Chris settles into Alt-Chris’ life, just in time for it to explode. Meanwhile over in the core universe, Flag Sr makes his move.

Gunn turns over a serious card this episode with the surprise return of Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag Jr. In one scene we get his return, the reveal that he and Harcourt were in a relationship prior to Suicide Squad and on top of that, the reveal that Flag Jr was cheating on June Moon aka The Enchantress with Harcourt. At the same time as effortlessly bringing the DCEU’s most controversial child in from the cold, Gunn brilliantly changes our perceptions of three characters here. We see Flag Jr as a far more flawed man than we’ve previously been led to believe and Harcourt’s reluctance to be with Chris gets a lot more context. Interestingly, it doesn’t blunt the edge of Chris murdering him. Instead we see his position in the not-quite relationship for what it is: someone with very few of the facts who thinks he has everything and is acting accordingly.

That in turn leads into a serious deep dive into the alternate Earth, Chris’ mistaken beliefs powering him across the divide and into a world that seems fine but is… off in increasingly unsettling ways. The city of Evergreen is 1950s level perfect, and Chris and the Top Trio are its beloved heroes but there’s tension to these scenes that reminded me of the Twilight Zone of all things. There’s something wrong about the second universe, and fan speculation is rampant that this is a universe where the Nazis won World War 2 and Chris and his family are the white supremacist superheroes his dad always dreamed of becoming. There’s strong evidence of that here, with the extended scenes ‘over there’ featuring entirely white supporting casts and a subtly realised sense of unease. That sense explodes, literally, as the Sons of Liberty terrorist organisation attack the DMV in an ongoing campaign of terror against government infrastructure.  That leads to a riotously nasty action sequence where Chris straight up kills a guy with a photocopier and saves the day just in time for his brother to arrive and stop the survivors escaping.

But again, there’s unease. This isn’t a fight, it’s an absolute massacre. The Sons of Liberty members look terrified, unwell. The offhand savagery of Chris’ brother flying through their helicopter and dropping it entirely too near the crowd registers with us and Chris alike. Even Harcourt, over here, is a skirt wearing, soft-hearted figure with none of the angst but also little of the drive of the original. The hot dogs are weird. The pop culture is… off. It’s a beautifully executed descent into the Uncanny Valley, or given how Americana it is, perhaps the Uncanny Hill Valley. I can’t wait to see if the theories are true and if not, just what’s going on over there.

The episode is rounded out with some fun stuff with the 11th Street Kids as they recover from the party and Economos realising that ARGUS are going to war with Chris and Eagly and he’s along for the ride, along with his new partner, Judomaster. The cut-off scream here is absolutely perfect and drops the episode nimbly onto the line between comedy and horror, humour and pathos, right and wrong and two Earths.

Verdict: Great stuff once again. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart