Joker: Folie à Deux Ending Explained: Who is THAT Arkham Character at The End and What Does it Mean?
Joker: Folie à Deux (Joker 2) has been one of the most anticipated releases of 2024, and finally, the wait is over. This DC sequel continues the events left behind in the successful 2019 film, delving even deeper into the disturbed mind of Arthur Fleck. Released on Thursday, October 3 in Latin America, the film has generated all kinds of reactions. It is not what many expected, and it has given rise to intense debates, especially about its unexpected musical approach. But beyond the controversy, the ending has left the audience full of questions. In this new installment, Joaquin Phoenix returns in his acclaimed role as Arthur Fleck, who is now locked up in Arkham as he faces trial for the brutal murders he committed two years earlier.
The plot takes us deep into the dark depths of his mind, as his lawyer, Maryanne Stewart, tries to save him by arguing that he suffers from a split personality disorder. According to her, it was not Fleck who committed the crimes, but his alter ego, the infamous Joker. Throughout the film, this defense raises a disturbing question: is Arthur truly responsible, or is he just a victim of his fractured psyche? During his stay at Arkham, Arthur meets Harleen “Lee” Quinn, played by Lady Gaga, a patient who quickly becomes attracted to him. What follows is a complex and dangerous relationship that combines elements of a psychological thriller and a musical, leading both characters to try to escape together.
Joker: Folie à Deux Ending Explained: Who is THAT Arkham Character at The End and What Does it Mean?
After a trial that (much to the chagrin of the judge) has become a media circus, and after taking on his own defense after firing his lawyer, Arthur Fleck seems to have let himself be completely possessed by his parallel identity as the Joker. However, the death of a young inmate at Arkham Asylum at the hands of the sadistic guard Jackie (Brendan Gleeson) makes him regain, for a decisive moment, the notion of his own personality. After declaring his love for Lee Quinzel (Gaga) over the phone, Arthur enters the final session of the trial knowing that prosecutor Harvey Dent (Harry Lawtey) will settle for nothing less than the death penalty. To everyone’s surprise, Arthur renounces his role as the Joker in his closing argument, admitting his mental problems and acknowledging that he needs help. It is then, just before the verdict is announced, that a car bomb explodes and devastates the courtroom.
Amidst dozens of corpses, and with Harvey Dent lying on the ground with half his face disfigured (an allusion to the genesis of the villain Two-Face), Arthur runs off and ends up picked up by two of the fans who were gathering in front of the courthouse, and then also escapes from them towards those stairs that became iconic in the first film. On the stairs, Arthur knows it all too well, Lee is waiting for him and she doesn’t hesitate to deal him the final blow: she has never been in love with him, but with the Joker, and she has no intention of continuing their love affair even though she is pregnant. Shattered, Arthur watches her walk away as the place fills with police cars.
After a cutscene, we find ourselves back in Arkham Asylum, with Arthur, who has escaped the electric chair, watching a Pepe La Peste cartoon with his companions. At that moment, one of the officers tells him that he has a visitor. On the way to the interview room, another inmate approaches the protagonist with the excuse of telling him a joke. But this is a ruse because the subject in question takes the opportunity to call him a “pathetic clown” before stabbing him in the stomach. As he dies, Arthur once again fantasizes about Lee and her unborn child, while his killer cackles in fits of laughter reminiscent of the Joker in the comics and other Batman films. Will Lee repeat the cycle of abuse that gave rise to Arthur’s monstrous alter ego with his son? Will this last-minute killer be the Joker that a young Bruce Wayne will face? We don’t know, and we probably never will.
Why Does Arthur Decide to Disassociate Himself From His Alter Ego the Joker?
Arthur Fleck, who had embraced the Joker figure strongly in the first film, begins to doubt his decision. Everything changes when he faces the fearful gaze of his friend Gary and when the latter testifies against him at the trial. This act breaks something inside Arthur. He realizes that, perhaps, that image of the villain who inspires chaos and uprisings is not what he really is. Doubts mount when his followers, fanatics of the Joker, attack the courthouse to free him. Arthur, seeing the chaos he has unleashed, wonders if he really wants to continue being that feared figure. This decision is a brutal shock for him: Is he really the Joker or simply Arthur, a man trapped in his own tragedies?
Why Doesn’t Harleen Quinn Want to Continue with Arthur?
The answer is simple but painful: Harleen didn’t fall in love with Arthur Fleck but with the Joker. The Harleen Quinn we all know is a fan of chaos and danger, and she was attracted to the villain who shot a live presenter, not to the shy and submissive man he had been all his life. When Arthur decides to abandon his identity as the Joker, he loses the appeal he once had for Harleen. He is no longer the magnetic figure who captured her attention, and because of that, she decides to leave him. What Harleen wanted was not a partner, but a manifestation of anarchy, and without the Joker, Arthur is no longer that person.
Was Lee Really Pregnant?
Before her final hearing, Lee confesses to Arthur that she is pregnant. However, we don’t know if this is true or just another one of her lies to feel closer to the Joker. Personally, I think the second theory is the most accurate, considering that after Fleck accepts the blame and disassociates himself from the clown, she rejects him. Would anyone leave so easily if she was expecting a child with him? Or does she feel that her real father (the Joker) is dead?
Who is the Real Joker?
The most disconcerting moment of the finale is when Arthur is sent back to Arkham and meets another prisoner who, for some time, had been watching him from afar. This is where the Joker‘s legacy takes a macabre turn. Arthur, tired and disillusioned, wants to leave the Joker behind. In a scene reminiscent of “The Killing Joke,” this mysterious figure stabs Arthur, repeating the iconic words: “You get what you deserve”, As Arthur dies, the killer cuts the smile off his face, alluding to other versions of the Joker, such as Heath Ledger’s in “The Dark Knight”. This disturbing act makes it clear that the Joker is not just a person, but a symbol. Arthur may be dead, but the Joker will live on, jumping from face to face. As long as Gotham is filled with disillusioned people willing to embrace its more chaotic side, there will always be a Joker, no matter who embodies it. This ending leaves the door open to the idea that the Joker is eternal, an emblem of chaos that can change its face, but never disappear.
Arthur Fleck is Not a Joker?
All of this could be a way of explaining that Arthur Fleck wasn’t actually the Joker, but rather a figure who inspires the real Joker to become the infamous criminal clown and enemy of Batman. This could also explain why Lee decides not to keep Arthur in the end, saying that all they had was fantasy. Joaquin Phoenix and Arthur Fleck are not coming back. We didn’t have time to see him fully transformed into Joker, and that means that perhaps the character who killed him will become the real Joker or at least a version of the villain.
The Criminal from The Three Jokers?
One theory is that this character may be one of the 3 versions of the Joker that appears in Geoff Johns’ The Three Jokers, where one version is called The Criminal, the second is The Clown (who may be Arthur’s Joker), and the third is The Comedian. Here’s what Batman Fandom says about The Criminal: “The original incarnation of the Joker, who is a sinister criminal mastermind of unknown origins and is surprisingly the only one who is serious out of the three Jokers, claiming that smiling and laughing physically harms him. This Joker is obsessed with hurting Batman and creating more incarnations of the Joker‘s aliases to break him, including attacking Joe Chill. He is also implied to be the active Joker in “The Harlequin Deception” of stealing seemingly useless items to blackmail people through references to their traumatic pasts. He was killed by the third known Joker, The Comedian”.
The character who kills Arthur is a criminal whose origins we don’t know, we don’t even know his name or why he’s in Arkham, and he’s clearly someone who takes the role of Joker seriously, so he could become that character from The Three Jokers. If this is the case, we could end up seeing two other versions of Joker, which would be The Comedian and The Clown. Or it could be a simple way to close this story and allow Joaquin Phoenix to say goodbye to the character.
Heath Ledger’s Joker?
Heath Ledger‘s Joker had scars on the sides of his mouth that looked crudely done by his hand, which also connects to this character who appears cutting his face at the end of the film, and that certainly opens up the possibility that this story connects to The Dark Knight. That’s probably not the case, as this is a parallel story in an alternate reality, not connected to The Batman or Nolan’s universe, but we can take it as a sort of origin story that shows us a possibility for the character and the moment in which Joker became the Joker.
