In Review: Doom Patrol – Frances Patrol

Synopsis: Larry pays a visit to his long lost love, while Cliff and Rita travel to Gator Country to reconnect with his daughter. Vic worries about his operating system.

Review: After a couple of weeks of episodes that have been toward the trippy side of things. This week we get an episode in which a few of our heroes try and reconnect with their humanity through past relationships.

The Story

After having brought Jane out of her head and pretty much seen off Beard Hunter. Larry, Cliff, and Rita are seeking a bit of time for themselves and go on a couple of personal missions. Larry via the entity that lives within him seeks to reconnect with the love of his life. While Rita helps Cliff to try and reconnect with his daughter who has just lost her adopted father who was eaten by a giant Aligator called Francis.

Meanwhile, Vic who is concerned about his operating system goes with Jane on a mission to seek out another former member of the original Doom Patrol.

The Acting

Matt Bomer puts in a wonderful performance this week in both the flashback sequences and the present day scenes of him with the love of Larry’s life. A guy called John who pretty much got pushed away by Larry because he was not able to be more open about their relationship in the few safe spaces in the 1950s for gay couples. For some reason the entity living in Larry, which makes him into Negative Man wants him to reconnect with his old boyfriend. Even though it has been 60 years since they were last together.

Also good this week was the scenes between Rita and Cliff. Brendan Fraser and April Bowlby finally have some quality scene together. Where she attempts to help Cliff.

Overall

This was a huge episode for character development and very little else. But the relationships we see get played out are beautifully written.

There is a brief moment of excitement when a giant alligator takes on the Robot Man. The things a guy will do for a gold watch hey.

Overall. A pretty solid episode, which ends with a bit of a cliffhanger as Vic finds himself a prisoner of the Bureau of Normalcy. Which can only mean that next week will be about the team going after him.