More craziness than almost any show can handle.
What They Say:
Harley thinks the Legion of Doom is behind Ivy’s capture and the tree monsters currently ravaging Gotham.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
While this series has been strong overall, the episode prior to the last was one that slowed things down and then the last episode just went kind of bonkers with things. Which was fun and amusing since it ended with giant trees storming around Gotham causing problems. With Ivy being freed and trying to do what she can to deal with the threat, there’s definitely a lot of pressure – especially since Harley doesn’t want to move to Metropolis. The problem is that what’s been created with these trees are immune to her powers of control. And as they go and eat up civilians just hanging around the park with glee, it just turns even more chaotic. It’s amusing to see Harley’s crew deal with the attack as the creatures turn on them, though it’s overacting in certain cases.
With the park in chaos, Batman’s forcing Gordon to evacuate the park instead of bombing while he goes to deal with Scarecrow. He’s thankfully called in the Justice League to help out and that makes for some fun as the gang arrives and slices and dices the trees up. And because they’re the good guys, they believe Harley and her crew is responsible for it – which leads to a greatly amusing sequence as they get ready to throw them all into the phantom zone. But the twist that we get here is that Queen of Fables shows up and saves the day by casting the Justice League into her book. She’s had revenge on her mind for a very long time and is finally able to get a good run with it – which includes sending Harley and her crew up to a castle in the sky on a beanstalk. You gotta feel for Ivy in that after not being able to control the other plants, not being able to control fairy tale plants is just making her useless here – especially as the giant is on the way.
The episode works a lot of crazy stuff in a small amount of space, such as Ivy calling in Kite Man for help and Harley realizing that Ivy has real feelings for Kite Man, that it’s just over the top fun. Ivy admitting that she does love him is a nice change of pace (I’m still a fan of Ivy/Harley in the comics and wish they had their own series) but here it works really well for the comedy. But, as everything keeps playing out with the chaos, it’s the Joker that takes advantage of it by throwing himself into it with wild machinery to conquer the city and destroy it. The show wasn’t all sunshine and lollipops at the start to begin with what with killer trees, but damn it got grim fast – though Harley with a tank is a great thing. The big plan of having Ivy use some of the bad chemicals to turn herself into a giant makes for oh so much fun as she goes toe to toe with the trees and the humor is spot on, such as the realization of understanding the age of the trees by their rings. There are so many little moments that it just delights through and through.
In Summary:
As we get ready for the season finale next week, Harley Quinn just keeps ratcheting things up and going as crazy as it can with events. This is not like a lot of animated projects where it’s got a good bit of downtime or still moments. There are things going on constantly and that keeps the gags coming hard and fast as well as the chaos and violence. This episode just keeps throwing more and more at the viewer and whether it’s some great Ivy and Kite Man time or the insanity of the trees chewing down people, it all lands really well. I’m excited to see how it all wraps up and am admittedly looking forward to a break after all of this insanity.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: DC Universe
