REVIEW: ‘Doom Patrol,’ Season 2 Episode 4 – Sex Patrol’

As soon as I saw the promo for this week’s episode of Doom Patrol titled “Sex Patrol,” I was immediately excited because it was going to be another Danny the Street-centric episode. Their story and colorful inhabitants have always been some of my favorite aspects of the show. The return of Maura Lee Karupt (Alan Mingo Jr.) and Flex Mentallo (Devan Long) was also very welcome as they both brought some big laughs and even more heart to what has been a season already full of it. Despite a fairly simple plot and another mediocre villain, character work is where this show always shines brightest and “Sex Patrol” was no different.

“Sex Patrol” kicks off as the team is visited at Doom Manor by the Dannyzens who are back in the fold to help Danny regain their strength after having been reduced to a brick in the premiere episodes. Maura Lee arrives with her entourage in tow and the idea to throw a big party at the mansion to jump-start Danny’s heart. What follows is a lot of fun where we get to see the Doom Patrol let loose a little and enjoy themselves. They all have their share of trauma and internal issues going on so it was great to see everyone get to unwind for at least a short while.

Larry (Matt Bomer) has the hardest time joining in the party since he is still dealing with the thought that he missed out on being a father and even being a successful pilot due to his accident. He has a brief moment where we get to see him have fun and dance with a Dannyzen, but it quickly turns into him being overwrought with his guilt for being an absent father. Every member of the team has struggled greatly with trauma, but Larry still feels like he has the longest way to go. In season one, he came to grips with his sexuality and the negative connotations he held with it for decades. This season, he is trying to come to grips with the father he never got to be and the children he never got to raise.

Jane (Diane Guerrero) continues to be at odds with her personalities within the Underground as they still don’t believe she’s fit to be leading the rest of them. Diane Guerrero continues to blow this role out of the water and it’s always impressive how starkly different each of her personas is compared to another. She even gets to show her sexier side as Jane’s Scarlet Harlot persona decides to get into the partying atmosphere. You can tell she’s having fun in this role while having the luxury of playing so many characters at once and also getting so many strong moments of development.

Cyborg (Joivan Wade) is grappling with something much different now that he has a blooming romance with Roni (Karen Obilom) and has a very heartfelt talk with Maura Lee about letting love in and accepting something beautiful when it presents itself. He sadly didn’t get the most to do this episode, but we did get to see him hit the dance floor with Maura Lee. It was probably the most relaxed we’ve seen him in a while since he’s often the stoic type and often tries to emulate his Justice League counterparts by doing so. It did feel like he took more of a backseat this episode, but at the end of the day, it is pretty difficult to give every member of the team a fair shake when you only have so much time per episode.

Aside from the party to get Danny up and running again, the remainder of the plot revolves around Rita (April Bowlby) as she continues her quest to master her abilities. Rita has been quite a surprise this season and I have enjoyed what her journey into a more heroic and leader-like role within the mansion has brought to the show and the team. While everyone else is partying, she enlists the help of Flex in the hopes that he can provide her with the same sexual release that he unwittingly inflicted on the Doom Patrol in the season one episode “Penultimate Patrol.”

This was the only time she had a clear enough mind to harness her powers. This is where the episode gets to be as bonkers as we have all come to expect from this series. Rita also gets to do some introspective exploration into her psyche while she’s having a massive climax. I have to commend this show for finding unique and outlandish ways to squeeze in character development and still have it be effective. The writing team gets these characters and this world and still manages to make it all feel like you can relate to them even if we did just watch a character’s climaxes potentially bring about an apocalyptic hellscape.

From there we eventually get introduced to the villain, sex demon Shadowy Mr. Evans, who was summoned to the mansion after sensing Rita’s sexual energy way off on the other side of the globe. This, in turn, leads the SeX Men to their front door as well to combat the arrival of the aforementioned sex demon. The duo is essentially Ghostbusters who specialize in threats of a more sexual nature and it’s exactly as bizarre as it sounds. Weirdly enough, all of this happens within the last quarter of the episode so it all flies by very quickly. Which is strange given that the episode is called “Sex Patrol.”

I had assumed this would be a much bigger aspect going into it. That being said, it was still a lot of fun and a has strong dose of Doom Patrol’s signature brand of insanity. We get to see ghosts having sex and Cliff (Brendan Fraser) loving every minute of it because he maybe had a little too much ecstasy at the party while trying to enjoy himself and not think for it. I enjoyed what the SeX Men brought to the episode even if their screen time was a bit on the shorter side, but maybe we’ll get to see more of them later on this season.

Dorothy is the anchor of this episode and Abigail Shapiro does a phenomenal job of portraying the childlike innocence and curiosity of a character who has lived most of her life in hiding. She longs to have a life with friends and adventure and she’s coming to terms with the fact that despite looking like an eleven-year-old, she’s been alive for over a century and has spent the majority of it living locked away on Danny Street. Flex Mentallo also has a fantastic heartfelt moment with her and it was great to see his soft and compassionate side. She additionally gets to sing a rendition of Gene Wilder’s “Pure Imagination” and it was one of the best moments of the episode.

Ultimately, she’s extremely frustrated with her situation and her father’s insistence that she remain a child. It’s easy to see that this frustration is culminating into some much bigger and potentially more catastrophic as her imaginary friend, who we know now to be called Candlemaker, continues to goad her into making a wish. We get to see her take a bit of a darker turn and this could very easily be a precursor to where she’s going this season.

‘Sex Patrol’ is a whole lot of raunchy fun with some great character beats mixed in. Even if some of the parts feel a little rushed and under-cooked, it still offers one of the most entertaining and undoubtedly crowd-pleasing episodes thus far. Season two continues to move forward with its central plot and I’m immediately clamoring for more and can’t wait to see what the next adventure at Doom Manor brings us next week.

Doom Patrol is currently streaming on HBO Max and DC Universe.