Harley Quinn Shocker: [Spoiler]’s Death Will Have ‘Unexpected’ Aftermath, Says Showrunner
The following contains spoilers from the Feb. 20 episode of Harley Quinn, now streaming on Max.
This week on Max’s Harley Quinn, art imitated life for Frank the Plant, who capped his stage performance as Brainiac’s ill-fated sidekick Koko by keeling over himself, in front of a full house and with a bereft Ivy rushing to his side.
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Frank (voiced by J.B. Smoove) had been cast as the Koko to Clayface’s (Alan Tudyk) Brainiac in a stage musical that was slapped together to educate the people of Metropolis on Brainiac’s origin story as well as the Coluan’s plan to perfect — and then miniaturize and entrap in a bottle! — the city. In a first plot twist, however, Clayface’s performance proved too damn moving, earning the audience’s sympathy versus striking fear in them, much to Lena Luthor’s (Aisha Tyler) frustration.
With Harley (Kaley Cuoco) also in the musical (as herself) and Ivy (Lake Bell) and Lena looking on from a box, Brainiac himself observed the production from his skull-shaped spaceship. Lamenting the death of Koko (which the insane cyborg came to realize long, long after it’d happened), Brainiac scoffed aloud that the people of Metropolis couldn’t possibly know the pain he felt. He almost seemed to wish on them a tragic loss, just prior to Frank abruptly succumbing to mysteriously inflicted wounds, then dying in Ivy’s arms.
TVLine spoke with Harley Quinn showrunner Dean Lorey about the decision to (weed)whack Frank, a longtime character on the series — and how his death will affect everyone during the back half of Season 5.
“We really wanted to focus on Frank this season,” ahead of his murder in Episode 6 (of 10), Lorey explained. “He’s part of Ivy’s origin story, and that allowed us to really explore the depth of Ivy’s love for Frank — even though they sort of fight with each other.”
Revisiting that bond “would give us a nice grounding for his death, which is unexpected,” said Lorey. “We can feel how much it means to Ivy.”
How exactly, though, did Frank die? That question will eventually be answered as a murder mystery unfolds in the Feb. 27 episode of the adult animated comedy.
“Frank’s death hopefully has a very unexpected result as we move into the latter half of the season,” Lorey previewed.
Plus, in a very Harley way, we might even see the sassy sentient plant again!
“Even though he’s dead, we do see him later this season in a different sort of way,” Lorey teased. After all, on this show, “death is malleable,” the EP reminded. “I mean, we killed Ivy in Season 1!
Want scoop on Harley Quinn, or for any other TV show ? Shoot an email to [email protected], and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line!
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