After being teased multiple times, the halfway point of Season One marks the show’s big Harley episode — for those who suspected she was more than she let on, you were right. However, it’s a deliberate play against type: Timm said in interviews he wanted this Harley to be a bit eccentric on the outside, when she’s chatting with Montoya and other “normies,” but dark on the inside, a side she only lets out in private.
Batman is finishing up a pretty easy job — a bank robber who thinks he can bribe him — when there’s some commotion across the street that distracts him. There’s some guy in an exotic outfit walking directly into traffic while shouting nonsense. Leaving the robber tied to a pole, Bats heads to the source of the insane rambling. It’s…King Tut? From the 1960s series?
Not quite. I mean, it’s an obvious homage (way more obvious than “Lois Lane” from the previous episode, which is still a subject of debate), but the man’s identity is Fletcher Demming, former billionaire. Batman reflects that when he last saw the man weeks ago, he seemed perfectly sane. And the last time he was in the media was the previous week when he donated his entire fortune to charity. “He always seemed like such a selfish man,” says Alfred. “Perhaps I was wrong.” Batman replies that he wasn’t wrong and that something fishy is happening. Batman is of course never wrong, and we cut to a scene happening elsewhere in the city….another rich man, imprisoned in a bunker, being tortured by someone off screen while in clown makeup.
The next day Harley, Barbara and Renee are having a girls’ chat at the local cafe. Renee is fretting over the mental state of Gordon, who’s dealing with Flass and Bullock winning favor (and power) at the precinct. Babs assures Renee “my father is the strongest person I know, he’ll be alright.” As they leave to go their separate ways, Harley stops Renee for a moment and, out of the blue, casually asks her out on a date. Renee looks a bit surprised, but not uninterested.
Batman drops into the offices of Mr. Demming to fish for clues. He reasons Demming would’ve been the type to have a secret room that you open by tapping a switch on a bookcase, because….well, Bruce is that type as well. When Batman finds the secret room — full of Tut stuff, natch — he also finds a receipt for a therapy session with a Ms. Harleen Quinzel. Aha, so it’s all connected! …Well, he only knows about this one instance, but if it ever happens again? Totes Harley.
Speaking of her, she’s currently in a session with another businessman that isn’t going well. “Now they want to unionize. They’re worse than my children!” Upon hearing this comment, Harleen tells her client she doesn’t feel her current methods are working and that they need to try something “harder.” That’s when she presses a button on her armrest and triggers shackles over her client’s arms. She then takes him to her DUNGEON, a place she calls “The Playpen” where she stuffs her prisoners in humiliating outfits and makes them perform repetitive tasks until they either agree to reform or go nuts, but it’s usually both.
Harley sees herself as a TVPG Jigsaw; her goal is to punish the selfish and spoiled, but through considerably less violent means than Jigsaw’s. She tickles their feet with feathers and makes them write on chalkboards. We’re on Amazon Prime, home of The Boys and the Vox Machina crew; Timm could make this show much much rawer than it is — but I’m not complaining. It’s not always necessary, and we really need more family shows of this caliber.
Barbara has been assigned to defend Mr. Demming in court. When she meets him at Arkham, he insists that (1) he’s not crazy and (2) he is literally King Tutankhamen. Babs suggests a psych evaluation before he stands trial, and recommends her friend, Dr. Harleen Quinzel. Upon hearing that name, Demming snaps, escapes from the room, runs upstairs and attempts to jump off the roof to “be with her.” Barbara finds all that more than a little disturbing, and tells Harley so the next day. Quinzel just laughs it off and says she’s never met Demming.
Babs isn’t so sure, and decides to snoop around Quiinzel’s office — only to find Batman just beat her to the place. The office is now a mess — this version of Batman is a bit more reckless — but that DOES make it easier for Barbara to find the evidence she was looking for, an appointment book that clearly states Demming was one of Quinzel’s clients. One page is ripped out, and the show doesn’t reveal whether Quinzel or Batman did that, but Barbara knows the classic pencil etching technique. The rub reveals the impression of “Emerson Collins,” that guy from earlier which Harley shackled to a chair.
When Barbara visits Collins, the man acts cagey and doesn’t want to talk. She’s more suspicious now than ever and heads to Quinzel’s place to snoop — when she’s caught by Batman. Bats tells Babs to stay home and let him handle this. Good thing she ignored him — Quinn was ready. When Batman stumbles upon her basement of family-safe horrors, she pushes a button to let all her prisoners out, telling the brainwashed gang they’ll be “rewarded” if they kill Batman.
At this early stage in his career, Batman can’t take on this many guys at once, and he’s thrown in one of the cages. Quinn then turns on the gas and tells Bats he has five minutes to figure a way out before her entire home explodes. Yeah, she figures the jig is up and she needs to make a break for it….and also, she went a little easy on Batman because there’s an implied crush (poor Renee, who’s currently waiting at a club for their second date).
After she leaves, Barbara rushes in and tries to free Batman with a baseball bat. When she’s not strong enough to smash the glass door, she hits the controls with the bat, but that also does nothing. At that moment Quinn returns — she saw Barbara’s car as she was escaping, and she may be a crazy vigilante kidnapper and torturer, but she knows the value of a friendship. Quinn tries to explain, but….she’s standing there in her clown outfit and doesn’t have much of a defense. Barbara insists they help Batman, but as the building starts exploding, they both have to save themselves.
Barbara is better at that task than Quinn, who is now dramatically danging over the edge, the sea waves fifty feet below. Quinn insists she has to let go so at least one of them can survive. Barbara refuses — and they both go tumbling, but Batman escaped his prison off-camera (because he’s Batman) and swings into view, saving Barbara from a deep-sea fate.
Though Quinn wasn’t so fortunate, she’s not dead either. The final shot is Renee at a pay phone, sadly listening to Harley saying goodbye.
