HBO Max’s original series ‘Doom Patrol’ season four episode three entitled “Nostalgia Patrol” kicks off with April Bowlby’s Rita Farr as she sits alone thinking about how she is a failure at being a leader. Not to mention that she feels betrayed by her friends when they choose Michelle Gomez’s Madame Rouge as their team leader. In her mind, this is the ultimate betrayal as she is the person responsible for losing the love of her life. She believes that even when Rouge claims to be a good person she still manages to take everything away from her once again. To make matters worse it is the very same set of friends whom she would die for that chooses someone else over her. Which is why she retreats to being alone once more due to her not feeling as if she belongs.
Later into the episode, the viewer sees Matt Bomer as he tries to make amends with the new negative spirit due to it avoiding him out of fear of him doing something horrible to it as predicted in the future. In his mind, he feels like he is making the same mistakes he made with his own kids. Which is why he is desperately trying to fix things with it as a form of redemption. He does not want to mess things up as he did before and end up with someone else hating him. Unfortunately, it would seem as if the more he tries to get close to it the more it pushes him away. The interesting part about this is how he occasionally lashes out in frustration at the new negative spirit. Deep down he feels as if no matter what he does he will fail again to reconnect with the new negative spirit.
Additionally, the viewer also sees Joivan Wade’s Cyborg as he meets up with his childhood friends. From here the viewer is treated to a nice moment where Cyborg and his friends act like normal people having a good time. Although, it can be seen that his friends are acting a bit bitter towards him. This is due to the fact that when he became Cyborg, he left everything behind when he became a superhero. This is demonstrated by how his friends try to smile when he talks about his adventures with the team. The viewer sees how they look annoyed at him as he tells them about the enemies he has faced. Also, the series does a fantastic job at showing how Cyborg cannot have it all by having his hero life and former normal life collide. This is done when the viewer sees him try to be a part of the team and still try to hang out with his friends. An example would be how when he is with the team, he is useless as he is normal while when he is with his friends, he can’t relate to them due to being a superhero.
At the end of the episode, Rita is tricked into giving up her emotions so an associate of this season’s big bad can be brought back to life. The interesting part about this is that the viewer gets a taste of what goes inside of Rita’s mind. She finally talks about her dislike of everyone’s choice of team leader as well as her love for all of them. No matter how much she complains about them not listening to her or respecting her authority she genuinely feels lucky to have them in her life. This demonstrates that although the series can be weird it can also be wholesome when the time comes.
Rating: 8.5/10