Main cast: John Cena (Christopher Smith/Peacemaker), Danielle Brooks (Leota Adebayo), Freddie Stroma (Adrian Chase/Vigilante), Chukwudi Iwuji (Clemson Murn), Jennifer Holland (Agent Emilia Harcourt), Steve Agee (John Economos), Annie Chang (Detective Sophie Song), Lochlyn Munro (Detective Larry Fitzgibbon), Elizabeth Faith Ludlow (Keeya Adebayo), Rizwan Manji (Jamil), Christopher Heyerdahl (Captain Caspar Locke), and Robert Patrick (Auggie Smith)
Director: James Gunn
Has Murn’s constant overlooking of the need to share details with key people in his operations finally caught up with him in Murn After Reading? Well, for one, he didn’t tell anyone that he’s a Butterfly himself.
Oh, come on, if you have read the reviews this far and haven’t watched any of the show, you deserve to get spoiled. Besides, this fact was revealed two episodes ago anyway, so I should be commended on waiting until the episode with Murn’s name in the title before sharing this news.
Well, Adebayo discovered this after accidentally spotting the Butterfly in Murn’s head while messing around with Peacemaker’s X-ray vision helmet at the end of the previous episode, but fortunately, Murn’s the rogue Butterfly that wants to stop the queen from leading a Butterly invasion and take over Earth.
Oh, and Harcourt and Economos know, and they didn’t tell Adebayo because no one trusts her not to tell her mother Amanda Waller, whom they trust even less. Yes, Adebayo is Waller’s daughter. That fact was revealed in the first episode, so at this point, it’s hardly a spoiler so stop giving me that look.
Now, who’s going to tell Peacemaker and Vigilante?
To be fair, Peacemaker doesn’t tell them that he has the Butterfly Queen trapped in a jar in his place, so I suppose he can’t be too indignant at being left in the dark.
Anyway, Song got a judge to issue an arrest warrant for Peacemaker, so he has bigger things to worry about. Oh, and his father decides that it’s time to do away with him.
In the end, though, it doesn’t matter, because the stupidity of Vigilante and Peacemaker means that the Butterfly Queen gets a new host. Worst, this host summons more Butterflies onto Earth to take over basically the entire police department of the neighborhood, so yay, now the hunters have become the hunted.
This episode sees a few key plot developments to keep the story going, but at this point, it’s pretty clear where the end game is, as Mr Gunn has made it very clear that there is only one food source for these Butterflies on this planet, so gee, I wonder how these alien critters are ever going to be defeated.
Oh, and Harcourt and Peacemaker have some pretty gruesome flirting thing going on—gruesome because Jennifer Holland and John Cena have little chemistry or even screen time together to make this thing believable. It all feels forced, as if Mr Gunn was just finding ways to make his sweetheart have a bigger role on this show. That or he imagines himself to be Peacemaker, I guess.
There are some great key scenes that boast some funky choreography and kick-ass music, but for the most part, this feels like a slower, draggier episode after the previous two. It’s still a decent watch, but I feel more excited about finding out what will happen in the next episode, than about this episode itself.
