1x12 Devil's Snare

[7.5/10] This could have easily felt unavailing, since it’s basically a prelude to the finale that's more about getting things in place for the (presumably) final showdown than about doing worthwhile things here and now. Instead, it’s a nice bit of triumph and character ahead of the season’s climax.

I particularly appreciate how the episode gives us a bit of closure, or at least moments in the sun, for two recurring characters: Kite Man and the Queen of Fables. In the former’s case, it’s nice for him to get a big win. As goofy as him fumbling around his apartment when he gets the call to come help is, or as misguided as his proposal to Ivy is, him actually getting to save the day by flying our heroes away from Jack and the Beanstalk-land and even eliciting a “Hell yeah!” from Ivy is a great triumph for him.

The closure we get with Queen of Fables is just as satisfying. The fact that she’s the one who neutralizes the Justice League is a bit of clockwork storytelling. And I appreciate the fact that, among the things Harley has to overcome in this episode, one of them is exercising this particular demon. Harley masquerading as the big bad wolf to get to QoF is a nice riff on the original story, and her knocking Queen of Fables’s block off is an appropriately bloody end for the antagonist, in the spirit of the show.

There’s a lot of good laughs here as well. Harley’s crew in particular were in rare form. King Shark chipperly declaring that he wears “being a downer” well made me chuckle. Dr. Psycho’s dry wit and continued interest in giantesses was worth some good laughs. And I continue to die laughing at Clayface’s antics, from his faux death scenes quoting Romeo and Juliet, to his impulse to fend off QoF’s attacker by pretending to be an old Jewish wolf. Commissioner Gordon and Batman’s running back-and-forth over tanks was quite funny, and cheap gag or not, I laughed out loud at the continued ragging on jazz, particularly Ivy sheepishly admitting she was really excited about the jazz festival when under the spell of the Lasso of Truth.

The episode is also full of twists, but one that fele satisfying given how they’re set up. The mere fact that Joker replaces the Legion of Doom headquarters with the giant tower he mentioned a few episodes back is a solid payoff to that conversation. More to the point though, I appreciate that his reasons for supplanting the old villain association are effectively that they deigned to let in Harley and he wants to be in control again. They set him up well as the perfect final boss for Harley, not just in terms of his faux-military regalia and evil plan, but for what he represents to her emotionally.

Speaking of which, this is a good episode for repairing Harley and Ivy’s relationship. Ivy gets to kick some major ass here, becoming a jolly green giant and stopping the evil trees with her might. But the more important part is Harley realizing she was so self-centered that she didn’t even pick up on Ivy’s relationship with Kite Man. Her admitting that she’s bad at this, that she’s not used to people being there for her, and is still trying and promising to do better is another nice bit of growth for her. Her and Ivy’s palm of hand conversations is heartwarming in that raunchy Harley Quinn way, and I’m glad to see them reconciling.

Of course, it’s thwarted by Joker killing Ivy and setting us up for the end of the episode. I’m of two minds about that development. On the one hand, there’s a lot of good symbolism to it. Joker killing the person who became Harley’s support system, and gave her the guts and pep talks necessary to truly walk away from Joker is meaningful. And Harley grieving her friend and Ivy lays in a bed of funerary flowers is a moving image. But the other side of the coin is that I’ve been watching/reading superhero stories long enough that big deaths don’t faze me much anymore, since they’re so often undone in a snap. (Sometimes literally!) So we’ll have to see where the show goes with it.

Overall, though, a strong episode to set things up for the finale, while also tying off some important loose ends that are worthy in their own right, and making me laugh in the process.