It’s heartbreak time on Harley Quinn this week as no one gets a happy ending in love. Bummer. It’s time for some bachelor and bachelorette parties, and Harley has gone overboard to give Ivy the weekend of her dreams on the resort island of Themyscira. Meanwhile, the boys (here consisting of Kite Man, Clayface, King Shark, and Frank) are out at sea making jigsaws on a boat. Who’d have thought this episode would turn out to be another stellar entry in this already incredible season? Not us!
Harley, Ivy, and King Shark get the biggest play this week, but we’ll park King for now and come back to him because two big things happened this week: 1) Harley and Ivy had sex. Like a lot. And 2) Harley put herself out there and confessed her love to Ivy. The waves this show is making for LGBTQ+ representation in the comic book genre are unparalleled – it’s leagues ahead of anything else being made right now, and hats off to the writers for sticking with it and carving out a truly fantastic sapphic relationship that never once feels unearned or untrue. Like Harley herself says, “You’re here, you’re queer, deal with it.” Well said, Harls.
While it’s great to see the two finally hooking up and starting to enjoy the possibility of a relationship together, it’s heartbreaking to see it all crumble by the end of the episode. It’s plain to see that Harley is totally head over heels for Ivy, but Ivy just can’t commit. It’s a brutal ending that devastates both Harley and the audience – we’ve been rooting for these two since day one, and to see them come so close to making it official before it all comes falling down? That hurts, man – but it does make for excellent TV.
In the B-plot, it’s King Shark who’s on the hunt for love as we finally get some more of his backstory: turns out he fled his ocean kingdom to escape an arranged marriage organised by his father, the king. He has no interest in it, and wants to marry for love and love alone. Though he does give in to his father’s demands by the end of the episode, it’s fascinating and really quite emotional to see him given such depth. He’s been an absolute joy to watch so far, of course, but he’s only really been used for laughs, and to give him such an eloquent speech about love is a bold move, but one that really pays off.
HARLEY QUINN continues on E4 on Mondays and is available via ALL4, Amazon, and Apple thereafter.
