Til Death Do Us Part

"Til Death Do Us Part" is the first episode of the first season of Harley Quinn. Overall, it is the first episode of the series. It was released on November 29, 2019, on DC Universe.

Synopsis[]

In the series premiere, Harley Quinn is fed up being the Joker's sidekick and strikes out on her own – determined to become the criminal Queenpin of Gotham City.

Plot[]

Harley Quinn is introduced attempting to steal a pyramid of money from rich yachters, although they don't take her seriously; it's only when the Joker rips off the captain's bloody face like a mask that the rich gentlemen become afraid. Though Harley tries to get them to jump into the harbor, the Joker simply kills swathes of them with an acid bomb, stealing Harley's thunder again.

As the Joker fights off the remaining armed gentlemen, Harley keeps pestering him to be his full partner and to join the Legion of Doom. The Joker deflects until Batman arrives and then flees in a submarine alone, leaving Harley to distract Batman. The Joker assures Harley that he'll break Harley out of Arkham Asylum "before breakfast."

Harley is taken to the GCPD for interrogation by Commissioner Gordon. There, she refuses to give up any information because of her and the Joker's "true love," citing the time the Joker "proposed." Gordon sentences her to life in prison, but Harley insists she'll be freed within the day.

Harley talking to Harleen — Harley talking to Doctor Quinzel, a hallucination of her sane self

Harley then spends 6 months in prison waiting for the Joker while her cellmate and best friend Poison Ivy tries convincing her that the Joker doesn't care for her. After three more months, Harley states that the Joker throwing her into a vat of chemicals helped shape who she is.

Three months later—exactly one year after Harley's imprisonment—the entire prison agrees with Harley that the Joker isn't coming back for her. Ivy, using a seed supplied by the Riddler,, stages a jailbreak. Harley insists on waiting in jail for "Mista J," so Ivy simply knocks her out and takes her.

Afterward, Harley awakes in Ivy's apartment and immediately insists on returning to the Joker. Ivy stops her, however, and appeals to Harley's skills as a "genius psychiatrist." Through a hallucination, a photograph of Harley's past self, Dr. Harleen Quinzel challenges Harley to diagnose her own situation; Harley concludes that she is in an abusive codependency and needs to find her own identity. Snapping out of it, decides that she must leave the Joker.

Harley, accompanied by Ivy, goes to Joker's lair to break up with him, but he spins a tale about how he left her in Arkham to shelter her from increased police scrutiny. He then offers to take her back because their love was "more powerful" than the threat of death. Harley jumps at the romantic manipulation, and they then have sex while Ivy leaves in disgust.

Harley realization — Harley realizing the Joker never loved her

In exchange for freeing the Riddler from Arkham earlier, Ivy has him advertise a riddle "so funny" it could kill you. This aggravates the Joker, prompting Harley to head out and kill Riddler. However, Harley arrives simultaneously at the Riddler's lair as Batman, and both get captured by glass balls suspended over vats of acid. Riddler then summons Joker and demands that the Crown Prince of Crime choose one captive to live and one to die.

Incredibly, the Joker chooses to save Batman to deny Riddler the satisfaction of killing him. Batman is set free to chase after him, while Harley is released into the vat. While submerged due to the Joker's betrayal, Harley remembers that the Joker didn't actually propose to her; he only said, "Till death do us part," because he left her as a suicide bomber to defeat Batman, a fate which Batman saved her from.

Ivy pulls Harley from the "acid," which was actually a margarita mix, and reveals that she set this situation up to prove to Harley through actions that the Joker never cared for her. Harley feels depressed and that she "wasted her life" on him, but Ivy gives her love and support, plus the assurance that she can still seize the day.

Sporting a brand-new outfit, Harley returns to Joker's lair and firmly breaks up with him. Not to be crossed, Joker sics his goons on her. With help from a crate of grenades and a new weapon of choice — a baseball bat — Harley fights them all off and demolishes the Joker's lair, leaving him in a pile of rubble at her mercy. He daringly asks if she will kill him, but she spares him, wanting to see the look on his face when she surpasses him as a villain and runs Gotham City.

Cast and Characters[]

Main Cast[]

Kaley Cuoco as Harley Quinn, Doctor Quinzel
Diedrich Bader as Batman, No Pinkie Pete
Lake Bell as Poison Ivy
Chris Meloni as Commissioner Gordon
JB Smoove as Frank the Plant
Alan Tudyk as The Joker, Calendar Man

Guest Cast[]

Cameos[]

Trivia[]

Joker's submarine plays "La Cucaracha" at the beginning of the episode.
Two guards at Arkham Asylum, a reporter at Metro 7, and the exploding Joker goon are all uncredited despite having lines of dialogue.
Harley and Joker references actress Reese Witherspoon when Harley suggests watching one of her movies after she kills the Riddler. Although, he gets upset when the movie in question is Sweet Home Alabama and not Legally Blonde.
The Joker calling himself "an agent of chaos" is a reference to The Dark Knight.
Harley being unharmed by a collapsing wall due to a perfectly-placed hole in said wall is likely a nod to a similar scene in the 1928 film Steamboat Bill, Jr..
Ahead of the release of the third season in June 2022, the full first episode was uploaded to watch for free on YouTube by the official HBO Max account.^[1]
Although the title card appears at the beginning of each episode, starting with the next episode, A High Bar, this episode actually has the title card placed right before the end credits sequence. Despite also happening on the season 3 premiere, Harlivy, the ending title card reads "Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy".

Goofs/errors[]

Harley Quinn's black thigh-high sock comes with a red diamond on it, but with the first shot of her new look on her way to go inside the Joker's lair, her black sock uses a red star design on it.
When the bottom of Harley's shoes appear accompanied by her new look during the episode, there are red and black soles on them, however one scene uses the blank white soles on the bottom of her sneakers.