Flex takes a moment to mourn. Photo courtesy of KSiteTV.
Please Keep In Mind That This Article Contains Potential Spoilers For “Penultimate Patrol” and Events That Occurred Prior
I guess you have to be careful with flexing your muscles—Flex the wrong one and BAM. Orgasms for everyone! I’m happy the show found time to give us another great comedic moment like that. I mean I would guess there won’t be much time for it in the season’s final hour against Mr. Nobody. As odd and funny as it was to watch our team and everyone on Danny Street spontaneously orgasm, I think the funniest part was easily Cliff faking it because he felt left out. I wonder where the show goes from here when it comes to Flex as a character. He simply served as the gateway to The White Space—and I guess is just hanging with Danny now? Who knows what the show will bring though—it’s nothing if not unpredictable.
Speaking of The White Space I really enjoyed the meta-ness within the concept itself. It was a great way to explain the whole thing, and fits right at home with the fourth wall breaking existence of Mr. Nobody. We even got some hilarious backstory about Mr. Nobody. Having failed at his presentation to the Brotherhood of Evil, and getting broken up with because of it, his sights became set on proving that he is more significant and original than everyone thinks he is. It was some very well crafted and humorous origins to our dastardly villain—something that was showcased very well when he was actively being called out about it.
Danny expresses his fears. Photo courtesy of KSiteTV.
Our team got to journey into The White Space this week, and got their first real face-to-face confrontation with the villain himself. It was great seeing them properly interact. Furthermore, all of the character “slock” this season paid off on a terrific manner. All of our misfits were thrust back to the moment in their lives that they’ve all wanted to change for decades now. But given that chance, after everything they’ve been through, they all came to realize that they all needed to move on. I did find it very fitting, that out of all of them, Jane had the hardest trouble turning the offer away. In fact, Jane may not have even made the decision—as we got some terrific performances as Diane Guerrero jumped between personas as they all caught to keep their existence.
I thought it was a fantastic move to have Rita be the one to Narrate her own story (as it were), and in doing so, guide the team back together. It fit her arc flawlessly and was particularly impactful. If any character deserves to play into the meta nature of Mr. Nobody, it’s Rita Farr. Thanks to that simple choice, the team not only came together, but also found Niles! After that came the quick defeat of Nobody. Or so they thought. Personally, I wasn’t fooled for a second—rather distracted by how odd the transition to their fake victory world felt. I mean someone should have said something in the moment right? After everything they’ve been through, and no suspicion? I think Chef is most guilty of this—I mean I don’t know why it took dozens of Team deaths for him to come to this conclusion. To my knowledge there wasn’t an Amnesia sort of effect in play. If there were, it should have been noted a little better.
Cliff reads a comic. Photo courtesy of KSiteTV.
Now the odd man out this time was Vic. I wish the majority of this story line either took place all of last week, or the show had found a way to give it more room to breathe. While the content was fine, the placement was odd. Jumping back to Vic in the hospital didn’t fully gel pacing wise with what the team was doing—it felt like something that we should have already gone through/seen. Past that I’m not even really sure how Vic found his way to the White Space so fast any how. More importantly though, the significance of the story was how Silas was still not one to be trusted—something revealed by the man himself. It’s good that they aren’t brushing off all of the suspicion that Vic had about his father under the guise of Mr. Nobody antics. Silas did indeed do messed up things, and I’m glad that the show is owning up to that.
“Penultimate Patrol” was a great installment that upended the team’s world, as in the closing moments it’s revealed that The Chef was responsible for everything that happened to them. I always knew that Chef was suspicious, and that there were big things that he wasn’t saying. Being the one responsible for everyone’s tragic beginnings though, that I didn’t guess. I can’t imagine this will go over well with the team—or be something that can ever be fixed. Personally, I hope Jane is the first to snap at Niles.
You can catch new episodes of Doom Patrol when they air on DC Universe streaming network every Friday.
