The Brotherhood of Evil
Following the end of the previous episode, this penultimate chapter starts with a flashback of Rita’s past with the Sisterhood to set the mood and get deeper into the emotional aftermath of Laura’s betrayal. Despite Rita’s want for vengeance, her enemy flees the scene after stating her plans of reuniting the Brotherhood of Evil, and she’s left with one option: Ask the Doom Patrol for help.
As never seen before, things in the Doom Manor seem to be going well. Apart from Cliff, who’s still battling his brain disease, everyone is trying and apparently succeeding at getting better. Kay is in control of her body after every alter except Jane disappeared, Larry is taking care of his larvae child, and Vic is living no longer as Cyborg after the synthetic skin surgery. Unfortunately for Rita, this means they aren’t the help she wants in their current state, either because they have no powers or because they’re busy. The only one willing and capable to help is Cliff, ready to kick some ass to distract himself from his problems until Clara gets there to make an appointment with the doctor.
That’s where everything goes sideways, as Laura gets tasked by The Brain to kidnap Cliff, successfully doing so by infiltrating the manor as Cliff’s grandkid, in a scene that could be the definition of nightmare fuel, where Laura is mid-transformation between the baby and her real shape.
This is about Cliff!
The Doomies get to work motivated by Cliff’s kidnapping, traveling in their bus to the Brotherhood of Evil’s retirement home in Florida. It’s here where it becomes evident Rita’s true intentions. Though she pretends they’re fueled by the same reason as the others, Larry calls her out during a discussion for being only interested in getting her revenge. The show made us question if she really was the same after recovering her memories until now. She reveals she had a whole different and better life, and the Doom Patrol are just strangers to her now. This somewhat translates to the rest, as the facades they were putting up fall, and they themselves realize they’re not doing as well as they thought. It all culminates with the bus crashing in the road, thanks to Jane’s (or Kay’s) breakdown that reveals unknown sonic powers, as well as energy from Larry’s larvae that caused an explosion.
While they crash, The Brain changes bodies with Cliff, and we find out his robot body is actually a mix of science and magic, which could be useful for Cliff in the last episode. But for now, he’s left in a jar that Mallah throws out in a forest along with Rouge, who they betrayed.
It doesn’t feel like home anymore
There’s an immense sense of finality in this episode. Not only for the lack of Vic’s and Jane’s powers but because they don’t seem to want to be together anymore. The Doom Patrol was a family, a found family. But what happens when the members no longer want to be a part of it? It seems possible that the team as we know it will cease to exist. Maybe the writers want to explore other members from the Doom Patrol rooster in future seasons? Whatever happens, we’ll be getting our answers next week as the season finale of Doom Patrol’s third season arrives.