With the party to save Danny in last week’s “Sex Patrol” over having successfully helped the nonbinary, teleporting former street heal from his brick form having been dropped and broken, this week’s episode of Doom Patrol, “Finger Patrol”, saw the heroes settle back into dealing with their own issues and traumas. Cliff (Brendan Fraser) and Vic (Joivan Wade) went off to Detroit, Larry (Matt Bomer) and Rita (April Bowlby) visits Larry’s family in the wake of the death of one of his sons, while Niles (Timothy Dalton), Jane (Diane Guerrero) and Dorothy (Abigail Shapiro) remain at Doom Manor. In typical Doom Patrol fashion, each situation comes with unexpected challenges but one of them results in a shocking death that will have long-term consequences for the team.
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Warning: Spoilers for this week’s episode of Doom Patrol, “Finger Patrol”, below.
As has been established during the first few episodes of Doom Patrol‘s second season, there’s been conflict in the Underground when it comes to who the “primary” personality should be for Jane. As fans know, the body is that of Kay Challis who developed 64 distinct personalities after experiencing childhood sexual trauma and Jane is current dominant identity, operating on the “surface” as it were, functioning in real life as part of the effort to protect the Kay deep inside. However, because of Jane’s relationship with the Doom Patrol as well as her use of drugs to sedate the other personalities, those in the Underground think that Jane is no longer fit to be primary.
In “Finger Patrol”, Baby Doll gets to come out and play. A childlike personality, Niles soon introduces Baby Doll to Dorothy so that they can be playmates and for a time, Dorothy and Baby Doll get along well as the run and play all around the house. Eventually, however, Dorothy grows tired of Baby Doll — both physically and emotionally. For Dorothy, Baby Doll is just too childlike, and she is mean to Dorothy’s “first friend”, her wendigo. It prompts Dorothy to hide from Baby Doll, which in turn makes Baby Doll feel rejected. And it’s there where things start to unravel. Kids can be cruel, something that ends up fully on display when Baby Doll tells Dorothy that Niles is evil, Dorothy scares Baby Doll during a game of hide and seek and is then outright mean to her.
While that might be the end of it for normal children, Baby Doll and Dorothy aren’t normal children. Baby Doll decides to retaliate against Dorothy by nearly burning her in the furnace, which prompts Dorothy to release her wendigo for protection and, in response to that Baby Doll — with an assist from another personality, Flaming Katy — kills the wendigo. And that’s when Dorothy engages the Candlemaker and makes a devastating wish, one that sends the monstrous being into the Underground where he attacks Flaming Katy and outright murders Baby Doll even as she desperately apologizes.
It is a grim and horrifying moment, one that is certain to create a lot of unrest and challenges for Jane and the rest of the personalities in the Underground going forward. It will also have major impact on Dorothy as well, something that series star Abigail Shapiro spoke a bit with ComicBook.com about in a recent interview, noting that Dorothy is “devastated”.
“I don’t want to say too much because I don’t want to spoil anything, but it impacts her a lot,” Shapiro said. “She’s devastated because she didn’t mean to kill Baby Doll. It was the Candlemaker and she doesn’t really have much control over the Candlemaker and her making that wish haunts her for the rest of the season.”
New episodes of Doom Patrol land Thursdays on both DC Universe and HBO Max.
What did you think about Baby Doll’s surprising death in “Finger Patrol”? Let us know in the comments below.
