This story contains major spoilers for Joker: Folie à Deux, including discussion of the ending.
Want to hear a joke? The ending of Joker: Folie à Deux is probably the thing that audiences are going to spend the most time talking about. The Todd Phillips-helmed, Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga-starring sequel to the $1 billion 2019 hit Joker commits the cardinal sin of being boring; nothing else in its two-hour and seventeen-minute runtime feels as alive or energetic as the Sylvian Chomet animated sequence which opens the film. After that, Folie à Deux runs on two tracks, split between Arthur Fleck languishing in Arkham Asylum and standing trial for the crimes he committed in Philips’ first Joker film.
The movie springs to life a bit when Lady Gagaâs Harleen “Lee” Quinzel enters the picture. Lee and Arthur meet in a musical therapy class, where she reveals to him sheâs a Joker superfan who’s watched the made-for-TV movie about his killing spree dozens of times. Lee’s adoration is enough to snap Arthur out of the hazy mindspace he’s slipped into after two years in prison and bring his Joker side back out. As someone whoâs only ever wanted acceptance and love, heâs got a new lease on lifeâso much that heâs starting to sing and dance in his head, which is where the musical numbers come into play.
Through these sequences, Arthur gets the idea that Lee might not be as supportive as sheâs indicating, leaving him conflicted about whether or not to embrace his comedic side once more. Especially with his lawyer (Catherine Keener) advising him that any sort of deviation from their existing plan to plead insanity will doom him to life in prison. Yet as the film careens into its third act, Arthur eventually canât help falling in love with Lee, who continually pushes him to embrace it. That results in Arthur dismissing Keener and becoming his own counselâclown costume and all. After he returns from the court that day, Arthur is severely beaten by cops inside Arkham, who later kill an inmate who spoke up in support of Fleck.
During closing arguments the next day led by District Attorney Harvey Dent (Industryâs Harry Lawtey), Arthur, haunted by the events of the night before, flips and denies that the Joker is a separate persona, taking full ownership of his actions from the course of the first Joker. As a result, Lee, whoâs been in court every day as Arthurâs emotional support, leaves the courtroom. As the guilty verdict is read a few hours later, a bomb goes off, injuring Dent (yes, Two-Face fans, half of Lawtey’s handsome mug ends up the worse for wear) and allowing Arthur to escape with the help of two men dressed in Joker garb.
Eventually, Arthur ends up at the famed staircase outside his apartment, where he discovers a dejected Lee, who subsequently rejects him. Lee, it turns out, was just another follower looking for meaning in an iconic figure, wanting Arthur to reject responsibility for his actions, get off on an insanity charge, and leave with her. By refusing to give into the mystique around the Joker personaâthe fact that heâs both loved and fearedâArthurâs of no use to Lee any longer, rendering him again as the loser and loner he was at the start of Joker.
