Episode 22 Review
Harley Quinn
Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, Nora Freeze, Catwoman, and Jennifer are off to Themyscira for a bachelorette weekend but all is not as it seems. Harley finally gains the courage to tell Ivy her true feelings as festivities continue. Kite Man celebrates his bachelor weekend on the sea with Frank, Clayface, and King Shark but a talking lobster seeking out King forces him to confront his past as the threat of war looms under the sea. Welcome to the bargaining stage of grief I guess.
A pigeon is nearly hit by an Apollyn Airlines invisible plane. Aboard the plane are Ivy, Harley, Nora, Jennifer, and Catwoman. An announcement comes on the p.a. System informing everyone of the final descent to Themyscira and any man who dares enter the island will be killed on arrival. Harley gives Ivy her crown sash, reuseable straw, wand, and carrying pouch. Ivy is impressed with how organized she is. Harley checks on the guests. Nora is a downer and is sure she was the pity invite because they killed her husband Mr. Freeze. Harley points out he killed himself and she came anyway. Nora admits an all-female island seemed like a good place to cry. Harley checks on Jennifer, who doesn't like being called "Jenn," who turns out to be a friend of Ivy from kindergarten and they both promised to be each other's maid of honor. Two pigeons fly into the plane and die. Jennifer checks if the drinks are free. Harley heads past an invisible curtain to first class to Catwoman's chagrin. She wonders why she paid for first class if Harley just bursts in. She gives her two minutes until the Ambien kicks in so she can catnap through as much of the weekend as possible. Harley returns to her seat and is a bit to gung ho about how excited she is for the wedding.
The girls drive to Themyscira Resort and meet Eris, the manager. Ivy notices how oddly corporate the Amazons have become. Eris tells them the economy has been booming since Wonder Woman disappeared and she got hired by Queen Hippolyta to keep the momentum going. She asks them to take plenty of pics and to tag him. Harley reminds everyone about the itinerary but Ivy takes her aside and voices her concern. Harley keeps her act on even though Ivy knows her "friends" are more a disparate collection of women she glommed onto in the difficult stages of her life. Harley tells her she deserves a gun girls' trip. Catwoman sees through the sweaty maid of honor routine and quickly deduces they hooked up. Harley denies it at first but comes clean and is relieved to finally be able to say it out loud. Catwoman states she's not going to be her confidante. Harley drones on about letting the feelings fade over time since neither of them want to act on them. Catwoman sarcastically advises her to say it once more time to be sure.
Kite Man, Frank the Plant, and Clayface chill out on a boat in the middle of the ocean while working on a puzzle. Frank chides Clay for trying to force a piece. He notices King Shark is inside with a book. Kite Man checks his phone for songs but a lobster suddenly comes aboard. King freaks out and tries to hide himself. To their surprise, the lobster talks and refers to King Shark as "Nanaue." He tells King his father needs him because the trade deal is in danger and if the Hammerheads don't sign it, the Federation crumbles and an all out war would break out. To save the kingdom, he must marry his betrothed, Tabitha. King is more concerned with what he wants. Kite Man doesn't want this leading to mermaid strippers because he expressed stated he wanted no strippers for his party. King admits he is the son of the king of the Shark Kingdom and he's the heir to the throne but he refused to have an arranged marriage so he ran away to the surface. King decides to go along only to tell off his father once and for all. Jennifer, Nora, and Catwoman complaining about stuff. Harley tells them off and threatens them if they don't pretend to be excited for Ivy or she'll kill them. Brunch finally commences and Ivy is surprised everyone is having fun. Eris asks them to toast again for the camera so they can post it to social media. Hippolyta happens to be among Eris' procession. Ivy is confused and thought Themyscira was a secret island. Eris states it will now be a premiere resort destination for A-listers. Ivy turns to Hippolyta for her opinion. It's super clear she's in some kind of trance but Harley brushes it off. Jennifer asks if there's anything else to do. Eris tells them about the restorative waterfall, the wilderness hike and a tiny island nearby called Hedonikka with men. Harley quickly chooses Hedonikka.
Samson the lobster is adamant that nothing beats living in the ocean. King challenges him to name one. Samson starts to sing and the other sea life pull off some impressive choreography but it's mostly about being able to poop everywhere. King is unconvinced. Samson states hundreds of thousands will die and two proud shark lines will go extinct. King points out that should have been the song. Samson admits that would have been harder to rhyme. King concedes he will consider marrying Tabitha. Samson sends word the wedding is back on. Meanwhile, the ladies party at a strip club. Maxie Zeus introduces the "god of war" to the stage. Nora makes out with Maxie while Jennifer falls over. Ivy is so drunk she wants to get matching Cobb Squad tattoos with Harley and Catwoman. Ivy is so happy Harley went the extra mile for her. Harley tells her it's because they're best friends. The next morning, they wake up naked in bed with each other. Ivy freaks out. Harley reminds her they were drunk and they can get past it. Ivy wants to leave the island but the front desk informs her the only plane is off picking up investors. Ivy elects to stay in her room for the rest of the weekend.
King Shark meets Tabitha and realizes she doesn't want to get married either. King heads inside a sunken ship turned restaurant where his father, Shark God, and the Hammerhead leader are waiting. King Shark shocks everyone by announcing he and Tabitha don't want to get married. Elsewhere, Catwoman notes the paper thin walls. Harley confides she messed up, the feelings didn't go away, and Ivy was upset. She asks Catwoman what to do since she knew Ivy the longest. Catwoman points out Jennifer knew Ivy the longest. However, Jennifer is incapacitated on the floor. Harley goes to Ivy's door but Ivy doesn't want to talk. Harley promises nothing like the kiss or the drunken sex will ever happen and tells her she still has one very fun surprise left to reveal and touts it as the crown jewel of the weekend. Ivy agrees to come out after she puts on a bra. Harley hands her bra to her. The girls are all hung over as Harley reveals the last surprise: they're gonna destroy the resort and kill Eris. Harley reveals Eris possessed Queen Hippolyta and is scheming to sell Themyscira to Lex Luthor. The surprise is saving the environment and women of the island from corporate greed. Ivy perks up and is totally in. Jennifer isn't so sure until she learns the mimosas aren't bottomless.
King Shark tells his father he wants to marry for love and he build a good life for himself already. Shark God issues him an ultimatum: leave again and he can never return. King takes up on the latter option then shocks everyone by admitting he likes pooping into the toilet. Eris holds a virtual meeting with Lex and prepares Hippolyta to sign over the island. The ladies bust into the room and address Eris. Ivy flashes her Cobb Squad tattoo but is bummed to learn no one else got the tattoo. A fight breaks out. Catwoman whips the contract off the table and Harley nails Eris with her bat. Nora tries her best to sign off Lex. Harley opts to rip the TV monitor off the wall and chucks it off the balcony. Jennifer joins in and throws Eris, too. Hippolyta comes to and learns how the Cobb Squad saved the island. She decides to celebrate the victory in the ancient tradition of the Amazons. A rager. Ivy tells Harley it's been her dream vacation aside from the horrible mistake they made with each other. They wake up in bed with each other again. Harley isn't so sure they should stop but Ivy points out they are best friends only. Harley pitches they could spend the rest of their lives saving nature together, freeing all female armies, partying, and getting free stuff. She asks Ivy to think about it.
King Shark returns to the boat and confirms he wouldn't marry Tabitha. They laud him for standing up for his convictions. King reveals after he stormed off, he went back and married Tabitha. They worked out an arrangement to have a public marriage but to pursue secret relationships. King shares his hope for finding his soulmate. The ladies touch down at the airport. Nora leaves with Maxie Zeus, Jennifer tells her husband to call her "Jenn," and Ivy turns down Harley's proposal. She trusts Harley with her life, but not with her heart because she runs from one thing to the next and she doesn't want to be that. Ivy states she's marrying Kite Man Kite Man arrives and picks up Ivy. Harley sobs away.
"Bachelorette" uses the ending of last week's "Inner (Para)Demons" as a jumping off point and mainly focuses on Ivy's bachelorette weekend party and Harley working up the nerve to tell Ivy what she really felt from that kiss. Much like last season, it's starting to look like the back half of season 2 is getting more serialized now that the new arc is clear – Harley doesn't really want to take over Gotham City, she wants to be with Ivy. But the problem is Ivy doesn't feel the same way and is convinced she loves Kite Man and is going to marry him. Harley clearly is past the denial stage but couldn't keep up the farce. If the new arc is basically the five stages of grief, Harley definitely entered the bargaining stage but she was rejected so depression should be next... and the sad irony is King Shark has to quickly deal with his marriage problem and comes up with a mutually beneficial bargain of his own.
Like last episode, it's great to see the world of this series expanded on a bit more past Gotham and we get to spend the episode exploring Themyscira and the Shark Kingdom. And through both locales, we treated to some threads from last season. Namely, one ramification of Wonder Woman still being stuck in the Queen of Fables' book is Themyscira was left in a vulnerable state against none other than Lex Luthor who has apparently survived or wasn't around for the Joker Face Tower attack. As with Darkseid, it's was hilarious to see Hippolyta played straight for a laugh. Her rager line was the best. It was also a pleasant surprise to see the other villain was Eris, goddess of strife, rather than one of the more classic Wonder Woman villains like Circe, and in her modern comic book design to boot. It was definitely an inventive way to use Themyscria. In the past, it's always been a traditional invasion and attack by a supervillain to steal something. But the heist here, so to speak, is for the whole island itself and to turn it into a 5 star resort! And of course, it makes perfect sense a rogue like Luthor would be interested. The other surprise was getting to explore more of the under sea world. After the heist at that Atlantis museum last season and King Shark's Tabitha name drop in "Thawing Hearts," it was a nice surprise to see King Shark's origins fully explored, his real name finally stated, and even Shark God appeared. I can only wonder if we're in store for a Clayface or a Dr. Psycho episode, too.
It was clearly an episode for the expanded guest cast but some were a sight for sore eyes. Catwoman didn't have a big a role as last time, but when she does appear she owns the scene. The Ambien scene, I'm not here to support you, small talk, paper thin walls – all hilarious but most of all, for someone too cool to care, the irony here is she was the most helpful person for Harley in the episode. While I was totally wrong about Nora's role post-"Thawing Hearts," it was kismet she was a Debbie Downer for the first half of the episode, a character Rachel Dratch is known for when she was part of the Saturday Night Live cast. Nora's stand out moment was of course the 'mom being bad at electronics' bit – contrasted by Harley's simple solution. The hook up with Maxie Zeus was so gross and I never saw that coming. Jennifer was an... interesting addition to the series and to Ivy's back story. But totally won me over after she was down for killing over bottomless mimosas. Casting Mary Holland, from UCB and those AT&T commercials, was a perfect fit as was Jameela Jamil for Eris. Frank showing up is always welcome because you know JB Smoove is going to belt out comedy gold. Frank's adherence to puzzle rules was a total hoot. In an episode that was full of surprises, none was so unexpected as a talking lobster performing a send up of Under the Sea from Disney's "The Little Mermaid" and it being about pooping in the sea. The Cobb Squad callback and awkward tattoo scene was just perfect. And in kind of a blink or miss, the "bellhops" Hope and Mercy are likely Hope Tate and Mercy Graves, former bodyguards of Lex Luthor who embraced their Amazon ancestry.
"Bachelorette" takes current events into the bargaining phase with gut wrenching results for Harley's whole world and a quick done-in-one success for King Shark to keep the new life he made for himself in the surface world. Although Harley hitting a downward spiral is a bit too similar to last season, the setting, the operation to save Themyscira, the new characters, and King Shark's back story was entertaining enough and really enriched the overall continuity of the series. Heading into the final four episodes of the season, who knows what's in store for everyone when they have to deal with an agent of chaos with a broken heart.
Rating: 8.2 out of 10