The following contains spoilers for Doom Patrol Season 4, Episode 3, "Nostalgia Patrol," now streaming on HBO Max.
As Season 4 of HBO Max's Doom Patrol proceeds, the heroes are finding the going tough. They have to stop an apocalypse that'll happen in 2042, but no matter what, they can't get over personal hang-ups. Crazy Jane is still torn over Kay, while Cliff is struggling to find his humanity and become a better Robotman, not to mention there's drama over who should be leading.
Rouge ends up being installed as the temporary chair, angering Rita who's upset her peers think a reformed villain is the key to stopping the impending threat. This leads to Rita falling into a sinister trap in Episode 3, "Nostalgia Patrol," where she meets the show's spin on Scarlet Witch. Sadly, this tyrant ends up taking Rita off the table, while mentally paralyzing the team for the war to come.
Rita Gets Trapped in a Fake Reality
In "Nostalgia Patrol," Rita gets an invitation to come to a theater that's showing her old films and honoring the art of cinema. She's depressed, binging on junk food and feeling betrayed, thus she accepts the invite. However, a gas surrounds her in the theater, which then transports her into a fake reality a la what Marvel's Scarlet Witch does.
Wanda Maximoff did this for the House of M, creating a utopia where she had her family back, until she broke it and decimated the mutant population. This made her an even bigger monster and villain to the Avengers and X-Men, which resulted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe aping this for WandaVision, where she'd create Westview and live with a conjured-up Vision and twin sons. In Doom Patrol's case, however, Rita's paradise is focused on her career, lulling her into a false sense of security and comfort.
Rita's Scarlet Witch is the Shady Dr. Janus
When Rita's colleagues come to help her, they also get sucked in. They end up learning from the mysterious Mr. 104 that this being who made the construct is actually a gender-swapped Dr. Janus. In DC lore, the character only ever appeared once, in 1963's My Greatest Adventure #81 by Arnold Drake, Bob Haney and Bruno Premiani. While that version of Janus focused on his hallucination-casting powers, the show's iteration is more formidable in how she bends reality. In this case, Janus wants Rita to emote in order for her to harness that energy and bring Immortus to life.
Luckily, Larry/Negative Man's new spirit, Keeg, arrives and teleports them out, but it's a rushed process that finds the kid attacking 104 as Rita tries to save them from catching fire. A blinding flash of hot-white light emerges, which takes the heroes back to the real world, but sadly, Rita is comatose following her near-sacrifice. This chapter ends with them rushing back to the mansion to save Rita, but she's not coming through. It's uncertain if her mind got stuck in the fake world and is roaming, if Janus has it trapped somewhere, or if it's just dormant and needs her friends to shock her back to life. Either way, the heroes have to be cautious moving forward, not just in how to tend to Rita and hopefully wake her up, but in how they approach Janus. Ultimately, Janus could end up displaying unbridled godlike abilities like Wanda did with the Illuminati, and destroy the Patrol with just a thought.
New episodes of Doom Patrol air every Thursday on HBO Max.