Sunday, November 07, 2021

My Review of Doom Patrol's 3x09: "Evil Patrol"

 


Written by Eric Dietel
Directed by Rebecca Rodriguez

Cliff (to Madame Rouge): "Wow, you really are evil."
The Brain: "Oh please. She doesn't know the first thing about being evil."

I'm not sure about that, Brain. The idea she suggested was definitely evil sounding, even if it meant playing the long game a little bit.  Maybe Madame Rouge might be too evil to keep around. That three groups she's managed to get herself removed from, one way or the other.

Rita made the mistake this week of letting Laura talk long enough to escape and get back in cahoots with the Brotherhood of Evil. Mallah did everything to try and get her to leave them alone while the Brain felt that Madame Rouge was useful enough to capture Cliff, which she managed to do successful. Of course before that we did a very strange sequence where the gang had to fight Laura while she was in the guise of a baby.

I did feel bad for Cliff here. He genuinely believed that Clara had come to get him actual help and Rita being fixated on getting revenge undermined that for him, only for Laura to capture him and the Brain to take his body. This season really has found new ways to screw Cliff over.

Then there was Laura herself. If Rita was fixated on revenge, then Laura was about self preservation and also revenge, given that she wanted to save destroying Rita for last. She should've seen Brain's betrayal coming a mile off bur being dumped in the woods? Why didn't Mallah just simply kill her there and then? I guess Rita will have to do that one.

As for Rita, her desperation for revenge got the better of her throughout the episode and it let to a bus crash, along with Jane/Kay's own distress issues. Larry might have been right to have called Rita out on her hypocrisy, he definitely picked the wrong time to do it though. Then again, he was also dealing with the space parasite and everyone else's emotion getting the worst of him.

As for Jane and Kay, both of them weren't dealing with the loss of the other personas and Jane was quickly proven right about having an empty underground not being such a good thing. Last bit not least, no one seemed happy about Victor not being Cyborg anymore and even I'm wondering of this change will remain going into the next season. Should it?

- The CGI of Madame Rouge as a baby fighting the gang did look both dodgy and creepy during those scenes. 
- Kay got Victor to interview her like Niles has done with all the other personas.
- The  Brain doesn't seem to have a grand scheme and surely the remaining Sisterhood members are going to resurface for the finale?
- Chronology: A brief 1917 flashback with Rita, Laura and the Fog with the rest of the action in the present day. The Brotherhood of Evil were retiring in Florida.

Evil Patrol did a good job in reintroducing the Brotherhood of Evil while also giving the rest of the team a chance to air out some issues as Rita became fixated on revenge. With one episode left to go, can the gang get their shit together long enough to get Cliff back to into his body? The latter better hope so.

Rating: 7 out of 10

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