Peacemaker faces swarm of cops and Butterflies in “Murn After Reading”

After learning about Murn’s dark (not so) secret identity as a Butterfly, Agent Adebayo gets whiplash when she learns she’ll need to work together with someone she thought was the enemy. Meanwhile, Peacemaker and Vigilante just barely escape being arrested by the cops, who suffer their own surprise attack, and Auggie Smith returns home to rally his clan and prepares to face his son. All this and a jar of nectar in Episode 6 of Peacemaker, “Murn After Reading”.

And, as a Coen’s fan, respect for the episode title pun.

So, has my opinion of Peacemaker as a show gone up again as it has for that last couple episodes? Weeell, yeah. Maybe. Okay, I’ll be honest, I’m not sure. Let’s break this down.

On the one hand — and at this point if feels redundant to harp on it — the humor still bugs me…a lot. There are still a lot of cultural references, still a lot of ad libbing, still scenes with no consequence to the story. Like that scene of Peacemaker in a children’s class. I struggle to see the point, let alone the humor.

However, let’s put that all aside. It’s expected now, and me yelling about it might fall into Einstein’s definition of insanity. Putting the jokes aside, I’m happy to see that the story is really ramping up and going in directions I thought the show would be too pussyfooted to tread. Let’s talk about them, but beware SPOILERS.

Peacemaker takes some unexpected (and welcome) turns

Having the pair of cops get mind controlled by Butterflies was incredibly unexpected. Based on Murn’s dialogue earlier in the episode, I think it’s safe to say those characters are dunzo, right? I mean, if a parasite ate through my brain to control me, I hope I’d be dead. (Then again, this raises questions about why the bodies they control don’t rot away. Oh well, they’re aliens, I’m sure there’s some sci-fi logic to it.) Personally I’m kind of happy with this development if it means fewer jokes. But I also commend the shows bravery for crossing a line it can’t uncross. It sure makes things more interesting, don’t it?

So there are some exciting things about this story, but at the same time I’ve got some disappointments I need to air, mainly with Murn’s situation. We learned a couple of episodes ago that he is in fact a Butterfly. Then last episode, we are left with the cliffhanger of him confronting Agent Adebayo after she finds out. And then…it turns out he’s a rebel Butterfly fighting against his kind, all the other agents already knew, and there’s not much of a change in dynamic. Doesn’t that feel a little…I don’t know…bait-and-switchy? Granted, Peacemaker is kept in the dark about it for some reason. That’s clearly a bomb in the show to go off later, but I wonder, so what if he knows? It’s not like he has any choice but to continue to work with Murn, and it doesn’t change the team’s collective objective: their aim is still to stop the Butterflies.

My last nitpick this episode: what happened to Vigilante? I know he’s been shown not to be the brightest bulb in the warehouse, but in this episode it’s like he was kicked in the head by a mule. He doesn’t understand the simple idea of “one for yes two for no.” And I get it, it’s for the sake of humor. But, shocker: the humor is bad. Honestly that is one of my least favorite forms of comedy: having a character act as oblivious as Patrick Star.

But hey, we get a nice escape sequence with the cops going after Peacemaker, a cool montage of the police station getting taken over by the Butterflies and Auggie gearing up. And I have to admit there was some pretty effective emotional development for Peacemaker. (Did you know John Cena could play the piano? I didn’t.)

This episode has its pros and cons, and while I think Peacemaker as a whole may have hit a plateau with me, it has lifted itself up from the pits I thought it would wallow in based on the premiere.

Play it again, Peacemaker.

Grade: C

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