“Peacemaker” - Episode 5 Review

Story posted February 3, 2022 in CommRadio, Arts & Entertainment by Ethan Hetrick

Warning: This show deals with topics meant for mature audience.

If there was a pre-fight for “Godzilla vs. Kong” it would be this episode of “Peacemaker”.

That may be confusing, so to clear it up, John Cena’s Peacemaker fights a gorilla in this episode.

The James Gunn show outline for this episode is happier after the depressing previous episode. It shows classic happiness like team bonding, friendship, and plenty of action including fighting a warehouse full of mind controlling, butterfly aliens!

The show starts with a hungover Peacemaker that’s wallowing in self-pity, but from this self-pity the audience gets some screen time of Eaglee trying to soothe his pain that shows Peacemaker is loved.

Danielle Brook’s Adebayo, on the other, hand has a confrontation with her wife and tries to soothe her by saying she’s not avoiding her when in reality she is and runs away from the confrontation. On her drive to the base, it is seen that her mom still requests that she plants Peacemaker’s journal in a place that can’t be found in his house.

At the team meeting Chukwudi Iwuji’s Murn or the team leader goes over to the team what a butterfly alien is. Butterflies are aliens that have taken over people or animals like monkeys, according to Steve Agee’s Economos.

Further in the presentation, it is shown that they infect people by crawling into one of their orifices and burrowing into someone’s head which makes them take over the person.

The big reveal for their upcoming mission is that they all eat this yellow goo only and the whole team besides Murn are going to infiltrate a suspected butterfly base and take out all Butterflies and production.

Murn stays back to try to keep Peacemaker’s dad Augie, played by Robert Patrick, in jail.

During the presentation, Peacemaker, with support of Freddie Stroma’s Vigilante harassed Economos and his presentation. They bully him because Peacemaker is furious with Economos about getting his dad arrested and even gave an excruciatingly long list of celebrities and fictional characters that could’ve been used instead.

Afterwards, Adebayo has a talk with Peacemaker telling him to stop pushing people away. But Vigilante, in defense of Peacemaker, tells Adebayo that’s just how Peacemaker is; a person who razzes.

On the way to the mission Economos and Peacemaker bond over Finnish Rock band Hanoi Rocks to Jennifer Holland’s Harcourt’s dismay.

When the team arrives, Harcourt and Vigilante go to the manufacturing room to see if they are producing the yellow goo while Adebayo and Peacemaker, with a brand-new X-ray vision helmet, go to interrogate and kill anyone who’s a butterfly.

The X-ray vision goggles allow him to see into the heads of people and see if a butterfly is in there.

As soon as Peacemaker and Adebayo go in, Peacemaker starts killing people even after promising to be chill. Peacemaker thought it meant to be chill in battle.

Meanwhile, Harcourt and Vigilante find out that this place may be the main supplier of food for butterflies, but they are spotted and attacked by the butterfly workers, until they locate and hide in a backroom. But they’re not alone there.

Peacemaker and Adebayo find out that the other two are in danger and go to save them. While clearing out butterflies one says that Harcourt and Vigilante are with the butterfly’s guardian, Charlie.

Eventually, the butterflies start overwhelming them and Peacemaker sets off a bomb wiping out the butterflies and leaving them unconscious.

Economos, not hearing a response from the team, he gets worried and goes to check out the situation. Peacemaker and Adebayo wake up to go save Harcourt and Vigilante from Charlie.

When they arrive, they’re ambushed by Charlie. Charlie is an escaped gorilla now controlled by a butterfly!

A brawl between the gorilla and the four breaks out. Right when people thought Charlie was going to defeat the team, Economos appears by chain to swing the gorilla right through the back in a very graphic scene.

This leads to Peacemaker and the team respecting Economos and on the way back it is seeming the team is bonding and becoming friends. Even the stone-cold Harcourt looks like she’s enjoying their presence by photographing them having fun and jamming out to Hanoi Rocks.

Harcourt even makes a group chat called the 11th Street Kids named after the bands hit song with the same name. While all of this happens, Murn managed to keep Augie in jail by calling in favors, but the two investigators know Augie is innocent and are getting a warrant to go scope out Peacemaker’s home.

Adebayo, who is driving Peacemaker home, is then invited in. The two have a bonding moment, but when he goes to use the restroom Adebayo betrays Peacemaker and plants his diary where it can’t be seen by him.

Leaving the Peacemaker’s, Adebayo is upset and apologizes to her wife and admits that work is getting to her. She drives to the team’s hideout and sees Murn there. While there, she tries on the Peacemaker's X-ray Helmet and looks at Murn.

She finds out that he’s a butterfly and he attacks her. Then the episode ends.

There are a lot of big deal cliffhangers because the detectives can match Peacemaker’s fingerprints to the crime that arrested his father for or find his diary. There is also the fact that Adebayo may be killed by Murn.

Additionally, there's a lot of character development in this episode like the team finally bonding, Peacemaker not being a total jerk and Harcourt finally enjoying the company of others.

Also, Adebayo has a character arc of being innocent and slowly breaking away as she does more of her mother’s tasks becoming more like her heartless mother.

It also had great CGI work, especially with Charlie the Gorilla.

Overall, it was a fun light hearted episode that provided great cliffhangers for the next episode.

 

Ethan Hetrick is a first-year communications major. To contact him email eth5186@psu.edu.