Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine's Day Special

"**Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine's Day Special**" is a special episode of *Harley Quinn*, which premiered on February 9th, 2023 on HBO Max.

## Synopsis

Gotham City's heroes and villains take on love! To celebrate their first ever Valentine's Day, Harley strives to plan the greatest, most romantic night ever for her and Ivy.

## Plot

Harley gushes over how much she loves Valentine's Day, but Ivy finds it extraneous and ecologically wasteful, and only agrees to celebrate once Harley promises a "low-key" date. Meanwhile, Clayface prepares for his own date, but Ivy warns him the match looks suspicious and he is being catfished. At Hall of Doom, Bane vents to Riddler about being alone for Valentine's Day, and how he, Bane, is picky on dating apps because of the incorrect grammar on everyone's profiles.

*❝ ...it appears I'll be spending my Valentine's alone in darkness and solitude, where I was born. ❞*
— Bane talking to Riddler

Harley takes Ivy to Mama Macaroni, which prepares a vegan dish combining some of Ivy’s favorite foods. The date is serene until armed goons bust in and extort the recipe of this dish for an oil baron. Ivy and Harley give chase of the recipe thieves, because it is "too damn delicious" to "fall into the wrong hands."

The chase leads to Robinson Park, where the oil baron arrives in the flesh. Ivy's vines shred him to death with his own helicopter. She retrieves the recipe paper, but it's actually is a Valentine's card from Harley; the heist. including the oil baron, was Harley's staged V-Day treat, concluded by Etrigan unleashing fireworks that spell "HARLIVY FOREVER." Harley asks if this was Ivy's best V-Day; Ivy gushes that it was "great."

Clayface arrives at the site of his date: Crime Alley. It turns out he was catfished by Captain Boomerang, who attempts to rob the shapeshifter. However, as it turns out, the only thing in Clayface's wallet are double tickets to a Brett Goldstein one-man show for the date, so Boomerang bisects Clayface at the waist and flees. Staying in character, Clayface submits to being "slain."

Arriving back home, Harley is still upset that Ivy hasn't deemed this V-Day her best ever. She sneaks out, snatches Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth, then uses the lasso on Ivy, who confesses this V-Day was in her "top 3". Harley's frustration is a leftover from her relationship with Joker, in which she histrionically tried to make each V-Day better than the last.

Bane is trudging through the city alone when he comes across a dominatrix called Betty, who is on her way to a client's residence and mistakes Bane for a fellow BDSM dominator. As they go to work on her client, Betty is receptive to Bane's small talk, and even invites him over to her place. Bane accepts, though becomes insecure when Betty taunts the client's penis size.

Wanting to step things up, Harley sneaks out again and buys a spell from Etrigan to impress Ivy in bed. Back home, she kisses a lounging Ivy, triggering the spell and they have passionate sex. Ivy reaches a climax so magnificent that she ejects pink petals into the Gotham sky…which starts to rain down on the city's people and animals. Harley and Ivy see people outside start to fornicate on the spot.

Still in Crime Alley, Clayface's bottom half become sentient (just like his arm once did) with a face appearing on the buttocks. Clayface and his butt hit it off, but they cannot touch or embrace or the butt will be reabsorbed and lost to oblivion; they even resist the temptation caused by Ivy's pheromone shower.

Bane stops by Etrigan's store, begging for help with his genital size (it is not proportional to the rest of Bane's hulking body). Having purchased the potion after closing time, Bane applies it without supervision, and it turns his entire body giant. Combined with Ivy's pheromones falling on him, kaiju-sized Bane starts stomping through Gotham and having sex with buildings, demolishing them when he ejaculates.

Harley admits to using the sex-enhancement spell. Ivy is somewhat exasperated, but concedes turning Valentine's Day into a city-wide orgy for the evening is not the end of the world…until Bane appears.

Now sitting in giant hamster balls so they won't re-merge, Clayface and his butt consider themselves star-crossed and decide to go their separate ways. Stuck with the nonrefundable Brett Goldstein tickets, Clayface bounds for the Gotham Amphitheater, though once there, he finds his butt had a change of heart and found him.

Just as Harlivy manage to pin him down, Bane spots an ad for the Brett Goldstein show, and breaks free of his restraints to pursue the British bad boy, On the way, Bane humps Mama Macaroni into rubble. The loss of her favorite restaurant devastates Ivy. Ivy fumes at Harley for being so obsessed with making the day special that she failed to internalize Ivy's wish for a simple day.

*❝ Everyone, calmly head for the nearest exit. Do not gawk at the large testicles swinging like wrecking balls. ❞*
— Brett Goldstein as kaiju Bane approaches the Gotham Amphitheater

At the Brett Goldstein show, Bane steps on Clayface, causing the shapeshifter to become whole again. Harley and Ivy get Clay to transform into a giant Brett Goldstein to talk Bane down. Harley briefs Clay on the turn-offs Bane listed on his dating profile, but before getting to them, Clayface makes a grammatical mistake that peeves Bane so much, he gets turned off. Betty arrives, impressed with having seen kaiju Bane hump buildings with such gusto. Bane (still kaiju-sized) is likewise impressed with the dominatrix's use of proper grammar, and the two head home together.

While gazing over kaiju-ravaged Gotham, Ivy assures Harley that she, Ivy, doesn't need amazing Valentine's gestures because this relationship is the best in her life. Ivy also recounts her best Valentine's Day: on a night in Arkham when she was feeling invisible and forlorn, Harley/Harleen herself came to her cell to share chocolate milk that she swiped from the commissary and chat about movies. It made Ivy feel wanted and that she belonged.

Throughout the episode, various super couples gave testimonials about their romances: Superman and Lois Lane, Hawkman and Hawkgirl, Killer Croc and Enchantress, Aquaman and Mera, Darkseid and Kimberly Guilfoyle. The episode concludes on Harley and Ivy's interview and them wishing the viewers a Happy Valentine's Day.

## Cast and Characters

### Main Cast

* Kaley Cuoco as Harley Quinn
* Lake Bell as Poison Ivy, Female fan #1, Female fan #2
* Alan Tudyk as Clayface, Clayface #2

### Guest Cast

* James Adomian as Bane, Terrorist #1, CEO
* Leila Birch as Enchantress, Lover #1
* Quinta Brunson as Hawkgirl
* Chris Diamantopoulos as Aquaman, Chef
* Rachel Dratch as Queen Hippolyta
* Brett Goldstein as Himself
* Josh Helman as Captain Boomerang
* Michael Ironside as Darkseid
* Vanessa Marshall as Wonder Woman

* Natalie Morales as Lois Lane
* Matt Oberg as Killer Croc, Thurston, Waiter
* Jim Rash as The Riddler, Terrorist #2
* John Stamos as Etrigan the Demon
* Janet Varney as Mera
* Tyler James Williams as Hawkman
* Casey Wilson as Betty
* James Wolk as Superman, Street Vendor

### Cameos

* Clock King
* Darryl Brown
* Wendy Brown
* Bill
* King Shark
* Tabitha
* Bruce Wayne
* Catwoman
* The Joker

* Bethany
* Kite Man
* Golden Glider
* Steve Trevor (pictured)
* Zatanna Zatara
* Flash
* Princess
* Kimberly Guilfoyle

## Trivia

* The special was announced on the show's official *Twitter* account on October 7, 2022.
* The original synopsis revealed for the special read: "The Special will feature Harley and Ivy celebrating their very first Valentine's Day together, while also revealing how the rest of the ragtag crew spends the gushiest, mushiest, most romantic day of the year."
* The special is about 44 minutes long as opposed to the usual 22-minute episode length.
* The movie that Joker and Bethany are seen watching in the opening is "A Hard Wayne's Gonna Fall" the Thomas Wayne biopic which Clayface stared in in season 3.
* At their date at Mama Macaroni Ivy sings the same tunes as she did in the episode "A Thief, a Mole, an Orgy" when the restaurant was first mentioned.
* Bane's turn-offs are briefly visible on Harley's phone. They read:
	1. "Use of the word ‘anyways’ instead of ‘anyway’"
	2. "Angel hair pasta"
	3. "That thing where you say “Goodbye” to somebody and you both walk in the same direction"
	4. "Incorrect grammar"
	5. "Screenwriting Twitter"
	6. "Bad posture"
	7. "Brand social media using first person."
	8. "When you have to turn up the TV for dialogue then down for action scenes"
	9. "Mask chafing"
	10. "When people don’t know what to order at Big Belly Burger. It’s FAST food. Not THINK ABOUT IT food!"
	11. "Orange-flavored venom"
	12. "Capitalism in general"
	13. "When people don’t RSVP. It takes 5 minutes!"
* In an interview, Justin Halpern explained why Harley didn’t immediately ask what Ivy’s best V-Day was, and why Ivy didn’t say it right away: "*We thought of it from two different perspectives. When Harley hears that this Valentine's Day isn't Ivy’s favorite, she's so in the moment that she never bothers to ask what was. Ivy doesn’t share it because it was a time when she felt really weak, vulnerable, and lonely. And that's those two characters: One is constantly living in the moment and unable to put anything in context, and the other one is always remembering a time when she felt less than."*
* In the same interview, Halpern’ explained the inspiration behind Bane’s insecurity *"…I have a friend who is six-foot-nine, and he was like, ‘If you took my penis and you put it on a normal person’s body, it would look big. But because it’s on my body, it doesn’t look very big. It’s not fair, because it’s a normal-sized penis!’ We took that idea and ran with it."*

### DC references

* Clayface's date uses a picture of Jason Momoa, who in real life plays the DCEU's Aquaman.
* Ivy is called “Red” for the first time in the cartoon, albeit in writing instead of aloud.
* Clayface's "death" scene in Crime Alley might be a reference to the Waynes' murder in Batman lore.
* When Bane says "It would be extremely painful...for *you*," it is a reference to the film *The Dark Knight Rises*.
* The scene of Zatanna and Flash is a recreation of an iconic panel of the pair from Justice League of America #187.
* Bane's hatred of "reckless disregard for language" might by a remnant of the character's usual cunning and intelligence (the Bane in *Arkham Origins* deduced Batman's secret identity), which are subverted in *Harley Quinn* for a more vulnerable and humanized portrayal.

### Miscellaneous references

* The Lord Byron poem read by Brett Goldstein is called "So We’ll Go No More a Roving." It is about someone who must stop partying and having fun ("roving") for the night because they no longer have the energy ("the sword outwears its sheath … the heart must pause to breathe"). Lines like "the heart be still as loving / And the moon be still as bright" indicate it's not that the night is over, but the narrator's body can't keep up with the fun they wish to have. Since Byron wrote it at age 29, it could be interpreted as saying a reluctant good-bye to one’s wild youth.
* Ivy references the movie *Under the Tuscan Sun* when eating the "la-zeat-balls" at Mama Macaroni's, since the server calls the dish the "Tuscan Turducken".
* Hippolyta saying "Help Me Diana You're my only hope" is a reference to line from *Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope*.
* Darkseid's Valentine is Kimberly Guilfoyle. In real life, Guilfoyle is a former attorney, former, Fox News personality, and financée of Donald Trump Jr.
* Tyler James Williams and Quinta Brunson, the voices of the Hawk duo, are cast members on *Abbott Elementary*, another project by Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker.
* Bane lists the later seasons of *The Office* as his favorite TV show on his dating profile.
	+ Upon learning of this, Ivy makes a reference to the series finale of the show *Dexter* being bad.
* Ivy uses actor Ian Someholder continuing to film season 5 of the TV-show *The Vampire Diaries* after his break-up with co-star Nina Dobrev to rally Clayface.
* Clayface and Clayface II rereeate the balcony scene from Romeo & Juliet.
* Ivy says her aunt shares articles on a platform called "Wayneface", a nod to the real-life platform Facebook. In "Another Sharkley Adventure," Batgirl mentioned a platform called "Waynestagram".
* When recounting Ivy's best Valentine's Day, they recall how Harley described the entire plot of *Shrek 2* to her with present day Harley noting that it's "It's not as good as the first one but it's more fun." In their ending interview, Harley suggests recapping *Shrek 3* before being stopped.
	+ Harley being the cinephile in the relationship is consistent with a joke from "There's No Ivy in Team", in which she is flabbergasted to learn Ivy has never watched *Jurassic Park*.
* The couple interview scenes a reference to the 1989 romcom *When Hally Met Sally*, which has older couples (actors re-enacting true stories) plus the titular Harry and Sally recount how they met. Some of film's dialogue is even echoed by the DC characters:
	+ One WHMS couple met when the man was sitting in a restaurant with a friend, saying he'd spotted a girl he wanted to marry, and doing so two weeks later. This is echoed by Hawkman and Hawkgirl.
	+ With another couple, the man and woman nearly talk over each other — and provide specific location (street name, floor number) and career details, living "one block away" from each other, never crossing paths until finally meeting atop a building — mirrored by Superman and Lois.
	+ In one of the couples, the man talks but the woman does not, which is like Darkseid and Kimberly.
	+ As the final interviewees, Harley and Ivy mirror Harry and Sally, who start with: "The first time we met, we hated each other. / No, you didn't hate me, I hated you", followed by becoming friends, then falling in love. Harlivy's version is: "The first time we met, we tried to kill each other. / No, you didn't try to kill me, I tried to kill you."

## Gallery

### Promotional

Official posterOfficial bannerTwitter bannerLogo
### Screenshots

*See also: All images from "Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine's Day Special"*

Superman and Lois LaneTitle cardProposalKing Shark and Tabitha... and ClayfaceBruce WayneJoker and BethanyKite Man and Golden GliderDate at Mama Macaroni's"Harlivy Forever"Hawkman and HawkgirlClayface "killed" in Crime AlleyWonder Woman and Steve TrevorHarley impersonates an amazonKiller Croc and EnchantressClayface finds love... with himselfZatanna and The FlashAquaman and MeraPrincess getting offGiant BaneDarkseid and Kimberly GuilfoyleClayfaces on datePast Valentine's Day at ArkhamHappy Ending
### Videos

Harley Quinn- A Very Problematic Valentine's Day Special - Official Trailer - HBO MaxEvery Orgasm Counts - Harley Quinn- A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special
## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 ‘Harley Quinn’ Valentine’s Day Special Set At HBO Max Denise Petski, *Deadline* (October 7, 2022).
2. ↑ *I need a new pair of shorts because @hbomax just announced we're getting a VALENTINE'S DAY SPECIAL!* @dcharleyquinn, *Twitter* (October 7, 2022).
3. ↑ ‘Harley Quinn’ Showrunners Break Down Clayface’s Autoeroticism, Penis Jokes and ‘High-Brow’ Appeal of ‘A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special’ Selome Hailu, *Variety* (February 9, 2023).