White Dragon is on the hunt.
Last time on Peacemaker, the
Butterfly got out of the jar… metaphorically and literally. It was revealed
that Murn is a Butterfly, the sole dissenter of his people’s plan to invade
earth and take over the planet. Harcourt figured this out when Murn survived a
bomb blast to the face, Economos figured it out at some point as well but is in
denial about it, but now Leota knows, leaving just the costumed vigilantes in
the dark. Speaking of them, Detective Song got an arrest warrant for Christopher
Smith and lead a team to arrest him. Chris and Adrian are able to escape his
trailer but are unable to escape before they’re surrounded. Adrian falls out of a tree, smashing the jar
that held Goff’s Butterfly. It infects Song, a violent process that is
definitely fatal to the host. Chris and Adrian are able to escape thanks to Captain
Locke, Murn’s plant in the police department. In the search of his trailer, the
cops find the fake diary, which Locke pockets. Pressed for time and wanting to remove
Peacemaker and company, Goff-Song calls in a bunch of Butterflies. She infects
the Evergreen police and prisoners in mass, turning hundreds into their thralls.
After, the now infected Locke reveals Peacemaker’s diary and says that the
police around the US’s number one priority is capturing Peacemaker. Oh, and Auggie
is out and has decided he’s going to kill Chris. He gets his White Dragon and
his skinhead legion prepared. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?
Ep 7: Stop Dragon my Heart Around
We open with Chris and his brother
Keith rocking out to music. After they vibe for a minute, one of their dad’s
goons comes in and says that they’re ready for them. This is the point where we
learn that one of Auggie Smith’s revenue streams was pitching his children
against each other in a bareknuckle brawl. Folks would take bets and the Smith
brothers would beat the hell out of each other in a sand pit. We hear Auggie
yelling slurs at his sons to encourage them to fight harder. We come out of the
flashback to see Chris standing over the bathroom sink and looking like he’s
about to throw up. We return to the flashback where Chris gets a real good hit on
his brother’s nose, knocking him down. Keith immediately starts having a seizure
and dies before anyone can help him. Auggie immediately blames Chris for what
happened, casually deflecting that the only reason his sons were fighting was
because he told them to do it. Prick.
Adrian checks on Chris and Chris
acts like he wasn’t having an existential crisis a minute ago when he comes
out. He tells his little buddy that they need to get out of there, now. He
realizes that Leota must have planted the diary at his place, as she’s the only
one of the team that ever stopped by. He goes to grab a go-bag, and discovers
that Judomaster has escaped. He decides not to care about it, though, as he has
bigger fish to fry at the moment. He grabs his bag of helmets and heads out. Back
at Auggies house, we see him showing his minions that he’d bugged all the
helmets to track Chris’ movements. A cluster are at the police station, so he
safely assumes those were taken in the raid of Chris’ trailer, but the other
big group is moving and must be where Chris is now.
Chris and Adrian start loading up
on weapons. Economos comes in and asks about the diary. Chris again vehemently
denies having a diary and asks Economos if he really looks like the type of guy
to do collages and stuff to put on a diary. Economos shrugs and says he
wouldn’t have originally but after getting to know Chris he feels like it’s
actually exactly what he’d do. Chris admits to doing some collage work, but
says that if he’d done this for the diary he wouldn’t be so angry about it.
Economos asks where they’re going and Chris says that with the new time
pressure they may as well go out and kill this Cow now. Economos says no to
going but immediately follows them after seeing Eagly coming too.
Leota is watching the report as
well when Harcourt storms in and accuses her of planting the diary. Leota admits
it, saying that Peacemaker’s conspiratorial thinking, violent mood swings, and
history of instability made him the perfect choice for a set up. Harcourt is
furious at this, saying that Leota is an asshole. They have an argument over
who is the bigger asshole, Leota for betraying ‘one of their own,’ or Harcourt
for killing that security guard that begged for his life. Leota says she’s not
made for this sort of thing, so she’s leaving. Harcourt incredulously asks what
was she even doing here if she’s going to flee now, and Leota drops the bomb
that it’s because she lost her job and her mom offered her a new one. Harcourt
is really thrown off by this idea that Leota is Waller’s daughter, I think I
would be too. I’ve seen that woman in multiple series and I’d think it more
likely Amanda Waller would birth some sort of lizard person than like an actual
human. Murn comes in and tells them they have to go. Harcourt tries to drop the
bombs she’d learned on him, but Murn already knows. Well, he know Leota was
Waller’s kid, he did background checks on all of them, and he figured the diary
was her. He says that Leota probably shouldn’t have done that or at the very
least should have waited until the mission was over. He tells them Locke was
his operative, so he’s compromised and since Butterfly’s inherit their hosts
memories, he knows where they are, so they need to drop what they’re doing,
grab their shit, and meet him in the lobby. Harcourt leaves with Murn, but
pokes her head back in to yell at Leota that she’d trusted the other woman.
We cut to a pair of guys heading to
a convenience store where they get jump-scared by Judomaster standing by the
door and eating chips menacingly.
Harcourt calls Chris and when she
gets his voicemail tells him to call her.
Chris, Adrian and Economos head out
in the van. The two costumed killers rock out while Economos drives. He asks if
maybe they’re being too nonchalant about this, and Chris asks if he really
thinks there is a right and wrong time to rock. The Aryan Empire have tracked
the helmet down and Auggie in his White Dragon Armor rams the truck, knocking
it over. He breaks into it and then shoots plasma blasts at them. Vigilante
forces him back with a P90 and a grenade. He says there’s no wrong time to rock
before the explosion goes off. Chris calls out the Vij, how nice he has a
nickname, but Economos drags him back and they run. White Dragon was knocked
back but largely unharmed, so he and his empire start chasing Peacemaker’s
helmet. We see that Adrian is still alive, but his suit is badly shredded from
the explosion and he’s bleeding.
Economos asks how they tracked
them, and Chris realizes the helmet has a tracker. The empire follows the tracer.
They hear Eagly screech, and the skinhead girl says they’re moving fast. They
look over in time to steal Adrian stealing one of the cars, one of the skin
heads browbeating the other for leaving his keys in the car. White Dragon tells
them to forget it and keep moving.
The two guys head for their car,
only for Judomaster to attack them. He knocks the two out. He looks into the
convenience store to see the clerk give him the thumbs up. I guess he hated
those guys too. He steals the car and drives off.
Murn enters his room just in time
to see the cops start pulling hip. Harcourt just barely escapes notice when
Goff-Song and the others pull up on Murn’s room. Someone grabs Harcourt, and
she almost screams, but it’s revealed to be Leota, who she tells to shut up and
hide.
White Dragon and company close in
on the helmet, one of them complaining that Peacemaker is running like a spaz.
We see Economos hiding behind a tree as a raccoon walks by, the helmet tied to
its tail. The raccoon runs off and the Aryan nation follows it. Chris sits up,
his face covered in cuts and says that Raccoons are hard core. Economos shrugs
and says that’s about what he expected to happen to anyone that just grabs a
wild raccoon. Eagly lands by them and the three start running. We cut to
Adrian, who is driving around. He’s clearly concussed though, he only has
enough time to take off his mask and put on his glasses before going off the
road.
Murn radios to Leota and Harcourt,
Leota brought the radio, and tells them to go. He says that he was proud to
have them on his team and for them to finish the job. The Butterfly cops burst
in, Murn shoots two but is grabbed by the others. Goff-Song asks how he knows
about the cow. Murn tries to give a heroic speech, but Goff-Song isn’t
interested in listening and shoots him. She says that they need to get the
teleport equipment to the Ranch, now, but before they leave, Murn’s butterfly
leaves his body. Goff-Song catches it, recognizing him as Ik-Nobe-Lok. She says
he could have just joined them, and crushes the Butterfly. Fitz-Butterfly says
that she murdered him, but she shrugs. She says that without him the other’s
have nothing, they’re a couple rejects and two clowns in costumes. They storm
off, and Harcourt and Leota go to check on Murn. Leota confirms Murn’s body is
dead, and Harcourt finds Ik-Nobe-Lok. They have a touching moment when they
touch hands… finger to grasper, and he dies. Harcourt asks what they’re going
to do without him. Judomaster then rushes in and knocks out Leota. Harcourt and
Judomaster brawl, the spy doing extremely well against the martial artist. They
go around smashing the room up, Harcourt getting a towel and wrapping it around
his wrist before Judomaster gets her to the ground and starts punching her
face. She starts laughing despite the hits, and when he stops, confused, she
says “Rope-a-dope, you dumb shit.” The towel was to take away his agility,
allowing Leota to sneak up and tase him. She zaps him a few more times for good
measure.
White Dragon and his crew corner
the Raccoon. They’re rather disappointed to find the angry procyonid trying to
get the helmet off its tail. White Dragon tells his men to fan out, but the
skinhead girl says she’s got something. Chris and Economos find Adrian and rose
him enough to get the door open. Chris gets in the driver seat and Economos
gets in the back with Eagly. The bird is pecking him very aggressively for some
reason. They start driving off and Adrian asks about how they got traced.
Economos tells him about the helmet trackers, and Adrian gives Chris an “oh, I
f-ed up bad” look. Chris stops the car, pops the trunk and finds his duffle
full of helmets. Chris goes to throw the helmets but walks right into the White
Dragon cult. They rush him, he tries to get back to the car, but they overwhelm
him. Economos sees and runs, he runs into Adrian who was taking a whiz. White
Dragon arrives to back up his men. Eagly tries to attack him, but he knocks the
bird out of the sky. This royally pisses off Chris, who throws off the
skinheads and knocks his dad over, saying he’ll kill him. White Dragon knocks
him over and to the ground. He puts a boot to Chris’ chest and delivers a
sermon to his cult. He calls Chris unworthy, spoiled, impure, for doing things
like listening to rock music, killing his brother (Chris is able to choke out
that was Auggie’s fault), for ‘polluting’ himself with non-white women and men,
and prepares to shoot. Adrian rushes in and stabs White Dragon in the back,
saying there are gaps in the armor. He throws Adrian off and the skinheads
prepare to shoot. Economos comes out and shoots them all. White Dragon tries to
shoot him, but the stab damaged the suit too much. Chris grabs his dad, knocks
his helmet off and throws him onto the car. He agrees with his dad he’s a POS.
He’s a POS for listening to him for so long, for not killing him in his sleep, and
for letting him kill Keith. White Dragon says he hits like a girl. Chris grabs
a gun and points it at him. Auggie isn’t scared, saying that he controls Chris,
that he’ll never get away from Auggie because he made him… and Chris shoots him
in the head. Auggie drops, Chris drops and starts to sob. Adrian tries to
reassure him, after Economos tells him that Chris isn’t doing face exercises,
but it’s awkward.
Back at the hotel, Leota lies to
Keeya about what’s going on and says she’s just doing paperwork. She helps
Harcourt clean some of the cuts on her face. Harcourt asks what her what she
used to do. Leota says she used to work at a dog shelter. She thinks Waller
sensed her moment of weakness and so offered her this job to get her into spy
work. Leota says that she isn’t cut out for this, but her mom insisted that she
needed someone she could trust on the team. Harcourt says that Waller doesn’t
trust anyone and Leota agrees. Harcourt says that she knew Leota was hiding
something, and Leota says that she knew that Harcourt knew and that’s why they
had tension. She says she just wants to finish this job and go, but Harcourt
says that would be a waste as she’s good at it. And they need all hands on deck
to kill this cow. Leota isn’t sure they could even do that, but their talk is
interrupted by a call from Chris.
They rush over to the local animal
shelter, Economos lets them in. He says that the staff here kindly stitched up
Eagly, but now Vigilante is being a psycho. Adrian says they have to kill them
to protect his and Peacemaker’s identities. Economos asks if they really have
to kill these people. Harcourt says no, they can just tie them up, and by the
time the morning staff come in they’ll be gone. Adrian agrees to this but says
they shouldn’t use tape as that’ll hurt their skin when they tear it off.
Economos is flabbergasted and asks him if he’s compassionate about tape use but
not brutally murdering people, and Adrian just says ‘yes.’ Leota misses a call
from Keeya and goes to call her back. In the hall she sees Chris on his knees
praying to Gd to not take Eagly from him. He apologizes for leaving him with
his dad and should have been a better friend to his bird. He says the bird is
the only one who loved him besides Keith. Eagly gets up and hugs him with his
wings. Leota is deeply moved by this and walks off. Chris carefully grabs his
phone and gets a selfie. Leota calls Keeya and tells her about seeing an eagle
hug a man. Keeya is also surprised by this, and Leota thinks it might be a
sign.
The team reconvenes. Harcourt asks
about Leota’s wife and she says that she’s upset but understands. They wonder
how they’ll do this without Murn, with Leota nominating Harcourt to take the
lead. Harcourt spells out the situation, I’m sure the vets are all very
confused by what they’re saying. The Butterflies can breathe and drink here,
but they need the cow for food. They know that the cow is in the caverns under
the Coverdale Ranch. They just have to kill the cow to stop them. We see the
Butterflies arrive and prepare their teleportation equipment to move the Cow. Peacemaker,
Vigilante, Leota, and weirdly the vet staff are all in. Economos is lukewarm
but willing to go. They tell the vet staff that they’d die immediately, so
they’ll need to stay, but that they’re taking their truck. The vets watch them
go, the doctor saying that they’re surprisingly nice people, considering. One
of the nurses agrees but adds “except the guy in blue,” and the vet agrees that
he’s a mess.
On the drive out, Leota tries to
apologize but Chris says that he doesn’t care. She said they were a team and
that was obviously a lie. So, they need to go in, finish the mission and leave,
so he doesn’t have to see her face ever again. We cut to the cavern under the
ranch and learn that there was definitely something lost in translation when
the Butterflies translated their word for this creature to Cow. Their ‘cow,’ is
a blue whale sized worm with multiple eyes that they milk for its fluid. I’m
thinking killing it is going to be tough… Hope they’re ready.
This was a fine penultimate episode
for the first season. The stakes were appropriately raised with the death of
Murn and the Butterflies prepping to move their cow. The cat and mouse game
that Chris, Adrian and Economos had to play with White Dragon was an excellent
way to slow down their effort. Props to Robert Patrick, he really sold the idea
that he’s an absolute dirtbag of a human being and a parent. He’s just such a
scumbag to Chris who clearly only ever wanted please this guy. His speech about
how Chris was a failure in his eyes was also good, in that it was passionate
and fitting for a leader of skinheads to deliver. He was objectively wrong in
his assessment of his kid. His suit was well designed too, just needed to be
said. While Chris was the one to finish his dad, as he should, I do like that
they made sure Economos and Adrian got to show off a little too. Adrian shooting
at White Dragon and being willing to blow himself to kingdom come in an attempt
to kill White Dragon was so cool. And Economos mowing down the lesser goons was
super on brand for him. And the fight between Harcourt and Judomaster was
really well choreographed. It showed off both characters hand to hand skills,
and it was neat to see her in real time prep their strategy to beat him. I
laughed hard when Leota started tasing him and didn’t stop until he was
out-out. So, the team is off to face a cow, they’ll find a worm, and who knows
how they’ll make it out. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see. Have a good
night!
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/viewer-log-ep-7-144772175
Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social
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