So I’m talking to Salty and a couple other guys I know, and we’re talking about the conversation I had on Nerd Fights last week about the Peacemaker episode. And I’m like, yeah, go check out my Peacemaker review. And both of them were like, what Peacemaker review?
That’s when I realized I never did one. I don’t know what happens in my life that I’m so busy I just skipped it, and what’s funny is I’ve done other things. I’ve done other videos. I’ve done a couple live streams. So forgive me. This is my Peacemaker season 2, episode 3 review, and I’ll do better.
When we got into this season, I knew we’d eventually have to get to this place. I’m not blind to the discourse happening online. For the most part, though, I’m just going to go through this one and give you my thoughts and impressions.
This episode pretty much begins with, and explores, the conflict between action and personal drama, and it’s specifically focused on Chris’s desire for connection in contrast to Harcourt’s really complicated past. There’s clearly an alternate universe, we’re obviously going to be exploring it this season, and that in and of itself is going to challenge Chris with his true desire, which is for things like love, family, acceptance. All the while, in the real world, you have ARGUS preparing to take him down.
“After the Metropolis incident took out half the city, these type of threats are ARGUS’s top priority. I have every agent in the Northwest on the way to Smith’s home.”
Harcourt, Rick Flag Jr., and a Reason to Rewatch Season One
There’s a flashback that reveals Harcourt’s past relationship, specifically to Rick Flag Jr. For me, that really framed up a lot of what’s come before. The whole thing highlights her commitment issues, but they were friends, though. They were okay. Harcourt and Rick Flag Jr. were friends with benefits. That’s the short, short version.
If you watch the podcast James Gunn puts out immediately after the episodes, he talks a little bit about how he and Jennifer Holland have known that story beat since before Peacemaker season one. Primarily it’s because you kind of needed it going in, and now it reframes and recontextualizes a lot of that season one tension she had with Chris. I’d definitely watch season one again. Most likely I will, right afterwards, just to get an idea for that.
Because when you see her being crappy to him in the bar, for instance, that’s coming from a very honest place. Essentially, this is the guy who ended her best friend. Who ended the closest thing to a relationship she had. The only person who actually knew her deep, dark, ugly secrets and didn’t judge her for them. That’s a really tough pill to swallow when somebody’s trying to say, okay, we’re going to be all good again, we’re going to be friends, we’re all going to work together.
But she’s a pro. So she puts all that nonsense away and it’s, look, just do your job. Just be capable of doing the job you know you’re supposed to do and we’re fine. We’ll be fine. That’s how that relationship begins, and now we understand a little bit more about where that tension comes from.
A Day in the Life, and What “Earth-2” Actually Means
Then Chris has an experience. His brother catches him in his bed and he’s like, what’s going on? And he goes and essentially lives a day in the life.
This is where, for me, we begin to lay the groundwork that will eventually become what world we think this is. James calls it Earth-2, but I think that’s more of a designator, using our Peacemaker’s Earth as Earth-1. He’s here, this is the other Earth.
For those of you playing at home, DC Comics has always very much had Earth-1, Earth-2, Earth-3. They’ve had tons of different Earths by number. It isn’t as crazy as, say, Marvel having Earth-616 or whatever, which are fun designators based on the Marvel comics universe. No, this is more literal: there’s an Earth Prime, there’s an Earth-1, there’s an Earth-2. That numbering exists. This is not that. At least, I don’t believe that’s the case.
But while he’s in this other place, he makes a reference to the Kardashians.
“Also, why do all my clothes look like the Kardashians’ furniture?” “Who are the Kardashians?” “Seriously?”
There are a lot of people who’ve gone in very deep about what that could possibly mean. I’m a Sliders kid. Okay? Those of you who remember Sliders, the concept is literally same Earth, same year, different dimensions. So I didn’t immediately go where everyone else went. Spoilers: everyone else is going, oh, it’s a Nazi world, or some sort of Earth-X style world, or a white supremacist world, whatever.
That’s the first clue that something was off. But to me it wasn’t a huge clue, because you’ve got to remember there’s a whole bunch of different places and Earths they could go to. There are Earths where the sky is a different color. Earths where Superman is actually Superboy. There’s a whole bunch of other places you can go.
Wow, though, the evidence is absolutely going to pile up.
Mealy-Mouth Rick Flag
It gets painful for Chris when he has to go meet with that universe’s Amelia, that universe’s Harcourt. And it’s because Rick Flag Jr. works there. Oh, yeah. A very different Rick Flag Jr. from the one you’re thinking of.
“Hey, what’s going on, Chris? You got like some business or something here?” “What’s up, Rick?” “Just asking. I was just asking him what he’s doing here. If he’s got like something official or something I should be a part of.”
By the way, I was stunned. Out the rip, we get your boy back, Joel Kinnaman. He shows up super excited to see Chris again, in this new universe, and on the podcast they call this version mealy-mouth Rick Flag, because he’s very, you know, whatever, it’s okay. And it’s wonderful. Seeing that actor portray that style of character, I actually really dug.
“Chris wanted to talk.” “Just wanted to talk.” “Like, about what, dude?”
Seeing that both of them in fact play very homely versions, both Jennifer Holland and Kinnaman, it really was like, oh, okay, you guys are having fun with the idea. And I think you should, because at the end of the day, this is probably about as deep as the multiverse should ever really be getting. Everybody wants to go full-blown, it’s this and it’s colliding universes, and sometimes it’s just, hey, we’re going to pass through one door into another and cause trouble.
Anybody who remembers the Golden Age Flash, that’s what they did all the time. Or maybe it was Silver Age to Golden Age, whatever. It was Jay Garrick to Barry Allen. They would cross over tons and just help each other with adventures once in a while. It wasn’t always a major thing with universes colliding and ending.
Everybody Who’s a Jerk Is Sweet Over Here
When Chris talks to Harcourt, we start understanding something a little different about their relationship. The gist I’m getting is that he sort of cheated on her at some point, or at the very least the Chris from that universe cheated on her.
It’s funny. We often think of these things in binaries, good and bad, or even like Star Trek’s “Mirror, Mirror.” Everyone who’s good has got to be evil, and everyone who’s evil has got to be good. I feel like they’re doing something like that, in that all the people who are jerks so far, Peacemaker’s dad, Harcourt, are really sweet.
And then you get the shift when he goes to ARGUS, and by the way, this is my second clue. There’s nobody of color there at all. If you remember the tac team they send into Peacemaker’s house and everything else, there were a lot of different variations on people. There’s no Economos there, which I found interesting, at least that we’ve seen so far. There’s definitely no Adebayo at the moment.
You find out more and more that the Chris from that universe is not a good person. He does drugs, he cheats, he lies, whatever else. That’s a real part of the dichotomy they’re building. And I think that’s potentially going to start opening him up to, oh man, I suck here as well. But it’s the world he wanted. So it’s almost like this one’s going to suddenly show up and try to be a better person. I don’t know.
The Applause Was the Tell
There’s this wonderful moment where Harcourt and he are talking and an event happens. Seemingly terrorists try to take over a place. This becomes the next of many clues.
In this whole scene, Chris decides to take it upon himself. He doesn’t have a helmet, doesn’t have a costume, has nothing. He has the Peace Cycle, which I love. The Peace Cycle is amazing. So he goes and takes this entire building out, and he’s busting up fools and ending dudes left and right. After he bodies half of those bad guys, his brother shows up and just obliterates his way through a helicopter.
One: after all that chaos and mayhem, everyone is applauding. To me, that’s the first sign something’s wrong. Two: I went frame by frame, much like everybody else, and I too did not see people of color in this thing. Which leads me to believe, and I’ve determined this at some level, that this is some sort of a world like that.
I don’t necessarily know if it’s going to be the cheesy, corny version of it or something much deeper. The cheesy, corny version everyone sort of agrees on would be the Earth-X world, because Earth-X is considered Nazi world, and the CW show did that really well. So they’re going to play a little bit with some of those elements. I do not in any way, shape, or form think we’re going to get Dark Superman or Soviet Superman or Earth-X Superman. I don’t think we’re going to get any of that stuff.
But seeing this universe in light of what it is, I think it’ll be fun, and I think they’re going to do a really good job with it. Especially when you find out. That, to me, will be the big tipper, where it’s like, oh, this is going to be terrible.
And they do sit on moments to make you think certain things might be the case. The Kardashian joke, they sit on a little long. So James Gunn is definitely threading the needle, but at the same time, I don’t want to say blatant, but they’re definitely not taking it slowly in terms of the Easter eggs they’re dropping.
At the end of saving everybody, Chris gets that moment. That absolute moment where everyone loves him.
“Best dimension ever.”
And it’s like, oh my gosh, this is exactly where I want to be for the rest of my life, forever and ever and ever, amen. He wants to try to get with this Harcourt, who’s amenable to the idea, so they talk about sort of thinking about it.
We do get an Easter egg, too. The terrorist group that attacks is the Sons of Liberty, and the Sons of Liberty is definitely a group of characters from DC. I thought that was interesting to play into.
Back Home, ARGUS Is Loading Up
In the other world, Adebayo is having a conversation with Harcourt, and she’s the one who’s like, hey, what’s going on with you guys? And Harcourt’s like, no, there’s no chance. Nothing like that.
Rick Flag’s ready to go, because Chris has now opened up that portal thing twice. If he’s using unlicensed or unapproved dimensional tech, that’s considered an arrest-you-for-the-rest-of-your-life crime over there.
The episode ends with Chris going home. I assume it’s either to get Eagly or it’s, yeah, we’re moving, I’m out of here, I’m saying my goodbyes and I’m gone. But at the same time, ARGUS is on their way. They’ve all unpacked and they’re headed in.
There’s this funny moment when they’re all getting loaded up, where it’s, how come you didn’t tell us he had a killer eagle? And he’s like, what are you talking about? I told you. And the answer is, you called it a duck.
“Blame him. I told him about the eagle.” “You told me it was a duck.” “Why would I say an eagle is a duck?” “Trying to use my disability against me.”
Is it funny? Yeah, very. But I feel like the bird blindness joke is going to get old real quick, because it’s kind of already gotten old, and we’ve barely heard anything about it. Either way, I’m sure Tim Meadows and them are going to milk it for what it’s worth.
The Verdict
Peacemaker season 2, episode 3 gets a pretty steady 8 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index.
It’s a solid episode. It isn’t anything special. It’s connecting the rest of the story, and it didn’t stand on its own. You obviously need what comes before it, and you definitely know what’s going to come after it. I hope. We’ll see exactly where it goes.
For me, that’s the best score I can give it at present, the way it sits, and I think it’s a respectable score for sure. I like the episode. I like where it’s going, and I can’t wait to see.
Never forget, everyone loves a know-it-all.
Am I right? Am I wrong? Did you like the show, or are you waiting in anticipation? What world do you think he’s on? I’d really love to have that discussion, and it lives in the comments on the video above.
