Peacemaker – Season 1 Episode 2 “Best Friend, For Never” Recap & Review

Best Friend, For Never

Episode 2 of Peacemaker starts with Emilia receiving a call from Peacemaker, updating her on what happened in the parking lot. Emilia implores him to grab his gear and leave, while she collects up Leota and arrives at the apartment, waiting for Peacemaker to show up.

He’s still in the apartment while they twiddle their thumbs in the car, as Peacemaker collects up his gear (and some of the deceased’s records too.)

Peacemaker is spotted while looking out the window by the arriving officers, prompting him to hurry and evade the police as they start looking through the apartments, one by one. There’s a recurring joke involving Peacemaker’s gear falling on the floor, along with a lover’s tiff caused by Peacemaker’s taste of music, but through all of this, Peacemaker makes it to the ground floor, hopping between balconies.

It’s not pretty, but Peacemaker does make it to the ground in one piece (minus an injured shoulder) and gets away thanks to Emilia jumping in and lending a helping hand.

With the police firing off a barrage of bullets their way, our gang manage to hightail it to safety. Unfortunately, John – still in HQ – changes the car registration so it’s registered to Peacemaker’s father in a blind panic. That’s obviously less than ideal, and Auggie’s not exactly happy when Officers Fitzgibbon and Song show up at his door.

Back at base, Murn is not happy either when he finds out what’s happened with Peacemaker. Our protagonist’s nonchalance around leaving the Butterfly dossier in a “rando’s house” is met with shouts and anger, as he demands Peacemaker take this seriously. With witnesses at the scene too, Murn tasks Leota with trying to keep them all quiet with bribes. Those that are left look at Peacemaker with disdain, quick to remind him how reckless he is.

Back home, Peacemaker is down in the dumps. He receives some words of advice from Vigilante, who shows up at his window and decides they should celebrate his release from prison. He’s got a whole bunch of appliances out in the woods, ready to shoot. Peacemaker shows up and the pair have a blast together.

While this is going on, the police appear at Auggie’s door again. This time though, they have an arrest warrant for him. As he’s taken away, Leota reminds Keeya that she’s going to be working some odd hours in the future, leading the pair to start arguing. At least, it looks that way anyway. The music drowns out this scene and cuts across to Peacemaker instead.

After his trigger-happy afternoon, he’s in bed with Vigilante and another woman. As the pair smoke weed (Vigilante flat-out refuses) Peacemaker handles the strange relic he found in the metahuman’s apartment earlier on. It suddenly turns into a strange contraption.

In prison, Auggie is revered by a whole group of fanatics who call him the White Dragon, dropping to their knees and with a pretty suggestive hand motion.

The Episode Review

I’m glad HBO Max have decided to drop three episodes at once because this was a really weak episode. Beyond Peacemaker escaping and the detectives going on a wild goose chase, absolutely nothing of note happened.

We receive some more mopey moments with Peacemaker, and a look at his relationship with sidekick Vigilante, but that’s not enough to carry this project. that’s to say nothing of the magical McGuffin and its purpose, which I’m sure we’ll find out more about in the coming episodes.

Emilia just sorta lurks n the periphery of this show, used when she’s needed for the plot, while Leota and Keeya’s relationship is given absolutely no time to develop. I mean, we don’t even see their argument before we up and move across to Peacemaker in his apartment. It’s disappointing, to be honest, and this series hasn’t got off to a great start.

The ending involving the White Dragon is an alluring touch though, but it remains to be seen if that’s enough to keep people watching week to week.