‘Peacemaker’ season 2, episode 3 recap: another Rick up my sleeve
Chris and Task Force X are worse off than we thought
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IT’S TIME WE EXPLORED the other dimension. This week’s episode of Peacemaker is yet another table-setter for the conflicts and perks of Chris’s alternate reality. Here, he’s a beloved superhero, one in a trio of a celebrated team. His wardrobe is kind of an upgrade from his good boy polos, if Versace silks are your idea of peak sophistication. He’s the lunchbox-worthy superhero he’s always wanted to be. But even in this idyllic reality, Peacemaker lacks in the love-life department.
Below, we recap the happenings of the DC motley crew.
Read our recap on last week’s episode of Peacemaker season two here.
Three years ago . . .
Just when we thought Emilia and Chris’s relationship couldn’t get any worse, another conflict of interest has emerged: her secret relationship with Rick Flag Jr. This week’s episode opens three years prior as we find a blissful Emilia waking up to Jr by her side. Remember, this is taking place during the events of The Suicide Squad, where Jr is technically still with June/Enchantress (played by Cara Delevigne, though that was before James Gunn’s DCU). Emilia reasons this shouldn’t go any further, fearing the Enchantress might rip a hole through the Earth out of rage. Baby, you’re worth the hole in the Earth, Jr says. She reminds him that he’s late for work at ARGUS. As the scene fast-tracks, this is the day Peacemaker kills Jr.
As the episode title suggests, “Another Rick Up My Sleeve”, this dalliance will pose trouble in both universes.
Peacemaker assumes his doppelganger’s identity
As any arc goes where a character is dissatisfied with their reality, their other one is several times better. For one, the other Chris’s selection of ornate silk shirts looks like he raided Gianni Versace’s wardrobe – or as our Chris describes it, “the Kardashians’ furniture vomited on me”. “Who?” his brother, Riley, says as he blends a smoothie. Well, it’s official, the Kardashians are not canon here.
Chris also has a sweet set of wheels: the Peace-cycle (which looks like a redecorated police motorcycle). As he heads to ARGUS HQ to meet up with this dimension’s Emilia, whom he’d drunk-texted the night before, throngs of children cheer as he rides past; women flash their chests. “Best . . . dimension . . . ever,” he says.
Task Force X are also hungover
Nothing much is happening in our universe as the rest of Task Force X nurses their hangover. Adrian is fine, of course, as he entertains the gang with his expansive, superfluous knowledge on spiders. (He’s like a golden retriever with Jeffrey Dahmer’s glasses.) Leota and Emilia have some girl-talk, weighing up the pros and cons of Emilia getting back with Chris. Leota, Chris’s confidante, says he’s changed, but that Emilia should also recognise that she’s a “trainwreck”, too.
Eagly sends ARGUS to the ICU
Checking in with the ARGUS crew, Eagly’s attack was so ferocious that a bunch of them ended up in the ICU getting facial reconstruction surgery. Bordeaux gives Economos a call mid-bath as to why he didn’t warn them about the murderous “duck”, as the bird-blind Fleury recounted.
Economos isn’t to be trusted anymore, Bordeaux thinks. Even as he feigns resigning from the operation, he quickly retracts it because he can’t seem to let go of his institution. If he’s going to continue further, though, Bordeaux assigns a new babysitter, bringing back the Judomaster from season one. To Economos, it’s a worse fate to have the ninja’s Cheeto fingers all up in his gadgets. There are bigger plans at play now that ARGUS has found Chris’s multiversal portal – they have their warrant for arrest.
Peacemaker plays hero for a day
Back in the alternate universe, Chris is greeted at ARGUS HQ by an alive and well Rick Flag Jr, who wants him nowhere near this Emilia with straight hair. But as she agreed in their late-night texts, they have their “personal” stuff to air out. The two head out for hot dogs and chat in a park about how she doesn’t want to be hurt by him again. It seems this universe’s Chris was an arrogant, full-of-himself superhero – as his wardrobe suggested correctly. But our Chris, posing as his doppelganger, says he’s changed. Naturally, a multiverse cliché, Emilia can tell but can’t yet place why that is.
Their conversation is interrupted by a cenafanalolol (did I get that right?) bomb prematurely going off. The detonators? The Sons of Liberty, Peacemaker’s main adversaries in this universe. Their MO is to dismantle one government agency a week – odd sounding enough, I wonder who’s tracking that quota? He bursts into their operation, without his helmet or gear, wielding an axe and killing all the bombers a little too easily with corporate paraphernalia. As he comes face to face with the bomb, it’s as easy as unplugging a fully-charged phone.
The Sons of Liberty aren’t to be taken lightly, though. Their escape chopper arrived on the scene, suggesting this isn’t just some suburban terrorist organisation. Riley flies onto the scene and collides with the helicopter, sending it hurtling towards the ground. More impressive is how Gunn staged a tailless chopper to come crashing down, with no CGI! The wonders of a new employer who believes in you.
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