Doom Patrol review: 5 best moments from Therapy Patrol

The team undergoes some much-needed therapy and an innocent rat vows vengeance in this week’s Doom Patrol.

Just when we thought we were having a grounded, normal episode, Doom Patrol swerves with a bizarre third-act twist that tops almost everything we’ve seen before.

It’s no secret most of the heroes at the center of this show would be the last ones to call themselves heroes. Besides Cyborg, the other inhabitants of Doom Manor are more consumed by personal issues than a desire to save the day. It’s for this reason that Doom Patrol has turned out to be a very different show than what we were expecting and it’s going to take a lot of time before these characters are ready to call themselves superheroes. But progress has been made!

The latest episode, “Therapy Patrol,” sees almost every character making some sort of breakthrough or progress with their situation and inches them one step closer to their heroic destinies, and a majority of that is because these people are finally ready to stop keeping in their darkest secrets and start sharing with one another.

Although probably the least action-packed episode of the season, “Therapy Patrol” is still a lot of fun to watch as we see these characters finally start to open up a little in an episode with a unique format and a hilarious final twist.

Go ahead and check out the list below for the five best moments of “Therapy Patrol.”

5. Everyone’s got parent issues

Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff might have said it best: Parents just don’t understand. This episode of Doom Patrol features flashbacks to all the main character’s childhoods. Most of them are quite unpleasant and go a long way in showing how these characters became who they are today.

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Rita had parents that pushed her into the entertainment business by isolating her from other children, forcing her to take all sorts of different talent classes and only letting her use her stage name, not her real name, when around people who could further her career.

Larry’s parents instilled in him both the immense shame of being a homosexual, as well as convincing him that they would lose everything in life if people found out he was gay. Cliff had to watch his drunk father mess things up again and again, and immediately beg for forgiveness and another chance.

Jane’s dad… well, if last week’s episode didn’t prove that Doom Patrol was going to stick with Crazy Jane’s comic book back story of being molested by her father, this episode seemed to outright confirm it. At least Vic got a happy memory of his mother, but all that does is reinforce the extreme guilt he feels about being responsible for her death (if his memories can be believed that is…). Although painful to watch, it was an interesting way to connect these characters to one another through past trauma.

4.Maybe I am just a ball of slime

Although it’s been great to see these characters struggle with their inner demons, after seven episodes, it’s time for some forward momentum, and “Therapy Patrol” delivered.

Rita has always been the character most hesitant to embrace her ability and her true self, but this episode saw the former movie star trapped in a furnace (a literal furnace Cliff, not an emotional one!) and have to push herself to escape.

Only by accepting who she was rather than attempting to push that side of her down was she able to finally start gaining some self-control of her oozing powers. Plus, the effect of her crawling around as a gigantic goo-slug was just incredibly funny.

3. Say Boo-yah for us

Another great part of the episode was watching Vic after gaining total control over his body and programming. Again, this version of Cyborg continues to impress by not having the character weighed down with inner angst over what he’s become, but rather framing him as a character struggling to form his own identity.

The hilarious/sad subplot of online dating for Vic shows just how lost he really is. He doesn’t want to only be recognized as the hero “Cyborg,” but also doesn’t know how to come across as a normal young adult anymore, especially with all the immense technological power he has at his disposal. And his hardware now having the ability to read his subconscious and make decisions for him? I’m sure that won’t cause any trouble later on…

2. Therapy! Therapy! Therapy!

Although it took some time to get to any actual group therapy session, the actual content more than enough made up for the slow start of the episode. Watching these characters actually come out and say what they’re feeling, like Rita admitting Mr. Nobody has a dark secret on her, or Vic revealing he killed his mom, but now doubts his memories, finally laid the pieces for these damaged individuals to one day take up the mantle of the Doom Patrol.

1. My name is Admiral Whiskers. You killed my mother. Prepare to die.

For the entire episode, Cliff experience some major mood swings and break downs. To put it simply, he was all over the place and not all of that seemed completely justified given what we were watching. Just when he was starting to verge into ‘annoying’ territory, the show pulled a fast one on us.

Turns out, a new villain had been inside him, eating up his wiring and causing him to have a major meltdown, and his name was Admiral Whiskers! After an entire episode giving all these characters flashbacks, we’re treated to one more.

This one from six episodes ago. While Cliff was driving the bus toward town to save the Chief, he ran over a mother rat in front of her son. In agony, the rat cried out and who answered? The helpful narrator Mr. Nobody and although the rat had no idea what a narrator was (he’s a rat after all), he allowed himself to take Mr. Nobody’s advice and vow vengeance on the robot that killed his mother.

Flash forward to the present and Admiral Whiskers emerges from a broken-down Cliff with his mission accomplished. A hilarious cap for the episode to remind us that even though Doom Patrol can get dark and angsty, it will never lose its sense of humor.

What were your favorite moments from this week’s episode? Be sure to let us know down in the comments and we’ll be back next week for another review!