Doom Patrol keeps crawling along in “Subconscious Patrol”

Doom Patrol kicks things up a notch in “Subconscious Patrol,” but the insistence on keeping the characters separated in dragging down the season.

The Doom Patrol has fallen into the Sisterhood of Dada’s sinister plan! Now each of them are trapped in a horrible memory of their past while their subconscious selves are joined together to figure out what to do, or if they should even do anything to begin with (being subconscious and all). Meanwhile, Rita has returned from the past with vengeance on her mind.

You remember the criticism I’ve been leveling at the last two episodes of Doom Patrol, about the characters being separated into different storylines? I have it again. Well, sort of. When those bird/face creatures from last week latch on to our heroes, it traps them in their bad memories. Vic recalls a childhood incident where he got in trouble at a toy store, Larry revisits his wedding day, and Cliff attends a birthday party back when he was made of flesh. The only outlier is Jane, who goes into Kay’s subconscious and for whatever reason becomes a muppet. I know Jane and Kay’s relationship is a major point of interest this season, but this section clashes with what the rest of the Doom Patrol is doing. Oh well, just a nitpick really.

Point is, they’re off “dealing with their shit” again, but thankfully it plays out better this episode. For one, at the end of their respective tracks, it feels like each of the characters have finally reached that eureka moment they have been looking for. Or at least they are confronted by their subconsciousness and can finally start to shift their behavior. The Doom Patrol’s subs aren’t just angry with them, they express some deep resentment towards their counterparts. Some members heed their words, others refuse to hear them, but the soup is boiling. At last, satisfying conclusions!

I also like that while the members of the Doom Patrol are still separated, their subconsciouses are together. They interact and talk, which alleviates the loneliness that’s been pervading the recent episodes.

Unfortunately, for all of this, nothing much happens in the episode. Early on, Rita (currently still a member of Dada) encourages the subs to help her pursue Laura De Mille, but that lasts all of about one scene. The subs leave the manor. Next we see them they’re dealing with a sentient bike (probably the least weird thing the Doom Patrol has ever faced) and immediately turn back and shelter themselves in the manor. Okay, so what was the point of them leaving to begin with? Just to remind people that Rita is also sort of kind of in this episode?

Anyway, the subs go back to the manor, build a pillow fort and get to chatting, revealing things from their past, their fears and their thoughts, This all comes to a head later when they confront their counterparts. So it serves a purpose, but I’m left wondering if the writers couldn’t have gone in a more interesting, adventurous direction. As it is, the episode is 90% conversation. And I’m not the impatient sort — I read Noam Chomsky for fun, folks — but this is a superhero show. Let’s cut these interior conflicts with some external ones, and have them be important to the episode. Instead I feel like the show is relying on absurdism to make up for the lack of stakes. Don’t get me wrong, I like absurdism and the thing with the puppets is cute, but it’s a poor substitute for a meaty story.

Last thing to touch on here is Rita, who I thought was completely out of place this episode. I’ve already mentioned her brief interaction with the Patrols’ subs, which goes nowhere. On top of that, despite the audience now knowing that she is back in the present timeline, this episode still includes flashbacks to 1949. This is jarring. If Rita is back in the present, then she is back, and going back to the past to set things up gives me narrative whiplash. I won’t spoil what exactly the flashback scenes involve, but it’s nothing that couldn’t have been set up in the last episode, in my opinion. I also had some problems with the logic of the time travel, but honestly, whatever. I can’t talk about them without spoiling things, and time travel is the bane of writers anyway; of course there are logical holes.

I’m ending things on a negative note, but overall I think this episode is an improvement on the last one. All I hope is that next week the Doom Patrol can finally come together and deal with some challenges as a team. These separate storylines are really beginning to kill the interest that I had at the start of the season.

You can watch Doom Patrol now on HBO Max.

Grade: C+

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