'Harley Quinn': The evil of Doctor Psycho's parenting skills is too dark to ignore
For some children, there’s nothing harder than growing up with parents who truly believe in them. The kind of parents who see that spark of potential, and will not let their children rest until they’ve lived up to their parents’ wildest dreams. The kind of parents who take over their children’s life, manipulating every aspect of it, resulting in a paradoxical emotional mess in children who crave approval from the people they most resent. It’s messed up. It’s evil. It is, without a doubt, completely and utterly Psycho.
In the latest episode of ‘Harley Quinn’, the B-plot sees Doctor Psycho (Tony Hale) slandered by an anonymous vlogger known only as the ‘Cowled Critic.’ With the help of Poison Ivy (Lake Bell), they find the vlogger’s house through the grapevine (it’s an actual thing, apparently), where Psycho is shocked to find out that the hateful vlogger is his own son, Herman (Mark Whitten). Herman’s been harboring a lot of hatred for dead old dad, and it’s time for all of it to come out.
Surprising absolutely no one, it turns out that Doctor Psycho was a terrible father. The list of his parenting crimes may just outstrip his regular ones, as he’s locked Herman in the basement, killed anyone who even seemed to like him, never once bought him a gaming console, and worst of all, he named him Herman.
Okay, yes, Herman’s priorities are a little out of order, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a legitimate gripe with his father. It turns out, however, that the misery Psycho caused his son was entirely intentional, for after all, what supervillain has had anything but a tragic upbringing? Psycho saw a spark of evil in his son, and everything he did was to nurture it. Having seen just how evil Herman can be, Psycho couldn’t be more proud, and he tells Herman this. It’s all Herman has ever really wanted to hear, and the father and son share a touching moment as they declare their hate for each other, and hug.
It’s played for laughs, but when you get right down to it, the pressure that parents place on their children is kind of an evil act. Doctor Psycho may embody an extreme version of it, but not by much (aside from perhaps the murdering) - the pressure to become the person a child’s parents envision them to be warps a child’s perspective, and leads to a lot of grown people still hanging on to an unfulfilling sense of resentment than can never be fulfilled. It is exactly the sort of thing that breeds attitudes worthy of supervillainy, and the only reason why Doctor Psycho and Herman get to reconcile is because raising a truly terrible human being is what the goal was, all along.
In the real world, however, supervillainy isn’t a legitimate career choice (although there are quite a few political activists who might disagree), and the resentment that that kind of pressure breeds is passed on down to the next generation if left unchecked. Doctor Psycho may have successfully raised the supervillain he always wanted, but the real reason he was able to connect with Herman is that he saw behind Herman’s mask, and accepted him for who he is. If there is one thing to take away from the whole, very messed up situation that Poison Ivy thankfully calls them out on, it’s that.
The next episode of ‘Harley Quinn’ airs on January 10, on DC Universe