Episode Review: Peacemaker 2x1 - "The Ties That Grind"

Welcome back to the blog readers. In case you have been living under a rock recently, James Gunn's DCU kicked off with a banger in last month's Superman (2025) (of which you can read my review of here). But Peacemaker (2022-) has been one of my favorite shows since it premiered at the start of 2022. Its blend of black comedy, real emotions, and heart were addicting from the start (also that dance). Would this season kick off just as well? Let's talk about it through my review of the premiere episode, titled "The Ties that Grind," and written and directed by James Gunn.

NOTE: I will be using spoilers for my thoughts, so DO NOT read ahead if you have not seen the episode.

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Like I said at the top of this review, Peacemaker quickly warmed its way into my heart, faster than those Butterflies from the first season went up the assholes of people to burrow into their brain and take them over. I was a bit nervous finding out that Peacemaker would be integrated into the DCU because we are in its genesis and don't have a general direction yet. But I was sold right from the "Previously on" segment. This episode is every bit as funny, cringey, brutal, and emotional as any of the episodes from the first season, and John Cena gives possibly his finest acting performance to date.

I want to start this review by talking about the soon-to-be-retired wrestler John Cena. Cena admittedly has been getting better in every project he has appeared in; the man has come a long way from Fred: The Movie (2010). That has all culminated in his performance as Christopher Smith / Peacemaker. Peacemaker has become the most layered, grounded, and emotionally complex role Cena has taken on, and he has absolutely knocked it out of the park every time he is playing Smith. This episode introduces some new emotions and some new dynamics, and it reinforces this idea that Cena can act with the right material. Just look at his scene with two people that I will discuss later on. Or even that scene (oh come on, you know what scene I'm talking about).

I next want to talk about the story, because it is going to set up some real multiversal shit that will affect the entire DCU. Sometime after the events of the first season, Christopher Smith is woken up in the middle of the night by Eagly, who wants to go outside. Chris instead takes him inside the Quantum Unfolding Chamber (QUC), in which Eagly flies away. While trying to look for his pet eagle, and trying (and failing) to make nice with an alien from another dimension, Chris finds Eagly at a new door very reminiscent of his own. He puts the code in for his door and finds the door opens. While analyzing the room he is in, he finds news clippings that declare Peacemaker to be a hero and an alternate version of his white supremacist father Auggie that comments that Chris looks like he has seen a ghost. He quickly runs back into the QUC to gather his thoughts over what has transpired.

Six months later, Chris is trying to find meaning in his life as he has officially moved into his father's house. He is picked up by fellow member of the 11th Street Kids Leota Adebayo for an interview to join the Justice Gang. Since they saved the world from the Butterflies last season, Team Peacemaker has not been fortunate enough to move up in the world. Adebayo has not spoken to her wife who has left, and Chris ponders if all that worrying about Adebayo finally got to Keeya. She drops him off at an abandoned toy shop, which is where the Justice Gang are conducting their interviews. As he walks in, someone named White Rabbit runs out crying. Inside, Chris meets Guy Gardner / Green Lantern (played by Nathan Fillion), Kendra Saunders / Hawkgirl (played by Isabela Merced), and the Justice Gang's benefactor Maxwell Lord (played by Gunn's brother Sean, and all three reprise their Superman roles). When trying to interview Chris, they continually turn off their microphones and talk negatively about him so that he can hear what they are saying. When he finally points out that he can hear them, they reveal Guy was the one who messed up the audio system and Lord regrets bringing up White Rabbit's camel toe. Chris leaves the interview disgusted and annoyed.

Meanwhile, a doctor tells an unseen person that they suffer from a severe case of toxic masculinity, and it is revealed to be Emilia Harcourt. Since Adebayo exposed her mother's actions at the end of the first season, Amanda Waller has blackballed Harcourt from working at any intelligence agencies. This is just the latest one, and she walks back to her car furious and punching the dashboard until her knuckle is bloody. She makes it back to her apartment to find Chris there to catch up (with Thirty Seconds to Mars and their frontman Jared Leto catching some strays). Chris ices her knuckle, asks how her interview went, and tries to rekindle a sexual hookup they had on a party boat, but Harcourt tells him it was a mistake despite Chris actually falling for her. He leaves in frustration and returns home to snort some cocaine and do drugs. The scene transforms to later that night where Chris is hosting a clothesless orgy where he is the only one clothed. He allows a man and a woman to kiss all over him before walking over to the QUC drunk and high.

Unbeknownst to him, John Economos, who is still working for ARGUS, is surveilling him under the direction of Rick Flag Sr., who is aware Chris killed his son during the events of The Suicide Squad (2021). He gets a call from Adrian Chase / Vigilante, who has grown more attached to Economos since the events of the first season. They converse about Chase's unending (yet nonexistent) knowledge of owls before Chase is whisked away by his boss. Economos sees a blip on his radar coming from Chris's house, and he stumbles on the orgy and the door to the QUC, of which he takes a picture of. ARGUS agent Sasha Bordeaux calls him to see if he found anything, to which Economos denies. Bordeaux brings this information to Flag, who is trying to prevent another dimensional rift like what happened a few months ago with "the Luthor incident." Flag also makes surveying Chris his top priority and vows to bring someone new in, one that he can trust. Economos takes the picture to Adebayo, and the two of them discuss what Chris is up to, and that Flag is aware Chris killed his son. Adebayo promises Economos she will talk to Chris and find out what is happening for him.

Chris walks in the QUC and makes his way in a drunk and high stupor to the other dimension, where he discovers he, White Dragon, and another unnamed superhero are considered to be Evergreen's protectors called the "Top Trio." He discovers someone has come home, and is stunned to realize it is his brother Keith (played here by David Denman) who is alive in this universe. Keith reconnects with his father Auggie, and they comment on their Chris's supposed trip to Bludhaven. They talk with Chris about their adventures, and it becomes more clear to Chris that this version of Auggie is not the man his father is. They also discuss Chris's ex, who is supposedly dating a "jarhead" now. As Auggie and Keith go to bed, he tells them both he loves them, with Auggie grabbing his ear and telling Chris he loves him too, leading Chris to break down and start crying. He investigates his "bedroom" and learns his ex in this dimension is Harcourt.

Speaking of Harcourt, she finds her way to a bar called Gabriel's Horn and incites a fight so she can feel something. She initially gets the upper hand, but she is quickly overwhelmed and kicked out of the bar with a smile on her face. Meanwhile, in the other dimension, Chris does some more investigating but is shocked to see his alternate dimension self, who has just returned from Bludhaven. Before Chris 1 can explain anything, Chris 2 engages him in a brutal and bloody fight that takes them in the QUC. They wind up whizzing around fighting each other until Chris 2 begins to get the upper hand on Chris 1. Out of options, Chris 1 sets off the jetpack on Chris 2's suit, leading him to flu straight up into a spiky device on the celling, impaling Chris 2, and he dies in Chris 1's arms, as Chris is left shocked and panicking.

I love the twist of Chris accidentally killing his brother when he was younger, his father some months ago, and now himself. It goes to show that death follows Peacemaker no matter where he goes, and it is going to be a great story that we follow going into next episode. I think that Chris is going to now exploit this new universe and get what he wants while masquerading as his other dimension self. The love from his father that he has been longing for, the respect he has been chasing after, and the relationship with Harcourt that he desperately wants. I feel as if it will not work out in the end, but temporarily getting that may just be what Chris needs right now. I also love that not every member of the 11th Street Kids is getting what they really want either. In this world, saving the world does not guarantee respect and the sort, and that will be a fascinating plot device that we can use.

I want to spend my final two paragraphs of this episode review talking about the retconning of the DCEU and the opening dance number, and I will start with the retconning of the DCEU. Right away, this episode starts with the narration, "Previously in the DCU..." clearly telling the audience that almost all of the events that happened from Man of Steel (2013) to Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023) did not happen, do not exist, and should not be worried about. Some of the changes include:

• In the first season finale, when Adebayo calls her mother about requesting the Justice League, the camera cuts away from her face before she says League and a new voiceover line by Adebayo actor Danielle Brooks says Gang.

• A line from the same finale is changed in which Chris brings up an alleged Green Lantern puke fetish to Harcourt.

• And the big one, the Justice League cameo at the end of the finale is changed to be the Justice Gang: Mr. Terrific, Hawkgirl, Green Lantern, Superman, and Supergirl (this scene supposedly takes place before Superman in which Metamorpho becomes a member of the Justice Gang) in which Fillion and Merced have speaking lines in the same vein as Jason Momoa and Ezra Miller.

And to end the review, I want to talk about the opening dance number. The opening dance number from the first season is quite literally the most unique title sequence I have ever seen, and will never be skipped in any household I am in. it became quite iconic, and Wig Wam became namesakes again due to their 2010 song "Do Ya Wanna Taste It" being used. This time around, Foxy Shazam's 2010 song "Oh Lord" soundtracks the dance that includes all of the new actors from this season, and I think it is just as fun and enjoyable as the first season's. Despite people online clamoring that they prefer the first dance number, I think they are both on the same level.

Peacemaker returns with a roaring start to its second season, focusing on a more personal story involving our favorite 11th Street Kids. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.