On ‘Peacemaker,’ Nothing Makes the Heart Grow Fonder Like Escaping Earth X

Look alive, readers, we’ve reached penultimate territory for Peacemaker Season 2. With how things went down last week with that big cameo and the revelation that the smart alecs amongst you wasted no time forecasting that big twist that stuck out like a plank in their eye episodes in advance, it’s time to see how Christopher Smith and the rest of the 11th Street kids bumble their way out of this Earth X snafu.

Episode seven, “Like A Keith in the Night,†wastes no time rolling right along from the last episode’s cliffhanger ending, where, for everyone’s stark reminder, Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) justifiably gives Christopher Smith (John Cena) shit for failing to realize that his perfect world is Earth X, aka the Nazis’ won World War II dimension. If the copies of Mein Kampf on every desk at ARGUS weren’t a dead giveaway, the painted mural of Adolf Hitler sure as shit is. Whatever the case, the whole Nazi reveal was enough to snap Chris out of his delusions of grandeur, break up with alt-Harcourt, punch out some ARGUS goons with Harcourt prime, and stage a getaway from this bizarro world.

Back at Into the Vigilante-Verse, Reverse Adrian Chase (Freddie Stroma) gives Adrian (also Stroma) the lowdown on this reality’s take on the Sons of Liberty. Apparently, alongside being really bad at making bombs that don’t prematurely turn them into spent firecrackers, they’re the only line of defense against the “worldwide Nazi oppressors.†Perhaps we judged that dude who exploded in episode three too harshly. Remembering the current peril of Adebayo (Danielle Brooks), they both run away to save her.

Speaking of the “running away from crazy racists†of it all, Keith Smith (David Denman), mid-stride as he helps hunt down Adebayo, answers a call from Auggie (Robert Patrick), who tells him to drop the terrible thing he’s in the middle of doing to help him with something more important: he doesn’t tell his son exactly what that thing is, but we see he’s got John Economos (Steve Agee) tied up and whimpering at whatever horrors await him. More on that later.

Back at the hate crime in progress, Adebayo hops a fence, dives into a pool (weird choice), and is saved by Judomaster (Nhut Le), who electrifies said pool, killing the swimming racists instantly (suddenly much less of a weird choice). And just like that, we’ve a new ally in this messed-up world. Nice! Keeping with the spirit of getting away from racists, Harcourt and Chris make a speedy exit by rocketing out of the glass door of ARGUS before driving away on the Peace Cycle. If he’s leaving this dimension, Chris is leaving with something, and we can’t fault him for taking his Kamen Rider-inspired ride with him.

We return to the Smith abode, where Auggie tells Keith that their Chris is dead. But more to the point, he’s encountered his own doppelganger before, but something was off with him as well, like he came from “a world that was a dark version of our own.†Hats off to James Gunn; that was a funny bit to write in there. Papa’s big concern is less the dead son, or whatever lies beyond the portal, but rather that our Chris will blabber to the authorities about their portal. Meanwhile, Keith has murder on his mind. They suit up to round up Chris and Harcourt.

Speaking of, Chris and Harcourt share a tender moment riding away from the pursuing police officers on some of the end of Grease-type shit, only there’s no driving away into heaven—they’re surrounded by cops brandishing their guns, which is only interrupted by Auggie and Keith lighting the coppers up in a hail of explosions. Surprisingly, they’re not here to kill Harcourt and Chris. They’re here to help them escape. On some Terminator 2-type… you catch my meaning.

In the main universe, we catch up with Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo) and Sasha Bordeaux (Sol Rodriguez) as they arrive at a secure facility to apprehend the show’s latest Superman cameo: Sydney Happersen (Stephen Blackehart), Lex Luthor’s deep-voiced henchman, who was super against all the portal usage in that movie. It turns out he’s the guy who’ll help ARGUS with their pocket universe problem that Lex was talking about! And, as Gunn’s endless media tour teased, we return to the central hub where Lex 1A’d Superman a bunch, only it’s not in the sky this time and is simply impounded in the aforementioned secure facility. Their plan: scan for dimensional portals to track down Peacemaker. Their problem: Happersen doesn’t do pro bono work. He quickly changes his mind, though, when Flag Sr. threatens to get Luthor involved. His quick work pays off, as he locates the portal and secures a job at ARGUS. Here’s to failing upwards.

Returning to the Smith compound on Earth X, Chris tells Auggie and Keith everything that led them to this point, including the reason why he stayed in their dimension: to know what it feels like to have a family. Keith is understandably upset at the whole domino effect of his brother’s death, which led to all this, drawing some irony to the fact that he is the dead brother in Chris’ universe. Also, that Nazi universe Auggie is a better dad than Chris’s own racist dad. And like wasps to a picnic filled with sweet beer and wine, Judomaster, Adebayo, and the Adrians meet up outside the Smith home.

Inside the Smith home, we learn that, despite their whole deification in this Nazi world, the Smiths are not Nazis—a low bar to clear, otherwise, but a nice bar to have nonetheless. The only outlier in this version of the Smith family trio is dead Chris, who Auggie admits to loving despite his vices with violence, drugs, and the like, turning him into an asshole. Turns out that this Auggie isn’t an asshole… so it’s too bad his good-guy revelation is immediately interrupted by one of the Adrians breaking through a glass window and shanking him in the neck. From here on out, Keith starts blasting, making the episode title a certified “Oh, I get it†moment.

A gnarly shootout ensues between the 11th Street kids, Keith, and the cops who enter into the fray from all the commotion. Just as the gang prepares to hop back into the portal door, Keith and Chris fight, leading the gang to jump Keith and prepare to take him out. Chris lets out an emotional cry to stop them and holds his brother, who’s pretty much cooked. Disgusted at all the violence, Chris has a flashback to season one, where his dad’s makeshift kid pit fight resulted in him killing his brother. Chris asks what’s wrong with everyone. And they don’t have an answer. Chris then has a moment where he admits that everything he touches goes to shit, flashing back to killing his dad and Rick Flag Jr. (Joel Kinnaman) in The Suicide Squad.

We close on the gang retreating in the portal door back into the main reality, Harcourt failing to execute Keith to keep him from seeking revenge, and ARGUS circling the gang outside Adrian’s house. Under arrest, Chris surrenders the dimensional portal thingy (which isn’t a helmet) and hands ARGUS the keys to the multiversal kingdom.

Peaceful Peacemaker Pontifications

• Adrian, easily still the best (human) character on the show, dodges the question about our world being a utopia with America defeating the Nazis. There’s a ton of real-world and comic-book lore in his shrug, “Um,†and the ellipses that follow.
• In the spirit of noticing odd things in the background of Peacemaker, the Smith house has a ton of framed photos of horses. We’re talking “The Room‘s framed spoonsâ€Â levels of equestrian portraits. Weird.
• Adebayo and Judomaster get to become fast friends, letting bygones be bygones on account of how twisted Earth X is. They talk about Adebayo’s girl troubles over Scrobble (Earth X’s own Scrabble variant), bond over music, and even talk about the nice guy under Chris’ cheesiness. It’s nice.
• For whatever reason, Sydney Happersen reminds us of that pyrotechnics guy from Atlantis. The Vinny Santorini mustache game is strong.
• Gunn’s whole GQ interview, where he immediately regretted his both-sides-leaning phrasing about the Nazi dimension having more layers to it, actually proved to have more layers to it with Auggie’s whole “I’m a hero despite how fucked up my world is†speech.
• Peacemaker, unfortunately, is not getting his Peace Cycle through the portal. RIP, Peace Cycle.

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