WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the Harley Quinn Season 2 premiere, streaming now on DC Universe.
Harley Quinn has never shied away from making major power moves to shift the dynamic in Gotham. After ruining the bar mitzvah of the Penguin's nephew in the first season, Harley takes on the classic Batman foe once again in the Season 2 premiere. However, this time she defeats him ... for good.
The first season of the critically acclaimed animated series subverted DC fans' expectations right away by dramatically differentiating characters and storylines from their previous depictions, from making Bane delightfully docile to portraying Commissioner Gordon as realistically troubled. So, killing off key characters only makes sense for a show that does whatever it wants.
Season 2's opener follows Harley and her gang after Gotham is deemed too far gone to save and ejected from the United States. The ensuing anarchy leads Harley to liberate all henchmen, who she instructs to follow her lead and be their own supervillains. The Penguin, in response, motivates the villains to get their henchmen back in line.
Alongside Bane, Mr. Freeze, the Riddler and Two-Face, the Penguin heads a new villainous organization: the Injustice League. The post-Legion of Doom organization invites Harley to a meeting to discuss their takeover of New Gotham. When Harley is less than pleased by their plans, Mr. Freeze resorts to doing what he does best: freezing a disgruntled Harley Quinn into a giant ice block.
This frozen slab of Harley ends up on display at Penguin's casino. The beginning of Penguin's end is marked by Harley's gang moving in to save their leader. After she thaws out, Harley draws first blood by gruesomely biting the Penguin's nose off. The two engage in an epic brawl that ends with Harley delivering the final blow, shoving her broken bat into the disoriented Penguin's neck and leaving him to bleed out on his own casino's floor.
Penguin's death isn't the first classic supervillain the series eliminates. In Season 1, Scarecrow, a major player from the Legion of Doom, perishes. In Season 1's finisher, "The Final Joke," Joker feels he can't celebrate his villainous victory without the presence of Harley. Scarecrow attempts to lift his spirits by ripping off a captured Batman's cowl to reveal his true identity, thinking it was something Harley would have done. But Joker becomes absolutely enraged as he believes knowing Batman's identity ruins the fun. In his fit of anger, Joker throws acid at Scarecrow's face, which melts his flesh down to his bones before his guts explode everywhere.
The series' leads are not necessarily safe either. The first season saw Poison Ivy (temporarily) bite the dust. The eco-terrorist faced her death in the final episode of Season 1 when Joker shot a flagpole into the heart of a giant-sized Poison Ivy. The heartbreaking moment occurred only minutes after her boyfriend, Kite-Man, proposed. The part-plant villainess was thankfully brought back to life by the "power of nature," essentially regrowing herself from the ground of her burial site.
Although Harley's best friend was resurrected on the animated series, it is highly unlikely that Oswald Cobblepot will be. Since the mobster is definitely not part-plant, his gruesome final moments should mark his exit from the series. The death of Penguin so early in the second season sets the tone for further brutality and surprises. In fact, audiences may want to start speculating about who else may be meeting their maker in the episodes to come.
Just because Penguin may be down and out on Harley Quinn, doesn't mean fans won't be seeing The Gentleman of Crime again soon. Outside of potential flashbacks in the animated series, in the upcoming DCEU movie, The Batman, Colin Farrell will play the villain in the summer of 2021.
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.