Joker Returns in Harley Quinn… Sort Of

The sixth episode of DC Universe’s Harley Quinn dropped on the streaming service and featured the long-awaited flashback that shows how Harley met Joker and Poison Ivy. At the beginning of “All the Best Inmates Have Daddy Issues,” Harley spots a bartender that appears to be Joker, but his friendly demeanor and non-Joker face leaves Ivy skeptical. Joker seemingly died at end of the show’s first season, but Harley is convinced he’s back as a brand new man. In an attempt to convince Ivy that people can change, Harley shares the story of when she was first hired at Arkham Asylum to treat Joker.

In the flashback, Harley attempts to get through to Joker in the hopes of finding a bomb he’s planted in Gotham. While this didn’t show the two characters getting together, the first meeting did give a lot of insight into their relationship, including the fact that Joker was lying to Harley from the start. More importantly, it showed that a small act of kindness from Harley towards Ivy made the latter hate humans a little less. Back in the present-day, Harley argues that she changed Ivy back then in an attempt to prove her point. Ivy explains that she didn’t always hate people and that Harley only made her remember that they’re not all bad. This leaves them at a standstill on whether or not this happy-go-lucky version of Joker is being genuine or not, so they bring in Doctor Psycho to search his mind.

Turns out, everything this regular Joe Joker was saying was true, and that he really has transformed into a nice guy who loves his new girlfriend’s kids, and he doesn’t seem to remember anything that happened before his injuries at the end of season one. However, at the end of the episode, a funny text leads Joker to break out into his maniacal laugh, hinting that his change of lifestyle probably won’t last forever.

Recently, the series’ executive producers, Patrick Schumacker and Justin Halpern had a chat with ComicBook’s JK Schmidt about the current season and teased that this flashback episode could change everything for Harley, Ivy, and Joker.

“We also get to do a really cool flashback episode that’s a bit of an homage to Batman: The Animated Series, while also retelling and reframing Harley’s origin story with both the Joker and her original acquaintance with Ivy. And we turn that on its ear a little bit. There’s a big revelation that a lot of the feelings that Harley had for the Joker maybe shouldn’t have been. That maybe a lot of those were based on lies and I’ll leave it at that,” Schumacker shared.

Harley Quinn is currently streaming on DC Universe.