THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED SERIES. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
In 2021, audiences were blown away with John Cena’s memorable performance as the Peacemaker in The Suicide Squad. When the character was shown to survive the events of the said film through a post credit scene, everyone wanted to see more of him. Luckily, we didn’t wait too long.
PLOT
The series’ pilot “A Whole New Whirled” shows the titular protagonist also known as Christopher Smith recover from the wounds he suffered during a mission in Corto Maltese. Despite being discharged at a hospital in the United States, he is not a free man like he wishes. When he returns to his mobile home, he pays a cab driver his helmet as he didn’t have American money on him. He is assigned by Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) to agents related to Task Force X. The agents include: Emilia Harcourt & John Economos who allowed the remaining team of Task Force X to defeat Starro the Conqueror, rather than retreating. The other members are Walker’s daughter Leota Adebayo and the leader Clemson Murn. The mission is to neutralize a new threat known as ‘Project Butterfly’. While Waller’s team assigns them to an abandoned storefront, Christopher visits his father August to check on his pet eagle, Eagly. Although August offers him a spare helmet of his choice, he makes clear that he didn’t think about him when he was in prison. When checking in with Waller’s team at a diner in uniform, he is recognized by his sidekick Adrian Chase aka Vigilante, who is excited to see him out of prison. Christopher is assigned to assassinate the first target related to Project Butterfly, a US Senator named Royland Goff (Antonio Cupo). Although he tries to bond with the others, he doesn’t like Murn and Harcourt doesn’t budge. The only one who does is Adebayo who wants to avoid action in the field. As the night progresses, he ends up having sex with a waitress named Annie (Crystal Mudry). Afterwards, she ends up attacking him while displaying superhuman strength, seemingly a ‘butterfly’. He ends up defending himself by shooting her with his new helmet that has a sonic boom blaster.
“Best Friends, For Never” shows Christopher flee the crime scene with evidence (and music), getting picked up by Harcourt & Adebayo. He maintains his cover by tying up two civilians that are a dysfunctional couple named Amber (Alison Araya) & Evan (Lenny Jacobson), who bicker during the shenanigans. Since his car was destroyed, Economos changes his name on the registration, so that he won’t be tracked by the police. It turns out to be a bad idea because he changed it to his father August, who will lose his trust to the Peacemaker. When all regroup, they worry that Waller is feeding information to those related to Project Butterfly. Christopher ends up remembering that he had his dossier at the butterfly’s apartment. This upsets Murn because this mission puts the fate of the country at jeopardy. As Adebayo bribes the couple, Christopher returns to his mobile home and reunites with Vigilante, who has been keeping identity secret from him and they celebrate his release from prison by trying out new weaponry appliances in the woods. Adebayo makes a cruel decision by telling her wife Keeya (Elizabeth Faith Ludlow) that she should go home to be safe, which offends her since she went out of her way to be with her during the mission. Evan & Amber go forward with the lie and blame August for the crime. This worries Detective Sophie Song (Annie Chang) because she knows that he is the supervillain known as ‘White Dragon’. After Christopher & Vigilante link up with Amber, the lead protagonist discovers a device he took to activate and enlarge, implying it to be extraterrestrial.
“Better Goff Dead” shows Christopher bringing it to the team, which gets them to move forward with assassinating the Senator. The objective is to kill him and his family if they are Butterflies. The team follows them to the Goff manor, joined by Vigilante and confirms that all are indeed Butterflies. When Peacemaker hesitates, Vigilante kills the wife and children on his behalf. Before he could kill the patriarch, he is stopped by a disguised bodyguard named Judomaster. As both vigilantes get overpowered by him and are taken into the house, Adebayo is sent to help out. She holds a security guard at gunpoint, but finds herself unable to kill him, leading to Harcourt doing it for her. Vigilante gets tortured by Royland as Peacemaker refuses to explain why he was sent to kill him. While Economos incapacitates Judomaster, Murn uses explosives to destroy a secret barrier where the protagonists are held captive. When Peacemaker breaks free from his restraints, he shoots Royland in the face, but a butterfly crawls out of his skull and flies off. This is one of many around the globe.
“The Choad Less Traveled” follows the team retreat and hold Judomaster captive in their hideout. When Adrian takes Chris home, the latter picks up spare helmets and notices Auggie is not there. He learns from his neighbor that he is in jail. He calls Murn and complains how they did this behind his back, and hanging up when declaring to visit him. As Adrian drives him there, he asks if he should kill his father, but claims to still love him. By the time they arrive, Adebayo arrives to make clear to Chris that he is not going to change, no matter how much he loves him. He does visit him anyway and when he explains what happened, it only upsets him more, planning to rat on him when he gets the opportunity. Adebayo takes his friend home, while Adrian gets himself arrested, with the intent to kill the White Dragon. Judomaster eventually wakes up and when he does, he knocks out Economos. When Adebayo and Peacemaker return to their quarters, they stop him when Adebayo shoots him during a fight with the protagonist. Murn is irate that they’re at the brink of losing Smith’s trust if Chase succeeds in killing his father. When Chris goes home, he reveals to have taken a butterfly for himself, hoping to figure out what they are. He also drunkenly reminisces of his deceased brother Keith (Liam Hughes). Chase gets freed from prison, despite being unable to kill Auggie. He tells Harcourt who picks him up. When Adebayo finds a possible connection to the first butterfly victim, she calls Murn who is one in secret.
“Monkey Dory” shows the team destroy a building of Glan Tai Bottling Company, as it contained the only food source for butterflies, amber goop. While they destroy the building and kill every butterfly on sight, Murn gets help from a contact named Captain Locke (Christopher Heyerdahl) to keep Auggie in prison until the mission is over. He is able to do so by taking over as local sheriff and falsify the evidence, even though Detective Song had a lead that Peacemaker was involved. She acts irrational when she and her partner Detective Larry Fitzgibbon go to her uncle, Judge William Judy (David Beairsto), to get a search warrant on Peacemaker. When Adebayo visits Chris’ home, she plants a fake diary as ordered by Waller. Unable to sleep, she goes to the hideout. When she tries one of Peacemaker’s helmets, she activates an X-ray vision and shockingly discovers that Murn is a butterfly.
“Murn After Reading” shows Harcourt defend Murn, claiming that he is not a threat. The butterfly inside him explains that his kind wanted to originally reside on earth after their planet got destroyed, but the leader Goff decided to plan conquering it instead. Economos is the only other one who knows the truth of Murn because if Waller or Chris find out next, it will not go well. Goff happens to be the same butterfly that Peacemaker confiscated in hopes to figure out their purpose, but before he could get a legit answer, he and Vigilante have to flee from Song, thanks to her new warrant. Goff gets loose and goes straight to host the good detective and both protagonists continue to flee when Locke kills three cops. When they regroup with the team, they share what happened to them, but their allies only share that the butterflies have been harvesting off of a ‘cow’ to survive. As Auggie is released from prison, he plans to kill his son. On the other hand, the Goff-possessed Song assembles the remaining butterflies to control everyone in the police station, including Locke and Fitzgibbon. The now butterfly possessed Locke even holds a televised conference and declare a manhunt on Peacemaker after finding the planted diary that links him to the recent murders.
“Stop Dragon My Heart Around” shows Economos join Peacemaker & Vigilante to find the cow and destroy it. However, they get attacked by the White Dragon and his ‘White Hood’ army. Auggie wants to kill Chris, blaming him for Keith’s death when he accidentally killed him in a bare knuckle fight when they were kids. Economos is able to shoot down the White Hood on his own, while Vigilante damages Auggie’s suit. This gives Chris the opportunity to fight him at his odds. It is this moment where he finally confronts that it’s partially his fault for Kevin’s death since he scheduled them to fight in the first place. He finally ends the emotional abuse by shooting his father in the head. When Harcourt deduces that Adebayo planted the diary, she calls her out on betraying their partner. The latter finally admits that Waller is her mother and she ordered her to do it because Peacemaker would be the perfect patsy. When Murn visits, he does admit that he knew after doing a background check on her when they first met. Things take a turn for the worse when they get cornered by butterflies. Murn buys time for the women, ordering them to leave, before he gets killed by Goff/Song. Even when the butterflies leave, the women are unable when they get attacked by Judomaster, who broke free from captivity again. Luckily, Adebayo is able to incapacitate him again, this time via taser. They meet up with the others at an animal hospital for Eagly’s sake, who got injured during the White Dragon’s attack. Once Chris’ pet appears to have recovered, Harcourt shares that she overheard Goff/Song mention that they have a teleportation device, which could explain how the cow has been hidden for so long. As all head their way to destroy the planet’s new biggest threat, Adebayo apologizes to Chris for what she did, but he doesn’t accept it, claiming it doesn’t matter at this point.
The season finale “It’s Cow or Never” follows the remaining team preparing for the fight of our lives. Adebayo calls her mother to let her know they’re outnumbered, but the latter only puts Harcourt in charge. The team agrees that they use Peacemaker’s sonic boom helmet to destroy the teleportation device and the cow itself. When they lose the anti gravity helmet, Economos has to go plant it in the cavern personally. He goes in disguise of a butterfly possessed guard to sneak it in and when he gets made, Adebayo is able to activate via walkie three times in a row, which destroys the teleportation device. This gives the opportunity for the team to wipe out the remaining butterflies. While Vigilante and Harcourt get injured during the action, Peacemaker enters the cavern to kill the cow. When Adebayo chooses to follow him, Economos trips and breaks his leg. Peacemaker gets trapped in the rubble, but is freed by Goff/Song. It uses this time to explain that the butterflies’ main purpose was to save Earth’s humanity, as the human race is on the verge of destroying their own ecosystem. Despite getting the answers he wanted, Chris makes a bold decision by activating his human torpedo helmet Adebayo is wearing, which propels her through the cow. As she falls out of its guts, he shoots down the remaining butterflies in the cavern, including Goff/Song. As the team leaves, the Justice League arrive late to the scene and Peacemaker berates them for being so. As everyone recovers at the local hospital, Chris chooses to forgive Adebayo by declaring her as a friend. She then decides to blow the whistle by declaring him and Vigilante as heroes, and acknowledges her mother’s operations Task Force X. When she reunites with her wife and Judomaster mourns over the deceased butterflies, the film ends with Chris still hallucinating of his father, after originally thinking he moved on before attacking the cavern.
THOUGHTS
When this series got green lit before the release of The Suicide Squad, I was worried that DC was overstaying its welcome. After enjoying the film, I became open minded of how it would turn out. And after finally binging it on (HBO)Max, I am surprised to say that I had a ball with this one too. Creator/ Showrunner James Gunn made an absolute blast of a show that was filled with nonstop humor, unexpected character depth and entertaining action sequences. I mean that cavern battle was insane to get through and I loved every second of it. I never thought we would get to explore. Gunn chose to make a show about Peacemaker because it was a loose end that had to be tied up from the film. Knowing this, he is able to capitalize on a theme that hits deeper and you feel it as the story progressed in each episode: There is a hero in everyone and although we/they are not guaranteed to be perfect, the will to protect others is what matters in the long run. You feel this through the main lead whose depth was deeper than imagined. When originally watching The Suicide Squad, John Cena originally terrified me because of his determination made him merciless to accomplish his goal that is to achieve world peace. But this show shows where exactly he is coming from. Since the death of his brother understandably traumatized him, he went through a grieving process believing that he could only get over it if the whole world is at peace, hence the minimum restrictions he had on himself. He killed Rick Flag not for being thorough, but because he knew it is something his dad would know. With his dad wrongfully blaming him for what happened, it made the grieving only harder to get through. Although he did the right thing by getting him out of his life, it’s gonna take a while to be rid of the trauma for good. Chris is still a hero that admires others like the Justice League, but know he doesn’t belong with them as his beliefs are a big separation between him and them. And during the butterfly mission, he realized that being at peace to yourself is enough to accept that accidents happen. When talking to Goff, he saw a polar opposite of himself, one who has the right beliefs but goes too far and refuses to see it. He may have claimed to be willing to kids for peace, but it never got there until this show, proving how bad his dad got into his head. Now that the world is safe again for now, you can only hope things take a better turn for him. And to be honest, he is pretty funny in between for not being as self aware as he tries to be. While Cena makes the show what it is, the supporting cast around him are just as entertaining. Since Economos and Harcourt were in the post credits scene of The Suicide Squad, it made sense for them to stick around in this show and I am glad that they did because they luckily got to become more than one noted characters. Jennifer Holland showed her as one who has to be tough as nails in the environment around her, when in reality, she has as much of a heart as the others in her team. She waited it out when it came to telling Chris her first name because that’s how bad she doesn’t trust anyone. Now that she has come around with trusting him, it is safe to assume that they’ll have a better relationship from then on. Steve Agee makes a memorable presence out of Economos because he is the most insecure of the group; He is another person who struggles to be taken seriously until push comes to shove. When he confesses how he felt unnoticed throughout his time, you unexpectedly feel for him because that feeling of isolation always sucks. After his involvement with the butterfly mission, it is easy to assume that maybe things will get better for him too. Of all the possessed characters, Murn was easily the best because while being as tough as Amanda Waller, Chudwuki Iwuji was able to show him as one with better intentions than his superiors. He makes clear that he does not enjoy the tasks that have to be done, which respects the glimpse of rebellion we see in him. It gets tragic to see him get killed in action because he would’ve been relieved to see the world in safer conditions until another invasion comes around. Adebayo was another great character in the long run because Danielle Brooks portrayed her as one who went from being misplaced to finding her place in a world she didn’t think she would ever be a part of. She did not like putting people in danger, nor did she like hurting them either, which again reminds viewers that we don’t have to be in the footsteps of our parents to impress them, nor do we always have to impress them to show our worth. She got along with Chris so well because they relate to the situation of not having the best parents. She openly points out that Auggie sucks because it’s the same truth of her mom. Seeing her blow the whistle on her mother is the bravest moment of the whole show, besides killing the cow, because it shows that no voice should be unheard. Of all the new characters I enjoyed the most, Fredie Stroma became an absolute delight as Vigilante throughout the show. He was the most hilarious of the main cast for lacking self awareness compared to Peacemaker. Despite that, he gets along with him so well for respecting his motive and you admire every bit of confidence he chooses to express, especially when encountering Auggie. It is easy to worry about how he enjoys killing, but at least it is towards only criminals that may be worse than him. Since he survived the butterfly mission as well, it is a safe bet that he has more justice to serve, whether or not he has help. Judomaster was not there as much as the other masked figures, but in the given time, Nhut Le left an interesting impression on portraying him as one who is quietly aggressive and more formidable, willing to stand up to any who cross him. Considering that he seemed to understand the butterfly’s motives better than anyone, you can only bet how far he’ll go to get even whenever we see him again. It was a blessing to have Robert Patrick on board as the villainous White Dragon, who owns the screen for being more vile with his words than his actions. He is the living embodiment that sometimes, there are people that are beyond saving no matter how bad you want to. Even if Chris didn’t pull the trigger, he would still be in his head and now that he is, you can only hope that this doesn’t last long. Last but not least, the funniest of characters were indeed Jamil (Rizwan Manji) and Auggie’s neighbor (Mel Tuck) who were willing to call out Peacemaker’s actions/motive without having any amount of authority over him. The confidence that they carry over a guy that can kill them with ease is hilarious. In short, Peacemaker is an entertaining show for being able to find the best in the misunderstood. If you already enjoyed what was provided in The Suicide Squad, you’ll get a whole lot more of that in here.
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