Peacemaker Season 2 Episode 2 Recap And Easter Eggs

The clash between ARGUS and Chris Smith officially begins with the second episode of the ongoing season of Peacemaker, with the Quantum Unfolding Chamber being the center of the secretive superhuman research agency’s investigation. Previously, after failing miserably in his attempts to turn his life around, Chris found an alternate reality that has everything he could have ever dreamt of. It was revealed that in the aftermath of the dimensional rift incident in Metropolis, present ARGUS chief Rick Flag Sr. launched an investigation into Chris Smith after a similar dimensional energy signature was identified at his place. Flag Sr. entrusted Economos with the duty of spying on Chris, and later on, Economos opened up to Adebayo about the entire situation. During his visit to the newfound better world, Chris was confronted by his alternate self, who tried to kill Chris after mistaking him for an imposter. However, in the final moments of the first episode, Chris accidentally killed his alternate self, which inadvertently opened up a way for him to take his place in the better reality. 

Spoilers Ahead

 Rick Flag Sr. is Out For Revenge.

The episode begins with a flashback to eight months ago; Rick Flag Sr. assumes his position as the new ARGUS chief, following former director Amanda Waller’s removal. Thanks to Adebayo’s exposé landing her mother a congressional hearing due to the exploitation of imprisoned supervillains in Task Force X, Waller had to step down, and her trusted associate, Flag Sr., was entrusted by the United States government to take up Waller’s role. Economos guides Flag Sr. to his new office and understandably hesitates when he asks for a report on his son, Rick Flag Jr.’s death. Knowing that his friend, Chris, aka Peacemaker, killed Flag Jr. in Corto Maltese, Economos doesn’t want Flag Sr. to target him. However, he has to abide by his command and presents him the report Flag Sr. asked for. Economos still makes an attempt at damage control by mentioning that everything that went down during Project Starfish happened under the command of Waller—but it doesn’t seem like Flag Sr. cares about that. 

Glimpses of The Suicide Squad play in flashback sequences as Flag Sr. reads the report with rapt attention, flashes of anger and pain visible on his face as he learns Christopher Smith killed his son to cover up the secrets of Project Starfish. We got a glimpse of Flag Sr.’s regrets for outliving his son in Creature Commandos; this time the remorse has turned into frustration and anger as he makes Peacemaker his mortal nemesis. Determined to exact revenge, Flag Sr. commands Agent Bordeaux to keep Chris Smith’s house under constant surveillance. Bordeaux mentions that ARGUS has shown grace to Chris, given he and his team saved the world while being assigned to Project Butterfly. Flag Sr. couldn’t care less about his recent heroics, and he wants to detain Chris by any means possible. According to the present timeline, ARGUS took notice of Chris using the QUC six months ago, which happened right after the events of Superman. This clearly indicates that the dimensional energy signature just acted as a good excuse later on for Flag Sr. to continue watching over Chris. He is just waiting for any minor slip-up to drag Chris to ARGUS.

Adebayo’s Change in Perspective 

The narrative shifts to the present, right where the first episode ended, with a dumbfounded Chris sitting by the side of his deceased alternate self, still struggling to make sense of what happened. After failing to hide the corpse inside the cabinets in the QUC, he gives a call to Adrian, asking for his help taking care of the situation. Needless to say, the barrage of mixed emotions Chris has felt since his trip to the alternate world is already doing a number on his mind. It should be mentioned that Chris is seen using a Lordtech phone, built by the company owned by Maxwell Lord, who funds the Justice Gang. It’s surprising he didn’t cast it away after the kind of humiliation he was subjected to by Lord and his hired superheroes. 

Adebayo sneaks into Keeya’s place to retrieve some of her belongings, and a chance encounter between the two leads to a nasty spat. After being a member of Project Butterfly, Adebayo wanted to leave this dangerous, amoral, clandestine line of work, much to Keeya’s relief. But eventually Adebayo found her place with the 11th Street Kids and recognized that she fit just right among them, handling the violence, risks, and occasional moral lapses with ease. Adebayo started pursuing this line of work, opening up her own private security agency and whatnot—and eventually this became the reason behind her breakup with Keeya. Adebayo’s radical shift in perspective almost makes it seem that she became exactly the person Waller wanted her to be. It should be mentioned that Keeya is working in DC Comics’ famous café chain, Jitters, which CW The Flash fans like me will recognize instantly.

We’re given a brief look at Harcourt’s life as she visits a drugstore and wastes no time before going off on a poor lady, who simply tried to help her. The lady mistook the signs of Harcourt’s bar fight last night as her being stuck in an abusive relationship and offered necessary assistance. After her outburst, Harcourt spots the job vacancy notice on her way out of the drugstore and immediately regrets her action. It is sad to see a skilled operative with a shining resume being broke and desperate enough to even consider a menial hourly-pay job. 

Economos Meets His Babysitter, Agent Fleury

On the other hand, while keeping an eye on Chris’ residence, Economos is visited by Agent Langston Fleury, whom Agent Bordeaux has sent to act as his babysitter. Flag Sr. doesn’t trust Economos about being transparent, given he has a soft spot for his former team member, Chris, and Fleury will act as his eyes and ears instead. 

Fleury, a series-exclusive character who doesn’t exist in DC comics, is a typical James Gunn character with extremely discernible eccentricities, as shown in the way he manages to make Economos uncomfortable from the get-go. Adebayo pays a visit to Chris and warns him about the entire situation with Rick Flag Sr. having a vendetta against him. She is quite surprised after learning about the QUC and advises him not to use it if he cherishes his freedom, because Flag Sr. is just looking for an excuse to nab him. 

Eagly steps out of the house, and Agent Fleury’s outlandish weakness is revealed—this guy has bird blindness, which basically means he can’t distinguish between different birds. I guess Bordeaux didn’t keep in mind that Peacemaker has a pet eagle; or she wouldn’t have assigned an agent with the weirdest condition ever to this case. Anyway, she leaves as Adrian arrives, and Chris takes him to enter the QUC after ensuring the participants of last night’s orgy party leave. Despite knowing that opening the QUC will alert ARGUS, Chris decides to do it anyway. Adrian, being himself, finds the alternate reality thing pretty amusing, to such an extent that Chris’ act of killing his alternate self doesn’t bother him in the least. Smiling gleefully, Adrian helps Chris to hack alternate Chris’ corpse to pieces and burn them using an incinerator. Chris keeps the phone, which belongs to his alternate self, with him, and is able to unlock it using Face ID. Chris snoops into the gallery, and the images and videos of alternate reality versions of Harcourt and Chris together are enough to make Chris crave the life he never had.

Fleury is alerted upon receiving the dimensional energy signal emanating from Chris’ place and receives a call from Bordeaux to confirm the signal. Apparently, Economos is about to go to the long-awaited reunion of the 11th Street Kids, and Bordeaux asks Fleury to use that window to take a team of ARGUS agents to sweep Chris’ place to find the dimensional thingamajig. 

11th Street Kids Reunion: Eagly Becomes MVP

As Chris leaves for the reunion at the rooftop Harcourt residence, Fleury and his agents prepare to break into his place. More on that later; let’s just appreciate how good it feels to see the team back together. The dynamics between these oddball characters are what pulled fans towards Peacemaker in the first season, and we need more of this. Taking a break from their miserable lives, Harcourt, Adebayo, and Chris unwind. Economos is a bit distant, not really noticeable, but there is a hesitation in him, firstly because he doesn’t get the chance to meet up with his friends as often thanks to still being employed at ARGUS, and secondly due to the fact that he cannot open up about the whole spying for ARGUS thing to everyone. Adebayo understands his predicament, because in the first season, she too had the role of a team mole, as she was spying on them for Waller. 

While the 11th Street Kids are having a blast, Fleury and his operatives break into Chris’ house. One of the agents locates the door in Auggie’s bedroom, which leads to the QUC, but before they can even try to get it open, Eagly defends Chris’ residence. One by one, every one of the agents, including Fleury, gets brutally knocked down by Eagly—who also gets a cool slo-mo walk-down sequence. Krypto has some competition, as we are reminded he is not the only badass pet in the DCU. Fleury and his agents flee from the scene upon regaining their senses.

Will Chris Shift to Alternate Reality?

On the other hand, Chris learns about Harcourt’s recent bar brawl and is able to relate to her self-destructive streak, because he has been in a similar position in his life for quite a long time now. This actually rubs Harcourt the wrong way, as she thinks Chris is seeing her as a pity case, as messed up as he is, and trying to find a connection. Their conversation turns sour, and Chris drowns his sorrows by chugging all the beer he can. Things will not work out between him and Harcourt, and it’s about time he realizes that. In a drowsy state, he returns to his place and tries to strike a conversation with alternate reality Harcourt by sending her a message from alternate Chris’ phone. Not surprisingly, interdimensional network service providers have not come into play in DCU just yet, as the message doesn’t get delivered. Chris makes his way into the QUC, to once again return to the better reality, and sitting in the memorabilia room of Smith mansion, he sees the text has been delivered. In the background, the conversation between Keith and Auggie hints that they have become concerned about their Chris, as he has been unreachable since last night. It is revealed that this alternate Chris perhaps had an addiction issue, as Auggie mentions his past tendency of taking pills, which might have had a bad side effect on him. Anyway, Chris is fully focused on continuing his chat with alternate Harcourt, and as the episode comes to an end, the possibility of Chris living a double life seems more likely than ever. 

Eagly’s heroics might have caused some trouble for him, as it has revealed how Michael Rooker’s character, Red St. Wild, the metahuman eagle hunter, comes into play—ARGUS might seek his help to capture Eagly, and I am already scared for Chris’ best pal. It will also be interesting to see whether Economos opens up to Chris and the rest of the team about his role as an ARGUS spy, hopefully it doesn’t lead to a rift between the friends. While alternate reality versions of Harcourt, Auggie, and Keith will create an interesting dynamic with Chris, I am eager to see alternate reality versions of Vigilante, Adebayo, and Economos—who might or might not be very different persons than what they are in the prime reality. 

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