Episode 4 Review
Kite Man: Hell Yeah!
Synopsis: While decorating the apartment, Kite Man finally learns about Golden Glider's childhood, while Bane accidentally time travels to the 1980s.
"Portal Potty, Hell Yeah!" juxtaposes a comedic riff on the time traveling antics of Hot Tub Time Machine with a tragic revelation about Golden Glider's past. Yes, it's a heavier than usual episode with a premise that's all too familiar to fans of Harley Quinn; time travel and shitty parents, but flushes itself into new territory by causing a permanent change to the timeline that leads to a new ongoing storyline that may or may not heal Glider's trauma and lead to a Big Bad.
DC fans would not be terribly shocked that Golden Glider (and Captain Cold) had awful parents but the Kite Man series takes it up a notch by adding in an equally bad mother in Rebecca Chen. The other side of this adds a new layer to the joint decision to buy Noonan's at the start of the series. Previously, we knew Glider has a superpower that she can't control in which she astral projects and goes on a murder spree slicing and melting any and everyone in the immediate vicinity of her. But this week's revelation was she first manifested this power when she was five years old watching her drunk parents argue and fight in Noonan's on April 29, 1986. And she killed them by accident. It was a smart move to save this slice of back story for a later episode rather than in the premiere and allow it to organically happen. What was supposed to be a milestone in Kite Man and Golden Glider's relationship: moving in together into the apartment above the bar, turns into another couples' quarrel. Kite Man innocently notices Golden Glider doesn't have any old photos from her childhood up in the wall and she refuses to talk about it... instead obsessing about a new start, making new memories, and living in the present. But Kite Man, from a place of love and caring, just wants to help with their relationship and goes behind her back to try and alter the timeline with Bane for her benefit, to essentially erase her trauma but on the other hand robbing Glider of any say in the matter. They manage to prevent Rebecca's death but as Noonan warns, changing the past always has consequences. And without a doubt, we will see this play out this season.
Long time fans of the Harley Quinn animated series may notice this episode is a little similar to Harley and Ivy going to the future and finding out they have a daughter. However, like that daughter, Princess Ladyfingers, Rebecca seems cool at first but she also later turns out to not be a nice person at all - in this case, abandoning her children to go live the life she wanted to. Goes without saying but I don't think that life was being gassed in a cage. In that final scene, it looks like Rebecca is wearing a top with the Villigan's logo. It's intriguing this episode starts and ends on Villigan's. It starts with a radio ad for a Villigan's law firm and ends on this weird scene. Suffice to say, we'll be seeing Villigan's again and it will intersect with Golden Glider's new arc. One other interesting caveat is it's looking like Villigan's is another very diversified corporation like Lexcorp or recently in Harley Quinn season four, Clegg. And with Judith Light being cast as a new character named Helen Villigan, it feels like we know who this season's big bad is going to be. But there's a lot of holes left to be filled.
Also in this episode, Bane's quest for love is revisited. In Harley Quinn, he had season-long crush on Nora that was one-sided and of course, that Valentine's Day special. Flushed to 1986, Bane is smitten with Rebecca Chen, who surprise has no interest in him at all. The irony is it seems he had a shot at one of the speaking cameos of the week, Insect Queen, but he didn't pull the trigger. His search for love continues. Bane's Back to The Future line was hilarious and a nice, final comment on the time travel trope. It was also great situational comedy that even Kite Man felt awkward learning Bane considers him his best friend. While the segment in which Bane is offended by how inappropriate and dangerous the 1980's was is objectively hilarious but making fun that era is low hanging fruit. It was refreshing for this episode to show Bane's intelligence in making a note in the wall so that Kite Man and Golden Glider know about his predicament. Although that does get balanced out with his quick decision to mess with the timeline for his own potential benefit. Overall, Bane continues to be such an asset to both series.
On a smaller scale compared to Glider and Bane, we're slowly continuing to learn even more about Sean Noonan. He's not just some cranky bar owner. He has some medic skills. He's killed competitors to Noonan's with his secret armory. And now... he's had a time traveling toilet in his former apartment. Also loved that subtle joke that he looked exactly the same in 1986 as he does in the present. It runs parallel to how Poison Ivy's former landlord Sy Borgman turned out to be a former CIA cleaner but in this case, they're going even more hard and random to much success.
As for the cameos of the week. In 1986 Noonan's, there are the debuts of Maxima, Magpie, Insect Queen in the canon. There are also younger versions of the Dubelz brothers, Riddler, Scarecrow, and Penguin. Scarecrow even sports a look based on the incarnation seen on the classic Superfriends series The deep cut cameo is Japanese-American-water-manipulating-villain-turned-hero Tsunami. In tying to the theme, she is a 1980s debut in the comics.
On the surface, 1986 was a very specific pick and that would place Glider as 43 in the present. However, Harley Quinn premiered in 2019 but due to some props in season one and two, and the gaps of time or lack of between seasons intimate that each season does not mean one year. So Kite Man doesn't take place in 2024. Maybe a few years back. So... she and Kite Man are in their 30s like Ivy and Harley. And there was a bit of an anachronism when Insect Queen hits on Bane. She mentions she is more of a Predator fan than an Alien on. The first Predator movie didn't come out until 1987. The only nitpick I had was not Captain Cold being recast like most of the returning guest starts but how different ly he's portrayed as more of a jerk and loser whereas on Harley Quinn, he was bit more suave and easygoing. Now, one could argue that on Harley Quinn that was just a facade that he put on while he was "on the job" with the Legion of Doom but then 8 months later in-universe, things have gone a little downhill for Cold and what we see this week on Kite Man, is the real Leonard Snart?
Kite Man: Hell Yeah! delivers another solid episode in "Portal Potty, Hell Yeah!". Rather than string along Golden Glider's issue with her powers all season, the show drops us several decades into the past and reveals the truth behind her fears. While it is a more serious element in work place comedy, the revelations come at the right time to propel the show's serial nature towards an intersection of story arcs where a Big Bad seems to be perched and ready to crush the little dive bar that could. But there will be hilarious jokes along the way.
Rating: 9 out of 10