The final season of the always odd Doom Patrol continues, as the assorted characters try and find their respective places in life. Life at Doom Manor (they never have explained how the place got that name, have they?) has never been smooth, but it’s getting more and more rocky. Things get even stranger, and for this group that’s saying something, in “Nostalgia Patrol.”

After the surprising change in leadership last episode, the team is trying to sort out where they all stand. Rita, of course, is accepting this calmly and maturely. I kid, of course. She’s sulking and being petulant, but then a strange knock comes on the door and she gets distracted by something playing on one of her biggest weaknesses: her ego. Jane, meanwhile, is trying to work out what the meaning of her puzzle is. She gets a glimpse of something familiar, and then has a very unusual experience, which clearly rattles her.

Trying to reconnect with your past is always a chancy thing, and Vic has some very mixed reactions when he reaches out to some old friends. They meet up and talk about old times. They were an unusual group, apparently being both jocks and science geeks. We do learn the origin of Cyborg’s catchphrase, or at least, this version of it, since it started on the Teen Titans cartoon. I have a lot of issues with that cartoon, but that’s a rant for another time. Larry is dealing with Keeg ghosting him, almost literally, which is throwing off his rhythm on pretty much everything. He ends up having a chat with Madame Rouge about her new leadership status, and makes a very good suggestion to her.

Lured away, Rita settles in for what she believes will be some serious ego stroking. It was pretty much a given that this was a trap, but some strange effects kick in to prove it. Victor has one of those odd conversations with his friends that pretty much only happens with comic book characters, where he thanks them for coming to his funeral and talks about meeting up with his mother in the afterlife. Like you do. Vic’s friend Derek talks about some of what he’s been up to, and they end up trying something they used to do together.

Rita is many things, but she’s not an idiot, and she figures out what happened to her quickly. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have the willpower to keep a clear head, and falls under the spell of what appears to be happening. Rita would have made a horrible Green Lantern. Back at the Manor, Jane finds Cliff being a couch potato, and he teases her that something seems different. This leads back to a weird moment in one of their earlier adventures, around the time they met Danny the Street. Larry wanders in and they talk about maybe just having peace and quiet, which is of course when the alarm goes off. Madame Rouge is trying to be a leader, and doing the sort of team building exercises that make employees across the country groan and roll their eyes. This, finally, ends up with her pushing for a field trip that no one is happy about.

Rouge finally drags everyone along on her mission, and things start getting weird right from the beginning. Larry has an intimate knowledge of what they’re seeing, and can tell right away that something isn’t right. Things go poorly for the majority of the team and one very annoyed sounding member manages to get away before things finish going terribly wrong. The team gets split up once again, and they all go through weird scenes as they try and work out what’s actually going on. They throw in a few entertaining tropes and some great meta-commentary.

While the one member of the team who is still at large is forced to play detective, the others keep dealing with the new version of strangeness they find themselves in, and there’s another good example of what a selfish “friend” Cliff is. Far away from all this, Victor has a poorly-timed heart to heart with Derek. It’s good that Vic is trying to reach out, but he’s both going to hear some things he doesn’t want to hear and get them distracted from what they’re trying to do. Sort of the worst of both worlds there.

Cliff is, among other things, often inconsistent, and that gets shown off here. While he’s not the best friend to Rita, who he’s known for decades, he does have a closer relationship with Jane. They make a really odd couple on just about every front, but it somehow works. She shares her weird experience from earlier, and he actually doesn’t make fun of her, but does his best to listen. For him, it’s an impressive effort. As Rita has her own run-in with someone from her past, Rouge shows she has some truly sub-par leadership and coping skills, and someone who hasn’t been helping much starts getting interested in what’s going on.

The team, or at least most of it, ends up together again as the setting changes once more. They get through some ridiculous conversation, and then get introduced to a new foe, who is actually an old Doom Patrol villain. It’s a deep cut finding him, and the Patrol didn’t have a huge rogues gallery, so points to the writers for pulling that one out of nowhere. There’s a lot of talking that kind of sounds like a cross between comic book and soap opera dialogue, and some revelations about dynamics on the team that usually go unspoken, or even ignored. Finally, with a hint about what may be coming, and some help from an unexpected source, the team gets free and back to their home.

In the somewhat more normal world, Victor and his friends go their separate ways, but at least end on a good note. Rouge wakes up from her self-indulgence, and the rest of the team returns. There’s a lot of mutual confusion, which seems like the perfect place to end the episode. So they do.

What I Liked: I’m impressed with the new villain they dug up, and the larger threat they keep hinting at. The trap for Rita was really well executed, and led to some amusing moments. Rouge isn’t a great leader, but her reactions to things are fun to watch, thanks to Michelle Gomez’s acting. Jane’s scene was odd, and I’m glad she managed to talk about it with Cliff. The different settings and meta-commentary was fun. It was good that Vic made some efforts to reach out to his former life and friends.

What I Didn’t: I get that the team is made up of emotionally stunted misfits, but I’d think they could do some stories with some other notes. The team got grabbed a little too easily.

It was another odd addition to the increasingly strange canon of the Doom Patrol series. I’ll give this one a 3 out of 5.