The 11th Street Kids cross over to the new universe to rescue Chris and find out, very quickly, just what’s going on over there.

After a careful, measured couple of episodes, James Gunn puts a brick on the gas pedal. We get a massive cameo, clarification on what’s going on and a genuinely unsettling Twilight Zone-esque ending.

All of this is punctuated by the welcome, and necessary, comedy of the 11th Street Kids’ big adventure. Adrian’s stereotypical relationship with his mom is a little dull but what follows is the sort of peak lunacy we’ve come to expect from the sweetest murder puppy in the show. The fact he’s sitting on millions of dollars of cash because ‘it’s blood money’ is funny. The shared moment where the other 11th Street kids realise he doesn’t want the money and begin frantically stuffing their pockets is hilarious. Best of all is the way the gag turns into a moment of real darkness, as the cocaine catapulted over everyone’s clothes becomes key to Harcourt being detained and the truth coming out.

Before we get there though, we get a hilarious and overdue beat with Adrian meeting Adrian. They Spider-Man meme! They bond over their shared love of animal facts! It’s adorable, and it’s the hinge that the entire season turns on. Because the one different is the ‘new’ Adrian is a hated opponent of Peacemaker and a proud member of the Sons of Liberty.

Because, as a lot of people suspected? This is a Nazi Earth.

The nested reveals of this is orchestrated like a ballet and puts one of the show’s key players, David Denman, front and centre. Keith is the wild card in this universe, a big, sweet dude who loves his family and Denman’s fundamental amiability is why we don’t see the knife coming. He has a great scene with Harcourt which reveals just how different music is ‘over here’ and delivers the episode’s best gut punch of a line. Driving past Ads, he screeches to a halt, gets out of his car and yells about a ‘black’. The line ‘One got out!’ is perfectly horrifying, yanking the curtain down to reveal the feral horror beneath it.

As the episode closes, Vigilante is about to face off with Vigilante, Economos has been captured by Auggie, Harcourt and Chris are in custody and Ads is being pursued down the street by a lynch mob. It’s an incredibly well-handled reveal and one that’s so good you overlook the fact Nicholas Hoult cameos as Lex Luthor, giving Flag Sr the key to getting to the other universe.

Verdict: Two episodes to go and even after this it looks like we’re just getting started. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart