Things only get worse for John Cena’s Christopher Smith this week. Here’s our spoiler-filled review of Peacemaker season 2 episode 2. Warning! Full of spoilers, for anything and everything related to Peacemaker. Peacemaker is truly back. Last week’s premiere kicked things off, promising a more sombre season as Peacemaker, aka Christopher Smith (John Cena, still ... Peacemaker season 2 episode 2 | Spoiler-filled review
Things only get worse for John Cena’s Christopher Smith this week. Here’s our spoiler-filled review of Peacemaker season 2 episode 2.
Warning! Full of spoilers, for anything and everything related to Peacemaker.
Peacemaker is truly back. Last week’s premiere kicked things off, promising a more sombre season as Peacemaker, aka Christopher Smith (John Cena, still terrific) discovered a pocket universe where things were far better than his own.
The first episode ended with Chris killing his other self from the other universe, and as I wrote in last week’s review, the moment of the other Peacemaker’s death felt similar to Rick Flag Jr’s death in The Suicide Squad. Peacemaker so desperately wants to be a real hero, but he really needs to stop killing the good guys, even if it is in self-defence.
But before we get to see what Cena’s anti-hero does next, we jump back eight months, when Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo) is welcomed to ARGUS. It doesn’t take long to get the sense that he has a bit of a grudge over his son’s death at Corto Maltese. Something tells me he’s going to have a real issue with Peacemaker this season, leaving John Economos (Steve Agee) between rock and a hard place.
Before he can worry about ARGUS, Chris has to worry about other problems. Mostly the one that involves a copy of him, dead, in the space between the universes. We watch as Chris tries to shove himself into various cupboards to hide the body and it’s played out as funny, but there is a slight undercurrent of real tragedy here.
We’re only two episodes in, but Peacemaker seems to be doing something a little different this season. Superhero shows tend to be about fighting evil and saving the world, but Peacemaker season 2 seems to really be about fighting yourself – quite literally in that first episode – and how being a hero actually requires work, rather than just being a personality trait.
Watching Cena portray that panic behind Chris’ eyes as he scrubs off the blood on his skin in the shower is a fascinating thing. Peacemaker has largely been a comedic character, but little by little, as already seen in the last season, Gunn is bringing in a lot of depth to him. It’s a very welcome development, I must admit.
As if things weren’t bad enough, Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) informs Chris that he is being watched by Flag Sr., who has recruited Economos to do it for him. Now, ARGUS knows every time Chris uses the portal to exit this universe.
Tim Meadows also joins the cast this episode as Agent Langston Fleury, a character on the ridiculous end of the spectrum. Just as you think Gunn is getting proper serious, he introduces a character with bloody bird blindness. The character also loves to tell people he had “two hot b*tches sucking my d*ck” and just writing that makes me feel a bit dirty. If Superman was Gunn at his most serious and heroic, Peacemaker season 2 sees him descend back into the depths of penis jokes and misogyny.
Peacemaker season 2 is still excellent based on these two episodes, despite that little wobble. Gunn is clearly challenging himself as well as the audience by making this a far more ambitious season, but the balance is a little off. Meadows’ character stands out like a sore thumb and maybe he’ll blend in better in a couple episodes, but we’re not quite there yet and Fleury is mostly just grating.
Thankfully, Freddie Stroma’s Vigilante also gets to do a little something in this episode as Chris calls him to help clean up the mess that is the dead other Peacemaker. Weirdly, Gunn can’t seem to find the right balance with penis jokes but manages to make chopping up and burning a dead body somehow a lovely bonding moment.
The real hero of the episode is Eagly, though. As Chris and his mates gather for a little celebration, which is very heartwarming, Eagly stops Fleury and his team from opening the magic door and absolutely kicks their butts. This is where that balance is far better; a CGI eagle fighting government agents is just the right shade of ridiculous without leaving a bad taste in your mouth.
The episode ends with a very drunk Peacemaker once again making his way to the other universe in a desperate search for some comfort after being rejected by the Harcourt of his own universe. He overhears Auggie (Robert Patrick) speaking on the phone about him, wondering why there’s blood in the library and whether Peacemaker is on his pills again. Turns out, the anti-hero has substance abuse issues in both universes, but Harcourt being willing to speak to him in that other one seems to be enough to pull our Peacemaker over.
The scale of Peacemaker season 2 remains much smaller based on episode 2 and it seems unlikely that we’ll see big blowouts or aliens this season. Gunn’s DCU is only just getting started and I do wonder if Peacemaker is not only going to be a big part of it, but kind of the tone-setter. Is this what we can expect from most of the DCU projects? Not necessarily literal heads rolling on the floor, but a more serious tone with slightly edgier violence. Even Superman, while PG-13 in the US and 12A in the UK, had some shades of brutality as Lex Luthor shot a man in cold blood in front of Superman.
We won’t know for quite some while yet, but I am certainly hopeful and intrigued.
Peacemaker airs new episodes every Friday on Sky and NOW.
