Harleen Quinzel

Picture of Guy and Harleen edited by Joker to make it seem like it was him and Harleen together

Dr. Harleen Quinzel is a fictional character in the DC Comics Universe who later becomes the Joker's sidekick/girlfriend, Harley Quinn. In The Joker Blogs, she is arguably the secondary protagonist or hero character and (currently non-reciprocal) romantic interest of the Joker. In Series 1 she is portrayed by Kira Westburg, however, due to issues with travel, the part was recast. She is currently being portrayed by Kendra Cashmore.

History

After the events of The Dark Knight, the Joker was placed under the care of Dr. Harleen Quinzel for a 6-month trial period to assess whether he was truly insane and to spend the rest of his imprisonment at Arkham or Blackgate prison.

The Joker Blogs

Dr. Harleen Quinzel was first introduced in the first episode of The Joker Blogs titled "Therapy Begins". She is not seen on camera but she talks and interacts with the Joker while videotaping the sessions for her own reference and research purposes. The Joker develops an obsession with her and their interaction blurs the lines between doctor-patient and banter. The Joker makes inappropriate and often sexual innuendos and comments regarding Harleen's appearance which she rebuffs or tries to ignore.

She tries to talk to him about his past and his sanity yet he never fully answers her questions. However, she believes they are making progress due to him actively communicating and responding to her until the Joker breaks out of the asylum one night and records himself for the video "Meet Steve" and leaves the body of a security guard, Steve, in her office as his "gift" to her. Things get worse the following day during "A Dream Come True", where Harleen tries to get the Joker to see the serious repercussions his antics have caused because both their futures are now in jeopardy, with the District Attorney Mr. Fields now having the leverage to throw the Joker into Blackgate Prison and her job being on the line. However, it is discovered that the Joker has also killed and skinned alive Mr. Fields in the exact manner of a dream he had been describing to Harleen.

Following this, in "A Funny Valentine", Harleen storms in to confront Dr. Jeremiah Arkham who is interrogating Joker about sending him a Valentine's chocolate box that he felt threatened by. As the two doctors argue, they stop and watch in horror as Joker opens the box, except there is only chocolate inside that he proceeds to eat. The awkward silence grows when Joker asks Harleen if she would be his Valentine, and before she can respond, Jeremiah requests that they speak privately outside.

In "Hypnotized", Harleen is promptly replaced as the Joker's therapist with Dr. Hugo Strange taking on her role as his psychiatrist, which Joker is not pleased by since he had already developed an unrequited obsessive love for Harleen, however, due to a violent altercation in which Strange attacks the Joker, she is reinstated.

In "An Apple A Day", Harleen has been reinstated as Joker's therapist. She tells him it was due to Jeremiah believing that it was best to get on Joker's good side after what happened with Strange. Dr. Jonathan Crane interrupts their session and implies that he and Harleen had a brief relationship during which he asked her out, though she disgustedly denies that she ever accepted his advances. He also warns Harleen about the Joker not faking insanity though she remains undeterred. As Joker asks Harleen about the man she is seeing, she admits she is engaged to Guy Kopski, a medical intern, which upsets Joker. He then questions her on whether she loves Guy, and she hesitates in saying yes or no. Joker considers this response to be strange and muses that if she sees something she wants then she should take it by force. Harleen seems perplexed by his assessment, telling him that such action can't be considered love if she is using force to get it.

Nonetheless, in "Artistic Merit", Harleen seems to have taken his advice, as she tells him that she and Guy have set a date for their wedding and are planning on moving to Metropolis, meaning she won't always be around as Joker's doctor in the future. The Joker is clearly upset and agitated by the news which sets into motion the events of "Road Trip".

After the Joker's escape from Arkham, Harleen is seen on camera for the first time in "Find Patient 4479", albeit in a hazy, unfocused recording in an appeal to the audience to find Patient 4479 before the news gets out to the media and panic arises in Gotham.

At the wedding in "Shotgun Wedding", Harleen's family and associates are present, including characters from the comics who have been unseen in the Nolan franchise, including Dr. Thomas Elliot, Dr. Hugo Strange, and Jack Ryder, who is serving as the cameraman. Before she walks down the aisle, Harleen confides her doubts about the move to Metropolis to her roommate and maid of honor, Pamela, who encourages her to go for it.

However before they can say their vows, the Joker crashes the wedding and shoots the priest, Father Joseph, claiming he has been sent by Guy's brother to assume the mantle of the best man (he is shown killing the Best Man in "Killing Kopski"). He proceeds to knock out Harleen's father and consequently shoot Guy himself. As Harleen clings to Guy's dying body, the Joker attempts to kiss her before the lights cut off, signaling the arrival of Batman.

In the chaos, Harleen picks up a gun and shoots at Batman who is knocked unconscious. The Joker wrestles the gun from her, apparently angry at her for taking a shot at the Batman and then puts the barrel of the gun in his own mouth to dare her into shooting him as well. When Harleen does not, he openly suggests to her that she doesn't have anyone else besides him to hold onto and that she didn't want to go through with the wedding or she wouldn't have gotten so close to him. He further insinuates that all this was bound to happen, as she still went through with the wedding even after he broke out of the asylum and that she might as well have been the one to shoot Guy herself. Harleen in response shoots him in the arm, and as Joker grapples with his bleeding arm, Harleen stoically sits down next to him. She coldly asks if he knows what they say about payback, and whispers at him, "It's a bitch, puddin'", before smacking him with the gun, causing him to topple over, during which she leaves.

Sometime later in "Staff Verification", Harleen is interviewed by Gotham Cable News reporter Summer Gleason who inquiries about whether she was at all concerned at the time she became Joker's therapist that an unhealthy obsession would occur. Harleen says she wasn't obsessed, as she mistakenly believes Summer is asking if she herself became fixated on the Joker. She insists she didn't have any idea things would turn out this way and that she is still confident in her abilities as a psychiatrist. Summer states she has been accused of being a gloryhound and inexperienced in her job and asks if it has been worth it despite what has happened to her now. Harleen takes a moment to think before answering, explaining that if she is being asked that the sacrifices she made and the pain she endured is so other people don't have to lose anyone, then it is worth it. As for what Harleen intends to do with the Joker now, she does not want to quit her job as she doesn't want him to win and will resume her duties as his therapist, determined to help him as she has nothing left to hold onto. 

In the Further Evidence episode "Therapy Ends", Harleen is shown to be suffering from nightmares and insomnia and this has taken a toll on her at work and in her personal life. Her father and fellow colleague and friend, Pearl, both express their concern for her but she still carries on as normal. It also is revealed that in the six months since the events of the wedding she has taken on the name Harleen Kopski and is now Chief of Staff at Arkham. 

Harleen visits the Joker, who is being held in maximum security and restrained from the neck down, and confronts him and tells him that she intends to lie at the Arkham board meeting about them making progress when, in fact, it is the first time in months that she has been to see the Joker. As a result, the scheduled therapy sessions have become a time for the guards to beat and assault the Joker, an action to which she responds to by stating she will deliberately misplace the security footage so no one will ever find out and that she will give a raise to the guards. She tells the Joker there is no fixing him and she will do everything in her power to ensure he stays down in maximum security for the rest of his natural life. Joker gets the last word in by telling her that soon she'll be saying she likes him just the way he is, to which Harleen slaps him as tears well up in her eyes. He suggests he is the reason she is now Chief of Staff because she is young and inexperienced, as most of the Board Members are mobsters who are paying the guards to keep him underfed and suppressed because they are afraid of him, and in turn they are trying to control her too. Despite all this, Harleen is satisfied knowing Lex's money will never run out and the Joker will never be free again, as long as she plays her part to ensure he dies in the asylum. Joker asks if he can at least have visitation rights, and Harleen agrees to his outlandish request. As she leaves, the guard tells her that the Joker has a visitor (Theodore), which she grants. She then makes her way into the elevator, where she has breaks down sobbing and screams.

As Harleen proceeds to the board meeting in "Fall of the House of Arkham", Pearl walks alongside her and gives her some files. She questions Harleen on her visit to the Joker and if she saw him, noting that Harleen's security badge accessed the floor for maximum security. Harleen looks troubled by Pearl's inquiry, and Pearl hugs her and tells her to breathe. Harleen regains her composure and continues walking, while Pearl jokingly asks if she kicked the Joker's ass. Pearl is filling her in on Dr. Cavendish waiting for her arrival and having not heard back from Dr. Elliot, when suddenly the lights are cut as Dr. Arkham announces he has put the entire asylum on lockdown to reclaim what is his. Panicked, Pearl begs Harleen to leave before it is too late but she refuses. She instead heads back to her office where Dr. Crane surprises her and proceeds to knock her out with fear gas.

In "Near Death Experience", Harleen remains asleep and undergoes a series of hallucinations due to the fear gas, including reliving her past therapy sessions with the Joker, though their roles reversed, as she is seen as the patient and the Joker as her doctor. Jonathan Crane mentions that if she were to wake up, "she would never be the same person again." During the hallucinations, it is revealed that Harleen's mother left her and her father, ("Mommy ran off with some thug") and that Harleen promised that she would never end up like her mother, which, is ironic considering she will (probably) run off with the Joker as Harley Quinn. As the dream sequence continues, she is seen in her apartment, with the Joker telling her that she could stay there with Guy, but that it would not be real. The Joker tells her she has to make a choice because she is afraid to move on. In another sequence, the Joker and Harleen enter the church where she was going to marry Guy. The Joker claims that this Guy is not her fiance (because the real Guy is dead and this one is a figment of her subconscious) and that he represents "everything standing in her way." The Joker states that he himself represents everything Harleen "knows in her heart to be true." He tells her to end Guy, and only then she can leave the hallucination. She is then shown holding a shotgun, having to choose between the Joker and Guy. As she fires the gun, the scene ends and Crane is shown boxing up the things in Harleen's office. He then looks at the Harlequin mask, before the camera turns to Harleen, who has woken up from the hallucination.

Harleen has not been seen again since she woke up, though she was mentioned by Crane in "The Other Side of the Coin", where he told Lyle that Harleen left.

Personality

Harleen, out of all the characters, undergoes the biggest change throughout the series. She starts as a professional and well-meaning therapist. Unlike those around her, she has a genuine belief to help others and is annoyed at some of the lax procedures and undercurrent corruption at Arkham, a frustration she openly expresses to both the Joker and Jeremiah Arkham. She maintains that she can help the Joker and tries to get him to respond in a variety of ways including art therapy and prescribed medication. As her relationship with the Joker progresses, she becomes more self-assured and agrees to leave Gotham with her fiance.

After the wedding, Harleen is gradually showing signs of reaching her breaking point. She has become tougher and more closed off to others. Her belief in the benefits of Arkham and helping others has become distorted and she no longer believes the Joker is capable of saving, and it's very clear she hates him. She also breaks down and cries in the lift on the way to her board meeting.

Trivia

• There are countless references in the show to Harleen's future as Harley Quinn:
  • Joker suggests that she would look good as a blonde. For the portrait he paints of her in "Artistic Merit", he ran out of brown paint and used yellow paint for her hair. At the wedding, she is shown to have highlighted her hair blonde. Harley is a blonde in the animated series and in the comics, in the latter she herself claims she is not a natural blonde, suggesting that at one point she was a brunette.
  • He also mentions seeing newspaper photographs of her where she went a bit heavy on the eyeliner and curiously asks her if it was his influence on her. Harley's costume does consist of wearing heavy clown make up, including thick black rings around her eyes.
  • After she shoots the Joker, she refers to him as Puddin', which was one of Harley's infamous nicknames for the Joker.
  • Pamela, Harleen's maid of honor is present at the wedding. Pamela, being Pamela Isley, is the alias of Poison Ivy who is Harley's best friend in the comics.
  • Just above her desk in Series 2 is a carnival mask similar to the one she paints on her face as Harley Quinn.
  • The most obvious foreshadowing is in the trailer for Series 2. Harleen is shown sitting at home where a pack of flying cards surrounds her. She is looking at the portrait of her the Joker painted in "Artistic Merit" and gradually begins to smile. The music playing in the background is "I Started A Joke" another reference to the Joker and Harley Quinn.
  • In Series 1, Harleen has a lip piercing. In Series 2 due to recasting of actresses for Harleen's role, the piercing is no longer there.
• Harleen refers to the Board Members as a Rogues Gallery, indeed the Arkham Board Members consist of some of DC's great villains including Dr. Hugo Strange, Jeremiah Arkham who became the second Black Mask, and Dr. Thomas Elliot, who is otherwise known as the Villian, Hush. And of course, Lex Luthor, the arch-enemy of Superman, one of the members of the Justice League with Batman.

Episode Appearances

Series 1

• "Therapy Begins"
• "Arkham Bound"
• "A Dream Come True"
• "My Funny Valentine"
• "An Apple A Day"
• "Artistic Merit"
• "Find Patient 4479"
• "Shotgun Wedding"
• "Staff Verification"

Further Evidence

• "Therapy Ends"

Series 2

• "Fall of the House of Arkham"
• "Near-Death Experience"