Saturday, May 04, 2019

My Review of Doom Patrol's 1x12: "Cyborg Patrol"


Written by Robert Berens & Shoshana Sachi
Directed by Carol Banker

Victor: "You made me into this monster."
Silas: "I saved you and I'm trying to save you now."

Well, I guess we should've seen this one coming. All season long there have been fears that Victor could eventually stray into darker territory and given his issues with Silas, it was only a matter of time before something truly horrible happening. Still though, yikes.

Silas showed his best and worst sides within this episode before being killed by his own son. When he realised that the Ant Farm had Victor as prisoner, he made the effort to work with Cliff, Larry, Rita and Jane to get Victor, even if it meant letting Jones and company think that he was screwing the Doom Patrol over.

Unfortunately for Silas though, his past sins came back to haunt him and Victor lost his temper at the worst possible time, much to the joy of Mr Nobody as the latter took immense pleasure in seeing Victor come to terms with killing his own father. I do wonder if this is a moment too dark for the show but with three episodes left, I am intrigued to see where the show takes Victor next after this pivotal moment for him.

As for the rest of the team, well they certainly had a time of it. Cliff had to endure being referred to as scrap by a know it all scientist lady before Rita used Cliff's body mass to knock said lady out. On the other hand at least Cliff didn't have something extracted from him or was forced to listen to some 90's music.

Getting to the 1990's music - what a way to annoy Jane though. The guy whose hand she broke in the last episode tried his best to intimidate her and failed at every level, even to the point where his method of torturing brought about a brief return of Karen. Luckily for everyone else though, Karen didn't stick around too long for this episode.

As for Larry - he got his negative essence extracted out of him, thanks to Darren Jones but he also managed to get it back. It seems that getting away from the Ant Farm didn't mean that they stopped working on them but after this episode, I'm not sure there will be enough of an Ant Farm around, not especially after the unleashing of some literal killer butts. First Legends of Tomorrow gives us a nipple from hell and this show with lethal asses. Are they trying to outdo reach in the zany stakes? Who would win in that regard.

- Flex Mentallo (Devan Chandler Long) made an appearance in this episode, albeit rather unkempt and with his memories wiped. We'll be getting him properly next week though.
- How much space does Cliff have inside him that even Rita could fit in there? I know she's malleable but even still.
- Standout music: Ace of Spades The Sign of course.
- Chronology: From where Frances Patrol more or less left off.

Cyborg Patrol might be the darkest moment of the show but between killer backsides and Jane's pithy comments during her captivity (along with poor Cliff being referred to as scrap), the episode certainly had it's quota of funny and bizarre moments. Not quite as strong as last week but definitely a strong episode with a nice introduction for Flex Mentallo as well.

Rating: 7 out of 10

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