The Line

"The Line" is the seventh episode of the first season of Harley Quinn. It is the seventh episode of the series overall. It was released on January 10, 2020, on DC Universe.

Synopsis[]

Harley breaks the Queen of Fables out of prison to add some evil oomph to her crew – but maybe Fables is a little TOO evil?

Plot[]

Queen of Fables receives a favorable court decision demanding her release from the U.S. Tax Code, where she was originally imprisoned. Meanwhile, Harley comes up with a plan to steal Kord Industries' weather machine, something a myriad of Legion of Doom members tried and failed to acquire. Protected by "thousands" lasers, Harley decides first to steal a personal force field from S.T.A.R. Laboratories to allow easier theft. However, Harley's planning is interrupted when she finds out that Queen of Fables was released by Zatanna Zatara, only to be then put directly into the Arkham Asylum.

Harley argues for breaking Queen of Fables out of prison, and although Ivy advises Harley that Queen of Fables actually belongs in Arkham, Harley walks away and ignores her. Later, Harley ambushes the prison transfer vehicle with Queen of Fables and frees her. However, although Queen of Fables is grateful and offers assistance with their heist, things seem to go wrong when King Shark asks her to summon Humpty Dumpty, his favorite character. King Shark is initially delighted until the Queen of Fables smashes him apart and begins cooking, horrifying everyone present.

Poison Ivy urges Harley not to involve herself with Queen of Fables, saying that Queen of Fables is "cable bad", but quickly leaves when Harley questions why Ivy is "dressed like a 40s housewife who's fucking her husband's boss". Ivy then goes off to meet Kite Man for a date, using her outfit to ensure anonymity. She appreciates Kite Man's gift of roses but insists on going to a movie so she won't be recognized. Meanwhile, Harley's Crew plus Queen of Fables go to steal the personal force field, with Queen of Fables supplying Cinderella's mouse to sneak through air vents for them.

As they prepare to enter the building, a soccer ball hits Harley in the back of the head, and when they turn, they see a random man coming to retrieve it. He departs with it to a nearby "Praxis Family Reunion", where he immediately reports the criminals he saw skulking near the entrance to the S.T.A.R. Laboratories. Harley wanted to call off the mission at that point, but Queen of Fables offered to distract them while they moved on, summoning several live fairy tales to delight the children present.

Praxis Massacre — Praxis Family Reunion massacre

Harley's Crew performs the heist without a hitch, but returns to discover a bloody massacre where the Praxis Family Reunion was. This horrifies everyone, prompting Clayface to throw away his eyes, saying, "I won't be needing these anymore". Queen of Fables justifies herself, saying she killed the man who ratted them out to prevent word getting out and then killed everyone when they saw her do it to "end the bloodline and prevent any revenge killing". She brushes it off as "just Evil 101", although Doctor Psycho claims to have taught "Evil 101" in college and that they never covered anything "this fucked up". At this point, Queen of Fables asks if there's anyone still alive, and although Harley sees someone, she says that everyone is dead, so Queen of Fables dispatches the Three Little Pigs to eat the corpses (including the bones, which Queen of Fables emphasizes).

Back at the Gotham Mall, Ivy convinces Harley to kick Queen of Fables out, but Queen of Fables has grown to like their group and offers to assist in further heists. Harley tries to talk Queen of Fables down gently, but she bluntly asks Harley to get to the point, to which Harley says she doesn't want Queen of Fables' assistance anymore because killing innocent people is "just a line I won't cross". This outrages Queen of Fables, who mocks Harley and says that "superheroes have a line, Teen Titans have a line, we don't give a fuck", claiming that she will have to cross her lines to get into the Legion of Doom. Queen of Fables then angrily departs.

Later, Ivy goes on a date with Kite Man to a nice restaurant, but his reservation isn't accepted, and they are forced to wait 40 minutes. At the same time, Harley carries out her heist on Kord Industries to steal the weather machine, and although they succeed, the Queen of Fables arrives and attempts to steal it from them. Harley protests that they are friends and refuses to give up the weather machine. At this point, Queen of Fables begins threatening to kill Harley until they are both interrupted by a lightning bolt at their feet.

After being knocked bodily aside, an Jason Praxis launches another bolt of lightning at Queen of Fables' storybook, destroying her powers. Forced to flee from his continued assault, Harley demands to know who he is, so Jason identifies himself as "Jason Praxis, last surviving member of the 25th Annual Praxis Family Reunion and Jamboree, you murdered all of my family!" At the same time, Ivy's date is going badly due to long wait lines, so Kite Man asks if he can "name-drop" Poison Ivy to get in early. At Ivy's reluctance to reveal herself, Kite Man begins to clue into her anonymous garb, indicating she doesn't want to be seen with him. At this point, he breaks down, gets emotional, and leaves, making a scene and revealing her identity.

Once again, in the Gotham Mall, Jason Praxis continues his electrical assault on Harley's Crew, with her crew lamenting that Queen of Fables was right about ending the bloodline. It turns out that Jason was the "little girl" Harley saw with the ponytail. Just a long-haired man crouching in fear who became distraught after his family was slaughtered. He tried to kill himself by jumping on an electrical fence at S.T.A.R. Laboratories, but instead of dying, he received electrical powers, which surprised none of Harley's crew. Harley tries to reason with Jason, asking for any way to resolve their conflict, and although Jason wants to kill them all, he says that he would allow them all to live if they handed over Queen of Fables. Harley immediately assents and prepares to hand over Queen of Fables.

Jason dead — Jason Praxis killed by Queen of Fables

Ivy apologizes to Kite Man, but he is surprisingly forgiving, saying he cares about her, and Ivy says she likes him too, "against all logic and reason". Again, back at the Gotham Mall, Jason Praxis launches a powerful bolt at Queen of Fables, only for it to rebound and strike him instead - Harley puts her personal force field on Queen of Fables, saving her. Harley then sent Queen of Fables away, although she warned Harley for leaving her alive; at this point, Jason began to wake up. When he came to, he asked if he "vanquished" Queen of Fables and avenged his family, and when Harley lied that he did, he became overcome with emotion. He cried tears of relief, saying he could finally rebuild his life, only to be interrupted when Queen of Fables' spear erupted from his mouth - she stabbed and killed him from behind, finally "ending the bloodline".

Afterward, Harley, King Shark, and the others attempt to guess the weather machine's password, only to fail too many times and trigger a self-destruct.

Cast and Characters[]

Main Cast[]

Guest Cast[]

Cameos[]

Bane (pictured)
Sinestro (pictured)
Gorilla Grodd (pictured)
Joker (pictured)
Zatanna Zatara
Françoise Mouse
Big Bad Wolf
The Mayor (uncredited)
Bill

Trivia[]

Queen of Fables briefly references the 90s children's series Project ALF, stating she has a meeting with an independent contractor who keeps his receipts in an Alf lunchbox.
The place Harley wants to steal from is Kord Industries, which is a reference to Ted Kord, the man who would become the second Blue Beetle.
Harley reveals that her favorite book is Clive Cussler's Sahara.
The restaurant that Kite Man takes Poison Ivy to is named "Martha Bruce", a clear nod to the Wayne family.
When threatening the Mayor of Gotham with the weather machine, Clayface demanded he produce a reboot of the Full House reboot Fuller House which he wanted to call Fullest House where instead of adding more people, the house would be smaller.
The voice of the Mayor of Gotham is uncredited despite having lines of dialogue. Jim Rash is later credited for the role in "Something Borrowed, Something Green".