Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Mike Redmond | TV | September 5, 2025
“Another Rick Up My Sleeve” wastes no time delivering what’s on the box and drops a major bombshell that explains why Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) keeps rejecting Peacemaker (John Cena) besides obvious reasons like he’s a wildly self-destructive murder toddler who wears a chrome toilet bowl on his head. A flashback reveals that sometime between Suicide Squad and The Suicide Squad — two different movies, I swear to God — Harcourt and Rick Flag Jr. (Joel Kinnaman) started getting freaky behind the back of his very powerful girlfriend June a.k.a. Enchantress (Cara Delevingne). It’s made clear that Rick can’t leave her or she’ll rip a hole in the planet, but we do know that he will exit everyone’s lives shortly. Harcourt says the two of them can work things out when he gets back from Corto Maltese, which obviously doesn’t happen because he’s murdered by Peacemaker. The pieces, they are falling into place.
Jump back to the present, where Peacemaker has been beaten down enough by life that he drank himself into a stupor and finally made his escape to the seemingly sunnier alternate dimension. His brother Keith (David Denman) is still alive, and their father Auggie (Robert Patrick) is actually kind and loving. To his sons, anyway. We’ll get into that later.
Right out of the gate, this episode is crackling with the madball energy that made the first season of Peacemaker so much fun. No longer a morose mess, Cena gets to cut loose with some fish out of water comedy as he tries to convince everyone that he’s this reality’s Chris. Working against him is that life here seems awesome. He’s got a sick-ass Peace-cycle, the public worships him as a hero, and there’s a lovesick Harcourt waiting in the wings. Our Peacemaker can barely contain his glee at the “best dimension ever” as he looks like a kid at Christmas.
However, there are noticeable cracks. For some reason, the alternate Chris has a hidden drawer full of pills and dresses like a Kardashian. He also treats Harcourt like trash, so there’s something dark under the surface here. But before we can pull on that thread, a literal bomb goes off. A terrorist group calling themselves the Sons of Liberty take over a government building with the intent of blowing it sky high. Peacemaker jumps into action and gratuitously murders every single one of them. However, instead of being viewed as a monster, the public and Harcourt go bananas for this killfest even after Keith shows up as Captain Triumph and recklessly takes down a helicopter. This place sure loves some ultra-violence, which should raise a red flag, but our Peacemaker is a big, dumb idiot who thinks he’s in paradise.
Back on Earth 1, or whatever we’re calling it, ARGUS is not thrilled that Langston Fleury (Tim Meadows) and his team got absolutely wrecked by Eagly. They’re now making a full daytime breach of Peacemaker’s house, but this time, they’re bringing an eagle killer along in the form of outdoorsman Red St. Wild (Michael Rooker). Peacemaker’s Quantum Unfolding Chamber is now fully on ARGUS’s radar, and he just made a pit stop home right as they’re at his front door…
Mike Drops
— Alright, let’s get the big, almost definitely correct theory out of the way. I didn’t even know this was a thing until my son brought it up after the episode. Last week, content creator isuperebba basically clocked what James Gunn was cooking with the alternate dimension: It’s most likely some take on Earth X, a reality where the Nazis won World War II. The German sounding pronunciation of Bludhaven tipped off isuperebba, who also noticed that every preview for this dimension only shows white people. That panned out as the alternate dimension in Episode 3 was noticeably chalk white. There was also this detail:
KEITHS ASHTRAY IS A f**kING SWATSTIKA???? pic.twitter.com/RflNVc57KE
— isuperebba (@isuperebba) September 5, 2025
— With that in mind, I couldn’t help but notice something off with the alternate Harcourt. For one, she seemed to specifically ask Peacemaker why he used the word “explore” in his drunken text message to her. At the end of the episode, she also added a rainbow to the end of her text. Considering it’s been put in big flashing lights that the alternate Chris was hiding something and acting erratically, we do know that the Earth 1 Peacemaker is queer. If Nazis are running the other reality, that lifestyle probably doesn’t end well, so Harcourt’s interest in Peacemaker might not be romantic at all. She could be on a mission to remove an “undesirable” from the population.
— Everyone got the vibe that alternate Chris and alternate Rick Flag Jr. were secretly f*cking, right? Please tell me I’m not crazy. I know I need to hear that a lot these days, but just hold me and say this isn’t another The Batman Part II situation. Ol’ Mike needs a win here.
