S02E08: Dad Patrol

[kieyra]

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Synopsis TBD

Airing Thursday, July 30, 2020
 

 

[diebartdie]

I know this is not a popular opinion around here but, I feel so sorry for Dorothy. Niles, being an idiot, neglected her her entire life, did not even know she existed until he accidentally found her while she was being cruelly exploited as a sideshow freak, then he kept her prisoner, not allowing her any sort of life for almost 100 YEARS! Not once did he try to understand the culture her mother came from, not once did he talk to her about how she came to be in that sideshow, not once did he go back to see her mother before mother died. Not once did Niles try to really get to know and understand this little hybrid being that was his daughter. Niles is a horrible, horrible person, as bad as Reginald Hargreeves + Lionel Luthor. The child had no idea she was having her period and that alone made me so angry with effing Niles. That whole "Dorothy's special day" was INFURIATING. Instead of giving her this silly, empty day of "fun", he should have been talking to her straight, explaining what he understood of her true nature and together, perhaps they could have come up with a plan to deal with that wax demon thing. Instead, we get another avoidable catastrophe. Personally, Im really fed up with men refusing to take responsibility and relying on magical thinking + a strong wishbone to "solve" problems. I just really, really feel sorry for Dorothy, she deserved better. Hell, that asshole Cliff would have been better.

Now in other story lines, we have Jane and the Underground. With one episode left (which we already know is an unintended cliff hanger), I'm not seeing how her story line is really going to mesh with Dorothy's. There was that one brief overlap with the wax demon thing going into the Underground (somehow) and killing (again, how?) 2 of the alt's but beyond that, this story line is not even working as a commentary on the main story line with Dorothy, at least not for me. OK sure, Dorothy's father ruined her and Kate's father ruined her but the parallels are just not really working. I mean, ok, this season is about failed fathers: Cliff trying to reconnect. Niles using magical thinking and neglect as crutches. Larry reckoning with the damage he inadvertently did to his family. Overall though, the Underground story line just feels so unconnected....eff it, the entire season feels unconnected and not at all as satisfying as last season.

Last thing, I love Dorothy and wish one human being was really, HONESTLY looking out for HER best interests.

[Sakura12]

I do feel bad for Dorothy, Niles is an asshole and ruined the lives of multiple people. Everything that happened to all of them is his fault. 

I don't know if I'm with Cliff in finding a way to keep him alive to witness the damage he's caused or if it's better to let him die so he doesn't cause anymore damage. But then they would probably meet even more people whose lives he destroyed and no one would know how to help them. 

I'm glad that the gas station woman was nice enough to treat Dorothy like a fellow woman and help her out. That said I find Dorothy's story takes away from our team story. But so many shows like to separate everyone after the first season. The team working or not working together is why we liked the show in the first place. I'll never understood why showrunners continue to do this. 

I find Jane and the underground story fascinating. Especially now that they have an evil one that seems to want to be the only personality. I do wonder what happened to Miranda in the well. 

Cliff being a complete dork bonding with his daughter was great. 

Now we'll see how the Doom Patrol saves the world from melting.

[MarkHB]

I'm not sure I'd say Niles was engaging in magical thinking; he had a defined, achievable plan for what to do with Dorothy. Granted, that plan was "let her live as long as possible but she has to die before menarche," so not an especially nice plan, but a plan of sorts nonetheless. I think that hiding her away with Danny may have been Niles's way of avoiding getting too attached to her, once he knew that he'd eventually have to arrange for her murder.  

[UnknownK]

Does the candlemaker only exist in Dorothy's head so if she died he does as well, or will he just attach to somebody else when she dies?

 

[CletusMusashi]

I can not wait for the Dorothy story to be over. Despite the fact that I really honestly do, for the most part, like this show, I find myself commenting week after week after week that Larry is boring and Dorothy's whole story is just anviliciously nauseating. If they can find a way to put Dorothy out to pasture somehow then all I'll have to worry about is the occasional boring Larry flashback. 

And those aren't real action-based anyway so I can just open up a game window to amuse myself while I listen for a scene change. He's fine if you pair him with someone interesting, like they did with Jane this week, but please just stop trying to write Larry Scenes.

Cyborg's "My girlfriend is a supervillain" arc is decent, but when he's off-screen I honestly don't miss him. The actors are fine and everything, but Jane, as far as I am concerned, has the arc that I'm consistently most invested in. To me, this is the "Jane and Friends Show," on which Cliff and Rita are quite welcome to appear as comic relief co-stars. And any extended arc that takes too much screen time away from that has an uphill battle to prove itself worthy to me.

[Nellise]

I'm assuming there's some arc to Larry in the comics that they're trying to build up to? It feels like they're repeating the same exact story for him from season 1 except with his family instead of boyfriend. How many flashbacks do we need of Larry watching something in the past that's usually uninteresting to anybody but Larry and then being sad now?

[CletusMusashi]

Another reason to love Jane. "Hey, Larry! Quit boring the audience and help me do something interesting!"

Hell, even the Dorothy story was good when they mixed it with Jane's. This time I was just left wondering why it took her ninety years to reach puberty. How many years will it take for that fake accent to wear off?

I do question why the stuffed animal and paper were so immaculate after all that time. Maybe when Minerva left them there she laminated them? 

Watching Rita try to make "The Beekeeper" a thing was funny. Is everybody going to fantasize a TV spinoff?

[giovannif7]

Loved the homage to the opening credits for 60s British spy series The Avengers, with Rita as Diana Rigg/Emma Peel and Vic as Patrick Macnee/John Steed. I would watch an Avengers reboot starring those two.

Love Larry, Cliff and Jane too, but have no interest in Dorothy or her storyline. Hopefully she'll be gone by next season.

 

[kieyra]

19 hours ago, CletusMusashi said:

I can not wait for the Dorothy story to be over. Despite the fact that I really honestly do, for the most part, like this show, I find myself commenting week after week after week that Larry is boring and Dorothy's whole story is just anviliciously nauseating. If they can find a way to put Dorothy out to pasture somehow then all I'll have to worry about is the occasional boring Larry flashback. 

And those aren't real action-based anyway so I can just open up a game window to amuse myself while I listen for a scene change. He's fine if you pair him with someone interesting, like they did with Jane this week, but please just stop trying to write Larry Scenes.

Cyborg's "My girlfriend is a supervillain" arc is decent, but when he's off-screen I honestly don't miss him. The actors are fine and everything, but Jane, as far as I am concerned, has the arc that I'm consistently most invested in. To me, this is the "Jane and Friends Show," on which Cliff and Rita are quite welcome to appear as comic relief co-stars. And any extended arc that takes too much screen time away from that has an uphill battle to prove itself worthy to me.

We’re basically on the same page here, except I have slightly more Larry interest. But man, between the pandemic and Dorothy, this season has it rough. 

I also wasn’t thrilled with the “terrible fathers” theme, especially when Kay/Jane’s metaphorical Well ... became a literal well. It was much scarier when Daddy was more of a shadowy, lurking presence than a run of the mill, abusive psychopath. (JMO)

This past week, after much waffling, I got my husband to try the show. (I’m pretty choosy about which stuff I put in front of him, because I watch WAY too much tv and not all of it is top tier.) He got hooked from episode one, loves the characters ... until we got to Hair Patrol, an episode I realized I’d never even made it all the way through on my own because of the grossness, and the Gentleman Adventurer Niles story that goes on forever. He found it boring. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that that episode spawns (literally) the worst part of S2. I’ll have to do a disclaimer before we get there. 

[Arynm]

I thought that Niles was deliberately keeping her a child so that the Candlemaker would stay inside her (ewww).  I thought there was a throw away line or two about that. After she got her period faux Constantine said that it was too late to stop him because she had grown up. Or something to that effect.

I think I got that right.

Loved the Jane story, I am guessing that Miranda is getting rid of alts "for Kay's own good".  What does a child need with Scarlet Harlot? Miranda is bad news I think.

Larry needs to get over himself, he is so mopey and boring, I need him to do something besides moaning about his family.

[kieyra]

Re: Miranda ... don’t forget we saw her inhale some of the “stupid idea” dust in Dumb Patrol. 

[tennisgurl]

So Miranda is actually an evil personality and is trying to kill the rest of the personalities so its just her?! She should have just gotten Jane on her side, but now she has pissed her off, and a pissed off Jane is a Jane she doesn't want to deal with. 

I dont hate Dorothy or anything, and I feel really bad for her, but her story really is just sucking up so much screen time, I spend most of it wanting to get back to the team. I did like her scene with the gas station attendant, it was great to see someone just being a nice person to her, and actually talking to her about growing up. In general, I feel like everyone is so split up this season that, between the Dorothy scenes and everyone off in their own subplots, the show feels really disjointed and missing the team dynamic that makes it so special. It also doesn't help that so many of their plots seem to be more on the mundane side this season (well, by this shows standards anyway) with family drama, and angsty romantic subplots, and such things. Less with the talking magic unicorn heads and the evil puppet cults and doomsday cockroaches and more with the talking. Not that we still dont have plenty of wacky, but the later part of the season seems more sedate somehow. 

At least we are getting a little more traction with Cyborg and his girlfriend, even if it still continues to be the shows most boring subplot. At least we got to see another imagine spot, this time with the adventures of The Bee Keeper, The Avengers style! 

I am really glad at least that Cliff has reconnected with his daughter finally, and that it actually went well! I spent the whole time terrified that it would go horribly wrong, like with Larry's son, but it actually worked out, for now anyway. 

[Ottis]

It is so swarmy when Niles is with Dorothy. Makes me want to hurl.

I love, love, love how inventive this show is. But I haven’t been able to crack the code, yet. It feels more like a bunch of hilarious disconnected events than a connected plot. I get that the show explores our heroes weak points, I just lose the symbolism at times.