A gorilla with the skills and tactics of a soldier feels like a great villain for Peacemaker to duel one day, but first, we’ve got a lot to figure out with these “butterflies.” Grodd isn’t the only silverback DC villain and because the name Charlie is so prevalent, this has got to be a tease for Sergeant Gorilla to make a debut. It seems a big silverback gorilla named Charlie has been stolen from a local zoo and while most DC fans would gravitate towards thinking that Gorilla Grodd is in Peacemaker’s future, there’s a second, more likely option. Through some very obvious teases, there’s another villain to likely appear in the future, maybe even a second season. With that glimpse of the White Dragon’s armor and the direction of the story, there’s no doubt that an emotional final father/son confrontation is soon, but this episode also teases something else. Peacemaker (middle) hits some deep personal lows as he’s force to come to grips with his father’s horrific influence in his life. It’s a modern dissection of racism that’s unique and spars no emotion or perspective in touching on a tough, relatable topic and it’s what makes Gunn’s writing for Peacemaker some of his most complex yet. It’s an incredibly relevant personal story about confronting your upbringing and who you are that adds a lot of layers to Peacemaker’s story.

Both Cena and Gunn’s writing work excellently to make another drunken music sequence hit you right in the heart and the tears that flowed from Cena cut deep. We’ll likely know more about what happened soon based on some flashbacks, but even for how Peacemaker’s immaturity and offensiveness, it’s truly sad to see him hit such a low. It’s actually crushing to see him crave the answers about what his father did to him growing up and how it led to his brother’s death. This isn’t the case for Auggie, who’s only growing his white supremacist army while in prison, and Peacemaker slowly realizing this is surprising emotional. Even when people close to you that are even family say or believe something awful, it’s not easy to instantly cut them off and rather we try to see the good in them to look past the bad. Although Peacemaker does try to deflect past the truth about Auggie, it’s easy to see that he knows the truth and the speech that Leota has about how people with their own family’s flaws is an honest, underdiscussed truth about our lives. Peacemaker coming to grips with who his father really is can absolutely sting at times because of how real this realization is. Peacemaker (left) has some physical and internal battles this week. Even though what Leota (Danielle Brooks) and Vigilante say about Auggie and his villain persona, the White Dragon, are true, it’s not that cut and dry for Peacemaker and this episode captures the struggles in dealing with familial racism with genuine maturity and honesty. Even though Auggie’s racism and evil past are clear to pretty much everyone else, Peacemaker has a tough time dealing with it since, after all, this is his father. This episode goes even further with Peacemaker’s relationship with Auggie being the focal point and it brings out some interesting origins for Peacemaker that will be great to see explored further. It’s been great to see Peacemaker’s view of the world and immature masculine demeanor be challenged and cause him to think deeper about himself. The comedy is a little more toned down though and Peacemaker’s more personal story and themes are deeper explored. It’s pretty funny to watch Peacemaker flip out at his teammates for them locking Augie up and it’s even better to watch a disgruntled Murns (Chukwudi Iwuji) get frustrated at his dysfunctional team.

With this episode, some of the more comedic elements persist as Economos’ (Steve Agee) cockiness about defeating Judomaster (Nhut Lee) comes to hilariously bite him in the ass and Vigilante (Freddie Stroma) continues to be an absolute joy. Peacemaker has excellently introduced James Gunn’s elevated, signature comedic style and some intriguing themes about toxic masculinity stemming from Peacemaker’s (John Cena) upbringing with his racist, hyper-masculine father Auggie (Robert Patrick). With its latest episode, Peacemaker tones down the action to focus more on its characters, mainly its titular anti-hero, and create more intrigue around its central mysteries.

Gorilla grodd peacemaker