‘Peacemaker’ Finally Answers Why That Pocket Dimension Actually *Really* Sucks

After spending a week pondering the buzz and secrecy surrounding the finale of Peacemaker Season 2, which has been kept under tight wraps—despite a few leaks—we can finally witness all the ways Christopher Smith’s perfect little alternate pocket universe is truly the worst thing for him and his friends who don’t share his complexion. Let’s go and disseminate all the major moments from the recent episode of Peacemaker.

In the aptly titled sixth episode of Peacemaker, “Ignorance Is Chrisâ€, we open on Christopher Smith (John Cena) sharing a meal with his father, Auggie Smith (Robert Patrick), his brother Keith (David Denman), and alt-Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) at a diner celebrating his killing of the kaiju from Superman and getting back with Harcourt. Some snot-nosed kids ask for a photo; they take it, but everyone’s faces start to droop as if to grab us by the lapel of our shirts and warn us that some strange shit is about to go down.

Back in our dimension, Harcourt, Adrian Chase (Freddie Stroma), John Economos (Steve Agee), and Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) plan to follow Chris into the pocket universe by using Adrian’s house as a conduit. Adebayo, having done her alt-dimension homework, warns the crew not to interact with themselves lest they cause the universe to explode. After some fiddling around, they open up a portal and waltz on in to the infinite corridor of Smith’s portal that leads to other-dimensional doors.

At ARGUS HQ, Fleury (Tim Meadows) delivers more bad news to Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo): their series of failed missions now includes Harcourt and Economos going MIA. And on top of that, Judomaster (Nhut Le) can’t be reached after following Chris into the alt-dimension. Flag Sr. takes this well and asks to be alone before putting in a call to meet a prisoner at Belle Reve. Wonder if he’ll meet a bald man about a dimensional portal?

Harcourt and crew suss out the door to Chris’s pocket dimension, what with all the Peacemaker helmets uniformly stored in front of it, and walk on in. After taking a beat to appreciate the Smith trophy room and understand why Chris is so infatuated with his life here (that he stole by killing his doppelganger). Adrian keeps insisting on meeting his reverse self (calm down, Flash fans, I can hear you through the screen), much to everyone’s annoyance, as they take a look around the Chris compound.

Harcourt, not taking into account how creepy it is to see Hallmark photos of her and Chris, voices what the audience has likely been screaming at their TV for the past couple of weeks, echoing Adebayo’s sentiment to trust that everyone belongs where they are and not retreat into a pocket-hug universe to cope. Unfortunately, her rant alerts Keith, leading the rest of the gang to play hide-and-seek while she pretends to be her reverse self. To Adebayo’s chagrin, Harcourt takes Keith up on his offer to drive her to ARGUS, where Chris is, leaving her to babysit Economos and Adrian.

Meanwhile, not at ARGUS, Chris is shacked up with Reverse Harcourt, cuddled up in bed. At the same time, Harcourt Prime raises an eyebrow at the alt-dimension’s weird pop culture musical inconsistencies, such as Mick Jagger being the lead singer in The Beatles. Chris aways to ARGUS, Adrian endeavors to meet his reverse self, and we’ve got a ton of spinning plates ready to crash on the floor once everyone meets who they’re looking for. And wouldn’t you know, Harcourt locks eyes with Chris as she’s being taken away on account of Adrian’s coke blowing on her and freaking out ARGUS’ German Shepherd, shelving their inevitable messy reunion for a later time.

Adrian strolls up to his reverse house and is tickled pink by the subtle changes to the home decor, differently spelled Cheerios, and his dad not being gay. And just like the Spider-Man pointing at Spider-Man meme (which the show explicitly calls out), Adrian meets his reverse self, and they both geek out. Elsewhere, Adebayo and Economos meet Eagly.

Back at the plot, we get a very slow reveal to the person Flag Jr. is so dead set on meeting at Belle Reve: and yes, it’s none other than Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult). Lex isn’t taking his imprisonment well, venting his frustration to Flag Sr. about his attempt to cleanse the world of metahumans going awry, which has led to a judge ordering him to 265 years in prison. Flag Sr., ever the opportune negotiator, offers to transfer Lex to a different prison. Lex sees through the charade as a thinly veiled inquiry for his help. Flag Sr. mentions Peacemaker’s portable dimensional portal, Lex mentions having a scanner for portals, and Flag Sr. offers Lex “an opportunity for redemption.â€

Back at alt-ARGUS, Chris finally meets Harcourt face-to-face, and he nearly blows a gasket at her following him. They have a row about his letter, the nature of her taking him down to protect him from getting assassinated, and Harcourt tells him that everyone came to get him back. Chris, once again, begs Harcourt to tell him how she feels about whatever happened between them on the boat, and her not mentioning that she and Rick Flag Jr. (Joel Kinnaman) were an item before Chris took his life. Finally, they’re airing all this out, and Chris tells her he loves her. She knows but holds his feet to the fire on whether he’ll stay in the alt dimension if she doesn’t. They reach an impasse when Chris says he loves her faults and all, but his dad and brother being alive in the alt-dimension complicates whether he’ll come back home with the gang.

Back in the OG dimension, Flag Sr. tells Sasha Bordeaux (Sol Rodriguez) that Lex agreed to help and that he’ll be transferred to Van Kull (another comics nod—Van Kull Maximum Security Prison has been a part of Metropolis since the turn of the century). Expect more Lex in our Peacemaker future. Back in the pocket universe, Adrian and Reverse-Adrian are best buds who agree on everything except that Peacemaker is their actual best friend. Turns out Reverse Adrian has dedicated his life to tearing down everything Reverse Peacemaker stands for. Put a pin in that for now.

The real tension of the episode explodes when Adebayo innocently decides to take a walk to clear her head, and every white passerby she sees gawks at her. The shoe is about to drop on why the best universe ever fucking sucks. Harcourt asks Chris if he hasn’t noticed anything weird in this dimension. Keith is driving home and sees Adebayo walking on the sidewalk and brakes hard. Folks, we’re so close to this edge of a reveal with only four minutes left in the episode. Harcourt finally mentions not seeing a single person of color since she arrived. Keith emerges from his pickup, and we finally get it, as he yells for everyone to look out for “A Black.†And back at ARGUS, Chris picks up a desk flag to reveal…

And there it is. As everyone has been theorizing, this is Peacemaker‘s spin on Earth-X, a universe full of fucking racist goddamn Nazis. And like in the last season, where a bunch of white hooded guys emerge from a forest to chase Chris, a gaggle of mayonnaise-complexioned folks are giving chase to Adebayo. So much for Chris’ perfect world, as we close on Economos spilling all the beans to Auggie and Reverse Harcourt ordering guards to arrest our Harcourt.

Peaceful Peacemaker Pontifications

• Adrian’s mom being an all-around lovely lady willing to play Dungeons and Dragons with her son despite Adrian being petulantly embarrassed by her, is so fun. A shame he pulled a Bill Doutrieve by lying to her about dating Harcourt to make his life seem impressive—nothing like a mom without a filter to humble a man from his glaring white lie. She’s great.
• Adrian’s secret hideout room being littered with cash and drugs, which he just hoards in his house from his escapades, because he doesn’t trust corrupt cops. He’s a little confused, but his heart’s in the right place. It’s a good bit having Economos, Adebayo, and Harcourt pocket some of their broke boyfriend’s embarrassment of riches for themselves while bigging him up for being virtuous.
• David Denman has not missed a single comedic step since his time starring in The Office.
• Peacemaker being “big goofy†and a non-metahuman being the reason why Lex Luthor doesn’t have him on his radar.
• James Gunn, despite kinda spoiling where the cameo direction for where the season finale is heading, is still galaxy-brained enough to take a long walk toward the punchline that the alternate dimension is filled with a bunch of Nazis. We love a creator who unabashedly says things like racism and fascism suck without cowering to the powers that be to dampen that universal message.

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