Chris Sheridan
The following recap contains spoilers for Peacemaker S2E6, “Ignorance Is Chris” (written and directed by James Gunn).
Peacemaker S2E6, “Ignorance Is Chris,” opens with Peacemaker (John Cena), Harcourt 2 (Jennifer Holland), Auggie (Robert Patrick) and Keith (David Denman) sitting around a table at a restaurant as Auggie toasts Peacemaker, citing “hard times” and saying that Peacemaker came out “a better man,” with Harcourt 2 at his side. Some kids at a neighboring table come over to beg Auggie, Keith and Peacemaker for a picture, to which they oblige. As Harcourt 2 takes the picture and the opening credits kick in with Foxy Shazam’s irresistible “Oh Lord,” the faces of everyone in the picture begin to horrifyingly distort, foreshadowing that something is extremely wrong with this dimension.
Harcourt, Adebayo (Danielle Brooks), Economos (Steve Agee), and Adrian/Vigilante (Freddie Stroma) are sitting in a car outside Vigilante’s house, determining that this is probably the best place to activate the Quantum Unfolding Device to go get Peacemaker. Vigilante warns them that his mom can “be a total bee-yatch.” Adebayo asks Harcourt if she’s sure she wants to do this. To get her job back, as she’s been wanting to do for months, all she has to do is turn over the device. But Harcourt is determined to retrieve Peacemaker.
It’s not necessarily a fresh joke—Vigilante’s mom is not, in fact, a “bee-yatch,” just a loving if a bit overbearing mother figure—but Stroma sells his exasperation with her. As Vigilante angrily tries to rebuff his mother’s delightful attempts to meet his friends, they head down to the basement. There’s also a funny bit here revealing that Vigilante was apparently telling Mom that Harcourt was his slutty girlfriend to throw her off of the fact that he’s a superhero. Harcourt is, understandably, less than pleased at this.
The basement room is a CSI’s wet dream, filled with pallets of cash and drugs. Vigilante explains that if he busts up a drug ring, he just brings it all down here. If he turns it over to the cops, he reasons, they might be corrupt and take the “blood money” for themselves. Adebayo, Economos, and Harcourt take the moment while Vigilante is ducked behind a pallet and changing to start stuffing their clothes with packs of bills.
As Vigilante excitedly floats the prospect of meeting another version of himself in the alternate dimension, the other three determine that a closet door (leading to Vigilante’s Beanie Baby collection) is an ideal pathway to the Quantum Unfolding Chamber. After Adebayo successfully opens the doorway (spraying all four of them with money and cocaine in the process), the group heads further in and finds the case of Peacemaker helmets, as well as the doorway to the alternate dimension in which they will hopefully find their friend. They step into the alternate Smith house, and Harcourt finds herself creeped out by the entire idea of this dimension, especially the picture of Harcourt 2 and Peacemaker 2 in a loving embrace. Keith suddenly shows up, and while the other three hide, Harcourt has to clumsily cover. Luckily, Keith mentions that Peacemaker was headed to ARGUS and he thought she would be with him. Bingo. Unfortunately, Keith also offers her a ride, and without an excuse, Harcourt has to go with him, leaving the others behind. Vigilante also heads out, unable to wait to meet his other self.
Peacemaker wakes up in bed with Harcourt 2, and as she showers and he gets ready to head to ARGUS, Keith drives Our Harcourt to ARGUS and we get a couple of little sprinkles of alternate dimension flavor to this dimension, such as Mick Jagger being the lead singer of the Beatles. Arriving at ARGUS, the drug-sniffing dogs detect the cocaine on Harcourt’s jacket, and she is brought to a holding room. Peacemaker enters the room and confronts Harcourt about taking him out in the park. Harcourt counters that he only did that because he was about to get killed. Peacemaker presses Harcourt once again about their one night stand on the boat, and admits that he’s in love with her. She responds that she knows, but leaves it at that. Both actors deliver excellent performances here. Holland in particular has a fantastic monologue about how she’s a “f*cking nightmare,” how she gets into bar fights just so she can feel something, and he pushes back that he still loves her in spite of that. She asks him if he’s coming back or not, and he states that he can’t: his dad and brother are alive here. A tearful Harcourt is interrupted by a guard opening the door and stating that she’s free to go, and she does.
Meanwhile, Vigilante in full costume strolls down the street towards his alternate dimension house. He’s unreasonably delighted at some of the permutations of his front lawn and house interior, giggling like the lunatic that he is at the tiniest things, like a slightly different sculpture (“There’s supposed to be three, there’s six! What do six cats have to talk about?”). He walks past his parents sitting in the living room: “My dad’s not gay here!” He heads downstairs, into his private room (which is more like a hangout space instead of a drug room), and finally encounters his alternate dimension self. Vigilante 2 is initially cautious, until Our Vigilante pulls off his mask. After a beat, Vigilante 2 is just as excited to meet his counterpart. They even do the Spider-Man Pointing Meme!
As Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo) sits at his desk, contemplating what to do next, Fleury (Tim Meadows) pokes his head in to inform him that Economos and Harcourt are MIA, and Judomaster hasn’t checked in. Flag has an idea, and tells his assistant to have the jet prepped for Louisiana as soon as possible—he’s coming to meet a prisoner at Belle Reve Prison. Said prisoner turns out to be Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), walking with a cane after Krypto f*cked him up in Superman, and carrying the same disdain for metahumans he had in that movie, and who inhabit Belle Reve. Flag offers Lex the opportunity to be transferred to a prison without metahumans, and an “opportunity for redemption,” in exchange for some sort of scanner to pinpoint the location of of Quantum Unfolding Device.
The Vigilantes are hanging out on a couch in the basement, getting along famously, with each of them delighted to find someone finally interested in exchanging random tidbits, each of which they completely agree on. Their only disagreement is their opinion on Peacemaker. Vigilante 2, apparently, hates Peacemaker, and has spent his entire life trying to tear down “everything he stands for.” Peacemaker is the reason Vigilante 2 joined the Sons of Liberty—the terrorist group Peacemaker took down in “Another Rick Up My Sleeve.”
Adebayo and Economos enter the kitchen of the Smith home to find that Eagly has absolutely torn apart the contents of the refrigerator, and realize they have to clean things up. After doing so, Adebayo invites Economos for a walk around the block, which he declines. Adebayo sets off on her own. I haven’t mentioned it so far, but there hasn’t been a single non-white person to be seen so far in this dimension, something that Harcourt mentions to Peacemaker as they walk through ARGUS. Coming across an “American” flag at a desk, Peacemaker unfurls it to find that the fifty stars on the flag have been replaced with a swastika. Are the Sons of Liberty maybe not as much of a terrorist group as we thought?
Staying at the house, Economos quickly hides as Auggie returns home. Auggie already knows that he’s there, knocking Economos down with a thrown can to the head and pinning his hand to the ground with a knife. Harcourt 2 appears, pointing at Our Harcourt and demanding her arrest. Driving past Adebayo, Keith screeches to a halt a jumps out, screaming “One got out!” Suddenly, residents come tearing out of their homes, running towards Adebayo. The episode ends with Adebayo running for her life with the entire neighborhood in hot pursuit.
This season hasn’t had enough of the gang all together, so “Ignorance is Chris” was a great time. And the final moments of the episode sent things into the stratosphere, not peeling back the layers of this dimension so much as blasting them off with a flamethrower. There are now a lot of balls in the air, and we’ve only got two episodes left. They are promising to be eventful ones.
Songs
“Little Drops of Heaven” — Pretty Maids
“Forever and One (Neverland)” — Helloween
“Presence of Mind” — Dynazty
