At the beginning of episode 2, Butt Patrol, we are introduced to the origins of the Were-Butts back in the year 2016. It seems there was an experiment being contained in the Antfarm of the Bureau of Normalcy. At this point, they are ravenous creatures with no signs of being tamed after we see one of their employees gets attacked by the vicious were-butts. A funny detail that sounded off was when the alarm and Elaine Stritch’s song “The Ladies Who Lunch” perfectly line up at the end as the were-butts chow down on their unfortunate victim.
In the next scene, we are brought back to our current task at hand with the Doom Patrol. How to prevent the future butt-apocalypse from being unleashed? Rita calls the group for a team meeting and suggests that changing some of their habits will help them be better prepared for what is to come. However, the group decides that they should start off by changing leadership, seeing as, in the future, they died for following Rita’s commands.
Much to our surprise, the team chooses Madame Rouge to lead them, seeing as the end of the world wasn’t to be caused by her in the first place. With her being a former villain, perhaps that will help give them some insight on how to prevent the butt apocalypse. This, of course, tears Rita down to her core as to how they could choose an outsider over one of their own. Especially whenever she devoted her time and energy to preparing them for their missions. After all, they had seven successful missions before, all under Rita’sRita’snd! Where did she go wrong? This eats Rita up, and she steps away from the group to mope all by her lonesome.
Laura sets up the team with an hour to gather themselves or any intel they find to better prepare themselves for the pending doom in their future. However, Laura has her plans in mind when she decides to pull Cliff aside and entices him to set out on their own “Top Secret Mission” to track down Darren Jones and exterminate him once and for all.
Then we jump back to 2017 at the Ant Farm with the developing Were-Butts. The department of R&D conceived powerful and unstoppable weapons of mass destruction but lacked cooperation. This is where they bring in Dr. Margaret Yu, a renowned linguist, and anthropologist, to help establish a form of communication between them and the were-butts to use them. When Dr. Yu lays her eyes on the beastly creatures, she is astounded, and it is like love at first sight. So she takes on the challenge to tame the wild beasts.
Back at the manor, Vic manages to hack into the Bureau’s Bureau’snd intercepts a rendezvous mission to secure a rogue Were-Butt. “Booyah!”
We later see Larry still searching for young Keeg, all the while trying to understand what could Future Keeg has relayed to young Keeg that is making him so distant from Larry. This is when Rita confronts him on his betrayal for not supporting her and that it was for that very reason he felt she couldn’t anymore. Ever since Rita came back from the past, she has treated everyone differently. She, herself, was different. She was controlling every little thing she could until he felt like they were nothing but strangers to her. If only they could see Rita’s good intentions of protecting her friends at all costs. She cannot lose any more loved ones. Nonetheless, Larry decides that he must do whatever he can to prevent losing Keeg at all costs, even if it means making Rouge leader. Rita is devastated as she walks away from Larry saying that “being a leader is all I had left.”
Meanwhile, Jane is trying to decipher the mysterious bag of puzzle pieces. Which had appeared only after she emerged from the underground and Kay revealed herself disguised as Dr. Harrison. Only to leave Jane on the surface puzzled about what happened to the actual Dr. Harrison and if Kay is ok. Vic and Jane set out on their own top-secret mission to intercept the rogue-zombie-were-butt before an agent that goes by the name of “Butt Hunter”. The agents of the Bureau of Normalcy need to eliminate the pending threat.
Laura and Cliff share a small touching moment when Cliff recognizes a junk car left abandoned on the side of the road. Laura speculates how similar they both are. “Just two old relics” of the past tossed aside until someone who can appreciate their true value comes along. Cliff obviously asks what she is rambling about when casually passing by, and they stumble across a zombified Darren Jones singing and riding a tractor.
While they wait for the butt hunter to arrive, Jane asks Vic about what he plans to do after they finish saving the world. Will he leave them behind while he moves on and lives a normal life? Vic explains to Jane that he never planned to quit being a hero. He only wanted to recover the life he used to have before. “Must be nice to know what you want,” Jane says mockingly to Vic. Vic reveals that Kay had surfaced a few months prior and that the whole group got to meet her. Surprised by this, Jane questions what else Kay may have mentioned to him. Vic informs Jane that Kay had requested they record an interview the way the Chief used to do. Before Jane could find out more about what they talked about, the Butt Hunter arrives with the rogue were-butt.
Back with Darren Jones, Cliff puts him out of his misery, but amid their battle, his oven mitts get pulled off his hand, and when Cliff delivers the final blow, he realizes that he has got to feel something. Unfortunately for Cliff, it was not the warm, soft tushy of his grandbaby nor the hands of his daughter but the cold, slimy flesh as he cracked Darren’s skull Darren’s hand like a grapefruit.
Finally, when everyone returns to the manor after spending the day hunting down the possible reasons that caused the butt-apocalypse, Cliff is left with having to dispose of the frozen were-butt once again. But, he takes a moment to recollect himself after what he had felt earlier with Darren. In this moment of despair and weakness, his Parkinson’s acts up, and his hand proceeds to tremble. In this vulnerable moment that Cliff experiences, Laura is silently burdened with her wrongdoings in the past of labeling her friends and other innocent meta-humans as weapons. This is what essentially she did to Cliff, used him as a weapon to exterminate a lethal enemy, with little consideration of what trauma it may have dealt to Cliff. However, she did what she had to as a leader. This is what she was chosen for. To be ruthless and lead them to overcome their pending Doom.
Then we see Jane inspect the footage Vic recorded of their interview in hopes of better understanding Kay’s needs. Kay opens up about how she feels that “things have changed.” That she needs her personalities to find a new purpose. Otherwise, they will be lost. We can see that Kay is maturing, and as she grows to be independent, she doesn’t want her personalities to suffer. This is where she shows her special regard for Jane by saying, “If anyone can put the pieces together, it’s Jane”. Jane needs to find her purpose.
In the closing scene, we find Dr.Yu entering what seems to be her apartment currently in our timeline, and if we look closely, there’s a picture of Isabel Feathers on the back of a milk carton. Dr.Yu then proceeds to serve a bowl of cereal to Nicolas, the were-butt she saved back when they were released in the facility when the Doom Patrol broke out.
