Gotham's Hottest Hotties

"Gotham's Hottest Hotties" is the first episode of the fourth season of Harley Quinn, and the thirty-eighth episode of the series overall. It was released on July 27, 2023, on Max.

This episode is preceded by a short recap of the events of the previous season by Poison Ivy.

Synopsis[]

Harley and Ivy struggle to find their footing in their respective roles in the Bat Family and the Legion of Doom.

Plot[]

In a cold open, Harley and Ivy each forget their lunch on their first day at new jobs and go to great lengths to deliver the other’s lunch, with Harley battling her way through the guards outside the Hall of Doom. At the same time, Ivy commits a robbery, thinking it would be "sexy" for Harley to be the one showing up to stop her.

After wishing each other good luck with their new respective jobs, Ivy arrives at the Hall of Doom for her first day as the L.O.D.'s new CEO. Lex Luthor is apathetic to her suggestions before he drops Ivy into the proverbial hornet’s nest: a conference room with some of the Legion's high-ranking (exclusively male) members, including Snowflame, Gorilla Grodd, Metallo and Man-Bat. The other Legion members dismiss Ivy’s authority in disbelief that Lex "bowed to the woke mob" by putting a woman in charge.

En route to the Batcave, Harley stops by a newsstand to kill some time so as not to be too early and picks out a tabloid about Gotham's hottest residents. While flipping through the magazine, she’s approached by Professor Pyg, a villain quite interested in the subject. Though Harley tells him she can't be seen with him due to his villain status. Later at the Batcave, Harley finds that the Bat Family doesn’t seek out criminals but reacts only when a crime is in progress, meanwhile, at work. Ivy keeps getting heckled and disrespected by her underlings.

During the mandatory hero-work-out, just as Harley pesters Nightwing over the fact that he is featured in Gotham’s hottest hotties tabloid for his impressive posterior, the Bat Fam is alerted of a sighted dead body. Robin is disappointed as he has to sit out this mission; he and Alfred leave to see Bruce during Blackgate Penitentiary's visitation hours. Once there, however, Bruce hasn’t made himself available to them. Alfred meets Bruce's "penal butler," Alvin, and a rivalry is born.

The corpse that Harley, Nightwing, and Batgirl inspect is a micro-celebrity who was live-streaming shortly before being mutilated. Batgirl observes the cuts are very surgical before another body is found elsewhere in the city.

Harley tries to peek at the crime-solving answer key at home by interrogating Ivy through sexual roleplay. Ivy catches on quickly and tenderly and says they should set domestic/professional boundaries since they work for rival organizations. Ivy adds that even if she could divulge evil insider information, she isn’t an insider because her subordinates keep shutting her down, which appalls Harley, offering to kill anyone who disrespects her. Ivy assures her she's got it handled, making Harley "horned up" for real, and they commence with real roleplay.

Continuing her search, Harley unsuccessfully calls villains in her contact list for hints about the mutilation case. Someone finally picks up when she calls King Shark, who then points out villains are unlikely to help her since she is on the side of good. King himself is at the doctor’s office with his wife, Tabitha, for an ultrasound. He tries to confine this fact to Harley, but the Bat Family calls her off. Meanwhile, King Shark is told Tabitha is pregnant with nine shark babies, making him realize he must get a job to support his growing family.

The next day at work, Ivy tries ingratiating herself with underlings by approving all their superficial, crazy plans, even Gorilla Grodd’s, to use a force field to trap "hot babes" and force them to date him.

Meanwhile, Batgirl and Harley interviewed Devora Macklewaithe, the latest victim missing her clavicle, and the woman on the cover of the hottest hotties tabloid. She was also live-streaming, which Batgirl links with their other victim. Harley recalls Professor Pyg marveling at Debora's clavicle and suspects him. To confirm her suspicion, Harley hatches a plan that needs bait: Nightwing's ass.

Nora Freeze
How are you?
Poison Ivy
You know, just reaching a career low, enabling overgrown goon babies to destroy the world.
Nora Freeze
You know, it's customary to just say "I'm good".
Poison Ivy
Oh, you get to say a long thing and I don't?
Nora Freeze
Hey, I don't make the rules.

Ivy finds out Bane used explosives she approved to haphazardly blow up an oil rig (Ivy’s version of the oil rig plan was to force the executives to drink the oil, but Bane let the oil pollute Gotham Harbor). In the executive women’s restroom, a frustrated Ivy meets Nora Freeze, who comes to the Legion to pick up her widower’s benefits. Ivy watches Nora tell off Snowflame (who uses this bathroom because there hasn't been a female executive occupying it till now). Nora then gives Ivy a pep-talk: you don't have to heed the underlings' opinions when you're the boss. Impressed by how much of a "bulldozer" Nora is, Ivy takes her on as an assistant.

Harley stages a sexy photo shoot for Nightwing, much to his displeasure because she is taking photos and live-streaming the event. As she predicted, Pyg crashes the shoot and uses a temporary blackout to abduct Nightwing, forcing Harley, Batgirl, and Robin to give chase.

With Nora’s support, Ivy shows force against the other Legion bigwigs. She incinerates all their planning papers, declaring her agenda of "socially conscious evil" to be a top priority. Claiming they will not stand for this, some members begin attacking her, and Ivy defeats them each with a frenzy of vines. Only Bane, who showed up late, is spared. Ivy commands him to undo his oil rig pollution, which he grumpily accepts.

The Bat Fam finds Pyg about to remove Nightwing’s glutes for his chimeric Dollatron collection. Still, Harley intervenes and bashes in Pyg’s skull, killing him, much to Batgirl and Nightwing's horror (but Damian’s bemusement).

❝ We've hit the trigger. Fuel up the jet. I'm going to Gotham. ❞

— The Mysterious woman

Elsewhere, a mysterious woman watches the news, which informs her that while Ivy's new direction for the LOD has caused LexCorp's stocks to soar, Wayne Enterprises stock prices are plummeting. She picks up her phone and prepares to head for Gotham.

Cast and Characters[]

Trivia[]

Following in the season 3 premiere's footsteps, this episode was released at the same time as the second and third episode of the season.
This is the series' first episode to be released on Max.
Ivy's recap at the start of the episode includes clips from "It's a Swamp Thing", "Joker: The Killing Vote", "Climax at Jazzapajizza" and "The Horse and the Sparrow".
Ivy references American businesswoman and philanthropist Sheryl Sandberg, asking Frank if Harley ended up killing her last year in Jackson Hole, a reference to her wedding there to Tom Bernthal.
- She also references the social media platform TikTok saying "I'm gonna spend the next four hours numbing my brain with idiotic lean-in TikTok", a reference to Sandberg's 2015 book Lean In.
Ivy refers to Metallo as a "tin-cunt" without being censored, but when Doctor Psycho used that word in the episode "So You Need a Crew?" it was repeatedly censored using a beep-sound.
Nightwing's picture in the magazine focuses on his gluten. Possibly a nod to DC Abridged, where it was joked he won a contest for best superhero ass.

Goof/error[]

When Harley Quinn's footstep pattern appears within the bottom of her shoes, one scene appears normal, but the rest of the scenes are reversed from how they are usually depicted, with the black footstep with a red star appearing on the bottom of her black shoe instead of her red shoe, and the red footstep with a black diamond appears on the bottom of her red shoe instead of her black shoe.