Doom Patrol review: 5 best moments from Cyborg Patrol

Cyborg loses control and the butts escape on this week’s emotionally powerful Doom Patrol.

Doom Patrol has succeeded as DC Universe’s best show so far because it knows how to wedge weirdness right in the middle of an emotional story. Time and time again, the show has proven that nothing is too strange or too wacky, but it also has an incredible grasp of what makes each character tick, and in Doom Patrol Season 1, Episode 12, titled “Cyborg Patrol,” Cyborg finally reaches his emotional breaking point.

Cyborg has been an interesting character in this series. As the only one without a comics-related Doom Patrol connection, his inclusion was always going to be a question mark. Why was he on this show instead of Titans? But he’s proven himself a vital part of the show’s DNA and his character arc is surprisingly less progressive than the other characters.

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While other characters started off damaged and have slowly learned to accept themselves more and more, Cyborg sauntered on the scene with a confidence that the other characters were missing. He was the only one everyone was comfortable with calling an actual hero.

But his storyline this season has been on a downward trajectory with him slowly losing control over his cybernetic system and, no offense Cyborg, but it’s been a blast to watch. But so much cool stuff happens in this episode, so let’s get into it.

Here are the five best moments of “Cyborg Patrol.”

5. The Ant Farm

The Bureau of Normalcy has proven to be more than worthy villains for this ragtag group of heroes and this episode got us a good look at their home base. It’s called the Ant Farm, and it’s where the Bureau likes to keep all the strange people in order to perform experiments on for years and years.

It’s where Larry was being held before Niles broke him out, and it’s now where Cyborg finds himself trapped with no way out. And if his next-door cellmate, who seems to have been locked away for more than 50 years, is any indication, Cyborg could be there for the long hall.

4. Silas betrays the team

Since the show’s start, Silas has always been a difficult character to pin down. Is he really a concerned father desperate to protect his son no matter what? Or has he altered Cyborg’s mind about what really happened to him and secretly been trying to change his son into full-machine? Well, either way, we know he wants his son back no matter what, which makes his betrayal of the team by handing over to the Bureau. Not at all surprising.

But there’s a double-twist! As it turns out, this was all part of the plan. The Ol’ Star Wars trick as Cliff mentioned early in the episode. But before their full plan was enacted, we got some great individual scenes of torture, like Cliff defending his existence to a bored scientist, Jane going up a wannabe Mr. Blonde/Dexter hybrid, and Larry once again facing a threat from his past.

It all leads to Rita slinking out of Cliff’s mouth like a slug and saving the day! Maybe Silas isn’t so bad? Somebody better tell Cyborg before he does something drastic…

3. Cliff and Larry have really grown

Doom Patrol is all about character growth and it’s nice to see how much everyone has grown, even if it’s little moments. Cliff saying that they should rescue everyone else in the Ant Farm is a nice heroic moment, and Larry saving “the other guy” when he easily could’ve left him trapped and be free forever were great small touches that really made this episode stand out.

2. Beware the butts!

After a surprising amount of normalcy, this episode finally delivers on the weird near the very end of the episode where an army of flesh-eating butts are released and go to town on Bureau guards. This is an example of a perfectly executed moment.

At the very beginning, there’s a passing mention from the General about protecting the butts, but we’re not quite sure what that means. Then the butt army is released and everything makes sense. Stay weird Doom Patrol and never change.

1. Cyborg reaches the end of the story

Cyborg’s struggle with his programming reached a head this week where we seemingly got confirmation that Silas was slowly turning Cyborg into a full machine. But was that really the case? It was tough to tell.

As Silas stood in front of his son, begging Cyborg to trust him and appearing to be a good guy, his programming showed video evidence of Silas as a cold, calculating monster. What was happening? Finally, when shown footage of Silas saying he wants his son to turn into a full machine, Cyborg snaps and beats his dad practically to death.

Are we supposed to cheer for Cyborg for getting his revenge? Not so fast. Mr. Nobody makes an appearance, admitting he orchestrated the whole thing and doctored footage to make it seem like Silas was evil and using Cyborg.

Why did he do this? Because he was tired of the hero narrative and wanted to punish someone like Cyborg. Dark stuff for Cyborg, but wonderful storytelling for us!

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 with another review!

New episodes of Doom Patrol are available Fridays on DC Universe.