My Review of Harley Quinn: "Back To School"

 

Written by Leslie Schapira

Directed by Christina Manrique

Ivy (to Dr Woodrue): "It's Poison Ivy now!"

Well, it only took five seasons but hey, better late than never. If you were hoping the show would stick the landing with Poison Ivy's backstory, then this episode certainly delivered on that front.

Now that Ivy has decided to work for Lena Luthor, the latter introduced her to Dr Jason Woodrue. Truthfully, it's a reintroduction for Ivy and she's not happy with seeing her former boyfriend/mentor/would be killer. However, Ivy decided that revenge was the order of the day.

In flashbacks, we saw Ivy challenge Woodrue in classes while also being romantically involved with him. When she showed her prototype of combining human and plants via baby Frank, Jason wanted the credit. Ivy didn't want that and he tried to kill her, forcing Ivy to create herself so to speak.

Ivy's thirst for revenge led to her exacting the same fate to Jason that he did to her. By the end of the episode, she helped to create Floronic Man and just as bad, she didn't tell Harley about it either. I don't imagine it'll be too long before both Harley and Ivy realise that Floronic Man will be a problem for them.

As for Harley, she got suckered into babysitting King Shark's rambunctious children with one of them being a particular pest for her. Add in a birthday party for Bane's adopted daughter, Goldilocks, a fake Pippa Middleton and Vincent Edge and this plot wasn't as strong as the Ivy one but still entertaining nonetheless.

- Lena seems to be too accommodating towards Harley and Ivy's wave of destruction that she has to have an ulterior motive.

- In the comics, Vincent Edge was part of Intergang, so I guess we'll be seeing them fairly soon.

- It's a good job that I did watch Kite-Man: Hell Yeah! given the way this season has referenced events from that show.

- Chronology: Not long from where the first episode left off.

Back To School had its moments. The Ivy storyline was easily the best part of this one with some very real present day consequences while Harley's was suitably chaotic and pretty fun.

Rating: 7 out of 10