“Space Patrol” has a few character revelations that stretch the bounds of believability, but is ultimately a heartfelt, satisfying episode of Doom Patrol.
Reeling from the destruction brought by The CandleMaker, Jane and the remaining personalities must figure out their next course of action, having never faced the death of one of their own before. Dorothy runs away believing she killed Jane and steals a spaceship that conveniently landed at Doom Mansion that morning. Cliff and Niles must take another spaceship, one Niles had hid on the property. Vic and Roni connect on a deeper level as they trade traumatic stories with one another.
The Underground is conflicted about how to handle the first deaths of their kind. Some vote for a funeral service, and a new personality shows up to mourn the fallen. Others, like Jane, wants to give it more time. She is ultimately overruled and it’s decided that the bodies will be thrown into the Well, a place only one other personality has gone before, and they’ve never come back.
That is, until right before the bodies drop. Miranda, one of the earliest personalities, emerges from the Well. She then takes primary away from Jane, and the Underground is turned on its head yet again.
Meanwhile, “Space Patrol” dives into Niles’ past, perhaps too deeply. A lot of characters we’ve met have had connections to Niles, which always made sense: he’s lived much longer that most humans ever do, and has been around the extra-normal his entire life. It isn’t surprising that he’d encountered an inter-dimensional beast that ended up being Jack the Ripper, or tracked down a mad scientist infected with a substance that allows him to control time, or was friends with a sentient street named Danny. But when a strange spaceship from the 1950s suddenly lands in his front yard and we learn that Niles had inadvertently invented space travel, it seems like a stretch. Yes, Niles is a genius, but it’s a bit hard to believe that he kicked off the space age.
The crew from the ship are pulled right out of a ’50s family sitcom. Things get weird(er) when we learn that two of them died years back and are actually husks being controlled by alien bacteria. One of the crew members encountered a negative energy similar to the one that Larry deals with and has a negative spirt, although she has become one with it and does not require any radiation bandages.
Confronted with someone who has solved a problem he’s struggled with for half a century, Larry isn’t sure how to react. His difficulties with his family have affected him more deeply than he thought, and is holding him back from finding true inner peace.
Elsewhere, Vic opens up to Roni, and in return gets a look at the damage the removed tech had on her body. He learns that not only is the damage slowly killing her, but that S.T.A.R Labs and Coulder Robotics built the tech. Though his father doesn’t give him any help with that, he does give some fatherly advice when he learns that Vic is doing all this for a girl.
The relationship between Cyborg and his father is usually hostile, so seeing them like human beings to each other is refreshing, even if it doesn’t last long. It helps flesh out a character always in danger of being defined by his cybernetic enhancements.
Cliff has been part of pretty much all the funny bits this season, and it’s no different when he travels with Niles to the moon to rescue Dorothy. Still, these scenes focus less on Cliff and Niles and more on Dorothy realizing that her actions have consequences. Even the CandleMaker tells her this, reminding her that his power can only come from her making a wish.
Dorothy’s mistakes could not only cost lives but could destroy the world itself. And it’s Cliff, of all people, who helps her realize this. It’s the third time we’ve seen Cliff give great advice. It’s always unexpected, but unlike Niles inventing space travel, it seems right. He’s grown more than almost any other character, and we’re seeing it pay off for him and those around him. He had to wade through the bad to get to a good place, a theme this show returns to again and again.
But of course, it’s still Doom Patrol, so I’m not too surprised when Niles suddenly opens the airlock on the way down from the moon, sending Cliff flying off into space.
Grade: B
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