Last week, Peacemaker revealed the truth that the “perfect” Earth that Christopher Smith/Peacemaker (John Cena) found himself in was actually one where the Nazis won World War II. Peacemaker Season 2 Episode 7, “Like A Keith In The Night”, picks up that ball and runs with it.
Directed by Alethea Jones, who directed the stellar Episode 5, and written once more by showrunner James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol . 3), the 33-minute-long installment packs a lot of plot into that small runtime, so let’s jump right into it. We pick up right where we left off last time, with Peacemaker and Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) realizing the reality of the Earth they’re on. At the same time, the alternate Harcourt stands with the authorities, ready to arrest Emilia-prime.
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To avoid confusion, anyone from the main Earth who has an alive counterpart in this alternate Earth will be referred to as Character Name-Prime, and their counterpart will be known as Character Name-2. Harcourt-Prime questions how Chris wouldn’t know this is a Nazi Earth, as in a hilarious sight gag, it’s revealed that there are copies of Mein Kampf everywhere, and a giant mural of Adolf Hitler in the office.
Peacemaker Season 2, Episode 7, continues with silliness and violence for good measure.
As Harcourt-2 stands next to Chris, he tells her he’s going to have to break up with her for what he’s “about to do”. This declaration leads into an exhilarating sequence of Peacemaker and Harcourt-Prime whipping the ass of everyone in sight. Easily, this is the best action sequence of the season so far, containing a bone-crunching ferocity that fits the desperation at this point in the plot. The two escape the office and roll the opening credits.
Peacemaker Season 2 Episode 7 contains a lot of converging plotlines, so we’ll go ahead and take each one at a time until its natural convergence point. Chris and Emilia-Prime ride off on a motorbike until they’re surrounded by countless police officers. They’re saved, as it were, by Auggie Smith/Blue Dragon (Robert Patrick) and Keith Smith/Captain Triumph (David Denman).
Saying a variation of the “come with me if you want to live” line from the franchise that made Robert Patrick famous, The Terminator. Chris and Emilia-Prime abide. Back at the Smith mansion, where John Economos (Steve Agee) is still tied up, Auggie calmly, but sternly, tries to stress that they need to go back to their world, while Keith looks about ready to kill Chris-Prime.
Meanwhile, the two Vigilantes (Freddie Stroma) continue to bond, where Vigilante-2 explains that it’s his main mission in the Sons of Liberty to fight injustice carried out by the Nazis. They agree that they need to go save Chris. Peacemaker Season 2 Episode 7 jumps back over to where we left Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks), running from a crowd of angry white people. As she goes into a swimming pool as a means of escape, she’s pulled out by none other than Rip Jagger/Judomaster (Nhut Le), who electrocutes a whole mess of Nazis left in the pool using exposed wires.
Rip takes Adebayo to an abandoned house where he explains what’s going on in this universe. He clarifies that all people of color are put into work camps in this world, or worse. Over a game of Scrobble, the alternate universe version of Scrabble, Judomaster questions why this would be a perfect world for Chris-Prime.
Adebayo, ever the loyal friend, suggests that Chris is an airhead who probably didn’t even notice the Nazi stuff. An astute observation, sure, but it does kind of kneecap the potential drama of the 11th Street Kids being angry at Chris for his choice. Like the Vigilantes, they agree they need to go find Chris.
Peacemaker Season 2 Episode 7 is moving quickly to either the final episode or setting up a new crossover.
Adebayo and Judomaster show up at the mansion, only for the Smith family and all others present to be shocked by their appearance. Suddenly, a knock comes at the door. The knock comes from none other than an alternate Officer Larry Fitzgibbon (Lochlyn Munro), a character who died in season 1. He asks to come in and take a look, which Auggie refuses without a warrant.
Back inside the house, Auggie questions why Keith was chasing Adebayo with a mob. Confused as to why Keith is being admonished when this is apparently the norm here, Auggie clarifies that he’s not a Nazi. He’s merely trying to be a good man who “does what he can” in a messed-up world, questioning if their world is any better.
This moment in Peacemaker Season 2 Episode 7 doesn’t quite land for me, if only because James Gunn doesn’t seem to paint Auggie as the cowardly centrist he really is. Instead, the series seems to ask us to take Auggie at face value.
Either way, Auggie is about to let the 11th Street Kids go back home, until the Vigilantes jump through the window and stab Auggie to death in the neck! As Chris cries out in anguish, the cops enter, and the Vigilantes engage in another one of the best action sequences of the season. It’s been so long since we’ve seen Vigilante throw down in the costume, and here we get two for the price of one.
John Cena continues to showcase why Peacemaker deserves your attention.
After a copious amount of cop killing, the Vigilantes begin to beat Keith to death, with the other 11th Street Kids holding him down. Chris cries out for them to stop, having flashbacks of killing his brother in the Prime Universe. In what is easily John Cena’s finest hour as an actor, he tearfully, painfully screams that he only causes hurt in any universe, and he comes to his dying brother’s side. Gently, Adebayo leads Chris out of the portal with the other 11th Street Kids. One Vigilante, very clearly not identified, stays behind to fight off the rest of the cops.
Before getting to the gut punch of an ending for Peacemaker Season 2 Episode 7, we’ve gotta jump back to ARGUS. Rick Flag Sr., played by Frank Grillo in increasingly smarmy vengeance mode, relishing his chance to get back at Chris for his son’s death in The Suicide Squad, has a friend of Lex Luthor’s to help them locate the portal. This is none other than Sydney Happerson (Stephen Blackehart), one of Lex’s technicians from Superman.
Happerson not only identifies the portal in Vigilante’s house, but he also comments that the portal is a lot more stable than the portals Lex opened in Superman. Not only is this an interesting connective tissue to that movie that feels organic, but it’s a larger world-building for the DC Studios Universe. Could this be a portal built by none other than Braniac, with the creature that Auggie killed on Prime-Earth being an emissary sent to scout? This could either be set up for a future film, like the upcoming Man of Tomorrow, or it could be a lead-in to a jam-packed season finale.
Peacemaker Season 2 Episode 7 ends with crushing reality, and that’s what makes it good.
The whole ARGUS team rolls up to Vigilante’s house, where the 11th Street Kids are waiting outside. Judomaster goes over to the side of ARGUS. Here, Chris makes the ultimate sacrifice, saying that his friends were the ones to bring him to justice and that he acted alone. He gives up the portal, and the rest of the 11th Street Kids are able to go free. Chris is taken into custody, dejected.
Wow. Just wow. Peacemaker Season 2 Episode 7 is absolute dynamite, a crushing dose of reality and tragedy to Chris’s misguided attempt to find a better world. The action is top-notch, the implications for the finale and the wider DC Universe are astonishing, and John Cena pours more of himself into the role than ever before. If it weren’t for the odd handling of Auggie Smith’s ideology, this would be the best episode of the season, perhaps even the series, and I can’t wait to see how it all wraps up next week.
Peacemaker Season 2 Episode 7 is streaming now, exclusively on HBO Max (formerly MAX).
