WARNING: This article contains major spoilers to "Grinning from Ear to Ear," the latest episode of Batwoman.
Meet the Joker's "daughter," Duela Dent.
In "Grinning from Ear to Ear," the latest episode of Batwoman, Duela lashed out at the social media influencers of Gotham City. As Kate Kane and Luke Fox dug up information her, they discovered a troubled girl with a tendency to slash faces.
The episode opened with a flashback to Duela in 2011, just before she started her villainous journey. As she applied makeup in the mirror, she couldn't stop seeing herself with an exaggerated frown. Frustrated, she punched the mirror, with the shards clattering into the sink. She pried one off the wall and used it to cut the sides of her mouth, giving her permanent "smile" scars -- much like the ones the Joker has in 2008's The Dark Knight.
In the years that followed, Duela's mother took her Dr. Ethan Campbell, who is really Alice's abductor Dr. August Cartwright. He used plastic surgery to remove Duela's scars. When confronted by Sophie, he recalled her as "a teenage girl... with a psychiatric rap sheet as long as my arm," with "the worst self-inflicted scars I've ever seen."
As Team Batwoman researched Duella, Luke Fox discovered she was "daughter of Evelyn, father unknown. Her uncle Harvey is a beloved ADA" -- Harvey being the future Two-Face, of course. "She was just released from a mental health institution," he added. They discovered she lashed out in retaliation against her mother, who forced her to remove her scars, and some women who have also received plastic surgery.
Duela was created by Bob Rozakis in 1976's Batman Family #6. Over the years, she has claimed to be the daughter of a few famous Batman villains: Catwoman, Scarecrow, Riddler, Penguin and -- naturally -- the Joker. In all her various iterations, she has adopted the Joker's love of whimsical weaponry, like bullet-firing lipstick cases. Some versions even took up the name Harlequin.
In the New 52, Duela wasn't biologically related to Joker, but she wanted to be. She even went so far as to inject herself with vials of his blood to make her feel as though they were actually related. She also convinced Dollmaker to sew the skin of Joker's face onto her own. She met the opposite fate in Batwoman, where Alice skinned her face and used it to disguise herself as Duela in order to attack Cartwright.
Created by Caroline Dries and developed by Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television, Batwoman stars Ruby Rose, Rachel Skarsten, Meagan Tandy, Camrus Johnson, Dougray Scott, Elizabeth Anweis and Nicole Kang. The series airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.