Peacemaker Season 2 Opens With an Epilogue Instead of a Bang

After three and a half years, I expected the Peacemaker Season 2 premiere to pack more of a punch.

Instead, Peacemaker Season 2 Episode 1 felt more like a bridge between its two seasons, carefully laying the groundwork for what’s to come.

Despite lots of changes behind the scenes at DC, there was a genuine concern that Peacemaker would lose a large part of its DNA.

Thankfully, the whipsmart humor and unapologetic tone remain, leaving us with an unpredictable series that could genuinely go anywhere.

Multiple iterations of the same dimension are just par for the course in the DC Universe, particularly on the small screen.

The CW‘s Arrowverse touched upon it endlessly, so there was a genuine concern that Peacemaker’s foray into the multiverse would feel a bit too familiar.

Peacemaker Season 2 Switches Dimensions

Embracing a different dimension is realistically the only plausible way forward because the Peacemaker Season 1 finale set up this meeting with the Justice League, back when Ezra Miller played The Flash and Jason Momoa played Aquaman.

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Switching to another dimension was a serviceable enough way to explain that we’re dealing with a different Justice team altogether now. It’s not the most original swing, but what keeps it fresh is that it’s filtered through Peacemaker’s broken worldview.

Chris isn’t a scientist like Barry Allen or Bruce Wayne. He’s a guy with daddy issues, violent impulses, and a desperate need to be loved — so watching him fumble through a cosmic-level complication is inherently messy and unpredictable.

It’s only natural for Chris to still be processing the events of Season 1. He’s had this horrible upbringing, and a large part of who he is has been governed by his father’s inability to be a father.

Despite the comedic nature of Peacemaker, the series has always flirted with deeper undertones, and its ability to marry the two has always been its strong point.

But where is Chris supposed to go now that he’s found a different reality in which his brother, Keith, and his father, Auggie, are alive?

There’s a very real possibility that Chris will spend so much time in the other reality, where his family is mostly intact, that it will destroy his relationships in his own.

Killing the other dimension’s iteration of Chris is a bit of a double-edged sword because, on one hand, he can spend more time there without being detected. On the other hand, Auggie, Keith, and everyone else in Chris’s orbit will have questions if he disappears.

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Putting Chris vs. Chris presented an interesting battle, but it’s a shame it was over so soon. Perhaps the two different versions of the same man could have learned something from each other.

Still, it reinforced that the alternate Chris was a family man who lived up to his mantra, and it raised the question: What would you do if another version of yourself confronted you?

John Cena Is Stellar

The reactions were right on the money, and John Cena sold every beat of that internal conflict.

The original Chris has been desperately searching for meaning in life for a long time. Everything became even more complicated since Adebayo exposed her mother on live television.

It sucks for the entire team, but the only way forward is through. It’s a turbulent time for all of them, and they really could use each other more than they do right now.

They’re all struggling to internalize what happened and where their lives are at. Being stuck in a rut sucks, and there will come a point very soon when they realize they need to take more risks.

One of the strengths of Peacemaker has always been how the comedy masks deeper character studies. Beneath the gory violence and crude jokes, this is a show about broken people trying to find their place in a chaotic world. This premiere leaned harder on the setup than the payoffs, but the ingredients are still there for another wild ride.

Economos being so closely affiliated with A.R.G.U.S., while the others have been effectively put out to pasture, is interesting. Still, it always helps having someone on the inside, and his front-row seat into Chris’s “rainy day stash” was hilarious.

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The addition of Rick Flag Sr. as the leader of A.R.G.U.S. is also sure to cause some problems for Chris because, if you recall, Chris killed his son in The Suicide Squad.

Chris Is Getting a Blast From the Past

That personal history adds a volatile new dynamic. Will Flag Sr. be able to set aside his feelings to use Peacemaker as an asset, or is he already working on a way to dismantle him from the inside?

Either way, his presence ensures that this season won’t just be about Chris wrestling with alternate realities. There’s plenty of earthbound conflict brewing as well, which is a smart move to balance the cosmic angle.

As far as premieres go, this wasn’t the adrenaline shot many fans may have hoped for after such a long wait. Instead, it was a quieter, more contemplative entry that set the table for bigger stories to come.

If Season 1 thrived on surprise, chaos, and sheer audacity, Season 2 seems to be more interested in asking who Chris is when the dust settles — and whether he can ever truly change.

That’s not a bad question to open on. It just might take a few more episodes before Peacemaker starts firing on all cylinders again.

What are your thoughts on the premiere? Are you digging the dual dimensions, or would you have preferred we stuck to the one established on Peacemaker Season 1?

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