Chris Sheridan
The following recap contains spoilers for Peacemaker S2E2 “A Man Is Only as Good as His Bird” (written by James Gunn and directed by Greg Mottola).
Last week, Peacemaker (John Cena) discovered an alternate timeline in which his father was still alive and his brother Keith had also survived past childhood. Not only that, but he and Harcourt had been in love. After finding out the latter, Peacemaker was confronted by his counterpart from that timeline and accidentally killed him. We also learned that Economos has been stationed outside Peacemaker’s home to conduct around-the-clock surveillance on him.
At the outset of this second episode, “A Man Is Only as Good as His Bird,” we learn why. Economos (Steve Agee) is showing Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo) around ARGUS. It’s a little awkward, as Economos’s odd personality and light sucking up to Flag is completely stonewalled by his new boss. Flag’s first request is to view the files on his son’s death. If you’ve seen James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, you’ll recall that Peacemaker killed Rick Flag Jr. (Joel Kinnaman) in Corto Maltese. Economos is reticent to provide the files, given what it will do to Peacemaker, but Flag isn’t taking no for an answer. After reading up on all of it, Flag demands the surveillance.
Peacemaker recovers from the shock of killing his mirror image and quickly gets to work trying to dispose of the body. This is easier said than done, with a very amusing sequence of Peacemaker trying to stuff Peacemaker 2’s corpse into a side-loading crate, and it repeatedly falling back out. He calls someone on the phone, asking them if they “still have those bone saws,” and breaks down crying in the shower as he frantically tries to scrub the blood off.
Since Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) has become estranged from her wife Keeya (Elizabeth Faith Ludlow), things have been strained. Adebayo stops by the apartment to pick something up, and Keeya confronts her. Keeya’s upset that Adebayo basically upended all of their plans to go to Gotham in favor of starting her own business. With the argument going nowhere, Adebayo takes her leave, but not without offering a hopeful “Love you,” to which she receives silence.
Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) is shopping in the drugstore, wearing sunglasses to conceal the facial injuries she sustained in the barfight last week. When she briefly removes them to look at herself in a mirror, a woman approaches her under the impression that Harcourt is in an abusive relationship. When Harcourt assures her that this is not the case, the woman continues pressing her and talking about being trapped in abusive situations until Harcourt finally snaps, yelling at the woman that she has her own unique problems, causing the entire drugstore to fall silent. About to leave, she sees a sign indicating that the store is hiring. With a heavy sigh, she pushes the door open and leaves.
Stationed in the surveillance truck, Economos panics when the door latch starts to turn: it’s a new character, who introduces himself as Fleury (Tim Meadows), sent by Bordeaux for support. It takes less than a minute for Economos (and for us) to realize that this guy is a world-class douchebag (albeit a very funny one thanks to Meadows). In a very short time, he basically speed-runs a list of things to get on anyone’s nerves, with the winner for Economos being the new nickname “Ginger Cool.” Everything from Fleury’s smarminess to his lack of respect for personal space and other people in general infuriates Economos. That being said, Tim Meadows gets the lion’s share of funny dialogue in the episode and if this continues he’s going to be a standout character going forward. And knowing Gunn, there’s definitely something we don’t know yet about Fleury that will recontextualize his character later.
In the house, Peacemaker prepares himself some coffee and goes to the door to get the paper. In the living room, everyone’s recovering from the orgy from the previous night. Adebayo comes to visit him, and they sit outside for a few minutes. Peacemaker explains to her the Quantum Unfolding Storage Area, and she reveals to him that he’s being monitored. She also advises that he not use the portal, because ARGUS always knows when he does. She suggests that he hand it over to ARGUS, otherwise they’ll use his possession of it to throw him back in prison. They’re interrupted by Vigilante/Adrian Chase (Freddie Stroma) cheerfully strolling up to the house with a duffel bag and a caddy of cleaning material.
Seeing Eagly coming out of the house, Fleury refers to him as a parrot. An incredulous Economos questions Fleury, who confesses that he suffers from something called “bird blindness.” He can’t tell the difference between birds, not even sizes. To him, a hummingbird is indistinguishable from a bald eagle. It’s a remarkably stupid gag, but Meadows sells it, making it one of the funniest scenes in the episode. And given how much bullsh*t Fleury has talked so far, it could have easily been him messing with Economos, but as it turns out, it’s one of the funniest Chekhov’s Gun examples in recent memory.
After expressing disappointment at not being invited to the orgy, and a disinterest in sex beyond “bonding with his best friend” (demisexual Vigilante confirmed?), Vigilante joins Peacemaker in the QUSA to dispose of Peacemaker 2’s corpse. This sequence is really fun, as Peacemaker’s disgust and horror of dismembering…himself (he looks upon his counterpart’s severed, and eventually incinerated head with some confused sort of existential dread) contrasts with Vigilante reveling in the carnage, as well as his delight in spending some quality time with Peacemaker. I love how Vigilante’s nerdy, awkward outward persona is counterbalanced by his extreme psychotic nature.
Fleury and Economos see the alert that Peacemaker has accessed the QUSA, and Fleury immediately receives a phone call to confirm that Economos will be at “that thing tonight.” That thing ends up being a hangout with Peacemaker, Vigilante and Harcourt in order to draw everyone away from Peacemaker’s home so ARGUS can scrub the place for whatever they can find. I’m still kind of surprised that Economos is so beholden to ARGUS, given that they’re having them conduct surveillance on his friend. Is he doing this to infiltrate ARGUS? He clearly hesitated in giving Flag the Corto Maltese file, and also has a lot of fun with his friends later, so something’s not adding up.
During the cleanup, Peacemaker 2’s phone fell out of his pocket, and Peacemaker discreetly recovered it. Later, he opens it up to scroll through through images of Harcourt 2, and glances towards the QUSA door before heading to the hangout. With Peacemaker out of the house, Fleury and his team (to which he has assigned demeaning nicknames) infiltrate Peacemaker’s house and discover the aura given off by the QUSA, but before they actually manage to breach it, they encounter one thing they were not counting on: Eagly. Peacemaker’s trusty pet puts the hurt on the team, slashing at them with his claws, pummeling them with his wings, and even plucking out an eyeball (he also destroys the device that detected the QUSA). I was genuinely concerned that Eagly would die in the fray, but I shouldn’t have been worried. Eagly suffers nary a scratch, at the expense of permanently traumatizing five ARGUS agents. On top of it all, Fleury’s bird blindness prevents him from taking a shot at Eagly while he ravages one of the agents, afraid of wounding his man because he can’t tell how big Eagly is.
All the while, Peacemaker and his friends party it up outside Harcourt’s apartment, drinking, dancing, and reminiscing. After a while, we get a couple of one-on-ones. The first is Economos and Adebayo, with the latter picking up on the job stress Economos is going through, and Economos still not coming clean about what exactly he’s doing. But Adebayo briefly seems to cut through his misery, insisting that he quit. He rebuffs it, but hopefully he can be convinced.
Peacemaker gets some time alone with Harcourt, and while things start off amicable and even a little flirty, Peacemaker’s concern for his crush doesn’t come across like he hoped it would: she accuses him of wanting her to be a “damaged, broken bird” that could be as f*cked up as he is, always looking for a fight. She cuts the conversation short to join the others, and Peacemaker begins to pound back the beers.
He arrives home, barely able to stand up straight, and completely oblivious to the damage sustained to the house during the Eagly/ARGUS brawl. He drunkenly picks up Peacemaker 2’s phone, and sends a “Hey” text to Harcourt 2. The text is undeliverable, so Peacemaker decides “f*ck it,” and steps into the QUSA and through the doorway into the other timeline. Once there, he overhears Keith and Auggie worried about Peacemaker 2’s disappearance. Through his stupor, he also hears something about “Karen” and “those pills again.” He pulls out the phone, and sees that his text was delivered. Harcourt 2 reciprocates with a “Hey” text and a broken heart emoji before the episode comes to an end.
I almost forgot how good of a show Peacemaker really is before last week. I know I loved Gunn’s Superman as well as Creature Commandos, but something about Peacemaker just hits different. Episode 2 is just as good, if not better than than season premiere. I think the introduction of Fleury pushes this one ahead a bit. Tim Meadows is a gifted comedic performer, and Fleury benefits magnificently from his portrayal. I’m also curious to see how Fleury will pan out in the coming episodes—he’s not exactly hateable, even though he’s definitely a jerk, and the extent to which Economos will work behind his friends’ backs remains to be seen. And that’s not even getting into whatever’s going to happen in the second timeline! Peacemaker spends some time there according to the Episode 3 teaser, but that goodness can’t last long. We’ll see you next week for whatever happens next!
Songs
“Evil Thoughts” – Foxy Shazam
“Reapercussion” – The Cruel Intentions
“Dirty Money” — Ida Maria
“We Don’t Need a Cure” — Hardcore Superstar
