Chris Sheridan
The following recap contains spoilers for Peacemaker S2E3 “Another Rick Up My Sleeve” (written by James Gunn and directed by Greg Mottola).
Things didn’t end well for Peacemaker (John Cena) last week: his attempts to get back in good graces with Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) fell flat, and Peacemaker ended up returning home and drunkenly going to the other dimension, finally passing out on his bed. At the beginning of this week’s episode, “Another Rick Up My Sleeve,” we open on a “Three years earlier” card.
Fans were speculating, and they ended up being right: Rick Flag Jr. (Joel Kinnaman) is in this episode! Well, at least in this opening scene. He and Harcourt have just woken up in bed. This is a tryst, as Harcourt mentions that Rick is “about to ship out” and “should really be with June.” This is referring to June Moon/Enchantress. While it is true that Rick and Enchantress are lovers in 2016’s Suicide Squad, I strongly disagree with some fans that this canonizes the movie since their relationship is also present in the comics. Rick suggests that he terminate that relationship and get together with Harcourt officially, but the latter rejects him as says they’re just best friends. As season theme song “Oh Lord” quietly kicks in we get a lightning-fast montage of the events of The Suicide Squad leading to Rick’s death before the opening credits.
Peacemaker wakes up in bed with Keith (David Denman) prodding him awake and aggressively asking him where he’s been. He asks Peacemaker if he’s hungover and asks him if he’s hungry, saying he thought his younger brother would “slow down with all that. At least it’s just alcohol…it is just alcohol, right?” As Peacemaker urinates, he checks his phone and realizes that he had texted Harcourt 2 in the night and she agreed to see him to talk…at work, at noon, and he shouldn’t be late. It’s 11:35am, and Peacemaker frantically tries to finish peeing as quickly as possible.
Finally finishing, Peacemaker goes into the closet to find some of the ridiculously gaudy outfits he’s ever seen (“What the fuck?”). Finally settling on one (including tight leather pants found in a drawer on top of a very large collection of pill bottles), he goes out to the kitchen and jokes, “Why do all of my clothes look like the Kardashian’s furniture?” Keith confusedly asks, “Who are the Kardashians?” Apparently they don’t exist in this dimension? Peacemaker asks to borrow his brother’s truck, but Keith counters that Peacemaker has his “Peace-cycle.” Said Peace-cycle is very extra, but still kind of a cool bike. Donning a Peace helmet, Peacemaker sets out.
On the road, Peacemaker finds that he is extremely popular, with everyone on the sidewalks waving and cheering. What might be my favorite joke comes when Peacemaker pulls up to a light and a young boy in the backseat of a vehicle calls out to Peacemaker, suddenly breaking down into sobbing tears because of how much he loves him. On the other side, a woman flashes her breasts. “Best. Dimension. Ever,” Peacemaker says.
Back in our primary dimension, Harcourt grinds coffee while hungover Adrian/Vigilante (Freddie Stroma) and Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) groggily wake up. Getting some water, Adebayo presses Harcourt for information on if anything happened, or has been happening, between her and Peacemaker, noting that they’d been hanging out for a while before they no longer were. Harcourt brushes her off, but Adebayo insists that Peacemaker is completely in love with Harcourt. Harcourt firmly says that she and Peacemaker are not, and never will be, a thing. Adebayo asks her if he knows that, and the scene cuts before Harcourt responds.
At ARGUS, Peacemaker checks in and heads upstairs. He sees Harcourt 2 from across the office, but before he can do anything, “that jarhead” Rick Flag Jr. 2 approaches him and immediately starts to square up, demanding to know what he’s doing there. It takes Peacemaker a minute to recover from having the man he killed in Corto Maltese staring him in the face, but the tension is partially dissolved when Harcourt 2 comes over. Rick 2 is still refusing to back down, clearly jealous (which is made ever more clear when, after he walks away, he hilariously keeps poking his head out from various hiding places around the office to look at them). Harcourt 2 suggests they go outside.
In the main dimension at Harcourt’s house, Vigilante has Economos (Steve Agee) quiz him on animal facts again, confidently getting them wrong. I hope this joke doesn’t become a regular thing, because it’s not nearly as funny as James Gunn seems to think it is. Economos gets a call from Sasha Bordeaux (Sol Rodriguez) at ARGUS, grilling him on the “duck” that massacred Fleury (Tim Meadows)’s team in Episode 2 and telling him that he needs to come in.
Peacemaker and Harcourt 2 enjoy their time outside, having hotdogs, walking through the park, greeting puppies, and all the while Peacemaker is in a state of bliss and disbelief. Sitting on a park bench later, Harcourt 2, believing she’s talking to Peacemaker 2, listens to Peacemaker awkwardly talk about how much he’s changed, becoming “less arrogant” after Harcourt 2 calls him out, and how he is working through trauma. Harcourt 2 notes that he does seem different. When Peacemaker says he wants to see if anything is still there, Harcourt talks about how much he hurt her, and lists a couple of extremely petty things Peacemaker 2 did. Man, this guy was really a world-class d*ck. She says they’d have to both commit. Peacemaker agrees.
The conversation is cut short by a group of militia members running by, with one of them tripping and exploding, sending Peacemaker and Harcourt 2 flying. The group, calling themselves the Sons of Liberty, have taken the DMV hostage and are threatening to continue destroying one governmental agency a week if their demands are not met. The Sons start setting up an explosive called “cefanalolol” (“Is that a real word?” Peacemaker asks) to rig the building to explode.
Peacemaker rushes to the pet store adjacent to the DMV, gets to the roof, and leaps to the DMV, crashing through the window. He makes quick work of the Sons, luring them one by one and taking them out via increasingly violent and satisfying methods. Outside, Harcourt 2 is trying not to panic, welling up as she watches the block panic and run and the building evacuating with Peacemaker still not coming out. As a helicopter shows up to pick up the Sons, Peacemaker finishes dispatching the last of them and manages to very carefully disarm the bomb. As the helicopter leaves, a figure flies in and crashes through it, blowing it up. It’s Keith, in a mechanical Iron Man-esque suit. As Peacemaker finally comes out, a tearful Harcourt 2 throws herself into Peacemaker’s arms. Relishing her embrace and the acclaim of the onlookers, Peacemaker reiterates: “Best dimension ever.”
In our dimension, Economos meets up with Bordeaux and Fleury. Bordeaux mentions the “dimensional discrepancy” found in Peacemaker’s house and references the climax of Superman in which a rift opened up in the city. She states that “every agent in the Northwest” is heading to Peacemaker’s home. They also have Red St. Wild (Michael Rooker), the “world’s foremost eagle hunter.” Rounding out the team is Rip Jagger/Judomaster (Nhut Le). Come on, this a**hole again?
Back home, Peacemaker checks his phone to see a text from Harcourt 2 telling him how good it was to see him, and that she wants him to let her know when he’s thought about their conversation about possibly reigniting things. Keith comes in with a couple of glasses of whiskey, asking him if he’s okay—he’s been disappearing more often than usual, and dad’s worried. He asks if Peacemaker is “taking the pills again.” Things get a little emotional as Keith reminds Peacemaker that he’s his brother, he loves him no matter what, and he can always tell him if something’s going on. His voice starting to break, Peacemaker tells Keith how much he missed him (remember, in our dimension Peacemaker accidentally killed Keith when they were kids in a fight orchestrated by Auggie and his buddies for their amusement). Keith says he’s not going anywhere, and again that he loves him.
As Peacemaker heads back to his dimension, a large ARGUS battalion heads to his house, accompanied by an extremely nervous and conflicted Economos before a cut to black.
Gaah, we have to wait a whole week for the next episode! “Another Rick Up My Sleeve” is easily my favorite episode of the season so far. It absolutely flew by, and by the end I couldn’t believe it was already over. I guess it gives us time to let the episode marinate, because there’s a lot to think about. A huge number of watchers on the show’s subreddit are predicting that this is some kind of Nazi dimension given the suspicious supermajority of white people. I’m not buying into that one quite yet, but there’s definitely going to be something very wrong with this dimension, and it would track that the predictions are true because Auggie is probably still the supremacist he was in our world. Also, Peacemaker has to have his cover blown sooner rather than later, with big repercussions when it does. Finally, Red is going to either kill Eagly or be killed very violently trying to do so. Let’s hope it’s the latter.
This is going to be a long week.
Songs
“Break It Out” — Ammotrack
“Dreamer” — Ozzy Osbourne
“Animal” — Shining
