Episode Review: Peacemaker 2x3 - "Another Rick Up My Sleeve"
- randazzojj123
- 3 days ago
- 8 min read
Welcome back to the blog readers. Peacemaker (2022-) is one of my favorite shows on television, and for very good reason. The premiere episode proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt, but last week's episode was not as good in the story department (although it did not short us of the Peacemaker humor we have grown accustomed to). Now with this third episode, titled "Another Rick Up My Sleeve," written by James Gunn, and directed by Greg Mottola, would we get the same as the first or second episode? Stick around to find out.
NOTE: I will be using spoilers for my thoughts, so DO NOT read ahead if you have not seen the episode.
Like I said in the introductory paragraph, the first episode was a lot better in my opinion than the second. When I heard, however, that this third episode was being hailed as the best episode of the five released to critics, I knew I had to lock in and get in on the fun. Football got in my way, so I had to wait 36 hours to watch the episode, but it was well worth the wait. The performances of Jennifer Holland and John Cena are incredible this time out, and the story given is going to lead to a dark truth I will reveal to you later on.
I want to start by talking about the performance of Jennifer Holland. The most high-profile thing the wife of series creator James Gunn has been in was the film Brightburn (2019), but her performance in the DCEU as Emilia Harcourt has been very under-looked, even in the first season. But this episode sees a dual helping of Harcourt, and both versions of this character have insane depth. Holland as Harcourt 1 displays a lot of complexity underneath the trauma, and her as Harcourt 2 displays a warmth and a comfortability that I have never seen from her (yet love nonetheless). I hope we get to see more of this dual role, because it can allow her to do more things that she has never done before.
And next up, I want to talk about the performance of John Cena. I mentioned in my review of the premiere episode that Cena's acting has exponentially improved since he began acting, and James Gunn knows what he is doing by exploiting the soon-to-be-retired wrestler's strengths. And we see those strengths on full display again this time around. Cena does a brilliant job of mixing the longing feeling Christopher Smith / Peacemaker feels for Harcourt with the coolness that we have seen from this character since The Suicide Squad (2021). There is something about Cena playing this character that makes me want to hang out with him every week, and I cannot wait for Friday.
And now, we have to talk about this bonkers story and what it could mean for the future of this show (and maybe even the DCU as a whole). We start with a flashback to three years prior, where Emilia Harcourt has just finished sleeping with Rick Flag Jr. (played by a returning Joel Kinnaman), even though he is in a relationship with June Moon / Enchantress. They discuss how they are each other's only friend, and Flag says he is willing to endanger their friendship to be together. She reminds him that he has to go to work, as he is being shipped out to Corto Maltese that day, revealing this is the final time Harcourt saw Flag as this is the mission where he is killed by Peacemaker.
Returning to the present day, Chris is woken up in the other dimension by Keith, who asks if he is "on the pills again." He assures him he is just drunk as he realizes what he texted this dimension's Harcourt. He drunkenly texted her asking to see her, and she agreed at her work, which Keith reveals is A.R.G.U.S.. After quizzing his brother, he takes his "Peace Cycle" to see Harcourt, while reveling in the admiration this dimension's Chris has by blurting out, "Best dimension ever." Meanwhile, back in the main dimension, everybody wakes up after their partying the previous night and Leota Adebayo asks this dimension's Harcourt if there is something between her and Chris, something she vehemently denies. Adrian Chase interrupts them by talking about his favorite animals, as the two women talk about Chris's clear love for Harcourt. Adebayo mentions that he stayed at her bedside for five days after the Butterfly incident and Harcourt responds that she knows Chris is into her but nothing will ever happen.
Back in the other dimension, Chris makes it to A.R.G.U.S. and learns that Harcourt 2's "jarhead boyfriend" is a jealous Rick Flag Jr. He sneaks around the building trying (and failing) to be stealthy after the two talk, and they take their conversation outside where Chris bonds with Harcourt 2 (who just prefers Emilia). Back in the main dimension, A.R.G.U.S. agent Sasha Bordeaux calls a hungover John Economos and grills him over failing to tell them about Eagly (which Langston Fleury hilariously calls a superpowered duck and accuses Economos of taking advantage of his "bird blindness"). She racks off all the injuries to Fleury's team and tells him his job is on the line. In the new dimension, Chris realizes he is falling for Emilia as they sit and talk. Her Chris hurt her and she does not want to go through that again, and Chris tells her that he has changed as a person and is more vulnerable. She tells him to think about it if they are going to work, and tells him that she needs time to think. People begin running as someone trips and explodes right in front of them, knocking them down and out.
The Sons of Liberty are revealed to be taking over a local DMV building and threatening to take down one government building a week until their demands are met. They are setting up bombs that could wipe out the entire block. Chris, without thinking, runs into a pet store and decides to save the day. He makes it to the pet store's roof, jumps from the roof to a window into the DMV, and begins to take out the group. He takes them out one by one, even saving someone they took as a hostage, and wipes them all out in a staircase when they try to escape. He also defuses the bomb by pulling out cables. The helicopter they are using to escape is destroyed by Keith, revealed to be the hero Captain Triumph, and he asks if Chris is okay as Emilia hugs him and tells him he did amazing.
Back in the home dimension, Economos grills Bordeaux for ordering a strike on Chris's house without him knowing, and she grills him for not telling them about the dimensional door. She reveals she is going all-out on arresting Chris, including bringing in famed eagle hunter Red St. Wild (played by longtime Gunn collaborator Michael Rooker) and Rip Jagger / Judomaster (played by a returning Nhut Le), much to Economos's dismay. He tries to quit but is forced to stay on for his life. Meanwhile, Chris returns from the other dimension after telling Emilia that he has business to attend to, as he is completely unaware that Bordeaux, Fleury, Economos, Judomaster, Red St. Wild, and multiple A.R.G.U.S. agents are at his door, ready to arrest him.
I want to talk about the idea that the reason Harcourt hates Chris is because he killed her only friend in Rick Flag. And I want to talk about this because this event has brought out trauma for Chris as well. He respected Flag as a war hero but he was forced to kill him by Amanda Waller to further her own objectives. He has been trying to get past that, so bringing him back in this other dimension is really going to make him think about what exactly it is he wants and why he is doing things. Conversely, for Harcourt, she believes she will never begin a relationship with Chris because he killed her only friend. Jennifer Holland even admitted as much in an interview that this was always the plan when this show was being christened. I cannot wait to see how this dynamic plays out in the final five episodes.
This is it for the review of the third episode of Peacemaker's second season, but I want to bring back Theory Time for the first time since Agatha All Along (2024), because I have thoughts now on where this show is going to go.
Welcome back to Theory Time, where I use clues and fan speculation to postulate on what could come in the future of the show. This is a segment I used for the aforementioned Agatha All Along, and absolutely something I would have done had this blog existed in the WandaVision (2021) era. I want to focus this installment on the alternate dimension, bring in what people have been saying, and what I ultimately think is going to go down in that other dimension.
First of all, I want to mention that in the backgrounds of almost every show, there is a diverse cast of extras of all genders, races, orientations, etc. to paint a picture and show off just how diverse this country is. I am not the only person who has pointed this out, but if you look in the background shots of the other dimension, there is no person of color in the backgrounds. I have a funny feeling that this is not unintentional, because I think Gunn is trying to tell us something about this other dimension. Couple that with the pronunciation of Bludhaven in the first episode. In the main DCU dimension, it is pronounced Bloodhaven, but in the new "best dimension ever," it is pronounced Bluudhaven.
Bluudhaven is the German pronunciation of the city in which Nightwing resides, but it is not about Nightwing. Again, I am not the person who brought this up, but I believe this "best dimension ever" is Earth-X, a universe where the Nazis won World War II and subjugated the entire globe into a fascist regime run by them. It would make sense why we don't see the full American flag on the desks of people working at A.R.G.U.S.. It would make sense that people in this dimension would use the German pronunciation of the city. It would make sense that the Kardashians don't exist because O.J. Simpson would not exist. It would make sense why Emilia did not understand the Marvin Gaye reference, and it would make total sense why Auggie Smith, a known racist and white supremacist in the DCU, would be celebrated along with his children, Keith and Chris, by this dimension.
I think what is going to happen is that Chris is going to have to confront that all of this "best dimension ever" is an amalgamation of his father, and he may be forced to kill his father and brother again to be able to find some inner peace in what he is having to do. For this character to move forward, he is going to have to realize the grass isn't always greener on the other side and he will have to give up this so-called perfect utopia because of what he sees.
That will do it for this installment of Theory Time. I will see you all for the next installment (possibly). If we get more clues, I will point them out here.
Peacemaker's third episode gives us more laughs, more character dramas, and a story that may end in heartbreaking fashion before we even realize it. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.
Comments