Doom Patrol (2019) s04e12 – Done Patrol

As usual with “Doom Patrol,” I wasn’t expecting that turn of events. I knew “Patrol” had planned something conclusive for this season, but Done Patrol is a last episode, not a season finale before a refresh. They knew and didn’t play chicken with renewal, which is exemplary these days.

The team—Diane Guerrero, Joivan Wade, Michelle Gomez, Matt Bomer (and Matthew Zuk), and Brendan Fraser (Riley Shanahan)—returns from the time stream, ready to battle Charity Cervantes and the Butts, but then a deus ex machine arrives at the same time. This season has had some weird straggler plot threads—split into two halves, with the second half delayed thanks to bad corporate decisions; given how long subplots disappear, it’s the most binge-inclined season of the show.

Also, as usual, the team has to decompress after the big action. They’re aging, some more gracefully than others, and everyone’s got a severe sense of resignation. While April Bowlby’s committed to peacing out on her terms and Gomez is terrified to live without her, everyone else is ready for some significant character changes. Some, of course, have seen the future, while others are getting over their fears of the present.

The show’s got six characters to resolve to be Done, and some get a little more, some a little less. “Doom Patrol”’s always been about hard realities, and the conclusion’s no different. Does it reach into the chest and pummel the heart before playing the most delicate aria on the heartstrings? Yes, yes, it does. It fulfills so much, even as it remains—to the end—all about unfulfilled lives.

The best performance in the episode, adjusted for screen time (sort of, I guess), is Fraser. Then Gomez, then Guerrero, then Bowlby, then Bomer, then Wade. And Wade’s excellent. So there’s a lot of exquisite acting going on. Oh, and then Cervantes. Can’t forget Cervantes. She’s been another boon this season. Half-season. Speaking of boons, Madeline Zima. She’s so good, so good.

I just discovered there’s a cameo in the episode I didn’t know about when watching, but it’s just making everything even sadder, so no spoilers. I’m too verklempt.

Shoshana Sachi and Ezra Claytan Daniels get the writing credit for the finish; it’s a fine script covering all the show’s bases, and director Chris Manley knows how to direct these actors in these scenes. It’s the ones they’ve been working towards for four seasons. “Patrol”’s done wonders with character development on a “comic book” TV show.

Some gorgeous music from Kevin Kiner and Clint Mansell.

Despite the fungible aspect of comic books and comic book adaptations, it’s safe to say there will never be another “Doom Patrol,” not with this cast, not with this crew. They made something special here, and it’ll be a divine binge someday.

Doom Patrol (2019) s04e11 – Portal Patrol

As penultimate episodes go, Portal Patrol is a doozy. The team has found themselves stranded in the time stream, so it’s good Joivan Wade got his Cyborg upgrades because he has to make them a little pod to survive. The current stakes are saving the world and April Bowlby (who doesn’t appear this episode), so when they discover holes in time where they might be able to regain their missing immortality, everyone heads out on assignment.

Now, the opening titles spoil a big guest star—Timothy Dalton. Former series regular slash ostensible lead, who’s been dead for seasons at this point, and everyone’s still trying to work through the traumas he’s inflicted. Brendan Fraser (and Riley Shanahan) meet Dalton in the past when he’s on an outing with recurring guest star Mark Sheppard. Except they’re in 1948, so neither Dalton nor Sheppard knows Fraser. And Fraser’s left trying to reason with a fascinated Dalton and a drunk Sheppard. Outstanding acting from Fraser, Dalton, and Shanahan. The body work this episode’s terrific.

Diane Guerrero and Matt Bomer (and Matthew Zuk) find themselves in the more recent past, in the Doom Patrol mansion. Guerrero’s on a combination “dying of old age” and just getting some of her PTSD resolved arc, so she’s drawn to all the old VHS tapes of her (now missing) personas. Meanwhile, Bomer and Zuk confront… Bomer and Zuk. Bomer’s current alien symbiote star child goes to find the former alien symbiote star child, and Bomer gets into an argument with it. Of course, he does.

But Guerrero runs into Dalton, and they sit down for one last session; she’s out of time, he’s fascinated but also worried about the future knowledge.

Speaking of future knowledge, Wade—who sends out an SOS to the time stream, which seems like how you’d bring back a now deceased special guest star, but isn’t—Wade has a heck of a little arc.

Michelle Gomez journeys into her own past, where she briefly encounters Dalton (despite them being renowned nemeses, I’m not sure the show ever gave them a sustained scene) before running afoul of other people she doesn’t like–really good Gomez performance.

Everyone’s really good, of course. Dalton’s so good.

It ends up being Guerrero’s episode, with Fraser, Bomer, and Gomez sharing the B slots, then Wade getting the C. Watching Guerrero in this episode, I had the odd sensation of remembering when she wasn’t good on the show and wondering how that period plays in the greater context of the show. For the someday rewatch.

But for now, there’s one more Patrol to go, and they’re in excellent shape for it.

Big shoutouts to the script (credited to Chris Dingess) and then Chris Manley’s direction. Portal knows what it’s doing.

Doom Patrol (2019) s04e06 – Hope Patrol

This episode picks up some hours after last episode’s “all the characters are probably babies now” cliffhanger. While fixing up a car (with some great Riley Shanahan bodywork), Brendan Fraser explains to Diane Guerrero he’s had an epiphany, and they’re all about to die, so they better get their houses in order. Guerrero wanted to fight the bad guys (whoever they may be) and expected buddy Fraser to be all set to go.

Instead, he shrugs her off, and she’s left on her own. Heading down to the Underground to consult the other personalities, she also finds them unwilling to help. The conflict gives Guerrero some great material, and she does really well. This season might be the one where she becomes consistently good.

But not having Fraser (and Shanahan) to hang out with means Guerrero doesn’t get to pair off with anyone, while the rest of the episode’s spent on duos.

Matt Bomer (and Matthew Zuk) and new friend Sendhil Ramamurthy get trapped in the big bad’s alternate dimension. Well, not exactly trapped because Ramamurthy can open portals, but Bomer’s not sure what’s going on. Especially not when the omnipresent stooges are walking around with giant scissors, ready to cut off heads.

Bomer and Ramamurthy have an excellent episode “together,” to the point I got curious about how they shoot the scenes. Does Zuk read Bomer’s lines? Do they have them played back? Is Ramamurthy just vamping? Regardless, great work and some excellent character development from Bomer, who’s usually working through old emotional shit instead of getting new stuff to navigate.

Speaking of new and old stuff to navigate, April Bowlby and Michelle Gomez are still paired off. Their reconciliation from last episode—made under extreme circumstances—is holding; right up until they find out they need to break into the Ant Farm, which is the Bureau of Normalcy’s headquarters and full of terrible memories for both–like Bowlby’s boyfriend getting murdered by Gomez’s stooge, again played by Daniel Annone.

It’s a good arc for the two of them, but it’s not as much about character development as exposition and figuring out how the season’s big bad ties into past events on the show. It’s very nice to have Bowlby and Gomez pals again, though. They’re excellent together.

The final dynamic duo is Joivan Wade and Elijah R. Reed. We got to see a kid version of Wade show up at Reed’s door last episode, but we missed the (occasionally mentioned) baby version, whose diapers Reed had to change.

It’s a solid friendship arc, even as it backtracks over Reed’s previous appearance when he told Wade it was too late for them to save the friendship. Given Wade’s continued reluctance to talk to anyone about getting rid of his superpowers and Reed just being a regular guy, their scenes end up making Reed the protagonist. It works out, but if there’s anyone the show doesn’t seem to know what to do with this season, it’s Wade.

Doesn’t he have an ex-girlfriend turned terrorist out there still?

Anyway, another excellent episode. It’s the mid-season finale, so it’ll be a while for the cliffhangers to resolve, but the show manages to get most of the team together for the last scene.

Some outstanding music from Kevin Kiner and Clint Mansell, particularly during Fraser’s second epiphany scene. Fraser (and Shanahan), as usual, do fantastic work.

It’s going to be a long wait for next episode.

Doom Patrol (2019) s04e05 – Youth Patrol

Wow, it’s so good.

Even for “Doom Patrol,” it’s so good. It’s a very “Doom Patrol” episode, too; the team has a mission, then something happens, and they have to go on a side mission. Given guest star Mark Sheppard finally reveals there’s a narrative reason for the main cast to remain young, it’s not impossible the show will finally acknowledge its way of detouring the characters through arcs instead of action sequences.

Though, it’s really only Diane Guerrero and April Bowlby who are “staying” young. Brendan Fraser and Riley Shanahan are a robot (exceptional physical performance from Shanahan this episode). Matt Bomer and Matthew Zuk are radioactive, so they probably don’t age regardless of magic. Then Joivan Wade and Michelle Gomez aren’t part of the original “Doom Patrol,” at least as far as how Timothy Dalton (who appears in recap footage) saved them from death.

Now, after three seasons, we’re getting some more details on that process.

Until Bowlby accidentally gets everyone cursed (not Bomer, sorry, he’s off on a mission), anyway. She wakes up from their adventure a couple episodes ago (last episode not featuring the regular cast and instead catching up with Abi Monterey, who’s not in the episode despite the recap only being about her) and discovers she’s not young anymore. But since Wade didn’t check on her, she misses the team briefing where Sheppard explains the season big bad is after their “longevity.” And it looks like Bowlby lost hers.

So she snoops around Dalton’s office and finds something she thinks will help. Instead, she curses everyone (not Bomer) with de-aging, initially hormonally, but eventually physically as well. With a furious Sheppard taking charge, they head off to Toledo in search of a cure.

They make it one pit stop before Gomez and Bowlby get into an argument and abandon the group, while Fraser and Guerrero find some fellow youths who know about a great party.

It ends up being an excellent episode for most of the cast. Oh, right—Bomer. He’s off trying to find the alien energy parasite baby and instead finds himself trapped in returning guest star Sendhil Ramamurthy’s flashbacks. It turns out they’ve got a lot in common. It’s a good arc. Excellent performances, but dealing with more significant issues than the rest of the team, who have some elementary problems they just can’t figure out how to solve.

Wade’s still upset old friend Elijah R. Reed has given up on him after not hearing anything for ten years, Guerrero’s feeling guilty about enjoying driving the body (and not feeling like it’s hers), and then Bowlby still really hates Gomez. Justifiably.

Outstanding performances from Guerrero and Wade, but Gomez. Wow, Gomez. She gets one hell of a scene. And Sheppard, too, gets far more textured scenes than his bellowing curses suggest.

It’s a great episode. Excellent direction from Chris Manley, but the script (credited to Shoshana Sachi) is just phenomenal.

Oh, and the music—Kevin Kiner and Clint Mansell do even better work than usual, especially with Guerrero’s big scene.

So good.

Doom Patrol (2019) s04e02 – Butt Patrol

I’m hesitant to call anything “Doom Patrolling,” a la “Westworlding,” but this episode comes close. The team is recovering from their trip to the future and discovering they bring about the “Butt-pocalypse;” one of the zombie butts from last season has survived to destroy the world. April Bowlby’s all set to lead the team to track down Jon Briddell, the bad guy everyone assumes is involved, but the rest of the team gives her a vote of no confidence.

So it seems like we’re going to have an introspective mansion episode—and we do for a couple characters—setting up a bigger mission they’d be doing if they were regular superheroes. It’s mostly a first-season device, but they’ve fallen back on it a few times over the seasons. It’s a fine device, and there have been great episodes with it, but it’s the second episode of the new season… little soon.

Luckily, it’s not that episode at all. Bowlby and Matt Bomer (and Matthew Zuk) have a mansion episode, with Bomer trying to reconnect with his energy parasite—it’s scared of the zombie butt future—and Bowlby is mad Bomer’s not more supportive of her team-leading abilities. Their arc ends up being the least impressive. The show’s not ready to reveal the future energy parasite information, so it’s more about clearing the air; while Bowlby’s mad at Bomer for not being in her corner, he’s angry she came back from the past last season a different person. Albeit, she came back to the future the long way, living ninety years or whatever.

It’d be excellent acting fodder for Bowlby in particular if it were better. Instead, it’s filler until the rest of the team gets back home. Joivan Wade’s upset no one wants him as team leader, so he’s going to go on his own mission, having tracked down a frozen zombie butt. Diane Guerrero tags along, and they have a decent little subplot. They also get to hash out some of their character drama, setting up nice scenes for the closing montage. Guerrero is doing her best work on the show this season, even back to playing her regular persona.

Meanwhile, Michelle Gomez realizes they just need to snuff out the problem, so she enlists Brendan Fraser (more Riley Shanahan for the body work) to help her. It becomes this exceptionally depressing arc about Fraser’s newfound ability to feel (just in one finger, but still) and Gomez’s muted self-loathing as she finds herself again manipulating meta-humans.

Framing the entire episode are the adventures of Keiko Agena’s linguist; starting in flashback, we see how she went to the Ant Farm to work with the butts before the show started. Agena’s real good.

Outside Bomer and Bowlby’s filler arc, it’s a strong episode; script credit to Eric Dietel.

Plus, singing, man-eating butts. What else do you want?

Doom Patrol (2019) s04e01 – Doom Patrol

Last season, “Doom Patrol” had to recover from a Covid-19-induced shortened second season, then get the show into a decent spot for HBO Max to cancel them. Thankfully, HBO Max did not cancel them, and now the show gets to do, presumably, at least this fourth season.

You never know with HBO Max, however.

Anyway.

This season premiere picks up about six months after the finale, which saw the Doom Patrol becoming superheroes under April Bowlby’s enthusiastic, if questionable, leadership. Bowlby’s still team leader, Robotman (Riley Shanahan walking, Brendan Frasier talking), is almost rebuilt, no longer Cyborg Jovian Wade and dad Phil Morris are doing that rebuilding as they try to bond, Diane Guerrero’s having a multiple personality crisis, Matt Bomer and Matthew Zuk (Bomer talking, Zuk wearing the hot costume) are bonding with their new electrical alien parasite, and Michelle Gomez is still trying to atone for her many sins as the latest team member.

Now, Gomez is in the opening credits as “special appearance by,” which isn’t a great sign for her longevity. I kept waiting for her to do a runner this episode, but the show seems sure she’ll be around for a while. Hope so; she and Bowlby are even more fun together hating each other. Or, Bowlby hates Gomez, while Gomez is trying to play nice but noticing the team leadership problems.

It’s a fine place to start the season, with Guerrero narrating. Her primary persona now is the psychiatrist, played in the Underground (where Guerrero interacts with the personalities) by Catherine Carlen. The narration is Guerrero’s psychological observations about the team, which is an excellent device.

However, things go wrong once they go on mission, finding themselves thrown into the future—which the audience has already seen in the episode prologue—and discovering most of their future selves dead, all because of some imminent mistake they’ll be making in the past. There’s a nice mix of action, deception, and character drama, with loads of good acting from the cast. The episode even gets in a great music montage (Clint Mansell and Kevin Kiner) where everyone’s moping around the mansion, realizing the new season’s started and shit’s getting real again.

There are a couple significant reveals in the third act, along with a cameo in an epilogue, lots of future angst, and contemporary drama—the season hook is solid. The episode might feature Guerrero’s best acting on the show, albeit doing a Carlen impression.

So glad “Doom Patrol”’s back. So glad.

Doom Patrol (2019) s03e03 – Dead Patrol

Let’s see how well I can couch and caveat the following statement: comics-based superhero shows have an advantage doing backdoor pilots. Superheroes have been guest-starring in each others’ comics since 1940; the guest spot has been baked into the medium, whether to bolster a series’s sales with Batman, Wolverine, or Spider-Man or to gin up interest in a B or C-list superhero in hopes of spinning them off on their own (someday).

But “Doom Patrol” quickly surpasses that inherent edge here. Half the episode is about most of the team in purgatory, half the episode is about Matt Bomer and Abi Monterey enlisting the aid of The Dead Boy Detectives to get their friends back. There are two ghost detectives—Ty Tennant and Sebastian Croft—and their psychic human partner Madalyn Horcher, and they solve crimes. They’re from the Sandman comics originally, and since the “Sandman” adaptation isn’t HBO Max, it’ll be interesting to see how they address shared characters if they go to series.

It rarely feels like a backdoor pilot because everything in the narrative serves the “Doom Patrol” plot. Even when Horcher is dumping exposition on Monterey as they bond over tragedies, it’s about Monterey finally having another teenage girl for a friend. While Tennant and Croft are very dry comic relief—they’re all British, after all—Bomer also has a great bonding moment with Tennant. It’s superbly done, and fingers crossed the real pilot goes well.

Meanwhile, Brendan Fraser (and, correspondingly, Riley Shanahan), April Bowlby, Diane Guerrero, and Joivan Wade are all on their way towards the literal light, with some surprises along the way. Actually, not Bowlby, who for some reason doesn’t pass out when she gets across the River Styx. She ends up with the shortest arc, while Fraser, Guerrero, and Wade get much more salient ones. Especially Guerrero—who’s in the afterlife with little kid version Skye Roberts. It’s Guerrero’s best acting on the show. Or at least the best I can remember. Not sure if it’s because she’s speaking Spanish or because she’s not flexing hostile to everyone she’s acting with.

Fraser’s arc offers some quick character development—though, significant trauma, dying and all, so it works—while Wade just discovers he still doesn’t have all the answers to his own superhero origin story. But Guerrero’s section is the most affecting. And Roberts is excellent. The show really lucked out she’s so good when speaking (her part started non-verbal).

There’s some dark humor and bizarre scenes, some more mysteries for later on, and an excellent performance from Fraser. It’s another outstanding “Patrol.”

Doom Patrol (2019) s03e02 – Vacay Patrol

In this episode, there’s a scene where Diane Guerrero and April Bowlby are sitting in some lounge chairs on a pretty lake and talking about how they’re coping with the revelations of the traumas Timothy Dalton put them through. They’re at the pretty lake because Bowlby has an extended panic attack and has reverted into mostly liquid form. She’s in a large bag, tied together, on the chair. So Bowlby’s just voice acting. She’s great.

Guerrero’s not great in that particular “Doom Patrol” way where I try to will her acting to be better. It never works, but it felt good to have that sensation back again.

The episode opens in a flashback to the forties, very nonchalantly introducing the Brain and Monsieur Mallah. No CGI required for the Brain, just a trashcan and some lights, but Monsieur Mallah (a French ape) looks excellent. They’re plotting against Dalton, and their plan involves having alien mercenary Stephen Murphy assassinate a target at a resort. He’s just supposed to go there and wait for the target to arrive.

The target’s Bowlby, and she doesn’t arrive for decades. Not until she’s stressed out from Dalton giving her added responsibilities and then the disaster of the town play. But it also takes Joivan Wade getting in trouble with dad Phil Morris for giving his girlfriend another chance instead of having her arrested for terrorism; Morris has shut down most of Wade’s superpowers. So he’s bored and willing to take Bowlby on the trip.

Guerrero only goes because her little kid version (Skye Roberts) wants her to relax and thinks a trip would do her good. It’s a very interesting scene, with lots of foreshadowing for the character development. Roberts is better than Guerrero, which is actually surprising because Roberts’s part has been really nonverbal until now on the show. And Roberts gets emphasis later on, for a particularly affecting third act sequence.

They can’t bring Matt Bomer along because he’s out in space on a field trip with his alien symbiote. Last episode, it seemed like Bomer might be leaving the show or at least taking a timeout to keep the acting budget down, but he’s got a whole subplot.

But they can convince Brendan Fraser & Riley Shanahan’s Robotman to come along. Fraser’s been visiting his daughter (Bethany Anne Lind), her wife (Walnette Marie Santiago), and their new baby. He’s very amusingly annoying the hell out of them as the doting grandad. So they’re happy to send him off on a trip.

When they get to the resort, which is desolate and apparently only still in business because Murphy’s never checked out, they quickly start bickering and arguing. Wade’s trying to overcompensate, Fraser’s pissed, Guerrero’s confused, and Bowlby’s jello. It makes for a good “Doom Patrol” with a great cliffhanger.

Murphy’s a good guest war, with Billy Boyd stealing most of the scenes as his lackey. It’s a strong episode for Fraser in particular; he’s got a lot of different kinds of scenes. And, of course, Shanahan. Lots of good movement work from Shanahan.

This show’s a treasure.

Doom Patrol (2019) s02e09 – Wax Patrol

So “Doom Patrol” didn’t just have to cut an episode off season two because of the Covid-19 and wrap it up here, they also don’t have their season three renewal in yet… so essentially Wax Patrol is playing chicken with the network.

Going to be a bummer if they don’t get renewed.

The episode, which has the gang teaming up like superheroes for once to go and save Abi Monterey and Timothy Dalton—without understanding what they’re getting into—and having to work through some of their personal issues from the season. For Joivan Wade, the personal issue comes in the form of Phil Morris, who both is and isn’t playing his regular role as Wade’s dad. Morris hasn’t been around much this season but he’s real good here. Real good.

Meanwhile, April Bowlby works through her stuff with a personification of her childhood ideals, which doesn’t work out. Donna Jay Fulks’s voice work is fine as the CGI friend, but it means Bowlby doesn’t get to act opposite anyone, just do effects sequences with—presumably—a tennis ball placeholder or whatever they use now.

Robotman (Brendan Fraser and Riley Shanahan) gets the funniest nemesis—Jesus (Joshua Mikel)—and if the characterization is from the Grant Morrison Doom Patrol comic it means DC let him do a foulmouthed bro thug Jesus while not letting do Rick Veitch do a wholesome magician Jesus. Which gets the eyebrows twitching until the funny starts. It’s still bullshit if they let Morrison do it, but whatever; DC Comics and Warner Bros. are long past the saturation point of bullshit.

Except this show, obviously. They should definitely renew this show.

Diane Guerrero gets a big arc with a flashback reveal to what Samantha Marie Ware was up to in the seventies before the Guerrero persona started playing the Guerrero part. They really should go back to last season’s handling of Guerrero’s “parts” but anyway, lots of reveals, lots of really unfortunate acting, particularly from Carter Jenkins as her beau. I mean, I get they didn’t want to get anyone who would so obviously outact Guerrero, but they should’ve gotten someone who could keep up.

Or maybe it’s Chris Manley’s directing.

But the whole Guerrero and Jenkins is really manipulatively done and kind of the ickiest the show’s gotten with Guerrero this season. Not sure why they thought it was a “save of the best for last” thing.

Matt Bomer gets moved aside fast to make room for Monterey, who’s got a pretty darn cool arc for barely being in the episode.

“Doom Patrol”’s second season has been outstanding—this artificially truncated episode is probably the weakest of the season and for obvious, external reasons—but playing chicken with a renewal (on two giant cliffhangers) isn’t cool in 2020. It hasn’t been cool since like 1994 and even then only because the shows came back.

Doom Patrol (2019) s02e01 – Fun Size Patrol

“Doom Patrol” starts off answering the outstanding question—who is Chief Timothy Dalton’s daughter? Her name’s Dorothy, which could be perfect but I don’t want to get ahead of myself hopefulness-wise with the character. She’s half-twentieth century human, half-20,000 century BCE human. Abi Monterey—who’s not in the opening title credit roll—plays the part, in makeup a little bit less than, say, Kim Hunter in the original Planet of the Apes.

Oh. Right. The episode opens with Monterey in a cage in a 1927 London circus with the ringmaster taunting her as an “ape girl” and torturing her conjured reindeer-bear monster. Then the bigger monsters come out. We don’t get to see them unfortunately, but we do get to see Dalton and Monterey reunite.

Fast forward ninety years and she’s still basically a tween. A young, energetic one.

Except the team is all in a bad mood because they’re still tiny from last season finale—they’re living in a campground on the miniature train table—though it’s for racing electric cars because it’s TV and electric cars work on TV–and Monterey exhausts them. Well, most of them.

Monterey gets along with April Bowlby for the most part, but she’s more drawn to Diane Guerrero and Robotman (Brendan Fraser and Riley Shanahan, who I wasn’t sure was back the movement’s so different). And Guerrero and Fraser have no time for Monterey. They’re both mad about Dalton experimenting on them. No one’s particularly happy about it but Bowlby and Matt Bomer are a little more laissez-faire, presumably because they’re older.

Meanwhile, Joivan Wade just wants to be big again so he can leave. Bowlby wants him to stay—and wants him to train her to be a superhero—but Wade’s not buying it. Even though Wade’s not quite good enough, the show’s use of him as the “traditional” superhero works out and his relationship with Bowlby always has great energy.

Good script from Jeremy Carver and Shoshana Sachi; it’s a good refresh on the cast after the season finale and nice setup for the second season, with some forecasting on the upcoming perils.

Really good Timothy Dalton. Guerrero’s… not better. Monterey seems to be a good addition. Excellent music from Clint Mansell and Kevin Kiner. Though the special effects seem off.

Oh, and Mark Sheppard is better than last time with his cameo here. He’s not a goof anymore.

Sadly Fraser’s in-person flashback cameo is probably his worst work on the show so far, like his experience voicing Robotman has led to him later making bad acting decisions.

But it’s a good episode and a successful launch for the season.