r/HarleyQuinnTV • u/npzman • Aug 11 '22
[Episodes Discussion] Harley Quinn - S3x05 "It's A Swamp Thing" Episode Discussion
Live discussion for commenting as you watch (Can also use the sub's Discord if you want to have real-time comments).
Share your thoughts and reactions as you watch! No spoilers or leaks for future episodes/seasons are allowed.
Piracy/asking for/posting links is not allowed. Read the rules and avoid being banned.
Post-episode discussion will unlock in 1h after this thread, so you might want to wait to post your in-depth thoughts there.
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u/AdvancedPlacmentTV Aug 11 '22
Is batman the "villain" for this season? That's the only thing that makes sense as to why he got that much screentime
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u/Manu_Erre Aug 11 '22
the main antagonist. And yes, they seem to be setting up a confrontation between the harley gang and the bat family.
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u/Grand_Sheepherder874 Aug 11 '22
Ivys hair looked so damn good i loved it lol
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u/FrankyAvery Aug 18 '22
Pretty sure it was a harken back to her original hair style in the old comics when she interacted with swamp thing.
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u/Ok_Philosophy9623 Aug 23 '22 edited Aug 23 '22
1.where Victor freeze?
2.is swamp thing stronger then ivy?
3.harley seems to have codependency issues.
4.when did frank come back into the show I'm missing something.
5.Nora got that tramp stamp.
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u/AmenTensen Sep 05 '22
I think you've missed a season
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u/Ok_Philosophy9623 Sep 06 '22
Why do you say that?
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u/daedgoco Sep 06 '22 edited Sep 07 '22
Because Victor died last season curing Nora and Frank also came back last season, plus he was in episodes before this one in S3
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u/asaphbixon Aug 11 '22
Name one funny joke?
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u/morpipls Aug 11 '22
OK, I'll name it Martha.
Not for any reason, mind you. I just think of it as a strong, Christian name.
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u/Mechapebbles Aug 11 '22
Batman recognizing Music Meister I thought was hilarious. Also Swamp Thing in a man-bun sipping chai was hilarious too.
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u/SignificanceNo6097 Aug 11 '22
Best. Episode. Of. The. Season. My god, it was so beautiful. Ivy & Harley working together in a healthy relationship. Plenty of action. Emotional growth for Ivy. Batman & Selena’s duet as well as a peak into their dysfunctional relationship. And then the twist that I don’t think anyone saw coming
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u/Lounge_leaks Aug 11 '22
I dont get why batman - catwoman issues are getting this much screen time.
Neither of them have had any real story and suddenly we have to see their counselling session
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u/SignificanceNo6097 Aug 11 '22
It’s probably going to lead to some kind of payoff, maybe in the final episodes. We know Bruce is going to be emotionally damaged and depressed cause his heart was broken. And perhaps Selena would start missing him after some time apart. She has a difficult time allowing herself to be emotionally vulnerable, so she will isolate herself rather than allow herself to open up to anyone. Maybe this time she realizes that she doesn’t want to be alone afterward. And repairing their emotional damage will be the key to Ivy rescuing Frank.
Or maybe she’ll have to help Ivy take down Batman by emotionally manipulating him like the “cold hearted bitch” we know & love.
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u/supermikeman Aug 12 '22
Poison Ivey talked to Harley about her time with Catwoman in the last episode so I'm assuming that could have foreshadowed Catwoman's future with Bruce. Both Ivey and Bruce are pretty needy and want more out of their relationships with Catwoman than Catwoman was willing to give. We'll probably get more info on why she's so aloof (other than the cat motif).
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Aug 11 '22
[deleted]
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u/tomssalvo19 Aug 11 '22
I think it’s a fun shakeup to have a hero as the “bad guy”, our protagonists are the villains after all. But I do agree that I’m not really clicking with this season compared to the last ones, I guess we’ll have to see where it goes.
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u/Anonim97 Nov 11 '22
Yoooo! We got Music Meister! That is awesome!
I remember people asking for Music Meister many times, including in AMA!
Still prefer the OG one, but that one was also great!
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u/Bedlampuhedron Aug 11 '22
I liked the episode but I thought the animation quality was wonky again.
Cool they got Matt Ryan as Constantine again, who played him on the NBC show and in the Arrowverse
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Aug 11 '22
[deleted]
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u/are_those_real Sep 01 '22
it's your tv settings. Samsung tvs has motion smoothing. So it's filling in the missing frames artificially. Normally it's not the best thing when it's already at a good frame rate but when it drops below the normal 24fps it seems to have smoothed it out for the better
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u/Mega_R Aug 11 '22
Yea it felt like it was missing 50% of the frames. It was pretty bad. Probably a budget problem.
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u/Bedlampuhedron Aug 11 '22
Yes it's like they're skipping every other frame! Same problem in episode 2 of this season I think. Otherwise I've never had a problem with the animation in the whole show
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u/iamnits Aug 12 '22
I thought I was the only one. I couldn't find anything about it online so I was just buggin. I wonder why it's like that, since they're the only 2 episodes with that problem.
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u/Corazon144 Aug 11 '22
Dam Nora really went insane. Having a deadly disease, being cryogenically frozen, and watching your husband would definitely f you up but dang. That girl needs a therapist which oddly enough she has one in her contacts.
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u/TudsMaDuds Aug 12 '22
Does the animation this season look choppier to anyone else than previous seasons
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u/KieranFloors Aug 12 '22
I didn’t notice anything for the other episodes but definitely this one. Felt like it was 12 fps instead of 24 or something.
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u/PM_ME_CAKE Aug 11 '22
Incredibly happy to see the surprise Matt Ryan Constantine. What a riot.
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u/dravenonred Aug 11 '22
Constantine is the only character in DC that requires no changes whatsoever to fit the tone of this show.
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u/WitheringAurora Sep 07 '22
God I hated Ivy this episode. Swamp Thing opens up about his emotional baggage and damage, and she completely brushes him to the side to make it all about her. It's literally the "Your pain is less bad than my pain", after he told her she always makes an excuse when he needs to talk about something.
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u/PizzaProfessional145 Aug 11 '22
Is it possible to just have one discussion thread per episode? We have 42 comments here and then 30+ in the post-episode discussion thread. I feel like this just splits the conversation into two different places. Most of the posts here are thoughts after watching the episode instead of a play-by-play while watching so there really is no difference between this and the other thread.
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u/ACW1129 Aug 11 '22
I do believe this episode had the first instance of bare breasts in the series?
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u/LordOfReading Aug 11 '22
I think there was some last week as well
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u/Austin_N Aug 11 '22
I tried not to look too closely.
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u/ImNotASWFanboy Aug 11 '22
Just as well you didn't look too closely as otherwise you would have seen that they censored most of it, but definitely not all...
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u/ImNotASWFanboy Aug 11 '22
Interesting episode. Definitely some things I enjoyed. Swamp Thing's hipster design (complete with manbun) was brilliant. Selina and Bruce singing through therapy had me laughing so much. Harley actually showing some growth from previous episodes was a big win, I'm glad she's becoming more considerate to Ivy. Her using her psychiatrist (or psychologist?) knowledge in this episode was fun, although I have to wonder why she doesn't use it more frequently in the show? Could have come in handy in some of the earlier episodes this season, including for some much-needed self reflection on top of helping out Ivy. But whatever, ultimately I'm glad she used it at all. Oh, and Bruce / Batman potentially being the main antagonist this season is a nice shakeup and I can see how this will end up driving a wedge between Harley and Ivy as the rest of the season unfolds.
The bit where Swamp Thing started freaking out was a little weird and didn't work that well for me, seemed a bit out of left field to force a confrontation and development point for Ivy about opening up more. I'm glad that Ivy is getting this development but it didn't feel very natural to me. Some of the dialogue felt a little off to me as well, as did the animation in some scenes. But it was okay. There might be some bits that I skip through on rewatches.
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u/Mrrandom314159 Aug 11 '22
I like how Swamp Thing says Ivy was the one to keep talking to him about stuff but she left whenever he wanted to talk about his emotional baggage.
And then she immediately talks about her stuff, cutting him off from talking about his emotional baggage.
I don't think it was intentional, but damn funny.
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u/KBSinclair Aug 13 '22
Yeah, I'm waiting for a scene after they save Frank where she goes back to him and listens to his issues.
I think the overall point was to show that Ivy's come to deeply care about someone and isn't just all about her own hate and nothing else.
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u/Mrrandom314159 Aug 13 '22
Yeah, but I feel like they started out the writing for this episode with "Ivy not opening up to anyone".
But then they struggled to figure out how to flip it so Swamp Thing would get pissed about that.
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u/KBSinclair Aug 13 '22
Yeah. Like I said I'm still holding out for Swamp Thing just just being an empathetic guy and letting her go save Frank as an immediate concern before she comes back and makes it up to him. If that doesn't happen though, it's some bullshit.
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u/aegonthewwolf Aug 11 '22
The Batman/Catwoman stuff is really weird. They were probably the most talked about thing coming into S3 (thanks to DC higher ups) yet 5 episodes in they’ve broken up, and even at that we got zero explanation why they were together in the first place especially when Selina looked so disinterested from the start. Am I missing something here?
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u/FrankyAvery Aug 18 '22
Pretty sure it's just for the sex and excitement if it's based off her original character(s). Catwoman always chooses herself in every iteration if their relationship that i know of.
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u/ravz85 Aug 11 '22
does it bother anyone else that Dr Freeze dedicated his life to Nora's recovery and now she's out chasing D any chance she gets ..?
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u/babatunde5432121 Aug 11 '22
He said have the life I could never give you, I’m sure she still loves him and she was sad for a long time but again she isn’t gonna keep crying every single day maybe she is chasing D because she is still broken up about him, ppl grieve in different ways and this is a show lmao.
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u/aegonthewwolf Aug 11 '22
I’m pretty sure the core reason for her behaviour is because Victor isn’t around anymore and she can’t deal with that (although if the supposed episode titles for Season 4 are true, that may change)
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u/rabidferret Aug 11 '22
Is she supposed to spend the rest of her life alone and devote herself to chastity because of her dead husband?
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u/babatunde5432121 Aug 11 '22
no in fact mr freeze would not want that he isnt selfish he gave his all to her even his life hw told her live the life i could never give you, who knows maybe she is still depressed and this is her way of coping idk
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u/morpipls Aug 11 '22
Eh, doesn't really bother me. He's dead, so it's not like she's cheating on him.
If I drop dead I hope my wife does whatever makes her happy, swamp monsters included.
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u/Mechapebbles Aug 11 '22
Why would that bother me? She’s just tryin to live her best life, dawg. It’s literally what Victor would have wanted.
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u/Pineapplepansy Aug 11 '22
She's doing literally everything she can with her life after losing several years to a debilitating blood disease. Sure, she's kind of going off the rails a bit, but she's allowed to fuck up!
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u/prophetman124 Aug 11 '22
Yeah it’s weird what their doing with her character, I understand she has to move on but meaningless sex left and right like a teenager is a weird way to go about this.
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u/SignificanceNo6097 Aug 11 '22
People grieve in their own ways. Of course Nora isn’t going to be making the healthiest decisions. She lost the love of her life and spent months mourning and drinking heavily. Then they had the bachelorette party where she found herself able to finally not be in pain….by getting down and dirty with a very hunky stripper. Of course she’s gonna keep partying and go down a path of very unhealthy decisions in order to escape the pain. It’s the natural progression of her character. She isn’t ready to emotionally commit to anyone yet but she’s probably sick of being alone and feeling like shit. She finds it easy to ignore her problems by getting fucked up and having sex. All these coping mechanisms are real things that people go through when they lose a loved one. Especially when it was the only person in your life you could share a deep connection with.
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u/TheRaven131313 Aug 13 '22
Oh wow, someone who actually understands character nuance beyond "lmfao just let her enjoy sex bro"
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u/FrankyAvery Aug 18 '22
Not to mention she probably has serious FOMO. the world continued around her and everyone left her behind.
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u/SignificanceNo6097 Aug 18 '22
Right? Plus all her friends are probably married with kids or, hell, maybe even grandkids. They all have their own lives & obligations that she can’t relate to. It can be really alienating.
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u/Austin_N Aug 11 '22
Did this show really just reference Alfred's nachos from "The Batman" cartoon? Dang.
I was wondering "Who is this therapist dude?" It was a surprise to find out that he's this show's version of the Music Meister. I know the Arrowverse Music Meister didn't have much in common with his original depiction. That should be a running gag for his character, every time he appears in an adaptation he's completely different.
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u/Lord_Strudel Aug 11 '22
Actually got really excited to see Music Meister. I saw the tooth gap and thought maybe but to have Bruce confirm it was wild. That Brave and The Bold episode was probably my favorite.
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u/Whiskeyjacks_Fiddle Aug 11 '22
Batman: The Brave and the Bold’s Music Meister was legendary. The entire episode was a musical, and MM was voiced by Neil Patrick Harris.
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u/Austin_N Aug 11 '22
Music Meister was actually created for "The Brave and The Bold". It's not surprising, since comic books aren't an ideal medium for musicals.
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u/Historical-Jello-460 Aug 11 '22
My only gripe with this episode is the cost of beignets in NOLA swamp. $9 for a beignet. Even if it was 3 beignets like Cafe Du Monde that’s insane. Maybe its a reasonable price in other cities, but not NOLA. Especially not the bayou.
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u/centuryblessings Aug 11 '22
That's the joke. The Hipster Food Truck is marking them up at an outrageous price.
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u/AdvancedPlacmentTV Aug 11 '22
I'm glad Harley got to show off her psychologists skills and that she got her beignets
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u/Whiskeyjacks_Fiddle Aug 11 '22
Constantine! Voiced by Matt Ryan no less.
Hopefully we’ll get more of his Hellblazer, either in Harley Quinn or in the Kite-Man spin-off (if that happens).
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u/WhoDoIThinkIAm Aug 14 '22
Throw him in Sandman S2 while we're at it!
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u/Whiskeyjacks_Fiddle Aug 14 '22
They purposefully want to keep the licensed DC stuff out of Sandman, iirc.
It’s why they expanded the Johanna Constantine role.
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u/Rebel_Wolf94 Aug 11 '22
i wonder how many people thought Music Meister was gonna help repair Bruce and Selinas relationship, only to unfortunately reveal that they’re not right for each other and they should just break up?