The group sits down for a talk. Photo courtesy of KSiteTV.com.
Please Keep In Mind That This Article Contains Potential Spoilers For “Therapy Patrol” and Events That Occurred Prior
Well that was a fun therapy episode! The show decided to take it slow another week, and continue focusing more on its characters. Not only did we get plenty of individual character moments—but we got some time to focus on the teams dynamic. After everyone’s eventful morning, Cliff realized that they all needed to clear the air with each other’s issues. That way Mr. Nobody had no leverage on any of them. No surprise, things didn’t work out so smoothly.
I think the stand out story of the group went to Cliff. After the revelation about his daughter’s surrogate father, he all about lost it. At first I thought he was simply throwing a temper tantrum—but it went deeper than that. His brain didn’t know how to process the grief that Cliff was feeling, and that led to a down spiral as the hallucinations set in. I thought this twist was terrific, and a rather haunting thing to think about. It was even poignant that this led to Cliff being the one to suggest group therapy. The lead up to reveal even managed to not be a let down—which I thought would end up being the case.
Cliff has a critical failure. Photo courtesy of KSiteTV.com.
Vic was second in the spotlight, as we learned that he stole his own key, giving him full access to his operating system. Now I didn’t realize that was what happened at the end of last week, but it is the natural continuation of this story. In order to fully come into his own and who he is, he needs to fully break those bonds that his father had created. It was messed up to see how much Silas had locked his son out of his own life. It was also great that the show touched upon the dangers of Cyborg’s newfound freedom—ala accidentally spying on those you are thinking about. I assume this will come up again in the future, as it would certainly be an annoyance in everyday life.
While I’ve talked a lot about Cliff and Vic, everyone got a moment to shine. Larry finally had meaningful communication with the spirit, Rita continued with her personal journey after her breakthroughs last week, and Jane—well Jane had a lot of baggage to sort through. The big revelation that Niles was going to abandon Jane did not get forgotten, and Tt certainly didn’t sit well with her or her bunk mates. Diane Guerrero is fantastic in the role, and watching her go back and forth between personalities never fails to impress. Watching Hammerhead (?) smash the tapes as Jane pleaded to stop was a great scene.
Jane painting very happy images. Photo courtesy of KSiteTV.com.
With a gathering like this, it’s no wonder that group therapy didn’t fix the group’s problems. While it did help to get things out into the air, it ended up having a little of the opposite effect as well. Jane revealed her painting, a hefty grenade that ended with Cliff driving Jane out the door. The Cliff and Jane dynamic is one of the strongest of the show, and I’m really looking forward to how they will fix the fracture between them.
Bonus Notes:
- The Admiral Whiskers bit was quite funny (I laughed out loud in fact), but I really hope that wasn’t meant to be the explanation to Cliff’s whole situation. It would kind of lessen the impact of an otherwise fantastic interpretation of Cliff’s grieving process.
- Some of that Rita CGI could/should have been much better.
- That was a fun little
You can catch new episodes of Doom Patrol when they air on DC Universe streaming network every Friday.
