In Review: Doom Patrol (S3 – EP8) Subconscious Patrol

Synopsis: This week the gang winds up in their subconscious where each member of the Patrol has to live through a shameful moment until a breakthrough is made.

The Story

Picking up from where last week left off. The Doom Patrol has been forced into the Sisterhood of Dada’s eternal flagellation. In short, they have been forced to confront their subconscious selves and relive a shameful experience from their past.  For Cliff aka Robot Man, it is accepting that he is a failed father for having left his young daughter in the back of a car while he was partying with a stripper. Likewise, Larry’s shame is having never stood up to his mother when she tried to shame him over his sexuality.

Crazy Jane’s shame was to do with how she seems to have ridden roughshod over her other personalities. Particularly the young girl Kay who she is extremely protective of.

The gang has to live through seeing these things played back to them until a breakthrough is made.

Meanwhile, Rita makes preparations to confront Madame Rouge.

The Acting

Joivan Wade is fantastic in this episode as we learn that Vic’s shame seems to be wrapped up in his need to try and protect everyone. I loved the flashback scene of Vic in the toy store with his father where the young Vic is looking for an action figure of a black superhero. Of course, he struggles to find one given that Black heroes don’t have much representation in that particular toy store. Ultimately he walks away with a somewhat generic figure that doesn’t really represent who Vic is. In short, Vic’s subconscious in this storyline perhaps has a bigger journey to make than Crazy Jane.

Brendan Fraser also puts in a great performance as we get to see Cliff Steele react to his robotic self. The scene at the end of the episode where the human Cliff forces his robot self to confront his shame is brilliantly done.

Overall

the Subconscious Patrol takes a really deep dive into the characters. The episode didn’t really do a great deal to move the story arc forward, but it does force the gang to deal with things that have been holding them back.

Overall. A really fun, but thoughtful episode.