Potato-Based Cloning Incident

"Potato-Based Cloning Incident" is the ninth episode of the fourth season of Harley Quinn, and the forty-sixth episode overall. It was released on September 7, 2023.

Synopsis[]

Ivy competes in a celebrity golf tournament. Harley learns a dark truth about herself … from herself.

Plot[]

The episode opens with Harley and Ivy in Catwoman's Apartment brainstorming their next move after returning to Gotham to find it in shambles, thanks to Lex Luthor's Earth Saver ray thickening the ozone layer. Suddenly another version of Harley walks in, causing Harley to start freaking out until Ivy confirms she isn’t a hallucination as she sees her too. The other Harley leaps out of the window while the original Harley follows her. Once outside, Our Harley asks for some context. She learns that the other Harley is a clone, made accidentally from the original Harley's hair and Gordon's baked potato in the cloning machine/microwave in the Legion of Doom employee break room. Thus, Clone Harley is mostly Harley DNA but also a smidgen of potato and has the butter smell to prove it.

Meanwhile, Ivy goes to LexCorp and confronts Lex while he is in a tanning booth. He admits he did mean to weaken Superman by thickening the ozone and blocking out the sun and plans to offer to take anyone of note who's suffering from no sunlight to the moon. Ivy tries to attack him with her plant powers but is depleted without the sun. Before departing, Lex vows to take over the Legion of Doom again as the rightful CEO, although insisting "It’s nothing personal".

In the streets of Gotham, the two Harleys share ice cream while the clone brings the original up to speed while she was MIA; Clone Harley has been filling in for Harley, as well as attended a CPR class with Batgirl and Flash, a well-known jokester. After beating down a passerby for destroying her ice cream, Clone Harley joins Harley in assisting Ivy. The trio are seen scaling the LexCorp building as Ivy is already exhausted by the two Harleys' overabundance of vim and vigor. Suddenly, three of Lex's goons cut their ropes, sending Ivy and the two Harleys flying and landing in a bush on the ground. Clone Harley then suggest that since Ivy is on LexCorp's board of directors, she can persuade the other board members to vote out Lex as CEO. Ivy thinks that it is a great plan and kisses her, not realizing it is the clone she is talking to, much to Clone Harley's delight.

Ivy sets out to convince the board (which includes Riddler and Clock King) to meet for a vote. Back at the Hall of Doom Ivy is with Nora and Talia, the latter of which informs her she needs one more vote to beat Lex. The big gun she needs, Clegg, makes his one public appearance every year at the Gotham celebrity golf tournament. Although she hates the golf event on principle, Ivy sets out to attend in order to win him over.

Back at the apartment, Clone Harley has shown to have mastered crimefighting, so Harley asks her to find out who killed Nightwing because of how much it means to Batgirl to find the culprit. It was then that Clone Harley casually reveals that Harley was the one who killed Nightwing while she was sleepwalking. To confirm this, a horrified Harley goes to Doctor Psycho who is ready for Harley honoring her promise about appearing on his show. She asks Psycho to look into her memories before they begin and the two journey to the night of Nightwing's death. At the cabin in the mountains, they watch as Nightwing shows up and starts accusing Harley of kidnaping Batgirl. A zonked-out Harley offers him another friendship bracelet, but he slaps it out of her hand and claims she is still the same "vapid carb obsessed" villain. Harley then uses the bracelet to strangle Nightwing to death. After leaving Harley's mind, Psycho is psyched to record his latest episode with Harley, stating it will be even more popular than his Joker/Batgirl episode. However, Harley knocks him unconscious before the recording can begin.

Meanwhile, Ivy takes up golfing at Gotham's celeb golf tournament to impress Clegg. Unfortunately, Lex is also there, foiling Ivy every step of the way. Ivy turns up the charm, and Clegg seems to warm to her. She proves to be a quick study on the links as she gets a hole-in-one during the golf tournament while Clegg cheers her on and Lex fumes in the background. Unfortunately, Ivy takes it too far while taunting Lex by hitting a ball so hard that it kills Clegg, smashing through his skull and knocking out an eyeball. Around this time Harley calls her and tells her the terrible truth she had learned. They bond over their shared mistakes and Harley gets an idea on how to keep Psycho quiet.

Harley then calls Flash and convinces him to turn back time 5 minutes, claiming it is for a prank against Psycho. He agrees and she jumps on his back as he runs on his cosmic treadmill. After the Flash turns back time, Ivy tries to prevent Cleggs death. However, his life isn't spared, and the circumstances of his death are changed; instead of killing Clegg with a golf ball, Ivy accidentally sends a club flying through his butthole and out of his mouth. Tawny Young films a segment on Clegg's untimely demise. This spells doom for Ivy because, without his vote, she might be unable to oust Lex as CEO. Just then Bane, who also attended the event, gets a text from Clayface saying it's time to uphold his end of the bargain from their previous agreement. Clayface orders Bane to head-butt Ivy on camera and to throw his whole "bussy" into it. So, Bane does as he's bid, head-butting Poison Ivy in front of Tawny Young and Gotham.

Meanwhile, Clone Harley handcuffs Harley, bent on punishing her for killing Nightwing. It is then revealed that Clone Harley has two other people tied up in the Batmobile for committing very minor crimes. Seeing her duplicate is out of control Harley breaks free and incapacitates her. Meanwhile, at LexCorp, the voting for Lex's ousting commences resulting in tie, so it seems Lex is there to stay. Just then Clegg’s widow, Devora Macklewaithe, shows up to take her late husband's place on the board. While Ivy did accidentally kill Clegg, Ivy's girlfriend Harley did rescue her clavicle. Therefore, she votes in favor of Ivy. After Ivy turns off the laser, she watches Lex fly to his moon base and admits to herself that this doesn't feel like a victory.

Batgirl flashes the Bat Signal, summoning Harley. She brings Batgirl coffee, saying it is time for a serious talk. Just then Clone Harley, who broke free, shows up and resumes fighting. To figure out who is who Batgirl says the world isn't always black in white and Clone Harley strongly disagrees. Batgirl launches a Batarang at Clone Harley, nicking her in the arm. This distraction allows Harley to pull her down by the pigtails and kisses her, remarking that she knew she was a good kisser before she sends Clone Harley flying over the building ledge. Clone Harley lands on the ground with a splat. All that remains of her is a puddle of mashed potatoes (Implying she was a lot more than 5% potato as she claimed). As a group of Gothamites start shoveling the potatoes into their mouths, Harley pins the blame on Nightwing's murder on her clone and Batgirl believes her. Harley reveals she intends to quit the Bat Family as she doesn’t feel like she's the hero she wanted to be. Suddenly, a gunshot rings in the air. We see a wound form on Batgirl's stomach, which bleeds profusely. Joker reveals himself in the doorway as the person who pulled the trigger. We see him standing in the shadows and laughing as he retreats. Harley holds Batgirl in her arms as she cries to the heavens.

Cast and Characters[]

Main Cast[]

Kaley Cuoco as Harley Quinn, Clone Harley
Lake Bell as Poison Ivy
Briana Cuoco as Batgirl
Giancarlo Esposito as Lex Luthor
Harvey Guillén as Nightwing
Tony Hale as Dr. Psycho, Businessman
Christopher Meloni as Jim Gordon
Alan Tudyk as The Joker

Guest Cast[]

James Adomian as Bane, Sad Dad
Tisha Campbell as Tawny Young, Sassy Nun
Aline Elasmar as Talia al Ghul, Devora Macklewaithe
Ben Levin as Captain Cold
Zeno Robinson as The Flash
Gregg Turkington as Clegg

Cameos[]

Trivia[]

Due to an apocalypse in Gotham City, most of the episode appears in sepia tone and grayscale mixed rather than full color, although a few flashback scenes are still in full color.
Clone Harley makes a reference to Logan Roy from the tv series Succession.
The nun arrested by Clone Harley references the reality series Keeping Up with the Kardashians, claiming to torrenting the show in order to not contribute to the Kardashians empire.
Batgirl being shot in the stomach by the Joker is a reference to the scene from the classic 1988 comic Batman: The Killing Joke wherein the Joker shot Barbara Gordon (by then having retired from being Batgirl) in the stomach, resulting in the character being rendered paralyzed from the waist down, eventually taking up the identity of Oracle in future stories.
Harley breaking a flowerpot with her bat and shouting "You wanna dance, baby? Let's f-ing dance!" resembles this scene in the 1989 film Batman where Bruce Wayne (portrayed by Michael Keaton) breaks a vase with a fire poker and shouts "You wanna get nuts? C'mon! Let's get nuts!" combined with this scene from the 2017 film "Batman and Harley Quinn" where Batman says "Let's dance" to describe an impending fight.
Clone Harley severely punishing people for minor crimes is similar to the Joker's actions in the episode "The Laughing Bat" from the 2004 TV series The Batman.
Harley screaming as she holds Batgirl after Joker shot her, is similar to the final scene from "Devil's Snare".