This week’s episode of James Gunn’s anti-hero show slows things down. Here’s our spoilery thoughts on Peacemaker season 2 episode 4. Warning: The following will include all the spoilers for the new episode. Proceed at your own risk. After last week’s heartbreaking episode, there’s a lot of pressure for this week’s episode to deliver something ... Peacemaker season 2 episode 4 | Spoiler-filled review
This week’s episode of James Gunn’s anti-hero show slows things down. Here’s our spoilery thoughts on Peacemaker season 2 episode 4.
Warning: The following will include all the spoilers for the new episode. Proceed at your own risk.
After last week’s heartbreaking episode, there’s a lot of pressure for this week’s episode to deliver something as effective. It doesn’t quite succeed in that, but Peacemaker season 2 has been so excellent so far that a little side step is allowed.
As we’ve come to expect, the new episode of Peacemaker starts with another flashback and this one explains how Chris and his family came to own that mystical portal-door-thing. They came across in the woods during a family outing hunting imps. Don’t you just hate when your imp hunting is disrupted by a mystical door to other universes?
The thing that isn’t quite working for me this season is the whole storyline with ARGUS agents chasing Chris (John Cena). Considering this is what is supposed to create tension and threat, that’s a pretty big issue. With season 2 being otherwise a pretty serious affair and tapping into some really emotional themes, Tim Meadows’ Fleury and Michael Rooker’s eagle hunter Red. St. Wild feel a little out of place, like they belong to a whole different series.
Steve Agee’s Economos is also largely separated from the main group, which feels like a shame, but he is reunited with Judomaster. With Harcourt also keeping her distance from Chris, the group that we came to love so deeply in season 1, is divided and while that’s part of the point, it’s hard not to miss their chemistry this season.
It also leads to another problem. Many of the characters have barely anything to do this season. Danielle Brooks’ Adebayo is mostly there for Chris to reflect on his own feelings, Harcourt mostly rages on her own and Vigilante is nothing but the occasional comic relief. It’s a real shame because the cast is one of the highlights of Peacemaker as a whole. Perhaps this is where we really see the issue of these new, shorter seasons of TV; we get bigger stars on the small screen, but it comes with the price of fewer episodes and more rushed narratives.
Chris, knowing he has to transport the door – which handily folds up into a nice, little case – out of his house, is attacked by Judomaster. After last week’s major explosion of action, this week’s fighting seems a little more held back despite the fact that Chris and Judomaster beat each other up pretty heartily. This is where Cena’s wrestling background really shines as he’s able to throw Judomaster around in moves clearly inspired by those he used to – and still does during his on-going farewell tour! – do in the ring.
Meanwhile, Rooker’s St. Wild is on a mission to hunt down Eagly, but the bird is saved by Economos who knocks St. Wild out. Agee rarely gets the praise he deserves because Economos usually exists on the sidelines of the main narrative. He’s always there and aids everyone, but there’s not much real story for him. So consider this the acknowledgment that his comedic skills are excellent and very welcome in the show!
Thanks to Adebayo, Chris manages to open up a new door at a remote, old house so the ARGUS agents fail to find it. Episode 4 seems to be a little more conventional with its plot twists and turns, there’s not a lot of surprises here. This isn’t a bad episode, per se, but it’s a slightly less exciting one, bordering on disappointing after the previous episodes that have managed to do something so radically different to your usual superhero TV shows.
The episode does promise a lot for next week’s episode. Frank Grillo’s Rick Flag Sr. shows up at Harcourt’s house to blackmail her into helping him capture Chris. ARGUS has made sure Harcourt won’t be hired by any government agency and desperate to keep the lights on, Harcourt has very little options here. We sense a big showdown coming between Chris, who won’t be able to resist meeting up with Harcourt, and ARGUS.
Towards the end of the episode, Chris ponders if he truly belongs to his own universe. “Maybe the universe fucked up,” he ponders to Adebayo who is trying to assure him that he belongs here, with his friends. It’s a scene that we’ve seen before, but it does have some added weight now that we’ve seen Chris in the other universe with his family, being the version of himself he wants to be.
Episode 4 feels like a bit of a bottle episode, filler instead of real progress. The final moments of the episode finds St. Wild practicing some old, indigenous rituals to become a flying spirit in the sky, looking for Eagly. Gunn clearly still hasn’t lost that truly ridiculous edge that he made his name with in Hollywood. Whether it quite fits Peacemaker season 2, is still up for debate.
Peacemaker season 2 debuts new episodes on Sky and NOW on Fridays.
