Peacemaker Season 2, Episode 4 Review – ‘It’s Complicated’

Full spoilers follow for Peacemaker Season 2, Episode 4 - “Need I Say Door.”

Peacemaker’s fourth episode takes a break from Chris’ newfound favorite dimension so that he can deal with some brewing trouble on the homefront, specifically regarding A.R.G.U.S. being all on his tip. It’s another week for John Cena to drill down on what makes his DC character tick, even while the pieces are being put in place for a clash between him and one of his closest allies.

But things start off with a flashback to 35 years ago, where we find Auggie (Robert Patrick) and his young sons Chris and Keith hunting in the woods. Auggie takes a shot, and for a moment it sounds like maybe he hit a bird… that’s the sound of a bird cawing, right? But no, we soon see that it’s actually some kind of alien or other-dimensional being, and it’s suffering. But Auggie, monster that he is, shoots the creature dead despite its shrieking pleas for mercy – and Keith begging him not to shoot. It’s actually a horrific scene, and a reminder of the kind of environment that Peacemaker was raised in.

Now, considering the popular theory going around right now that Chris’ “best dimension ever” is going to turn out to be a white-supremacist realm, you have to wonder if this flashback is from the world of Prime Chris or alt-Chris... or both, maybe?

In any case, it also serves to show us how Auggie first discovered the Quantum Unfolding Chamber (QUC), and maybe the helmet and armor tech behind White Dragon and Peacemaker’s costumed identities as well. In any case, after witnessing that murder, it’s all blood tech.

That’s just the prologue, though, and the bulk of the episode is about Chris and Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) working to outsmart Sasha Bordeaux (Sol Rodríguez) and her A.R.G.U.S. goons (with some help/non-help from A.R.G.U.S. goon himself Steve Agee’s Economos). It’s funny when Chris lays down in his bed, only to notice the bullet holes in his ceiling… and that his whole place has been trashed from the fight Eagly had with those A.R.G.U.S. agents (Mexicali, Ponyboy, Titties, and Encino Man, for those who are keeping track) a couple of episodes back.

So while A.R.G.U.S. is trying to break the code to the closet door that hides the QUC, Chris and Adebayo head to the family cabin in the woods with the weird spacey briefcase thing that the alien in that prologue left behind after its untimely passing. It’s the key to the interdimensional portal, of course, which leads to a fun fight scene between Chris and “Rip Jagger”/Judomaster (Nhut Le) and, shortly thereafter, a dramatic boom in those aforementioned woods. But more importantly, the whole episode gives Chris the chance to come clean to Adebayo about what’s been going on in the alt-dimension. She’s trying to give him some good advice – “none of it’s real” – but he’s not hearing it.

Meanwhile, Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) is more desperate than ever after Frank Grillo’s Rick Flag Sr. confirms to her that her career is kaput thanks to Amanda Waller. The scenes between these two are sort of tense and certainly well played, as they of course have a past relationship and a lost loved one in common (Joel Kinnaman’s Rick Jr.), but also there’s more going on beneath the surface, which is proven out by episode’s end when Harcourt has no choice but to join Rick Sr.’s mission to bring in Peacemaker. The question is, is Harcourt playing Rick Sr. the way Rick Sr. just played her?

Thoughts From the Quantum Unfolding Chamber:

• Mmmmm, eagle droppings…
• So while one part of Peacemaker and White Dragon’s origin has been revealed here, the question of the helmets appears to be another matter. It’s “complicated” according to Chris.
• Man, they really nailed the mullets in the flashbacks on this show, didn’t they?
• "What the fuck is a tagent?"
• Bordeaux is getting paid to deal with Economos’ shit!
• Rick Flag Sr.’s broken back? That’s a Creature Commandos reference!