With each of the heroes of Doom Patrol starting to explore more of their past and get closer to some sort of peace with their traumatic histories, it’s Larry and Cliff’s turn to directly face their previous lives. But, as with any of their adventures, there are always complications. Read on for our spoiler-filled recap of “Frances Patrol” below!
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“Frances Patrol” opens in the past, at a remote motel with Larry — pre-accident — alone in a room John soon shows up, the pair sharing private, intimate moments including Larry admitting he loves John. Suddenly, Larry is back in Doom Manor, picking up moments after the ending of “Jane Patrol”.
Elsewhere, the news alerts Cliff that Bump, his former friend, was attacked by a giant alligator and died meaning that Clara has now lost two fathers. Rita tries to talk to Jane and get an apology for Karen’s actions but that’s not happening. Jane has actually called a team meeting, but Vic doesn’t show. He’s trying to communicate with his grid to find out why things went weird with his cannon and he finds out he’s more cyborg than he was before.
Jane gets caught up on things and is unhappy with things. Cliff decides he wants to go find Clara and, ultimately Flit arrives and takes Cliff and Rita both to Florida where Clara is. The pair go inside and are pretty out of place. Elsewhere, Vic cuts himself open to try to understand what’s going on and quickly discovers that he does, in fact, have more mechanical parts than before. Jane has tracked down Flex Mentallo’s wife and sets up a meeting for them.
Larry pleads with the Negative Spirit to take him back to the dream, which it does but not to the same moment. Instead, Larry is taken to another memory where he meets up with John at a bar. Back in Florida, Cliff interacts with Clara, helping her stand up as she delivers a eulogy for Bump. Turns out Bump was a good guy who saw Bump as her hero, which upsets Cliff who decides that what he has to do is go after the alligator who killed Bump — Frances.
In the dream, John calls Larry out for still not being over his issues and declares that he doesn’t want to spend his last days dealing with Larry’s refusal to change. Back in the real world Larry is freaked out and demands answers from Negative Spirit. He finds a series of Post-It notes directing him to Erie, Pennsylvania. In Florida, Rita explains that Gertrude is her real name and she’s trying to get back to who she was before. Cliff explains the significance of the gold watch he’s determined to wrestle and alligator for.
Larry goes to Erie, to John’s house where the nurse recognizes who he is. An elderly John is not well, drifting in and out, but he’s spoken about Larry a lot. John finally wakes up to see Larry. He explains that he was sick, thought he was dying, but when he saw the light it was Larry he saw and references the motel memory. John doesn’t want to know how; he is just glad Larry’s there.
Vic and Jane meet up with Flex Mentallo’s wife, Delores, and while they wait for her to arrive Vic explains to Jane what’s going on. Jane takes off to chase a guy seeming to beat his girlfriend while Vic approaches an old lady. turns out they are all agents of the Bureau of Normalcy. They end up taking Vic, but Jane gets away. In the swamp, Cliff sends Rita away and Francis the alligator shows up.
Larry tells John in person that he loves him, John tells Larry it’s okay to mov eon with his life. Larry also tells John about the Negative Spirit, revealing that it’s become a relationship of sorts for him and as they sit there and chat, John passes away. In Florida, Cliff returns to the bar, leaving the gold watch behind before Clara can speak with him. And as for Vic? Darren Jones, the guy hunting Danny the Street, has Vic locked up ominously telling him “welcome to the Ant Farm.”
Doom Patrol is now streaming on DC Universe. New episodes debut Fridays.
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