Doom Patrol Season 4 Episode 6 Review: Hope Patrol
It all comes back to the butt monsters on the Doom Patrol mid-season finale, Doom Patrol Season 4 Episode 6, “Hope Patrol.”
Ok, so maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but the “butt monsters” do make their return as one of many twists and revelations of a jam-packed episode.
“Hope Patrol” is a little all over the place. The episode is trying to do a lot, maybe too much. As a result, it doesn’t feel wholly cohesive and lacks a bit of the tension that a tighter script might offer.
Big things happen on the episode, things you would expect from a mid-season finale. However, it doesn’t have the narrative crescendo that normally marks an episode leading into a potentially long hiatus.
That rather large critique aside, there is still much to praise on “Hope Patrol.” It’s probably better to assess the episode as a collection of moments. While the pieces don’t come together as well as they could have, those individual pieces are excellent.
Emotionally, the episode’s strongest moment is the scene between Cliff and Jane when Cliff takes off his oven mitt to hold her hand. Season 4 has done a wonderful job of establishing how important it is for Cliff to use his new sense of touch to hold his grandson first.
After all that, seeing him choose to hold Jane’s hand before he’s held his grandson makes the emotional payoff of that small action exponentially more profound. Jane and Cliff have always had a special bond. It’s lovely to see the series revisit that connection in such a sweet way.
Vic’s big moment with his childhood friend is one of the other emotional highlights of the episode. It feels earned after everything they have said to each other and what Vic has revealed to viewers about how important that relationship is to him.
It is important that the episode acknowledges that Vic’s friends were unfair to him during their initial reunion. Their reconciliation would not feel right with only Vic making amends.
As I said in my review of Doom Patrol Season 4 Episode 3, “Nostalgia Patrol,” though, Vic can’t go back to what was. He has to build something new.
His scene of reconnection on “Hope Patrol” feels like the start of something new. It’s the sort of breakthrough that transforms a relationship into something deeper and more resilient rather than simply resetting it.
Vic needs someone like that in his life. Hopefully, the breakthrough on “Hope Patrol” is a catalyst for Vic to figure out how to be who he needs to be and who he wants to be. Vic has been pulled in so many directions since S3. Maybe this is what he needs so he can reconcile those conflicts and define his future on his own terms.
There is also some major plot progression on “Hope Patrol.” There is, of course, the aforementioned revelation that the captured butt monster is still alive. It isn’t totally shocking that Cliff didn’t kill the butt monster and once that is revealed, the creature’s escape is inevitable.
Even though I suspected the butt monster was alive, I still gasped both when they show it in the freezer and when it crawls out of the freezer at the end of the episode.
I’m thrilled that the butt monsters are still part of the story, and not just because I love them. Now that we know they have higher cognitive abilities, I am curious to find out more about them. I also want to see more of Dr. Yu, and maybe get another butt monster musical number.
It seems likely the butt monsters have a role to play in the Immortus storyline too, which is fabulous. I’ll be pretty disappointed if I’m wrong about that. My hope is that the butt monsters are part of the solution to the Immortus threat, not part of the problem.
Whatever their role ends up being, though, it’s just fun to have them back in the mix.
As far as Immortus goes, the episode throws a lot of information at viewers. We learn that the meta-human that killed Malcolm in Season 3 is a part of the threat.
That connects Rita and Rouge to everything and creates some potentially wonderful ground to explore with the two of them. As I’ve said before, I will never complain about more scenes with Rita and Rouge.
Viewers also find out there is a pocket dimension that is Immortus’s realm, or at least the realm of Immortus’s acolytes.
There are lots of other details that will be important later too. Yet, for all the information we get about Immortus on “Hope Patrol,” it’s still pretty unclear what the big bad’s deal is. It’s maybe even less clear than it is at the start of the episode.
That isn’t a criticism, just a statement of facts. We are only halfway through the season. We don’t need to understand everything yet, and the mystery of Immortus is part of the appeal.
What’s most important on “Hope Patrol,” though, is that Immortus is no longer a vague threat. Immortus is now an immediate danger that will anchor the rest of the season with more urgency and focus.
There are many outstanding moments throughout “Hope Patrol.” The episode is a good one. With a bit more cohesiveness, it would be a great one.
Still, “Hope Patrol” leaves viewers with plenty to look forward to when Season 4 returns and caps off what has been a solid first half.
Stray Thoughts
- It’s really nice to see Rita and Rouge working together again.
- When are Dorothy and Casey going to show up already?
- The scene with Jane and Shelley is fabulous. More of them, please.
- Doom Patrol is developing a rather annoying habit of having their dramatic episode-ending cliffhangers resolve anticlimactically at the beginning of the next episode. You can only pull your punch so many times before it becomes a problem.
What did you think of this episode of Doom Patrol? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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New episodes of Doom Patrol will return in 2023.
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Sarah Fields
Sarah is an obsessive geek who likes to get into the weeds and over think things. She is passionate about Sci-Fi and comics and is a giant classic film nerd. Sarah cares deeply about media representation and the power of telling diverse stories. When she's not writing or watching her favorite shows she spends her days working in the non-profit world trying to make life a little better for those that need some extra help.