REVIEW: ‘Harley Quinn’ Season 4 Episode 4 — “The First Person to Come Back From a Business Conference Without Chlamydia”

Brash and bursting with chaotic energy, Harley Quinn Season 4 Episode 4 continues the breakneck pace of the first three episodes. Ivy and Harley are once again split up for their escapades, the latter continuing her training while living with the rest of the Bat Family. Through the separation of stories, the series can maintain a consistent level of situational carnage and comedy as the two find themselves in increasingly ridiculous situations. 

Part of the fun of Harley Quinn Season 4 Episode 4 and something that’s existed throughout the entire series is how it’s able to take rudimentary, basic situations and charge them with absurdity while bringing mundanity and regular day issues to the fantastical. In “The First Person to Come Back From a Business Conference Without Chlamydia” Ivy is attending a conference on the moon and the humor isn’t ever targeted at the fact that they’re in space. Instead, there are jokes about being on panel discussions, novelty tote bags, and wanting to network. Part of what’s made the series so hilarious since the start is just how corporate the League of Villains is.

Not to say this is quiet and contained storytelling. Lex Luthor is having his calves boosted by his two assistants until they end up blowing by the episode’s end. People are casually maimed in the background of shots, and the rocket ship that Ivy takes to attend the conference is drawn with excessive phallic inspirations. These are heightened characters who treat their heightened realities like they’re another job, with form and function and rules to every aspect of their lives. We witness this in another sense with Joker who, by the episode’s end, returns to murder again because he got bored while talking to a member of his Parks and Recreation. He enjoyed being mayor when there was only a promise of control — now that he has it and understands the minutia of the gig he wants out.

In comparison to this, you’d think that the storyline with Harley and the Bat Family would be tame in comparison. Instead, Harley Quinn ramps up the chaos. Talia (Aline Elasmar) has stripped them of their budget and weaponry, accusing the team of becoming soft. While Harley offers some interesting suggestions on how to make money, such as renting out her feet to break in rich ladies’ shoes, they grow desperate and rent out Wayne Manor as an AirBnb. Their first rentals are energetic Scandinavian tourists who end up trying to rob them.

Of course, the episode has been building to this moment as Harley has tried to impart her scrappy wisdom — most notably, that anything can be used as a weapon if they try hard enough. This leads to an action sequence where we watch them pummeling their visitors with books and spoons, a scene that works due to how seriously the Bat Family are written in juxtaposition with the silliness of their foes.

Despite there being two major plot lines, as often is the case with this show, some of the funniest moments are throwaway lines and/or observations. From Damian Wayne shouting that he “hates being a poor,” to Lex’s overt hyper fixation on Superman, to Clark Kent being the reporter sent to the moon to cover the conference, and the digs at Mark Zuckerberg who Ivy cuts loose into space with a parting “have fun in the meta verse dweeb,” the writing is unrelenting and jam-packed with one-liners. The inability to slow down is one of the show’s greatest assets.

Harley Quinn Season 4 Episode 4 is another strong installment of the series, demonstrating the considerable strength of the writers. A testament to how well the world has been built until now, the episode delivers the frenzied, caffeinated energy that we’ve come to love about the show. It does so while continuing to push the limits of how far the story can go and allowing Harley herself to further develop as a stand-alone, morally gray hero. 

Harley Quinn Season 4 is out now on Max.

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