Name: Harley Quinn season 1 episode 10
Director: Joonki Park
Released: 2022-09-15T12:30:00

In the season 3 finale of Harley Quinn, everyone attends the premiere of Clayface’s Thomas Wayne biopic as Harley and Ivy work through some relationship issues. The episodes are now streaming on HBO Max.

Recap

Ivy is annoyed that Harley stopped her plan to create Eden and Harley is mad at herself for doing so as well. Ivy asks for some space and tells Harley to figure out her deal.

Harley is congratulated and cheered by the citizens of Gotham as Batgirl showers her with praise but Harley is not ready to accept that she’s turned over to the good side, even though her actions prove otherwise.

Ivy and Frank are at a department store when Lex Luthor shows up on a television screen and commends Ivy for almost succeeding in her evil plan. He has a proposition for her, leading a new Legion of Doom in Gotham but Ivy says that she’ll only agree on her terms.

Bruce Wayne talks to Alfred about finally being free of his trauma when a bunch of fliers for the Thomas Wayne biopic fall down among several other reminders. Alfred says that they were sent two tickets and Bruce agrees to go so that he can face things head on.

Clayface is nervous about the premiere and King Shark tries to calm him down with some supportive words. He tells Clayface that all the attention will be on Billy Bob Thornton so he doesn’t need to worry too much.

Ivy returns home and tells Harley that she’s accepted Lex’s offer but she’ll need to kill the mayor of Gotham, the Joker, first. Harley agrees to join her plan even though she appears hesitant to go through with it.

Clayface is slightly disappointed that all the credit for the movie is going to go to Billy Bob Thornton even though he’s the one doing all the work. King Shark tells him to consider it a testament to his ability that people are convinced that he’s the real Billy Bob.

Joker arrives at the premiere and as he goes to his seat, he’s nabbed by Harley and taken to the projector room where Ivy and Harley tell Joker their plan. Harley forgets her bat in the limo and goes out to get it and Ivy and Joker have some time to talk.

Joker builds a rapport with Ivy thanks to their shared experience of dating Harley before asking her if she’s noticed how Harley has changed lately. Harley returns with her bat and sees Bruce Wayne freaking out because he doesn’t want to watch the movie.

She sits down with him and helps him calm down. He asks Harley how Ivy reacted when she found out that Harley’s a hero now but Harley is still in denial of the fact. Joker convinces Ivy of the same thing and as Harley walks in ready to beat Joker to death, Ivy stops her.

They have a frank discussion about their relationship and what they want in life and Harley says that she’s not ready to identify as a hero yet but she does want to do good. She was afraid that she would lose Ivy because they want different things but Ivy insists that won’t happen.

The movie ends and everyone cheers for Billy Bob Thornton, making Clayface jealous. He reveals that it was him all along but the audience takes it in stride and thinks Billy Bob is a shapeshifter which is why he’s so good. King Shark is there once again to comfort Clayface.

Joker is freed and addresses the audience before calling in the clowns, announcing that Bruce Wayne is being arrested for tax evasion. Harley tells Bruce that he’ll be fine and that she’s available for Zoom therapy sessions if he needs it.

He tells Barbara that he wants to use the time in prison to better himself and it’s down to her to lead the bat family now and keep Gotham safe. The next time the bat signal lights up, Batgirl, Nightwing and Robin are joined by Harley, who wants to help them while Bruce is in jail.

Review

The season finale of Harley Quinn does well to set up the new direction that the series will be headed in for the next season. Seeing Harley’s evolution from villain to anti-hero to full-blown hero has been a fun journey and it’ll be interesting to see how she does now.
Giancarlo Esposito has got an iconic voice and cadence that is perfect for Lex Luthor and anyone who knows the actor well would have popped hard when he showed up in the episode.
Seeing this radical socialist persona of the Joker who fights against wealth disparity is truly Bizzaro world stuff. It’s hilarious to witness such an iconic villain have such progressive ideals and use his chaotic nature to enact those ideals effectively.
The simple throwaway line about how much it cost for Billy Bob’s CGI moustache is a brilliant reference to the horrendous job done on Henry Cavill’s moustache for the Justice League film and how much of a joke that entire situation became.