This review contains spoilers for Episode 5 of Peacemaker, “Monkey Dory,” which airs on Jan. 27 on HBO Max. To catch up, check out our review of last week's episode, and our spoiler-free take on the three-episode premiere.
Peacemaker delves deeper into the purpose of Project Butterfly in an excellent, genre-blending episode that continues the impressive work the series is doing of providing deep character building, a compelling central mystery, and plenty of over-the-top action.
After nursing a wicked hangover with some adorable comforting from Eagly, Peacemaker finally gets the briefing that he’s been asking for on what Project Butterfly is. This takes the form of an absurd powerpoint presentation which continues the main character arc: exploring whether or not Peacemaker can become less of a jerk.
Peacemaker and John Economos’ bonding over having the same taste in music seemed too convenient — the shift in the way Peacemaker views the A.R.G.U.S. agent after he eviscerates a gorilla with a chainsaw feels much more earned. It also garners some hilarious pouting from Vigilante. The decision to spend so much time developing Vigilante seemed dubious at first, but he’s turned into a great addition to the crew as a version of Dexter played for laughs, happy to share the warped way he views the world and the extent to which he fantasizes about killing people.
The sloppy nature of this mission also makes a lot more sense with the explanation that this is an off-the-books mission because the Butterfly conspiracy goes so deep that Amanda Waller couldn’t officially investigate it. Peacemaker’s point that this sounds a lot like the deep state helps lampshade how fraught plots like this can be in the age of QAnon, but modern politics also aren’t stopping Marvel from developing its upcoming conspiracy-centered series Secret Invasion, so Peacemaker might as well beat them to the punch.
James Gunn is paying tribute to iconic films in the Alien infiltration genre with the mission to Glan Tai Bottling Company, which features references to Invasion of the Body Snatchers and They Live. Peacemaker’s X-ray helmet serves as the equivalent to They Live’s sunglasses with the exact same effect of horrifying his colleagues when he starts murdering people that only he can see aren’t really human. It is a little disappointing that, when pushed into a fight, Butterflies tend to act more like super-strong zombies than the people they can otherwise pretend to be because while their overwhelming numbers create a challenge for the Project Butterfly team, having opponents capable of tactics or even more taunting would be more engaging.
Besides delivering plenty of schlocky sci-fi action, “Monkey Dory” also dips into more traditional police drama and noir sentiments. Adebayo’s conflict with her partner reflects any number of stories involving cops that are married to their job, but it’s even more fraught here given that Adebayo took the gig just to help them financially rather than because she has some higher calling. But as Waller pointed out, she’s good at black ops work.
The tender scene between her and Peacemaker, where he expresses so much relief at having someone to talk to who isn’t a bird or a sociopath, seemed like it might be a set up for Adebayo to discover Peacemaker’s been keeping a captive butterfly. Instead, the planting of the diary makes her the villain of the scene. It’s clear that Adebayo’s pushing Keeya away less because she really believes Harcourt’s warning that she needs to protect her from danger and more because she doesn’t want her to see the person that she’s becoming under Waller’s guidance.
As Peacemaker points out with his ludicrously long litany of names, Economos’ decision to frame Peacemaker’s father, Auggie, for his son’s crimes in Episode 1 may be the biggest mistake made during the series. The fallout continues with detectives Sophie Song and Larry Fitzgibbon getting into a very noir conflict where Song refuses to accept the easy lie, even if it means freeing a racist monster like Auggie, and especially when it becomes clear that her bosses would rather she drop her investigation.
Christopher Heyerdahl is deeply creepy as Muhn’s ally Caspar Locke, explaining to Song just how malleable the truth is even in the face of hard fingerprint evidence and the eagerly recanted testimony of witness Evan Calcaterra. This investigation is likely to just keep getting her into more trouble, but like any good noir detective, she won’t let her career or safety get in the way of uncovering the truth.
“Monkey Dory” ends with a big payoff on last week’s reveal about Murn, a deliciously tense scene contrasting Adebayo’s playful use of Peacemaker’s helmet with the lurking knowledge of what she’ll find when she looks at Murn. Next week’s episode is called “Murn After Reading,” so we’ll likely get some more details on his character and potentially more information about what the Butterflies are really up to.
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