Batman: The Enemy Within: Episode 2 - The Pact has Bruce Wayne calling on John Doe, the pale-faced, green-haired man Bruce met at Arkham, to learn more about John's friends that are clearly the same people Riddler was working with. With John's help, he meets Harleen Quinzel, a former psychiatrist who has her own problems, and she decides to test Bruce in a way that will make it hard to both protect the people Bruce has to interact with, and keep his public image from being dirtied more than it already is. What's really interesting though, is we get the first tidbits of Telltale's version of John (as the not-quite Joker) and Harley's relationship.
Telltale's Batman doesn't have a problem shaking up the standard character roles, especially in last season's reveal of Thomas Wayne's dark past. Here, the developers change things up yet again with John and Harley's relationship. Typically, Harley is seduced and turned by Joker's cleverness and insanity so that she becomes the clown-themed villainess modeled after Joker and she finds herself falling for, swooning over, and at Joker's beck-and-call. While more recent stories have her breaking out on her own and getting away from the abusive relationship, I've never seen this particular twist on the couple's story.
In The Enemy Within, Harley is fully realized in her villain role, complete with clown motif, and it is John Doe who is infatuated with her and doing whatever he can to impress his love. Meanwhile it's obvious to Bruce and everyone else that Harley mainly wants to play games with his affection and use it to manipulate John. She makes several comments about John still trying to find himself and figure out exactly who and what he is supposed to be. It will be interesting to see how everything plays out as John becomes more and more Joker-like and just how their relationship will play out as this season continues to unfold.
Once Bruce finishes with Harley's quest, he gets an invite to help The Pact work on their next big job, but Harley and John aren't the only ones Bruce will have to convince if he wants to learn exactly what the group of villains is up to and stop them.
