Given that there was almost three years in between the first and second season of DC’s Peacemaker, there wasn’t a whole lot I remembered about what took place. But that didn’t make me any less excited to check it out – especially with the addition of Frank Grillo!
Now, their nice little recap reminded me that this ragtag gang of non-superheroes set out to put an end to “Project Butterfly,” and they did just that! After everything went down though, Adebayo aired all of her mom’s dirty laundry, so as a bit of retaliation, Waller blackballed Harcourt from being able to work in any intelligence agency. We pick up from that aftermath about six months later, where she is still trying to get a job and is pretty miserable about it. Peacemaker is also trying to get taken seriously as a superhero with absolutely no luck. He keeps trying to see if there is something between him and Harcourt, who rebuffs his probing every time with disdain.
This seems to be Peacemaker’s final straw. Defeated, he opens up a portal that has been in his dad’s house since he was a kid. Usually he doesn’t do much here, but one drunken night he stumbles into another dimension finding his dad alive, well, and nice, as well as his older brother who is a fully alive adult now. This stops Peacemaker in his tracks, but the fact that he also has a romantic relationship with Harcourt in here, too is like the cherry on top. Matters are made worse in his own universe when Rick Flag Sr. makes it his personal mission to get payback for Peacemaker killing his son on Waller’s orders. He also knows that this portal could really change things, though we don’t see to what extent until the very end.
Though Peacemaker tries to blend into his new surroundings, he can’t keep up the charade for too long. And Argus is hot on his trail, too. That means that Harcourt, Adebayo, Economos, Vigilante, and even Eagly all get roped into helping Peacemaker escape the domino effect of trouble he brings on himself. The emotion this season seems a little forced, but the rest of the show is so funny that I can overlook it. Tim Meadows also happens to be an excellent addition, and his “bird blindness” when encountering a particularly vicious Eagly had me cackling. There are plenty of other of James Gunn’s pals popping up throughout the second season, so that always makes for some fun.
I don’t want to spoil much more, because a reveal way late in the series also had my jaw drop with laughter at the outrageousness of it. And how could I forget to mention that Foxy Shazam’s song “Oh, Lord” was chosen as the dance theme song this time around?! I hope this propels these guys to the level of fame they deserve! I will say though that I was really surprised to learn that this was the final season intended for the show. It weaves a little bit more into the DC universe, so I’m sure these characters will pop up again in future series or films, but I’m not quite sure when or where. There’s not much public about James Gunn’s DC universe roadmap, so I just take in new projects as they crop up. Overall though, this was a solid second season and one people would be foolish not to check out.