Doom Patrol season 4, episode 1 recap – what caused the apocalypse?

We recap the HBO Max series Doom Patrol season 4, episode 1, “Doom Patrol,” which contains spoilers.

The dysfunctional superhero family is now the hot ticket in the crowded superhero genre. Just look at The Umbrella Academy, Guardians of the Galaxy, and The Suicide Squad. They all seem to share a common irreverent humor and a surprising camaraderie that is actually quite endearing. Out of all these slightly altered iterations, Doom Patrol may just be the most bizarre and bonkers franchise in a category that already includes talking trees, floating cubes, gun-wielding raccoons, and shark-wearing shorts. As fans have come to expect, the insanity continues in season four.

Doom Patrol season 4, episode 1 recap

The premiere opens in the apocalyptic ruins of The Future. A hooded man walks through the desolation, searching for something with a metal detector. The stranger appears to be Cyborg aka Victor Stone (Joivan Wade), but he is soon swallowed up by the earth beneath him.

Back in The Present, we are re-introduced to the Doom Patrol members via an informative narration from Doctor Harrison (Diane Guerrero), the latest alter-ego of Crazy Jane. She talks of her fascination for the crime-fighting team, who are guided by their fearless leader Rita Farr aka Elasti-Woman (April Bowlby). As her new codename suggests, she has the ability to change the shape of her body. Think of Mister Fantastic in The Fantastic Four.

This introduction is narrated over the top of one of their many missions. In this particular sequence, they are fighting Codpiece, a villain who sports a rather crude weapon that is positioned over his genitals, a penis gun if you will. Doctor Harrison explains that Rita has managed to lead seven successful missions so far, and she still somehow remains enthusiastic, even though the other team players aren’t very cooperative. Rita has updated their time machine and solved their memory loss problem too, now the gang must wear a jellyfish on their heads. Any questions? No, well then let’s continue.

Doctor Harrison analyses each one of the members, stating that Rita is a controlling perfectionist with many unresolved mental issues, including PTSD. Vic has been reduced to the IT man and yearns to fight with the rest of his makeshift family. Harrison concludes that he is a social coward, who won’t stick up for himself. Cliff Steele aka Robotman (voiced by Brendan Fraser) is waiting on a new robotic arm and continually breaks down on the battlefield. Harrison calls the cyborg a simpleton with a low IQ.

Larry Trainor aka Negative Man (voiced by Matt Bomer), is seen as self-loathing and co-dependent. Whilst Madame Rouge, the former supervillain, regrets her past and wishes to forget her previous mistakes, thus forgoing the jellyfish headpiece. Rita hates the shapeshifting Rouge and refuses to forgive her for her past sins. During the fight with Codpiece, Rouge transforms into the sexist villain, which psyches him out completely. Doctor Harrison then sweeps in to finish the fight with her persuasive powers.

After their latest heroics, we spend some downtime with Vic, who is dealing with self-doubt since his demotion in the team. He works on a project with his father. They’ve constructed a new and improved robotic arm for Cliff. The robot tries on his new arm and is overjoyed by the improvements. He now has the ability to sense touch, starting with one finger, which will hopefully grow to the whole hand over time. They have some objects ready for him to experiment with, but Cliff wants his first touch in forty years to be saved for his grandson. He begs for them to use the time machine to travel to Florida so he can see his grandson in person. Cliff places an oven glove over the new hand in the meantime.

The gang head for the time machine. Rouge hangs back and tells Rita that she is going to leave unless the leader will finally forgive her. Rita again refuses to grant Rouge her one wish. Next, in the time machine, the team buckles up for the ride. Rita applies the jellyfish (don’t ask), and they speed through time. In the time stream, the ship hits a woman, who Rita and Rouge recognize as Isabelle Feathers. The ship crash lands in the wastelands of the future, not five minutes from the present in sunny Florida as planned – something has gone terribly wrong.

Exploring the ruins of earth, they quickly find themselves caught in a contraption. Future Vic greets them and welcomes the Doom Patrol to 2042. He frees the gang and explains that twenty years ago the Were-Butts (seriously?) took over, destroying civilization. What are Were-Butts you may ask? Well, these abominations are like real-life vicious space hoppers with arms and teeth, and in the future, they are now undead creatures too.

What caused the apocalypse?

The Doom Patrol of our present meet with their future counterparts, but Vic is the only survivor. The rest are reduced to holograms. Future Rita tells her past self that they were awful leaders. Future Cliff warns his past self not to ask about the fresh horrors that were inflicted upon him and his family. Larry finds his future self whimpering in a corner and his Keeg is all grown up. Baby Keeg and adult Keeg connect with one another to possibly communicate, but Larry isn’t privy to their conversation. Rouge looks through newspaper cuttings and time travel diagrams she finds. Then Vic informs her that her future self was never found and is presumed dead.

Rouge explores further and finds present Vic all tied up. Future Vic plans on stealing their time machine and has bolted. The gang soon catch up with this deceiving counterpart and ask for advice, so they can stop the apocalypse from ever happening in their timeline. Future Vic says they won’t listen to whatever he says before a swarm of zombie were-butts (I can’t believe I’m writing this) surround them. Present Vic is forced into the machine and watches as his future self is attacked by the monsters.

They travel back to their present. Vic gains the confidence to message a friend and Cliff states that he won’t be taking off the oven glove until he is reunited with his family. But for now, there is a Butt-pocalypse to stop from occurring. In the final scene, a talking rabbit called Bunbury summons a member of the Knights Templar called Willoughby and he is shown a photograph. In the picture, it says Immortus Will Rise.

What did you think of Doom Patrol season 4, episode 1? Comment below.

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