"You're a Damned Good Cop, Jim Gordon" – Harley Quinn S01E06 Review

Ah, that's more like it.

I wouldn't call "You're a Damned Good Cop, Jim Gordon" a laugh riot. Even though it has Christopher Meloni as Jim Gordon, for the first time since the premere. It's trying a bit too much at conveying a "message" or two. Harley is selfish, Batman is selfish, They both overcome their selfishness. Psycho isn't as psycho as he appears. Awwwww.

But the funny parts are still over-the-top funny. Clayface continues declaiming to the back row of the theater. King Shark is slowly growing on me, now that they give him a little more to do. Like going on about how Harley gives him a chance to use his brains, then casually biting the head off of a security guard. Psycho is there mostly to give the creative team a chance to throw in a lot of swear words. Poison Ivy is long-suffering and the stand-in viewer figure.

Only Syd isn't growing on me. Three strikes (or episodes) and you're out. Sorry, Jason Alexander. But you're just not that funny.

Besides the regular crew, the main focus this week is on Gordon and Batman and their dysfunctional relationship. After Kevin Conroiy, Diedrich Bader will always be the Batman to me. I liked him in Batman: The Brave and the Bold. And I like him even more here as the deadpan Batman with all the emotional issues that they only hinted at in Brave & Bold. Poking fun at Joker and Harley is like shooting fish in a barrel. They're supposed to be funny. But the post-modern Batman isn't supposed to be funny, which makes his portrayal here even funnier. Whether he's having his screensaver kicking in, or defending his choice of armor that just happens to look like spandex, Batman is the perfect figure for comedy.

If there's one character less funny than Batman in the DC Universe, it's Gordon. Which makes him the primary target for a lot of ribbing this episode. From his dependency issues with Batman, to his failed dysfunctional relationship with his wife, to his bonding with Clayface's severed arm, he's funny. A little more subtle than he was in the premiere, but having Gordon screaming at people for half the episode would have been wearing on the eardrums.

Why is Clayface's arm severed? Harley is trying to impress the Legion of Doom by pulling off a really big heist with her crew of herself, Ivy, Clayface, Psycho, King Shark, and Syd. They fail to register on the Cowled Critic's review of supervillainy in Gotham, and received the costumed critic's scorn. Cowled Critic dismisses Psycho as... a psycho.

So what's Harley to do? Rob WayneTech, of course, for an even bigger high-profile crime. The heist goes south when Harley decides not to steal the invisible motorcycle they're after, but something with even higher security protections. The crew escape, but we get two plot points: Ivy rescues Psycho, and Clayface loses his right hand when a security shutter comes down.

Earlier, we saw Gordon use the Bat Signal just to get Batman to come the GCPD rooftop so that Gordon could talk about his sexual relationship with his wife Barbara. Batman isn't having any of that, takes the Bat sign off the Bat Signal, and takes off.

In the aftermath of the heist, Batman gets the severed Clayface hand and tells Gordon to prove that he's a good cop by getting the location of Harley's lair from it. It turns out that The Arm (Tom Kenny) has all the memories of Clayface, a childlike personality, and an eagerness to please. It also turns out that Gordon needs a friend and Arm is willing to listen to his problems and sympathize.

Meanwhile, Ivy and Psycho track down Cowled Critic. It turns out Critic is Herman (Mark Whitten), Psycho's son, who lives with Giganta (Vanessa Marshall), who we saw three episodes ago. We also saw Herman briefly, but there was no indication then of who he was. It turns out Giganta is Psycho's ex, and Psycho has ridden Herman pretty hard to nourish the evil in him. After Psycho confesses his scheme to Herman, father and son share a hug while Ivy, looking on, says, "This is so fucked up. But really, really moving." Giganta may or may not be jealous of Ivy for being Psycho's supposed new girlfriend.

Meanwhile, Harley has Clayface disguise himself as a one-armed policeman and take King Shark into GCPD as a prisoner. This is all a distraction so they can rescue Arm. It falls apart when the cops immediately beat King Shark and haul him off to prison, with trial and sentencing off-screen in a few seconds. Maybe King Shark is sharing a cell with Adam Grant?

Clayface lures the police out of the GCPD by saying Joker has kidnapped Bruce Springsteen, and then Harley and Clayface go after Arm, who is up on the rooftop with Gordon, sharing intimate moments that are mostly Gordon daydreams. Gordon shoots at Harley, and she hits the button on the device she stole earlier. Which teleports her to the Batcave. And here we get the funniest bits with Batman, as he sulks, defends his choice of body armor costuming, has a screensaver with pictures of him and Gordon as friends, and considers whether to let Harley die since she's seen the Batcave.

Fortunately, Harley gets the episode "message" that she's been selfish, and points out that she and Batman have both abandoned their friends for a greater goal. Clayface's arm so Harley can get into the Legion of Doom, and Gordon so that Batman... can do something. I'm not sure what. Clayface isn't too broken up about losing his arm, so I'm not sure either message really sticks the landing.

Batman and Harley return to the rooftop and convince Gordon Batman is still his friend. Arm goes back to Clayface, and Batman goes after Harley. Fortunately, Psycho shows up and uses his telekinesis to take all of the cops' guns and shoot at their feet.

In the end, Syd missed the whole thing. Cowled Critic gives Harley and her crew high marks and notes that Psycho has displayed he's a worthy super-villain. Harley's only problem is she tends to lose her crew members, at which point she remembers King Shark is in prison. He's busy ruling the prison population and alternates between scholarly dissertations, complaining about the stereotypical referencing of new prisoners as "fishies", and threatening to rip open prisoners' heads.

Like I noted, the messaging isn't very clear. And maybe that's the point: it's hard to tell if the creative team is parodying "message" episode tropes of animated shows, or embracing them. Harley is quickly becoming a bit player in her own show. We find out more about Psycho and Ivy in this episode then we do about Harley. Although it does appear that Harley is outgrowing her obsession with Joker even though she dumped him/he dumped her. Although she still seems obsessed with getting into the Legion of Doom.

So the episode hovers vaguely between message and parody of message. Which brings us to the humor, which is the redeeming part of most Harley Quinn episodes. I still don't find Syd funny, but the rest of the regulars are pretty good. And it's hard not to enjoy an episode where the creative team take out the metaphorical satire knives and go after Batman and Gordon. I don't know if it's more "realistic" or not that Gordon is a basket case and Batman is an emotionally-repressed loner. But it makes for a lot of humor. And Arm is cute.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?