Peacemaker – Season 1 Episode 5 “Monkey Dory” Recap & Review

Monkey Dory

Episode 5 of Peacemaker begins with Murn briefing the team about the Butterflies. The thing is, the whole chat is tinged with an undercurrent of tension which eventually explodes when Peacemaker confronts Economos over putting his dad in jail.

After reading out an overlong list of celebrities he could have put the blame on instead, Murn jumps in and reels the topic back to the Butterfly plan. He wants the team to head out and investigate Glan Tai. This company happen to be a distribution center for the aliens’ food supply. This could well be the key to finding clues about the Butterflies and exactly how widespread this situation is.

While prepping their gear, Leota arrives and encourages Peacemaker to go easy on Economos and not be so harsh on him all the time.

Leota though is going through her own issues; relationship woes with Keeya continue to work at odds to her job. Leota only took this role to tide the pair over for a few months but it’s clear this is becoming a lot more involving than she anticipated. It looks like she’s gearing up for a big choice between her career or partner. We shall see.

Anyway, the gang rock up at Glan Tai and prepare to infiltrate. Leota and Peacemaker team together and go in through the front. Although Peacemaker agrees to keep things chilled… he immediately shoots  the receptionist and the guards in the head. Peacemaker quickly reveals that his current helmet grants him the ability to see Butterflies inside their hosts.

Vigilante and Emilia head in the back and realize there are thousands of boxes for the alien food. They suddenly come to the realization that this operation is far bigger than they thought. Unfortunately they’re spotted and the Butterflies mobilize, dozens of them in human hosts that screech and throw themselves at the pair.

Remember that escaped gorilla mentioned on the TV several episodes back? Yep, that happens to be in the depths of this operation, and it’s right in Peacemaker’s sight. As it looks set to kill our hero, Economos jumps in with a chainsaw and slices it to bits.

In prison, Auggie appeals to Detectives Song and Fitz. He claims Peacemaker has framed him and can prove it. After getting his fingerprints, the detectives match it up to the prints found at the scene… and realize they don’t match.

So naturally they decide to head off and visit the eyewitnesses to find out if their alibis hold up. It doesn’t take long for the bickering couple from before to confirm immediately that Peacemaker is the crook, and that means White Dragon is going to be freed. Only, another big hiccup sees that order reversed by a higher authority.

Murn’s mysterious contact, Caspar Locke, shows at the police station and reveals that he’s their new captain. He cleans up the mess left behind, and challenges Song over what she’s found out. Song instead turns to Fitz and together, uses Song’s contacts to try and gain a search warrant for Peacemaker, undermining the chain of command.

Blood-soaked and high on adrenaline, Peacemaker and the gang are debriefed after their factory skirmish. As everyone heads off, Peacemaker encourages Leota to share a drink with him at his place.

Once there, Leota connects with Peacemaker and encourages him to drop the tough exterior; throwing jokes at everyone and putting them down isn’t the way to go. She urges him to be more like Chris instead. It’s a really touching moment and something that helps show a deeper side to his character.

However, this is just a front as Leota stashes the diary in Peacemaker’s trailer. When she heads back to the office. Leota grabs Peacemaker’s helmet and tries it on. Marveling at the new vision, she excitedly turns toward Murn’s office, wanting to tell him about what she’s found… and immediately realizes he’s a Butterfly. As he chases her outside, the episode comes to a close.

The Episode Review

Aside from the repetitive jokes, this chapter is much more consistent and there’s a really nice ebb and flow to this one. The action is well-shot and nicely choreographed, the lovely bit of foreshadowing earlier about the gorilla comes full-circle. At the same time, we also get some decent characterization for both Peacemaker and Leota.

Compared to last week’s episode, this is much more consistent with episode 3’s high-flying sniper gig and hopefully a turning point for the rest of the show to follow.

This has been a bit of an uneven ride thus far though, with a barrage of jokes that miss as often as they hit.

Either way, the story is just starting to get interesting and the cliffhanger leaves things wide open for next week’s follow-up!