Mad Love (The New Batman Adventures)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| “Mad Love” | |
|---|---|
| 'The New Batman Adventures' episode | |
 |
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| Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 21 |
| Written by | Paul Dini and Bruce Timm |
| Directed by | Butch Lukic |
| Production no. | 021 |
| Original airdate | January 16, 1999 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "Girls' Night Out" | "Chemistry" |
| List of Batman: The Animated Series episodes | |
Mad Love is an episode in The New Batman Adventures, written by Paul Dini. It was aired in January 11, 1999. It was the 21st episode of the season. It was based on the comic book Mad Love, also by Dini.
[edit] Plot
Commissioner Gordon goes in for a dental appointment, only to find The Joker in the place of his dentist. Harley Quinn ties him to the chair, and just as Joker is about to kill the Commissioner, Batman appears and reveals that he saw through his disguise, but Harley gasses him. The Joker tosses Gordon a grenade on his way out ("May the floss be with you!") but Batman saves him.
In the Funnibones warehouse, Harley tries to help the Joker think of a scheme to kill Batman. When she suggests that he "just shoot him", the idea of murdering his archenemy in such a mundane matter enrages him and he threatens Harley with acid. After dropping the idea of "The Death of A Thousand Smiles" - dropping Batman in a piranha tank - due to not being able to get any kind of a smile out of the fish, he kicks Harley out.
Harley reminisces about how she became a villain. She was once Harleen Quinzell, a psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum who fell in love with the Joker as he told her about his traumatic childhood; his father beat him, his mother ran away and he joined the circus as a clown. The Joker escaped, but was beaten by Batman and returned to custody swathed in bandages. Stealing a costume and equipment from a trick shop, she broke the Joker out and becomes Harley Quinn. Back in the present, she blames Batman for ruining both her life and the Joker's and forms a plan for revenge.
Harley sends Batman a message offering to reveal a plot by the Joker that could threaten all of Gotham. When he arrives, the Joker appears to attack them both with a machine gun (later revealed to be a robot), and Harley uses the distraction to drug him. He wakes up chained and hung upside-down over a pirahna tank, where Harley explains that the fishes' now-upside-down faces will fulfill Joker's plan - making him love her again. Batman tells Harley that the Joker misled her about his tragic childhood, and manipulates her to into contacting the Joker. Joker loses his temper again at being upstaged and, on his arrival, throws Harley out of a window several floors above the ground. He decides to kill Batman himself, but Batman manages to escape his bonds, ultimately leading to a showdown on top of a moving train. After a brutal fistfight, Batman throws Joker to his "death" in a chemical plant.
Back in Arkham, an injured Harley realizes that Batman was right and the Joker is just using her. She is about to finally renounce the Joker when she sees a get-well letter and flowers from him, changing her mind.
[edit] Trivia
- In the end, after Joker plummets to a chemical plant, it is unknown whether he survived during the fall or has died after landing. However, aside from Harley receiving flowers from him in the final moments of the episode, his future appearances in Justice League and the flashback sequence of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker confirm that he has, once again, managed to escape death.
- A cameo appearance made by Poison Ivy in the original comic book is mirrored here in its animated version as well.
- Joker's exit line when leaving the dentist's office, "May the floss be with you", is a reference to his voice actor, Mark Hamill, being most famous for his role as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars trilogy.
