REVIEW: ‘Harley Quinn’ Season 5 Episode 6 — “Bottle My Heart”

Harley Quinn Season 5 Episode 6 continues to prove the series’ commitment to the unexpected with an absurd and then heartbreaking spin on the story. Nothing is permanent in this world, from friendships to power, which takes the stage in an episode that thrives on its overly caffeinated energy before leveling out to end on a genuinely dour note for the series.

While not everything works as a whole, the scattershot premise is sometimes too flippant with time and pacing, but it’s effective. Giving viewers no time to dwell on certain plot developments results in a genuine gut punch of a cliffhanger.

That it hits such a depressive note is impressive and not just based on the series being a comedy. Harley Quinn Season 5 Episode 6 embraces pure narrative lunacy from the beginning. It both demonstrates how fast and loose the series is willing to go and how much the writing team has in making James Adomian say ridiculous lines as Bane — a particular favorite in this episode is “I’m silently sitting here eating pistachios.” The way that Adomian plays with sentence structure and pronunciation is beautiful.

We pick up with Harley (Kaley Cuoco) and Lois Lane (Natalie Morales) working together as they both discuss the dreams of the mysterious skull they’ve been having. However, this partnership is short-lived once Harley lets slip that she and Ivy killed Jason. Consider the friendship broken, though not before Harley makes a pointed jab about Lois’s work on her neck. Lois will run a story about the murder in the Daily Planet, and there’s nothing Harley can do to stop it.

Lena Luthor and Brainiac part ways. At least for now. 

Bereft and frustrated, she rants to Ivy (Lake Bell) and Frank (J.B. Smoove) that while Lois has a Pulitzer, Harley has an award for the best non-singing role in The Sound of Music when she was a teen at summer camp (she played the hills, obviously.) This anecdote wonderfully comes back into play, though not without another major pivot. Because it’s not just Harley and Ivy facing changes in Harley Quinn Season 5 Episode 6; Lena Luthor (Aisha Tyler) is also dealing with unexpected decisions after Brainiac (Stephen Fry) rids himself of her after promising her she’d get to rule Metropolis.

The two stories converge when Lena goes to Harley, Clayface (still posing as Perry White), and Bane to find the truth behind Brainiac. She wants the three of them, through the power of the press, to make sure that the city knows the truth. When Bane rightfully asks what on earth she thinks they can do to help that literal superheroes can’t, she highlights that the news gives people power. Considering Lois quits after Harley forces her to take down the story about Jason’s murder, they’re running low on credible reporters.

This is why they decided to put on a musical instead called “Brainiac, The Tragedy Of.” At first, this seems like the perfect punchline to the earlier gag about Harley having no singing talent when she casts herself as Lena. Clayface plays Brainiac, with a reluctant Frank stepping in as Koko when he accidentally eats the original actor, Andy Serkis. Certainly, the musical’s elements are funny, but it’s mainly how the audience, including Ivy, reacts that makes it work.

Brainiac makes a devastating decision in Harley Quinn Season 5 Episode 6. 

Much to Lena’s distress, they begin to sympathize with Brainiac. Especially once they learn that Koko is dead and his one friend in the universe is gone, leaving him completely isolated, this revelation has a negative effect when the real Brainiac learns the truth while watching from afar, finally realizing Koko isn’t sitting next time, having died long ago. His revenge is to make Ivy feel the same despair and, in a genuinely shocking move, he kills Frank.

It’s not like Harley Quinn Season 5 Episode 6 is the first time the series has killed a character. But it’s the first time it’s been one we’ve both known for so long who is also, to a degree, a part of the main cast. It’s just a shame that Bell’s performance once again stifles the emotional moment. She remains much better at dry one-liners and witty observations than any heavy depth. Regardless, the moment sticks, a continuation of Season 5 leaning into Ivy’s backstory and trauma as she loses what best tethered her to her past self.

We’ve seen Dark Ivy before. But it seems that, by killing Frank, there’s an unlimited force ready to be unleashed. Harley Quinn Season 5 Episode 6 delivers hilarity until it abruptly pulls the rug out from under us. The shocking ending proves that the series is fearless in providing unexpected twists and turns. But now it will be interesting to see if they stick to the decision and somehow manage to walk it back.

Harley Quinn Season 5 Episode 6 is out now on Max, formally HBO Max.

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