Doom Patrol Recap With Spoilers: It’s Uncharted Territory All Around in “Space Patrol”

Last week’s Doom Patrol ended on a tragic note with the apparent death of Baby Doll and, potentially, of Flaming Katy after Dorothy made a wish. This week, the fallout from that wish takes center stage as Dorothy deals with her guilt and grief while the Underground also deals with their losses. Of course, as we’ve seen in previews Dorothy’s guilt will collide with the arrival of the Chief’s old research team who’ve returned from space after many decades of exploration. How will it all work out? Read on for our spoiler-filled recap of “Space Patrol” to find out!

Warning: Spoilers for the sixth episode of Doom Patrol‘s second season, “Space Patrol”, below.

In the basement, Dorothy sits crying and terrified with Jane who lies on the floor, her face covered in wax. Chief goes looking for Dorothy when Cliff shows up with the severed finger and he has to find her. In the Underground, Jane and the other personas are horrified to realize that both Flaming Katy and Baby Doll are dead due to the Candlemaker. Elsewhere, Larry and Rita get off a bus in Cloverton after his disastrous visit with his family and Rita tells him about her role in the community theater play. In Detroit, Roni agrees to let Vic scan her to better understand her injuries if he tells her about his PTSD.

Cliff goes into the basement and finds Jane, but not Baby Doll. He alerts Chief and he realizes that Dorothy is responsible for Jane’s situation. Larry comes in and alerts them that there’s a spaceship outside and Chief says to tell the visitors that he’s not there. They’re his old research team from his days at the Bureau of Normalcy that he sent into space in the 50s but presumed were dead. He wants Larry to keep them there while he hunts for Dorothy. Larry meets with them, The Pioneers of the Uncharted.

In the Underground, the personas deal with their dead. They are going to have a funeral procession, but Jane questions if death is actually real in the Underground, though the Secretary persona refuses to listen to her. In the house, Chief discovers a note from Dorothy admitting that the Candlemaker hurt Jane and that she’s running away, and she does — by taking the spaceship. Chief takes Cliff to the garage where he has a second spaceship and the two of them head into space in this ship which turns out is part science and part magic.

Larry continues to chat with the space visitors and Valentina Vostok introduces herself properly and they discover that they both have Negative Spirit. At play rehearsal, Rita discovers to her horror that they aren’t doing the famous play Our Town but are instead doing a play about last season’s incident in which the town was destroyed by Mr. Nobody.

Chatting with Valentina, Larry learns that she also was horribly irradiated with her experience with the Negative Spirit but learned to live harmoniously with her Spirit and thus contain the radiation. And it only took her five years. In Detroit with Roni, Vic discovers that both STAR Labs and Caulder Robotics were part of the modifications made to Roni much to both of their surprise. Vic reaches out to his dad who is more excited about him having a girlfriend than helping him find out about the tech.

Cliff and Chief arrive at Dorothy’s location and Chief admits that everything his fault, revealing that because he isolated her she created her imaginary friends and if she wished it so, one of them — Candlemaker — could cleave the earth in two. He tasks Cliff with getting Dorothy back. Cliff finds Dorothy making a grave and he sits with her. At rehearsal, Rita — as “Gertrude” — tries to give some advice to the actor playing “her” but it turns out that the actor has some very solid insights on who “Blob Lady” really is.

As the other two Pioneers of the Unknown — Zip and Specs — continue to run around and act like children — Valentina reveals to Larry that they aren’t actually still alive. They were invaded by a benign spore from distant planet and are now just husks. Her Spirit thinks that Earth’s atmosphere will kill the spore and so returning is essentially her way of burying them and moving on.

Dorothy reveals that she’s making a grave for Manny, her wendigo. Her mother gave him to her, and he was the last thing she had left of her mother. Cliff tells her about his daughter and tells her that she’s not alone in her pain. They bond and head back to the spaceship together.

In the Underground, Jane tries to stop them from throwing Flaming Katy and Baby Doll into the well under the assumption that going into the Well is the end. However, Miranda suddenly arises from the Well and reveals that it doesnt’ work that way. Instead, the Well will allow them to mend in time just as she did. Miranda asks Jane to step aside as Primary. In the real world, Miranda wakes up.

In space, Cliff tells Chief that he’s down to be there for Dorothy as family and that they’re ready to go home. Chief says that they aren’t going home — and jettisons Cliff into space.

New episodes of Doom Patrol land Thursdays on both DC Universe and HBO Max.