REVIEW: ‘Harley Quinn’ Season 5 Episode 3

Harley Quinn Season 5 Episode 3 recons with a significant elephant in the room regarding the DC animated series. Lake Bell is not a dynamic voice actress. She is really good at one particular note and cadence, but she is dry and witty, especially in her half-mumbled asides. But she falters whenever the series requires her to deliver deeper, bigger emotions. As Poison Ivy faces a major emotional threat, her lack of range significantly sticks out, especially against better, more committed performers.

Because Harley Quinn doesn’t want for a strong voice cast. Kaley Cuoco is genuinely fantastic in the titular role to the point where her performance feels synonymous with the character. And Harley Quinn Season 5 Episodes 3 brings out the big guns for its B plot with Clayface (Alan Tudyk) and Bane (James Adomian). Tudyk and Adomian are two of the consistently hilarious actors on the cast, delivering ever-changing and eclectic performances as their characters. They’re singular. It’s not even so much that Bell is outright bad, but compared to the lengths that Cuoco, Tudyk, and Adomian go, there’s a palpable sense of being self-conscious.

Which isn’t something a voice actor—or any actor, really—can afford to be. But it’s especially true here as Ivy is given a lot of heavy lifting to do with the focus remaining on her and her relationship with Jason—now going by his official villain name, Floronic. Ivy is haunted by what happened in Episode 2 when she seemingly killed him. It’s not that she’s remorseful, but there’s some heavy trauma she’s yet to unpack regarding his sudden reappearance in her life.

Lake Bell can’t quite hit the right emotional notes as Poison Ivy. 

It’s refreshing that Harley is so quick to call it out, especially when his death makes the front page news of the Daily Planet. She tells Ivy that they shouldn’t keep secrets from one another, understanding the baggage that Jason’s appearance and death at Ivy’s hands entails. Harley is loud, brash, and impulsive, but she’s intelligent and understands how humans work. It’s a shame that the episode goes out of its way to have Ivy ignore Harley until the climactic battle between them and Floronic—with some remote help from Frank.

Harley Quinn Season 5 Episode 3 has some genuinely gorgeous frames as Ivy “goes into the green” to meditate. As her idyllic world crumbles and Floronic’s influence seeps life out of her haven, the style and tone shift into something more sinister. The writing and performances can’t do much to instill depth into the ensuing sequence, but the animation stuns.

It’s here where Bell drops the ball. While there are moments of comedy in her showdown with Floronic, they’re fleeting. It’s meant to be an intense battle that Ivy struggles to overcome, yet the vocal performance is so half-baked that it ruins the moment. Ivy will ultimately survive the interaction—Harley Quinn is a comedy. But her stability should at least be in question. It’s a frustrating sequence that should have held emotional weight. Instead, it aggravates.

Harley Quinn Season 5 Episode 3 ends of a major cliffhanger. 

The B-plot, however, of Harley Quinn Season 5 Episode 3 is superb in its absurdity. Clayface didn’t appear much in Season 4, and his presence was missed. His showing up in Metropolis with a new one-person show about Pearl Harbor is a hilarious off-the-walls conceit made funnier by the fact that it’s critically crucified. What worked in the grimy Gotham doesn’t work in Superman’s sleek and golden home.

But his pursuit of a good review works because it allows him and Bane—another Gotham import—to work off one another. It’s also a chance for Tudyk and Adomian to see who can deliver the most ridiculous pronunciation or inflection. The writing is fantastic, with sly jokes and one-liners that suggest someone in the writing room formed an entire storyline around one gag, and it works. While Episode 2 suffered due to poor tone management, Episode 3 succeeds because, at the very least, the B-plot is hilarious rather than tedious.

The missing robots also come back into play in Episode 3 as they surround Harley and Ivy after the former kills Floronic. As Brainiac transports them away from the crime scene, it will be interesting to see if he’s the next big bad or if they plan on playing with our expectations of this character, too.

Harley Quinn Season 5 Episode 3 has a solid enough plot but falters due to a central performer who lacks commitment. The episode’s self-conscious voice acting hinders it, and it can never live up to the stakes it presents. It’s fun because the series always is, but it’s one of the few times when its shortcomings are notable to the point of distraction.

Harley Quinn Season 5 Episode 3 is out now on Max.