The ending of “Joker 2” explained: Let’s unpack the shocker

In one camp there is a young, smug prosecutor named Harvey Dent (Harry Lawtey) and the full rigor of the state. They want to literally fry Arthur in an electric chair. “He’s a monster,” Dent told reporters on television and radio. To them, Arthur is little more than a wolf who roams among sheep and needs to be killed. Conversely, there are the sheep, or at least the most disturbing fans: the kind who dress up like the Joker and idolize him as some kind of folk hero who has given them permission to do bad things… like gunning down the rich in front of the little baby Bruce Wayne.

Both perspectives represent a predictable reaction to a man who killed America’s favorite comedian on late-night television. But they also express a reaction to the previous film, which had some critics clutching their pearls and refusing to give it a review because Phillips’ film was “too dangerous,” a naive and somewhat regressive way of dealing with art to deal with. Then there was this group of vocal online fans who seemed to idolize the film a little too much, co-starring as Arthur Fleck’s Joker, but also copying his behavior and attitude and thinking he had something important to say about society.

In other words, the film appealed to both comic book fans who wanted some of their favorite characters to be taken seriously as high art and perhaps felt a little too validated by Arthur’s less-than-reliable narrative/perspective, as well as edgelords and the alt-right -Media personalities who peddle their grievances against loners and toxic parts of the fandom (e.g. “incels”). This in turn flows into the narrative of Jokers Critic. For example, David Edelstein wrote in vulture“It’s an anthem for incels” and seems to suggest a connection between “civilian massacres” and the Joker’s character.

Both sides, Joker foil for two emphasizes his failure to understand poor Arthur’s humanity, and this becomes the crux of the sequel’s exhausting 138 minutes. There are those who want to demonize Arthur as a monster, and those who see that monster as some kind of rock star leader who needs to be unleashed again. But with Phillips, and probably with Phoenix, Arthur was never that guy – neither the singer of an “anthem for incels” nor the idol of his time. In fact, the only person who seems to see Arthur for who he is in the sequel is his defender Maryanne Stewart (Catherine Keener), who spends most of her scenes explaining the thinly veiled subtexts and themes of the first film.

The fact that Arthur’s mother (Frances Conroy) made him bathe while wearing underwear in the 2019 film strongly suggested a tragic background of psychological and likely sexual abuse. This is stated explicitly in Joker 2 when Maryanne says that Arthur was abused in all these ways at the age of seven when the state failed to take him away from his mentally ill mother. Arthur is a victim of his mother, but also of a society that abandons those who have no power. Maryanne speaks this ugly truth to symbols of the system and the status quo, as well as those in the film audience who simply dismiss the lonely and mentally ill as “stimulants.”

On the other side are people who see Arthur’s killing of Murray Franklin as a moment of liberation rather than a final turn in endless tragedy. It’s these guys who blow up the courthouse where Arthur is being sentenced, and their fellow travelers who think this troubled and needy guy is some kind of hero, whom they hide in their car, presumably in a “safe place.” where he can tell them what to do next. They are literally being run over as they pursue this false Messiah.