Peacemaker Season 2 Episode 5 Reveals The Sophomore Season's Greatest Mistake

This article contains spoilers for "Peacemaker" season 2, episode 5, "Back to the Suture."

"Peacemaker" season 2 likes to juggle quite a few balls at the same time, and one that has been consistently flying higher than many is the "A.R.G.U.S. vs. Eagly" B-plot. As /Film has noted before, the whole thing comes across as James Gunn's apology for his many sins against birds in projects like "The Suicide Squad." As if to back up this point, "Peacemaker" season 2, episode 2 is not only called "A Man Is Only as Good as His Bird," but it features a big Eagly fight that only works thanks to the dumb, genius decision of using a man's bird blindness against him, much to Langston Fleury's (Tim Meadows) chagrin. Cue Eagly utterly wrecking an entire A.R.G.U.S. wetworks team and celebrating the victory by power walking to the tune of Ida Maria's "Dirty Money." 

This should be a sign that Eagly is no ordinary eagle, especially after world-famous eagle hunter and apparent nutjob Red St. Wild (Michael Rooker, excellent as ever) starts having dream quest visions about Eagly as the supernatural Prime Eagle. Even so, "Peacemaker" manages to play the Red. vs. Eagly storyline as a wacky live-action Wile E. Coyote vs. Roadrunner situation ... that is, until "Back to the Suture" reveals that Red was right.

Yes, Red (R.I.P.) effed around and found out ... that Eagly actually is the Prime Eagle who rules over all eagles. The twist that Peacemaker's (John Cena) dumbass, bologna-obsessed, hug-happy pet is secretly a mythical, divine bird of prey is chuckle-worthy, sure enough. However, it also underlines the "Peacemaker" sophomore season's tendency to give its characters unnecessary power-ups, which is rapidly becoming the biggest of the show's rare missteps. 

In hindsight, there were plenty of earlier Eagly antics that suggested it's no ordinary bird. The laser-focused dismantling of several police officers chasing Peacemaker and Vigilante (Freddie Stroma) in the season 1 episode "Murn After Reading" springs to mind, as well as the way Eagly readily locates an alternate dimension that might bring joy to its beloved Peacemaker in the season 2 premiere. So, the Prime Eagle reveal should probably not be a massive shock, and could very well become a source of much merriment. 

Unfortunately, the twist comes immediately in the wake of "Peacemaker" season 2, episode 4 ("Need I Say Door"), which revealed that Peacemaker is more than just a self-pitying superhero wannabe with a tragic past and a vaguely heroic streak. He's the only guy who knows how to control the quantum unfolding storage chamber, and therefore effectively the guardian of the DC Universe's take on the multiverse. Or rather, he was, because "Back to the Suture" also grants the same knowledge to Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks). What's more, there's some evidence that "Peacemaker" season 2 may have teased another alternate universe DC superhero — namely, Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) becoming Peacewrecker. 

This is rapidly becoming a problem, because these characters are specifically not meant to be powerful doorkeepers of eternity. Much of "Peacemaker" season 1's charms come from the fact that the characters are non-powered dorks who still somehow manage to save the world against overwhelming odds. Yet, for some reason, season 2 seems hellbent on tinkering with a proven recipe by giving multiple characters unnecessary extra powers and abilities. What's next, John Economos (Steve Agee) turns out to be rumored "Superman" sequel villain Brainiac in disguise?

I'm being critical of a certain development in the "Peacemaker" world, but let's keep things clear: Between his "Guardians of the Galaxy" stuff in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and everything he's done on the DC side of things, James Gunn is just about the last guy whose superhero adaptation credentials can be questioned. As such, I fully believe there's a possibility that Gunn is handing out these upgrades out of genuine love for the show's characters, with the possible intention to upgrade them so they can believably hang with the other, almost invariably stronger characters in the DCU's "Gods and Monsters" stage. Or he could simply be setting up a bait-and-switch situation where everyone loses whatever edge they had by the end of the season; after all, the very tagline of the season is "In what world are they the heroes?" Perhaps the console that controls the quantum unfolding chamber will be broken. Maybe Eagly will walk away from its Prime Eagle duties to remain with its human friend — or worse, ends up as a sad entry on an avian equivalent of the "Does the Dog Die?" website.

At the end of the day, these people (and eagles) aren't and very much shouldn't be unstoppable powerhouses in any sense. Seeing them become increasingly formidable one by one comes across as needless and out of character — especially since Peacemaker already has the fun and very fitting "new dumb powers with every different helmet" cheat code at his disposal for whenever he needs to interact with other metahumans.

"Peacemaker" season 2 is streaming on HBO Max.