Saturday, May 18, 2019

My Review of Doom Patrol's 1x14: "Penultimate Patrol"


Written by Chris Dingess
Directed by Rebecca Rodriguez

Mr Nobody (to the gang): "The moral is basically there is no beating me, not now, not ever."

Well, it could never be that simple, now could it? Still though, we have one more episode before Mr Nobody gets his backside handed to him by the very team he's enjoyed torturing and making snarky comments about all season long but not before the damage inevitably caused by that last scene.

I wish I could say that I was shocked with Niles's revelation about being the one who virtually caused all of our gang transformations but the reality is that I'm not shocked at all. How they deal with this information in the finale though will be the decider but going forward into another season, will Niles still be around or is there a potential redemptive sacrifice to save the world a coming next week?

Getting to the White Space was certainly the funniest part of the episode. We had the gang along with Flex land on Danny the Street where Flex got a little comfort over his recent loss while everyone else (minus Cliff and Flex) er, came when Flex tried to send them all to the White Space. Fortunately his second attempt was a lot more successful but my God, that scene was so awkward and funny to watch.

Once in the White Space, each of our misfits were tempted to go back to their former lives by Nobody and each of them resisted the temptation knowing well they had ruined them long before their transformations. Moments like that showed some character growth and along with Rita literally taking control of the narrative, it seemed like Nobody's days were numbered.

We got a delightful scene where each of the members managed to dissect and humiliate Nobody (including his former girlfriend, Milly) before Cyborg seemingly killed him off and things were back to normal. Only for it to turn out that Nobody faked the whole thing and everyone was being killed repeatedly in order to torture Niles some more.

The last few minutes of the episode were obvious but it was still nicely executed with Nobody getting his own little victory on the gang by forcing Niles into confessing the worst thing possible. For a final scene, that certainly left a nasty sting and with the finale trailer revealing sweet FA, I can't wait to see how Nobody is dealt with once and for all.

- I was convinced that the Beard Hunter died in his last episode but it seems that he's been living on Danny the Street and is also reformed.
- Silas confessed to Victor the real truth about his accident and Elinor. Cliff trying to fake an orgasm did make me feel bad for the guy.
- Standout music: The use of Eric Carmen's All By Myself during a certain scene of course.
- Chronology: Chicago 1946 for the opening flashback with Nobody and Milly. Safe to assume the Brotherhood of Evil will be the main antagonists for next season.

Penultimate Patrol was a rather amusing romp and it certainly didn't waste time with the action in every aspect along with the streaming service commentary as well. It's been a fun ride for this offbeat series and the finale should definitely deliver the goods and bring this Nobody arc to a satisfying conclusion.

Rating: 8 out of 10

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