Doom Patrol, Season 1 | Episode 4, “Cult Patrol”

Cliff sums up my feeling’s pretty early on in this episode:  “Is anything going to make sense today?”

I read earlier this week that Mark A. Sheppard would be joining the cast, but I thought that was later this season.  Apparently, later this season meant the next episode.  He shows up playing a Knight Templar/magician named Willoughby Kipling, needing something The Chief stole to save the world, and of course, our Doom Patrol friends get involved.

While not a bad episode, I spent the first half of the episode wondering why they dropped character development for the established cast, just to bring in a new character.  We do finally have some development in some reveals about The Chief before he took in the Patrol.  Larry continued to come to grips with the energy being inside of him, while finding out that The Chief may have been hiding some knowledge from him.  After last episode’s speech, Rita finds out that she can do some good, and seems to come into her own a bit more.  Cyborg finally uses some onboard weaponry, but can we please see him in something other than track suits?  At least with Robotman, they change his t-shirts every episode.  Speaking of Cliff Steele, he’s dealing with the emotional trauma of his actions in Paraguay in the last episode.

Kipling shows up with a lot of magic going on, and a lot of rumblings about a cult, but very little in the way of real explanation.  There is just enough information to drive the plot along.  Of course, the cult wants to end the world.  Being this is the same universe that gave us Constantine, all the odd magical items makes a bit of sense now that I think of it.

I’m finally left wanting to see the next episode, but that’s mostly the fault of the cliffhanger ending.

One last note, I kind of dig the oracle, but I wonder how it became a unicorn.