Peacemaker continues to be a hilarious and action packed addition into the DC Extended Universe, with the DCEU’s first streaming series being a success thus far. After the three episode premiere last week, series star John Cena leads another excellent addition into the series, which delves more into the show’s story while dealing with the aftermath of the last episode.
Vigilante joins the team
After the almost botched mission at the end of the third episode, Murn (Chukwudi Iwuji) decides to recruit Vigilante to the team to keep a close eye on him. This leads to Freddie Stroma having a key role in the episode, which is great for the series. Stroma plays the role in a hilariously psychotic fashion and it is great to see both him and Cena bounce off each other on-screen.
Episode four looks into Vigilante being deeply saddened by Peacemaker letting him get tortured at the end of the previous episode, with Peacemaker eventually apologising. The pair argue over Peacemaker’s father and how he was a bad influence on the character and is an overall horrible person, as the anti-hero collected some gear from his father’s place.
This led to one of the most hilarious scenes of the episode, as Peacemaker has a passionate argument about his superhero status, with Chris arguing with his father’s neighbour who thinks he is a supervillain and is an ultimate Batman fan. Peacemaker roasts Batman and his method, showing how passionate he is about his beliefs and his opinions on heroes who do not have the stomach to kill.
The White Dragon Issue
While it is obvious that Robert Patrick’s Auggie Smith is a bad man and a racist, his White Dragon persona is touched on more in this episode. The worst part is he despises his son and after Peacemaker tells his father that he was set up (despite Adebayo urging him not to), Auggie insists he is going to snitch and ruin the mission. Adebayo manipulates Vigilante into getting himself arrested in order to make Auggie “go away,” leading to another situation where the team has to clean up another mess in order to ensure Peacemaker and Vigilante are both kept on board with the mission.
The scenes with Vigilante in prison with Auggie and his gang are both hilarious and full of tension, as the way the scene is filmed is made to seem that someone is going to bite the bullet. While both Vigilante and Auggie are left intact, Vigilante’s comment about the latter being a terrible father may have made matters worse, something that seems to hit the character hard due to his loyalty to Peacemaker.
Struggling with Emotions
Both Adebayo and Peacemaker are put through a lot of emotions this episode, as both have to tackle things they have done. During a brilliantly choreographed rematch between Judomaster and Peacemaker, Adebayo shoots the former and is left guilt ridden. She feels terrible and is anxious he is going to die, as she has never shot or killed a person before.
It has been made clear that, despite her mother Amanda Waller’s insistence that she should do this job, that Adebayo is not cut out for the cold blooded nature this role. Peacemaker has also been experiencing issues with pulling the trigger, as showcased during the previous episode where he was asked to take out two children who were butterflies.
Shown through a sad montage, it turns out Peacemaker is somewhat responsible for the death of his brother which is a major reason why he hates himself and is having an identity crisis. It will be interesting to see where the character goes from here, as he continues to think about his life choices since he murdered Rick Flagg in The Suicide Squad. The words “Peacemaker… what a joke,” are going to play constantly in the character’s thoughts throughout the series, as he reevaluates his life choices, making for a compelling character study.
Butterfly Reveals
Now for the major reveals, as it turns out that the alien butterflies are set to have a big impact on the team behind closed doors. For starters, Cena’s character has kept the creature he claimed to have destroyed. The butterfly will likely play a role in the future when it inevitably escapes, the question is will it take over one of the members of the team?
The other reveal was one that this author had predicted after the second episode, which was that Murn is a part of the conspiracy and is in fact a butterfly. This makes the series so much more interesting, as there are many questions laid out with this reveal, including why Murn would be adamant on taking out the other butterflies. All will likely be revealed soon, as Judomaster also seems to have information on the alien race.
Peacemaker is now streaming on HBO Max, with new episodes releasing every Thursday.
