How Old Is Rita Farr In Doom Patrol?
The HBO Max series Doom Patrol is one of the most eclectic superhero shows currently on the air. Among the superpowered individuals depicted on the program, for instance, you can count a nonbinary street named Danny, and a strongman named Flex Mentallo, whose powers depend on what muscle he flexes among his allies at various points throughout the first season. The titular DC Comics team, having appeared in print for decades, is assembled in live-action with an impressive cast that includes veterans like Timothy Dalton, Brendan Fraser, Diane Guerrero, and Matt Bomer.
One of the central premises of the TV show is that the team's creator, Dr. Niles Caulder, has brought together individuals from a variety of decades, in his attempt at trying to better understand how their tragedies have affected them. Due to the nature of their conditions, some of these characters have not aged since the incident that gave them their powers.
That particularly applies to Rita Farr (April Bowlby), a classic Hollywood starlet whose career came to an abrupt end when her body's elasticity changed. This has led to the question of how old Rita Farr really is, and thanks to various clues throughout the show's first few seasons, a fairly decent estimate can be made.
Rita Farr is nearly 100 years old
Flashbacks indicate that Rita Farr's career was flourishing in Hollywood in the fifties, which is the first indication of her age. As the show is set in present day, it's safe to say that it has been at least 70 years since Rita encountered the toxin that affected her cellular structure, causing her to become a gelatinous mass unless she focuses on keeping herself together. Further flashbacks, though — which showed audiences that her real name was Gertrude Cramp — also reveal that she was a young girl in the early thirties, which mean she must have been born in the twenties. This would mean that Rita Farr is somewhere between 90 and 100 years old in the show's timeline.
This is particularly interesting in light of the fact that Farr is the one team member who's been the most disconnected from the outside world. Through the show's two seasons, viewers have seen both Cliff and Larry grapple with their lost connections to the outside world, but it's clear that Rita herself has nobody currently alive that she has a similar emotional bond with. Despite the fact that she doesn't outwardly age, it's conceivable that her advanced age is weighing on her, and could affect her decisions. This could be especially pertinent after the second season, when she accompanied Larry to see his descendants, as it could raise questions of what her own legacy will be. Rita's already taken some steps in this regard, with trying to learn how to control her powers, as well as venturing out into acting again.
Whether Farr's age has an impact on the character's development or not will remain to be seen when Doom Patrol returns for its third season, for which it has already been renewed.