Plot summary: With their numbers dwindling The League learn the true nature of Joker’s diabolical scheme. Also some confessions!
For background on the creation of Justice League and info about how I’ll be covering it, check out the Series Primer.
Notes and Trivia
Episode: 48 (S2.E21)
Original Air Date: November 29th, 2003
Directed: Butch Lukic (24)
Written: Stan Berkowitz (19) & Dwayne McDuffie (14)
Animation: DongWoo Animation Co., LTD. (6)
Music: Michael McCuistion (20) & Kristopher Carter (20)
While interrogating Harley, Batman mentions Joker giving her up for a shortened sentence once already. This came to light in ‘Trial‘.
Batman also suggests Ace has replaced Harley. Her voice actor, Hynden Walch, would go on to voice Harley in The Batman.
These episodes are the only time in the DCAU Mark Hamill does not perform his iconic Joker laugh. It’s also Hamill and Sorkin’s final appearance as Joker & Harley in the DCAU.
Recap
Hawkgirl digs Green Lantern out of the rubble and has to administer electro-mace-assisted CPR to re-start his heart, coming close to confessing her love for him.
This means she refuses to assist the others in finding the last of the hidden bombs, with the Royal Flush Gang still playing defence as the clock dwindles.
With only a second left on the timer, Flash speeds the bomb out of the city, allowing it to ‘harmlessly’ detonate in the desert.
Unfortunately Joker reveals he never cared about the bombs, with the drama of his scheme causing enough TV networks to pick up the feed that up to 70 million people are watching live…
Why’s that a problem? Well, turns out Ace is the most powerful member of the Royal Flush Gang, possessing psychic powers so potent she can render the entire viewing audience insane in minutes.
Joker remains unaffected, but everybody else in the vicinity begins tripping balls, even Batman, who followed Harley back to Joker.
Batman keeps it together just long enough to let Ace see that Joker is wielding the control collar she was forced to wear by the government. She turns on her ‘master’ and then strolls off.
In the aftermath, Hawkgirl sits by John’s bedside as he recovers. The two finally admit their feelings to one another and have a lil smooch. It’s real cute.
Best Performance
Kevin Conroy’s readings of Batman demanding a check-in from Green Lantern were so good I almost gave him the nod for the first 20 seconds of the episode. He’s also tremendous fun when manipulating Harley with surgical precision, drawing attention to Joker’s ‘PDA’ with Ace.
Mark Hamill remains excellent as the zany TV host, talking about medical dramas (John’s near-death), mushy stuff (Hawkgirl’s near-confession) and technical difficulties (Harley’s chopper going down). Perhaps his best work is trolling Flash as he tries to disarm the final bomb, jabbering at him with conflicting advice about which wires to cut. That’s followed with maybe the best “Huh…” you’ll ever hear in your life when he reviews the super-slow-motion replay of Flash getting the bomb to safety. I know people talk about Hamill Joker an obnoxious amount… but he really does deserve it.
I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the sultry final conversation between Phil LaMarr and Maria Canals-Barrera. It’s amazing how much better LaMarr is when John is being a human being instead of a gruff solider-turned-space cop. Canals-Barrera confessed to finding this scene arousing, and to be fair to her, dude’s got some smooth pipes.
Episode Ranking
They did a very smart thing by taking Hawkgirl and Green Lantern off the board right at the beginning of the episode as Shayera flew John to safety. Firstly, you get our juiciest tease yet of the eventual payoff. Second, the big drama of Batman trying his best to strategise their resources, only for Hawkgirl to defy him at the height of a crisis. But most importantly, it allowed them to focus in more tightly on the remaining cast, with the Royal Flush Gang also falling one by one until it all came down to Joker, Batman and Ace’s compelling third act.
And THEN they got to bring the star-crossed lovers back to close out the two-parter in a genuinely touching final scene. From the quiet reconciliation with Batman, to the low-lighting, to the actors being entirely locked in, to the top tier romantic writing, to the music swelling as Shayera shakes her hair out after John removes her helmet… it’s all surprisingly steamy for a children’s cartoon.
I still think the expository sequences where Joker runs down the backgrounds and powers of The Royal Flush Gang are a little overly long and wordy, but Ace’s is probably the best of them, especially thanks to the little touch of keeping her eyes at the top of the screen the whole time. It’s also obviously super fucking bleak to see her inadvertently render her own parents catatonic, only to then be functionally lobotomised by the control headband when she was brought to the government facility.
The psychic hallucinations were a real treat, including my own personal nightmare of a giant snake crawling out of someone’s mouth and wrapping itself around them. Batman’s vertigo is probably the coolest looking, which makes sense, with floor tiles cracking apart, phantom frogs hopping by and Joker & Ace swirling around and becoming monstrous.
Oh and they even sneak in the lil joke with the granny winning a slot machine at the end.
Overall this is such a compelling package that I have no choice but to declare it the new number one. One of the single strongest outings of DC’s most iconic villain. An extremely strong gimmick/premise. Sewing a LOT of seeds for the future. And of course finally delivering the payoff on two seasons of will they/won’t they with Hawkgirl and Green Lantern. The episodes are genuinely funny, while also delivering a lot of action and boat loads of strong voice acting. What’s not to like, really?
- Wild Cards (↑)
- The Savage Time
- Legends
- Hereafter
- Only a Dream
- Twilight
- Hearts and Minds
- Injustice for All
- Paradise Lost
- In Blackest Night
- Tabula Rasa
- The Terror Beyond
- The Enemy Below
- Secret Origins
- A Knight of Shadows
- A Better World
- Fury
- Maid of Honor
- Secret Society
- Eclipsed
- War World
- Metamorphosis
- The Bold and the Brave
Rogues Roundup
The Joker (Mark Hamill) (fourth appearance)
I mean… this is it really, isn’t it? The entire argument for why Joker is such a fantastic villain. He poses zero physical threat to even the weakest member of The League, but he comes oh so close to laying them all low. How? His unpredictably convoluted plans. Orchestrating a giant scavenger hunt for 25 bombs across Las Vegas, enlisting some government freaks he liberated to run interference… all so he could attract a sufficiently large TV audience to unleash a dangerous psychic on. How could The League have possibly predicted any of that?
This may be the closest Joker ever got to killing Batman, kicking his shit in as he struggles to simply not vomit his guts out from the telepathic assault. Top. Of. The. List.
Harley Quinn (Arleen Sorkin) (second appearance)
Poor Harley. Goes down with the ship chopper, then gets emotionally pummelled for intel by Batman, who suggests ‘her man’ is banging a teenager. Good for her for socking it to him… but then she goes back to Joker (can really tell when Paul Dini isn’t writing her episodes) who rewards her loyalty by fucking back-handing her.
I’m glad to see her one last time, but these aren’t her strongest showings by any means. We all know why.
The Royal Flush Gang (Scott Menville/Greg Cipes/Khary Payton/Hynden Walch) (second appearance)
They remain a generally fun little cohort, providing a really solid challenge to The League. Of the returners, Ten gets the best showing as he continually trades hands with Superman. Clark obviously wins but Ten puts up way more of a fight than you might expect.
The big addition this time though is Ace, who sat completely mute next to Joker the entire time in ‘Part I’, though they did subtly tease her immense power in the exposition-dump. Just an extremely cool, if slightly cliche character. They do a tremendous job conveying how scarily powerful she is, laying the entire League low like it’s nothing. Even Batman isn’t really able to overcome her powers as much as he plays a final trump card that convinces her to stop. Joker’s cowering may drive the point home even further.
- The Joker (↑)
- Darkseid
- Dr. Destiny
- Lex Luthor
- Despero
- Vandal Savage
- The Injustice Guild (and Brainwave!)
- Amazo
- Solomon Grundy
- The Injustice Gang
- The Imperium
- The Royal Flush Gang (↑)
- Brainiac
- Hades
- Draaga
- Aresia
- The Superman Revenge Squad
- Deadshot
- Gorilla Grodd
- Harley Quinn (–)
- Orm
- Simon Stagg (and Java!)
- Colonel Vox
- The Secret Society
- Felix Faust
- Ichultu
- Eclipso
- Morgaine le Fey
- The Manhunters
- The Justice Lords
- Kanjar-Ro
- Mongul
- Doomsday
The Matt Signal 
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