Peacemaker Season 2 Episode 7 Finally Explains The Show's Most Mysterious Character

This article contains spoilers for "Peacemaker" season 2, episode 7 — "Like a Keith in the Night"

After revealing that Peacemaker (John Cena) and the 11th Street Kids have unwittingly ended up in a Nazi-controlled alternate universe known as Earth-X, all cards are on the table and the penultimate episode of "Peacemaker" season 2 is free to begin the endgame. However, "Like a Keith in the Night" still has one mystery to solve: Where does Judomaster (Nhut Le), who also entered the dimensional portal, factor in all of this?

Fortunately, the episode doesn't waste time explaining this. Not only is the virtually unkillable Judomaster still alive and well, but he voluntarily rescues Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) from the Nazi world residents chasing her. This leads into one of the show's most surprising and heartwarming sequences, as the team's resident people person Leota bonds with Peacemaker's old adversary over a game of Scrabble (sorry, "Scrobble").

Up to this point, Rip "Judomaster" Jagger has largely been a smirking one-note antagonist with a fondness for snacks and the occasional splash of personality. However, he gets a ton of attention here, proving to be a thoughtful and articulate person who has a legitimate reason to dislike Peacemaker. Since he's utterly unaware of the deeper aspects of Christopher Smith's personality, he quite righfully perceives him as a Jingoistic oaf with a weird musical taste.

Judomaster is a recurring, stalking menace who even hides throughout the "Peacemaker" season 1 intro. Yet, by the end of this episode, he seems to have made his peace with not only Leota but also Vigilante (Freddie Stroma) and, perhaps, the rest of the 11th Street Kids. He's obviously not a fully-fledged member of the group yet — John Economos (Steve Agee) may have some stuff to say about that – but "Like a Keith in the Night" offers a key hint that things may be heading in that direction. 

When Judomaster scoffs at Peacemaker's childish musical taste, Leota immediately grabs that ball and runs with it. She uses the Finnish glam rock band Hanoi Rocks — an excellent group in a genre with no shortage of fluff, in her opinion — as a metaphor for Peacemaker, describing him as an acquired taste who can be a great person as long as you remember to filter out some of the cheesiest aspects. 

The message does seem to get through to Judomaster, too. While it's too early to tell whether he's ready to reevaluate his long-standing enemy, the fact that Leota specifically brings up Hanoi Rocks surely means something. In "Peacemaker" season 1, this particular group's music acts as a major bonding experience that starts truly bringing the team together. Their song "11th Street Kids" even gives Team Peacemaker its unofficial name. Now, it seems that series creator James Gunn is working toward bringing Judomaster in the mix as the first outside member since the group's creation, which would no doubt provide them with an important asset — as well as countless hilarious moments, thanks to Rip's tendency toward abrasive commentary. 

 "Peacemaker" season 2 is streaming on HBO Max.