‘Harley Quinn’ Just Delivered One of the Best Superman and Lois Scenes Ever, Hands Down

DGIX

March 19, 2025

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Harley Quinn Season 5, Episode 9.

Although Lois Lane (Natalie Morales) and Clark Kent/Superman (James Wolk) have been part of Harley Quinn’s supporting cast since the beginning of the show, they usually haven’t played the most prominent roles in the animated series’ central narratives. The show certainly enjoys giving its comedic takes on and taking joking shots at figures from the larger DC Comics universe, but it understandably focuses mostly on Bruce Wayne/Batman (Diedrich Bader) and the other superheroes and villains from Harley’s (Kaley Cuoco) home of Gotham City.

This has largely continued to be the case in Season 5 despite the show’s move to the Superman franchise’s main city of Metropolis, with Lois and some of the supporting characters from the Superman mythology only receiving very slight increases in screentime even though Harley and company are currently living in their neck of the woods. However, the season’s penultimate episode changes this by giving Lois and her relationship with Clark some well-deserved time in the spotlight, even though Clark himself actually remains offscreen.

Superman and Lois Always Need Each Other

Season 5, Episode 9, amusingly titled “Bottle Episode (But Not a ‘Bottle Episode’)”, begins in the wake of Lena Luthor (Aisha Tyler) shrinking the entire city of Metropolis and placing it in a bottle using technology stolen from alien conqueror Brainiac (Stephen Fry). While Harley and Poison Ivy (Lake Bell) break Lena’s brother Lex (Wendell Pierce) out of prison to confront her, Lois works with Bruce and the semi-reformed Joker (Alan Tudyk) to try to save the city from within. Eventually, after acknowledging how ridiculous it is that he of all people has to serve as the voice of reason, Joker tells Lois to call Superman, who is still in outer space on a vacation Harley unintentionally talked him into in the season premiere, for help.

Lois admits that she is reluctant to do so because she feels that she shouldn’t need Clark to rescue her as often as she does, even revealing that their relationship is on its own kind of sabbatical during Clark’s exodus. As the situation grows more dire, she does eventually agree to contact him, being forced to do so through Morse code with a machine she keeps at the Daily Planet after a malfunction with Bruce’s Bat-Radia shuts down more advanced technology throughout the city. The episode’s striking final scene shows the beeping sounds of the code carrying her message across the stars while accompanying voice-over reveals that it consists of Lois saying three simple words: “I need you.”

Clark presumably won’t be able to single-handedly save the day, nor should he, since it’s Harley’s show, and given how the adult comedy tends to mock and deconstruct common tropes of the superhero genre, there’s even a chance that his return ultimately won’t contribute that significantly to the protagonists’ assumed victory, but this scene was still an epic way to tease the Man of Steel’s return to the action and emphasize the power of his and Lois’ bond. That being said, one of the most important tasks for the season finale to accomplish is now to show Lois overcoming her insecurities about their dynamic, or at least making progress in doing so. Ideally, the episode should demonstrate that Clark also needs Lois in his own ways, emotionally to be an effective crime fighter, so that their relationship appears more equal than Lois fears it to be.

Similarly, Lois should be shown remembering her importance and value in regard to the world outside her relationship. Episode 9 highlights Lois’ inherent bravery and other heroic characteristics, even though she may not realize it, through her lack of hesitation in regards to fighting against Brainiac and Lena’s robot forces, despite not having either superpowers or the kinds of criminal or crime-fighting skills her peers have, and the best possible ending for her story this season would be to acknowledge these qualities herself.

Lois and Clark Are Back in the Spotlight at DC

This storyline is one of several examples of a recent emphasis DC is placing on the enduring power of its most famous couple across various projects. Fall 2024 saw the release of the final season of Superman & Lois, a live-action series that showed Lois (Elizabeth Tulloch) and Clark (Tyler Hoechlin) dealing with family and small town drama while approaching middle age and raising twin sons, exploring themes that few Superman stories outside the comics have touched on in much depth.

That show received well-deserved acclaim for its grounded, largely self-contained approach to superhero storytelling and emotionally rich writing. Likewise, cast and crew members of the Superman reboot film set for release in July have repeatedly emphasized the importance of Rachel Brosnahan’s Lois and her relationship with David Corenswet’s Clark to the story of the new DC Universe’s first big-screen release. The film’s first trailer emphasized this with shots from scenes highlighting the couple, including one in which they share a kiss while flying thanks to Clark’s powers.

On Harley Quinn, the classic Lois and Clark romance offers an interesting contrast to the more wild and unpredictable, but equally compelling love story between Harley and Ivy. Hopefully, this is a sign of what fans have to look forward to with future projects from DC Studios. The company would benefit from continuing to devote equal focus to both the most historically famous and influential characters and storylines and the more niche, recent, and/or unconventional parts of the canon.

Harley Quinn streams new episodes on Thursdays on Max in the U.S.