Editor's Note: The following contains Harley Quinn Season 3spoilers.After a two-year-long hiatus, Harley Quinn returned to HBO Max with a bang, dropping the first three episodes at once for its third season. The debut episode, "Harlivy," picks up where Season 2 ended, following Harley (Kaley Cuoco) and Poison Ivy (Lake Bell) on their romantic Eat, Bang, Kill tour as Harley insists it is called. Upon receiving a call from a newly incarcerated Clayface (Alan Tudyk) and King Shark (Ron Funches), Harley and Ivy break into Arkham Asylum to rescue them. On their way out, Ivy bumps into a shadowy figure, who aggressively tells Ivy off. Harley, being Harley, picks a fight and yells indignantly at the shrouded figure who turns out to be none other than Amanda Waller (Tisha Campbell).
Ruthless and cutthroat, Amanda Waller runs the Task Force X program that is more frequently referred to as the Suicide Squad for its grisly reputation. In order to receive time off their prison sentences, select criminals from Arkham, Black Gate, and Belle Reve are offered a chance to join Task Force X to do the government’s dirtiest work. If they accept, a microchip is inserted in their brain and they are set free to complete the mission. But if they refuse to carry out an order or attempt to flee, Waller flips a switch and they lose their head. Waller doesn’t have any superpowers but what power she does hold over the Suicide Squad is incredibly dangerous as her manipulative tendencies and apathetic nature is enough to mark her just as bad as the Squad themselves — or worse.
After successfully rescuing King Shark and Clayface, Harley reveals to Ivy that she got her a present for their 18th day anniversary. Said present happens to be a body bag containing one furious Amanda Waller. Harley had no clue she kidnapped the head of the Suicide Squad but Ivy is mortified. After a brief joke remarking that Harley never returned her emails (as if Waller recruited for Task Force X via Gmail), Waller vows to sic the Suicide Squad on the two for kidnapping her. What follows is a montage of Task Force X that looks curiously familiar to the roster in David Ayer’s infamous Suicide Squad film from 2016.
This moment in the episode is yet another DC project to include or make mention of the Suicide Squad in recent years. Created in 1959, the Suicide Squad has been around for quite a long time, popping up every now and then in media like Justice League Unlimited in the early 2000s and again in 2014 for Batman: Assault on Arkham, but it wasn’t until David Ayer’s divisive take on the squad in 2016 that they gained the ability to hold their own IP. Hitting the big screen for the first time, Suicide Squad was a big stepping stone for DC as it followed Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) as she constructed Task Force X which introduced Margot Robbie’s now iconic Harley Quinn, alongside Deadshot (Will Smith), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), Katana (Karen Fukuhara) and Enchantress (Cara Delevinge), among others.
While the film was not received very well and tends to live in infamy among comic book fans, thanks in large part to Jared Leto’s unusual and controversial take on The Joker, the Suicide Squad remains a prominent component of DC. Two years later in 2018, DC released the animated film Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay which features a similar roster of members that held a very close likeness to those in the 2016 film. Notice that in 2014, a film about the Suicide Squad needed Batman’s name attached to attract viewership but after 2016, they could headline their own projects with easy recognition.
As Jared Leto’s Joker spiraled further into infamy and an unexpected chance for redemption in Zack Snyder’s Justice League the Suicide Squad continued to tumble around in the minds of DC fans. Most notably the mind of director James Gunn (Guardian of the Galaxy), who collaborated with DC to make a new version of Suicide Squad. I mean a sequel… a reboot… soft-reboot sequel? The film has been out for nearly a year and its direct relevancy to its 2016 predecessor is still murky. Semantics aside, the film, titled The Suicide Squad, was released last August and featured fractions of Suicide Squad. Davis returned to play Waller, Robbie returned to play Harley again, after Birds of Prey, and Courtney returned, very briefly, to reprise his role as Captain Boomerang. Stylistically, The Suicide Squad was drastically different from Ayer’s film. It was bright, bold, and very much R-rated, all wrapped up in James Gunn’s signature blend of humor and well-timed needle drops. Revisiting the Suicide Squad was a gamble for Warner Bros and DC after the rocky reception in 2016, but it paid off well and even earned John Cena’s character his own spin-off in Peacemaker.
Gunn’s influence on the image of the Suicide Squad and his impact on DC, in general, was enough to get him his own cameo on Harley Quinn. Appearing in "Harlivy," Gunn plays himself, a director in the process of auditioning for a new movie. Of course, aspiring actor and self-proclaimed thespian, Clayface is the one trying out for the role. When Clayface blows his chance at ‘Thug Number Three’ he is able to find a role providing lumbar support as Gunn’s new director’s chair. It’s such a delight to see Gunn and his work popping up in other corners of the DC universe as he has proven to be an incredible addition to the team. With Season 2 of Peacemaker confirmed to be on the way and additional spin-off projects that Gunn has teased for the future, it isn’t the last we have seen of James Gunn at DC.
There is a silent, curious power in the Suicide Squad name. It’s a genuinely intriguing concept with an assortment of wacky characters that always presents a compelling villain for our villains to fight (though Waller tends to remain the real villain) but it is odd to think that in these confusing times of the DCEU, we have spent more time with the members of the Suicide Squad in their movies and spin-offs than we have with any of the Justice Leaguers. Even the Justice League’s very first enemy Starro appeared as the big bad for Task Force X to face in The Suicide Squad. Rocksteady Studios is also releasing a video game focused on Task Force X (Harley Quinn, Deadshot, King Shark, and Captain Boomerang) called Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, where Harley and the squad have to stop a brainwashed Justice League. At this point, it wouldn’t be so far-fetched to argue that the Suicide Squad, or at least Harley Quinn, is more recognizable to general audiences than the complete Justice League.
Throughout every iteration of the Suicide Squad in recent years there has always been one constant: Harley Quinn. You would be hard-pressed to find a version of Task Force X in any media that doesn’t have Harley on the roster. Even if she isn’t the one in charge, she’s regularly the most outspoken and chaotic as she keeps the squad lively and intriguing. With that in mind and the introduction of Amanda Waller and the Suicide Squad in Harley Quinn, is it possible that Season 3 will end with Harley being coerced into Task Force X?
"Harlivy" ends with the destruction of Ivy’s secret oasis in ruins as Waller escapes via helicopter. Harley apologizes for kidnapping Amanda Waller and ruining their time together and the episode comes to a close on a happy note. And while Harley Quinn much like Teen Titans Go! is full of throwaway references and Easter eggs to past and present DC projects, it begs the question of Waller’s return. She’s in the wind, furious with Harley, and likely harboring a massive vendetta. If there is anything you need to know about Amanda Waller, it is that she does not let go of a grudge. With the popularity of the Suicide Squad and the introduction of Amanda Waller, could Season 3 see the end of Harlivy as Waller exacts her revenge and forces Harley to join the squad? Or will Poison Ivy’s plan to terraform Gotham corrupt her and leave Harley with no choice but to team up with Task Force X to stop them? Whatever the outcome, the appearance of Waller and the Suicide Squad was a fun reintroduction to the series and leaves the door wide open for many, many, explosive opportunities going forward.