WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the Harley Quinn Season 2, Episode 6, "All the Best Inmates Have Daddy Issues," now streaming on DC Universe.
Harley Quinn's second season has been all about her full-blown emancipation from the Joker and total empowerment as she tries to take the new New Gotham back from the Injustice League. She's killed Penguin, taken down Riddler and in a tragic episode, she oversaw the demise of Mr. Freeze.
However, in "All the Best Inmates Have Daddy Issues," when she and Poison Ivy encounter a living and sane Joker after they thought he died, they decide to take action to see if he's truly left his blood-soaked days behind. Unfortunately, after messing with the amnesiac's mind, they pave the way for the most sadistic version of the killer to return.
When his empire literally fell on him at the end of Season 1, many thought that was the end of the Clown Prince of Crime. Little did fans know that he'd show up at a random bar as the bartender, but as someone goofy and gentle. Harley recognizes him instantly, though, and when Ivy uses her phone to add face paint, it really is the Joker.
As he serves them, their subtle interrogation reveals he's actually step-dad to a couple of kids and living happily ever after. Fortunately, he can't remember anything from his murderous past and all he does is service patrons while cracking really cheesy jokes. The duo wonder if it's an act he's deeply immersed in, or maybe that he's brainwashed. But this normalized Joker appears to be the real deal, which leads the ladies to discuss if people can really attain redemption and truly change.
They ponder if anyone is really evil and if people like Joker shed the demons of their past. Most importantly, Harley's wondering if he deserves forgiveness and a chance at happiness now that he's a blank slate mentally. The episode also concludes Dr. Psycho coming into the toilet while Joker is in there probing his mind and connecting the women to his visions. They don't see any chaos from the Joker's sordid history, it's just him and his kids. He's really been wiped clean but when they leave, his mind starts to crack, with bits and pieces of the old Joker coming back. It's a deluge of memories he can't process just yet but as he briefly goes insane before going back to normal, it's easy to tell the Joker will return meaner and nastier than ever.
This dark, emotional arc has awakened the monster that was sleeping within and there'll be severe ramifications to come from this. He'll be seeking revenge and there's also the chance the dark recesses of his mind could now be more damaged than ever. As so many telepathic arcs have shown fans over the years, whether it's in Justice League or X-Men comics, you don't mess with people's minds, especially if psychological walls have been put up. What makes it worse is once he realizes what happened and breaks bad again, the Joker could use his family to punish his ex's crew.
DC Universe's Harley Quinn stars Kaley Cuoco, Lake Bell, Diedrich Bader, Alan Tudyk, Rahul Kohli, Christopher Meloni, Tony Hale, Ron Funches, Wanda Sykes, Natalie Morales, Jim Rash, Giancarlo Esposito, Jason Alexander and J.B. Smoove. New episodes air on Fridays.