Doom Patrol season 4, episode 4 review: Casey Patrol

“We’re very lucky to have a safe space to come home to.” Spoilers for Doom Patrol season 4, episode 4 follow.

The Doom Patrol is off doing their own thing, but that doesn’t matter as we return to Danny the Street and Dorothy’s new lives.

Trouble comes to the small community though and Dorothy pulls one of her favorite comic characters to life.

Here’s everything that happened in Doom Patrol season 4, episode 4 “Casey Patrol”.

Doom Patrol season 4, episode 4 review

Return to Danny

It’s been a while since we’ve seen both Dorothy and Danny and it seems like all is well. Dorothy is telling stories of her adventures with Candlemaker and Danny’s community is thriving. But initial looks are deceiving, as we get to see very quickly.

Maura is worried about Danny becoming overpopulated, but he seems to shrug it off, caring more about Dorothy’s problems than his own. Naturally, Maura also notices Dorothy’s depressive looks and tries to figure out what’s wrong. Before she can though, alien robot bugs take over the bodies of the citizens of Danny. In order to try and help, Dorothy manages to bring her favorite comic book character, Space Case, aka Casey Brink, to life so that she can help them.

While this premise of this episode sounds pretty interesting, in practice, it falls pretty flat. There’s one simple reason for that though: None of the main cast is in this episode and it is felt immensely throughout the episode. Every time something happens where it feels like there could be a Cliff or Jane one-liner, there’s nothing. Every time Rita could say something snarky or get through emotionally to someone, there’s nothing. This episode tries to have Maura fill all of the roles that the main cast fills regularly and, while she’s great, having one character try and do that simply doesn’t work.

There’s a reason why this show has consistently worked so well and it’s simply because of the charisma, charm, and rapport that the cast have with each other. So, when that gets taken out for an entire episode, that creates a giant hole that simply couldn’t be filled.

Father issues

While there is a giant, six character sized hole that “Casey Patrol” has, there are some thematic parallels that the episode still does well, mainly around Dorothy and Casey’s myriad of issues with their fathers. Dorothy has shut her imaginary friends away and is simply lonely because she’s missing Niles immensely. Meanwhile, Casey, despite being brought to life, seemingly was brought to life before she was and problems carried over from the page.

So, while the set-up for these themes is strong, the execution simply left a lot to be desired. So much of the episode just fell flat and didn’t manage to convey the emotional weight that so much of the series has been able to so well. All the pieces are there, but it just never comes together in the way that it should in this episode.

Doom Patrol season 4 hits a bit of a speed bump its fourth episode, but hopefully will gain speed again once the main cast reappears.

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

What did you think of Doom Patrol season 4, episode 4? Have you been enjoying the fourth season thus far? Let us know in the comments below!