Why Doom Patrol And Titans Show Such Different Afterlives
Warning: Contains spoilers for Doom Patrol episode 2 and Titans episode 9.
DC shows Titans and Doom Patrol have both shown an in-universe afterlife and there are good reasons why they’re so different. Titans season 3, episode 9, “Souls,” and Doom Patrol season 3, episode 3, “Dead Patrol,” both aired on the same day. Despite telling very similar stories, the afterlives that are shown are clearly unrelated to each other.
Titans used Tim Drake’s (Jay Lycurgo) near-death experience to illustrate the show’s afterlife, revisiting the poorly executed death of Donna Troy (Connor Leslie) and the more recent demise of Hank Hall (Alan Ritchson). The episode sees them battle their way out of the afterlife, jumping from the train that is to take them to the next place, escaping from Hades’ ghouls, and seeing Tim and Donna cross the bridge back to life. Doom Patrol, on the other hand, shows four of the main characters in a processing station while their consciousnesses inhabit a welcome area. Larry Trainor (Matt Bomer) and the Dead Boy Detectives enter the afterlife, cross a river, and rescue them, avoiding one of Death’s minions in the process.
Given that Doom Patrol originated with an episode of the same name in Titans season 1, it seems at first that the afterlife should be the same for both shows. However, despite the fact that mostly the same actors play the Doom Patrol as in Titans (Niles Caulder is the exception, who was recast as Timothy Dalton), the DC TV universe has confirmed that the two shows actually take place in different continuities. The final episode of the Arrowverse crossover event Crisis on Infinite Earths explained that Doom Patrol takes place on Earth-21 and Titans takes place on Earth-9, which explains why the Doom Patrol show never mentions Beast Boy.
While the shows taking place in different continuities allows for the creators to show different versions of the afterlife, there are in-universe reasons for both of the iterations shown. The Titans afterlife draws on the show’s connection to Donna Troy/Wonder Girl and a clearly long-intended resurrection of the character. In the Wonder Woman storylines, the Greek Gods exist and Hades rules over the Underworld and has dominion over the spirits of the dead. While the afterlife itself is not drawn directly from the comics, Hades’ presence is felt through his ghouls.
Doom Patrol is instead drawing on the presence of the Dead Boy Detectives who were introduced in the episode and, as they are teaming up with Dorothy Spinner (Abi Monterey), will likely return later in the season and play a larger role. The Dead Boy Detectives did not originate in the “Doom Patrol” comics, but rather in Neil Gaiman’s “Sandman” (which is also published by DC). Doom Patrol’s afterlife is rooted in the “Sandman” universe as evidenced by Charles Rowland’s (Sebastian Croft) description of Death as a woman and references to their origin stories. The choice to use this afterlife was essential to Doom Patrol’s ability to introduce the Dead Boy Detectives properly and justifies further diverging from Titans. Charles and Edwin Payne are dead and their presence on Earth is rooted in their journey, or lack thereof, to the afterlife. To have the characters present without using the same afterlife would have required rewriting the Dead Boy Detectives’ origin stories entirely.
Doom Patrol and Titans release new episodes Thursdays on HBO Max.
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