Harley Quinn is shocked when she and Ivy see a man who looks like the Joker working in a bar. Figuring that the Joker, who’s been presumed dead for months following the collapse of his tower and his acid bath, has been transformed into a normal guy. Ivy, of course, being Ivy wants to kill him while Harley believes that people can change and, to prove it, she tells Ivy a story about how she first met the Joker.
Basically, it’s a new pre-origin story for Harley Quinn and, I have to admit, I liked it. I was afraid that the episode was going to redo the origin told in Batman: The Animated Series’ “Mad Love” which was already perfect, but “All the Best Inmates Have Daddy Issues” decided to take a different approach, not focusing on Harley’s origin story at all and, instead, telling of how she first met not only Joker, but Two-Face and Ivy as well… which is weird considering that she’s telling a story to Ivy that Ivy was there for.
The episode wasn’t the usual laugh-out-loud funny, but it did make up for it by telling a very compelling story, showing Harley has a very ambitious young criminal psychiatrist, but also a person with a heart which not only shows how she fell in love with Joker, but also became friends with Ivy and, if I may say so, also made her darn good at her job.
Alan Tudyk was amazing as not only Joker, but also the person that Joker turned into. The two has completely different personalities and voices… it’s amazing that they are actually voiced by the same guy. Alan Tudyk is going to become my second-favorite animated Joker, I just know it.
We all know that Mr. J was coming back and I guess it’s appropriate that he would resurface in the episode immediately following Batman’s return. Since it was incredibly obvious that he wasn’t gone for good (no body, no death), I enjoy that he’s returned as a virtual ticking clock… an explosion just waiting to happen and I can’t imagine he’s going to be very happy when he wakes from his walking coma.
So, yes… a great episode. Not incredibly funny, but funny enough with a very good story underneath. The relationship between Ivy and Harley developed very organically and I like how the episode didn’t try to fix something that wasn’t broken.
What’s better is that it’s set a coming event into motion and I’m very eager to see where it goes.
Jason Gaston 