ScreenCrush: The Podcast! - Peacemaker Season 2 Episode 6 Breakdown - Every Clue about [SPOILER] & DCU Easter Eggs!

Episode Date: September 26, 2025

ScreenCrush The Podcast tackles all the movie and TV hot topics, offering reviews and analysis of Marvel, Star Wars, and everything you care about right now. Hosted by Ryan Arey, and featuring a panel of industry professionals.

Peacemaker episode six spoilers are ahead. So this episode confirmed our theory about the other universe, and it gave us a huge setup for the Superman sequel, Man of Tomorrow. Welcome back Screen Crush, I'm Ryan Erie, and this is all of the Easter eggs references and little things you might have missed in Peacemaker Season 2, episode 6, ignorance is Chris. So this is one of the three episodes this season that are completely written and directed by James Gunn,

and the cast have said in several interviews that this was their favorite episode this season, and now I can see why. Although, I wasn't surprised by any of the twist. First of all, look, we threw out a lot of theories when we do these breakdowns. And way back in episode two, we said that, hey, this other universe might just be led by Nazis. That's what a Nazi would say. And we were incredibly right. So I'm sorry if I spoiled that for anybody, but I swear we did not know.

This episode revealed that this other dimension is likely Earth X from the comics. Now, in this dimension, the Nazis won World War II and conquered America. But there's also a resistance group called the Freedom Fighters, led by the hero Uncle Sam. Now, in this universe, it seems like the freedom fighters have been replaced by the Sons of Liberty, which is too bad because I would love to see a literal Uncle Sam punching Nazis in this franchise. The episode opens on EarthX with Chris's perfect moment, his dad and brother, the woman he loves, all together, and he is a respected superhero. Now, all season long, we have pointed out little clues that something was off in this

universe, just like what Harcourt said here. I haven't seen a single person of color ever since I've been here. And in hindsight, there were clues all throughout this season. For instance, in the opening, we see Keith whose superhero name is Captain Triumph, and that name is a big clue. The most famous Nazi propaganda film of all time is called Triumph of the Will. We also pointed out that Chris had a royal crest in his bathroom, which is unusual for an American patriotic hero. And remember, Keith barely blinked when Chris brought an eagle home, because Eagles were also a symbol used by Nazis.

Are you a Nazi? Also, in the opening dance, John Cena's first two dance moves, one put together, make a swastika. And we even saw an ashtray in the library of the Alt Smith House, with a very faint schwasica-like design. So Chris and his family are celebrating after taking out a kaiju last episode. And Gund then adds in this creepy moment where the selfie suddenly starts to melt,

distorting everyone's faces. It's a visual way to show us that this universe is not what it seems and that everybody here is warped and twisted. To that point, the song that plays here is Little Drops of Heaven by Pretty Mades. So it's about someone coming out of a moment of darkness and despair, how meeting a certain person or a group of people change their life for the better,

which is exactly what Chris thinks this universe is. He thinks it's his little drop of heaven until the people literally turn into drops. But all of these differences were small enough for Chris to not notice. He was so tied into his own life that he failed to see the wider world around him. He saw what he wanted to see. Like the title implies, Ignorance is Chris, which is a play on Ignorance is Bliss. And this theme of characters being self-involved and narcissistic is revisited again and again in this episode. Adrian is obsessed with meeting himself because he is a sociopathic narcissist. What do you guys think the chances are we need another me in there?

Rick Flagg does not care about actually running his agency because he is obsessed with avenging his son. So he has to seek out the help of another narcissist, Lex Luthor. Hell, even out of bio has been incredibly self-involved this season, unable to see that she was being solicited for sex last episode. No offense, but it sounded like you and that guy were having a prostitution conversation. Harcourt is also unable to look past her pain and actually deal with the feeling she has for Chris. Instead, she goes out every night and seeks punishment in bar fights.

And I love how this narcissism actually ties into the greater overall theme of this show. I mean, the show is about found, family, and community. Gun's favorite types of stories are about outcasts that somehow find a place together. So the arc of this season is that everyone has to move past their own narrow worldview and accept the world as it actually is, and not how they wish it could be. Harcourt has to accept that her time as a government agent is over. Chris has to accept that his brother is dead and his dad is an asshole. And maybe he'll always be a joke in his own universe.

And believe it or not, this theme of narrow-mindedness is also exemplified through Flurry in his bird blindness condition. Now, he's a comedic example of yet another character who is unwilling to see the world as it really is. Blame him, I told him about the eagle. You told me it was a duck. And the lesson here is that when you ignore the world around you and only focus on yourself, you can suddenly find yourself surrounded by Nazis. But I should note that bird blindness is an actual condition that afflicts almost two people a year. So to show your support, why not buy this give a hoot about bird blindness to,

t-shirt at our merch store. We also have awesome new peacemaker designs. I'm excited to show you guys, like the Akira Peace Cycle parody. Do you want to taste it with an eagle? And a Peanuts parody shirt with Peacemaker and Eagley is Charlie Brown and Woodstock. Not to mention my favorite, Where's the Dog? And if you want a discount to our merch store, come to our last live show of the tour in New York in October 11th for Comic Con weekend. Me and the team have some awesome stuff planned. I'm so excited to show you. We're going to have exclusive breakdowns, meeting greets, Q&A's, comedy, stand-up, sketch and you only get this show once. Then it's done and we move on. Ticket links are below. I really hope you guys can make it. It's going to be a lot of fun. Now, back to the episode where

we learned that Argus does not know vigilante's secret identity. And this is actually a bigger deal than you might think. It means that Argus isn't like an omnipresent government agency. There are heroes running around with total autonomy, which means, for example, that unlike in the comics, Amanda Waller would not have figured out that Batman is Bruce Wayne. He is? I love that Adrian's mom is like literally the best mom in the world. You must be John. Uh-huh. Jesus.

You're not that dorky. She even filled in with his D&D group, saying, You didn't have enough players. So I became a 40th level cut purse. I mean, that's just wrong. Characters stop leveling at 20 and cut purse isn't even a class. Also notice that his mom loves Christmas. All these decorations are like neatly packed and ready to explode on the first day after Thanksgiving.

But then she spills the beans on Adrian's life. I am so sorry if Adrian hurt you. Mom, shut up. Excuse me? I was just so excited that he had a girlfriend. Mom, shut up. Girlfriend. Yeah, I haven't seen anyone that embarrassed

since they found Barclay's program on the Holladeck. But Adrian having a mother is also sort of a retcon. See, in episode three last season, Amelia threatens him. If you fuck up this mission, I will kill your fucking family. To which he responds with, Oh, okay, good luck. A little late for that. Insinuating that his family was dead.

However, this was before he unmastered, of the group, so maybe he could have just been covering and trying to look tough. What we do know is that he's gut chase his younger brother and he was the one who was actually friends with Peacemaker. We also know that his dad is gay, which Chris made fun of in season one. Well, yeah, your dad left your mom for another dude. Hey. He did?

Hence Adrian's remark later. I mean, Dad's not gay here. Also, I have to point out that Economos is wearing this three raccoon moon shirt. So this is a play on the three Wolf Moon shirt, which went viral for attracting hilarious reviews on Amazon. For instance, the original review by Brian Governe reads, pros. Fits my girthy frame, has wolves on it, attracts women. Cons, only three wolves. I have to get a raccoon version of that shirt ASAP. Adrian's compound looks like a stash house from the wire and his friends treat it like their cops in the wire. Yeah, man, you don't want to deal with blood money and that shit goes to the

grave with you. Trust me. Hey, I love the small detail that his morality is all over the place. Like Adrian is a okay with killing, as he said on multiple occasions. Don't worry about me. me, I never kill prostitutes. Her lives are hard enough. Only Johns. Or yet, he's not going to use any of his blood money or flush his stashed down the toilet out of fear for alligator safety. That boy ain't right. And in his Beanie Baby closet, notice we have spot the dancing Dalmatian on the bottom shelf. Love that thing. And also, he says, I'm pretty sure the market is about to bounce back and they're going to be worth

a shitload. And, hey, by the way, here's some collector history for you, young geeks out there. After the comic book bust in the mid-1990s, Beanie babies were a collectible that actually kept a lot of comic book shops afloat. In fact, my old shop constantly ran magic tournaments and Beanie Baby sales to stay afloat for a few years. Castle Comics, Portsmouth or Higher, support your local comic book shop, please. Buddy, I don't think you should be mentioned... I said, please! Now, we have spent a lot of time in our videos speculating about the portal actually being a boom tube. Now, in the comics, these are portals that were invented on New Genesis, a world which is at constant war with the planet Apocalypse,

which is ruled by the villain Dark Side. And I'm just going to say, I still think this theory is true, especially the way the portal literally booms when it activates. Is this what it's supposed to do? In the QUC, Adrian once again begins to get quizzed on animals, but now he's moved on to being wrong about alligators, continuing his six-episode streak of wrong animal facts.

Are owl's eyes, or tubes? Orbs? Nope, they're tubes. Alligator have four stomachs. That's cows. And notice how he tries to clean up John and kind of fons over him. Sort of like how he washed his pants and gave him a kiss a few episodes ago. But by the way, John is wrong when he says this.

Peace sign means you in England and we speak the same language. It means up yours, not fuck you. I mean, technically the peace sign means a peace sign and the inverted sign means up yours. Hey. That was weird. John also calls the unfriendly alien a xenomorph, which of course is a nod to your mom. Adrian is also obsessed with the idea that his friendship with Chris is a multiple multiversal constant. Now, this concept is a key plot point in the Spider-Verse films.

It's the idea that in every universe, certain things always happen, like the Big Bang or Uncle Ben dying, or dinosaurs getting died off, or multiverse stories getting stale. In the QUC, we see Peacemaker's Shield, which, by the way, does not exist in the comics and was first introduced in the finale last season. Gunn actually invented it for this character, as he intended for Peacemaker to originally be a kind of douchey Captain America during the production of the Suicide Squad. Out of bio says about the QUC, Me being Methodist, huh? Referring to their conversation on Chris's front porch

in episode two this season. It's normal to me. It's like you being a Christian scientist or whatever. I'm not Christian science. What are you then? Well, don't practice much, but I'm Methodist. Oh yeah? Audubio, like Chris, is also friendly to the alien.

Now, nothing really known about this alien yet. It's just listed as the Crophotic alien in the credits, which by the way, Crophotic aliens don't exist in the DC comic canon. However, we did theorize back in episode one that it could either be a daemonite from the wild story, universe or an Eschaton demon from the new gods comics, which have actually been referenced a lot this season. Damonites would make sense because they're kind of guardians of the wall of the multiverse. And of course, as we keep talking about, we think that the endgame here is for James Gunn to be setting up a conflict between new Genesis and apocalypse, which will form the Justice League. But again, I got theories in the Justice League movie I'll talk about at the end of the video. Now, I keep talking about how the 11th Street kids are too obsessed with their own self-interest. And we see that here. Without Chris, they don't stay together after arriving in Earth X.

of the problems they run into stem from them not being able to stay united. Although it's not like Hardcourt wanted to leave with Keith, she was just kind of forced to because it turns out this spy is a really bad liar. That's what our mother gave him on her deathbed. Yeah, she was a lovely lady. We had a great connection, she and I. She passed away when he was two. Why would you say that? Why would you say that? So when Keith is driving through Alts Evergreen, Harcourt can tell that something is off. And this scene is also similar to Guns, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3, when they drive through the high evolutionary's perfect world, and they see that there's definitely something off in this utopia. When Autobio calls out Adrian for crying over the letter last episode, he denies it.

I wasn't crying. That wasn't crying, ads. I gave you a hug to comfort you. You were crying. Which is similar to his first interaction with Chris last season. Why are you crying? I'm not crying. Fucking doing face muscle exercises. We've also talked about the music posters in Chris's room and the subtle differences with the real world. And we get another example of that in Keith's truck with the Halloween song Now Forever and On instead of Forever and One. This song, like many this season, is about coping with unrequited love and moving on with your life after being turned down or lied to. And while that relates to Chris and Amelia, I actually think in this scene it's more about Amelia figuring out that Chris is being lied to by this universe,

that his love for this dimension will ultimately be unrequited when everything is revealed later on. And Keith also mentions that the Beatles in this universe don't have John. And instead, their lead singer is Nick. Jagger? That's one hell of an alternate universe lineup. I mean, maybe like if Mick's parents raised him in Liverpool instead of Dartford, but then the Beatles would have been a completely different band without John because he and Paul co-wrote all of their early hits, and the band never had a single lead singer.

Yeah, you know, and I think Jagger would have dominated the band, and George would have never grown as an artist. Well, maybe in this universe John doesn't exist because his dad was killed in the war by Nazis. And in the podcast, Gunn confirmed that in the script, Beatles was spelled with two E's like the insect. So this continues the series theme of band names being spelled just a little bit differently in the other universe. And I never realized this before, but Gunn actually met Keith actor David Denham through his ex-wife, Jenna Fisher, because they co-starred on the office.

Keith says that EarthX Amelia spent, all those years and books. Which is completely different from the hardcore we know, who was pulled into the CIA right after high school and was given her first training at age 12. But the most screwed up in this episode is that Chris hooks up with Alt Hardcore. Like, he does not know this woman and she does not know. him. He's taken full advantage of her, and this is even more screwed up than the ending of Revenge of the Nerds. And he seems to know this too. Afterwards, he looks at himself in the mirror and in his gut, he knows this isn't right. But he turns a blind eye, because, after all, ignorance is Chris. Adrian, for a while, is having the time of his life celebrating these minute differences between

universes. What does six cats have to talk about? And when he sees a car coming, vigilante jumps into a similar to his stealthiness last season, hiding in bushes or behind dumpsters. On the Peacemaker podcast, Gunn revealed an idea they cut where Earth ex John Economos would be sleeping with Adrian's mom, but Adrian would just love it. And he goes, oh, ha ha ha ha, my mom is f*** John Economos here. And then he finally meets someone who actually understands him. I'm you from another dimension. Are you fucking kidding me?

No. And they even do this. We're Spider-Man meme. Oh, hey! Now, of course, they're referencing this famous meme. That man's an imposter. That man is the imposter. How dare you point at me. You were pointing first.

Rude to point. You're being very rude. But this also means that Marvel comics and cartoons exist in both of these universes. And this nod can also just be returning the reference that Marvel gave to DC in the Eternals. Dad, that's Superman! But there's also a deeper meaning in this reference. See, this is originally from the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon episode, double identity, where the villainy impostor poses a Spider-Man while committing crimes,

which is very apt for a universe where villains are all posing as heroes and where Chris has taken the identity of his other self. Now, behind Alt Adrian on his desk, we see these rounded goggles that actually look very similar to the appearance of his visor in the comics. And you know, Eagley helping himself to the refrigerator makes a lot more sense after last episode. Of course, he thinks he can eat people food. He is a literal eagle god and he's entitled to all the baloney he can handle. Now, the painting they have in their kitchen is called A Shepherd riding a horse and leading his flock in a landscape by Johann Melkor Rus, a German Baroque painter.

Now, this is very fitting for Earth X as they are under a Nazi regime. During the Nazi regime in Germany, art was very censored, and any art shown had to be either classical Greek or Roman art or had to be heroic and romantic like the Roos painting. Back on Earth 1, Rick says to prepare a jet for... To leave St. Roche, Louisiana, in a half hour. Which is where Belle Rive is located, both in the DC film universe, and in the comics, and it's also the hometown of Hawk Girl in the comics.

Remember, Belle Reeve is the prison for superpowered villains that we saw in both suicide squad movies and in Creature Commandos. And at the end of the movie Superman, the cops make a point to loudly announce the exact prison Lex was going to. Now, we did predict this would happen that Lex would be recruited to make weapons for the government. Hell, we even predicted that it would be tied into the weapons from the QUC in this video, which is really good, you should watch it. But we did think this would happen later in the Amanda Waller TV show. We actually think this scene is a major setup for Man of Tomorrow and the DCs of Vendors level threat, but I'll talk about that later in the video. This was actually one of

the first scenes they shot for the season, and they filmed it at the tail end of filming Superman. Gunn even noted that Holt's performance in this scene was darker than what he gave in the movie, showing Luther's devolution into a full supervillain. And this scene was originally intended for episode seven, but then Gunn swapped it. And he revealed in the Peacemaker podcast that he also swapped the opening scenes from episodes two and four. So Rick and Lex quickly run through the events of the movie Superman. In that film, Flagg was a general and not head of Argus, and he was much more like pro-Metahuman. Big Blue stopped the war. While Luther wanted to lock Metahumans up and replace them with his own team. Altogether, they're an unstoppable force we call Planet Watch. Flag, however, pushed back.

But then, like Luther says in this scene, the Justice gang intervened in world politics. And this experience changed Flag. Glad you're not concerned about the Metaumans. Rick, because now they're the ones making the rules. Wait, so why is he walking with a cane? Well, probably because Crypto bodied him at the end of the movie. If not today, then... And the theme that plays when he enters the room is very similar to John Murphy's theme, Lex Core, on the Superman soundtrack. And also, this visiting room is the exact same one that we saw in the Suicide Squad when Bloodsport had a visit with his daughter, Tyler.

Now, Lex mentions... A bare-sized man with dragon skin, but f-ficking a glowing tweed. with cartoon eyes in a cell beside me every night. And that's probably a reference to Killer Croc, who, barring that some of Suicide Squad is still canon, is currently serving time in Bel-Reeve. Now, when Flagg offers a chance of redemption, Lex is immediately interested.

Aside from his mass wealth and knowledge, Lex's superpower is his public perception. In the movie, he almost beat Superman because he had the public on his side. So, if he were able to flip the script and get back in the good graces of the public, we could actually see Lex become president like he does in the comics. And Flagg also mentions that Luther tore a hole in Metropolis like we saw in the movie. Now, like I said, this is all pointing toward a big Justice League story that actually has nothing to do with Darkside. I'll talk about that after we break down the video.

Now, back on EarthX, Harcourt clears up the misunderstanding from last episode. And in her own way, she lets Chris know how much she cares about him. You should know that I would never, ever do something like that to you. And when they talk about Rick Flagg, she says that he had a girlfriend, which like we talked about a couple episodes ago, is the villain the Enchant. who we saw in the first Suicide Squad movie. Now, James Gunn tweeted this week that this is the best acting he's ever seen John Cena do.

He's right, I mean, the big guy really brings it. See, you just keep talking around it. Man, Jennifer Holland, ladies and gentlemen. Are you coming back or not? As an actor, it's really hard to give a performance like this, where you are constantly on the verge of tears, but your character is so practiced suppressing her emotions that nothing is ever allowed to actually boil over.

Now, in the Peacemaker podcast, Gunn and the, cinematographer Sam McCurdy talked about how this was a really difficult scene to shoot. It is a six-page dialogue scene and they didn't let the camera stay stationary. It moves along with the action, going through the 180 line. Whereas a lot of directors would, you know, keep the camera bolted down for a dialogue scene like it's a BBC drama. And I'm looking at you here, George Lucas. Now, a few episodes ago, Chris speculated that this universe was meant to be his real home. You know, maybe I belong in there and my asshole doppelganger belongs here. But here, Harcourt tells him he is completely wrong.

You can't do this, man. This isn't where you belong. And as we'll soon see, Chris really, really does not belong here. He thought that his perfect universe was a place where his racist dad loved him and he's rich. But this season, he's finding out that he is special because he is not like his dad. He's special because he is not a respected hero, but he still gets up every morning and tries his hardest. I mean, it's basically the same lesson that Superman learns in his film. I wake up every morning and despite not knowing what to do, I put one foot in front of the other, and I try to make the best choices I can.

And back in EarthX, we briefly see Sasha Bordeaux, and I just got a plug that we had a great time talking with her on our crossover universe podcast. And you can listen to ScreenCrush podcast anywhere you get your podcast. They're a lot of fun. Rick also mentions that they are transferring Lex to Van Call. Which is a maximum security prison located in Metropolis in the comics, and it also appeared in the Aeroverse. All right, so Adrian and his double both share a love of Pokemon. What's the best Pokemon? Inferney.

Yes! And that's a lot of Pokemon references this season, right? I mean, it is the biggest IP in the world. He also asked himself, Is your favorite color teal? Yes! Which is a call back to season one, episode six, when he asked Butterfly Gough, the same question.

Is your favorite color teal? And so far as how much he likes teal, though, we're clueless. At Argus, we see the security guard looking at owls on his computer. So Adrian finally has somebody that he could get quizzed by. Look up Alfax and then see if I know the answer. And then we get the final reveal that this is EarthX. And get this, the whole season and every shot in the office, the Argus flags have always been carefully positioned

to hide the blue section of the American flag. And man, the last two minutes of this episode are just like one game-changing reveal after another. John tells Blue Dragon that his son is dead and Chris killed him. I guess he killed you said, I am saying way too much. Vigilanti learns that Peacemaker was a villain. I've dedicated my entire life to tearing down everything he stands for. Your friends with Peacemaker?

And the biggest shock, everybody here is a racist, piece of shit Nazi. Would you like to kill Nazis with G.I. Robot? And the shot about a bio running away 20, 48 weeks later style plays us out to the song, Presence of Mind by Dynasty. So the lyrics here are about how finding out something can completely change your presence of mind, how uncovering a hidden truth can completely cause

whatever relationship, be it romantic or platonic, to crash and burn, which is exactly what's going to be coming in these next two episodes. And get this, this reveal almost didn't happen. Gunn originally planned out a totally different arc for the season, where Alt-Christ actually survived until about episode four, and where Harcourt shaved her head and went undercover with the Nazis. Lucky for us, he scrapped that plan and gave us this twist instead.

Now, this episode was withheld from the press because of these huge reveals, but I think the biggest long-term reveal here is that Lex Luthor is working with the government now. In the comics, Luther was a billionaire entrepreneur for years, and then he was later arrested and then regarded as a supervillain. In this universe, it seems like this has been accelerated, with Luther already taking on that villain role. Also, in the Justice League animated series, this was a pivotal moment in this universe.

So much for your image is the benevolent businessman. This is the end of an era. And after Lex was sent to prison, the first thing he did was formed the injustice gang, or, aka the Legion of Doom. So this is all of the heroes' worst enemies joining forces. And I think this will be the catalyst for the Justice League finally uniting in the DCU.

We've never actually seen a team of villains versus a team of heroes in a superhero movie. And if any writer can pull this off, it's James Gunn. He is great at creating group, character, or dynamics. But Lex is also now working for Argus, and it's only a matter of time before they find the dimensional portal and bring back interdimensional gear for him to play with. And this takes us to Superman Man of Tomorrow. Now, Gunn recently teased production by showing the cover of the script. And this screwed up brain immediately makes us think of the villain Brainiac. But Gunn and other

creators also tweeted images of Lex wearing his battle armor from the comics, battle armor that maybe he has to build to deal with the limp that he shows in this movie. And Gunn also confirmed that the movie will see Superman and Lex working together against a bigger threat. So I think this bigger threat, Brainiac, will come from the QUC. They're going to unlock some dangerous being in there. It could be Brainiac, could be Darkside,

or maybe the xenomorph that looks like your mom is actually up to some really crazy shit down at the other end of that hallway. I am super excited for these last two episodes, guys. I think this show has really taken us to some places in the DCU that have been unexplored in superhero franchises before, but most importantly, it's all based in character, which is the most important thing for any of these stories.

And I wish every superhero movie put character first like this. Huge shout out to Lee Mazio, who co-wrote this video. You can find his links below. And shout out to the whole Screencrush team for editing this video for us. Didn't they do a great job? Let us know what you thought down in the comments or on our free-to-joint Discord server, or you can find me on Twitter, Blue Sky Threads,

or all those other stuff where you kids are these days. And don't forget to follow us on our socials as well. For Screen Crush, I'm Ryan Harry. I don't know.