Before I begin, I’d just like to state that this is my personal opinion and might be different from our season review of Peacemaker.
While I greatly respect the MCU shows on Disney+, I have to admit that Peacemaker has completely blown all of them away with its first season. James Gunn is an absolutely phenomenal writer and director and his many talents are on full display with this series. With Peacemaker’s outstanding first season now being finished, I have decided to rank the eight episodes from this incredible show.
8. A Whole New Whirled (Episode 1): I just want to say that none of the episodes in this season are bad. All of them are incredible and provide nothing but entertainment. The reason as to why I have the first episode in last place is because it is mainly an introduction to our main characters. However, it obviously has to be. In my opinion, the most interesting introduction to a character during the episode has to be Peacemaker’s horrible racist father Auggie Smith. In a five minute scene we see just how much of a monster Auggie really is. Not only is he a bigoted redneck, but he is also extremely abusive to his son and a massive sadist on top of that. Seeing him laugh hysterically at Bloodsport’s abusive childhood is all you need to know on what kind of person Auggie is even before you find out that he is a giant racist. The climax at the end between Peacemaker and the Butterfly was also a ton of fun, especially when the former activates his sonic boom helmet and blows her up to pieces. This was a fantastic opening to the series and is really just at the bottom because the following episodes are even better.
7. Best Friends, For Never (Episode 2): The second episode of Peacemaker is still more or less an introduction for our characters but nevertheless does a fantastic job at letting us get to know Peacemaker a little bit more. The opening has our title character escape the police from the apartment in which he had just fought the butterfly controlled woman minutes ago. While it is rather long, it is not boring for a second. Seeing John Cena run around from the cops while taking a bickering couple hostage was absolutely hilarious. We also see Auggie get arrested after he is framed by John Economos for Peacemaker’s actions at the beginning. It is safe to say that absolutely no one feels bad for him when this happens. However, the best part of this episode is easily the full introduction of Adrian Chase/Vigilante. Played wonderfully by Freddie Stroma, Vigilante is shown to even more demented and unstable than Peacemaker. However, he is shockingly very likable and is nothing but kind towards Peacemaker, as the latter is his idol. The scene in which the two have fun by destroying household appliances with their weapons is absolute gold.
6. The Choad Less Traveled (Episode 4): After the first three episodes had a large emphasis on comedy and action, the fourth installment of the show slows things down and provides more drama. There are still many hilarious moments, particularly the fight between Peacemaker and Judomaster, a scene in which Peacemaker argues with his father’s neighbor on if Batman is actually a hero or not and pretty much any scene that included Vigilante. However, this episode is mainly a deeper look into Peacemaker’s past and why his relationship with his father is so unpleasant (besides the obvious reasons of Auggie being a horrible person). We discover that Peacemaker originally had an older brother named Keith, who died after their father forced them to fight for entertainment as it is later revealed in the season. The ending of the episode also reveals that Clemson Murn is actually a butterfly himself, which had been hinted at in the previous episode when he mentioned that he closed himself off from human emotions. This episode gives us so many answers while also leaving us with a decently large number of intriguing questions.
5. Monkey Dory (Episode 5): After several episodes of being at odds with each other, the Project Butterfly group gets a massive boost of development as Peacemaker starts to learn to be less of a jerk towards others while Economos, Harcourt, Murn and Adebayo learn to treat him like more of a person and less like an annoying moron. The episode has the team infiltrate the factory where the butterflies are producing their amber fluid, the primary source of food that they need the stay alive. Throughout the episode, Peacemaker constantly butts heads with Economos, who framed his father and had him thrown in prison. I am shocked by how good of an actor Steve Agee is. He plays Economos so well and it is very easy to like him as the episode greatly makes you feel sorry for him as he is forced to deal with Peacemaker and Vigilante, who constantly bully him throughout the episode. However, Economos soon becomes the MVP of this episode when he saves the group from a Butterfly controlled gorilla named Charlie by killing him with a chainsaw. This lets him gain Peacemaker’s respect and actually starts to make them all friends, with Harcourt even starting a group chat called the 11th Street Kids (a Hanoi Rocks song that Peacemaker and Economos had bonded over earlier). James Gunn really excels at developing a group of people who go from enemies to friends.
4. Better Goff Dead (Episode 3): After the first two episodes introduced the audience to the main characters, the third episode of Peacemaker gives us a proper introduction to the main villain of the season, as the team go out on their first mission to kill the butterfly who has taken over Senator Royland Goff. However, their mission goes sideways rather quickly, as Vigilante tags along (without their approval) and Peacemaker starts to lose his nerve about killing people following the events of The Suicide Squad. My favorite moment in the episode is when Peacemaker attempts to use a sniper rifle on Goff and the butterflies possessing his family, but can’t fire due to his reluctance about shooting kids. It is a fascinating scene as despite Peacemaker’s infamous claim that he does not care how many men, women and children he has to kill to obtain peace, it is really just all talk, especially when he is faced with gunning down Goff’s son and daughter. Unlike Peacemaker however, Vigilante has no qualms with killing children and is able to gun down Goff’s family while nonchalantly humming a tune to himself. I especially love how Vigilante’s callous attitude even disturbs Peacemaker, Harcourt and Murn, who are supposed to be the most prepared members of the group. The action in this episode is also terrific, as the fight between Peacemaker and Vigilante against Judomaster is a blast to watch. The first two episodes were amazing, but it was this episode that really kicked the plot into motion.
3. It’s Cow or Never (Episode 8): The finale of Peacemaker was everything that I could have hoped for and more. We see our main characters go up against the butterflies in a final standoff and it is absolutely glorious. It is fantastic to see just how far each of them have come since this show first started. Economos is forced to admit that he really does dye his beard in a heartbreaking revelation, Adebayo steps up to the plate and takes down a ton of butterflies on her own, Harcourt proves to be a super effective leader and even Vigilante manages to protect his friends from the butterflies without breaking a sweat. However, fittingly enough it is Peacemaker who gets the biggest moment as he discovers that the butterflies are trying to create their own form of peace in the world by forcefully guiding people towards making the correct choices in their eyes. I had a feeling that Goff and the butterflies would serve as a dark mirror for our title character but it was still a terrific reveal that was delivered perfectly by Annie Chang. After considering the point of his enemy, Peacemaker ultimately uses Adebayo (who is wearing a human torpedo helmet) to kill the disgusting looking cow that provided the amber fluid for the butterflies. It was clearly not an easy choice for him, but it shows that Peacemaker has grown significantly as a person, going from the most immoral member of the Suicide Squad to a genuinely good person with a moral compass. I also absolutely love the Justice League cameo and the fact that Ezra Miller and Jason Momoa reprised their roles as the Flash and Aquaman and brought up the rumor of the latter having sex with fish was absolute perfection.
2. Stop Dragon My Heart Around (Episode 7): If I haven’t made it clear already, one of my favorite aspects of this show is the relationship between Peacemaker and his abusive father. Even though everyone throughout the season tries to warn our main character that his father is a monster, he still refuses to believe it, as he desperately hopes to gain his father’s love despite it being obvious that he will never get it. The episode opens with the moment in which Peacemaker’s brother died, an event that he has blamed himself for to this day despite the fact that it was really more of his father’s fault since he was the once who forced them to fight for sport. Throughout the episode, this crucial moment is constantly brought up and becomes a major contributing factor into Peacemaker’s decision to kill Auggie. It also gives the outstanding opening credits a deeper meaning as once we see Peacemaker relive his most traumatizing moment, we immediately cut to the theme song. What was originally a super fun moment is now a fascinating insight into Peacemaker’s mind. The showdown between Peacemaker and his father is absolutely epic, as we see Auggie dress up as the White Dragon to hunt down and kill his son for unintentionally being the reason that he got framed and sent to prison. While Economos and Vigilante are able to take out Auggie’s gang of white supremacists, Peacemaker fights his father and beats him to a bloody pulp when he punches Eagly to near death. The moment in which Peacemaker kills his father is immensely satisfying but also a tragic moment for Peacemaker as he breaks into tears after shooting his father in the head after he taunted him that he could never truly be rid of him, which sadly turns out to be the case as he has several hallucinations of him in the following episode. In addition to the showdown between Peacemaker and Auggie, Murn is killed by the butterflies which leads Harcourt to taking over the leader position for the group. My personal favorite moment in the episode is probably when Eagly recovers from his wounds and immediately hugs Peacemaker. I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t feel the same amount of wonder that Adebayo felt when she saw an eagle hug a human.
1. Murn After Reading (Episode 6): I was debating on whether I should put the last two episodes ahead of this one but I ultimately went with the sixth episode of this show because it really made Peacemaker change as a character the most. We discover in the episode that Murn is the only Butterfly to be working against his race and we are actually given more depth to the character as he is visibly shaken with having to take over and kill the person he is inhabiting but ultimately had no choice. Meanwhile, Auggie is released from prison and decides to go kill his son while the police go after Peacemaker and Vigilante. To make matters worse, the Goff butterfly escapes from its jar and takes over and kills Detective Song. The entire escape sequence is absolutely captivating. We actually see Eagly take down several police officers, which immediately explains to us why he is Peacemaker’s sidekick. In addition to that, Peacemaker is forced to confront the issue of whether he should kill or not when he sees the mercenary Locke (played by a terrifying Christopher Heyerdahl) gun down innocent police officers after helping him and Vigilante escape. Even Murn is shaken when he learns about what Locke did. Things quickly become worse when Goff infects the entire police department with butterflies and frames Peacemaker thanks to the diary that Adebayo planted under the orders of Amanda Waller. The entire sequence of Goff sending the butterflies after the police officers while Auggie is suiting up in the White Dragon suit with his racist followers was absolutely terrifying and the song Monster by Reckless Love playing over the scene was just the cherry on top. My favorite moment in the episode, as well as the entire show has to be the scene where Harcourt admits to Peacemaker that she doesn’t think he’s that bad of a person before he goes to quietly play Home Sweet Home by Mötley Crüe on the piano. This entire scene was beautiful and really just proves that there is far more to Peacemaker than one might think. I liked John Cena a great deal after The Suicide Squad, but it was this scene that showed me that he can be a truly amazing actor. This was the episode that solidified my opinion of James Gunn being my favorite director and I think Peacemaker is his best work yet.
