For being the titular character Harley Quinn is featured very little in the 8th episode of Season 4 of her own series, which in the end turns out to be a good thing as it allows other characters, Bane in particular, to shine.
This episode picks up where the previous episode’s cliffhanger leaves off with Harley and Ivy returning from battling their daughter in the future to discover they’ve come back a week too late and the world has gone dark. From there we flashback with the characters left behind in Ivy and Harley’s absence to discover what happened.
First, in his ongoing quest to impress Nora, Bane travels to Italy to find Italy’s finest pasta maker. While he’s in Italy Nora is stuck holding down the Legion of Doom fort(or headquarters) for Ivy while trying to get with Captain Cold. Predictably everyone goes haywire as Lex invades, the Legion of Doom Headquarters is locked down under impenetrable armor, King Shark’s hands are accidentally enlarged, and Nora continues to get blocked in her attempts to get laid.
Meanwhile in Italy Bane, after being robbed by a couple street urchins, discovers Mama Nacaroni, the finest pasta maker in Italy who teaches him the art of pasta making.
Also on the moon Lex is working on his Earth Saver to repair the ozone layer, but discover the beam is 10 ft(or 304 cm) too short to reach Earth’s atmosphere. Luckily due to Nora and her crew, which includes King Shark, Captain Cold, and Volcana the atmosphere is pushed out 10 ft and Lex can enact his plan, thickening the ozone layer and creating dark skies everywhere. It also cuts off the sun; the source of power for his nemesis Superman. This all brings up back to the start of the episode with Harley and Ivy returning to a darkened world full of looting. Thanks to King Shark’s large hands their time sphere is destroyed and they are stuck.
While Harley and Ivy are undoubtedly the stars of the show it was nice to see them take a break for most of the episode and let other characters be the focus. In particular, I enjoyed the storyline involving Bane in Italy and his interactions with Mama Nacaroni, the cousin of the founder of the Mama Macaroni restaurant franchise. I really enjoyed him trying to crack and eggs using a picture of a drunken Nora as inspiration and the twist at the end with her holding Bane hostage worked pretty well. Bane has been a consistent present in the series, but this is the first time he really gets the spotlight and it left me wanting more. Nora’s attempts to get laid were also quite enjoyable although I am rooting for her and Bane over her and Captain Cold. Based on how this episode ended with Bane helping Nora to loot a darkened Gotham we may get our wish.
Undoubtedly the next episode will return to regular scheduled programming and put the focus back on Harley and Ivy as they deal with a darkened Gotham, a depowered Superman and the lingering mystery of who killed Nightwing, but it was nice to take a slight tour to Italy with Bane and let Nora do her thing in Gotham.
Overall “Il Buffone “was yet another enjoyable episodes which didn’t give Harley and Ivy a lot to do, but left us wanting more of both Bane and Nora who hopefully will play slightly bigger roles in the episodes going forward. If you were expecting the action to pick right back up after the cliffhanger last episode you are surely left disappointed, but it was a fun episode nonetheless.
