Review: Harley Quinn “The Mess Is the Point”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Harley and Ivy manage to outsmart the Luthors, but Brainiac’s ship is on a collision course with his planet.

OUR TAKE

And just like that, Harley Quinn’s fifth and potentially final season comes to an end. But in terms of finales, this may just be at the bottom (aside from Kite Man’s finale). Brainiac as a character has been kind of all over the place in terms of what his deal is. His on brand need for mathematical perfection and being initially unable to understand human concepts like embracing chaos and imperfection is competently portrayed, and having him finish his arc by finally understanding this, taught by SHARON of all people, and being at peace with it is fine on paper, but his comedic shtick of overanalyzing things, giving overly scientific explanations, having a dead hallucination monkey, and not understanding what a smile is got old REAL fast, so I can’t say I’m that sad to see him go. Similarly, having Lena and Lex screw each other over because of their massive rich person egos does make sense, especially for this Lex, but it’s also OVERDONE with this Lex, and Lena doesn’t really add much to it. And the less said about the Frankette stuff, the better. But that kinda sums up this season: playing the same joke too much, even right at the end.

It really feels like they expect it to be the end too, with that last scene being a literal wrap party for most of the original cast (though no Dr. Psycho, sadly), Lex and Lena trapped in Frankette’s digestive system, and Harley and Ivy running off to have more chaotic adventures as if they’re riding off into the sunset, even more so than the second season finale where they literally did that. Main difference here being that they don’t set anything up here. No last minute tease of a dead antagonist revived, no starting plots of characters running for office, no changed alignments, new teams, or mysteries started, just…and ending. No idea if this is intended to be the end, but given the new DC Studios and James Gunn’s initiative to bring most everything under a new universe, as well as five seasons being as far as most streaming shows get, it’s possible the Harley Quinn writers can see the writing on the wall and want to go out on their own terms if possible. If they get more episodes, then great, but if not, at least they did it their way. Let’s look back at it one last time next week and see where we think this is headed.