The Real Reason Charles Uses A Baseball Bat In Doom Patrol
Strange occurrences are a daily ritual on "Doom Patrol." After all, what else would you expect from a show where the titular team consists of a couple of cyborgs, a gelatinous entity, and a girl with a severe personality disorder? "Doom Patrol" always goes into the absurd with gusto, and Season 3 has arguably upped the ante even more.
This can most readily be seen in Season 3, Episode 3, "Dead Patrol." The team has had more than its fair share of team-ups over the years, but they've never encountered anyone like the Dead Boy Detectives before. They're an otherworldly detective agency who must descend into the underworld to rescue the team's souls. You know it's going to be a good time, especially seeing how the detectives have already gotten the green light for an HBO Max pilot of their own.
Their "Doom Patrol" introduction allows general audiences to get a taste of them before spinning off into their own series. And one question audiences unfamiliar with the comic books may ask themselves is, "Why does Charles (Sebastian Croft) use a baseball bat?" It's practical, but out of every otherworldly weapon he could have, a bat may appear a little ... off.
A baseball bat is a culturally significant item that can be imbued with magic
Audiences aren't the only ones who might be confused at the first sign of a bat. Many characters ask Charles about it throughout Season 3, Episode 3, but if you pay attention to the rules of the show, the bat actually makes quite a bit of sense.
Previously on the show, we've seen Willoughby Kipling (Mark Sheppard) utilize chaos magic, which required an ordinary object to act as a conduit. The only caveat is that these objects need to have some level of cultural significance. If we assume the Dead Boy Detectives operate by the same logic, then a baseball bat would certainly fit into that criteria.
Baseball is America's pastime, so wielding the primary instrument used in the sport certainly holds a greater meaning than simply having it as a blunt object. This is likely why it fills with power when he goes to battle the Night Nurse (Ruth Connell). Bats seem to be a common occurrence on HBO Max DC shows (and no, we're not talking about Batman and the rest of the Bat-family). On "Titans" Season 3, Episode 3 "Souls," Hank (Alan Ritchson) pulls out a baseball bat while fighting ghouls in the afterlife. It just goes to show that in the right hands, a bat's really all you need.