‘Doom Patrol’ Season 1, Episode 4 ‘Cult Patrol’ Recap: The Book

When the Doom Patrol reaches the place called Fuchtopia, they meet a strange man with crazy ideas. Unfortunately, the team does not find who they are looking for as they made their narrow escape. Usually, anyone would rest after such an ordeal. However, the team loses this luxury when an old friend of their beloved chief reaches the mansion, bearing alarming news.

In this week’s episode of Doom Patrol, Willoughby Kipling (Mark Sheppard) reaches the Doom Mansion. After agreeing to help with Willoughby, the team carries out their assignments. Now, the team must save Eliott Patterson (Ted Sutherland), a teenager that served as a book necessary for The Cult of The Unwritten Book’s ushering the apocalypse. If not, the world will inevitably end.

Knights Templar

Willoughby felt an odd shift of power towards the Cult’s realm. Sensing that his foes are on their way to find him, Willoughby prepares to defend himself. He may have left with his life, but the world’s balance is now at stake. There was only one place he could go to if he wished to give humanity another chance at life: Doom Mansion, Dr. Niles Caulder’s (Timothy Dalton) residence.

Cultists’ Child

All his life, Eliott Patterson thought that he would grow up to save the world. After all, it is what his parents always told him. As Eliott aged, tattoos accumulated on his body, written in strange characters no one understood. Despite this, Eliott was happy with his life, having his parents as his best friends. However, his 18th Birthday changed everything. Eliott’s father (Michael Scialabba) tells him to run away, that he is not going to save the world; he is ending it instead. Eliott’s mother (Lilli Birdsell) slits his throat and urges Eliott to eat his cake as he cowered in fear towards his room.

Restless

The disaster at Fuchtopia left Victor Stone/Cyborg (Joivan Wade) more questions than answers. On the other hand, Rita Farr/Elasti-woman (April Bowlby) remained firm in her non-involvement. Cliff Steel/Robotman (Brendan Fraser/Riley Shanahan) scared Crazy Jane (Diane Guerrero) away, making her other personalities take over. Elsewhere, Larry Trainor/Negative Man (Matt Bomer/Matthew Zuk) continued to navigate through his relationship with the Entity. Generally, the team was in disarray. However, Willoughby’s arrival changes this. Despite the tension each one of them felt, they agree to help Willoughby find ‘The Book’ and keep the cultists away.

Acquiring ‘The Book’ went questionably easy. Thanks to Willoughby’s magic, they had Eliott in their custody in under a minute. The cultists’ entry from their realm relied on a man who had stigmata, and it was up to Cliff and Jane to find the man, a priest in Spain. To Cliff’s dismay, Jane’s Hammerhead persona became infuriated with the thought of being inside a church, so when they find the priest, Hammerhead lashes out. Before neither of them realized, the stomata opened, and they lay on the ground in a different realm.

Cliff and Jane’s failure to secure the stomata meant that the cultists’ forces would attack the mansion, so Cyborg and Willoughby stood their ground and engaged the wave of cultists. Meanwhile, the entity decided to play tricks on Larry again, letting Eliott roam free. Luckily, Rita was there to talk Eliott out of killing himself as he lamented about the loss of his parents.

End Is Here

With Cliff and Jane’s Pennyfarthing persona held captive by Mother Archon, the cultists easily overrun Cyborg and Willoughby. In a desperate attempt to end the conflict, Willoughby tries to kill Elliot, but Elasti-woman stops him. Sadly, the Nuns of the cult get hold of Elliot. When they finish the chants, the de-creator, a menacing eye in the sky, appears. The Nuns summoned the world’s destroyer.

‘Doom Patrol’ Season 1, Episode 4 ‘Cult Patrol’ Final Verdict

The entire episode is full of WTF moments. As the world goes down in flames, our heroes deal with problems of their own while miserably trying to keep the world’s balance. The chapter felt shorter compared to the previous ones, and perhaps this is a move done on purpose. Doom Patrol managed to make a chaotic plot a masterpiece, and it is one of the few shows that do this well.

‘Doom Patrol’ continues Friday, March 15th, with ‘Paw Patrol’ at the DC Streaming Service.