Doom Patrol: Season 4; Episode 12 — A Lackluster Ending
by Frank Martin
After drawing a lot of praise with its early seasons, it’s strange to see Doom Patrol go out with a whimper. But that is certainly one of the downsides to how Warner Brothers Discovery has been treating its streaming service and properties. Titans and Doom Patrol both seem to suffer from a changing of the guard, so their final seasons came with a bit of melodrama. Unfortunately, the quality of both of these shows didn’t help matters. There were some highlights and memorable episodes in the second half of this final season for Doom Patrol, but unfortunately, the finale wasn’t one of them.
After exiting the time stream, the Doom Patrol reenters the theater where Immortus (Charity Cervantes) banished them. They engage in a fight with Immortus that’s interrupted when the butts attack. Ultimately, one of the butts begins singing, distracting the others and Immortus. From there, the Doom Patrol sneaks away as both of these threats are lost in the time stream. However, they still don’t have their longevity. Isabel Flowers shows up later and gives them all her toenails; they can be used to regain the lost longevity. Unfortunately, she’s too late for Rita (April Bowlby), who dies peacefully in her sleep. The entire team is distraught, but the Doom Patrol breaks up and each goes their separate ways to live their own lives.
Finales that are structured like this are always peculiar. Even though this was the final episode of the series, it wasn’t about any real threat. All of that was concluded within the first couple of minutes of the episode. Once that danger passed, the entire episode was downhill as all of the characters basically wrapped up their arcs. It’s not a bad strategy, but for a season that was more or less lackluster, having 90% of the final episode focus on emotional character drama can take its toll. It just didn’t have the heavy sci-fi and action punch that fans expect from this show and the emotional baggage was just too little too late.
Doom Patrol is now streaming on Max.
