‘Harley Quinn’ Season 4: Nightwing Is Dead for Good! Here’s What Happened to Him

DC Animation Studio rarely disappoints with their projects, and the ‘Harley Quinn‘ animated series is another successful story. The show follows the adventures of Harley Quinn and her journey of finding herself and establishing her identity as a hero or a villain – in an absolutely hilarious way. This adult animated comedy show triumphed with its fun, at times parodic way of most notable DC characters, and among the failed projects of previous live-action movies and series, ‘Harley Quinn’ established itself as one of the better shows of DC Universe. The previous episodes saw the death of Nightwing, and this article will discuss what happened to Boy Wonder in the ‘Harley Quinn’ series.

Harley Quinn killed Nightwing in the fifth episode of season four after the Bat Family goes on to look for the missing Batgirl. This was revealed in the most recent episode, titled ‘Potato Based Cloning Incident,’ where we learn that the sleepwalking Harley Quinn choked Nightwing to death with her friendship bracelet. The clone of Harley Quinn saw everything unfold and told the truth to the “real Harley.”

Initially, it was heavily hinted that the Joker killed Nightwing, but subtle hints and the ultimate reveal in episode seven, when Batgirl exposes Joker to the public for his lies. However, the show recently revealed that the main character did it, and she didn’t even know that happened.

What happened to Nightwing?

One of the biggest mysteries of the last two episodes of ‘Harley Quinn’ show is the sudden death of Dick Grayson, known as Nightwing. The original Boy Wonder was part of the Bat Family that consisted of Batgirl, Robin, and, most recently, Harley Quinn, who joined the team after Batman ended up in jail at the end of season three.

Throughout the series, we see Nightwing establish himself as the leader of the Bat Family after becoming Nightwing and consequentially being away from his adoptive father, Batman. He returns to Gotham City as a skillful hero, very serious and sometimes too arrogant for his own good. However, he always had the best intentions and a good heart.

In season four, he is put in a bad position after Batman ends up in jail and is supposed to be his colleagues’ leader and mentor. Of course, this is more of a serious assessment of the character, especially for the show that parodically depicts its characters. However, Nightwing was always the most serious one, even after Harley Quinn joined the Bat Family.

He is not really happy with adding the member to the team because he still holds grudges for Harley and her villainous past and because she brings a vastly different dynamic to the team – she is just too chaotic for Boy Wonder.

In season four, Nightwing struggles with leadership and the lack of support for his team, especially when Talia al Ghul shows up and takes their belongings and resources from them.

Nightwing’s biggest problem is his distrust in Harley Quinn, who is his ally now, but her connection to villains is strong because of her girlfriend, Poison Ivy. He is suspicious of the chaotic woman because her girlfriend is the new CEO of Legion of Doom. It doesn’t help that Gotham has a new mayor, Joker, who obviously misses his evil past.

Episode five of season four showcases Nightwing’s frustrations for Harley even more when he doubts her loyalty to the Bat Family. Harley offers up her friendship bracelets to bond more with the team, but Nightwing refuses, saying the bracelets won’t make her a team member.

After Batgirl disappears, Nightwing is frustrated with Harley’s methods and even accuses her of working with the villains after she accidentally destroys important evidence and supports her girlfriend in her appearance on Tammy Talk Show.

However, it’s revealed that Batgirl is actually well and alive after she got stuck in the cabin trying to rescue her mother. Of course, Babs stayed at the cabin but couldn’t reach out to her friends.

Babs and Harley have an important talk with each other where Harley expresses her concerns about Nightwing’s dismissal, and Babs tells Harley that she needs to work a lot harder to earn the trust of Dick Grayson.

Of course, after their heartfelt talk, the women go on and relax around the campfire when they spot Nightwing sitting on a tree wearing Harley’s friendship bracelet. Harley is happy, but when a squirrel jumps on Nightwing, his lifeless body drops from the tree – it’s revealed that Nightwing is dead. But how did he die?

Joker pretends he killed Nightwing to return to his villainous ways

The most recent episode of season four, titled ‘Metamorphosis,’ sees the remaining members of the Bat Family in shambles and at the funeral of their dear friend. Batgirl seems the most affected member, although Harley admits she’s been freaking out since seeing Nightwing’s dead body.

Batgirl and Harley start investigating the murder of Nightwing without the help of Robin, who goes (is kidnapped) to his mother, Talia al Ghul. Poison Ivy becomes the main suspect for killing Nightwing; at least Batgirl thinks so after seeing that the Legion of Doom PR heavily mocks and celebrates Boy Wonder’s death.

After the drunken Batgirl kickstarts the brawl at the LOD party, Harley confronts Ivy, who tells her that she isn’t responsible for the death of Nightwing, but if someone from the Legion of Doom did it, good for them. Harley doesn’t like that answer, and when she tells that information to Babs, the girl is angry and even punches Harley out.

However, the show is stolen when Joker arrives at the LOD party, where he announces he is back to his villainous ways, and his epic return is marked by the thing he’s most famous for – killing the Bat Family member.

Episode 9 of ‘Harley Quinn’ reveals the main heroine killed Nightwing

Despite the initial reveal that Joker killed Nightwing, episodes 7 and 9 reveal the real killer. In episode 7, Batgirl publically exposes Joker for his lies in the podcast by Doctor Psycho, called ‘Psycho Not Crazy with Dr. Psycho.’ She hacks the live feed and shows the whole of Gotham what Joker really did at the time of Nightwing’s murder.

Despite Joker’s lies, we still didn’t know who really killed Nightwing. However, in the second-to-last episode of season four, titled ‘Potato Based Cloning Incident,’ we learn that sleepwalking Harley Quinn unconsciously killed the Boy Wonder.

The episode reveals the truth behind Harley’s hallucinations of herself – the clone created from a potato and her DNA. The clone tells Harley that she witnessed her killing Nightwing with her friendship bracelet.

Harley later confirms her fears with Doctor Psycho reaching into her deepest memories – the villain showcases the sleepwalking Harley Quinn choking Nightwing with her friendship bracelet just after she rescued Batgirl.

Nightwing showcases his distrust towards the newest Bat Family member, provoking Harley’s sleepwalking and leading it to kill him.

The ‘Harley Quinn’ series foreshadowed the murder in the first part of the season, where the sleepwalking Harley destroys Nightwing’s air fryer. It’s a subtle hint, but the showrunners paid off the foreshadowing in episode nine.

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