Peacemaker S2E3 is a gut check about wish fulfillment. Chris wakes up in a brighter parallel Evergreen where the town cheers him on, his brother’s alive, and the 11th Street Kids aren’t weighed down by the wreckage he left behind. That rush of approval hits hard. The episode makes you feel why Chris is tempted to stay, even as it hints at how quickly that love can twist into another kind of prison.
The big swing is the shocking return of Rick Flag Jr. We get him twice: in a sharp flashback that reframes Harcourt’s distance from Chris, and again in this other world where Rick is very much alive and not thrilled to see our guy orbiting Emilia. It’s emotional and messy in a way that fits the show. The reveal doesn’t play like fan service. It adds weight to Chris’ guilt over The Suicide Squad and explains a lot about Harcourt’s guarded energy.
Action-wise, the DMV siege with the Sons of Liberty is classic Peacemaker chaos. No helmet, no problem. Chris barrels through the militia, defuses a bomb, then drinks in the crowd’s cheers like oxygen. The Peace-Cycle strut, the meme-ready glare from Flag, and Keith’s superhero run-in all land. Around the margins, the show keeps its oddball spice: Fleury getting bird-bothered, Judomaster crunching Cheetos, and Red St. Wild showing up as an eagle-killing specialist.
What sticks is the character work. John Cena plays Chris with that mix of swagger and self-loathing that makes him readable even when he’s lying to himself. Jennifer Holland gets a strong hour that deepens Harcourt without flattening her into a love triangle piece. The brother-to-brother scene is the episode’s heart, a clean reminder of what Chris misses most and why this “perfect” world feels so dangerous.
Greg Mottola’s direction keeps the emotions close while James Gunn’s writing nudges the bigger DCU puzzle forward without drowning the episode in setup. If there’s a wobble, a couple of soapier beats run a little hot, but the show vents the pressure with humor and sharp fight staging.
A confident, character-first chapter that turns the multiverse into a mirror. The Rick Flag Jr reveal stings, and Chris’ newfound appreciation in this dimension feels sweet and poisonous at the same time. 4 out of 5.
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