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Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.
No longer will they be birds of prey! This week’s seventh episode of Jeremy Carver’s Doom Patrol Season 3 picks up an excellent pace and speeds up the narrative of the storyline. The episode is titled “Bird Patrol”. Story editor Ezra Claytan Daniels pens the teleplay this time, while Omar Madha returns as the director.
According to Warner Media, here is the synopsis of Doom Patrol Episode 307.
Vic consults an old friend for help with a major life change, Cliff takes his online habits too far, and Jane battles the “others” for Kay. Sensing imminent danger, Madame Rouge attempts to rally the highly distracted group.
In this review, I will be discussing this week’s newest episode. There will be spoilers to follow, as the title of this article suggests. Please read ahead at your own discretion.
Plot Summary
The Sisterhood of Dada and the Bureau of Normalcy – 1949
Thirty years after Rita Farr (April Bowlby)’s arrival in the past, Laura De Mille (Michelle Gomez) has changed as a person. She recruits Wally Sage (Daniel Annone) into the Bureau as a weapon, despite his wanting to be in the Marketing department. Rita tells De Mille he is too young to be fighting in a war. The recruiter responds, “Wars don’t fight themselves. … It’s not the same care-free world it was then, is it? We must make difficult choices in order to keep our country safe”. In the halls of the Bureau, Rita discusses De Mille’s “sour” change with Malcolm (Micah Joe Parker).
Later in the cafeteria, Wilhelm Hodges (Jim E. Chandler) suggests to De Mille that “those freaks are merely an untapped resource” and must be used to the Bureau’s advantage.
In the basement, Rita and Malcolm try to lift the others’ spirits by prompting them to be creative. For example, they create masks, but they fail in allowing the others to follow. Sachiko (Gina Hiraizumi) disregards their attempts and suggests that they must rise to the occasion. She says, “The world needs an enema”. Rita tells her that they’ve banded together “to make the world a better place”.
Lloyd (Miles Mussenden) responds by alluding to the horrors that the country has faced and endured in the past three decades. This includes the harsh treatment of Black individuals. He says they’ve all been complicit for too long just to earn a paycheck. Malcolm and Holly (Anita Kalathara) call into discussion the Eternal Flagellation, which will be their stand against the Bureau.
Soon, De Mille gives the Sisterhood of Dada up to the Bureau’s Metaweapons Division. Malcolm tries to resist, and De Mille accidentally kills him and his bird in the process.
The Doom Patrol – Present Day
In the present, the Sisterhood is setting up for something big, and it includes a giant birdcage.
Larry
Larry Trainor (Matt Bomer and Matthew Zuk) pukes up large larva. He shows this to De Mille, who suggests it is a “sentient tumor” caused by him being in “an abnormal atmosphere” i.e. the Negative Nebula. She tells him to burn it. The Sisterhood’s foghorn sounds just as Larry brings the tumor to the woods. He leaves it with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a thermos, as the fog heads his way.
Vic
At his Orsus Labs appointment, Vic “Cyborg” Stone (Joivan Wade) sees Doctor Chalmers (Deja Dee), a former colleague of his mother’s. She tells him his “cyber tech would have to be completely removed” in order to have synthetic skin. She tells him about the surgical procedure, which can happen overnight. Chalmers also tells Vic to discuss his decision with a loved one before going ahead with the procedure. He contacts Roni Evers (Karen Obilom), who is in hiding. She persuades him to use his Cyborg tech to his advantage in order to be a hero.
During his surgery, Vic sees the Sisterhood’s symbol flash on one of the television screens in the room.
Cliff
Jane (Diane Guerrero) is angered that Cliff Steele (Brendan Fraser and Riley Shanahan) sold her records for his online addiction. They both receive a warning signal that the Sisterhood is coming. When he mentions he sold her Cher workout tapes, she teleports him to his daughter, Clara Steele (Bethany Anne Lind)’s home.
Clara and her partner, Mel (Walnette Santiago), allow him to hold his grandson. Cliff suggests they go on a date while he babysits him. Clara lets him borrow her credit card to be used “for emergencies”. However, he has difficulty watching over the child. Upon returning from the date, his daughter informs him of the fog heading their way. She takes back her credit card, but he steals and uses it for 15 more minutes with the webcam girl, Ginger (Libby Blake).
Jane
Inside the Underground, Kay (Skye Roberts) cries over her stolen bicycle. When Jane tries to console her, Kay argues she is not a child. Jane confronts the other personas, including Dr. Harrison (Catherine Carlen) and Pretty Polly (Hannah Alline) about this situation. When she lashes out at them for keeping Kay below the surface, they ask her who protects them.
Jane tries to console Kay even further as if she were a child. Kay calls her bluff and shuts her out. Right after this happens…
Arrival
Shelley Byron (Wynn Everett)’s fog comes into contact with the Patrol. Vic vanishes during his procedure, Jane disappears at Kay’s doorway, and Cliff is taken as well. Larry arrives back at the mansion as De Mille is covering up the cracks on the walls and doors. The Fog catches up to them, too, and lures them to where the Sisterhood’s one was when they were recruited as weapons by the Bureau.
In the same way that she did the Sisterhood all knelt down in one line back in 1949, De Mille renders the Patrol weapons; albeit not of her doing. De Mille’s memories of the past then return to her in flashes. Rita appears in her plastic mask – in the same way that Malcolm did in the past – and unveils herself in front of De Mille and the Patrol, exacting the Sisterhood’s plan for “Eternal Flagellation”.
The Fog takes them to the Sisterhood’s location by the birdcage, where Malcolm is reborn as a bird. Surrounded by her past (and present) decisions i.e. the Sisterhood and the Patrol, De Mille refuses to believe that she is evil. The former group gives her a chance to atone for her sins. Malcolm turns into smaller birds and flies into the sky, with Laura turning into a bird and doing the same.
Sachiko says, “This was just the prologue. The prologue to reckoning”, before Rita and the Sisterhood flee the area. The birds take the Patrol, who all vanish from where they stand.
Discussion
I found this to be a rather compelling episode of Doom Patrol Season 3. Daniels’s writing transitions and veers the titular group to the next stage in their lives, and this includes change. Vic is given the ultimatum of becoming man or a machine, change or happiness. Evers tells him something that might resonate with him:
We have our preferred methods, but at the end of the day, we want the same thing: change. … Sometimes change comes from the inside. We don’t want obedience. All we want is justice. None of us asked for what we got. The only thing that matters is what we do once we got it. … Not all of us can afford to prioritize our happiness.
Change doesn’t just occur with our bodies and how they are used. It also happens in our development as human beings. This is the case with Roberts’s character, Kay. The same can be said for the Sisterhood and how they’ve stood around while horrors happened around them. Malcolm cites Nietzsche, stating, “It takes chaos inside of us to give birth to the dancing star”.
“Bird Patrol” allows the story and its viewers to keep an eye out for nature’s new appearances taking place all around us. In this manner, it suggests that the Patrol will soon learn their purpose, whatever those may be. This also speaks of the real-life world that we live in, too. Change only happens for people who want it to. Perhaps, that’s why we see De Mille walking through the same hallway.
Performances and Character Development
I love Bomer’s, Fraser’s, Guerrero’s, and Wade’s performances as their respective characters. I found the former two actors to be hilarious in the roles they play, while the latter two are dramatic as Jane and Vic. However, these members of the Patrol haven’t developed much in this episode, remaining stagnant in where they stand.
The highlights of this episode go out to Bowlby, Gomez, and the actors who portray the Sisterhood of Dada. Rita Farr is definitely the first member of the Patrol to realize her purpose in the world, and she gets this from the Sisterhood. Gomez realizes why she might have traveled to the future, but it may need to take a little while longer to process things.
I liked Hiraizumi’s and Mussenden’s respective lines of dialogue in the scene where the Sisterhood talks about change. Sachiko and Lloyd talk about their purposes as metahumans, that they must use what “gifts” they’re given to show the world what they’re capable of.
Final Thoughts
This episode of Doom Patrol might be reminiscent of Denis Villeneuve’s Oscar-winning 2016 science-fiction thriller, Arrival. We get to see two events take place at the same time, providing the connection between the two at one point. While previous episodes of the season did not seem to point to anything fruitful, this episode guides us to something worth waiting for.
Although, change doesn’t just happen with birds hatching out of eggs. I have a feeling there is something going on with Larry’s tumor, which looks like a larva of some sort.
With just three episodes of the season left, it’s time to see what to expect as we move to its fourth season. However, I would like to know where the Brotherhood of Evil fits in all of this.
Doom Patrol Season 3 is available to watch on HBO Max!
Have you seen this series yet? If so, what are your thoughts on it? Let us know! For more adaptation, adaption, comedy, drama, superhero-related news and reviews visit and follow The Cinema Spot on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!
Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.
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