Doom Patrol Episode 2 RECAP (VIDEO SCRIPT)

Donkey Patrol

• So this episode pics up where the first one left off, with Cliff & Co standing outside the town while Mr Nobody is swallowing it up with his powers
• /Oh, and the town wasn’t evacuated and innocent people are being sucked into a cloudy gray abyss. So that’s fun/
• Now at this point, everything is beginning to get sucked into this hole, including the team. If it weren’t for Cliff getting a hold of the ground beneath their feet and catching Negative Man before he lost his footing, he would’ve been sucked in too
• /That also includes the bus that Niles and Nobody are in. Yet despite an attempt by one of Crazy Jane’s alters with super strength trying to keep it on the ground, it goes into the ether, too. So she did what any other absolutely sane individual would do. Just jump the fuck in, I guess./
• Now by this time, the entire town and it’s population is gone, and all that’s left are Cliff, Rita, Larry and a landmass in Fallout cosplay
• That’s when the show decides to help establish some of the inner conflicts the characters are gonna have to overcome in order for them to develop over the course of the season, and they decide to do it in the form of Rita and Larry looking at everything that happened and unifying under the banner of “our name’s Bennit, and we ain’t in it, while Cliff is determined to fix everything.
• Then it goes the EXTRA mile with Larry when we see him try to actually LEAVE. Like, ON HIS OWN
• /He goes on and buys a bus ticket successfully, despite not showing his face or a form of ID, because CLEARLY the ticket lady isn’t paid enough to follow any form of protocol AT ALL. But the pure energy that’s bound inside him ever since his accident and is apparently responsible for him being alive won’t let him leave, no matter where he decides to go/
• The reason why I like this angle with Negative Man is that now there’s a new aspect regarding himself that factors into his overall character, and the episode hints at future moments in which he and said aspect have to interact with each other and either work shit out or negotiate. That can call for some very good character development on Larry’s end down the line if done appropriately, and it looks like the show’s gonna take that to heart.
• Meanwhile, we meet Cyborg for the first time. And after finding out not only is Silas will forever be a shitty parent no matter what universe he’s in, not only does he know Niles from years prior, but found out about the events that happened in the town and decides to go there to find him.
• /Instead, he finds where the town USED to be and Cliff trying to catch Albino Eddie Murphy./
• Who - after he and Cliff decide to turn their first impression into a cybernetic dick-measuring contest, decides to do THIS
• (Vomits up Crazy Jane)
• What your donkey never vomited up an edgy-dressed white girl with DID before? You changed...
• Anyway, now that everyone’s back at Doom Manor -- including Cyborg -- Crazy Jane proceeds to do even MORE stuff to establish the fact that I...HATE her
• That’s also when both Cyborg and Cliff find out that the alter that saw what happened to Niles when Jane decided to go too hard in the paint is named Katy.
• /That’s when Cliff decides to do some research of his own to find out for himself that not only does Jane have alters with their own powers, but that Katy isn’t the type to want to be questioned when she’s summoned./
• And because Cyborg doesn’t know this... Well...
• /quick scene of Katy attacking Cyborg/
• So once they get Jane locked in a bedroom unconscious, /Cyborg discovers with his...alternate dimension scanner technology that he has? THat the reason the donkey threw up Jane in the first place is because that’s where Niles and the town went, and that the donkey is pretty much the door to Kingdom Hearts./
• So he and Larry are able to convince Rita to get all gooified so that they can get her to slide down the donkey’s throat to see what she could see-see-see
• But because this is a show based on a superhero comic book series, this turns out to be a trap by Mr. Noboday, and Rita, Cyborg and Larry all fall into (another dimension part of Intergalactic Planetary)
• That’s where we get a lot more personal with these characters. Cyborg, Larry and Rita are all going through aspects of their lives in an effort for Mr. Nobody to break them, revealing that they have a bit more baggage than their origins in the first episode lead on to believe.
• Not to mention that the entire experience he sends the three through here makes me dig Mr. Nobody more and more as a villain, real talk. He’s probably gonna end up becoming one of my favorites if he keeps this up.
• /Even Cliff gets on board, when its revealed that despite the shitty way Jane’s been treating him since their introduction, him trying to fix the situation with her is his way of trying to fix his relationship with his daughter now that he knows that she’s still alive/
• The only thing I dislike about this route -- and in essence, the route the series went in ever since the introduction -- is that Jane isn’t allowed the same development luxury as the others, and more of a method for Cliff to advance
• And I’m not gonna lie, that, along with the fact that she’s been nothing but a hindrance to the group since her introduction is kinda the reason I’m not really digging her character in this
• Right now she’s less of a character and more of an ansty and edgy plot device. I *want* to like her, but she just won’t give me a reason to
• Shit. Even CYBORG gets more development than Jane, and has proven that he’s not only capable of combating Mr. Nobody’s mind games, but is capable of being the ACTUAL anchor for the team like I thought Negative Man was gonna be, and this is his first episode!
• /Speaking of Negative Man, his cosmic essence helps the three escape the trap and return Backlot American Town USA and it’s civilians back into the real world/
• And while they didn’t get Niles back, they now know Mr. Nobody exists, and Cyborg stays on board to help the team to plan out his rescue
• Larry and Rita go through a bit of an existential crisis regarding what Mr. Nobody put them through while David Bowie’s swan song Lazarus plays in the background and used very well, I might add...
• /All while Jane paints what she obviously saw during her dip in the ether. Don’t worry; it’s just a variant cover of Crisis issue #7/