Episode 3 Review
Kite Man: Hell Yeah!
Synopsis: A villain-themed chain restaurant opens across from Noonan's just as Kite Man and Golden Glider stress over a new step in their relationship.
The series hits its stride with episode 3 "Villigan's, Hell Yeah!" - a classic rival company story combined with a romance snafu subplot much like Cheers did back in the day. The cast also benefits from splitting up into smaller groupings and having their own focus. The cold open of Kite Man and Golden Glider attempting to role play in the stock room but not totally syncing with their lines conveys the greater communication problem they confront this week. As Bane puts it early into the episode, the lesson of the episode is "open communication is the key to trust." But who listens to him?
The corporate rival infringing on the underdog business is a classic trope of workplace comedies like the aforementioned Cheers where most of the cast is swayed by the superficial exterior, some even switching sides temporarily, and remain ensnared for the majority of the run time but come to their senses towards the end and status quo is reestablished. And as even Kite Man notes in the episode, it's a lot like the themed-restaurant Planet Hollywood chain but with supervillains. For a place like Gotham City, Villigan's is an easy sell. In terms of DC animation, it's a trope that's been sparingly explored such as Superbabes in Bruce Timm's "Batman and Harley Quinn" direct-to-video movie where the theme was waitresses dressing as the women of DC. Surprisingly, Villigan's has nothing to do with the machination of Lexcorp yet is still villainous at its core and crushes its rivals both through business and also luring rival owners to their deaths at their subsidiaries. Baby Doll is the perfect metaphor for the hidden nature of Villigan's, an adult woman who suffered from a condition that makes them look like they're still a super cute child but is a cruel and vindictive supervillain. Interestingly, amid the cast announcement earlier this year was for a role created for the show: Helen Villigan and she will be voiced by Judith Light. It seems like it goes without saying, this isn't the last of it and Noonan's will remain the cross hairs of Villigan's as the season progresses.
Kite Man sets out to solve the Villigan's problem to prove to his worth and love to Golden Glider. However, to no one's surprise, Kite Man admits to Noonan that he has never taken a life. Like with stealing from his own father, Kite Man once again seeks to find his inner supervillain and takes a gun with him to kill Villigan's manager. Unfortunately, the manager turns out to be Baby Doll – former child actor turned supervillain turned bar manager. Voiced by Maria Bamford, Baby Doll is one of many characters created for Batman: The Animated Series and have since become DC canon. The nice act nearly kills Kite Man and ends the show prematurely but Kite Man is able to dispense with the bomb hidden in Villigan's gift basket and "deal" with the new rival in one fell yet accidental swoop. In hilarious fashion, Kite Man's reluctance to fight Baby Doll leads to him getting a thrashing until she brags she killed Golden Glider. The remainder of the fight serves as a hilarious book end to the episode. Doesn't it look bad. And as Bane put its, "Yeah, but who cares." It's all appearances but what matters was the intent. Kite Man loves Golden Glider and Noonan's and will do anything to protect both.
While Kite Man tries to solve the relationship problem with an over-the-top gesture of dealing with Villigan's, Golden Glider's dilemma carries on from the opening episodes. She wants to move in with Kite Man but she is still grappling with her inability to control her powers when she gets super emotional. Aside from being neurotic, we also get some insight into Glider. She actually doesn't like other people much but Kite Man's sweetness drew her in. And she will snap if you try to go for her feet and is a veritable killing machine who can even slice people up with a white towel. Glider loses control and her astral form massacres the spa's staff once Baby Doll brags about killing Kite Man. While Glider awakens no closer to controlling this superpower, she comes clean to Kite Man and he's not too concerned with being accidentally killed. Taking their relationship to the next level outweighs that.
In a secondary sense, Villigain's also helped to further cement this spin-off in the world of Harley Quinn. We have the various statues of and staff dressed like supervillains that have appeared in the four seasons of the show like Riddler, Cheetah, Joker, Brainiac, Scarecrow, Black Adam, Lex Luthor, Killer Croc, Enchantress, and recent debuts of Starro and Ragdoll from Lexor Hotel but also teasing new faces like Trigon. There is also the obligatory movie reference with the Batman Returns penguins. Two of the more deep cuts in the bar references two episodes from the first season of Harley Quinn. The Joker Sub next to 'flashback' Joker is from the pilot episode. When Joker leaves Harley to fight Batman alone on the yacht, he leaves in the Joker Sub. The blue submarine near the Lex Luthor statue is one of the Kryptonite-powered submarines parked in the Hall of Doom which Scarecrow showed off to Harley and her crew in "L.O.D.R.S.V.P" during the tour.
"Villigan's, Hell Yeah!" continues the strong launch of Harley Quinn's first spin-off series and balances both the stand alone lesson of the week and the serial arc of Kite Man and Golden Glider trying to keep Noonan's afloat in the treacherous field of Gotham's bar and restaurant scene. While the bar and our power couple's relationship is saved yet again, they just may have picked up an archenemy along the way without even knowing it.
Rating: 9 out of 10