What They Say:
Harley & Ivy team up with Catwoman to steal a museum artifact that’s been boobytrapped by Dr. Trap. Meanwhile, Dr. Psycho (TONY HALE) tries to prove himself as a leader.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With hopes that not every episode would be a different territory for Harley to liberate, I did have a lot of run with her dealing with Riddler taking over Gotham University. A lot of that was the subplot with Barbara and her first really going out as Batgirl as that hit a sweet spot for a lot of fans to see come to life. The group as a whole had some good stuff going on throughout the episode and 90s style Harley and Ivy as college kids was a delight simply because it was the kind of absurdity I wanted from the show. Combining that with what King Shark and Dr. Psycho were getting up to in making their Deathmobile and causing chaos while trying to get supplies resonated way too easily with me as well.
This episode opens with Harley trying to take down Doctor Freeze’s ice wall and territory because she has a legit reason considering how Freeze treated her in the last episode. The problem is that they need Firefly’s flamethrower to be able to get through it and all the villain’s weapons were stolen by Dr. Trap when Gotham first fell. So that has Harley and Ivy going off – with an assist by Kite-Man (kites are essential in the apocalypse!) to get the gear. The idea that he may have a lot of weapons is definitely appealing to Harley. It’s done up nicely as he’s reworked the museum with all the gear so that it feels like the Batcave but nicely scaled up. But it’s also filled with traps, aka Dr. Trap, so there are a lot of dangers for them to deal with before they can get anything. And boy does Harley want Penguin’s umbrella now that she killed him and made it valuable.
Harley’s plan does make sense in that she invites Catwoman in on the heist since they need her skills. And it’s a reunion for Ivy, though Harley didn’t realize that the last couple of times ended badly and Ivy’s really not happy about teaming up with Selina. It’s a lot of fun to watch Ivy and Selina work together since Ivy clearly values Selina’s opinions on everything, which makes it easy for Selina to mess with Ivy about how she’s lost her brand by working with Harley. There’s a long history between the two and it’s fun to watch that unfold all while Harley ends up helping Kite-man to try and steal a ring that he wants to give Ivy as an engagement ring. If only he wasn’t afraid of traps! But it’s nice to see Harley, who doesn’t care for him in the slightest, still willing to help him.
In Summary:
There are a lot of ups and downs with this episode but it’s a lot of fun with all of the traps. That lets the creative team really go crazy with some weird ones and at the same working some good material for both Ivy and Selina while giving Kite-man some wonderful material as well. I am, once again, less enamored with the separate subplot we get for Psycho and King Shark because I like the group when they work as a whole. There are fun bits but the big fun is everything involved with Dr. Trap and his traps. The character drama is fun as well and seeing Harley slowly understand Kite-man more and more here, and thereby getting along better with Ivy, is also a big win.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: DC Universe
