Well, folks, it’s Valentine’s Day. Or rather, the closest I can get without disrupting my weekly deadline, anyway. It’s been a How About That Thing tradition where I take a holiday that celebrates love, and use Batman: The Animated Series to be an absolute buzzkill by reminding everyone of how dark love can get. IE, “Mad as a Hatter”. Although you MIGHT be glad to know I’m running out of BTAS episodes with that sort of context, so maybe in 2027, I’ll have to think of something else. But we’ll burn that bridge when we get to it.
When trying to think of another love story gone horribly wrong to showcase here, I found there was only one episode worth covering left. Today, we’re talking about the legendary episode, “Mad Love”.
Mad love was an episode from the latter years of BTAS. IE, “the red sky era.”: an era of BTAS that’s remembered… Well… It’s kind of a mixed bag, if we’re being entirely honest. You either got an episode that was an absolute classic, or you got an episode that left you wondering who the hell wanted this. Your day is coming, Farmer Brown. But one thing this era of Batman did well was cover some darker subject matter. IE, the introduction of Firefly, or basically the entirety of “Over the Edge”. And then, there was this episode.
The episode begins with another plan by The Joker going up in smoke. Batman HIMSELF even says The Joker made it too obvious what he was going to do.
While Joker bitches and moans about another plan not paying off, and throwing around plans he hasn’t perfected yet, or put into practice yet, Harley Quinn reflects on how it all came to this.
Long ago, in a Gotham City far away, there was Harleen Quinzel.
No, seriously, that was actually her name before she became Harley Quinn. I’d honestly have an easier time believing that was a name she used after she became Harley Quinn as an alias, and her actual birth name was something like Josephine or Rachel or something. But really? Harleen Quinzel?
Even The Joker himself remarks on the irony during their first encounter. Harleen gives a standard “Yeah yeah, get it out of your system”, caliber response to The Joker’s comments.
Eventually, she gets her first therapy session with The Joker.
The Joker tells a story about how his dad used to beat his ass worse than 2025 beat The Tennessee Titans. He alludes to his dad “having a fondness for the grape”, which… Honestly, at this point, I both am and am not surprised they got away with. The red sky era did manage to get away with a lot more than previous seasons (the benefit of being on the WB network, I’m sure), but even THAT seemed like something they’d have to fight tooth and nail to get away with.
The days become weeks, the weeks become months, and the next thing you know, Harleen is falling for her own patient. How bad does it get, you ask.
Yip, that bad. Going to The Joker for therapy is like getting dating advice from The Mad Hatter.
Over time, Harleen finally snaps, and becomes the psychotic, soon-to-bee hammer-wielding lunatic you don’t even DARE insist is the female Joker on any given message board. Not even as a joke!
SIDE NOTE: Harley Quinn fans are fucking nuts! Maybe even more so than Harley herself!.
Back to the present day, Harley gets an idea. She fakes a video to the police, which gets Batman’s attention. Only for Batman to get bonked on the head, and…
Harley decides to take one of Joker’s old plans that he could never get right, and put just a little bit of a twist on it. Only to get psyched out by Batman. At first, he laughs at her, which… Yeah, I don’t blame Harley for getting freaked out. After all, Batman laughing is as unsettling as it gets. Batman explains the obvious: that The Joker doesn’t REALLY love Harley, and the sob story he sold her on was the same story he sold a parole officer on, except with a couple of minor details tweaked.
“He’s got a million of them,” he tells her.
Still not convinced, she decides to feed him to piranhas anyway. Only for Batman to remind her of the obvious fact that doing so now won’t mean anything. If you want to impress The Joker, you have to show it to him. To which Harley agrees, and makes a phone call.
The Joker is still throwing around papers, trying to decide on a plan.
“No. Been done. Not funny. Too Riddler. … “
Okay, that last one got a chuckle out of me.
When she shows Joker her plan, he gets furious. He wanted to be the one who destroyed Batman, not Harley. When she tries to explain her tweaks to his plan…
“But you had to EXPLAIN it to me! If you have to explain a joke, IT ISN’T A JOKE!”
Take note, Disney. Or really, any sitcom writer since 2015.
The Joker throws her out of a window, Batman escapes, a battle is had, Joker and Harley are both sent back to the nut house… And in the last minutes of the show, we are reminded of just how disfunctional their love is when Harley vows that she isn’t going to take shit from Joker any… Aw, look at this! I instantly forgive him!
And this was Mad Love: an episode that showcased the origin of Harley Quinn, as well as displayed the twisted idea of love that is the whole HarleyXJoker dynamic. It’s a dynamic that I love, and have considered iconic for as long as I’ve been a part of the Batman fandom. Harley: the obsessive believer in true love, and The Joker: the murderous lunatic who only TRULY loves himself, but puts up with Harley’s advances. It was dark, it was awful, and it reminds me of so many cultists over the years… And it worked. It was a perfect showcase of how obsession can make you believe anything if you want it bad enough.
Then, like so many things, the 2010s came around, and ruined it for everybody by making Harley Quinn yet another strong and independent girl-boss who don’t need no man. Which, in my opinion, ran in stark contrast to who Harley Quinn actually was. As awful as The Joker is, she loved him with all her being, and only wanted to be in on the joke. By making her yet another girl-boss, you’ve taken away a lot of what made her Harley Quinn, and just made her another posterchild for the SCUM Manifesto caliber misandry that passes for modern day feminism. And if you criticize it in any way shape or form, then CLEARLY, you’re a misogynistic pig who deserves to have his dick cut off and fed to him. There’s just no other possible explanation for why you wouldn’t like us radically changing something that didn’t need changed in order to keep our spot at the cool kids’ table.
Oh well, I guess it could be worse. I mean it’s not like they made a movie that made Cruella DaVille a sympathetic character who overcame big bad men and their…
GOD DAMN IT!
Well, anyway…
Mad Love is honestly one of the better episodes from the red sky era. And believe me, that’s saying a LOT. It does kind of feel a bit like it was squished in to fit within the twenty-two minute time limit, but that can be pretty easily forgiven. All and all, I recommend giving it a watch.
How About That Thing? 
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