The Doom Patrol tries to recover the Chief from Mr. Nobody. They also get a new partner in the form of Victor Stone a.k.a Cyborg.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Absurdism: The fate of a town depends on the Doom Patrol going down a donkey's mouth.
- Big "NO!": Cliff when Jane jumps into the vortex.
- Body Horror: In addition to everyone's conditions, we get a nasty view of Cyborg's horrific injuries that may not have naturally happened.
- Breaking Speech: Combined with "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
- Bullying a Dragon: Cyborg interrogating Jane eventually triggers some of her less pleasant personalities.
- Bumbling Dad: Cliff has elements of this as he tries (and fails then succeeds) at bonding with Jane.
- The Call Knows Where You Live: Larry gets a bad case of this from his passenger.
- Dark and Troubled Past: During Rita's torture at the hands of Mr. Nobody, she sees a crying baby in a carriage, which Nobody says is "never gonna know her daddy." This hints at something tragic involving a baby girl.
- Genre Savvy: Nobody tortures Rita, Larry, and Vic with the worst days of their respective lives. Though they all know it's a trap, Rita and Larry can't help but go along with it. Vic is too experienced to be fooled into playing along with the script, and as he says, he sees his worst day in his dreams every night, and resolves to be a better person because of what he did. So Nobody instead flips it back on him by implying what happened isn't what Vic really thinks happened.
- Government Conspiracy: Apparently one of these covers up superhero-created disasters in the DCU.
- The Internet Is for Cats: At one point the group watches cat videos projected on the wall of the mansion.
- In the Hood: Cyborg is introduced with his hood on.
- Ironic Hell: Each of the Doom Patrol is trapped in one of these and tormented by their sins as well as regrets.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: The episode takes place in one where Mr. Nobody is close to being God.
- Ludicrous Gibs: After the team and the town of Cloverton are freed from the bowels of the donkey, it promptly explodes into a shower of blood and guts.
- The Men in Black: Cyborg contacts some of these and they tell him of an entire town that disappeared.
- Pet the Dog: The Chief and Cyborg have a discussion where the former encourages him to branch out.
- Pietà Plagiarism: The painting Jane's Hangman's Daughter persona paints at the end depicts Cyborg carrying his father's body in his arms.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Mr. Nobody gives every single one of the Doom Patrol one of these.
- Rita's narcissism and greed may have caused her to abandon a child.
- Cyborg's superhero origin may not be what he thinks it is.
- Larry is tortured by his homosexuality, deformities, and lack of control over his body.
- Replacement Goldfish: Jane is less than pleased at Cliff's desire to treat her like his daughter. Then she isn't.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Larry attempts to leave the city a dozen times by bus but his "passenger" refuses to let him go.
- Sickening "Crunch!": When Victor's father rips off the remainder of his arm on the operation table.
- Surprisingly Happy Ending: The town is restored and the team actually manages to rescued everyone inside. Subverted by the fact the Chief is still missing and they suffered horribly while inside.
- Tastes Like Friendship: Subverted. Cliff makes sandwiches for Jane in her cell, but she rejects them violently.
- This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: It's a rare situation you need to shove a globby superheroine down the mouth of a donkey to enter a pocket dimension but that's what happens to Rita.
