It’s a hell of a thing, walking a mile in another man’s leather pants. At first, it’s squirmy, warm, and deeply uncomfortable. But give it a few lunges, dive through a closed window or two, and mow down a militia group and suddenly those flashy trousers start to feel like a second skin, a snug fit. Christopher Smith (John Cena) shows up to his fateful rendezvous with Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) dressed in the duds of his deceased doppelgänger from that conspicuously cheerful alternate dimension, too busy to change but prepared to make his choice: to stay in this crummy reality or depart for greener pastures. Doing so in those pants is Peacemaker tipping its hand. The big ol’ dope has already decided; he just needed Harcourt to push him away one last time.
We return this week to Kupperberg Park, where a trap for Chris has been set. Harcourt, having led him to a public space where the A.R.G.U.S. fugitive might feel safe, sits benchside and ponders her next move. The cold open revealed a bit more about her relationship with the Flags before Rick Jr. (Joel Kinnaman) met the porcelain edge of Peacemaker’s blade in The Suicide Squad. Rick Sr. considers Harcourt family, and Jr. loved her both as a friend and lover (a big deal for the younger Flag). Then there’s her vow, made at Jr.’s flag-draped casket, that the man responsible for his death would pay. Did she mean it?
Context matters here. As the molten landscape of the DCU has cooled post-reboot, Harcourt’s character has become more complex. James Gunn, series creator (and Holland’s hubby), has drawn her into a knotty and nigh-unwinnable scenario where any forthcoming happiness seems like a sucker’s bet. She’s unemployable (thanks to Amanda Waller), furious at the world, and starts nightly barroom brawls with the biggest, stupidest lumps she can find. Harcourt is projecting someone’s face onto her targets: either Chris, who killed Rick and with whom Harcourt has since hooked up (and regrets it), or Rick Jr., who was about to leave his sorceress girlfriend for her just before fate intervened. Either way, despite those bruised knuckles, Harcourt is vulnerable and open to exploitation—and Rick Flag Sr. is turning the screws.
The gnarly pleasures of Peacemaker thrive in these tricky character moments where yearning is an unknowable, pushy son of a bitch that clouds choices and often makes them deadly. Take Harcourt’s coded warning text: “Copacetic,” a cool 11th Street Kids signal for when the shit’s about to hit the fan. It means “run.” Chris knows this. But, love-struck dope that he is, he struts into the park in those pants anyway, ducking and weaving through soccer players and Italian-ice patrons as Judomaster (Nhut Le) watches from a sniper’s nest. His latest mission? To confirm Harcourt’s feelings, who responds through clenched teeth, “You’re so fucked!” Then A.R.G.U.S. makes its move, Chris initiates a standoff, and Harcourt saves him from catching a bullet by administering her latest ass-whipping on Peacemaker, subtext-free. It’s a messy victory, but Rick Flag Sr. takes it. After all, Harcourt has just won him his prize. (More on Flag’s ultimate goals shortly.)
Economos gets his due in an otherwise meandering PeacemakerA surprising Peacemaker gives Harcourt’s despair a new dimension
Meanwhile, we pivot to Peacemaker season two’s wait station for languishing talent—Grandpa Smith’s cabin—where Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) and Vigilante (Freddie Stroma) await Chris’ return. Ads gets a call from a potential client responding to her ad in Pro Soldier Magazine, but they’re more interested in her silhouette than her credentials. They also inquire about her interest in going “Greek,” which she adorably misreads. As faintly amusing as this story beat is—Vig, seemingly fluent in “Greek,” now thinks Ads is a prostitute—it’s mercifully cut short by the arrival of Red St. Wild (Michael Rooker), whose recently opened third eye has led him to his target: Eagly. Later, Ads and Vig abruptly ditch the scene to pick Chris up from A.R.G.U.S. (for reasons we must piece together due to the messiness of the episode), freeing Red to aim his laughably enormous rifle at America’s top eagle.
We pause now for a visit to A.R.G.U.S. HQ, where Agent Bordeaux (Sol Rodríguez) seethes over Harcourt ruining her shot at killing Chris. The tension of their awesome office spat lingers during Harcourt’s debrief from Economos (Steve Agee), who reveals that Bordeaux is a cyborg. (“I hate her so much,” he says. “I used a pre-op photo of her mangled body as the screensaver on my phone for a while.”) The reckoning between Harcourt and mecha-Bordeaux will keep. For now, the urgent matter is that Chris is in Flag’s clutches. Harcourt urges Economos to officially book Peacemaker in the A.R.G.U.S. database—otherwise, she fears, Flag will “disappear” him.
This scene offers some insight into Harcourt’s mindset. She’s pissed at Chris, sure, but she still cares about him. She also knows that the delicate path ahead—rescuing Chris, reclaiming her A.R.G.U.S. gig, perhaps finding some purpose in her life—was always going to be impossible to navigate. But two out of three ain’t bad. Complicating matters is Flag, who has read her like an open book. He knew she was going to betray him and already had his next move in the chamber: freeing Chris from his custody and using the 11th Street Kids to locate the Quantum Closet, saving the world from its malign cosmic energy and ensuring that Peacemaker finally goes away for good. (If he’d had this level of clairvoyance during Creature Commandos, maybe Flag could have avoided letting Clayface fold him in half.)
So spare a thought, then, for Chris, who attempts to stall his performative interrogation beatdown from Rick Sr. with well-meaning but ill-advised diplomacy. “I admired your son. I liked him. I just got caught up in a very dark way of looking at the world.” In a matter of seconds, there’s a hole in the wall, blood pooled on the floor, and Chris cowering in a corner. (That kick to the head sure meekened him; Peacemaker without his helmet is a sorry thing indeed.) Once Economos plugs Chris into the A.R.G.U.S. database, however, this confrontation ends: Chris is freed from custody, and Flag’s fifth-dimensional chess game continues apace. “[Peacemaker will] think I’m sloppy and that I’m motivated by revenge,” he tells Bordeaux, who instantly develops the hots for her director, because why not.
Back at Grandpa Smith’s, Red St. Wild’s hyped-up duke-a-roo with Eagly fizzles out fast. At least their showdown acknowledges the eagle’s awesomeness: As Red discovers to his woe, Eagly is truly prime among all other eagles (or just a really cool eagle the other eagles are protective of). As a flock of feathered followers fly in to Eagly’s rescue (as if he needed it), Red is pecked to pieces as he reflects on his fool’s quest. (Thanks for swinging by Peacemaker, Mr. Rooker! It was fun and weird for the ten seconds we had you.)
As Chris licks his wounds in the cabin, “Back To The Suture” goes into triage mode, tying up most of the loose plot threads of this meandering season so that Peacemaker can launch into alt-reality overdrive, where an even more profound humbling for its hero awaits. It’s funny to think there’s still that mountain to climb, considering this week gave Chris his lowest and dumbest moment yet. “It was Harcourt, Ads. She fucked me!” Chris laments as they drive away from A.R.G.U.S. He knew what “copacetic” meant and showed up at the park anyway. Chris is clearly lying to himself, looking for the easiest way to mend his broken heart—but it’s all the justification he needs to leap willingly into the next dimension with his best friend in tow. “Ready for the next adventure, pal?” he asks Eagly. There’s no suture for denial that cuts this deep.
Here’s hoping Peacemaker finds its footing during this misguided reality shift. It’s been frustrating to see such a fun, clever series, which started this season so strongly with themes of regret and second chances, tie itself in knots to play in an exciting subdimensional sandbox while also reestablishing itself within a new DCU. When Gunn took over as creative head of DC Studios, the possibilities felt endless. The expanse of story possibilities seems to have put Peacemaker in a corner. And yet, paradoxically, this week’s frantic episode leaves Chris on an emotional high. That final shot, with him in his alt-reality suit, covered in kaiju gore and running to a beaming alt-Harcourt, bursts with dramatic potential. We don’t see the embrace, but we know what it looks like: It’s their new beginning. A snug fit.
Stray observations
• The cabin scene with Ads and Vigilante drove me nuts. Stroma doesn’t have anything to do as Brooks talks on the phone. Couldn’t he be kicking some rocks? Sharpening his daggers? Considering some local fauna? He’s just sitting there waiting to read his lines! (On that note, is Vigilante going to be allowed to do anything this season?)
• Who might portray Adebayo’s randy client? Will their meeting send Ads running back to Keeya’s arms?
• Judomaster ran out of chips! I didn’t think that could happen. (Note his Flamin’ Hot steering wheel.)
• Some horrific ADR here: “Oh god—he’s closed the portal behind him! He’ll never get back!” Thanks, Ads, we got that. (But also: The alt-reality door is still open, yes? He’ll get back just fine.)
• “The Top Trio Kills Murderous Kaiju” is the headline, and we even get a shot of the felled beast—though it didn’t look like the one the Justice Gang imploded in Superman.
• Guns N’ Roses’ “November Rain” is a great choice for such a pivotal moment. It nearly rescues the episode.
• Honestly, it feels like such a waste to have Rooker show up in Peacemaker for the total of two (technically three) episodes and establish he’s here to kill the series’ beloved mascot only to get offed. I’m glad he was here, but the Red St. Wild subplot ultimately amounted to nothing (Chris doesn’t even know he exists, for one) and felt like it sucked precious air from other characters—like, say, Vigilante. Or Adebayo! (Of course, Rooker could have an alt-variant. We’ll have to see.)