This review contains spoilers for Episode 7 of Peacemaker, “Stop Dragon My Heart Around,” which airs Feb. 10 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.
Abusive parents are a pretty common theme in James Gunn’s work, with his Guardians of the Galaxy films showing how both Peter Quill and Gamora are manipulated by their megalomaniac fathers and The Suicide Squad featuring three characters who gained their abilities from their horrible upbringing. Yet Gunn still finds a novel way to address the subject in “Stop Dragon My Heart Around,” with the final confrontation between Peacemaker and his white supremacist dad, Auggie Smith, rooted in the need for Peacemaker to forgive himself for his brother’s death.
Flashbacks of his brother’s fatal seizure have haunted Peacemaker throughout the series, and Gunn finally reveals the rest of the scene in the opening of Episode 7, showing it was just a senseless, tragic accident that happened while the boys were brawling to entertain Auggie and his friends. Peacemaker thinks of it as his superhero origin story, the moment he was forced to live for both of them with the impossible goal of making his father proud. It’s especially tragic given how Peacemaker’s brother sought to reject his father’s values in favor of the virtues of smoking pot and listening to rock and roll.
But after finally forming some healthier bonds with the misfits of Project Butterfly, who have repeatedly pointed out Auggie’s many flaws, Peacemaker finally realizes that Auggie is to blame for putting his sons in that situation. This confrontation would have been more powerful if Peacemaker himself had set the terms and realized it was necessary. Instead, the issue is forced when Auggie attacks his son in his White Dragon suit, which apparently makes him a low-level Iron Man.
In classic Gunn style, their fight is a goofy spin on superhero action that still delivers big emotional payoff. The revelation of how Auggie found his son shows just how little trust he ever placed in Peacemaker. Tricking Auggie with a raccoon would seem ludicrous, but Peacemaker earned the victory by being reckless enough to try it. The fight takes a toll on both Vigilante and Eagly as Auggie and his minions try to strip Peacemaker of the friends who would protect him. Both get their moments to shine as his loyal allies and defenders.
Peacemaker’s decision to kill Auggie even after wrestling with his relationship with violence fits into the foreshadowing in the parallel montages of the Butterfly takeover and Auggie suiting up shown in Episode 6. Peacemaker may abandon the uncaring attitude he and Vigilante showed when killing petty criminals and minor supervillains, but there are still real monsters in this world and Peacemaker will do what it takes to stop them.
Harcourt, Adebayo, and Murn are dealing with the Butterfly threat while Peacemaker, Vigilante, and grudgingly Economos try to go off to stop Captain Locke and are intercepted by Auggie. Harcourt shows more of her own complicated ethos as she confronts Adebayo on her betrayal of Peacemaker. Harcourt might not need a dove of peace on her weapon to kill, but she still needs justification. That comes in the form of trusting the people she works with. It’s similar to the sentiment expressed by the Martian marine Bobby Draper in the final season of The Expanse, the bleak motivation of a soldier who knows that wars are rarely truly just.
Yet despite her frustration with Adebayo, Harcourt still recognizes her competence and urges her to stick with the team. They need all the help they can get since they’ll either strike a decisive victory against the Butterflies or possibly lose the advantage forever. Just as Murn was the most obvious choice to be a Butterfly, he’s also the clear person to die to show the situation is serious. The leader and mentor needs to fall to give Harcourt the chance to step into a new role, which will allow her to continue to grow as a character. She also gets the chance to shine physically in this episode in the intense fight with Judomaster, showing both her own resilience and the power that comes from an ally who has your back.
This episode is full of callbacks, from the obviously telegraphed weakness in the White Dragon armor to Peacemaker’s “face exercises.” But the best is the repeat of the hug from Eagly, a miracle that inspires the animal-loving Adebayo to stick with the team. Peacemaker’s feathered sidekick, who this episode both rocks out and has to be lured back into a car with chips, lands somewhere between a dog and the golden eagle from The Beastmaster. He’s a persistently endearing character that showcases Peacemaker’s humanity. Eagly’s recovery demonstrates that Peacemaker’s capacity for and worthiness of love couldn’t be killed by Auggie.
The episode ends with a look at the grotesque alien cow and the forces united to protect it. This has been an excellent season of television and it will be exciting to see what Gunn has in store for the show’s final battle, whether he’s setting things up for the series to continue.
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