Peacemaker
Things are ramping up for Peacemaker and the crew. We only have four episodes left of this season and these episodes don't let up on the gas. Let's get to it.
"Monkey Dory"
Christopher Smith: "But, hey, I got bullied too."
Leota Adebayo: "how?"
Christopher Smith: "By kids calling me a bully all the time, and telling me I was abusive. Hey, that hurt my feelings!"
Things are ramping up for the Peacemaker crew. They track down a factory that may be tied to the butterflies and their mysterious food source. Meanwhile, Sophie Song believes that Auggie Smith was not the one who killed Annie Struphausen. But she is thwarted by new Captain Locke, a plant by Murn. Detective Song is undeterred and that could be bad news for Christopher Smith.
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| A family? |
It feels like the past couple of episodes of "Peacemaker" have been light on action, but this episode more than makes up for it. When Vigilante was talking about that chainsaw, you had to know that things were going to be bananas. Armed with a helmet that has an x-ray that can determine whether someone is human or a butterfly. To no one's surprise, well maybe Leota's, Peacemaker goes in guns blazing, blowing away everyone that he comes into contact with. It turns out that everyone in the warehouse is a butterfly and Peacemaker isn't fucking around. Smith wastes no time blowing folks away with Leota close behind, putting a bullet in the people he killed.
This is juxtaposed against Harcourt and Vigilante's much more stealthy approach. They are sneaking around and find out that the boxes in the warehouse are all filled with the viscous fluid that seem to be what the butterflies subsist on.
The action in this sequence is great. It's unhinged and over-the-top which is true "Peacemaker." Not only do you have Peacemaker just blowing away everyone he comes into contact with but he attaches a grenade to a warhead and lobs it at a group of butterflies. It does the trick, leaving every surface coated with viscera. The big moment of the episode is when the butterfly possessing the gorilla busts in and really starts fucking shit up. It's crazy and off the wall and really perfect. You forget how strong gorillas are until they are handily tossing around John Cena. The unlikely hero in this scenario is Economos who comes in with Vigilante's chainsaw and takes out the gorilla. You didn't think that they would mention that chainsaw and not use it?
Speaking of Economs, the friction between himself and Peacemaker comes to an head in this episode. I do think that the point Leota made is a good one. The jibes at Economos by Peacemaker are pretty funny, particularly his long list of people Economos could have framed aside from Peacemaker's father, which continue in the episodes post credits scene. But, it's toeing the line between funny and just bullying, even if Christopher Smith is a known bully, who gives nicknames based on what a penis looks like. The seeds of the reconciliation between "Dye Beard" and Peacemaker are planted when it's revealed that Economos is a fan of Hanoi Rocks, one of the founders of glam rock. Economos taking out the gorilla with the chainsaw is icing on the cake and it looks like all is forgiven.
This mission is what brings the group together and it's nice to see them covered in blood and jamming out to "11th Street Kids. Even Harcourt is getting into the spirit, taking a selfie and starting a group chat. We get a nice scene of Leota and Peacemaker bonding. All this is going too well, so you know that it's all going to go to shit and it quickly does when Letoa plants the diary in Smith's trailer for Waller.
Auggie Smith is still trying to get out of prison with the help of Detectives Song and Fitzgibbon but Murn's plant, Locke, won't allow that. Song has a trick up her sleeve, going to see her uncle, Judge Judy. A disenfranchised Leota heads back to the office and with Peacemaker's helmet finds out that Murn is a butterfly.
Grade: A-
"Murn After Reading"
Vigilante: "How did you know it was me?"
Christopher Smith: "You knock in a very annoying way."
It turns out that everyone except Vigilante, Peacemaker and Letoa knew that Murn was a butterfly. It turns out Murn was the only butterfly that was against the invasion and that the Goff butterfly is the queen. Armed with her warrant, Song has Auggie released and the Smith's trailer. He, Vigilante and Eagly barely escape the cops, with help from Locke, but not before the Goff butterfly escapes and possesses Song. The Song butterfly gathers an invasion force and takes over everyone in the police station. Auggie vows to kill his son and Peacemaker is exposed by Song to the world.
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| BFFs and a Butterfly |
Man, if this episode is any indication, then we are in for a ride for the final two episodes of the season. This felt like a penultimate episode. I really feel like the next episode should be the finale, but we still have two episodes left. This episode is so good!!
I think we have to start with the Murn reveal that begins the episode. It wasn't a shock to me when it was revealed that Murn was a butterfly. But it was surprising how the show handled it when everything was out in the open. We learn definitively that the butterflies are invaders who murder the people in the bodies they take over. That Murn is a good butterfly? Though he did in essence murder the real Murn.
We really see the extent of the butterfly threat in this episode. We haven't seen a butterfly actually take possession of a human body before this episode and we see it a lot here and it is truly horrific. The first victim is Sophie Song. RIP Detective Song. You will truly be missed. I was bummed. Song was a great character and brought great moments to the series, particularly her comebacks to Auggie, like when she just kept calling him random famous white guys or her parting insult about his hair when he was released from prison.
I have to give it up for the show as it flashes between Butterfly Sophie calling her butterfly army and them taking over every person in the police department including the criminals in the holding cells and Auggie being outfitted in his White Dragon uniform by his fellow neo-Nazis. For me, I'll take insect body snatching aliens over the KKK anytime. We are gearing up for a father/son showdown in these final two episodes and I'm not sure how it is all going to shake out. That scene of the butterflies invading all those cops and criminals was maybe the most disturbing scene in the series thus far so my hat off to James Gunn who directed this episode as well as wrote it.
Like, I know that I've given John Cena a lot of praise, but man, I just can't stop heaping it on him. Just when you thought he's plumbed all the depths out of someone like Christopher Smith, we get that piano scene. It is so haunting and Cena plays it so well. Who would have thought we would have gotten an extended piano interlude towards the end of the episode that would make me cry. John Cena will never be nominated for an Emmy for "Peacemaker," but he definitely should be. He and Harcourt have a nice moment. So, you know it's all going to go to shit and it does. With the reveal, that while the journal that Waller had Letoa plant is dead on about the butterfly threat, it makes Chris look even more unhinged and makes him public enemy number one.
I have a good feeling about these last two episodes.
Grade: A
Next up, the team goes looking for the cow and we wrap up the first season.
How are you all liking "Peacemaker?" Did you love these two episodes? Let me know in the comments.
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