Episode 4 features some of the biggest reveals in "Peacemaker" so far.
Will White Dragon armor up for a big CGI-heavy finale?
Will Vigilante ever find acceptance? And what's Murn's ultimate goal, anyway?
Towards the end of Episode 4, Peacemaker has a heart-to-heart with Harcourt in the same bar
where the two chatted in Episode 1. After noting that Leota knew about his difficult upbringing,
Peacemaker inquires about his file. Harcourt eventually admits that Peacemaker's file
says that White Dragon trained him to kill from a very young age
and that Peacemaker was involved in his own brother's mysterious death. Peacemaker is
clearly disturbed that his "friends" have such intimate knowledge of one of his worst memories.
Returning home, Peacemaker lights up a bong and dances while "House of Pain" by Faster
Pussycat plays in his trailer. Sadly, the music appears to be a limited comfort to
the emotionally scarred superhero. A series of flashbacks show a mullet-wearing White Dragon
forcing a young Peacemaker to kill a man tied to a chair.
As Peacemaker also remembers killing Rick Flag in "The Suicide Squad," he collapses to the ground,
where Eagly and Goff study him as he mourns the loss of his brother many decades earlier. No
doubt we'll find out exactly who's responsible for his brother's death in a future episode.
Episode 4 is where we see Leota's natural ability as an intelligence officer shine.
Because White Dragon has become such a haunting force in Peacemaker's life,
Leota subtly suggests that Vigilante murder the white supremacist leader. Her skill at
manipulating Vigilante to do her bidding is markedly reminiscent of that of her mother, Amanda
Waller. However, Leota's skills go well beyond the manipulation of a psychopath like Vigilante.
Upon returning to the team's headquarters, Leota and Peacemaker discover that Judomaster has
escaped, incapacitated John Economos, and is on the run. Peacemaker engages Judomaster in a fight,
but the martial arts master is suddenly gunned down by Leota.
While Leota is unable to pull the trigger on a former Secret Service agent in Episode 3,
the lectures from Harcourt appear to be making a difference in her willingness to kill.
"Sure, ignore your God-given natural talent."
We have to imagine her mother would be pleased by this development.
As the episode comes to a close, Leota is seen working late at the team headquarters,
when she suddenly recognizes the logo of a bottling company
named "Glan Tai" on a bulletin board from the home of Senator Royland Goff.
Searching through the contents of Annie Sturphausen's purse, she finds an access
card for the same business. There's no doubt this business is connected to the Butterflies.
Episode 4 is making something clear: However vile and hateful Peacemaker's father may be,
White Dragon is no fool. Early on in the episode, Peacemaker retrieves a number of helmets built
by his father and explains to Vigilante what his father's "closet" actually is.
"It's a quantum unfolding storage area. It leads to a dimensional nodule outside of normal space."
"I guess your dad's pretty brainy for a racist to make a place like this."
Later, after succumbing to Leota's manipulation, Vigilante attempts to
goad White Dragon into attacking him. Though his fellow white supremacists follow the bait hook,
line and sinker, White Dragon quickly sees through the ploy and insists that he talk with
Detective Sophie Song. While he has previously made his hatred for his son abundantly clear,
White Dragon's next moves are sure to even further complicate their relationship. We have to imagine
that his army of white supremacists aren't going to take too kindly to Vigilante's attempt
to murder him, especially given his assumption that Peacemaker orchestrated it. Not to mention,
we'd be very surprised if his supervillain costume doesn't get some use in the finale.
Around the same time that Vigilante is released from prison, Murn sits in his
apartment watching the laughing gas scene from "Lethal Weapon 4."
However, the task force captain appears entirely emotionless while watching.
Instead of feasting on a bowl of popcorn,
Murn is revealed to be eating the same amber fluid found at the home of the Butterflies.
The revelation that Murn is actually a Butterfly is certainly surprising,
but it also makes a lot of sense in the context of previous events. In Episode 3,
Murn admits to Economos that he is saddened by the things he has done in the past,
but doesn't go into detail about how he came to be remorseful and also doesn't appear to be overly
emotional about it. Oddly, he notes that it is the first time he's ever shared a feeling with anyone.
"Come on, you've never shared any feeling."
"Nope."
"Like you've never even said like 'oh my god, I'm hungry.'"
"No."
Later, when Peacemaker describes the purple trunks coming out of the mouths of the Goff family,
Murn doesn't hesitate in delivering an order to assassinate the senator, his wife and their two
children. Murn's Butterfly status also makes this moment from early in episode 4 highly suspect.
"It's my dad, man, Jesus. Do you have a f---ing dad?"
"I did. I wasn't created in a petri dish."
While Murn's exact paternal origins remain a mystery at this point,
a petri dish no longer sounds as unlikely as it did before.
Every episode of "Peacemaker" ends with a post-credits scene that expands on another
scene from the episode that just finished airing. Episode 4 ends with a return to
White Dragon's quantum unfolding storage area, where Peacemaker argues with Vigilante over the
troubling connection between Peacemaker's mission and his father's overt racism.
In the original scene, Peacemaker is angry when Vigilante proclaims that
"If it walks like a duck, it's either a duck or a duck wearing some kind of human costume."
Peacemaker insists that couldn't work, noting,
"A duck in a human costume. The sizes are completely incompatible!"
While he points this out in the original scene,
he goes on at length about it in the extended edition.
"You've had a lot of f---ing stupid ideas, but a duck in a human costume,
that's the stupidest idea you've ever f---ing had and it's offensive to me because I have a soul,"
This definitely seems like a wink-wink moment from James Gunn, considering that the size difference
between humans and Butterflies is clearly not an obstacle to their human disguises.
New episodes of "Peacemaker" drop on HBO Max every Thursday.
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Looper videos about Peacemaker
are coming soon. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.