[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”17851″ img_size=”900×500″ alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]If you’ve tuned into DC Universe’s Doom Patrol, you probably have noticed that…it’s a little strange. Incredibly meta. Bizarre. Especially the past two episodes, when we were introduced to the “Decreator” which really threw us into a loop that I, personally; was not expecting for this series to go. Regardless of the talking, blue horse head and every other strange thing in this show, it remains one of the most well-down shows I’ve watched. Why? Because Doom Patrol is not afraid to be absolutely bat-shit crazy and, at the end of everything; there’s heart to every character.
Brendan Fraser is a stand-out in this show, which is remarkable considering that for most of the episodes, he isn’t even physically there. Playing Robotman, we only see Fraser in flashbacks, while it’s just his voice we hear when he’s on screen. For Cliff Steel, Doom Patrol feels a bit like his redemption story. While “human”, Cliff was a hard-drinking, drug abusing, and cheating race car driver. It was only until right at the end of his life that he attempted to reconcile with his wife and become a better family man, which he never was able to do, considering the car accident he was in. Now, he’s only a brain stuck in a mechanical body that cannot feel, taste, or anything that he had enjoyed previously.
Next to Fraser as one of the strongest performances in the show is Diane Guerrero as Crazy Jane. With 64 personalities, we have only begun to scratch the surface of who Jane is and what really happened to her. In the most recent episodes, we’re given subtle hints that once upon a time, there was a Kay, but due to the hurt that she endured, the personalities manifested and now they live all in the body of this girl, without being controlled by a singular personality.
While it may not be easy to have a bond with someone who has so many entities living inside them, Robotman and Jane have grown close, even if neither really see it that way. Even in the latest episode, Cliff is shown what Jane thinks that Cliff sees her as and that’s his daughter. After all, for thirty years, Cliff has thought his daughter, whom he realizes that he should have paid more attention to; was dead. Now, he knows that she was not killed in that car accident, but he struggles to decide if reaching out is even something he should do.
If you skim over the fact that Robotman not only made Baby Doll (a personality of Jane’s) crustless PB & J sandwiches (which his daughter loved) and that she even fell asleep on him at one point, Cliff even stated while the two were stranded in a snow globe that he’d like Jane present. It doesn’t really matter what personality of Jane’s is around, Cliff caters to that entity and still shows a bond with her. To Cliff, Jane is perhaps his second chance at an attempt to being a good dad, even if there is a not of hurt underneath that he can’t fully understand about her.
While many of Jane’s personalities, such as Hammerhead; try to keep Cliff at an arm’s length because he may discover why she even came to have 64 personalities, even someone like Hammerhead always ends up paired with Robotman. Perhaps she too sees something in him, even if she wants to deny it. While all of the relationships in Doom Patrol are important, even Larry and Rita’s friendship; I believe that Robotman and Jane’s is both the most wholesome and tragic.
Have you been watching Doom Patrol lately? What do you think about Robotman and Jane’s bond? Let me know![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
A girl with too many fandoms to count.
