"Peacemaker" and the Importance of Accepting Our Mistakes
While not perfect, Chris Smith’s journey in "Peacemaker" Season 2 is incredibly moving and makes me think on the importance of owning up to our mistakes as well as embracing those who try to help us. This week, I am exploring both of those ideas as I look back on the completed second season.
It feels a bit uncanny that I find myself doing yet another post about the DCU, but that just appears to be the state of superhero entertainment in 2025.
Peacemaker Season 2 recently wrapped up on HBO Max (or is it Max? HBO+? I can’t keep up).
The Peacemaker title credits, which ever so subtly tease the season's big reveal
While I think the season ended a bit abruptly, the journey that Chris Smith, a.k.a. Peacemaker, goes on during this season is profound.
This season begins with Chris Smith accidentally stumbling into a parallel universe, courtesy of a device called the Quantum Unfolding Chamber, where he finds his father still alive.
Chris keeps returning to this parallel universe, which he begins to see as a perfect world. In it, he finds that some of his biggest regrets from his own universe never happened, and he’s treated like a serious hero instead of some goofy vigilante.
Throughout the season, Chris struggles with the temptation of retreating away from his friends, the ones who love him most, into this perfect world, where (spoiler-alert) everything isn’t quite what it seems.
Peacemaker Season 2 takes us on a journey with Chris Smith to this parallel universe to remind us not only that our mistakes shape us but also that the people around us make life worthwhile.
The Perfect World
What if there was a world where all the biggest mistakes you made were undone and you could start fresh?
That’s the central question Chris Smith faces in Season 2.
When Chris accidentally stumbles upon this alternate world, he initially finds that his father is still alive.
Upon returning to the world repeatedly, he learns that his brother (who he accidentally killed as a child when his dad made the two fight…it’s pretty awful) and another man, Rick Flag (who he killed during the events of The Suicide Squad), are both alive as well.
The events that haunt Chris in his universe never happened here.
After hitting a dead end back home, Chris feels even more tempted to retreat to this perfect world. Eventually, his friends catch on to his plan to run away and try to stop him.
"Chris, no matter how green the grass is over there, our biggest problems in life are the one that we carry within ourselves. Everything else evens out. This is where God put you. You belong here." – Leota Adebayo, Peacemaker Season 2
I love Adebayo’s plea to Chris.
Our mistakes do shape us. All the things that happen throughout our life, good and bad, lead us to where we are today. We would be different people if we simply got to choose the events that happened to us.
Chris is tempted to retreat to this world where he hasn’t done any wrong, but he fails to realize how his mistakes have shaped him.
Amor Fati
Adebayo’s notion of embracing your problems, and even owning them, reminds me of the idea of amor fati, love of fate.
My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary…but love it. – Friedrich Nietzsche, Ecce Homo
This idea was present with Stoics like Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius and more recently with Nietzsche.
Love of fate is owning everything that happens to you in this life, good or bad. It isn’t to say that tragedy or suffering are good things, but rather that they’re necessary. Try as we may, bad things will happen to us. Pain is inevitable.
Chris becomes a friend to those around him through his suffering. We become who we are because of ours.
Suffering is unavoidable in this life, so Nietzsche and Epictetus and Marcus all suggest that we embrace it.
To love fate is to accept the confines in which we live so that we can move forward and make the most of our time.
The Ones Who Matter Most
The importance of having a community presents itself as another big idea present in Peacemaker Season 2.
Chris’ friends, the 11th Street Kids, break into this parallel universe to bring him home.
During the rescue, Chris’ parallel-universe brother attacks them, angry at Chris for killing the parallel version of himself. (I’m trying to keep these parallel versions of the characters straight.)
Chris lies in front of his friends defending him from his brother, and he almost has to witness his brother’s death for the second time.
Upon returning to his main universe, Chris is broken. He believes that everyone he touches dies and has good reason to believe so. His friends bail him out of jail, but Chris just runs away to isolate himself in this depressed stupor.
At a low point, Chris refuses any contact. His friends, again, have to come rescue him, not from a parallel universe this time but from Chris’ own depression. They remind him that he’s loved.
When you are truly who you are, Chris Smith, what happens? … You touch people man. I believe in miracles because of you. I saw an eagle hug a human. I know who I am because of you. And when I’m around you, I feel loved. – Leota Adebayo, Peacemaker Season 2
That is the importance of community in our life, whether its blood family or chosen friends.
We are often too terrible towards ourselves. We say things in our heads that we wouldn’t ever dare to think about those we love most. We need external help from time to time.
Alone and isolated, Chris finds himself unable to ask for help. He thinks that if he reaches out to the 11st Street Kids, he’ll end up hurting them. His friends are there to remind him who he is and that he’s important to them.
This is the importance of community to the individual.
‘Tis the Season
This idea of the importance of community reminds me of another tale. I know it’s early to be getting into the holiday spirit, but Peacemaker Season 2 makes me think of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
Much like Chris Smith, Ebenezer Scrooge is a man who has turned away from the world but goes on to be redeemed by embracing the people around him.
“It is required of every man…that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide; and, if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death.” – the ghost of Jacob Marley, A Christmas Carol
Scrooge might be the world’s most famous curmudgeon. He’s selfish and despicable and says “bah, humbug!” every now and then.
When visited by Jacob Marley’s ghost, Scrooge faces the error of his ways and begins to progress toward change with the help of the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future.
In the past, we see Scrooge as a child embracing community before being corrupted by the lure of money (his fiancé leaves him because she knows that Scrooge loves gold more than her).
“No space of regret can make amends for one life's opportunity misused” – the ghost of Jacob Marley, A Christmas Carol
In the present, Scrooge experiences the joy of a Christmas market, full of people celebrating. He also meets the famous Tiny Tim, who will die from illness soon unless something changes.
In the future, Scrooge witnesses his funeral, attended only by one man. Asking if anyone feels emotion at his passing, Scrooge sees only one couple, and they’re happy he’s dead.
This experience changes Scrooge for the better. He awakes on Christmas Day a new man who isn’t shying away from the world. Instead of forgoing companionship for gold, Scrooge embraces community.
“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.” – A Christmas Carol
Much like Chris Smith, Scrooge realizes the impact he can have, for the better, on those around him.
It's a Hungry World
Plot-wise, Peacemaker Season 2 doesn’t do the best job of knocking down all the dominos it set up. As far as its protagonist goes, though, the season does a great job taking us on a journey with Chris Smith.
Chris faces the ultimate temptation: a perfect world where his wrongs are undone. He even falls prey to this temptation and needs his friends to rescue him.
The mistakes he’s made shape Chris for better and for worse. He learns that failing to listen to his voice, his conscience, causes much of the pain he’s experienced. He can only be who he is because of who he was.
He also learns the importance of having friends around him. Chris doesn’t want to rescue himself in the end and needs his friends to do so.
Peacemaker Season 2 reminds us that we do not have to be perfect to deserve love. We don’t have to embrace every decision we make, but we can at least accept the role they play in becoming who we are.
It’s a powerful lesson wrapped up in a fun narrative. James Gunn tells a powerful story about a man who just needs some help.
Just like we all do from time to time.
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