How Joker 2's Harvey Dent Pays Tribute To His Two-Face Persona

This article contains some spoilers for "Joker: Folie à Deux."

The two "Joker" films directed by Todd Phillips, 2019's "Joker" and this month's "Joker: Folie à Deux," are movies primarily centered around the Joker (played by Joaquin Phoenix), as the titles suggest. Although these are two comic book films that can genuinely be called character studies, that doesn't mean that Phillips and his collaborators leave out other famous figures from the "Batman" comic books. The first film featured Thomas Wayne aka Batman's dad in a key supporting role (not to mention an appearance of the future Dark Knight himself as a youngster), but "Folie à Deux" involves Harley Quinn as a major co-lead, played by none other than Lady Gaga. Although neither of these movies are interested in setting up future characters or storylines (as to the reason why that is, you'll just have to see "Folie à Deux"), that doesn't mean Phillips and company can't throw in a handful of Easter eggs here and there.

One of these Easter eggs happens to double nicely as a small but key supporting character: Harvey Dent, played by Harry Lawtey, is featured in the movie as the prosecuting attorney in the trial of Arthur Fleck aka Joker. Of course, most folks know that Dent eventually becomes the villain known as Two-Face, an indelible part of Batman's rogues gallery. Although "Folie à Deux" is hardly a movie about this eventual transformation, the film nonetheless nods in the direction of the character's destiny. What's more, it may also give an alternative explanation for his origin story, just as "Joker" did for young Bruce Wayne.

In "Folie à Deux," Arthur Fleck aka Joker is being tried for the murders he committed during the events of the first "Joker," and while his defense attorney, Maryanne Stewart (Catherine Keener), is attempting to prove that Arthur and Joker are two separate and distinct personalities (thereby making "Joker" the criminal), Harvey Dent is trying to prove that Arthur and Joker are one and the same. As it happens, both lawyers turn out to be right; Arthur eventually represents himself and takes full responsibility for his actions, yet comes to realize that the persona of the Joker has grown so far beyond himself that it ruins his life.

As evidence of that last point, a person (or persons) of unknown identity detonates a bomb outside the Gotham courthouse during the reading of Arthur's guilty verdict, and it can be inferred that the person or people responsible for the blast are attempting to follow the "Joker" ethos of chaos above all else. As a result of the explosion, Arthur is able to escape confinement for a brief period of time, thanks to just about everyone else in the courtroom being either killed or injured. One of the injured is none other than Dent, who appears to have had half his face scorched by the blast. Of course, this is not only a visual indication of his transformation into Two-Face, but doubles as a clever riff on the character's comic book origin story, in which his face was scarred with acid by Sal Maroni, a member of Gotham's organized crime syndicate, during a trial. The moment also alludes to Two-Face's origin in Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight," a transformation that also happens to be precipitated by the Joker (played by Heath Ledger), when he tricks Batman (Christian Bale) into having to choose to save only one victim, and a hesitant Batman unknowingly chooses Dent (Aaron Eckhart) too late, leading to the attorney's face being scarred in an explosion.

While the image of Dent sitting on the floor with his face scarred is the last we see of him in "Folie à Deux" (and, quite possibly, the last we'll see of this particular iteration of Dent), it's clear that this universe's Joker has started a chain reaction that is turning the citizens of Gotham into their predestined comic book counterparts. As we can infer from the rest of the film, this Dent/Two-Face may or may not be the one that goes onto battle this world's Bruce Wayne/Batman once the boy grows up, but he's certainly where the character begins.

"Joker: Folie à Deux" is in theaters now.