Warning: This review contains spoilers for episode 6 of Peacemaker.
The sixth episode of Peacemaker, “Murn After Reading,” now streaming on HBO Max, is the first episode since the third one to be directed by the series’ creator and sole writer, James Gunn. Last week’s cliffhanger set up a Murn storyline and having his name in the title of this one seemed to suggest that he would take center stage. This would’ve given a much-needed share of the spotlight to Chukwudi Iwuji, who Gunn has cast in an undisclosed role in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. “Murn After Reading” could’ve been Iwuji’s chance to shine after the shocking twist reveal about his character, but unfortunately, he’s barely in the episode. Murn explains how he’s simultaneously a Butterfly and a good guy in the opening monologue, then takes a backseat for the rest of the episode.
After the thrilling action sequences in last week’s episode brought a horde of zombies smashing through a fence and a chainsaw slicing through the chest of a superpowered gorilla, the action in “Murn After Reading” is a little lacking. There’s no tension in the police raid scene, because it seems unlikely that Peacemaker and Vigilante could climb onto the roof and into the trees without being spotted by one of the dozens of cops scattered around the trailer park (especially after one of them already saw Eagly hanging around up there). They pretty much just escape the raid out of convenience for the plot.
Still, this sequence picks up when Detective Song catches them and a Butterfly gets in her head, leading to a chase through the woods. Fans finally get to see Eagly in action. He was previously characterized as a cute pet, but now, he’s a badass sidekick even more ruthless than Peacemaker himself. In the episode’s most deliriously entertaining moments, Eagly swoops down and brutally takes out armed police officers with his beak.
The Gags Don’t All Land
As with all the previous episodes, there are a lot of fun gags in “Murn After Reading,” like Peacemaker giving a speech to a class full of schoolchildren as a favor to the hospital janitor from the pilot episode or Vigilante failing to grasp the concept of only asking Goff yes/no questions. But the humor doesn’t always land, and it’s not always entirely original. The phone-smashing bit, for example, is borrowed from Pineapple Express.
This episode (and the show as a whole) rely too heavily on pseudo-wokeness. Characters like Peacemaker and his father will say wildly inappropriate things, then a more progressive character like Adebayo or Detective Song will explain why what they said is inappropriate. The “words you can’t say anymore” area is played-out – both in comedy in general and in Peacemaker itself – and it’s a cheap substitute for the kind of bigotry-driven humor that audiences will no longer tolerate. Sitcoms didn’t stop making fun of marginalized groups; they just lazily added characters to point out that it’s wrong.
Breaking Up The Team
Last week’s episode was all about the team bonding. Peacemaker finally started making friends other than Adebayo as Economos earned his respect with a gorilla-slaying and he won over Harcourt with some rarely-seen sincerity. But after that episode unified the team, they barely spend any screen time together this week. Peacemaker spends most of his scenes with Vigilante, while the Murn twist reveal means that all their teammates’ scenes are filled with exposition about the origins of the Butterflies.
After The Suicide Squad wrung laughs out of Peacemaker’s shameless, cold-blooded murderousness, the spin-off series is giving him a conscience. In “Murn After Reading,” he’s finally starting to feel remorse about killing. This is an interesting development for the character, but time will tell if John Cena has the dramatic abilities to really flesh out this arc. The wrestler-turned-actor is currently doing a great job of switching between nuanced introspection and Peacemaker’s more traditional foul-mouthed abrasiveness, but there’s still two more episodes’ worth of depth to go.
There’s a beautifully somber calm-before-the-storm moment before the big cliffhanger ending in “Murn After Reading,” as Peacemaker sits at the piano, playing the opening of Mötley Crüe’s “Home Sweet Home.” Unlike the show’s many on-the-nose dialogue scenes, this musical moment conveys a lot about the character without saying anything at all. When he’s done playing, Vigilante invites him up to watch the reveal of his doctored diary on the news.
Raising The Stakes For Next Week
The ending of “Murn After Reading” has significantly raised the stakes for the final episodes. Butterflies have taken over the police station and forced the captain to hold a televised press conference encouraging people to “find and stop the Peacemaker by any means necessary.” Plus, Auggie has finally donned the White Dragon armor in anticipation of going out to kill his son – it’ll be great to see this character used for something other than casual racism. Going into next week’s penultimate episode, the alien invaders have all the town’s cops and convicted crooks at their disposal and Peacemaker has a price on his head.
So far, Peacemaker has enjoyed more narrative progression than any of Marvel’s Disney+ shows. Its ongoing story has a much larger scale and there’s no filler padding out the episode count. The show isn’t perfect, but it can’t be accused of wasting screen time (or not making the most of its wonderfully bonkers source material).