Doom Patrol season 4 finale recap, review & ending explained

Open Go TV / November 9, 2023 / Reviews

In the series finale of Doom Patrol, the team takes the first steps in the rest of their lives. The episode is streaming on Max.

Episode 12 recap: Done Patrol

The team emerges from the timestream back into the theater, and Isabel begins attacking them. Jane realizes she has the powers of all her personas and tries to fight back.

Laura panics over everything happening and turns into a bird to fly away. Vic uses his new upgrades to fight off Isabel as the entire team is filled with fresh confidence.

The were-butts break the doors and enter the hall, leaving the team to fight on two fronts. Dr. Yu and Nicholas rush in and begin singing the musical number that the butts were trained to perform when they were created.

Isabel gets jealous of the attention they are grabbing and begins singing a song from the musical about the Doom Patrol. With everyone distracted by the song, the team sneaks out.

Laura flies home and wakes up Rita. She feels that she’s falling back into her patterns by running away when things get difficult and being the only one to survive in the end.

Rita says that she can buck the trend by going back to help the team and calling for her wheelchair. They arrive just as the team comes outside and watches the theater get sucked into the timestream.

With the threats neutralized, the team heads back to the manor to celebrate. While Larry continues to be a wet blanket about their victory, the others are not phased by it too much.

Rita heads up to her room to change while the others remain at the dining table. The doorbell rings and when they open it, Isabel walks in. She says that she just completed a 1000-year run of her show in the timestream and meeting the butts was the best thing for her career.

As a way to thank the team for causing that, she gives them a few of her toenails which would make them young again. She also gives Cliff a crystal and tells him that it will make sense to him later.

Laura takes a toenail to give Rita but when she reaches her room, she shrieks out loud. Rita has passed away in her bed, and Cliff immediately suggests that they head to the afterlife and get her back.

Larry rushes to find a tether to Rita, but her spirit walks up to him and calmly tells him that they need to have a team meeting. She gives an emotional speech to the team, saying that she doesn’t want to return.

She adds that every problem that they solved was in some way created by them, so they need to become better individually, which means breaking up the team.

Her final request is that they burn her body, and they agree to do that for her. They set up a funeral pyre and burn her body as her spirit disappears.

They sit down together to watch one of Rita’s movies in remembrance of her, and when it is over, they watch it again.

Doom Patrol season 4 ending explained in detail:

What does Larry do in his final days?

Larry doesn’t know what is in store for his future, but he goes to his room and begins packing his stuff up. He suddenly thinks about Rama and asks Keeg if it would be possible to find him.

When Keeg gets ready to leave, Larry tells him that they’ll go find him together. They leave the house with no clue where they are headed and eventually reach the point in the ocean where Rama has decided to turn into a piece of lead and live out his end.

They grab him and fly into space, where he turns back into his human form. Larry tells him that everything will be alright as Keeg undoes his bandages and they share a kiss.

Where does Jane end up?

The others ask Jane how she is able to use the abilities of the other personas without giving them control, and she says that they are finally together in her mind. She says that the name Kaleidoscope keeps floating in her mind, and they decide to call her “Kay” for short.

When Cliff asks Jane what she plans on doing with the rest of her life, she says that she will look for a nice apartment and spend her time painting. Cliff tells her that it would be quite a boring existence.

She is looking at apartments when the alarm rings and she goes to the garage to turn it off. Casey emerges from the spaceship and says that she mistakenly set it off.

Her plan is to travel to space, and she also hints at her feelings for Jane. Jane looks into the spaceship and asks Casey if she wants some company on her travels.

Together, they travel through space and finally start a relationship with each other.

What happens to Victor and Laura?

With Rita gone and the team broken up, Laura questions her entire existence. She still believes that she is a disappointment because she runs away anytime things get tough.

She is also worried that she will go back to her evil ways to get by. Victor tells her that she has nothing to worry about and that he will be there to remind her if she ever happens to cross the line.

Laura is last seen heading to the Ant Farm with a flamethrower, hoping to put an end to the facility. Victor joins Deric in Detroit to teach their robotics class and prepare them for a bright future.

How does Cliff go out?

Cliff heads out to Florida to spend time with his grandson. He finally removes his mitten so that he can feel his grandson’s touch and on his birthday, reveals an old car for him to fix up.

With some help from his daughter, they work on the car and while Cliff is sitting inside with Rory in the passenger’s seat, he freezes up because of Alzheimer’s. He then notices something in the crystal that Isabel gave him and realizes what she was talking about.

He gets to see Rory’s entire life play out with that car, and it mirrors his own. With his dream of seeing Rory grow up fulfilled, Cliff accepts his demise as the light goes out in his eyes.

Review

The finale of the series has a lot of emotional weight to it and does succeed in connecting with the audience. The characters each have their preferred ends, with Cliff’s being the most touching.
The special effects are janky at times, such as the moment where Isabel flies above the timestream, and when Larry goes into the ocean to retrieve Rama and then fly into space. It looks very primitive and below par.
The background score of this episode is fantastic and suits the tone perfectly. Some clever song choices establish the feelings that each character is going through during their end.