Peacemaker Season 2, Episode 6 Review - Everything, Finally, Happens
Full spoilers follow for Peacemaker Season 2, Episode 6 - “Ignorance Is Chris.”
Nazi planet.
The internet called it a few weeks back, and now, as we enter the final stretch of the season, we finally have confirmation that John Cena’s Peacemaker’s happy place, his Best Dimension Ever, is actually a world of Nazis. Or at the very least a country of Nazis. They even have a Nazi American flag!
But that’s not all that happens in “Ignorance Is Chris,” which, after a fairly slow-moving season, finally shifts into high gear in its last 10 minutes, with each of its main characters facing a dramatic and dangerous turn. Let’s start with the buzziest.
Frank Grillo’s Rick Flag Sr. had made a deal with the devil now that A.R.G.U.S. is, as he puts it, “partners with Lex Luthor.” Yes, Nicholas Hoult pops over from this past summer’s Superman long enough to hook Rick Sr. up with a way to trace Peacemaker’s dimensional portal. We figured something big was happening this week since HBO didn’t make advance screeners of this episode available for critics, not to mention that James Gunn (who wrote and directed this segment) is doing interviews for “Ignorance Is Chris” as well (more on that this weekend after we talk to him).
Is it just me or does Hoult play Lex here a little colder, a little more serious, a little scarier than he did in Superman? Maybe it’s just the more adult approach Peacemaker as a show affords its characters (amid their silliness), or perhaps it’s a result of Lex’s bitterness after, from his perspective, his trying to save the world from “the metahuman blight” and was instead thrown into Belle Reve for life (or 265 years, whichever comes first) to live among the super-people whom he hates.
The thing is, despite all of Rick Sr.’s talk about not wanting to deal with another dimensional rift like what went down in Superman, it’s become increasingly clear that he has a bigger agenda beyond that, and here he confirms to Lex that he has “another idea” for what to do once he finds Chris’ tech. What is that idea? Start placing your bets now, but whatever it turns out to be, the scene between Hoult and Grillo is nicely played, even as it further drives home that Rick Sr. isn’t really the villain of this season as much as he’s operating in that morally grey area that can lead to good people making bad decisions.
So then who is the real villain of this season? Well, I guess it’s the Nazi planet. While Harcourt (Jennifer Holland), upon landing in this dimension, immediately noticed what Chris did not – the lack of people of color – Danielle Brooks’ Ads is of course the one who is targeted as soon as she steps outside of the Nazi Smith house. Things start slowly, with a woman driving by and staring, but soon enough the neighborhood devolves into an Invasion of the Body Snatchers situation as they’re chasing her down the street. That includes Keith (David Denman), Chris’ brother who, like Robert Patrick’s alternate dimension Auggie, has seemed like a pretty lovable guy up until this point. But then he’s yelling “One got out! A black!” Weird how a pretty lovable guy can turn out to be a monster.
This big reveal – though Gunn must’ve known we’d all figure it out before now – is cross-cut with the rest of the 11th Street Kids finding themselves in various degrees of trouble. Steve Agee’s Economos, as a result of the pretty dumb plan to just hang around the Smith house and hope Chris comes home, of course runs into Auggie, not Chris. The Blue Dragon may be old now, but he’s still fast, and he easily takes Economos down before putting a blade through his hand, causing Economos to spill his guts on every little detail about Chris Prime… who of course killed Auggie’s Chris.
Adrian (Freddie Stroma), finally back in his Vigilante suit, has his dream come true and meets the alt-Adrian. And they are indeed an exact match, which of course leads to lots of Gunn weirdness and yuck-yucks… until alt-Adrian lets loose that he hates Peacemaker. And that’s why he joined the Sons of Liberty even!
The Sons of Liberty, of course, was the terrorist organization that tried to blow up a building back in Episode 3 before Chris put a lethal (and quite exciting) stop to them. Fans were speculating at the time, and I’d bet you dollars to donuts that they were right on this one as well, that the Sons are actually freedom fighters in the Nazi dimension. Which, among other things, means that Chris didn’t just kill his alt-self, but also a bunch of do-gooders in this world too. Worst Dimension Ever.
And then there’s Chris and Harcourt. Not only does Chris find that Nazi flag in the end – surely a deflating moment for any hero and patriot, let alone one who thought he had found the perfect life in this world – but the situation with him and Harcourt and the other Harcourt are all coming to a boil. And between Chris and our Harcourt, things are way complicated. Like this complicated:
Chris: “I know you don't hate me.”
Harcourt: “I know you know I don't.”
Chris: “But I'm in love with you, Emilia.”
Harcourt: “Yeah, I know.”
Chris: “Yeah, I figured.”
It’s another really good scene in an episode with a bunch, and quite a feat when one considers not just how Cena’s Peacemaker started out back in The Suicide Squad, but also the emotional gymnastics that the actor and Holland are doing here.
And that’s before alt-Harcourt has Harcourt Prime arrested…
Thoughts From the Quantum Unfolding Chamber:
- Funny that Lex hasn’t even heard of Peacemaker.
- Was Lex permanently injured by Krypto’s attack in Superman, hence the cane? Or is he still healing? Will this lead to the power suit that’s already been teased by Gunn for Man of Tomorrow?
- Where’s Judomaster? He jumped over to the dimension last episode as well (unless he’s still wandering around the Quantum Unfolding Chamber). Then again, the Nazi planet probably isn’t too welcoming to him either…
- So in the preview for next week’s episode, who’s the prisoner who Lex referred Rick Sr. to?
- And what is Rick Sr.’s real plan? Could it be that he’s just trying to see his son once again, even if it's an alternate dimension version of him? That would certainly tie into the themes of the season nicely.
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