Season Review: Peacemaker Season 2

Welcome back to the blog readers. I do not think I spoke on it much, but in a year when we had the premieres of Andor (2022-25), House of the Dragon (2022-), and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022-), one of the shows that premiered and won my heart from the start was Peacemaker (2022-). Its witty charm and dry humor is some of the funniest stuff I have seen on television in a while. It put Danielle Brooks on the map for me as someone I should watch out for, and she has even gotten an Oscar nomination since appearing on this show. Plus, it gave John Cena an avenue to deliver some of the best work of his acting career thus far. So it brought me great joy to know this show was getting a second season, and it would be taking place in the brand new shiny DCU that series creator James Gunn was forming up. Would a new coat of paint be able to keep this show as relevant as it has been in the past, or would it fall by the wayside in a new universe that may pass it by? Stick around to find out.

Peacemaker was created for television by James Gunn, who also serves as showrunner, based on characters from DC. The second season features direction from Gunn, Greg Mottola, Alethea Jones, and Peter Sollett. The season stars John Cena, Danielle Brooks, Freddie Stroma, Jennifer Holland, Steve Agee, Frank Grillo, and Robert Patrick. The season, set some months after the events of the first season, and one month after the events of Superman (2025), Christopher Smith / Peacemaker stumbles upon an alternate dimension where his father and brother are alive and the three are highly regarded as a superhero team. Meanwhile, Rick Flag Sr. becomes the director of A.R.G.U.S. and seeks revenge against Chris for the death of his son in Corto Maltese.

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

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Like I mentioned in my introductory paragraph, I did have a worry in the back of my mind (it was not a big worry, but one nonetheless) that taking this show from the DCEU and integrating it into the new DCU was going to make it lose some of its charm. But, I remembered who was behind this show, who was involved in front of the camera, and how much I loved the first season and I was kind of alright. Then, hearing Frank Grillo, Tim Meadows, and David Denman were joining the cast got me excited because I love them in their unique ways. Then, I watched these eight offerings and loved it just as much as (if not more than) the first eight offerings. John Cena gives the best work of his acting career thus far with his performance in this season, and I also loved the performance of Jennifer Holland. I also loved how this show was moved into the DCU, and the way the story moves us into the future of this franchise.

I want to start by talking about the performance of John Cena. As you may know by now, John Cena is regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers to ever life. A record-breaking WWE Champion, Cena was the face of the company for well over a decade. Over the last ten years, however, Cena has taken his talents to Hollywood and become a more full-time actor. But something happened in 2021, when he took on the role of Christopher Smith / Peacemaker in James Gunn's The Suicide Squad (2021). Between that and Peacemaker, Cena has been putting in the best work of his career. That is only exemplified in this second season, where he gives the best work he has ever given. As his wrestling career is getting ready to end (he has four dates left), he is getting more serious as an actor, and it begins here. He gives Emmy-level work in this second season, and I did not think I would be saying that about John Cena of all people. But the pain and the anguish and the regrets and the sadness and the melancholy he is able to tap into this season is something hitherto undreamt of. Some of the moments this season in which I really saw a shift in the dynamics of how this character work are as follows:

1. In the first episode, when Chris is talking to the "Earth-2" versions of his brother Keith and father Auggie, he shows real emotion and cries when Auggie tells him he loves him, something he never heard from his Auggie. In fact, his Auggie told him last season that he was a blob of flesh and felt nothing for him.

2. In the third episode, when Chris is further exploring "Earth-2," he is genuinely stunned and taken aback when people treat him with reverence and admiration (from the kid telling him he loves him to the woman revealing her breasts to him), something he has always wanted. He has always wanted to be a hero, but he is constantly treated as the butt of the joke. I mean, Rick Flag Jr.'s dying words were, "Peacemaker...what a joke."

3. I think the whole fifth episode is an acting clinic for Cena, in which he tries to get an answer out of Harcourt on whether their experience on the rock cruise meant anything to her (something that he has been trying to get out of her all season), is a real highlight, especially their conversation in the sixth episode (something I will talk on later). But his whole scene with Rick Flag Sr., where he expresses regret over killing his son, and the dejection he later feels when he makes the decision to permanently move to the other dimension.

4. And finally, the whole seventh episode was an Emmy submission for him, and I am not kidding. Especially the final ten minutes, when he damn near made me tear up with what he did. From the childish scream of terror to the realization that death follows him wherever he goes, Cena completely shocked me with the emotional depth he was able to pull from in this moment, which completely defines how Chris is in the eighth episode.

Truly incredible work from someone who has been putting in the work to get better. He seems to be following in the footsteps of fellow wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who seems poised to become the first wrestler to be nominated for an Academy Award.

I next want to talk about the performance of Jennifer Holland. Holland has never achieved big things in the realm of Hollywood, with her most storied achievement being cameos in Brightburn (2019), The Suicide Squad (2021), Black Adam (2022), Shazam! Fury of the Gods, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (both 2023), and the wife of series creator James Gunn in real life (as they joke about on the official Peacemaker podcast). So I never really knew what to expect when it came to the range she could potentially have as an actor in a real role. And I have to say, after not really getting a whole lot of character development in the first season, she definitely gets it this season, and she definitely puts in the work as someone who is in a morally grey area. Emilia Harcourt is definitely the character she was born to play, and it shows this season more than ever. Like I mentioned, Harcourt exists in a morally grey area in which there is good and bad to the character. But her growth and development into someone who can be okay with her vulnerabilities was one of my favorite things about getting to watch this season. Some of the moments that really defined how great Holland was as Harcourt this season include:

1. In the first episode, when Harcourt is frustrated over finding out Waller blacklisted her from working at any agencies, she takes it out on the dashboard of her car (by punching it), and then goes to a bar with the sole purpose of picking a fight so she can feel something. This really allows us to get a sense of where she is in her life since the events of Peacemaker's first season.

2. Holland also plays an "Earth-2" version of Harcourt, who goes by Emilia. In the third episode, we see this different type of Harcourt that can be sweet and loving, and not as emotionally complex as our main Harcourt. She is bubbly, she is brewing with more personality, and definitely a character I want to see more of.

3. In the sixth episode, when we finally get that emotional vulnerability from Harcourt-1 that we have been waiting for, it comes off as genuine, real, and emotional as hell. She admits that she is a nightmare and not able to access her emotions like Chris is, allowing for her to let us in for the very first time. It is raw and earned.

James Gunn has promised that we will see these characters in the DCU again, and I am hopeful that Holland's Harcourt is one of them, because we can see a lot of growth from this character.

I want to start this portion of the review off by explaining just exactly how this season transitions this show from the DCEU to the DCU. There were many questions as to how it was going to happen. What plot device was going to facilitate this change? Would the idea that we were hopping from dimension to dimension be the proof in the pudding? Honestly, my theory was that we were going to start in the DCEU and another door in the Quantum Unfolding Chamber (QUC) would be the DCU. It was a sound theory, and there were other theories out there, but nobody (and I mean NOBODY) expected Gunn to explain it by just retconning the entire DCEU. Literally the first episode starts by saying "Previously. in the DCU..." and the Justice League cameo at the end of the first season finale is changed to have the Justice Gang (Hawkgirl, Mister Terrific, and Green Lantern), Superman, and Supergirl. There honestly is nothing more funny than saying, "It's in this universe now," and responding to the question "How does that make sense?" with "It just is, don't worry about it." I laughed my ass off, and it was literally in the first two minutes of the first episode, especially hearing how apparently Green Lantern has a poop fetish (in line with the wild things Peacemaker said about other heroes like Aquaman, Green Arrow, and Superman in the first season).

Next up, I want to talk about the overall story that we get in this season, and how it is more focused on characters and emotions rather than a brand new existential threat in this brand new universe. Basically, the story of this season revolves around something that was only touched upon back in the first season, and that was the QUC that Auggie had, and now Chris. One of the main themes of this season is the emotional turmoil inside and regrets, and how sometimes the grass is not greener on the other side. That is told in the vein of dimension hopping and exploring a new dimension that is very similar to our main dimension. Christopher Smith getting to take advantage of a dimension where he has the love of his brother and father, and the admiration of people that revere him as a hero is something we were definitely going to enjoy watching based on this character's development over these sixteen episodes, and the season ends with Chris finally getting the peace within himself that he has always been seeking. What the second season says about the concept of family and togetherness really resonated with me (and I do see that it has with a lot of other people as well). I hope if we do get to see these characters again we will be able to satisfactorily conclude a bunch of character arcs.

I want to conclude my review by doing what I said I would in my review of the finale, and that is by musing on how the events that occur in this season will set things up for the future of the DCU (or at least for this Chapter One: Gods and Monsters slate). In the finale, we are introduced to the concepts of Checkmate and Salvation.

• In the comics, Checkmate is a subsect of the covert ops agency Task Force X, headed up by Amanda Waller.

• And Salvation is headed up by Waller in another run as a off-planet prison to ensure metahumans do not escape custody anymore.

If Checkmate and Salvation are going to be featured heavily in the future of the DCU, I think it is going to go a little something like this. I think by the end of Supergirl (2026), Kara is going to be taken and thrown in this dimension, which will involve Clark, and Lex will get wind of this and realize Flag is going way too far, leading Lex and Clark to put aside their differences to make sure Flag is kept in check. And since Harcourt's boyfriend is in Salvation, I think Checkmate will be involved in working with Clark and Lex to find this dimension. And it is very possible that Flag is the main villain of Man of Tomorrow (2027).

In conclusion, Peacemaker's second season is brimming with character depth and Emmy-worthy performances, and even gives us a very clear picture on where the future of DC is headed. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.