Chris flees from ARGUS and Ads discovers the secret origin of the Peacemaker helmets and the door. Flag Sr makes Harcourt an impossible offer. Economos comes through.

This episode has caught some flack from fans and it’s easy to see why. It starts with Chris and Eagly fleeing ARGUS and it ends with… Chris and Eagly fleeing ARGUS. But in between we get some major reveals and some pretty clear set up for the second half of the season.

First off, the offhand reveal that Chris’ dad shot and killed an alien and stole their dimensional technology is that thing the show does so well; mundane, and otherworldly, terrifying and sad. The horror Chris and Keith feel when they see the creature, the ugly nature of the death, the outlandish image of the door into the clean other world in the middle of the forest. It all works brilliantly.

But where it really sings is in how the show uses the door as a map through Chris’ past. It’s implied, heavily, that the Peacemaker helmets and White Dragon armour are alien technology, or possibly even stolen from one of the other universes. Chris’ offhand reference to there being 99 of them suggests strongly that he or his dad have spent some time exploring in there. It also subtly reinforces that Chris, a man who has defined himself as a weapon for peace, has spent his life trying and failing to outrun the hypocrisy of that concept, the racism and abuse he grew up steeped in, his own sexuality and the interstellar moral bankruptcy of his father. That’s incredibly heavy stuff and the show delivers all of it with a lightness of touch and dramatic weight that’s startling.

The other interesting gear change this episode is the focus. This is largely a Chris and Ads episode, but we also got the long-awaited and massively fun rematch with Judomaster and Economos’ finest hour to date. The way Economos was written was one of my few big issues with the first season and it’s great to see the fat jokes start to recede (at last) and the big guy get his due. He’s still not great with people but whether it’s putting Fleury in his place, possibly opening Red St. Wild’s third eye or buying Chris the time he needs, Economos is The Guy this episode and it’s great to see. Especially as Michael Rooker is visibly having a blast as Red St Wild, now he’s decided Eagly is the ruler of the Eagles and the one he’s destined to kill…

Over in the B plot, Flag Sr offers Harcourt a Faustian bargain. We also get the first overt mention of Waller in a while, and this seems to set up some of the still on the books Waller miniseries. Despite Harcourt almost dying stopping the Butterflies, Waller decided she was going to be the scapegoat. The offhand way she ruined her agent’s life, and how badly Harcourt is dealing with it, is one of the darkest elements of the show. Another is how readily Flag manipulates a woman who is at least notionally his friend to get what he wants. And Harcourt knows. And she goes along anyway because she doesn’t have any other choice.

Which brings us back to Chris, driving towards Harcourt, suspicious and going anyway. Ostensibly it’s the same situation the episode opens with but in reality, it sets up the second half of the season.

Verdict: Harcourt’s about to betray Chris, Chris is about to get caught and we’re about to get much more information on those other universes and, perhaps, the true origin of the Peacemaker… 8/10

Alasdair Stuart