Doom Patrol, episode 1×09: “Jane Patrol”, aired on April 12th, 2019
Warning: Full spoilers will follow…
Jane has become a prisoner of her own mind as Doom Patrol picks up shortly after Karen’s aborted wedding. The rest of the Doom Patrol takes a backseat as Brendan Fraser and Diane Guerrero carry this week’s episode on their backs to terrific results.
Picking the brain
Despite their falling out in “Therapy Patrol,” Robotman goes to the Underground to find Jane and he encounters each of Jane’s alters. It’s a nice touch that several actresses take on the roles of Hammerhead, Penny Farthing, Baby Doll, Lucy Fugue and several others. Guerrero has shown several times over how versatile she is and it’s refreshing that guest stars Anna Lore (Penny Farthing), Stephanie Czajkowski (Hammerhead) got to mimic her performance as the alters and it worked out for the best.
Survivor
The show gets right to the heart of what makes Crazy Jane so unpredictably angry and how she copes living with 64 different personalities. The flashbacks are uneasy to watch as young Kay Challis gets sexually abused by her father. The horror-film sensibilities make this week’s episode stand out for many reasons. The Underground’s aesthetics are dingy and ominous but it’s balanced by more serene sights when Penny’s picnic memory in a park. Cliff brings the humor to round it off.
At this stage of the story, outside of The Chief/Nobody saga, Cliff, in particular, has come a long way and this episode, like “Danny Patrol” did for Larry, solidifies his significant progress from his hedonistic NASCAR life and it goes double for Jane as she confronts her demons with Cliff’s help as he finds a measure of redemption by saving her from herself. The ending drives home that this kind of trauma doesn’t go away completely and a victory like this is fleeting.
Turning the dial down on humor worked a lot better here than the last time. Doom Patrol leans into the horror film sensibilities that make up the aesthetic of DC Universe and it serves as a redemption story for Cliff as he proves that even formerly sh*tty people are capable of change.
Various musings:
- I wonder what Rita, Vic and Larry were up to in Doom Manor…
- For once, I don’t miss Mr. Nobody. The show’s smart enough to know about diminishing returns
- Brendan Fraser getting new skin was fun and it made it all the more cathartic when he embraces his new form
(Featured image: DC Universe)
Doom Patrol is now streaming on DC Universe every Friday.
