Doom Patrol finale review: Romance and do-goodery are in the air
Doom Patrol – “Ezekiel Patrol”. Photo Credit: Annette Brown / 2019 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Lessening some tropes
Nobody’s introductory homage of the world’s best superhero team pivots to a retired evil-doer, the Chief. The first half of the episode focuses on Niles Caulder, his fleeting past with villainy, and his horde of more than questionable choices. The finale fuels this with a conflicting modern approach to the same ’80s narrative.
Although his arc still includes a trope, Niles’ villainous comic arc redux is less tropey, and it actually omits some of the comic book ableism (just not all of it). Doom Patrol does well with distancing the Chief’s regrettable villainous past from his disability — something that Doom Patrol 1987 #57 intertwined with his villainous revelation.
The show distances Niles’ double-stacked confession, including him causing the team’s accidents that made them into metahumans and his admission that he was a fake wheelchair user (which is villainous in its own real-world implications). The show’s decision to exclude his imposter-disability arc is a very comforting deviation from the comic accurate narrative. Overall, the finale helps paint both Niles villainous past and his transition to a man scared of the horrible creations he’s made, like Nobody.
The harmful side of the tropes still lies in the fact that, like comic book Charles Xavier or the main villain in Pokémon Detective Pikachu, Niles Caulder falls into the outskirts of the villain in a wheelchair trope. Although the episode clarifies that Niles shifted to the Doom Patrol side of good and evil after Larry’s “experiment,” it still paints Niles as an evil character in a wheelchair. No matter how much the series illustrates his moral growth, perpetuating this image of a heinous fictional wheelchair user still inherently villainizes wheelchair users.
However, “Ezekiel Patrol” does also separate the arc from his comic counterpart’s intentional homicidal acts. Instead, Niles’ on-screen homicides are painted as accidental, unintentional, and very much regrettable side-effects to the experiments Niles grew to hate.
An important first step to amending Niles’ arc is retconning his comic God complex that was so deeply intertwined with the admission of his villainy. Somehow, the show manages to redefine even Niles’ peak villainy as something less callous.
Let’s be clear: Because Niles’ two-part reveal could’ve been worse doesn’t mean it’s exempt from criticism. In a series where a lot of the disability representation is modern, realistic, and positively portrays our real-life disabled community (minus the metahuman powers), it’s just a bit disappointing to see the series bolster a long-standing villain in a wheelchair trope. But we take solace in the fact that Doom Patrol isn’t a perfect production, and is continuously growing and improving.
Because the series has supplemented its characters and storytelling with beneficial commentary on disability, mental health, and both in conjunction with one another, we’re hopeful that the next season will rectify Niles’ trope. We’re also hopeful that season 2 will help Rita work through her internalized ableism.