With power failing all over the destroyed city of New New Gotham, Harley Quinn and her gang set their sites on taking down the Riddler who has taken over the local university and boasts of having of the only stable power and water source in the entire city.
However, after going undercover as college students, Harley and Ivy discover that there is a terrible secret in play at Riddle U.
Also, Doctor Psycho and King Shark do things as well but it doesn’t matter because it’s mostly filler.
Although I would count this episode as one of the series’ low points… and the term “low points” is very subjective because, by other standards, this episode was still incredibly funny, it just wasn’t quite as funny as the other Harley Quinn episodes mostly because, in my humble opinion, the Riddler’s grand scheme was a little too, forgive the term…. cartoony. Almost like it was ripped right out of the pages of a lame silver age comic but, knowing Harley Quinn, that was probably the point.
Looking at what did work, I really have to say that Clayface as a character hasn’t really worked for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love Clayface and think he’s hilarious, but I don’t really know anything about him as a character other than he’s an actor. With this episode, I think I finally got it: Clayface’s character is, he has no character. He is literally a blank slate which is why, when he loses himself in a character he’s playing, he literally loses himself. Clayface as “Stephanie” stole the entire episode. The vocals, the animation, the facial expressions, the writing: Everything about Stephanie was over-the-top, ridiculous, and hysterical and Clayface completely lost himself in the role and it was glorious.
Another win for the episode was the introduction of Barbra Gordon – the future Batgirl. I enjoy it so much that everyone in this series with the exception of Batman and Ivy is a complete nutcase and that goes double for Batman’s allies. Robin is a miniature psychopath, Gordon is perpetually depressed and lonely, and Barbara… is just so wonderfully full of pep and energy, but doesn’t exactly think things through before she does them. I honestly hope that one day the makers of Harley Quinn grace us with a Batman and Family spin-off set in the same universe. What is Nightwing like in this universe? What about Alfred?
I love King Shark and Doctor Psycho, but their story was predictably unnecessary and only there to pad out the episode. None of it mattered, it accomplished nothing, and the only thing that saved it from being a complete waste of time was the fact that these characters are so funny.
All in all, I know it seems like I didn’t like this episode because I’ve called it a “low point” but saying that this episode was a “low point” is basically like saying that The Two Towers is the low point of The Lord of the Rings, not quite up to the outrageous standards that have been been set, but still loads better than anything else from any other medium. Does that make sense?
I’d take a Harley Quinn low point over the high points of any other show.
Jason Gaston 