Written by Geoff Johns
Directed by John Fawcett
Caulder (to Rachel): "This is for your own good."
Months before this show finally hit DC Universe, it was announced that a spin-off centering on the Doom Patrol was going to be a thing and in some ways, this episode is something of a back door pilot to that spin-off. It's also not considering that three of the characters we meet here will be played by different actors when that show launches in 2019.
Having fled the convent in the previous episode, Rachel managed to hook up with Gar again and witness his tiger form while scaring two hunters in the process. Last week hinted at a friendship between Rachel and Gar and this one went to town with it as Gar brought Rachel back to his old home while giving her a bit more on his backstory as well.
In the home itself we met Robotman aka Clifford Steele (Jake Michaels), Negative Man aka Larry Trainor (Dwain Murphy) and Elastiwoman aka Rita Farr (April Bowlby) as Rachel got an insight into each of her potential new friends before having to meet with the Chief himself, Niles Caulder (Bruno Bichir ), who was less than enthused with Gar bringing a stranger into his sanctuary.
Of course, Caulder soon took an interest in Rachel's abilities when he witnessed her calming a potential patient down and then made the unwise decision to try and experiment on her. Seriously, this is a thing the show needs to knock off at this point with Rachel. How many more episode are we going to have to see her either being locked up or possibly experimented on? Four episodes in and it's already a trope that needs to be done away with already.
Caulder's plan naturally goes wrong, first with Gar turning on and then with Rachel embracing her demon once again to break Caulder's back and put him in a wheelchair again. I'm not surprised (for obvious reasons) that Gar opted to go with Dick, Kory and Rachel in the end but I am glad that Clifford, Larry and Rita gave him their support to do so.
Aside from Caulder, I think the episode did do a good job of setting up this particular group of outcasts for their upcoming spin-off series and after being somewhat underused in the first three episodes, it was also nice to see Gar in a bigger role than he has been in so far. It's also about time that all of our four main players are finally together as a group too.
As for Dick and Kory - they spent most of their time looking for Rachel while Kory also got to witness Dick's anger issues first hand. I liked that she was able to talk him down but this dark side of Dick just doesn't work that well for the character. Saying that though, this still does mark an improvement on the largely hit and miss first two episodes.
- For the upcoming series you can expect to see Timothy Dalton, Matt Bomer and Brendan Fraser as Niles Caulder, Negative Man and Robotman respectively.
- Gar has been Beast Boy for at least two years going by the opening flashback we saw in this episode.
- Oh dear, Rachel brought a dear back to life. I hope it's not going to go all evil in those snowy woods.
- Chronology: From where Origins left off.
Doom Patrol might be the strongest episode yet in the series and while there's still plenty the show needs to iron out in it's overall quality, there is definitely hope for it yet. I did enjoy the guest cast this week and it's nice to see our main players all banded together now.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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