Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for Harley Quinn, season 1, episode 13, “The Final Joke.”
The ending of Harley Quinn’s season 1 finale left many questions unanswered, even as it saw Harley accomplish all of her dreams. True, Gotham City was largely destroyed in the process, but you can’t make an omelette without destroying several city blocks. At least not if you’re Harley Quinn.
The first original animated series produced for the DC Universe streaming service, Harley Quinn centered upon the misadventures of everyone’s favorite former supervillain sidekick as Harley broke-up with The Joker (for real this time) and set out to form her own gang and earn a place in the Legion of Doom. While Harley was successful in this, Mr. J was not about to let her get away with defying him and enacted a revenge scheme which left Gotham City devastated, the Legion of Doom destroyed and Poison Ivy dead. This led to an unlikely alliance between Harley Quinn and Batman, which ended with Batman captured along with Harley’s gang.
In the end, it fell to Harley and Harley alone to save the day; a task she was truly unprepared for. Still, in the end, she got by with a little help from her friends and a massive earthquake brought on by Poison Ivy’s resurrection. But we’ll just say it was the power of friendship and call it even. Here’s all the big questions demanding answers after the season finale of Harley Quinn.
Will The Justice League Escape The Queen of Fables’ Book?
The Joker recruited the Queen of Fables, who had a grudge against Harley and the Justice League, to help him with his plan to conquer Gotham and show up his ex-girlfriend. Ironically, this led to the Queen of Fables saving Harley and her gang from being thrown into the Phantom Zone by the League, as she trapped Green Lantern, Superman, Wonder Woman and The Flash inside of her magic storybook. With Harley having decapitated the Queen of Fables during her first attempt to storm Joker’s fortress, it’s unclear if there’s any way for the Justice League to be freed from the magical book now.
Will The Legion of Doom Regroup?
Joker destroyed the Hall of Doom in the process of erecting a tower with his face on it in the middle of downtown Gotham City. This was just as much about his getting revenge on the Legion of Doom, after they dared to accept Harley into their ranks as a full villain, as it was erecting a monument to his own ego. While The Joker said the Legion was no more in his first address to Gotham City, it seems unlikely that the entire team was inside the Hall of Doom when it was destroyed. At the very least, it would be a shame for the series to kill off such reliable sources of humor as Bane and The Riddler for so small a pay-off.
Will Ivy Accept Kite Man’s Proposal?
Before she went into battle to face the tree-monsters created by Scarecrow, Poison Ivy got an unexpected surprise from her boyfriend, Kite Man. As well-known for his sense of poor timing as he was for being a Tako Kichi, Kite Man chose that moment to drop to one knee, pretend to open a box, and ask if he might become “Mr. Poison Ivy.” While Ivy said they should probably come back to that question after she was done averting the apocalypse, Kite Man optimistically noted that her answer was “not a no”, leaving the door open for Harley Quinn season 2.
Did Batman Survive The Destruction of Joker’s Tower?
When we last saw Batman in “The Final Joke,” he was on a catwalk which collapsed after he pushed Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy out of the way of some falling debris. It seems likely that Batman survived the fall, if only because the odds of Batman being allowed to die for such small stakes seem highly unlikely. Ignoring that, we never see a body; no Batus Delecti, so to speak. And the one thing you can be certain of in any superhero story is that if you don’t see a body, they’re probably alive.
Did Joker Survive The Destruction of Joker’s Tower?
The fate of The Joker following the collapse of his tower is somewhat more certain than Batman’s. The last scene of Harley Quinn’s season 1 finale shows a white hand emerge from the earth as a familiar laugh fills the air, just before the hand goes limp. While this seems to suggest that The Joker may have succumb to his injuries, it seems unlikely that The Joker would be permanently killed off, as he’s too rich a source for continuing drama in Harley’s life.
If Joker Survived The Tower Collapsing, Is He Still The Joker?
Rather than kill Harley off, The Joker created a special chemical bath that would reverse the effects of the acid she jumped into before she became Harley Quinn. The Joker boasted that this new formula would erase her memories along with everything that made Harleen Quinzel into Harley Quinn, leaving her “a nobody… a blank canvas… a stranger on the street… normal.” Ironically, Joker wound up falling into the vat full of chemicals himself and was seen floundering in it before he triggered the self-destruct for his tower. Assuming that Joker did escape the tower’s collapse, there’s a fair chance that he has amnesia and has lost the beautiful madness that makes him the Caliph of Clowns and Mogul of Mountebanks.
What Happened To Frank The Plant And Kite Man?
When Harley was pondering her next move while on the run from The Joker, she visited Poison Ivy’s grave in Gotham City’s largest park and was shocked to discover that Kite Man and Frank the Plant were living there. The two informed her of Joker’s plan to kill her crew before throwing a wild 80’s theme party that night. (“You don’t have to dress up, but it’s strongly suggested.”) Strangely enough, both Frank and Kite Man were absent from the group of Harley’s friends who watched Gotham burn in the penultimate scene of Harley Quinn’s season 1 finale. Did they survive being at Ground Zero of the earthquake triggered by Ivy’s resurrection and Joker’s tower collapsing? Or did Harley and Ivy just forget about inviting them to the party?
Will Harley And Ivy Become A Couple in Season 2?
One aspect of Harley Quinn that annoyed some fans was that there were relatively few hints of romance between Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, who have long been a couple in the comics. While this made sense give the reality of the show and its timeline (with Ivy barely being able to talk to people without feeling sick as the series opened, let alone contemplate a romantic relationship with her one human friend) a few hints were still dropped about love blossoming between the crazy clown woman and the anti-social plant lady. Perhaps we’ll some some sign of this in the second season, with the two anti-heroes ruling what is left of Gotham City together?
What’s Next For Harley and Her Gang?
It’s unclear what Harley’s goals will be in season 2 of Harley Quinn, as she accomplished everything she set out to do over the course of season 1. Will she and her crew rule what few parts of Gotham City are still standing with an iron first? Will they abandon the city to move to Coney Island, like she did in the comics? Or will they all get ambushed on that rooftop and be put to work in the Suicide Squad? The only thing that seems certain is that Harley Quinn will have the whole world out to get her after what she indirectly caused to happen to the Justice League and the Legion of Doom. Yet after everything Harleen has accomplished so far, viewers shouldn’t bet against her coming out on top again, in spite of herself.
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