Tamal Kundu
Despite her current status as a comic book character, Harley Quinn’s journey didn’t begin that way. She made her first appearance in the iconic ‘Batman: The Animated Series,’ and since has become one of the most popular characters in all comics, with nearly seamless transitions to other mediums. As an adult-animated series, ‘Harley Quinn’ focuses on Harley’s relationship with Poison Ivy and her gradual transformation into a force for good. In season 4 episode 8, titled ‘II Buffone,’ Harley and Ivy return to the present to discover that the apocalypse has already started. They find Nora, who explains to them what happened, which effectively sets the episode mostly in the past. Here is everything you need to know about the ending of ‘Harley Quinn’ season 4 episode 8. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Harley Quinn Season 4 Episode 8 Recap
The episode begins with Harley and Ivy’s return to the present, upon which they discover that they have arrived six days after the day they left. In the indeterminate period, the apocalypse has already begun. When they traveled 25 years into the future, as shown in the previous episode, they found out exactly what would be in store for the world during the end days. They even encountered their daughter, who named herself after a character from James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ films and betrayed them by trying to hand them over to Damian Wayne, the sole surviving member of the Bat family. They realized how imperative it was to return and set things straight. With the help of one of King Shark’s children, perhaps the only one that made it to adulthood, they got back on the time sphere and traveled back to the past, only to land in the current circumstances.
The sky has become perpetually dark, there is anarchy in the streets, and smoke and fire are everywhere. Ivy and Harley run into Nora and Bane, who seem to gleefully participate in the looting and the destruction of property. The humor in ‘Harley Quinn’ doesn’t always land, but they can be quite riveting when they do. Discovering that the world has gone to hell in a handbasket during their absence, Ivy wonders whether the Snyderverse people took over while they weren’t there. As they still have the time sphere, they decide to go back six more days and fix everything, but before they can do that, the sphere explodes before their eyes. As the women try to come to terms with the fact that they can’t rewrite history this time, Nora relates to them what happened. We also get to see Bane’s grand journey to Italy to fix the pasta maker so he can impress Nora, not realizing she is barely aware of his existence.
In Italy, Bane gets a scooter and travels to the headquarters of the company that made the pasta maker he broke. However, he learns from a disinterested, wine-drinking employee that they no longer make pasta makers. Bane eventually gets agitated and blows up the place. As he drives his scooter away, Bane refuses to give up his search and looks for an alternate pasta maker, eventually landing at the doors of a human pasta maker. Initially, the elderly woman wants nothing to do with him, but he begs long enough for her to eventually acquiesce. As Bane puts himself through the grueling training overseen by a harsh teacher for Nora, the woman in question tries to cozy up with Captain Cold. Unfortunately for Bane, Nora has a type, and he has chosen the wrong gimmick for her to be romantically interested in him.
After Bane masters pasta making and packs up the pasta he has made, he prepares to leave, but the elderly woman refuses to let him go, claiming that she only shared her secret method because she wants him to be her successor. Eventually, Bane succeeds in getting out of there by promising her front-row tickets to Clayface’s show. Predictably, Clayface wants something in return, and it’s for Bane to headbutt Ivy on Gotham News, and Bane has little choice but to accept.
Harley Quinn Season 4 Episode 8 Ending: How Did the Apocalypse Happen?
The recent hair growth on Lex makes him look like a poor copy of Ra’s al Ghul, though Lex seems to be quite proud of it. In this episode, he finally fires his Earth Shaper laser gun under the pretext of fixing the Ozone layer, but as these things tend to do, the ray falls a couple of feet short before hitting Earth’s atmosphere. Lex discovers that volcanic eruptions can raise the atmosphere and breach the gap, so he recruits Volcana.
However, Nora finds out about this and refuses to let him leave with the younger supervillain. Furious, Lex traps everyone who is already there inside the headquarters of Legion of Doom. As this is Sunday, it’s only Nora, Volcana, Captain Cold, and King Shark. Eventually, Volcana has to use her powers to get herself and the others out, raising the atmosphere to the necessary level for the Earth Shaper to hit the Ozone layer this time and bring about the apocalypse. Back in the present day, after seeing a powerless Superman, Ivy and Harley realize that Lex did all this only to win against the Man of Steel.
Read More: Harley Quinn Season 4 Episode 7 Recap and Ending, Explained
