Likewise, even if this show has never really relied on big superhero fights or long action sequences, the Candlemaker ends up as an anticlimactic villain that is dispatched just as quickly as he is introduced.
For one, we pick up exactly where the previous episode left off as if there had just been a week between seasons rather than a full year. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the last episode of Season 2 was not finished in time, being pushed into becoming the Season 3 premiere, "Possibilities Patrol." This is by far the weakest of the three-episode premiere, with the long wait working against it. The second season ended on a huge cliffhanger, with the Doom Patrol losing the fight against the Candlemaker, an apocalyptic entity residing inside the mind of young Dorothy Spinner (Abigail Monterey). Season 3 continues this trend, with hilariously weird moments seamlessly giving way to internalized therapy sessions you can't find anywhere else in the genre. This is a series that can go from a muscled man accidentally giving everyone standing on a street an orgasm by flexing a muscle, or actual butts with teeth attacking people, to one of the characters being shunned out of a party for his own son because he’s considered a monster. No matter what WandaVision or Loki would have you believe, Doom Patrol is the most bonkers, cuckoo-bananas superhero TV show that’s also a complex, layered, and poignant character-driven exploration of grief and trauma.