Well since the Bandwagon Nerds are buried in other shows, the tumultuous triple triad decided this show’s title just goes too well with our show name. So as a cheap excuse for a literary reference, and to spread the good word of hair metal and John Cena, POD is WAR will be reviewing Peacemaker!

• Show: Peacemaker
• Streaming Service: HBO Max
• IMDB: 8.7/10
• Rotten Tomatoes: Critics – 94% / Audience – 85%

 War & Peacemaker Review: Monkey Dory

Andrew: This episode continued to build from the tone of the last one, where there’s still plenty of stupid humor, but it’s cleverly applied and some of the stupidity cuts through as almost insightful. Be it kicking off things during a Power Point presentation about how Butterflies enter the body, or their odd bonding experience in the van. The entirety of the episode was this really odd team building moment.

We learn that even though Peacemaker has been giving Economos relentless shit over framing his father, “dye beard” comments and just general ineptitude; they finally bond! Oddly enough, over Hanoi Rocks. So since Peacemaker loves Hanoi Rocks, Economos has lyrics tattooed on his forearm from 11^th Street Kids, Peacemaker finally softens on the bullying. Though it was establish through Vigilante, that bullying is how Peacemaker has worked his entire life. Usually insulting nicknames about someone’s penis, but still, bullying is his way of connecting.

As we get to the building that was under investigation from the crew, Peacemaker has an X-Ray Vision helmet that allows him to see that everyone there is a Butterfly and he starts popping off and killing some aliens. They decide to go from the office to the warehouse, and the rest of the team is brought into the operation. Vigilante wants to bring a chainsaw, but Harcourt says that’s stupid.

So we get a kill count higher than Charlie Sheen in Hot Shots! Part Deux. Peacemaker even invented a grenade attached to a Russian tank shell as a way to kill more things faster. A great line in the episode comes from here when Leota says “Weren’t you going to tell me to run?!” and Peacemaker looks at her serious as a heart attack and responds with “I need to tell you to run away from a bomb?!”; the cliché action movie screaming run moment is completely turned on its head by Peacemaker’s common sense/wisdom from ignorance.

Finally the reason for the title, is that apparently there was a giant gorilla who was possessed by a Butterfly who is the protector of the warehouse, Charlie, is his name. So I guess you could say…Charles…is in charge *pauses for groans*; nailed it! Long and short, Economos shows up with the chainsaw to kill the gorilla, Peacemaker now respects him. They’re all happy and celebrating after the big successful operation, so much so even Harcourt smiles a little, takes a picture and makes a group chat called 11^th Street Kids. So it was really a great bonding experience.

Of course things happen at the end to keep the series moving, but this was really a great mid-season peak to push us through the last few episodes and keep us invested regardless of how the last few go. Great episode.

Andrew’s Rating: 4.8/10

PC Tunney: Tunney was unable to come to Episode Five’s review due to going into a pool and dealing with some “shrinkage”. Due to the embarrassment, he had to say it rather than type it so go check out Pod Is War from this week.

Tunney’s Rating: 5/5

Adam: During the episode intro where Peacemaker is insulting Economos more so then usual with Dye Beard’s PowerPoint presentations , you could tell that there will be some bonding going on and that’s what happened this episode all together. Peacemaker is still his lovable, jock self during the car ride to the factory, trying to lighten the mood and hype everyone up where he finds some awkward connection with Economos during the trip with the song of choice. Harcourt and Leota play some Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who will be the team while Economos stays behind in the van like usual. Vigilante and Peacemaker get dumb with their weaponry selection because they just seem excited to kill some aliens to the point Vigilante has a chainsaw but is told to leave it behind.

Since Peacemaker raided his father’s quantum closet for more helmet’s, this new one comes in handy. It’s an X-Ray Helmet and he can see people’s skulls to see if a Butterfly is in them or not. Oh yeah, the father… Well he finally got to talk to the detectives about him getting framed by whoever and it was Peacemaker that did everything and they finally found the hard evidence and did a fingerprint check manually to confirm that the White Dragon doesn’t match the prints at the crime scene. Now that they know this, they are going to try to catch Peacemaker and in turn, let the father go.

Back in the warehouse, the two teams go and get through to the main scope of things with Butterflies needing a certain type of fluid to keep themselves nourished that is being stored in this building. As both teams dig deeper and deeper in the building, they lose radio connection with Economos and he now has to handle things himself since everyone went dark. The gang goes into some sort of control center and get jumped by a gorilla of all things and get a beating of a lifetime until Economos sneaks in WITH THE FREAKING CHAINSAW and slices the gorilla in half. THE DORKIEST CHARACTER BY FAR GOT THE ABSOLUTE GREATEST KILL IN THE SHOW!

After everyone leaves, we get a nice little bonding moment between the team. Peacemaker and Economos are rocking out, Leota and Vigilante are getting into the hype… and even Harcourt does too, taking a picture of the group and making a group chat with all of them called ‘The 11^th Street Crew”. With all of this set, Leota drops off Peacemaker and finally plants the diary that Waller told her to do and the plot soon thickens as she returns to Headquarters. There we see a moment where she puts on Peacemaker’s X Ray Helmet and discovers what we were shown the last episode, Murn is a Butterfly.

There is a short chase before Leota falls and it cuts to black on a cliffhanger for the next episode.

Adam’s Rating: 5/5

POD is WAR Consensus Rating on Peacemaker – Monkey Dory: 4.93/5