Warning: Contains spoilers for Doom Patrol season 3.
The finale of Doom Patrol season 3 was the first one not to leave the season on a huge cliffhanger, but there are still plenty of questions that need to be answered by Doom Patrol season 4. The HBO Max series was confirmed for season 4 in October 21 as a part of the DC FanDome event. While nothing concrete is known about the plot, questions that have been left unanswered can guide audience expectations while they wait for the new season to drop.
Following the group of eccentric superheroes, Doom Patrol tied off its main season 3 plot with the apparent end of the Eternal Flagellation and Laura De Mille becoming a part of the team. Finally agreeing that they are in fact a super team, the group head off in their time machine to try and help save the world by fighting a monster in the Suez Canal. After having been positioned as the potential villains for a lot of the series, the Sisterhood of Dada now ultimately seem harmless, having simply left upon the completion of their artistic plan.
Doom Patrol season 3 saw the most concrete character progression for any of the core team members out of any seasons of the show. However, some of those progressions asked more questions than they truly answered, with mysteries still circling around the future of most of the characters. The one exception might be Larry Trainor who—now taking care of the baby Negative Spirit, Keeg—seems to have a natural path in front of him. Here is every question that Doom Patrol season 4 will need to answer.
Is Rita Farr Evil In Doom Patrol Season 4?
Throughout Doom Patrol season 3, Rita Farr (April Bowlby) toys with villainy and ultimately ends up embracing the evil part of her nature when she kills the Brain with boiling water, while he inhabits what is left of Robotman’s body. While she eventually faces off against Laura De Mille and seems to move away from being evil, sparing her because Laura tells her that killing her isn’t worth going down that path, there is still a question mark hanging over Rita’s morals and loyalties. Rita is still openly unconvinced by Laura’s reform and it does not take much imagination to imagine her being tipped over the edge to be villainous again.
Additionally, Rita has seemingly concealed her murder of the Brain and the loss of the remains of Robotman’s body from the rest of the Doom Patrol. When those events eventually come to light they will likely create a divide within the team. While Doom Patrol does not tend to traffic in the simplistic split between a binary idea of good and evil, season 4 needs to address the question of whether Rita will ultimately cross that line again and potentially betray the Doom Patrol for her own ends.
Can Laura De Mille Truly Be Trusted?
Laura De Mille (Michelle Gomez) and Rita Farr were once close friends, but De Mille’s betrayal of the Sisterhood of Dada and her joining of the Brotherhood of Evil changed all of that. During her time without her memory, she hoped that she wasn’t a bad person. However, when she regained her memories, she was unapologetically evil. Doom Patrol season 3 carries the message that you are never too far gone if you are willing to put the work in to be better; however, it seems as though Laura De Mille could easily flip back to being more villainous again in the future, as she has in the past. Doom Patrol season 4 needs to answer the question of whether she can truly change in the long term.
Related: Doom Patrol: Do Jane & Shelley Byron Have Feelings For Each Other?
What Is Happening With Jane And Dr. Harrison?
In the Doom Patrol season 3 finale, Jane finds that the alters have left Kay Challis (Skye Roberts) and are living within Shelley Byron’s (Wynn Everett) mind. While they hope to gain independence from this, it is causing both the underground and the alters to crumble. Jane strikes a deal with Dr. Harrison to bring the alters back to Kay. While Hammerhead thinks that Jane has given Dr. Harrison her position as primary, it is not clear that that is the case and there are multiple other possibilities that need to be explored and explained in Doom Patrol season 4.
Will Robotman/Cliff Steele Get His Old Body Back?
After the Brain kidnaps Robotman, he puts Cliff Steele’s brain in a jar and sends him to the dump, taking Robotman’s body for himself. Laura De Mille ultimately puts Cliff’s brain into Mr. Nobody’s discarded giant robot. The body that Cliff had inhabited is heavily damaged and thought lost by most of the team. While Cliff currently seems happy enough as a giant robot and has utility to the team in this form, he is likely to face problems with it when it comes to connecting with his grandson. In Doom Patrol season 4 Cliff Steele will likely either need to find a way to get a version of his old body back, or potentially receive a new updated version. This will be complicated by the fact that the Brain clarified that Niles Caulder was able to put Cliff’s brain into the Robotman body by using both science and magic, so it would likely require getting the inconsistently reliable Willoughby Kipling involved.
Will Cyborg Go In Search Of New Weaponry
During his Doom Patrol season 3 arc, Vic Stone (Joivan Wade) gave up his access to Grid and weapons like his arm cannon in favor of synthetic skin, which made it look like he had never been injured in the accident that led to his cybernetic prosthetics. While this was an important choice for him to make, will give him a different outlook on the world, and was heavily driven by Cyborg’s conversations with the Sisterhood of Dada’s Lloyd Jefferson (Miles Mussenden) about race, it has presented Vic with a different problem. Shortly after he gave up his weapons, he found himself chafing at the fact that he was no longer as useful to the team, with various members calling him out as effectively useless. In Doom Patrol season 4, the show will need to explore whether Vic regains his old tech—which could be a step back for his character progression)—attains a new kind of power, or uses his abilities in strategic planning to be an effective team leader without any additional powers.
Will Dorothy Spinner and the Dead Boy Detectives Return?
After the death of her father, Niles Caulder (Timothy Dalton), at the start of Doom Patrol season 3, Dorothy Spinner teams up with Danny the Ambulance and ultimately leaves with the Dead Boy Detectives. While HBO Max is producing a Dead Boy Detectives series, it is set to use a new cast and plot and is unlikely to be connected to Doom Patrol. Dorothy, Danny, and the Dead Boy Detectives left Doom Patrol with a lot of unanswered questions and the show needs to confirm whether these characters will be returning and in what capacity. The Doom Patrol season 3 finale included a reference to Doom Force, which could foreshadow Dorothy’s return as Doom Force was another team in the comics in which Dorothy played a major part.
Related: Doom Patrol Season 4 Updates: Everything We Know
What Are The Sisterhood of Dada Doing Now?
The Sisterhood of Dada develop a clear agenda throughout Doom Patrol season 3 that culminates in the Eternal Flagellation. With that project complete it is unclear what the group of metahumans will do next. While Shelley Byron has teased a potential relationship with Jane, the rest of the characters are not mentioned in the season finale. Having set up compelling characters capable of great oratory, Doom Patrol season 4 needs to revisit the group and develop their existences further.
Will Monsieur Mallah Seek Revenge For The Brain?
It is heavily implied that Rita Farr kills the Brain after Monsieur Mallah (Jonathan Lipow) has abandoned his friend and partner in world domination. However, there are a lot of loose ends for the Doom Patrol and the Brotherhood of Evil were recurring villains for the super team, even coming back with little explanation after they were shown to have died at some points in the comics. Doom Patrol season 4 at least needs to provide an aside about what became of these characters as Rita’s murder of the Brain could have greater consequences for her character. If Mallah discovers the Brain’s death, he may seek revenge for the murder of his friend.
What Will Happen To Willoughby Kipling’s Plan?
Mark Shephard’s Willoughby Kipling has made multiple appearances throughout Doom Patrol, usually appearing for an episode in a whirlwind of chaos magic, only to then disappear again. Kipling clearly has larger plans that are connected to Niles Caulder’s work and likely extend beyond simply attempting to kindle a relationship with the oracle. Heading into Doom Patrol season 4, the show needs to answer what the centuries-old chaos magician really wants.