Doom Patrol: Who is Miranda?

Doom Patrol's second season has seen each of the heroes on the DC Universe/HBO Max series dealing with not only their complicated relationship with Niles Caulder/The Chief (Timothy Dalton) now that they know he's responsible for their various disfigurements and traumas, but it has also seen them each deal with issues of self. For Jane (Diane Guerrero) that has meant her position as the primary personality being called into question by the others in the Underground. This week's episode, "Space Patrol", saw Jane's authority further questioned following the destruction of Flaming Katy and Baby Doll and prompted a whole new question: who is Miranda?

Warning: spoilers for the sixth episode of Doom Patrol's second season, "Space Patrol", below.

As fans saw in the previous episode, "Finger Patrol", Dorothy (Abigail Shapiro) unleashed Candlemaker after playtime between the girl and Baby Doll went horribly awry. The result was that Candlemaker entered the Underground and killed Baby Doll along with Flaming Katy, leaving the surviving personas to deal with the fallout. The majority of the personas decide that they need to have a funeral for their lost sisters and despite Jane questioning things -- she even goes to see The Girl, the real Kay Challis the personas are there to protect, for guidance -- Baby Doll and Flaming Katy are carried to the Well. Jane tries to convince them not to throw them into the Well as the Well is a point of no return but as she's making her case, a woman suddenly emerges from said Well and is quickly identified as Miranda. Miranda (Samantha Ware) claims that the Well will allow Baby Doll and Flaming Katy to be reborn -- and then asks Jane to step aside as Primary.

While we've never really seen Miranda as one of the personalities before save for a couple of memories -- including one in Season 2's "Tyme Patrol" -- we've certainly heard of her. Miranda was the personality that was Primary prior to Jane, who stepped in when The Girl was a young teenager. As was explained in Season 1's "Jane Patrol", after suffering some unknown trauma, Miranda threw herself in the Well and thus destroyed herself. Her station itself was then destroyed, leaving some unseen horror behind. It's a similar situation in comics, though the trauma that Miranda experienced there is a sexual assault at church on Easter, thus leading her decision to destroy herself in the Well.

The sudden return of Miranda is an interesting one on Doom Patrol. If what Miranda says is true and that the Well is a place that doesn't destroy them but lets them be reborn, it opens up all sorts of questions. As we saw in "Jane Patrol" the terrifying Daddy, a representation of Kay's father who sexually abused her as a child, resided in the Well until Jane faced off with him and caused him to be functionally destroyed and fall back into the Well, broken. If the Well can be restorative as Miranda says, it suggests that the evil Daddy could be reborn as well, but it also potentially suggests that it is possible for The Girl to completely heal from her trauma, one personality at a time.

Whatever the case, the emergence of Miranda definitely undermines Jane's role as Primary, something that will be interesting to see play out as the last three episodes of Doom Patrol's second season continue.

Were you surprised to see Miranda return? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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