Doom Patrol: Jeremy Carver Talks Cliff’s Journey in Season 4 (Exclusive)

Doom Patrol having debuted the first two episodes of the season last week. After the wild and harrowing events of Season 3, this new season finds each of the reluctant heroes of the Doom Patrol in a very different place. Not only have they started to come together as a real team following their battle with the testicle monster at the end of last season, but each of the heroes has had to deal with their own lives in different ways — especially Cliff/Robotman. In Season 4, repairs to his robot form lead to Cliff getting something he’s wanted for a long time: the ability to feel. Unfortunately, Cliff gaining limited sense of touch doesn’t exactly go the way he wants it to and now, series showrunner Jeremy Carver is opening up about Cliff’s journey this season.

“Cliff getting a sense of… I mean you’ve said as much, but getting his sense of touch is very, very special to him. He immediately decided that the first thing he wants to feel is his grandson, Rory. And that sort of stands in for what has been a very long arc for Cliff, which is family comes first … which Cliff hasn’t always done,” Carver told ComicBook.com. “So, it’s this sort of elusive sort of goal that he puts even more pressure upon himself because now he’s got this oven mitt over his hand, which prevents him from touching anything, but this sort of elusive notion of touching his grandson, Rory, which again, comes crashing down when he finds himself touching something entirely different than he expected in a way that he never expected. It brings in a sharp relief, his own monstrosity. And in doing so, that weirdly pushes the goal of seeing his grandson even further away because what kind of monster deserves to see his grandson?”

Carver continued, “So, it’s sort of a cascade. As is not uncommon with Cliff, Cliff is by no means an innocent, but he is a little Job-like in the way that the personal crisis seemed to pile up on him. So yeah, that speaks a little to his path there in the first couple of episodes.”

Carver also explained how Cliff is very much the “everyman” of the series and his reactions to things give fans to have their own reactions as well.

“I think when Cliff sort of says his catchphrase, ‘what the fuck,’ I think, or at least I like to think, he’s speaking for most of us because stuff is either that strange or that unfair or just that weird,” Carver said. “So, Cliff has always sort of taken that role in the show of giving us permission to say the same thing.

What is Doom Patrol about?

Doom Patrol reimagines one of DC’s most beloved groups of superheroes: “Robotman” aka Cliff Steele (Brendan Fraser), “Negative Man” aka Larry Trainor (Matt Bomer), “Elasti-Woman” aka Rita Farr (April Bowlby), “Crazy Jane” (Diane Guerrero), “Cyborg” aka Victor Stone (Joivan Wade), joined by former super villain “Madame Rouge” aka Laura de Mille (Michelle Gomez). Each member of the Doom Patrol suffered a horrible accident that gave them superhuman abilities, but also left them scarred and disfigured. Part support group, part Super Hero team, the Doom Patrol is a band of superpowered freaks who fight for a world that wants nothing to do with them. Season four opens with the team unexpectedly traveling to the future to find an unwelcome surprise. Faced with their imminent demise, the Doom Patrol must decide once and for all which is more important: their own happiness, or the fate of the world?

The series stars Brendan Fraser, Matt Bomer, Diane Guerrero, April Bowlby, Joivan Wade, Michelle Gomez, Skye Roberts, Riley Shanahan, and Matthew Zuk. Doom Patrol is produced by Berlanti Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television with showrunner Jeremy Carver, Geoff Johns, Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, Chris Dingess and Tamara Becher-Wilkinson serving as executive producers. The series is based on characters created for DC by Arnold Drake, Bob Haney, and Bruno Premiani.

Doom Patrol airs new episodes Thursdays on HBO Max.