Episode 55 Review
Harley Quinn
It's already the penultimate episode of Harley Quinn season five so it's time for the main and the recurring cast to come with a too-good-to-fail plan to end the big threat and it fails. Harley is at rock bottom. Vril Dox just wants to die. The plan just made the big threat bigger. But let's not forget this show shines when total victory is imminent. By crushing it with chaos and random happenstance. The chess board is set in "Bottle Episode (But Not a 'Bottle Episode')" and the stakes are the biggest they have ever been on this show.
Nothing like a Luthor shrinking a major city to get things moving and galvanizing the cast! Ivy isn't too mad anymore and is there to hold up Harley. Harley is brainstorming plans. Bruce is done moping and is in his power suit. Joker is back to destroying stuff. Lois is willing to punch robots and comes up with a daring old school Hail Mary sext. Harley helps Lex and Lena reconcile but that goes sideways. Oops, Harley's psychiatry was too good and now Lex and Lena plot to rule the universe together. And Vril still wants to die... well, almost everyone. Got to save something for the season finale!
Nitpick time. They recast Lex yet again? Nothing against Wendell Pierce. Good get. And yes, Giancarlo Esposito is an in-demand actor and is so busy but really? Really. Can't record a few lines in a closet? Eh. Also, kinda hope Ivy had some time to grab some seeds or something since you know no plant life in the ship other than Frankette.
Lot of great bits and quotables in this episode. Ivy commenting on the Batcave (five seasons in and oh yeah, first time Ivy was in the Batcave in the show), the tiny fridge, and calling Batman a corporate schill was my favorite bit. Or Joker pretty much killing drones on auto-pilot as he goes on about signatures and producing weapons to almost Looney Tunes style. Lois realizing she left her purse in the car. Bruce wondering about his minor flaws or realizing he wasn't the problem at all. Lois spilling her soup. Lois and Joker dumping on Bruce throughout the episode was another favorite. Lex immediately flexes he has a bigger penny. Who they associate with Metropolis. The bottle deniers. Sharon being Sharon. "You're lucky you didn't hear Batman say that." Ha! Joker rationalizing why they should call Superman or musing Batman could take down the ship with a Batarang. "Dot, dot, dash."
The Bat-Radia was a nice grab from the comics. And the Superman wrist watch at last. Nice swath of name drops in DC and pop culture. Bane mentioned Fawcett City when he drank with Clayface. Clayface quoted from Richard III while he tries to bargain with the sentry drone. Harley's password was Riddler's site in The Batman. The bit about Thomas and Martha making sure Bruce was the only child made me think of Thomas Jr. from the World's Finest comics in the '70s, where they put him in an insane asylum. I'm not one hundred but the Luthor butler Nigel could have been nod to Nigel St. John from Lois & Clark.
99.9% hope is lost in the second-to-last episode? Shocker. But there's still the 0.1% hope of the Morse code reaching Superman in time, Frankette is still somewhere in that room probably running on an empty stomach hint hint, they might get Vril to finally do something especially with that final line of his, and well, Lex betraying Lena could still happen despite the reconciliation because it's Lex. They could easily kill off Lena and Lex any number of ways but shrinking and bottling them and leaving them in Vril's collection does have some attraction to it.
"Bottle Episode (But Not a 'Bottle Episode')" is an entertaining, action-packed, and hilarious precursor to the season five finale of Harley Quinn. All hope seems lost but don't let the sad piano end credits song fool you, remember when something seems to be going perfectly on this show, chaos reigns supreme instead.
Rating: 9.6 out of 10