Doom Patrol Season 1 Episode 4 Recap & Review

Torture

Now back at Doom Manor, we begin this week’s episode of Doom Patrol with our dysfunctional group waking up after their exhausting ordeal in Paraguay. A brief prologue introduces us to a family that go completely off the rails during a young boy called Elliot’s 18th birthday. After slitting his Father’s neck, Elliot escapes from his deranged Mother as the whispers of a new prophecy hang in the balance.

Cyborg tries to rally the troops for another attempt at finding The Chief but none of the gang are particularly enthused at his attempts to motivate them. Rita isn’t happy she wasn’t included in the meeting either and everything seems hopeless until a guy called Kipling shows up and informs them of a new threat to the world. It turns out the boy from earlier, Elliot, is a human book and the symbols over his body hold the key to opening the Gates Of Nurnheim.

With Jane’s personality stuck in Hammerhead mode, Jane and Cliff travel to Spain to find the portal, originating in a little sun-kissed church in a sleepy town. Once there, things quickly turn from good to bad as a blood-soaked priest throws out blue beams from his palms and they’re transported into Nurnheim. As Jane and Cliff learn more about Nurnheim and the duo who rule over the domain, back at the Manor Elliot shows up and the group are tasked with protecting him.

As Kipling and Rita work together to ward off any unwanted guests, Larry learns more about the being inside him through monitors and old video footage. Through a strange machine, Larry hears one word – torture. Whether this relates to the being feeling tortured by being inside Larry or that he wants to inflict torture on his host is anyone’s guess but it’s enough to keep us watching through until next week.

With the threat of Nurnheim hanging heavily over them, Doom Manor gather their forces to protect Elliot as assassins and royal guards descend on the group. After a climactic fight, we leave the episode on an almighty cliffhanger as the assassins read the symbols on Elliot’s body and unleash hell, once again, on the world.

While Doom Patrol relies heavily on its shock factor and unpredictability to keep its plot interesting and unique, the characters themselves are really what make this show so endearing. There’s a consistency to DC’s latest superhero venture now and after 4 episodes, it doesn’t appear like Doom Patrol is going to let up on its high quality anytime soon. It’s been the biggest surprise this year in terms of superhero TV for sure, and if it can continue this way, we may be on to one of the contenders for best show of 2019. Of course, it’s far too early to call it yet and despite the cliffhanger ending and unresolved plot, Doom Patrol continues to surprise us with another solid episode.