Peacemaker Recap: My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done

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The main idea of the second-to-last episode of Peacemaker’s current season is that how you see things depends on your viewpoint… until it doesn’t. After last week’s big reveal that Alt-Evergreen is a reality where the Nazis won World War II – a surprise that initially made this season of Peacemaker seem like a simple story of good versus evil – James Gunn seems determined to challenge viewers’ quick judgments and easy beliefs.

Let’s begin with Judomaster. Ever since he appeared in Peacemaker‘s initial season, this witty, Cheeto-loving martial arts expert has been a major annoyance for the 11th Street Kids. After a humiliating defeat, Judomaster was so determined to get revenge that he joined Rick Flag Sr.’s team created to oppose Peacemaker, and then followed Chris through the portal to Alt-Evergreen.

However, when Judomaster witnessed a group of suburban Nazis pursuing Adebayo, he acted immediately. After stunning them with electricity, he explained to Adebayo why he saved one of his biggest enemies: he simply didn’t approve of her being attacked in what he saw as an unfair confrontation. Then, after taking Adebayo to an empty house nearby, Judomaster set up a Scrabble board-or Scrobble, as it’s known in this grim world-and made a compelling argument that Chris Smith should be considered a villain. He described Smith as a “nationalistic and unpleasant person with the musical preferences of the kid next door from Toy Story.”

Viewers have gotten to know Chris well enough to generally like him, but is there any truth to the idea that he hasn’t really changed? Even though he showed real heroism during the first season of Peacemaker, the current season consistently reveals his core selfishness. The episode “A Keith in the Night” gets some (very funny) humor out of the fact that Chris completely missed obvious clues about Alt-Evergreen – like copies of Mein Kampf on every desk and a huge mural of Hitler on the A.R.G.U.S. walls. However, Adebayo’s explanation – that Chris, despite good intentions, is just too naive to understand the complexities of this world – isn’t exactly a strong recommendation for the hero she hopes he can become.

This season has been particularly difficult for Chris. Although I sometimes miss the comedic side John Cena brought to the character in the first season, it’s worth it considering the powerfully sad performance he gives in this episode. After getting away with Harcourt, Chris comes face-to-face with his father and brother, and is forced to explain the pain he caused them when he killed his double earlier in the season. “I just wanted to experience what having a family felt like,” he says through tears, and later explains that his own flaws seem to be the one constant linking the two different versions of reality.

That leads us to Alt-Auggie Smith, and his beliefs have been one of the most interesting mysteries of season two. We first met this character in season one of Peacemaker as a committed white supremacist. However, like our Chris, Alt-Auggie appears to be deeply troubled by a bizarre meeting with another version of himself. “There was something off about him. Something really mean,” Alt-Auggie explains. “It felt like he was from a much darker world than this one.”

It would be simple for Peacemaker to turn this into a quick joke about how perspectives differ, pointing out that the Nazis have gone to great lengths to rationalize the terrible world they’ve built. However, Auggie genuinely was the damaged, unkind person described by the alternate version of him – Alt-Auggie – who appears to have created a good, fulfilling life on this side of the portal.

Man, this scene really gets to me. You see all this heroism from Alt-Auggie, but it’s shadowed by the fact that his son, Chris, has been struggling with some really tough stuff – violence and drug abuse. And now, with the police closing in on Chris, Alt-Auggie gets a chance to *finally* be the dad his son needs, and he’s determined not to mess it up this time. It’s interesting because he initially completely shuts down when the cops start looking for Chris, but then he really gets heated when Harcourt calls him a Nazi. He vehemently denies supporting the current regime. He basically fires back, saying, “I applaud you if your world is perfect and you fight every injustice you ever see,” and then he points to all the work he’s done fighting the truly awful people – the madmen, murderers, and monsters – in *his* reality. It’s a powerful moment, showing how complex he is. It really makes you think.

It’s a compelling line of dialogue, but ultimately a weak justification for his actions. Auggie doesn’t see himself as a villain, but he’s perfectly okay with living in a place where simply seeing a Black person sets off a panicked search, and he’ll even put himself in danger to protect a system that’s fundamentally flawed. Robert Patrick gives a really moving performance – honestly, it’s some of his best work in the series – but his Deep Blue Sea-style monologue, which ends with Vigilante killing him, feels like the only logical conclusion for someone so determined to maintain a broken and unjust world, even if he doesn’t realize it. I think by cutting his speech short, James Gunn is making a point – whether he intended to or not – about how much weight we should give to the opinions and remorse of a character like Auggie.

As Auggie lay dying, he talked about wanting to face his maker knowing he’d left the world a little better. But Peacemaker isn’t letting him off that easily. We’ve seen how good he is to his kids and those around him, but we also can’t ignore the Nazi ideology he’s embraced. It feels inevitable, then, that at the end of this episode, the fallout from his choices has landed squarely on his sons. Alt-Auggie’s true legacy isn’t just the horrible world he defended, it’s the fact that he couldn’t save his own boys.

Stray Bullets:

Wow, things got intense at the end of this episode! The 11th Street Kids are really stuck – with A.R.G.U.S.agents closing in after Chris gave himself up, and Keith (I’m guessing he’s still super mad) probably coming for them too. It felt like there was so much to resolve, but thankfully James Gunn said the finale next week is going to be almost a full hour long, which is a huge relief. I can’t wait to see how it all wraps up!

I noticed at least two scenes that clearly reference the famous “Come with me if you want to live” line from the Terminator films-a fitting tribute considering Terminator 2: Judgment Day actor Robert Patrick appears in the movie.

• It’s great to have actor Lochlyn Munro back! His character, Detective Larry Fitzgibbon, went through a surprising transformation in the first season of Peacemaker.

• Sydney Happersen is a character from D.C. comics who first appeared in a 1987 issue of Superman. You can find more information about him here.

• Adebayo’s favorite Chris-approved bands: Hanoi Rocks, Cruel Intentions, and Hardcore Superstar.

• Judomaster won with the Scrobble word SQUIRMED (which, just so you know, would score 60 points if played on a Triple Word score).

Honestly, it really struck me when the show said, “Sad part is, I’m not so sure this Nazi world is as different from our own world as we wish it was.” It made me think, and if Peacemaker is brave enough to tackle such tough topics, I really believe Apple should have the courage to release The Savant.

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2025-10-03 16:56