Spoiler Free. Yay!
With all the talk of the fabled Ant Farm these past few episode we finally infiltrate the farm on the hunt for our half-human friend Cyborg. Who in the previous episode got himself captured looking for an old fling of Flex Mentallo. As the episode featured greatly around rescuing Cyborg we learned more about the Bureau of Normalcy, and the Ant Farm, while expanding on Cyborg’s story and why Doom Patrol may end up being the best team/family for him.
In the previous episodes featuring Silas (Cyborg’s dad) we learn how Cyborg distrusts him due to believing he is purposely messing with his own son’s robotic side for his own gain. In Episode 12 that distrust is front and center when Silas goes looking for Cyborg, enlisting the help of the Doom Patrol to infiltrate his old place of employment, The Ant Farm. Throughout we see the team get captured while breaking in ending in their own personal torture moments, with Robotman’s being the highlight. The tone and story may be serious as the team tries to save their newest member, but in good ol’ Doom Patrol fashion we get some bonkers yet hilarious moments, first coming in the form of The Ant Farm.
In the comics The Ant Farm was located in The Pentagon, but in the show they changed it up by having the base deep, deep under what seemed like a normal building. Once inside we see the robot operators, like in the comics but a different design. Sadly we didn’t see many of the rooms in the building, but that would have been to much for a singular episode, what we did get was a great transition from page to comic. They kept the obscure, smart, and complexity of The Ant Farm while not going to “out there”. Later on we are introduced to what may be one of the best new characters, The Butts. Bipodal butts that have teeth in their cracks that eat anything in their paths, it’s such a weird concept but Doom Patrol pulls it off so well. Plus one other characters that many – including me – have been looking out for, prisoner 722! Who is that you may be asking? Well this is spoiler free, but know it’s who ya’ll been asking for.
I’ve said in the past that I’m not the biggest Cyborg fan and felt that he may not be the best pick for the Doom Patrol show, but boy am I wrong after this episode. With the focus primarily on him we are treated to moments where he slowly loses his mind to what seems to be Grid back in his system, fighting to keep his human side in check. Ever since he had to be rebooted the nano nites inside of him have seemed to have taken over and start making him more robot then man as we saw in last weeks episode. It’s great to see a character I barely care about slowly make his way into one of my more liked TV superheroes. Between fun, cocky, team leader, and guilt ridden teenage half robotman Joivan Wade has breathed a great fresh breath into a classic character.
Closing out the episode as a reminder that he is still around screwing with our heroes is Mr. Nobody, who I can whole hardly saw is evil as fuck. I can’t remember the last time I hated a villain so much and longed for the heroes to beat them. That is a huge complement to the writers and Alan Tudyk. Without going into much details we see just how evil the villain can truly be and that when he say’s to leave him alone that’s exactly what you should do. Hopefully we see him more in the next episode, because with only 3 remaining it feels like this season may end with them not finding the Chief, or many things not being resolved.