Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Mike Redmond | TV | September 19, 2025
Peacemaker Season 2 Episode 5, “Back to the Suture,” continues the cold open streak by dropping us into the funeral for Rick Flag Jr. (Joel Kinneman) after he was killed by Peacemaker (John Cena) in The Suicide Squad. A bombed out Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) is present, but she’s soon joined by an equally grieving Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo). He wastes no time voicing his thoughts on the ridiculous nature of the Corto Maltese mission that brought his son home in a bodybag, and he doesn’t hesitate to ask Harcourt if she knows who killed him. Ever the professional and loyal soldier, she tells Rick that he knows she can’t divulge that information, and he doesn’t put up a fight. He’s a company man, too.
The interaction seems genuine and heartfelt as Rick lets her know that she’ll always be family. But just as Rick gets ready to leave, Harcourt does make one thing clear: Whoever killed his son will get what’s coming to them. Cue the dancing.
Last week’s cliffhanger ending had Peacemaker barreling towards a meetup in a public park with Harcourt, who was seemingly willing to hand the big idiot over to ARGUS in exchange for her job back. We soon learn that our boy is even dumber than we thought because Harcourt tipped him off with a codeword, but he still showed up anyway. In a much-needed use of Cena’s physical comedy skills, he bounces all around the park to avoid Judomaster (Nhut Le) getting a clear shot from a nearby rooftop.
Harcourt is understandably incensed and makes in abundantly clear that Peacemaker is absolutely screwed. The whole park is surrounded by ARGUS agents. Her anger only increases when he reveals that his entire reason for showing up is to ask her if their drunken hookup meant anything. He’s seriously doing this now. Again. Like before, Harcourt tells him no and makes a very blunt and correct statement about Peacemaker’s f*cked up ego.
Now that he knows for certain that things will never work out with this reality’s Harcourt, Peacemaker makes a break for it by immediately taking an ARGUS agent hostage. What he didn’t account for is the surprise revelation that Sasha Bordeaux (Sol Rodríguez) is a freaking cyborg. She has Peacemaker locked for a killshot, and Flag gives the green light. But before Bordeaux can take the shot, Harcourt’s bar fighting habit pays off as she hands Peacemaker his ass and knocks him unconscious. He seriously couldn’t believe what has happening.
With Peacemaker in custody, the overall vibe is “Rick Flag is totally going to murder this guy.” Even Tim Meadows is not loving the mood, and unlike last week, he’s used perfectly this episode. Whoever cast him deserves all of the raises. Anyway, Harcourt knows she needs to work quickly because, sure enough, Flag clears the interrogation room and immediately goes to town pummeling Peacemaker, who refuses to fight back. Despite concerns that everyone will be “miffed” at him, Economos (Steve Agee) is cajoled into booking Peacemaker in the system, so now he can’t just be disappeared. As Economos feared, Bordeaux is not thrilled and rushes to inform Flag before Peacemaker is a corpse.
While that debacle is unfolding, Red St. Wild (Michael Rooker) has tracked down Eagly to the hunting cabin where Peacemaker has been lying low. With Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) and Vigilante (Freddie Stroma) racing to ARGUS, our winged hero is all alone. While we know Eagly can handle himself, the little bugger almost gets poisoned right out of the gate. If a ravenous fox hadn’t showed up, Eagly would’ve been toast.
With that plan thwarted, Red resorts to the big gun — literally — and seemingly blasts Eagly out of the sky. Would this show dare to kill its Baby Yoda? Nope! It was another random eagle, and now, there’s a whole flock of them. Turns out, Eagly really is the mythical Prime Eagle. Much like Sasha Bordeaux’s cyborg body, and the entirety of Superman, James Gunn is making it clear that his DCU is an unabashedly comic book world. At their master’s command, the swarm of eagles give Red what’s coming to him. RIP, you poaching sumb*tch.
Back at ARGUS, Peacemaker is just… let go. They can’t take him to jail looking beat to death, so he’s handed over to Ads and Vigilante. If that explanation seems off, it should. As Rick explains to Bordeaux, he wants everyone to think he’s off his game and clouded by revenge. Instead, he’s laser-focused on the mission: Finding the Quantum Unfolding Chamber. Lex Luthor almost broke the entire planet messing with this technology. That ain’t happening again. This is such a badass development to Bordeaux that these two are apparently heading to Bonetown. Like father like son.
As expected, Peacemaker heads right back to the QUC following a car ride where he’s completely convinced that Harcourt did him dirty to save his career. He’s angrily talking about being “done,” and Adebayo is rightly concerned about our boy’s mindset. This can’t end well. Sure enough, he tells Ads and Vigilante to give him some alone time, and we all know where this is headed.
Peacemaker writes a note to Ads telling her to say goodbye to the others for him. But because Ads is Peacemaker’s ride or die BFF, he can’t resist sending her a text. She deserves a proper goodbye, or close to one anyway. Naturally, Adebayo whips a U-turn after getting the text and flies back to the cabin. She’s going to be too late.
Not only did Peacemaker fire up the QUC, but he closed it behind him. He went to the other earth with no way to get back. — Unless the 11th Street Kids can figure out to how work the portal device he left behind and go after him…
Mike Drops
— If you’re not a chronically online dork like myself, then you probably don’t know that the final three episodes of Peacemaker are a big deal. No one has seen them. There have been no advance screeners, they’re shrouded in mystery, and Steve Agee has described them as almost a whole new season. In short, the table setting over the past five episodes has been building up to whatever the hell is going to happen on the other side. I watched the preview for next week’s episode, and it keeps things very close to the chest. That said, I think the dog barking at adds more clues to the Planet X theory. Also, Episode 5 briefly showed Peacemaker back at the other ARGUS, and the skin color of everyone there was still a neon sign. The grass ain’t gonna be greener for long.
