Peacemaker Review: Murn After Reading is heartbreaking, brilliant storytelling by James Gunn

James Gunn delivers the most tragic episode of Peacemaker with Murn After Reading. In the last episode, Monkey Dory, the team finally comes together as an actual unit in spite of multiple members keeping secrets. Murn After Reading brings does secrets to light in a tremendous episode of Peacemaker.

Mistakes are made by every member of the team except for Emilia Harcourt. Christopher Smith is hiding a butterfly, which leads to tragedy in this episode. In addition to improving his dramatic and comedic chops as an actor, John Cena can now play the piano.

Clemson Murn’s butterfly reveal is handled pretty straightforward. However, reaching out to Captain Caspar Locke who is a contact from the real Murn’s is a moral issue. Chukwudi Iwuji shines as Murn in Murn After Reading.

John Economos locking up Peacemaker’s father is continuing to impede the Butterfly investigation. Auggie Smith is released from prison and sets out on a mission to kill his son.

Leota Adebayo’s decision to plant the diary comes back to bite her as well. The police execute a search warrant on Chris’s house, which leads them to uncover the diary. The diary paints Peacemaker as an even bigger psychopath than he already is and mucks up the mission even further.

Murn After Reading shows the horrifying imagery of a Butterfly possession. Gunn’s comedy has been on display throughout the series. However, what has allowed Peacemaker to shine is the combination of his unique comedic timing, visceral violence, horror chops and heart.

The white pride stuff was pushed heavily in this episode to an uncomfortable degree. I understand where Gunn was aiming. However, I didn’t need to see white hoods or a Nazi salute to demonstrate how his followers view him. Just having them help put on his White Dragon costume would have sufficed.

In an episode that’s as bombastic as this, the scene that stands out is a quiet scene of Cena at a piano playing Motley Crue’s “Home Sweet Home.” It’s a great calm before the storm moment capping off an impeccable episode of television.

With the overview out of the way, let’s dive deeper into the three elements that stood out in Murn After Reading. There may be some minor spoilers. Peacemaker is available to stream on HBO Max.

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Remember to Murn After Reading

Murn After Reading wastes little time capping off the cliffhanger from the last episode. Murn makes it clear he’s not going to hurt Adebayo. Harcourt pulls up and immediately discloses she knew Murn was a Butterfly. Economos knows as well, which means the only two who don’t know are Peacemaker and Vigilante.

We finally get answers on the Butterflies. They came to this planet after it was destroyed. The Butterflies were happy to stay on Earth in peace. However, the Butterfly inside of Goff (the one in Peacemaker’s possession, which nobody knows about) wanted to use humans as hosts to take over the planet. She is the leader of the Butterflies. Murn was the only dissenter and reached out to Amanda Waller.

Waller doesn’t know Murn’s a Butterfly, which puts Adebayo in an awkward position as Waller’s daughter. Another fact the group at large doesn’t know.

The best acting in the scene comes after Adebayo accuses Murn of killing someone. Murn doesn’t deny it. He had to find a way to stop the Butterflies, so he chose the worst person he could find. There’s no peace in this decision. In spite of the real Murn being a murderer, he knows that even this evil being had an opportunity to change. By possessing Murn, he ripped that choice away from him.

A truly terrific performance by Iwuji. You can see him still wrestling with the decision through his facial reactions. He was faced with an impossible decision and made the best of it.

Tragic Secrets

Detective Sophie Song finally gets a warrant for Christopher Smith. She descends on his trailer with Vigilante and Chris inside. Murn is able to get ahold of them just in time for them to see the cops outside.

The police search his trailer. They come across the diary, which is bad news for Adebayo. As they search, Peacemaker, Eagley and Vigilane sneak out through the roof. Vigilante makes the poor decision to tape the jar holding Goff’s Butterfly to his back. Peacemaker and Vigilante decide to climb trees to evade the cops. Sophie is right below them. Vigilante slips on a branch and breaks the jar holding the Butterfly.

The Butterfly immediately flies and possesses Sophie. The transformation process is horrifying. Blood is spurting from her mouth. She’s nothing but a husk for the Butterfly now. When Sophie wakes up, her personality is more rigid and logical. Annie Chang does a great job of carving out a distinct personality shift between the two characters.

Obviously, Peacemaker shares most of the blame for this mistake. If he had killed Goff or told the team he had captured Goff, then Sophie would be alive. Murn also deserves some of the blame for not telling Peacemaker the truth. Peacemaker didn’t trust them and wanted answers so he turned to the Butterfly.

The sequence in the woods and around the trailer of fascinating. Full of tension, great effects on the part of Eagly and consequences.

Stage Setting

The newly possessed Sophie recruits an army of Butterflies to inhabit the police department and the prisoners. Another terrific music choice by Gunn captures the recruiting phase while cutting to Auggie Smith’s battle preparation.

Auggie is at his house surrounded by his followers. They fit him with his White Dragon costume.

Vigilante and Peacemaker return to HQ and confess to keeping Goff. Adebayo heads home and gets some much-needed perspective from her wife. Harcourt and Peacemaker have a nice moment. He also reveals he doesn’t want to kill people anymore. The eventful episode decides to take the foot off the gas. It’s just Chris Smith and piano for a few minutes.

The moment of reflection is punctured by Vigilante. The possessed Captain Locke reveals the diary on national tv and calls for a nationwide search for Peacemaker.

Murn After Reading Final Thoughts

I’m intrigued with where Peacemaker is at and where it may be going after Murn After Reading. Iwuji and Chang were fantastic at showing the dichotomy between two different Butterflies. Cena continues to bring depth to this role that I didn’t think he had.

I’m curious to see if there are going to be any more members of The Suicide Squad to lend a hand. The conflict appears to be ramping up to a significant degree. Once Waller gets wind of how big of a problem the Butterflies are, it won’t be long until she brings reinforcements for her daughter. I think Ratcatcher 2 makes a lot of sense and could be a source of conflict as well as redemption for Peacemaker. Even if that doesn’t happen, Peacemaker has been better than it has any right to be thanks to Gunn’s writing and the terrific cast.

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