The Horse and the Sparrow

Season 3
Episode 10

## All Season 3 Episodes

"**The Horse and the Sparrow**" is the tenth and final episode of the third season of *Harley Quinn*, and the thirty-sixth episode of the series overall. It was released on September 15, 2022, on HBO Max.

## Synopsis

After her terraforming plan goes awry, Ivy is enticed by an offer to take over the Legion of Doom, while Harley questions her path forward.

## Plot

A frustrated and foiled Ivy demands to know why Harley obstructed her terraforming plan, and the latter struggles to defend herself. Ivy departs to blow off steam, taking Frank with her. Around Gotham Central Park, Gothamites approach Harley and thank her for risking her life to stop Ivy. Although Harley tries to move along, Batgirl doubles down and loudly declares that Harley is a hero.

Shopping at More-4-Lex, Frank tries to lift Ivy’s spirits by complimenting her glow-up and the power of the Green she wielded. Suddenly, Lex Luthor appears on the display TVs to speak to Ivy. He announces he is rebuilding the Legion of Doom's Gotham branch and, having witnessed her recent plot, wants Ivy to lead it. Seeing Ivy as an ambitious ecoterrorist who could work for or against him, Luthor promises her whatever pay, power, and resources she desires.

At Wayne Manor, Bruce finds Alfred has finished re-burying Thomas and Martha’s bodies. Bruce decides he won’t run away from his trauma anymore and accepts his invitation to the premiere of the Thomas Wayne movie.

Back home, while preparing for his movie premiere the next day, Clayface realizes no one will know he is the one behind the Billy Bob Thornton on the big screen. Meanwhile, Ivy returns and pulls Harley aside. She tells Harley about Luthor’s offer, and that her first task is to kill Mayor Joker at the movie premiere. (Luthor has an issue with one of Joker’s tax policies) Harley repeatedly and bombastically pledges her support for Ivy, regardless of her task.

Clayface (as Thornton) and his friends arrive at the movie premiere in style. Elsewhere in the theater, Bruce is approached by Selina. She tells him that despite their breakup, she still desires to see him happy. Bruce tears up and steps away, and Selina eyes Martha’s pearl necklace on display.

Joker finds his seat strangely in the back of the auditorium, and as soon as he reaches it, he is bagged and brought to the projector room by Harlivy. Ivy says they will kill him by the movie's end, but Harley announces she left her bat in the limo and steps out to fetch it. Joker unties the rope holding him, and though Ivy easily replaces them with vines, he smugly notes he's never seen Harley rope a captive with such an easily-undone type of knot. The maniacal mayor plants a conversation with Ivy by comparing notes about Harley.

Now with her bat, Harley finds Bruce outside the auditorium. Seeing him panicking, she resumes counseling him. Bruce compliments her recent goodwill and capacity to help others, to which Harley adamantly insists she is not a hero and leaves.

Joker tells Ivy he was very fond of Harley being agreeable with whatever he wanted. He observes that she is the same with Ivy’s whims now, even if Ivy isn’t intending to manipulate her. Citing her weak rope technique and unprecedented negligence of her bat, Joker suggests Harley’s heart isn’t in this. When Harley returns, Ivy demands to know if killing Joker is something she wants to do. Against Harley’s insistence to the contrary, Ivy echoes Joker’s point that Harley has "evolved" — that deep down, she is less villainous than before.

Harley finally admits she is afraid to identify as a non-villain and capitulates to whatever Ivy wants because she doesn’t want Ivy to leave her. Ivy tenderly says having different paths towards self-actualization doesn't invalidate their relationship. The Maid of Mischief frets she doesn’t even know what she wants her path to be, but Ivy promises they can and will sort it out together.

Things are bittersweet for Clayface. While proud of his performance and receiving ample applause, he is frustrated people are cheering a name that's not his. When he goes onstage to take a bow, Clayface morphs into his normal form, but people simply believe Thornton was a shapeshifting metahuman all along, and not that Clayface is a different person. Later, King Shark tries to cheer Clayface up with a hug, but Clayface remains sad.

Onstage, Joker and a group of goons (the re-invented GCPD wearing clown masks) reveal inviting Bruce to the movie was a sting operation. They arrest Bruce for tax evasion in front of the whole theater. Bruce talks to Harley as he is taken away. He tries to think positively, that confinement will give him time to reflect on his trauma, and Harley assures him that her counsel is at his disposal. She also notes Selina has taken his mother’s necklace.

At the police van, Bruce declines Barbara’s plan to break him out of prison, as he wants to show Gotham that everyone must face consequences. He instructs Barbara to lead the Bat Family in his place, pointing out she stopped the Mad Hatter and the plant zombies without Batman. En route to Blackgate Penitentiary, Bruce discovers in his pocket the necklace Selina had taken, and he smiles.

Back home, Harlivy finish discussing what Harley herself wants to do. Harley has realized that her time in an abusive codependency robbed her ability to set her own path, but in an equal partnership like with Ivy, she shouldn't be afraid to do something for herself. Ivy expresses her pride in Harley’s growth.

> ***Harley**Don't worry, Nightwing. You still have the best-lookin’ ass out of all of us.**Nightwing**Hm, let's give her a chance.— Nightwing welcomes Harley to the Bat-Family*

Under the light of the Bat signal, Harley approaches Batgirl, Robin, and Nightwing. Welcoming her to the team, the Bat-Family swings off the roof with grappling hooks, and though Harley chastises them for leaving her behind, she calmly murmurs that she’ll take the stairs.

## Cast and Characters

### Main Cast

* Kaley Cuoco as Harley Quinn
* Lake Bell as Poison Ivy, Cheryl
* Ron Funches as King Shark
* Alan Tudyk as The Joker, Clayface
* JB Smoove as Frank the Plant

### Guest Cast

* James Adomian as Bane
* Diedrich Bader as Batman
* Briana Cuoco as Batgirl
* Giancarlo Esposito as Lex Luthor
* Harvey Guillén as Nightwing
* Tom Hollander as Alfred
* Sanaa Lathan as Catwoman

### Cameos

* Captain Cold
* Cheetah
* Tawny Young
* Robin
* Codpiece
* Cock King
* Clock King
* Doctor Trap
* Golden Glider
* Kite Man

* Killer Croc
* Little Lexi
* Nora Freeze
* Sinestro
* Swamp Thing
* James Gunn
* Daniel Cassidy
* Rita Farr
* Garfield Logan

## Trivia

* This episode aired on Adult Swim on October 1, 2022.
* A man at the premiere is uncredited despite having lines of dialogue.
* The credits of the movie *A Hard Wayne's Gonna Falls* lists the writer of the movie as "the writers".
* When asked whether Joker remembers learning that Bruce is Batman, Justin Halpern wrote on a Reddit AMA: *"So this is kind of a debate in the writers room. I personally think he remembers and doesn’t care because it’s uninteresting to him. Others think he doesn’t remember because he’s lost some of his memories after the tower collapse. Fortunately for the story we are telling the result is the same and this doesn’t totally matter. How’s THAT for an unsatisfying answer?"*
	+ The implication is Joker getting some petty payback against Bruce: having found his Batman funds as embezzlement.
* According to this episode, Joker hates Twitter.

### DC references

* The end credits of Clayface's movie list the names Daniel Cassidy, Rita Farr, Garfield Logan as the cast and Jonathan Lord as the editor. These are all the birth names of several DC heroes: Blue Devil, Elasti-girl, Beast Boy, and Silverblade, respectively. In DC canon, these characters relate to disguise or show business:
	+ Elasti-girl and Silverblade were actors
	+ Blue Devil a stuntman
	+ Beast Boy (Elasti-girl’s adopted son) is a shapeshifter like Clayface (specifically with animals), and is an actor in some stories, including the *Young Justice* cartoon.

### Miscellaneous references

* The episode title refers to a parable that critiques trickle-down economics. In the story, a person generously feeds oats to a horse (the rich), and a sparrow (the working class) is to retrieve the oats from the horse's excrement. Whatever benefits are promised to the sparrow, they come in an inefficient and unappealing way. While the conventional meaning of the phrase is referenced in Clayface's movie and Joker's indictment of Bruce Wayne, the dynamic might also reflect how Harley behaves around her partners, in that she is the sparrow who lacks power and is at the mercy of the horse.
* When Clayface arrives at the film premiere as Billy Bob Thornton, one of the reporters asks him "How's Angelina!?", a reference to the former relationship between Thorton and actress Angelina Jolie.

## Gallery

*See also: All images from "The Horse and the Sparrow"*

Teaser image
## References

1. ↑ *So this is kind of a debate in the writers room...* Justin Halpern, *Reddit* (September 15, 2022).