With the season two premiere behind us, it’s time to see what new debaucherous misadventures await John Cena’s Christopher Smith in the second episode of DC Studios’ Peacemaker. Given the explosive finale of the first episode, we’re in for a lot of explanations from our silver-helmeted would-be hero.

Episode two, “A Man Is Only as Good as His Bird,” jumps back eight months before the show’s premiere, providing context for why Chris was being surveilled by his ginger-bearded buddy, John Economos (Steve Agee). Turns out it was all the machinations of ARGUS figurehead Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo). While Flag Sr. and Economos’ work relationship is tenable at best, Flag Sr. does pull rank by having Economos spill the beans over his son’s death. Apparently, Amanda Waller ordered that the details for everything that happened in The Suicide Squad (James Gunn’s version) be covered up, as she’s wont to do.

However, Economos hands over a file about Flag to Flag Sr., and he learns the gory details about his son’s death at the hands of Chris. And with that, the inevitable clash between the two has gotten even more anticipation boiling under the surface of Peacemaker‘s second season.

We then return to Chris in the present, and he is still in a bit of a pickle, having killed himself from an alternate dimension. Ever the galaxy-brained genius, Chris’ first attempt to hide the evidence of his Kafkaesque homicide is to sweep it under the rug, literally. But it turns out not even Chris can employ the “You Can’t C Me” approach to covering up a murder. After justifiably crashing out a wee bit, taking a shower, and having a bit of a cry, he phones a friend to aid in sawing himself into pieces.

While Economos is still surveilling Chris mid-lunch break, noshing on some McDonald’s, we’re introduced to a new Peacemaker character, Fleury (Tim Meadows). After some dressing down of Economos’ gun safety faux pas (he tried to pull his firearm on Fleury while his weapon was still in its holster), Fleury informs Economos that he was sent by Sasha Bordeaux (Sol Rodriguez) to serve as backup, since it’s clear Economos can’t in good faith objectively surveil Chris, given their history as bros.

Serendipitously, Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) shows up on Chris’ doorstep, and he tells her about his pocket dimension. In the spirit of sharing, Adebayo tells him about the whole Rick Flag Sr. situation. She then advises Chris to stop using his pocket universe because ARGUS is alerted whenever he does. She also says he should surrender it to them so they can’t hang it over his head, should something go wrong, as a reason to send him back to prison.

Soon after, Adrian Chase (Freddie Stroma), aka Vigilante, shows up. It turns out he was the friend Chris phoned earlier. Apropos, Adrian shows up with cleaning supplies in hand to help Chris deal with his Weekend at Bernie’s pocket dimension whoopsies. Underscored by Foxy Shazam’s “Evil Thoughts,” Chris and Adrian get to hacking away at the cadaverous doppelganger.

With the doppelganger Peacemaker properly charcoaled in the pocket universe incinerator, Chris, understandably fucked up by the whole situation, peeks through the photo gallery of his double’s phone to see if life really was greener on the other side. The first album he clicks on is a 158-picture album dedicated to Milla Harcourt (Jennifer Holland). After thumbing through candid photos of them snuggled up in bed and other Hallmark-worthy candid moments, the gears begin to turn in his square skull to ditch his life in our dimension for the newly Chris-less one, proving men will literally waltz through pocket dimensions instead of going to therapy. Meanwhile, Fleury’s assortment of fratbro ARGUS militia task force, charged with surveilling Chris, is chomping at the bit to bumrush his house.

Speaking of Harcourt, we then cut to her attempting to nurse her barroom brawl scars from the previous episode to host their rooftop going-away party for Economos. That’s right, the gang is finally getting back together. As Economos notes, the impromptu venue looks really lovely. It features a whole string of overhead vintage lights that fancy restaurants use to create a cozy ambiance for their dining experience. Only their get-together exclusively features chips and dip, music from a dingy music speaker, and Bud Light brewskies. But hey, what more can a viewer ask than to see the gang back together finally?

But because we can’t have nice things, the ARGUS task force springs into action, raiding Chris’ house while the proverbial papa bird was away from his nest, partying. During their sweep, an ARGUS grunt drops a little DC Universe lore tidbit, saying that they’re equipped with scanners to detect extraterrestrial beings, which, as noted, is a major “dimensional discrepancy.” If you can forgive the above bird pun, know that it was all in service of setting up the Smith abode guard dog, Eagly, foiling ARGUS’ plans. We love an episode title that perfectly encapsulates the money-shot moments of its episode.

Eagly kicks tons of ass, taking out every task force member one by one. And because of Fleury’s bird blindness, he can’t take the shot and save his team because he “can’t tell how big this thing is.” For everyone furiously Googling “Does Eagly die?”, the answer is no. After handing the team their generous asses, the winged symbol of America struts back into the house.

Unfortunately, the bow on this wonderfully Eagly-filled episode sees Chris and Harcourt finally kind of talk at the party about what they are. Things don’t go well. While Chris tries to voice his concern for Harcourt since Task Force X broke up, she rebuffs, saying she doesn’t want to be seen as some damaged bird he can fix. So after stumbling back home sauced AF, Chris decides to go back into the hugbox of his pocket universe to see if things were as great with alternate dimension Harcourt as they seemed in the pictures.

But while Chris settles into the house, we overhear inquisitive questions from his not-racist alt-dimension dad, Auggie Smith (Robert Patrick), wondering where his son went. During Auggie’s out-loud questioning—assumedly toward Chris’ alternate-dimension brother, Keith Smith (David Denman)—we get hints that shit ain’t so sweet in the alternate universe for Chris after all. Apparently, his dead doppelganger had a pill problem and might’ve been messing around with another woman that wasn’t Harcourt. Chris, too blitzed to care, texts a risky “Hey” message to alt-dimension Harcourt and receives a “Hey” with a broken heart emoji in turn. Hopefully, our nails won’t have been gnawed to the bone in anxious anticipation of how Chris’ man-pain will lead to even more cosmic problems for everyone and himself.

Peaceful Peacemaker Pontifications

• Adebayo reveals that she and her ex had plans to move to Gotham. In retrospect, they’re probably better off staying their broken-up selves, given how the low rent in either Matt Reeves’ Elseworld or a Creature Commandos‘ iteration of the city can’t be worth moving to.
• The aftermath of Chris’ orgy reminds us that he’s a bisexual icon, even when he’s not taking the Justice Gang’s LinkedIn-ass interview well.
• Vigilante’s surprisingly insightful diatribe about liking sex, despite Chris’ assumption that he wasn’t into it because of how freaky sex can be, feels like an act of bonding with his friends.
• Fleury is another oddball addition to the cast. Notably, his bird blindness and lack of workplace decorum, as well as his whole Mean Girls try-hard act of name-calling to seem cool
• Economos puts to bed that the plural of Pokémon is Pokémon, not Pokémon.
• James Gunn continues to write John Cena better than WWE’s shaky retirement tour booking.

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