Sharon Frances Quinzel is a minor antagonist of the Harley Quinn animated series. She is Harley Quinn's alcoholic mother and the wife of Nick Quinzel.
Appearance[]
Sharon is a thin woman in her late forties to possibly late fifties (if she got pregnant with Harley at 18 + Harley's age 26, you get a minimum age of 44). She is attractive for her age and has been shown to have changed radically over the years in flashbacks, going from a Peggy Bundy lookalike to much more overweight to becoming even more slender than before she gained the weight. Her hair color has changed from chestnut to auburn and red, probably due to dye jobs. Although rather thin like Harley, her frame seems strong for a woman her size and age.
Biography[]
Background[]
Sharon married Nicholas Quinzel at an unknown age. They had two children, a daughter named Harleen and a son named Barry. Sharon always wanted Harleen to marry a doctor and was not satisfied with her becoming one. At some point in time, Barry died, and Nicholas was imprisoned for nearly murdering an Irishman.
Sharon became a pariah in her neighborhood after her daughter became Harley Quinn due to having a supervillain for a daughter. At some point, Harley broke contact with her for three years. During this period, Nicholas was released, and they got back together. When they learned that a million-dollar bounty had been placed on Harley, Nick suggested killing their daughter to obtain the money. Sharon agrees to allow Nick to do this because she is disappointed in Harley for becoming a supervillain and not marrying a doctor.
Season 1[]
Sharen was first seen inside Harley's mind during "Being Harley Quinn," when she could be seen in the background in a family portrait in Harley's "museum of memories." Later, she was seen in one of Harley's repressed memories of witnessing Nick being beaten by the mob while Sharon just drank wine and ignored Harley's questions.
Sharon made her full debut in "Bensonhurst" when Harley decided to return home after being abandoned by her crew". Harley was taken in with open arms, and Harley apologized for not keeping in touch. However, Harley still shrugged off Sharon's suggestion that she become a psychiatrist again. She became bothered that Sharon kept her second-place trophy from when she was a gymnast after she only lost due to Nick forcing her to mess up to win a bet. Harley expressed how glad she was that Nick was in prison, only to find that he had been released and got back together with Sharon. Harley constantly complained about Nick at dinner, rebuffing Sharon's suggestion that she marry a Jewish doctor. However, Nick called for civility for Grandma Quinzel's sake. However, shortly after Grandma Quinzel explained that she had been diagnosed with brain cancer, she was shot through the head by an assassin.
Harley closed the blinds and had everyone lay still, painted with blood, thereby forcing the assassin to enter the house and overpower him. Nick shot him in the head and claimed that the assassin was from the mob and was trying to kill him over a loan, so he and Harley left to deal with the situation. They returned, having made amends, and Sharon rejoiced and exclaimed that Nick had changed for the better. However, Grandpa Quinzel then arrived at the house, only for his chest to explode in another shatter of gore from a shotgun blast. Harley then killed yet another assassin and angrily declared that she would keep her family safe, only to be shot by Nick in the stomach. He revealed that he had tipped off an assassin to kill Harley so that he could collect a finder's fee from the $1 million. As Harley reached for a knife, Sharon took it away to prevent it from grabbing it. Sharon said that she only wanted "what every Jewish mother wants, for you to marry a doctor".
Sharon said that she tries so hard to change Harley’s life in the most passive-aggressive way she can and is angry that the only thanks she gets are “yelling and fighting. At Harley's insistence that she was her daughter and deserved her love, Sharon said that being their daughter made them into pariahs wherever they went due to her being a criminal. Nick insisted that Harley was just like her, betraying her as she had betrayed her crew. Although Harley said they left her and not the other way around, Sharon said it was because she was "sucking face with that goyische clown" and told her she had a bad taste in men. Harley fired back that she learned it from her, only for Nick to throw her through a closet door and attempt to strangle her, at which point Harley pulled a knife on him. Backpedaling, Nick and Sharon then begged for mercy and said that “family doesn’t kill each other”, but Harley disavowed them, saying they weren’t worth killing, and stumbled out of the house.
Season 5[]
"Family Feud"[]
- Main article: Family Feud
Nick contacts Harley to inform her that her mother is dead and needs to return home immediately. However, when Harley returns home, she finds Sharon bathing in the bathtub.
After Nick kidnaps Harley to keep her away from Metropolis and Ivy, he tells Harley that he intends to sell her organs and that Sharon has no part in it.
Sharon later attended Nick's funeral, where she conceded Nick's flaws, but he was still family. She also follows Harley to regroup with Ivy and take down Lena, who was responsible for Nick's death.
She follows Harley back to her condo, where she pours herself a bottle of wine and compliments Ivy on her skin color. Later, as Ivy reads through Lena's journal, Sharon confesses her love for Lex. When it's decided that they'll use Lex to get back at Lena, Sharon references the show OZ and asks if Lex is anything like that now, which grosses out Harley and Ivy.
Afterward, she annoys Harley and Ivy even more as the two plan to free Lex from Blackgate Penitentiary. Soon after breaking Lex out of prison, she sits in the backseat with him, smothering him with her kisses. Soon, she learns that Lena has bottled up Metropolis with Ivy and Harley.
"Bottle Episode"[]
- Main article: Bottle Episode
Ivy, Harley, and Sharon discover that Lena has successfully bottled up Metropolis, causing Harley to rage-smash a nearby car. Sharon interjects herself into Harley and Ivy's heart-to-heart, where Harley, Ivy, and Sharon plan to stop Lena. Figuring out a way onto Lena's ship, Sharon remarks that the ship must have an advanced cloaking device, and they'll need someone to help circumvent it. Harley suggests she knows who.
Afterward, Sharon follows Harley to the Batcave while helping Ivy drag the unconscious Lex inside. Harley then contacts Bruce and explains that he and Batman are two different people and that Batman is on Bruce's payroll.
Riding in the Batplane to the Skull Ship with Harley, Ivy, and Lex, Sharon gets into a spat with her daughter about how she could have been a female pilot.
Once the group reaches the Skull Ship, Sharon is left behind under Harley's insistence. However, she later rejoins them just as Lex and Lena are about to betray them by using the Hyper-Ray to shrink them and encase them in a bottle.
Sharon puts a positive spin on their situation despite being encased in a bottle.
"The Mess is the Point"[]
- Main article: The Mess is the Point
Sharon sits beside Brainiac, with whom she openly flirts, Harley, and Ivy inside the bottle. As Ivy tries to reconcile with Frankette to have her tip the bottle off the counter they're on, but fails, Sharon suggests that she tell her that she doesn't love her. Ivy does, and Frankette headbutts the bottle a few times, until Ivy becomes self-conscious about Frankette getting hurt and how she's treating her. Still, it was enough for the bottle to nearly tip over, and enlisting Sharon's help, who inspires Brainiac to help too, stating, the mess is the whole point. They tip the bottle off the counter, causing it to break on the ground. Sharon and Brainiac group together, and with Ivy's help, Brainiac shrinks down Lex and Lena, and restores them to their original size.
Despite all being well, the Skull Ship was programmed to crash into Kalu, and Brainiac refused to redirect its course because of Sharon's motivational words. However, thanks to listening to Bane sing the final song of the play based on Brainiac and having a false memory with his family, who convince him to save Harley and the group. Brainiac then allows them to take the escape pod back to Earth.
Riding on the escape pod, Sharon complains that she'll need a new place to live, so Harley offers her to live with them, and she accepts. However, this light-hearted moment is interrupted by the space debris caused by Brainiac when his ship crashed into Kalu. It creates a tear in the ship's ceiling, but thankfully, Frankette creates oxygen bubbles, allowing them to breathe temporarily and Ivy to patch up the tear. Still, it's not enough to save them. Frankette starts to lose her color, the ship's oxygen continues to deplete, and finally, a large piece of space debris crashes into the ship and destroys it.
Harley groups everyone together as they resolve to their fate until Superman arrives, rescues them, and brings them back to Earth.
A week later, Sharon scolds Frankette.
Personality[]
Potentially, both she and her husband are sociopaths. Nick, more obviously, since he is a conman who puts his skin before his daughter's dreams and even tries to have her killed. While Sharon is nicer, she drops the facade once Harley fails to die after the second assassination attempt and seems to have a very controlling view of her daughter's life. Both put on the mask of caring about Harley while still secretly plotting to have her killed to collect on the bounty for her. Also, neither of them seems particularly perturbed by their parents or parents-in-law getting killed in front of them.
In Season 5, she redeems herself and no longer takes part in her husbands attempts in killing Harley. She begins to care about Harley better than she did in season 1. Additionally, she is smart, being able to deduct that Brainiac's ship must have some advanced cloaking technology. In addition, she has some psychological reading ability, being able to figure out Harley and Ivy's relationship rut that made them move to Metropolis. After her husband died, she begins making sexual comments, much to Harley and Ivy's disgust. She takes interest in Lex for his appearance and she begins to flirt with Brainiac, much to his discomfort. She even manages to get Brainiac to realize that "the mess is the point," getting through to him so that he would help her, Harley, and Ivy.
In "The Mess Is The Point," she reveals that she needs someone to take care of her, hinting that she has some codependency issues like Harley does, but doesn't want to burden Harley and Ivy with letting her live with them until the two insist and she agrees.
Appearances[]
Season 1[]
Season 5[]
Gallery[]
- See also: All images of Sharon Quinzel
