Peacemaker has read enough fan fiction to know that the most dangerous antagonist in any story is miscommunication, and they have decided to milk it as much as possible. It fits with the established world—in The Suicide Squad, a decoy Task Force X was sent to cause a distraction to let the main group enter undetected—so it’s an understandable conflict rather than a lazy one.
That being said, it is interesting how every single conflict can trace back to people actively choosing to keep information hidden or to themselves.
As Chris (John Cena, WWE Smackdown!) himself said, he had no idea what a Butterfly even was, so he didn’t know what he was or wasn’t supposed to do. While there was valid concern of Chris knowing too much, it seems that his lack of information made him do things that actively caused problems with the rest of the team’s plans and protocols.
But even just seconds before Chris came in to argue this, even more information was chosen to be kept from him—specifically, the team framing his father, Auggie Smith (Robert Patrick, Terminator 2: Judgment Day), for what had happened—which is Most Definitely, Absolutely, Never going to cause any issues at all; Murn (Chukwudi Iwuji, The Split) himself declared that it was a horrible decision to frame Auggie, but it seems he has the same instinct as Amanda to keep everything close to his chest and hope he can plan out all of Chris’ moves.
Speaking of Murn, he seemed to step out of his Amanda Waller impersonation and become his own person, specifically in that he shows his emotions far more than Waller, and actually speaks louder in less dire situations, and seems more open to the other members of the team.
Because of that, an interaction with Leota (Danielle Brooks, Close Enough) stood out. In the last episode, it felt as though Murn was either Waller’s son or auditioning to fill that role, which was revealed to be a red herring as Leota was actually her daughter. However, after this scene, there’s a new potential theory about Murn.
When Murn finds out that couple Amber (Alison Araya, Riverdale) and Evan (Lenny Jacobson, For All Mankind) were held hostage by and saw Chris, he tells Leota to “take care” of them. Understandably, she had to clarify whether or not he wanted them dead, which he didn’t. So she then tried to ask if he meant to bribe them, and it was all hilarious and seemed like typical banter between a boss and comedic relief. However, when Leota said she didn’t want to say the word, Murn actually used her name—Leota—and it was the way he said it that raised the possibility of him being Leota’s father.
Of course, this may not be the case as, at the end of the pilot, she asked Waller about him, implying that she doesn’t know who he is. This could mean that he’s a distant uncle, or even her biological father that she never met, though that would mean that this paternal nature would be more instinctive than habitual; though it would add to the trend of keeping secrets and the lack of communication.
This is a complete crackpot theory worthy of Auggie’s favorite show “Fact Attack,” but in a show like this, sometimes even the most crackpot theories have a chance of being true.
Communication also seems to be an issue for Chris on a variety of levels. In one of the best scenes of the episode, Cena surprises with his acting prowess as Chris plays a vinyl to hide his breakdown as he berates himself for never being able to stop himself from being such a dick. It doesn’t seem to be the first time he’s done this, but it does seem to be the first time that he’s questioned himself as Peacemaker rather than just as Chris Smith, and it was interesting to see that he’s more self-aware than initially portrayed; it was also good to see that he, too, believes in #JusticeForRickFlag.
Unfortunately, though not unexpectedly, this emotional moment had to be broken to continue with the comedy, which meant it was finally time to meet Vigilante (Freddie Stroma, The Crew).
Of course, he had actually been introduced in the prior episode in the restaurant scene, but Adrien Chase, the dancing busboy with the fake girlfriend, and Vigilante, the clueless wannabe Deadpool, are two different people to Chris, so it was important to officially introduce the titular “best friend for never.”
Vigilante and Deadpool are on the same spectrum, but in vastly different areas.
Deadpool could be argued as being Chaotic Good, he let a bank robber go because the guy was stealing presents for his kids for Christmas, and he would probably do the same himself.
Vigilante, on the other hand, is clearly Lawful Good. While he’s a pretty bad person, and will most likely wind up being an antagonist either in this season or in future seasons for this same reason, his creed is the exact same as Peacemaker’s: “I cherish peace with all my heart. I don’t care how many men, women, and children I have to kill to get it.”
For Vigilante, however, the way he goes about it is specifically through following the law; not his own law, the way Peacemaker or other vigilantes typically do, but the laws citizens of the U.S. have to abide by. Which is a far more dangerous mindset when held by someone who sees killing as both fun and a necessary evil.
It makes sense why Leota and Vigilante are with Chris during the title sequence dance routine, as they are both foils for him in different ways.
Vigilante, specifically, is the more extreme Peacemaker. He enjoys killing, whereas Chris has his own strange perspective on it, and he’s not as nuanced in his views as Chris; his comment about not reading the news is not only a comment on his privilege as a white man, but also adds to his one-dimensional perspective.
It’s fascinating to see the range of villains and antagonists the series has, and Vigilante is no exception. The dark comedy truly excels with him as it directly taps into the horrifying concept that there’s a person running around killing murderers, drug dealers, and jaywalkers as if they were on the same level; if it’s illegal he will kill them.
The man literally says that he would’ve killed Peacemaker and Amber for smoking weed if they were doing it back before it was legalized. He clearly doesn’t approve of it, but because it’s legal, he has to accept it; he’s one law change away from becoming completely unhinged, and since he was part of Chris and Leota’s group in the dance routine, he has to either be a love interest or an antagonist, so only time will tell which one he will be.
But while it’s still unclear what Vigilante’s role will end up being in the series—because, like Chris said, Eagly is his best friend and obviously Leota will be his best human friend—this episode made it abundantly clear that the main villain of the season, if not the whole series, will be Chris’ father.
This episode left far more questions than answers about Auggie, but it did give hints about his past. The most surprising was that it seems Auggie was the original Peacemaker, which means that Jamil’s (Rizwan Manji, Mira, Royal Detective) comment in the pilot about Peacemaker being the racist superhero was accurate because if Auggie was also Peacemaker, he was definitely committing hate crimes.
His blatant racism was disappointing, but definitely not a surprise—the real surprise was that the upside down American flag in his front lawn wasn’t just a Confederate flag, but maybe he’s in distress because segregation hasn’t been reinstated.
Officer Song (Annie Chang, Shades of Blue) calling him “fork” right after he called her “chopsticks,” was very entertaining, though her partner also made some good points about why “spoon” would’ve been a better choice; from the outside, it definitely seems like Auggie would be the kind of person who wouldn’t know that the rest of the world uses spoons.
Of course, this potential loss was made up for tenfold when they returned and he was arrested by Song and two black officers, all while Officer Johnson (Kevin O’Grady, Day of the Dead), Song’s partner, and Auggie’s neighbor laughed.
Of course, this arrest soon took a turn when Auggie was brought into the prison. At first, when the various inmates stood up and stared, it seemed as though Auggie had made some enemies the last time he was in prison.
Unfortunately, that was not the case, and after a very close call where it seemed like a hate crime was about to be committed, it was revealed that, rather than enemies, Auggie had left behind an entire cult that worships him as the White Dragon; at least he’s not the White Wolf, HBO’s already got one of those.
The Nazi salute was a bit much and very on the nose—the Confederate flag would’ve been far less obvious—but it’s forgivable considering that they really want to emphasize that Auggie is not only the villain, but a very dangerous and despicable one, which will only raise more issues when he ultimately confronts his son. (They better not pull a Shang-Chi with this).
This episode of Peacemaker was as lively as the last, and managed to fit in a lot of emotional and serious moments amidst all the humor in an acceptable and satisfying way.
Rating: 9.5/10