Last year, Doom Patrol ended up being a surprise hit for DC Universe. The show became a favorite among a lot of fans for managing to be unpredictable and off-the-wall while still going in-depth with its unique cast of characters.
The show follows a group of outcasts who were all subjects of experiments conducted by the scientist they refer to as “The Chief.” When he goes missing they search to find him and meet a hoard of wild characters along the way. With Season 2 set to premiere on June 25 on both DC Universe and HBO Max, now is a great time to recap season 1.
Cliff Steele
Cliff is a former racecar driver whose brain is planted into a robot body after a car accident. He’s originally told he was the only survivor of the crash, but he later learns his daughter survived. Wanting to reconnect with his daughter, he discovers she was adopted by a former friend his wife was having an affair with. He ultimately decides not to rejoin her life upon realizing she’s already dealt with his loss and it won’t end well. Throughout season 1, he expresses frustration because he can no longer enjoy simple pleasures like food or physical contact. He connects with Jane, viewing her as a surrogate daughter.
Rita Farr
Rita was a renowned actress from Hollywood’s golden age before she fell into a lake of toxic gas in an on-set accident. The accident deformed her body so that she has to struggle to not turn into a giant blob. Throughout the season, it becomes evident she was extremely self-centered and demeaning to others during her Hollywood days. These realizations cause her to become ashamed of her past and allowed her to appreciate those around her. Throughout the season, she tries to avoid joining the group on missions, staying home as much as possible. At times, she shows flashes of her body enlargement and lengthening abilities of her comics counterpart, but she has yet to show full mastery of it.
Larry Trainor
Larry was an Air Force pilot in the 1960s who has full-body burns after a crash. The crash put him in contact with the negative spirit which lives inside his body and keeps him alive. He wears full-body bandages to contain radioactivity he emits. Before his accident, he was married but had a secret relationship with his colleague. He feels guilty over keeping his relationship a secret and agreeing to the test flight that ended in his accident. This was alleviated when he reconnected with his past lover to find him in old age and having lived a happy life. The negative spirit has abilities that prove useful to himself and the group, but it often dictates his life with a mind of its own. This has caused him to part take in group activities reluctantly at times, but the negative spirit shows more cooperation as the season goes on.
Crazy Jane
Due to childhood trauma, Jane has 64 different personalities living in her head with each one having their own unique abilities such as teleportation and blasting fire. Jane is the dominating personality but often struggles to contain the others. The audience gets to see how exhausting this actually is for her when Cliff goes into her mind to bring her back out. She resists Cliff’s attempts to connect with her due to her own trauma but builds a partnership with him once she confronts her fears of her abusive father. She goes back and forth between being helpful and causing more problems for the team throughout the first season due to the fact her personalities tend to emerge when they feel like it, especially when she’s distressed.
Victor Stone
After a lab accident that killed his mother, Victor’s father used cybernetic parts to save his life. His guilt over the accident causes a distant relationship with his father who tries to control him, mainly through his operating system. Throughout the season, Victor tries to alter his operating system so his father can’t use it to spy on him, but this causes it to go haywire. Victor often motivates the group to jump into action believing it to be the right thing. He’s frustrated at not being able to have a normal life, but is ultimately proud of his heroism. Later in the season, Victor’s father reveals he altered Victor’s memory of the accident. He tells Victor that his mother survived, but he chose to save him instead. They mend their relationship and fix the operating system so it’s in Victor’s control.
Niles Caulder
Often referred to as “The Chief,” Caulder performed the experiments necessary to save the lives of all of the team members and houses them. He often tries to control their actions and wants to recreate the old Doom Patrol team he had. He goes missing at the start of the series and the team spends the season trying to rescue him from Mr. Nobody. Throughout the first season, we see his relationship with everyone centers around him viewing them as science experiments most of the time. He often holds back crucial information from them. They turn their back on him for a bit when they find out he was responsible for all their accidents. He reveals their experiments were his attempt to extend his life to protect his daughter. In the end, the team decides to save him from Mr. Nobody’s white space and save his daughter.
Mr. Nobody
The main antagonist of the first season, Mr. Nobody can cross dimensions, breaks the fourth wall, and controls events through his narration as he’s aware he’s in a TV show. He also spies on the team through a rat and cockroach he manipulates. He kidnaps Caulder at the start of the series and holds him in his void known as the white space. Decades ago, a dark time in his life led to him turning to a Nazi scientist for an experiment that Caulder interrupted. This led to him swearing revenge on Caulder. He’s ultimately defeated at the end of the season when the group uses his narration against him to trap him in a painting.
Doom Patrol Season 2 premieres June 25 on DC Universe and HBO Max. It stars Brenden Fraser, April Bowlby, Matt Bomer, Diane Guerrero, Joivan Wade, and Timothy Dalton and was developed by Jeremy Carver.