2x11 A Fight Worth Fighting For

[7.7/10] This is going to sound a little odd as a comparison, but I feel the same way about Joker in Harley Quinn as I did about Darth Maul in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The way they bring him back is kind of bullshit, but what they do with him once he’s returned is interesting enough that I’m willing to forgive it.

As I mentioned in my write-up for last season’s finale, I was extremely leery of Joker’s speech to Harley about having everything he wants and realizing that a piece was missing. The idea that Joker could, with the right cajoling, figure out that he genuinely loves Harley would have been too much in my book, especially for an abuser like him. Thankfully, harley Quinn swerved me there.

But they do it here earnestly and...I bought it hook line and sinker? I don’t think the Joker we know from this show to date could ever truly love someone. And yet, there’s something plausible and even profound that, in the six months he was a normie, he found true love as his better self, and even the reinstated crazy Joker can't shake that.

It’s beautiful in a bizarre sort of way. The notion of this deranged clown, outright disclaiming his milquetoast version’s escapades, only to find that they rush back and can't be denied, are even yearned for, is kind of incredible. As I’ve said before, one of the things I appreciate about Harley Quinn is its fearlessness in reimagining characters and taking them in new directions. A Joker with genuine attachments, who’s found a down-to-earth version of true love as a suburban dad is out there, but it works better than I’d ever have imagined, and I applaud the show for taking the risk.

They also have a solid quest here for Harley and him to find the Queen of Fables’ book and rescue the Justice League. I’ll admit, Harley being able to install a Suicide Squad-style chip in Joker’s brian before he came to stretches the plausibility of an already contrived setup in my book. But the two of them having to play odd couple, bantering through their issues, while having a significant task to complete is a good engine for the episode. The show comes up with some good gags for the Parademons. (them flying into power lines got a good laugh out of me.) And the two-some’s misadventures in tracking the book down, while again, a little convoluted, are good fodder for entertainment.

This is also a good outing for the side characters. Batman getting back in action (after Alfred blows on his coffee, of course) and saving Harley and Joker from the Parademons is a nice moment. They find some good laughs in Batman getting the situation totally wrong, and in the deliberately heavy-handed references to Batman “returning” or “beginning” again. I really enjoy the show’s comic take on the Dark Knight, which is both affectionate and right on target.

The show also addresses one of my problems from the last episode! It didn’t make much sense to me why Dr. Psycho would have that much beef with Harley. But him deciding to take her down because Darkseid only understands revenge, and he wants to get in good with the leader of Apokolips is a perfectly good excuse for him to pursue our protagonist. Along the way, the gags about him and Riddler already bristling at one another, about his amusing incongruous ferris wheel backstory, and Darkseid’s comically dry demeanor on the phone all bring the laughs.

There’s laughs to be had in the Ivy/Kite Man wedding planning portion of the episode as well. Everything from the wedding planner still being “on” while a Parademon carries her off, to Kite Man having hilariously specific and knowledgeable opinions about wedding dresses, to Ivy’s comic annoyance at the Parademons for messing up the dress she was trying on are all quite funny.

But I also have my issues with this depiction of them. Being most charitable, I think it’s fair to read this as a situation where Ivy was happy, and acknowledges rationally that a relationship with Harley isn’t what’s good for her, but still can't shake that nagging feeling about her attachment to Harley. Her trying to rush the wedding so doesn’t have to engage with those thoughts is a solid beat. But it still feels like a sudden turn to me, and I’m not crazy about the about face the show’s done on Ivy and Kite Man’s relationship, which still seems contrary to what they were doing with it earlier this season.

But that pales in comparison to my qualms about what the show’s doing with Joker’s advice to Harley. The entire time they’re hunting for the book, Joker keeps nudging Harley about her feelings towards Ivy. That's in character for him, tweaking her about a sore sport. I have no issue with that.

My problem is that the show seems to want to suggest that he’s right. When nudged, Harley says, “Look, I professed my feelings to Ivy, and she said no.” Repeatedly. And that's fair! But Joker keeps tweaking her, asking if that's where she’s going to leave it if she believes it’s true love. Harley seems to take his implicit cajoling to go after Ivy again to heart.

Now there’s two ways to take that. The charitable way is this. The show still means for Joker to be a manipulative asshole. Expressing your feelings to someone who’s happily engaged is already questionable behavior in the first place. Being their partner in cheating is pretty bad. But then continuing to pursue them after they’re engaged and have rejected your advances because you’re convinced it’s true love is...stalkerish, borderline toxic behavior. My hope is that the show knows this,and since the advice is coming from the Joker, there’ll be some epiphany about questioning the source and whether Harley’s being a good friend.

But my worry is that the point of all this is that Joker has unwittingly discovered “true love’ and is now in a position to say you have to fight for it. I don’t necessarily disagree with that general idea. And god help me, I like Harley and Ivy together and wouldn’t mind them ending up a couple eventually. But Harley coming in to blow up Ivy’s engagement despite being told no, and having the show potentially treating that as a good and noble thing rubs me the wrong way.

This is still a good and funny episode, one that advances the ball in a lot of clever and funny ways, particularly when it comes to Joker. But I’m increasingly uneasy about where it’s going with Harley and Ivy, or more accurately, how it seems to intend to get there.