Spoiler Warning for Harley Quinn S01E06, Trigger Warning for violence
So this episode was a bit of a weird one. Lotta strange stuff. Lotta emotionally good, strong stuff too, though not quite as much as the last episode. It’s another filler episode, with nothing that’s at least openly important to the overarching plot of the series. Unlike the previous filler episode though, there are moments that at least give development to the main characters, while the second episode really only developed other villains and introduced Kite Man.
Anyway, let’s get started!
Plot
The episode begins with Ivy calmly drinking wine and reading, only to be startled by the arrival of Harley and crew, who have just returned from stealing the sarcophagus (and corpse) of King Tutankhamun. Partly to show off, partly because they need a new ottoman. Harley quickly pulls up a news site dedicated to villains, only to find that the main piece of news is about the nomination of KGBeast to join the Legion of Doom (the man last seen being defeated by Harley in episode three), with the only mention of Harley being from one pervert. This prompts Harley to snap, destroying both Tut’s sarcophagus and King Shark’s laptop.
Harley desperately wants to join the Legion you see, cause they were the one group that Joker respected. So, as Ivy summarizes, she’s not over her ex and wants to shove his success in his face. King Shark suggests they start by stealing a new computer, to replace his recently destroyed one. It’s logo, revealing that it was made by WayneTech, leading Harley to declare a plan to rob Bruce Wayne. More specifically, a hoverbike being made by the company.
The heist starts out without a hitch, Clayface providing a good distraction and allowing King Shark to sneak in and put his brain to use to hack through the security and allow Harley and Psycho to be lifted up to the 26th floor by Ivy’s vines and get into the restricted access vault, where Psycho uses his powers to grab a guy and use the retinal scanner. Harley then uses her own acrobatic skills to dodge the lasers protecting it…only to get immediately distracted by a sign over a door that reads ‘Even More Restricted Area’, immediately leaping into it and abandoning the bike, much to Psycho’s dismay.
This goes alright. Harley does get what was in the room out, and the crew does manage to escape, though they destroy the hoverbike, Ivy has to catch Psycho in her arms, and Clayface loses an arm. From that less than great ending to the heist, we move to the top of the Gotham City Police Department (GCPD), where Commissioner Gordon has the Bat-Signal active. However, it’s not to talk about Harley robbing WayneTech, it’s because he’s having serious marital issues (Quick note: Yes, Barbara Gordon, aka Batgirl, is Commissioner Gordon’s daughter. However, for reasons that escape me, Barbara Gordon is also the name of his wife. The times he talks about his rocky sexual relationship with Barbara is not a dark and unremarked on incest joke, his wife is just a minor character who’s rarely brought up and happens to have the same name as her daughter.) and wants to talk to his friend about them. Batman is not pleased with this misuse of the Bat-Signal and removes the metal bat from the spotlight, taking it with him and telling Gordon that they’re merely co-workers, then giving him Clayface’s arm, which has sprouted a face and arms, as well as a childlike intelligence.
Back in Harley’s lair, Harley tries her best to spin the heist to her crew, pointing out that they got something out of it, even if they’re not quite sure what. It’s a remote with a single button. To make matters worse, the most respected online villainy critic, the Cowled Critic, has made a video trashing the crew, declaring that they’re not Legion of Doom material, claiming that Psycho and Ivy are a couple, and counting leaving Clayface’s arm behind as leaving a crew member behind. It’s at this point that Clayface explains that yes, his arm is sentient and capable of speech and that, as it will be very childlike, it will be seeking approval above all else. And since it has all of his knowledge, it could very well tell Gordon where their lair is.
With this in mind, the very offended by the review Ivy and Psycho set off to track down the Cowled Critic, while Harley, Clayface, and King Shark set out to break into the GCPD to win the attention of the Legion…and get the arm back. It’s a bit of a theme for Harley this episode, that she keeps getting her priorities screwed up and focusing on getting the Legion’s attention over helping her crew, something that will be addressed in this episode, don’t worry.
While all of this has been going on, Gordon has befriended the arm, as it’s desire for approval and innocence make it an attentive listener who lets Gordon vent about his marriage and Batman. We even get a rather strange, somewhat touching, montage of Gordon daydreaming about doing best friend things with the arm, all the while trying to get it to spill the beans about Harley and crew’s location.
As Gordon and the arm sit on the roof with fast food and a list of possible locations, Harley’s trio attempt their attack on GCPD. Their initial plan is to have King Shark start a riot on the inside, but unfortunately, the police react with extreme prejudice, tranquilizing, beating, and booking him in Blackgate Prison in rather quick timing. This leads to Plan B, where Clayface disguises himself as a cop and tells the others that Joker had kidnapped Bruce Springsteen, leading to literally all of them pouring out of the station to go save ‘The Boss’. Harley joins Clayface, and the pair rush upstairs, where Gordon quickly begins shooting at them to keep from having to give up the arm.
Desperate, Harley hits the button on the remote she stole, which turns out to be a teleporter that takes her to the Bat Cave. In there Harley and Batman have a conversation about the struggles of friendships, with Harley realizing her own poor behavior towards the crew while also forcing Batman to come to grips with the fact that he sees Jim Gordon as a friend and that he should be there for the poor guy. And so the two set off, swooping in in the nick of time, with Batman restoring the Bat-Signal and calling Gordon his friend, Clayface getting his arm back, and Psycho and Ivy swooping in to save Harley and Clayface.
It turns out that the Cowled Critic was Psycho’s son, Herman, lashing out at his father who he believed to see him as a failure. Fortunately, they were able to have a heart to heart, and the Cowled Critic issues a retraction of his previous review, though he points out that, once again, Harley left a crew member behind. This causes her to panickedly remember that she left King Shark in prison, and they quickly go to bust him out. Fortunately for them, King Shark’s not that upset, having managed to become the top dog of the prison in short order (The timeline means he couldn’t have been in there for more than 12 hours, but it’s treated like he’s been in there for days, even weeks. Comedy show logic I guess.) and viewing it as a valuable education on the failings of the prison system.
Final Thoughts
This episode was more or less pure filler, as I stated, but it was the good kind, where things stay interesting and the characters get fleshed out and explored in ways they hadn’t been previously. A good episode overall, but not essential viewing if you don’t feel like watching every single episode.
Thank y’all for reading this review, see you next week!
