Warning: The following contains potential SPOILERS for Doom Patrol season 3.
For Doom Patrol season 3, the writers have been set up to repeat the same cliffhanger mistake that Titans made with Trigon. The Doom Patrol TV show was started through Titans season 1, episode 4, “Doom Patrol,” which used several of the same characters and actors. However, since then the shows have been confirmed to take place in different continuities.
With the defeat of Mr. Nobody (Alan Tudyk) at the end of season 1, Doom Patrol season 2 needed a new villain of sorts. Dr. Niles Caulder/The Chief (Timothy Dalton) introduced his daughter, Dorothy (Abi Monterey), whose imaginary friends were more than simply imaginary. Throughout the season Niles attempted to find a way to keep humanity safe from Dorothy, fearing that she would grow up and let out Candlemaker, one of her imaginary friends and that he would destroy the world. Season 2 ended with Candlemaker grabbing Dorothy and disappearing into a fire while Niles watched in horror and the rest of the Doom Patrol were trapped in wax.
The Doom Patrol season 3 teaser trailer showed the team easily breaking free from the wax after Candlemaker was gone. Meanwhile, the main trailer for season 3 included no mention of Candlemaker, Niles, or Dorothy, instead focusing on the introduction of Madame Rouge (Michelle Gomez), the Brotherhood of Evil, and the Sisterhood of Dada. This suggests that the issue of Candlemaker will be tidied up within the first episode of the new season with, at best, the vague possibility that the threat might return at a later point in the show. This is exactly the same problem that Titans ran afoul of and resulted in Trigon (Seamus Deaver) falling flat as a villain.
After building Trigon up as a nemesis for Rachel Roth/Raven (Teagan Croft) throughout Titans season 1, the villain was left in control of Dick Grayson (Brenton Thwaites) through a cliffhanger ending. By two-thirds of the way through season 2, episode 1, Rachel had quickly defeated her father in a brief bout of special effects. Before the episode was over, the show moved on to tease the Titan’s next villain: Slade Wilson/Deathstroke (Esai Morales). While Rachel’s powers proved difficult to control, season 2 focused almost entirely on Deathstroke with no further mention of Trigon, and he continues not to come up in the first half of Titans season 3.
While the two series are run by completely different teams of people, the fact that the origins of Doom Patrol and Titans were tied together from the beginning of their runs might make it seem strange that they would end up committing the same specific mistake. While cliffhangers can be useful to maintain viewers, when the wait for the solution is not paid off by a fulfilling climax it can leave viewers feeling unfulfilled. However, unlike with Titans, it appears that this was not Doom Patrol’s original plan for the season. The COVID-19 pandemic halted production before they could shoot the tenth and final episode of season 2 leading to the season being cut short. This means that, while Doom Patrol looks to be returning to its more absurdist season 1 roots, Doom Patrol season 3 might start with a rushed season 2 conclusion that could leave a bad taste in some viewer’s mouths before it gets into the meat of the new plot.
Doom Patrol returns with new episodes every Thursday on HBO Max on September 23.
