Peacemaker Season 2 Episode 7 Review: Like a Keith in the Night

As we slowly, yet surely, reach the finale of Peacemaker Season 2, it certainly feels like there’s only one road ahead to take. With Peacemaker Season 2 Episode 7 “Like a Keith in the Night” weaving the narrative more linearly, it’s very likely that Chris and the other 11th Street Kids are in over their heads.

However, though the events of Peacemaker Season 2 Episode 6 “Ignorance is Chris” gave our ensemble band of awkward outcasts an intro to Earth-X, this episode is certainly the opposite of that.

This begins with Chris finally being snapped back into the real world (or as real as it gets) with his Harcourt’s persuasion. As he briefly breaks up with Earth-X’s Harcourt, the two make their daring escape to find refuge who knows where.

The relationship between Chris and Earth-X’s Harcourt did have some definitive development, but the way that Chris breaks up with her on the spot did feel somewhat awkward. I get that it’s supposed to be Chris’s moment of realization, but it did feel like it was there to make that step into the title card.

Though they make their escape, Chris and Harcourt aren’t fully free yet as the cops continue to hunt their trail. All in the meanwhile, Auggie and Keith try to get answers from Economos about the Prime Earth off-shoots.

Here, the back-and-forth between Auggie and Keith has this undertone that Auggie is more than what he seems. It’s not in a bad way though, as he suggests not killing Chris’s friends when they actually get them.

It slightly suggests that Auggie might be more socially trusting in this world, which was kept hidden all the way back on Peacemaker Season 2 Episode 3 “Another Rick Up My Sleeve”. Although, Earth-X Keith has all this pent up, somewhat reasonable, rage because his brother was killed by his doppelganger.

However, when Keith and Auggie come to terms to “save” Chris and Harcourt later on, it’s almost a nice change of pace when you’re not reminded that this universe is run by Nazis.

In the meanwhile, Adebayo manages to make her escape thanks to a helping hand from Judomaster, who’s surprisingly still alive. Though the two still have distaste for one another, they actually manage to mend that bridge through a really prescient conversation.

As Adebayo and Judomaster play Scrobble, Earth-X’s Scrabble replacement, there’s a certain line that Adebayo says about her world not being different from Earth-X in its own subtle way. At an uncertain time where our world is shook up, this one line actually holds more weight than it lets on.

Of course, this line is part of Peacemaker Season 2’s larger idea that not everything is perfect and that if it is, deep down, it’s likely not. However, there can still be good in some form, albeit in some ways you don’t expect.

That’s why Auggie and Keith rescue Chris and Harcourt later on, bringing them back to the Peace-mansion to get some answers. Of course, while Auggie tries to see reason, Keith’s emotions nearly boil over, which are only kept restrained by Auggie’s presence.

In an unfortunate moment, it turns out that this world’s Fitzgibbon, a Peacemaker Season 1 character, is still alive, but is an even worse guy than his Prime Earth counterpart. He’s got no reason to do anything, as Auggie puts it, until the two Vigilantes come along in their “action-first” mindset.

For the most part, the Vigilante parts have been cute because of his uplifting, almost naive, personality. Since there’s two of them, it almost adds twice the fun, albeit Earth-X’s Vigilante is hellbent on stopping Nazis (almost like another DC character!)

Unfortunately, what results from the Vigilantes’ sudden home invasion is a chaotic, brutal attack that gives Chris some heavy childhood PTSD. It’s almost angelic, presentation-wise, of how the other 11th Street Kids take down Keith, but it’s very disheartening to see Auggie die in Chris’s hands.

Here, we also come to the realization that Auggie didn’t have the same Nazi-based beliefs as his Prime Earth counterpart had. It’s a very devastating moment to see what would’ve been a positive father-son relationship between Chris and Auggie end just like that.

With Chris and his friends returning back to Prime Earth, only to be arrested by Flag Sr. and his team, it feels like Earth-X’s time in Peacemaker Season 2 is coming to an end.

Although Auggie is dead, it turns out Harcourt missed her shot to kill Keith, leaving him to possibly be saved. Given this, it’s likely that Keith might want to enact his revenge for his brother’s death in an even bloodier finale.

Peacemaker Season 2 Episode 7 is a tragically fulfilling penultimate episode through Chris facing his biggest fear, his ‘perfect’ world being undone, in an emotionally resonating way. Though it’s one of Season 2’s shorter episodes, it still manages to sear your heart with this hope and optimism being torn apart.

Stray Thoughts:

• It was actually funny to see that Earth-X’s A.R.G.U.S. had a huge mural of Hitler and Chris didn’t even notice it the multiple times he’s been there!
• The little differences on Earth-X compared to Prime Earth are small, but they’re kind of cute when it comes to doing some world-building.
• The back-and-forth between Economos and Eagly was obviously there to be the “calm in the storm” amidst all the action and chasing, but it did feel like it padded out the episode just a bit.
• Even though I’m really enjoying the story, I really wonder why these episodes keep getting shorter runtimes. I feel like more can be told about Earth-X!

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New episodes of Peacemaker Season 2 premiere on HBO Max on Thursdays.

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