In the previous episode, we learned that Harcourt was actually in a relationship with Rick Flag Jr. prior to his death at the hands of Chris in Corto Maltese. That explained why she was so sickened by the fact that she was catching feelings for Chris. Meanwhile, Chris went into an alternate dimension to start anew by breaking up Harcourt 2’s relationship with Rick Flag Jr. 2. He was distracted by an attack on the DMV by the Sons of Liberty. However, when he killed all the “terrorists,” he was congratulated by Keith 2, Harcourt 2, and everyone who lived in Evergreen 2. Speaking of Evergreen 2, it was pointed out by a lot of people that that place was probably a White supremacist “utopia” where Hitler won or maybe something even worse happened. The evidence is there, but it wasn’t that apparent to Chris. So, he dubbed it the “best dimension ever” and went back to his dimension with the intention of bidding farewell to his friends and permanently shifting to the alternate dimension. That was easier said than done because Bordeaux had assembled a task force—Fleury, Economos, Red St. Wild, Judomaster, and several other ARGUS agents—to nab Chris and kill Eagly. Did she succeed? Let’s talk about the fourth episode of the show to find out.
Spoiler Alert
Chris’ House Is Raided
Peacemaker Season 2, episode 4, opens with a flashback scene set 35 years ago where Auggie, Keith, and Chris were in the woods hunting. Auggie shot at a creature, thinking it was a wild animal, but it turned out to be an alien. While the alien died, the Smiths got their hands on the Quantum Unfolding Chamber, and a device that was later revealed to be an instrument that could shift the door to said Quantum Unfolding Chamber from one location to another. In the present day, as Chris realizes that his house has been absolutely trashed in the fight between Eagly and the ARGUS agents, he gets a text from Economos telling him to bail immediately, because an army of ARGUS agents is headed in his direction. So, he grabs the portal-door-shifting device and Eagly and runs off into the woods. Judomaster goes after him and puts up a pretty decent fight. However, he is no match for Chris, and he loses consciousness when Chris crushes him by falling on top of him. No, Judomaster isn’t dead. We see him coming out of the woods later on, utterly dejected because he has failed to beat Chris again.
Anyway, Chris shoots a text to Adebayo, telling her to come pick him up as soon as possible. While waiting for her to arrive, Eagly is seen scouting the skies, and he is spotted by Red St. Wild. As he takes aim, Economos knocks him over. Since Red hits his head on a rock, he loses consciousness, and Eagly gets to live another day. When Red comes to, Economos gives him a bogus explanation that while Red was looking at one eagle, a second eagle attacked him, causing him to hit his head on the rock and pass out. However, that just amps up Red’s eagerness to hunt down Eagly. Economos can’t do anything about that for the time being, though, because he is directed by Sasha to open the Quantum Unfolding Chamber. Since Chris doesn’t want ARGUS to get their hands on that pocket dimension, he proceeds to shift it to the hunting cabin in Settlers’ Hills. Adebayo picks up Chris and Eagly, and they rush to that location before Economos unlocks the door to the Quantum Unfolding Chamber.
Chris Shifts the Quantum Unfolding Chamber
En route to the cabin, Chris tells Adrian to get some doors so as to secure the access points of the Quantum Unfolding Chamber, and he clears up a confusion that Adebayo and the viewers had: no, Auggie didn’t create the interdimensional portal, because he isn’t smart enough to do something like that. It was stolen from an alien. As for all the weapons, helmets, and supersuits that Auggie built over the years for himself and Peacemaker, that remains a mystery. If I have to guess, I’ll say that maybe Auggie probably found a dimension whose population was technologically advanced, enslaved them, and then forced them to make all that stuff for him. Coming back to the plot, Chris gets a call from Economos, who tells him that he is about to open the Quantum Unfolding Chamber. He won’t have a lot of time on his hands. He will try to stall. Despite doing all that, if Chris fails to shift the Quantum Unfolding Chamber, then it’s game over. Adebayo is curious why Chris is so hellbent on safeguarding this piece of technology.
So, that’s when Chris reveals that he has found an alternate dimension in there where his father and brother are alive, and the Smiths are treated like superheroes. Before he can get to the topic of Harcourt 2 and Rick Flag Jr. 2, though, they reach the cabin, and Chris gets busy finding a doorway. As promised earlier, Economos does his best to stall the process of opening the interdimensional door in Chris’s house, and this does give Chris enough time to use that alien device to turn an ordinary-looking doorframe into an interdimensional portal. Things do come down to the wire, because right when Bordeaux is about to open the door to the Quantum Unfolding Chamber in Chris’ house, it shifts to the Smiths’ cabin. So, when Bordeaux actually unlocks the door, all she finds is an ordinary-looking chamber, while Adebayo finally gets to feast her eyes on the real deal.
Harcourt Is The Trap
Bordeaux reports the aforementioned revelation to Rick Flag, and he decides to finally bring Harcourt into the fold. No, not because he has finally understood the fact that her talent isn’t being put to good use; he just wants to use her to trap Chris. Yes, he does say that helping ARGUS nab Chris will put her back in the good books of the U.S. Government—which hasn’t been the case ever since Waller blacklisted her for “corrupting” her daughter and making Adebayo tell the world that her mother was running several off-the-books operations—but we all know how stuff like this goes. Rick will employ Harcourt until he has Chris behind bars; as soon as she has fulfilled that purpose, Rick will probably sideline Harcourt because she keeps justifying Chris killing Rick Flag Jr. At least that’s what I think; we’ll see. Chris finally reveals that his father and brother being alive, and the fact that the Smiths are revered as superheroes by the general populace, aren’t the only reasons why he is so interested in the Quantum Unfolding Chamber; he has found a version of Harcourt that’s probably in love with him, although she is in a relationship with Rick Flag Jr. 2, and he wants to see where things go with her. On top of that, he doesn’t have to worry about his own alternate version showing up to ruin his time in the “best dimension ever” because he is dead.
Adebayo is of the opinion that Chris is treating this situation way too frivolously, and he should think about what’s going to happen if all those people in that alternate dimension find out that Chris is an imposter. She underscores the fact that the grass always looks greener on the other side until it doesn’t. And she is right; whenever you miraculously get everything that you have always wished for, there’s a catch that we refuse to see until it is right in our faces. Sadly, before Adebayo can continue convincing Chris to permanently shut off this alternate dimension, and maybe the whole Quantum Unfolding Chamber as well, Adrian arrives with the doors and derails the conversation.
Red St. Wild Has Superpowers?!
I guess some of Adebayo’s advice seeps in through the cracks, and Chris decides to check out if Harcourt is willing to give their relationship a chance; because if she is, then that’ll probably be enough reason for him to stop considering the alternate dimension as a viable option. Unfortunately, he has chosen the worst possible time to meet with Harcourt, because she has been ordered by Rick to lure him into a trap. And since Harcourt’s desperation to become employable again is more important to her than the complicated feelings she has for Chris, she heads off to meet him at Kupperberg Park at Hartley and Vermont, which is the same place where he sat down to chat with Harcourt 2 before a Sons of Liberty “terrorist” exploded before them. Harcourt advises Rick to not cut any corners if he wants to actually capture Chris. But I don’t think that’s just professional advice; I think Harcourt doesn’t want to face Chris again once he learns that she betrayed him. That said, since the meeting between Harcourt and Chris doesn’t happen in this episode, I don’t want to label her a backstabber yet. Who knows? Maybe in the next episode, she’ll actually bail on the meeting in order to save Chris from being nabbed by ARGUS.
Anyway, at the end of Peacemaker episode 4, while the entirety of ARGUS is focused on Chris, we see Red not only locating Eagly but also the Smiths’ cabin in Settlers’ Hills. I am sure I am not alone in assuming that Red was just a nutjob and a big fan of cultural appropriation and caricaturish levels of racism, not someone who had actual superpowers that allowed him to spot eagles. What?! It does seem like he has been blessed by some ancient Native American spirits, which allow him to hunt this bird of prey. By the way, does this superpower allow him to only go after eagles or just anyone he sets his sights on? I am not sure, but yeah, Red is clearly a metahuman, and we can expect to see him clash with Eagly. If this clash happens at that cabin, Red will probably have to deal with Adebayo and Adrian as well. Also, I have to remind everyone that there’s an exposed interdimensional portal there, which I am not sure has been closed yet. And what do we know about interdimensional portals that are left open for too long? They can cause a rift in space and time, big enough to swallow a planet. Will that happen in this show? We’ll have to wait till next week to find out.
