In Review: Doom Patrol – Flex Patrol

Synopsis: Rita tries to sooth Victor during a difficult time while the rest of the team finds Flex Mentallo and try to help him regain his memory.

Review: This episode introduces us to Flex Mentallo and sees a few key characters begin to find belief in themselves.

The Story

While escaping from the Ant Farm the team meets up with the iconic 1960’s superhero Flex Mentallo who could create magic every time he flexed his muscles. But the version of Flex they rescue is a broken man with absolutely no memory of his former self.

Having been teleported to the hospital by Crazy Jane. Rita tries to comfort Vic and talk him into rebooting his operating system but is not having much luck. As she takes time out in the hospital waiting room she is beginning to have a bit of a crisis of confidence but is talked around by an elderly hospital patient who helps her reconnect with her inner strength.

Meanwhile back at the house. Jane and Robot Man with some help from Larry have been helping Flex regain his memory, and it appears that Larry and the negative spirit that lives inside him are part of the key to finding some answers.

The Acting

We get a wonderful performance from Edward Asner who plays the hospital patient that helps Rita out. Having grown up watching Asner during the 70s and 80s. It’s always nice to see him get his teeth into a good character role on anything. The scenes that Asner has with April Bowlby is just one of a few high points of this episode.

Overall

This was a really strong episode with loads of great character beats and build up to what we can expect to see in the remaining two episodes.

I really enjoyed the connection between Flex and Negative Man and how that made Larry come to terms with just how much of a connection that he shares with the negative energy that essentially keeps him alive among many other things. It was also fun that Flex was somehow able to understand the negative energy with relative ease whereas it took Larry 60 years to gain the little understanding that he now has.

The episode wraps up with a confident Rita who declares that she is ready to take on Mr. Nobody and get Niles back. I look forward to seeing if the team will accomplish this task in the weeks to come.