punch, especially regarding Dorothy, either. It’s a nice balance between tones.

Speaking of Dorothy though, so much of this episode revolves around the theme of love, and most of that is shown with how Flex Mentallo and the other Danny-zens treat her. They give her the love and kindness that has really never been shown to her, especially by Niles. He’s spent so much of his life simply trying to “protect her” that he never really has shown her any substantial form of love. Whereas, for example, Flex asks her “Why the long face?” and she simply replies, “This is how I look,” he gets down on one knee, so he’s at her eye level, compliments her and continues to ask how she is. It’s a show of love that she simply hasn’t gotten and, in such a simple scene and act by one character, it hits you right in the heart strings.

The love being shown to Dorothy doesn’t make everything magically get better though as Niles continues to try and control Dorothy, which gives Candlemaker the power it needs to manipulate her, setting up the Doom Patrol’s true enemy for this season.

https://twitter.com/DCDoomPatrol/status/1278750285016567809?s=20

Rita’s control

While the party to help Danny is happening though, Rita approaches Flex Mentallo for help regarding her control over her powers. He gives the advice that she needs to clear her mind, which causes her to remember that the last time her mind was clear was during the “orgasm incident” that Flex caused. So, Rita asks him to do it again and well, this is Doom Patrol, so a sex demon that can destroy the world is summoned.

While there are some serious moments with this portion of the episode, mainly regarding repressed memories for Rita, most of it is patently ridiculous and its all the better for it. Most of the humor from this episode comes from the “sexcapades” and that includes the Sex Men, an obvious parody of the Ghostbusters and X-Men, sex ghosts, pretty self-explanatory, and the aforementioned sex demon. It’s patently crazy and hilarious, while simultaneously making very little sense with pretty much no set-up or explanation. It really shouldn’t work, but somehow it does and is hilarious.

The Jane Mile

As for Jane in this episode, she is still reeling from being locked inside her mind and being taken out as the primary personality. So, we get to see several different personalities in play in this episode, which is quite fun.

Probably the most fun from Jane’s personalities comes from a newly introduced one, the Scarlet Harlot. She’s basically a party girl combined with Hammerhead and, to be quite frank, is kind of terrifying because it feels like she could snap at any time, even more so than Jane usually feels like. It’s really not the main focus of the episode either, but rather simply allows Jane’s other personalities some time to shine.

Doom Patrol, yet again, nails its particular brand of insanity in a funny, yet heartfelt episode that sets up the true villain of the season in a solid way.