Gotham Season 5: Harley Quinn's Origin Explained

3. Despite Obvious Comparisons, Barbara Kean Is Not Harley Quinn

As noted earlier, the initial rumours of a Harley Quinn appearance started way back in Season 2, as many viewers became convinced that, after her emotional breakdown in the previous season, the newly-psychotic Barbara Kean was destined to become Gotham's iteration of Mr. J's princess.

This theory was further exacerbated by the fact that Barbara hit it off with Jerome Valeska, who was then believed to be Gotham's version of The Joker. The gruesome twosome had promise to become one of the series' greatest alliances, but that promise was cut short when Jerome was shockingly killed off.

However, in spite of the red-headed villain's demise, Barbara continued to be compared to Harley, and, even though she ended up developing into one of Gotham's greatest characters, the writers were unable to put an end to these comparisons, which followed Babs throughout the second, third and fourth seasons of the show.

Things only got worse when Barbara was electrocuted in the third season finale - a decision that fans were convinced would allow for Barbara to become even crazier than before. What's more, electrocution was a method used to transform Harleen Quinzel into Harley in several previous adaptations, so it wasn't the craziest theory. Despite this, the theory was later proven false when Babs got into bed with Ra's Al Ghul - a move that allowed the character to finally shed these Harley comparisons.