Doom Patrol season 3, episode 6 review: 1917 Patrol

“By the time she landed in 1917, she was a blank slate.” Spoilers for Doom Patrol season 3, episode 6 follow.

After taking the time machine and traveling back to the early 20th century, Rita is alone, with the Doom Patrol, and encounters the Bureau of Normalcy.

Stuck there, we see the beginnings of how and why the Sisterhood of Dada began.

Here’s everything that happened in Doom Patrol season 3, episode 6 “1917 Patrol”.

Time traveling

The bulk of this episode, thankfully, takes place with Rita in the past and it is such a great storyline for her – one that other time travel stories simply haven’t managed to do quite as well. It feels realistic as to why someone from the present doesn’t immediately go insane from the antiquated ways of the past. And this also ties into why Laura De Mille didn’t remember anything when she appeared in the present either.

Much of the fun of this episode lies in the fact that Rita, or Bendy as she goes by in this one, has no memory of who she is because of the time travel she endured. It’s a nice little consequence to time travel that has never really happened in anything before and creates added context as to why Laura couldn’t remember who she was either after time traveling. It’s almost like a little failsafe that the machine creates as to make sure the timeline stays intact.

This thus leads her to encountering the Bureau of Normalcy in 1917, meeting Laura De Mille at that point in time, getting a job in the mail room (a la Buddy the Elf), and joining up with the Sisterhood of Dada. Honestly, that sequence of events should not work or make sense in any capacity, even in a show like Doom Patrol, and yet, it works incredibly well here. It’s heartbreaking seeing the meta-segregation created by the Bureau agents, but it’s liberating being able to see the members of the Sisterhood simply having fun before fighting back against the agents. You feel for all these characters almost immediately, so seeing them find even a tiny bit of happiness is something that should put a smile on your face.

And because the Sisterhood of Dada appears in this episode, we get to see who they were before they became the antagonists of the season. And, really, seeing them as kind, gentle-hearted people simply wanting enjoy life and be weird, it’s going to be gut-wrenching learning the reason why they became what basically seems to amount to an apocalyptic cult in the previous episode. They were basically the first Doom Patrol. A group of misfits who found a family in each other.

Kay topside

As for the rest of the episode back in the present, it was relatively lackluster. Cliff’s scenes were just him rambling to a camgirl and playing a random Donkey Kong knock-off and poker with nothing really of interest happening there.

Cyborg’s was about him, once again, questioning or not whether he even wants to be Cyborg. It’s executed well enough with a great performance by Jovian Wade, but it’s something that we’ve seen time and time again on this show and it’s just getting stale at this point.

However, the best of the parts of the episode set in the present has to be when Kay finally makes her way topside. Every scene is so innocent and heartwarming as it feels like Jane is making real progress with her original personality. It’s such great character development for her that it almost seems impossible how she got here from her first appearance.

Doom Patrol delivers a mostly great episode here with Rita’s time traveling escapades, but falters a bit in the present.

Doom Patrol season 3 releases new episodes on HBO Max on Thursdays.

What did you think of Doom Patrol season 3, episode 6? Let us know in the comments below!