We’ve reached the halfway point of this season, and I’m pretty sure the main point to talk about is the Sisterhood of Dada. This is the first time we meet them after some teasers from Madame Rouge and their mysterious history together. For me, seeing them in live-action was crazy. We don’t get much of an explanation as to who they are, what they do, or why they do it, but just because of their personalities alone, they’re hypnotically entertaining. Everyone is portrayed with such precision down to the way they walk. The way they fuck around with the Doom Patrol’s brains without even really trying was great and made for some of the best moments in the whole show.
Although my favorite part about the episode was Cliff’s conversation with the mysterious person in the crystal cage. When he ran away from the rest of the team, high as fuck because of all the pills he took, I assumed he was going to be in a tad more comedic role for the episode. But oh boy, was I wrong. His monologue about how afraid of death he is now that he’s finally in a place where he’s being able to heal was just heartbreaking. It destroyed me, and I think it’s up there, or maybe even better, with the scene where he has a mental breakdown and asks himself why should he be alive, which ends up being an amazing parallel, even if unintentional. Again, between all the insanity of the show (Which is gladly welcome), you have a character slowly coming to terms with the fact that he might be fading away. The only thing he retains from before his accident is failing him, and there’s nothing he can do. It grounds the show in a way that I imagine must be truly difficult to achieve, but of course, the writer’s team excels at it.
But it’s not all Sisterhood of Dada in this episode. It starts strong with Jane discussing with another one of Kay’s personalities, the Doctor. Kay’s actress has grown up a lot in the three years that passed since season one, and while it could be just ignored, the plot decides to do something with it. While not addressing she looks older now, we see her ask for more independence from the rest of the personalities, even wanting to be out and experience the real world, presumably for the first time since Miranda took over after all the trauma she suffered. It’s truly interesting, especially considering the rest of the Underground’s stance on it, with at least the Doctor being opposed.
Then we have Rita and Madame Rouge, or Laura De Mille. While Laura was annoyed at Rita’s insistence to be around her and attempts to investigate the connection between the two, the relationship was allowed to grow, for a large part of the fandom, in some expected ways (Meaning they have a lot of sexual tension).
But of course, that’s not all they do. Laura is facing the fact that she might be what Niles accused her of being in the last episode: A horrible, despicable person. I think she could easily turn into a villain, but I would be much more interested in seeing the show exploring the attempt of a villain such as her who deeply wants to be a good person since she has no memory of her actions. Knowing this show, I think it would make for a great storyline. But meanwhile, she’s just getting drunk with Rita, who ends up traveling through time with Laura’s machine after being told that was ‘’not who she was’’.
And that marks the end of this episode! Doom Patrol has no bad episodes, in my opinion, but somehow this season has some of the best in the whole show, which is still true with this one! It has such a perfect balance between weirdness and drama. The Cliff sequence that I mentioned is easily in my top 5 scenes of Doom Patrol, and the way it sets up the Sisterhood of Dada and keeps progressing the characters is perfect. Shoshana Sachi, the writer of this episode, managed to create another absolutely great chapter to this beautiful story that we all love!