Doom Patrol season 4, episode 12 review: Done Patrol

“…And you still loved me. Like I wasn’t even broken at all.” Spoilers for Doom Patrol season 4, episode 12 follow.

After coming out of the time stream, the Doom Patrol have one final chance to defeat Isabel and the werebutts.

But who cares about that, we all know what everyone’s here for. The character drama. This is said without a hint of sarcasm.

One final fight

But first thing first, there needs to be talk about the Doom Patrol bringing the fight one more time to Isabel. Do they do much to her at all? No, it’s fun regardless. It’s so satisfying to see Jane using all of her powers, unlike the comics where when she becomes the kaleidoscope, she loses her powers. The show makes this merging of all her personalities a natural culmination for her arc across all four seasons. It’s also great to see Vic be able to use his powers once again.

The werebutts though, they just continuously were not needed at all and took away from the rest of the episode when they appeared. But hey, at least Isabel disappears with them into the time stream. They are mentioned a few minutes later as helping her with gaining her fame, but it’s basically irrelevant as to why they were in the season as much as they were.

Around the table

Once the fight is over though, the Doom Patrol manages to sit around the dinner table and discover what they’re going to do next. This entire scene is heartfelt and lovely, which is exactly what Doom Patrol has managed to achieve from the beginning and still manages to do in this final episode. Everyone’s at the realistic conclusion for their arcs, which is wonderful. Even if that means tragedy has to appear along the way.

Before they get to that tragedy though, Isabel comes back from the time stream and gives the Doom Patrol some toenails for them to eat in order to gain their longevity back as thanks for helping her gain the fame she wanted. But sadly, it wasn’t in time for Rita. So, she dies. And she stays dead because that’s simply what she wants.

So, in the aftermath, Larry and Rita’s ghost have a heart-to-heart about how everything is going to be okay before having one final team meeting, which is heart-achingly beautiful, aka the Doom Patrol special. Even amidst the pain, the show still makes you laugh during her cremation with what the team lays down to be burned with her, as well as the fact that her body won’t simply burn either.

The End

But Rita isn’t the only one who gets a proper send-off in this episode, everyone does, and everyone gets their happy ending. Vic finally has found where he belongs. Madame Rouge destroys The Ant Farm. Larry finally gets to be happy with his love. And Jane finally gets to live a normal life once again.

But then there’s Cliff. He goes back to Clara and realizes one thing. He wasn’t given one last chance to live, he was given the chance to die happy. Which is exactly what happens. He was given one extra crystal by Isabel and, while working on the car that Cliff has had since the beginning, Cliff looks into it and he manages to see Rory’s entire life, which was what he was afraid he wasn’t going to be able to do. When he’s asked what’s wrong, all he can say is “It’s ok. I made it home,” and as Cliff’s eyes fade to black, so does the screen. And that’s how Doom Patrol ends, in a hauntingly beautiful ending that made this writer sob his eyes out.

Doom Patrol ends in the only way that it knew how to end, heart-wrenchingly beautiful and somber, yet still happy in the end.