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Notes on - Doom Patrol: Pain patrol

 

Pain patrol notes

 

Whitechapel sign is shorthand for ‘We’re in Jack the Ripper times’

The copper calls Niles ‘Tea Leaf’, which is the first time ever that I got Cockney Rhyming slang without needing it explained to me!

‘To Constable Shelby Kincaid for Dedicated Service’  He wouldn’t have gotten that until after retirement, surely

Why did Jack let that woman go instead of torturing her to death?  Weird that he wouldn’t just kill her in her own domain.  Maybe he didn’t want the butterflies there.

Larry would be a better cooking teacher.

Rita’s self esteem has taken a serious hit after her first attempt at superheroing went so bad

I really thought Cliff was shutting down at breakfast

Niles:  How about when my 11 year old daughter is in the room we take the swearing down a notch

Cliff:  No problem.  Does she know sign language?  (Raises middle finger)

Is this the first time Niles has classified what he did to the team as a mistake and something bad.  That’s a step forward from last episode.

Swarm of butterflies- beautiful and dangerous

Rita:  Please tell me this is a seasonal migration, and not something freaky?  (long silence)  Oh God damn it.

**** This isn’t an invitation.  It’s a very polite ransom note.

I expect Larry is the only one Rita would have gone to rescue at this point.

Cliff is going to reunite with his daughter purely out of spite. 

Oh, Jane didn’t fall asleep, she got pulled into the uinderground for an intervention

Roni didn’t tell Vic on purpose that the date had changed for the group.

Support groups do not change their date or time under any circumstances.  Very pccasionaly they cancel, but that’s it.  The regular dependability is a vital part of the setup

Vic saw Roni’s scars and his immediate response was ‘wow.  You’re beautiful.’  I don’t think I’ve ever liked Vic more.

The specificity of where Roni’s scars stop begs a lot of questions about how exactly her accident went down.

The comparison of where and what they can feel was really erotic.  Where on the damage can you still feel pleasure?  That’s a theme that’s going to blossom later in the episode.

Larry on hooks.  Very Saw.

Oh, of course the Chief created Larry’s bandages to give him more mobility.  Had we known that before?

Is Jane the research vessel that Niles had currently lost?

Oh.  I asked ages ago what was up with Larry’s airlock room.  Now we learn it was to contain radiation.  Did we know that he gives off the radiation?  Where does the radiation come from?  I thought the radiation was the negative being?  Is it the being’s substance?  Does it have a half life?

Rita:  Have a little faith in Niles.  Because he rarely explains himself.

Man, the repeated motif of people seeing and accepting other people’s scars ix well handled.

Hide and Seek with Darling and Herschel

Who’s the scarecrow?

This reunion could not be less about Clara

Cliff:  See, some batshit crazy scientist caused our car crash so he could stick my brain in this piece of shit body.  He told me you were dead all this time, then I found out you weren’t.  Now here I am. Okay?  We good?  How we do this?  You want to call me ‘Dad’?  or ‘Daddy?’  Oh – happy belated birthday.

It never even occurs to Cliff how this might be making Clara feel and he doesn’t care when it’s pointed out.  All he cares about is proving he’s a better dad than Niles

Vic asks if Roni minds if he asks about her scars and she says ‘yeah’ and he just respects that and lets it go.  OK, NOW I’ve never liked Vic more

The scarring makeup on Roni is astonishingly well done

How long has Vic been Cyborg?  He really hasn’t had sex since?

Roni is being the dude and running away.

Vic:  They’ve got a cheesesteak that’ll make you feel way better things than I can

Roni: That’s a low bar.

Driller Bill:  Dear Jane,  Because you decided to remain in a house with toxic people, I haven’t felt safe enough to do my drilling, or my billing.  And may is our busiest month.

Jane’s role is technically ONLY to protect Kay.  Her self actualizing is actually in direct conflict with the very reason she exists.

It’s interesting that Rita is our window into Jack’s palace.  She wasn’t on the team when this happened.

Red Jack wants company and his take on Niles is that he enjoys causing others pain as much as Jack does. Based on his observed behavior

 

Niles is tempted because Jack is offering eternal life if he’;; only keep causing people pain  Pretty direct metaphor

Very Emperor tempting Luke Skywalker

Niles thinks its ok to keep hurting people in the name of his mission as long as he doesn’t enjoy it

Larry’s bandages being unwrapped will hurt other people.  Not a subtle metaphor at all

He’s literaly being tortured by hurting others

1966

Rita really was amazingly welcoming to Larry.  Like, way above and beyond.

Is the Deborah Kerr references an in depth movie buff joke I didn’t get?

Gay dude meeting his Hollywood diva!

Larry accidentally hurt Rita back them by identifying her private pain

Man, Cliff really couldn’t care less how Clara feels

The cops were actually using pretty good de-escalation techniques

Jane got an ultimatum to leave the DP or stop being the primary.

Jack runs Niles through what it would feel like to be on the other end of being Cliff

First Niles had to be presented with a clear choice to either keep hurting people and live, then be forced to experience the pain he’s inflicted on others.

Like a good queen, Larry knows his Oscar history and leading ladies

Sweet little echo between Rita and Larry about getting used to it/shouldn’t have to get used to it.

***Let’s be lost causes together.

The butterfly wing effects are grotesque and beautiful

Transformative pain – into butterflies

Nice structure of the stolen watch in the beginning pre-mediatating the stolen knife to kill Jack

I wouldn’t hate it if when I died I exploded into butterflies.

If those are all Jacks victims turned into butteflies, again why did the woman run out in the beginning

Man, Cliff is acting like a jackass

Cliff:  It’s not fair Jane.  I know I wasn’t a perfect Dad, but I did the best I could.  And this? All this?  It wasn’t my fault.

Jane:  You’re right.  It wasn’t.  But this.  This is.

The congratulations banner over crying Clara in the window is a real twist of the knife.

So, was that Jane?

Dorothy accidentally broke Danny.  For all she knows, she killed him

*** Look what I did?  Am I a bad person?  I said I was sorry, but I don’t think that made it any better.

Roni: Voluntary Manslaughter

So she killed a tank full of guys and took pictures a la Abu Grahib

Larry wants Rita to leave so he doesn’t cause her pain.

God, their friendship is SO SWEET

I wonder how the Ant Farm selected them for their accidents

Niles crying over the individual team member files was a great visual confirmation that he fundamentally gets the pain he caused them now

So now Niles is building Robotman 2.0  Hopefully the black one, and not the one with Spiderlegs

OK, so who was in control when Jane talked Cliff down?

 

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