Doom Patrol season 4, episodes 1 and 2 review: Doom Patrol and Butt Patrol

“This doomed Patrol is the El Dorado of psychological dysfunctions.” Spoilers for Doom Patrol season 4, episodes 1 & 2 follow.

The Doom Patrol is now a superhero team! For real! Or, at least they’re trying to be one thanks to Rita’s leadership.

Even though they’re trying to be the Justice League, their adventures are just as ridiculous as ever.

Here’s what happened in the first two episodes of Doom Patrol season 4.

Doom Patrol season 4 premiere recap and review

Doom Patrol

After everything that occurred last season, Rita begins to lead the (now official) Doom Patrol as an actual superhero team and while she’s succeeding at that so far, they’re still so incredibly incompetent that it’s a miracle they can actually beat anyone, even the ridiculous villain Codpiece. Honestly, this was the perfect way to open the season. Codpiece is so utterly ridiculous on every level that it sets the tone for the season really well. This show is still the utterly insane series that its always been, but its still continuing to use its characters to highlight the ridiculousness.

In the midst of everything though, Vic and Silas, who actually seem to have a good relationship as of now, which is wonderful to see given everything they’ve been through together, make a new arm for Cliff. However, they add a new addition to the arm, nanites that will, theoretically, give him feeling in his hand. So, obviously, the first thing that Cliff wants to do is touch his grandson, so the Doom Patrol uses the time machine which backfires, sending them to an apocalyptic future where Vic is seemingly the only survivor.

The main crux of the episode though stems from one of Jane’s personalities, Dr. Harrison, diagnosing the various psychological problems that the Doom Patrol has with themselves. This really sets up the arcs that each character will have immediately and this carries through to when they encounter their ghost selves in the future. This episode is simultaneously reminding you of the myriad of problems that each one of these characters have while also using the plot of the season to push these characters forward. This is what a show like this should do and, other than season 3, it has done that very well, so Doom Patrol is now poised to do the same with season 4.

https://twitter.com/DCDoomPatrol/status/1595114894101094400?s=20&t=wk-HTRSbrpHvQy2fvAqkXQ

Butt Patrol

After coming back to the future, the Doom Patrol begins to try and figure out how to stop the Were-Butts from destroying the future that they just returned from. First thing they do is to immediately vote Rita out as team leader and have Madame Rouge take the title simply due to the fact that she wasn’t there in the future. Pretty valid reasoning to be honest.

In the meantime though, while waiting for the world to end, the Doom Patrol also tries to deal with their issues, or at least, they’re making them worse. By doing so, Rouge and Cliff head out to kill the zombie Darren Jones, who’s trying to live out his zombie life on a farm. When they get there though, he begs them to kill them, much to Cliff’s surprise and dismay, which is so great. And by Rouge forcing his hand into “killing” Jones, this leads to what is honestly a heartbreaking scene at the end of the episode with Cliff thinking about his lost dreams.

As for Jane and Vic, their frustration in being left out of missions leads to a mission of their own and, along the way, they both are forced to contemplate their purposes in life now that who they are has fundamentally changed. Jovian Wade and Diane Guerrero are genuinely so great in this episode, espeically Guerrero during the scene where Jane is watching Kay’s interview video, and it goes to show that, once again, she is truly the standout of the cast in every shape and form.

As for how the Were-Butts end the world, well, the simple answer to that is musical theater Were-Butts. The more complicated answer is that the Ant-Farm was trying to weaponize the Were-Butts and brought in a specialist named Margaret to try and help with that. In the process, she managed to teach them musical theater, showing that they were more than just weapons. But once the Doom Patrol originally let the Were-Butts out of the Ant-Farm, she didn’t even notice and simply went home where, shockingly, she snuck one of her singing Were-Butts out and is basically keeping it as a pet.

So the world doesn’t end with a bang, but rather, it ends with show tunes. Which really, is there a more fitting way for the apocalypse to occur in Doom Patrol, because nothing else feels as perfect.

Doom Patrol starts off its fourth season on a high note with two very fun episodes that highlight the best that series has had to offer in the past.

The first two episodes of Doom Patrol season 4 are now on HBO Max.

What did you think of the first two episodes of Doom Patrol season 4? Let us know in the comments below!