Episode 5 Review
Kite Man: Hell Yeah!
Synopsis: As Kite Man, Golden Glider and Bane attempt a rescue at The Pit, Malice juggles two unexpected visitors: her boyfriend and a health inspector.
"Prison Break, Hell Yeah!" is a well-paced episode with an entertaining set of A and B stories and a lot of jokes that land and some elements that are enriched if you've been watching since the past seasons of the Harley Quinn series. This season has not lagged or milked an arc for too long and keeps a tight storyline moving at a manageable jog, a strength that has carried over from Harley Quinn (but not totally innocent of not dragging things along) and symptomatic of planning a season of 10 episodes and not 26. What could have been a long slog in the search for Golden Glider's mother that began last week was solved in this episode this week but there are still some mysteries left to reveal as we head past the halfway point of the season.
The teaser at the end of last week's "Portal Potty, Hell Yeah!" is quickly expanded on this week. Rebecca Chen was one of the prisoners in the original Pit and that green gas was a tool used to make the prisoners compliant. From there, we have a greater reveal that even Bane's childhood home is a victim of corporate America and capitalism. It's now owned by the same person behind Villigan's, Helen Villigan, an original character created for the show and voiced by Judith Light. The Harley Quinn series doesn't pull it's punches with rich CEOs, if season four is any indication, and that is another carry over onto this show. The not-so-veiled and on point jabs at Amazon like the less than savory work conditions, the service/brand being called Villigan Crime as a stand-in for Amazon Prime, the terrible delivery of a package, the data-driven side of the company, and the often packed instructions that are completely useless.
Helen, herself, is not unlike the types we've seen in animation before like Mom on Futurama – a sweet, doting old lady in public, a cold evil villain in private. Kite Man is definitely an underdog series, and the leads not have not one, not two, but three big guns in the mix – this could be another explosive finale that will wreck a lot of Gotham City once again. We still have Lex Luthor off-screen making plans for the Anti-Life Equation, Darkseid searching for its location on Earth, and now Helen, in search of some device that will streamline her business. Though Kite Man would probably make some kind of three-way joke about having this many big bads.
Once again, it was great to see more Bane and learn more about Bane's past. Based on the past hints on the Harley series, this version of Bane had origins similar to the Bane in Nolan's Dark Knight Rises. We saw Bane create his own version of the Pit in season 2 of Harley Quinn and quoting certain lines from the movie. This week, we visit the original Pit. And in an oddly relatable way, it's not the same. Sort of like returning to the old neighborhood and the stores you went to as a child are long gone and replaced with lamer stores. For the Pit, it is revealed the League of Shadows sold it off to Helen Villigan who turned into a warehouse depot for her Amazon-esque business. While it's not addressed in this episode, with season four still fresh on the mind – you could totally imagine Talia selling the Pit to a corporation. Then in a similar vein, Bane's friends aren't like he remembered though not in a time has changed them but more constant exposure to mind-altering gas kind of a way and Bane is forced to make a bloody break from this past. Also, a great callback to the pilot when in mid-battle Kite Man pitches the same idea Bane pitched to Lex in the pilot and Bane is just loving it. The bromance continues.
In the B-plot, Malice's arc continues as she continues to be humbled and show more feelings to her chagrin. The on-again-off-again boyfriend nor his evil nature no longer is a turn on to her and she finds out he only cared about her wealth, thus without out he's gone. Moreso, she stops Jeremy short of murdering Sean Noonan after he maims Steve and decapitates the still-dead Joe as well as Queen of Fables. Where is this all leading? Well, one could speculate it will all culminate in Malice choosing sides in the finale: her godfather Darkseid and having her wealth and status reinstated or stay with her dive bar job and "work friends"?
This week was another interesting and unpredictable swatch of guest villains from the DC Universe. On the Villigans Air plane, there is a cameo of Egghead behind Kite Man and Golden Glider. If you've watched Harley Quinn, in season 2, there was a blink-and-miss nod to Egghead in the "Catwoman" episode among Doctor Trap's collection, an egg. Another cameo from season 2 in the plane is Anarky, who was one of Bane's captives in his version of The Pit. The notable guest appearance was the trio of Zombie, Trogg, and Bird who were Bane's crew back when he first appeared in the comics. The unexpected guest of the week was Jeremy Karne, who debuted in a Shadowpact comic in the early 2000s and his backstory of being so vile not even Hell wants him is adapted. You just never know who will show up.
Katie Rich, the writer of this episode, no doubt is the source of the variety of jokes and sick burns this week. My favorites include Malice's Kohl's/TJ Maxx burn, Malice invoking Mariah Carey rules, her putting the bag over Sixpack, Golden Glider referencing both Michael Myers, passing off Diet Pepsi as Diet Coke being a health violation, the reason why Captain Cold can't fly on planes (and the delivery of that reason), Kite Man and Glider easily descending The Pit, and a Bruce Forsyth mention. The jab at Hardee's was pretty great, too. Richard Kind was a great get for this week's guest cast and a perfect match for his health inspector character. Totally on brand in the realm of the canon's humor that an immortal finds the most pragmatic thing to do is to get a steady government job.
While the question of where Rebecca was being held and when will they save her is resolved quite handily, that story arc isn't completely in the can yet. We don't yet know what crime was so vile that she would be in an ancient prison formerly run by assassins. Plus, the real meat of the drama is yet to come. Will Rebecca stick around? Will she and Golden Glider bond and have a real relationship? The last word of the episode doesn't inspire any confidence with either question... but then again Frasier told the Cheers cast his dad was dead and turned out he wasn't, and things turned out well by the end of his spin-off.
Rating: 9 out of 10