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Episode 49 Review
Harley Quinn

Ivy re-learns the hard near-death way that she shouldn't try to solve her problems alone anymore, not when she has Harley Quinn and Frank The Plant to back her up. Meanwhile, Clayface makes his debut in Metropolis but his one-man-show gets a scathing review from the Daily Planet... and he gets a little "creative" with rectifying it. In "Floronic Man," it's problem solving time.

Continuing from last week's episode, Ivy's revenge backfires and Jason Woodrue gets plant superpowers of his own. And surprise, revenge is on his mind, too. After a bout of creepy mind games, Woodrue attacks Ivy when she tries to recuperate in The Green (remember that?). Ivy isn't exactly 100 so he takes pleasure in slowly killing her but in his narrow obsession, he didn't count on Harley being adamant about getting Ivy to open up and talk. And in turn, unable to deal with plants, turns to Frank, still chilling at what's left of his resort La Planta from the Kite Man spin-off series. Harley and Frank huddle up and execute a rather unbeatable strategy: Frank distracts Woodrue while Harley does what she does best to Woodrue's physical body, horribly maim, kill, and obliterate. Woodrue's last gasp and being chopped into many many pieces paints it clear he's dealt with for good but I'm still a little skeptical he's dead dead. Plant metahumans have a way with cheating death. In any case, an Ivy-Frank team-up was entertaining. After selling out Kite Man, it was a welcome sight to have him immediately help Ivy and come to her rescue. The lipstick confession was really funny, too, and Ivy griping about how much they cost especially the discontinued one all in the face of impending death.

As for Clayface, he's insufferable alone and thrives when he's with the cast but seems he's still solo. It was a welcome sight that fan-favorite Bane enters the fray and can't help himself when Clayface unloads praise on his writing acumen. But is it ego in him choosing Bane who naturally goes with the flow and gets caught up in any shenanigan rather than someone from the old crew? But to make this arc a bit more intriguing, they ingratiate themselves into the Daily Planet and we have what appears to be a new workplace comedy within this season. Lois had it rough working with Perry and Jimmy but now she's got Bane and Clayface masquerading as Perry. Lois as the straight man, as the Margaret Dumont is promising. I'm on the fence about this arc but I'm intrigued how this will play out.

Just when the big threat is gruesomely neutralized, Harley and Ivy made up, and Ivy learned her lesson, they pull the rug out on us! The big bad Brainiac makes his move at the end of the third freakin' episode! I don't think we're getting the standard sci-fi fisticuffs but rather Brainiac will be studying Harlivy to figure out how to make Metropolis 100 percent perfect. Cue the probing jokes. But in all seriousness, a more introspective character study for the next episode which happens to be the big 50th episode of the series? No such thing as coincidences.

Ivy's revenge backfires but lesson learned, don't try to fix a mess by yourself when you got a dependable support system. The action and humor that follows was really entertaining in the wake of last week's stellar episode. It was also a welcome choice to deal with Woodrue right away rather than drag it out through the whole season. And then another one of the cast ends up in Metropolis! Clayface and Bane can only lead to some comedy duo goodness so the potential is there for an amusing subplot that eventually crosses into the main conflict but we shall see how well executed it will be. Can Joker and Doctor Psycho be not too far behind? Can't wait to see how Harley and Ivy are gonna turn the tables on Brainiac and drive him looney!

Rating: 9.3 out of 10