'Peacemaker' Season 2 Is a Bleak & Nasty Follow-Up to 'Superman'

If Superman was James Gunn’s DCU at its brightest and hopeful, the Peacemaker Season 2 premiere is the new universe at its bleakest. We’re not in somber Snyderverse territory where everything looks and feels like a funeral, but Gunn definitely made a choice funneling people from the wholesome comic book thrills of Superman into a show that now features one of the most gratuitous orgy scenes in HBO history. Yeah…

First things first, one of the biggest questions going into Peacemaker Season 2 is how Gunn would retcon the show into his new cinematic universe. The first season was planted firmly in the old DCEU, complete with a Justice League cameo in the finale. Well, Gunn nipped that problem in the bud right out of the gate. In the Season 1 recap, that scene has now been edited to show Peacemaker meeting the Justice Gang instead. You thought you saw John Cena have a comedic exchange with Ezra Miller’s Flash and Jason Momoa’s Aquaman, but nope, it was actually Isabel Merced’s Hawkgirl and Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner. Case closed. Problem solved. Don’t bring it up again.

With continuity errors out of the way, Season 2 finds Peacemaker/Christopher Smith living in his father’s house now that the old bigot supervillain is dead. While it’s an improvement over the trailer park, Eagly still needs constant attention, and he doesn’t care what time it is. His late-night shenanigans result in a trip into the Quantum Unfolding Chamber, a pocket universe that Peacemaker’s dad (Robert Patrick) was somehow able to enter and use as a workshop for his son’s crazy ass helmets.

We soon learn that Auggie Smith’s house isn’t the only access point. A random alien enters the QUC and incinerates a cat, which doesn’t seem to faze Peacemaker at all. In fact, he’s pissed that the alien can’t even say “Hi.” What does faze him is a wooden door that he finds Eagly frantically scratching. Peacemaker decides to take a peek inside and is greeted by his father, who is very much alive and shockingly nice as hell. Auggie is not at all surprised to see Peacemaker walking around in his underwear, but that feeling is definitely not mutual as our hero bolts back home. And thus begins the seeds of our — *sigh* — multiversal adventure.

At this point, I should note that Peacemaker Season 2 now has a new song and dance number for the opening credits. Look, there’s just no way to top “Do Ya Want To Taste It?” and my sympathy to James Gunn, who was faced with an impossible task of clearing that bar — which he did not do. Don’t get me wrong, the Season 2 intro is fine. (We’re using that word a lot lately.) However, a fun thing to do is watch Frank Grillo. At Comic-Con it was revealed that he was the worst dancer of the cast, and you will be amazed at how much he sticks out once you know that tidbit.

We later catch up with Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) giving Peacemaker a ride to an interview with the Justice Gang. Turns out, our boy really wants to become a legitimate superhero, but things do not go well. Thanks to a mic mixup, Peacemaker can hear Maxwell Lord (Sean Gunn), Guy Gardner, and Hawkgirl talking all kinds of sh*t about him, including some homophobic remarks from Guy. Like the crying White Rabbit ahead of him, Peacemaker storms out of the interview, completely crushed by the rejection.

I gotta ask: Does all of this seem familiar? Superhero aspirations rebuffed by a famous team, multiverse shenanigans, dick jokes. I swear I’ve seen something like this before… Ah well.

Because I said this episode is bleak, Peacemaker isn’t the only one getting their hopes crushed. Despite saving the world from an alien invasion, Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) keeps being turned away by every government agency thanks to the fallout of Adebayo burning her own mother, Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), by blasting ARGUS’ secrets to the world.

We see an interview with the NSA goes south, prompting Harcourt to violently bash the dashboard of her car before coming home to Peacemaker waiting outside her apartment. After tending to her bloodied knuckles, we learn why he’s really there. They had a drunken hookup not too long ago, and he was hoping it was more than that. It was not. Harcourt makes that brutally clear as the rejections keep on coming.

After getting sandbagged twice now, Peacemaker decides to get coked out of his mind and throw a massive orgy in his house. You may have already seen the headlines, and I’m not even joking, the whole thing is barely a notch below porn. Welcome, Superman fans! While it’s a full frontal bonanza around him, Peacemaker is the only one clothed and might as well be a piece of furniture. He’s practically a zombie; that’s how hard he’s crashing out.

Outside Peacemaker’s house, John Economos (Steve Agee) is running surveillance on our depressed boy. Economos is the only member of the team still employed by ARGUS, and he’s not loving that his job is to spy on his friend, for lack of a better term. He also doesn’t enjoy Vigilante (Freddie Stroma) constantly calling him every day to chew his ear off. That all gets pushed to the side when ARGUS alerts Economos about a strange reading.

Turns out, Peacemaker’s last trip inside the QUC raised some eyebrows, and he’s drunk enough to give it another shot. ARGUS is understandably freaked out because the readings they’re getting are reminiscent of the “Luthor incident” from Superman that nearly ripped the planet in half. Raising the stakes even higher, Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo) is now in charge of ARGUS. That would be the father of Joel Kinnaman’s Rick Flag, who Peacemaker notably murdered in The Suicide Squad. We got a storm brewing here.

While Peacemaker is about to take a drunken trip into an alternate reality, Harcourt drowns her sorrows at a biker bar. However, she’s looking for more than a drink. She wants a fight, and she gets one. Despite a strong opening, there are just way too many bikers, and she ends up bloodied and battered out on the pavement with very little concern that she just got absolutely wrecked. Have I mentioned things are bleak?

And now for a trip to — sigh — the multiverse. A completely drunk off his ass Peacemaker stumbles into the door where he saw his father alive. What he finds is a large house adorned with newspaper clippings that reveal not only is Auggie alive, but so is Peacemaker’s brother, Keith (David Denman). Instead of a dark reality where Peacemaker’s childhood was ruined by accidentally killing Keith in one of the bare-knuckle fights orchestrated by their racist dad, all three of them are the beloved superhero team known as the Top Trio.

Peacemaker soon gets a taste of that sweet life when Keith arrives home and thinks he’s seeing his version of Chris. Auggie also emerges, and he couldn’t be more thrilled to have all three of them together. They pour drinks, have a great time reminiscing, and Peacemaker gets to experience his father and brother say “I love you” before heading off to bed. In one of John Cena’s greatest performances, he can’t do anything but burst into tears once they’re gone.

As if things weren’t rosy enough, he stumbles into the alternate Chris’ room and learns that this universe’s Harcourt is deeply in love with him. It is literally everything he’s ever wanted, save for the gun that’s now pressed against his head. The other Chris had to eventually come home, and he is understandably not thrilled to find an imposter lurking around. He chases Peacemaker into the QUC where the other Chris is shown to be faster and more lethal. He is a beast, and Peacemaker only manages to end the fight by getting in a lucky shot to turn on the other Chris’ jetpack. Except the shot is a little too lucky. The other Chris is sent flying into a spike in the ceiling before crashing down and dying in Peacemaker’s arms, confused as hell at what just happened.

For those keeping score at home, Peacemaker has now killed his own brother, his father, and now himself. Once again, welcome to James Gunn’s DCU, Superman viewers! If you’ve already seen the previews for this season, you know what happens next: Why let such a charmed life go to waste? Oh, and Tim Meadows shows up. Can’t wait for Tim Meadows.

Until next week!