Plot summary: When Joker steals an atomic bomb, Batman sees no other choice than to recruit Harley Quinn in order to track him down.
Each Saturday and Sunday Matt Waters recaps an episode of the legendary Batman: The Animated Series, building an overall ranking along the way. Plus best performances, the ever-popular Villain Watch and more!
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Notes
Episode Title: ‘Harlequinade’
Original Air Date: May 23rd, 1994
Directed: Kevin Altieri (18)
Written: Paul Dini (14)
A harlequinade is a play (or part of a play) where the clown plays the leading role. Culture!
Elements of Joker’s dialogue in the opening scene are spoken by Harley in the later episode ‘Lock Up’
Despite her claims to the contrary, Paul Dini insists Harley is a natural blonde.
Recap
A bunch of lowlifes start a bidding war on an atomic freakin’ bomb. Naturally Joker gets involved, using a trick explosive to scare them all out of the room and thus winning the auction with a bid of $0.
Batman suggests recruiting Harley Quinn to determine where Joker is hiding, offering her freedom if they successfully capture the Clown Prince. Though reluctant at first, Harlz signs up.
Naturally hijinks ensue as Harley starts pressing random buttons in the Batmobile, causing Bruce to scream at her while she makes mocking faces.
Leading Bats to Joker’s most recent hideout, Harley swaps her Arkham jumpsuit for her costume and calls off her hyenas. Batman notes a series of cameras monitoring Mayor Hill & Commissioner Gordon, but no Joker.
They try another old haunt, a speakeasy run by Boxy Bennet. Harley immediately betrays Batman in favour for the club full of gun wielding criminals.
Noticing Robin spying through a nearby window, she distracts the goons with a gentle musical number about Joker’s domestic abuse. Dick frees Batman and the three fight their way out, with Harley figuring out Joker is holed up at Mayor Hill’s mansion.
Batman attacks his nemesis while Robin saves the mayor. Unfortunately Harley slipped her handcuffs and uses one of Bruce’s gadgets to incapacitate the heroes and then leaps into Puddin’s arms.
Joker’s men wheel out his escape plane as the bomb’s timer ticks down. Batman and Robin successfully talk Harley into a triple cross by pointing out Joker obviously had no intention of rescuing her from Arkham had she not been freed, and still intends to leave their friends and her hyenas to die.
Joker takes off and tries to kill the heroes up from above, but they of course survive and diffuse the bomb. Undeterred, Joker attempts manual detonation by opening fire on the mansion. Harley faces him down and causes the plane to crash.
Held at gunpoint, Joker tells Harley she would never dare pull the trigger… but she does!!! Thankfully for him, it’s one of his many trick guns. Mistah J finds the whole exchange hilarious, tells her she’s the greatest, and they embrace.
Best Performance
As is often the case when she’s given enough lines, Arleen Sorkin dominates. From her first line until her last, she is a relentless hurricane of energy. Part of the joy of the character is her total unpredictability, and a lot of that comes through in Sorkin’s wildly fluctuating tone. Plus she sings! And it’s good without being too good if that makes sense?
This is also one of Mark Hamill’s more underrated performances, taking us on the complete Joker experience, from shrill wails to menacing growls and of course his trademark laughter, which he perfected in Mask of the Phantasm.
Heck, Dick Miller is fantastic in the minor role of Boxy Bennett. It’s mostly just a generic mobster, but he still makes it a lot of fun.
Ranking
This is essentially a MUCH better version of the Batman & Harley Quinn animated movie, right down to the musical number.
‘Mad Love’ gets all the attention, but this episode is a close second in terms of a definitive Harley Quinn character study, establishing for the first time how Harley and Joker met. It’s also just a brilliantly simple Batman vs Joker story, which is the triumph of ‘The Laughing Fish’, our reigning number one.
Joker steals a weapon capable of levelling Gotham. Batman deems this such a threat that he’s willing to write Harley a ticket out of Arkham Asylum. They make for a delightful odd couple and actually end up getting the job done despite multiple betrayals. Then Harley takes Joker down when Batman seemingly can’t, but the status quo is restored when her attempt to murder her beloved ends up charming him. It’s wild that there are so many episodes that try so hard to not follow this kind of formula.
- The Laughing Fish
- Mask of the Phantasm
- Almost Got ‘Im
- Heart of Ice
- Harlequinade
- The Trial
- Shadow of the Bat Part I
- I Am the Night
- Robin’s Reckoning Part I
- The Man Who Killed Batman
- Perchance to Dream
- Two-Face Part I
- A Bullet For Bullock
- Joker’s Favor
- Read My Lips
- Feat of Clay Part II
- The Demon’s Quest Part II
- Harley and Ivy
- Robin’s Reckoning Part II
- House & Garden
- Beware the Gray Ghost
- Mad as a Hatter
- Heart of Steel Part II
- Appointment In Crime Alley
- Two-Face Part II
- Pretty Poison
- Shadow of the Bat Part II
- Feat of Clay Part I
- His Silicon Soul
- Off Balance
- Vendetta
- Birds of a Feather
- Heart of Steel Part I
- On Leather Wings
- See No Evil
- The Clock King
- It’s Never Too Late
- Joker’s Wild
- Eternal Youth
- The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy
- The Cat and the Claw Part I
- Zatanna
- Day of the Samurai
- Avatar
- The Demon’s Quest Part I
- The Mechanic
- The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne
- Terror in the Sky
- P.O.V.
- Christmas with the Joker
- Fear of Victory
- Be a Clown
- The Worry Men
- What is Reality?
- Fire From Olympus
- Night of the Ninja
- Mudslide
- The Cat and the Claw Part II
- Nothing to Fear
- Prophecy of Doom
- Tyger, Tyger
- Blind as a Bat
- If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?
- Dreams In Darkness
- The Last Laugh
- Cat Scratch Fever
- Moon of the Wolf
- Paging the Crime Doctor
- Sideshow
- The Under-Dwellers
- The Forgotten
- The Terrible Trio
- I’ve Got Batman in My Basement
Villain Watch
The Joker (Mark Hamill) (thirteenth appearance)
While this is undoubtedly a Harley episode, it’s stealthily one of the best for Joker. Freed from the burden of being the star attraction, he cuts loose in multiple silly (in a good way) costumes and causes general pandemonium.
The opening scene is essentially a watered down version of Heath Ledger’s grand entrance in The Dark Knight. His facial expressions tell all when Harley questions him about how he would have found time to rescue her and their friends. His determination to gun everybody down is fantastic, and the final standoff with Harley is both characters in a nutshell. He even invokes one of fiction’s other great domestic abusers, Ralph Kramden.
Harley Quinn (Arleen Sorkin) (seventh appearance)
While you could be forgiven for watching this show back when it first aired and not predicting Harley would become one of the most popular characters in all of fiction, my pervasive thought while watching these episodes has been ‘why didn’t it happen sooner?’
From pulling faces and cracking jokes, to the pet hyenas, to her musical number, to the crack about not being a real blonde, to getting all of The Rogues Gallery’s names wrong and the many betrayals in between, this tour de force moves hers past Mr. Freeze and into third place.
I have generally rewarded strong emotional arcs for villains, and while on the surface Harley is pure mayhem, her inability to break Joker’s hold on her underpins everything she does. She has her big breakthrough that he’s no good for her after all, legitimately tries to murder him, but is a moth to the flame that is the smallest scrap of his affection. Bruce even grills her about what she sees in the Murder Clown, and her tragic reply is simply that he listened to her when nobody else did. And now she’s trapped.
- The Joker
- Poison Ivy
- Harley Quinn
- Mr. Freeze
- Two-Face
- The Ventriloquist
- The Phantasm
- Mad Hatter
- Penguin
- Catwoman
- HARDAC (and Randa Duane)
- Clayface
- Ra’s al Ghul
- The Riddler
- Clock King
- Lloyd Ventrix
- Count Vertigo
- Killer Croc
- Nivens
- Josiah Wormwood
- Scarecrow
- Roland Daggett (and Germs & Bell!)
- Rupert Thorne
- Talia al Ghul
- Sid the Squid
- Thoth Khepera
- Maxie Zeus
- Jimmy ‘Jazzman’ Peake
- Tony Zucco
- Man-Bat
- Hugo Strange
- Red Claw
- Arnold Stromwell
- Mad Bomber
- Tygrus
- Rhino, Mugsy and Ratso
- Kyodai Ken
- Gil Mason
- Nostromos (and Lucas!)
- Cameron Kaiser
- Dr. Dorian (and Garth)
- Mad Dog
- Ubu
- Professor Milo
- Romulus
- Sewer King
- Boss Biggis
- Montague Kane
- The Terrible Trio
Plugs
Eager for more long-form coverage of Batman? Why not check out my podcast with Mike Thomas, The Tape Crusaders, which reviewed every Batman movie and delved a tiny bit into the animated series.
Speaking of The Tape Crusaders, why not check out Mike & Matt’s review of Zack Snyder’s Justice League?
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