Peacemaker continues with “Episode 7: Stop Dragon My Heart Around.” The superhero series follows the story of a team of people on a mission to identify and eliminate an alien race of creatures called Butterflies. The episode begins with a flashback to Peacemaker’s childhood, where Auggie makes his two sons fight. Christopher punches his brother, Keith, leading to Keith having a seizure. As Keith dies, Auggie shouts at Christopher, blaming him for his death. We flash forward to Peacemaker in the present day, crying as he thinks back to this moment. This chilling opening sequence sets up yet another emotionally powerful penultimate episode that wraps up some storylines and sets up a thrilling finale.
Peacemaker, Vigilante, Economos, and Eagly get ready to kill the cow. Harcourt confronts Adebayo for planting the diary in Peacemaker’s trailer, and we learn Adebayo doesn’t want this job that her mother set up for her. The episode does an excellent job of making Adebayo a complex character as she is unqualified for her job and ultimately has to do what her mother tells her to. We then have a white-knuckled sequence where the White Dragon attacks our heroes, trying to kill Peacemaker. The show takes full advantage of Auggie finally taking on his role as a villain.
We then have a scene where it’s shocking to see how Detective Song’s character completely changed when the Butterfly took over her, and she is now acting in a villainous capacity. Murn sacrifices himself for the cause as Song kills him, which becomes quite emotional. He was the Butterfly who wanted to help the humans, and now that he is dead, our heroes are placed in their lowest situation where they have to go on without him, which is an excellent place for the characters to be at this point in the show.
After this, there is an exciting fight scene between Harcourt and Judomaster that ends with Adebayo saving Harcourt. After that, the storylines continue to get more intense as the
White Hoods find Peacemaker, and he fights them all off. Peacemaker attacks his father, no longer trying to get his approval as they fight. We get a look at Auggie’s horrible ideology as he tries to kill his son, but Peacemaker is saved by Vigilante and Economos, who kills Auggie’s racist gang. As Peacemaker points a gun at his father, we have fantastic writing as we see his hesitancy to kill Auggie despite how abusive he was.
The episode explores their relationship in heartbreaking ways as Cena delivers some of his best dramatic acting in the series yet. Peacemaker kills his father, and what is a satisfying moment for the audience is heartbreaking for him as he breaks down crying. Unfortunately, the moment should have lingered on this emotion for longer, as Gunn makes the unwise choice to shoehorn a joke from Vigilante at the wrong time.
After this, Harcourt and Adebayo share a heartfelt moment where Harcourt tells Adebayo that she is good at the job and they need her to help kill the cow. We then have a funny scene where Vigilante considers killing three people who saw their faces, which leads to a very emotional scene where Peacemaker prays that an injured Eagly will be safe. Finally, Eagly wakes up and hugs Peacemaker, tying back into a moment where Adebayo did not believe an eagle would hug a human. Harcourt is appointed as the new team leader, and Peacemaker ends his friendship with Adebayo.
The final scene offers a look at the cow, an excellent creature design sure to be a giant adversary for our heroes to take on in the finale. The episode is another superb entry to the Peacemaker television series, where every episode lands the right emotional beats. While the episode continues the awkward tonal shifts between comedy and drama, the places the characters go are well-written, and the episode sets the stage for a finale that may be even better than what we have seen so far from this exceedingly entertaining show.
SCORE: 7/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 7 equates to “Good.” A successful piece of entertainment that is worth checking out, but it may not appeal to everyone.
