We begin with a heartbreaking flashback…

Recap

In a flashback from 35 years in the past, we see Chris (Myles Benson) and Keith (Bryson Haney) with their dad within the woods. Auggie shoots a small creature that doesn’t look like from Earth, and it screams. As he goals to kill it, Chris tries to cease him. Auggie doesn’t pay attention and sneers at Chris for daring to assume he might management him. They discover that the creature has a tool that opens a door to the Quantum Unfolding Chamber, and take that machine.

In current day, the A.R.G.U.S. staff are heading to raid Chris’ home whereas he berates Eagly for stealing his meals. Economos manages to get a textual content out to Chris warning him that they’re coming whereas he tells Sasha Bordeaux that Fluery was being a creep about her whereas they talked on the telephone. Economos is paired with Pink St. Wild after they arrive, and Chris manages to get out of the home in time with the machine that creates the quantum door. Eagly is about to be shot by Pink St. Wild, so Economos knocks him over, and the person hits his head on a rock, falling unconscious. When he wakes, Economos makes the error of telling him that he was knocked out by one other eagle, prompting St. Wild to consider that he’s being challenged by an eagle god of Native American fable. Rip Jagger heads off Peacemaker within the woods and the 2 have a combat, however Chris manages to knock Rip out by touchdown on him. He shares his location with Adebayo and asks her to return choose him up.

Chris additionally calls Adrian and asks him to purchase some doorways and hinges. He tells Adebayo that they’re going to a cabin in Settlers’ Hills; it seems that it used to belong to his grandfather and has been deserted for years. He explains what he’s been doing and the alternate dimension, and Adebayo pokes holes in numerous his illusions concerning the place, together with the concept he can simply substitute the model of him that he killed. Chris isn’t serious about listening to that out, and makes use of the machine to create the quantum door once more, proper as Economos is hacking the earlier door at his home with Bordeaux and firm standing round. He creates the brand new door, making the outdated door into lead into the closet it was initially. Bordeaux tells Rick Flag Sr., and he decides to take issues into his personal arms.

Harcourt continues to be having bar fights and that night, Flag reveals up at her residence, insisting that she name him Rick, and asking how she’s doing. He insists that his arms are tied on her being blackballed, because it was Waller’s doing. However then he means that there’s one thing she might do to get again into the federal government’s good graces: Ship Peacemaker to them. Adrian arrives on the cabin with doorways they’ll match onto the brand new quantum doorway.

Pink St. Wild holds a ceremony and has a imaginative and prescient that he’s flying above Eagly, discovering out their new hiding place. Chris texts Harcourt to ask if they’ll speak as a result of he wants her assist, and he or she agrees to fulfill him at a close-by park. She then inform Flag the place she’s going and everybody heads to the assembly level to seize Chris.

Commentary

This episode is sort of completely setup for what’s coming within the second half of the season (and runs brief in consequence), however there’s nonetheless numerous enjoyable available in it. The combat between Judomaster and Peacemaker is a specific excessive be aware as a result of it’s an ideal match to permit for unconventional combat choreography; Nhut Le has the martial arts background and John Cena has the wrestling one, and between the 2 of them, you’ve bought this nice mix for showy, nearly dancelike combating between two opponents of utterly completely different sizes. I hope it’s not the final we see of them, even when the allegiances are swapped—think about how nice the choreo could be in the event that they had been working collectively.

Flag Sr. is clearly mendacity about the whole lot with regard to Harcourt’s place: It’s completely possible that he blackballed Harcourt as an alternative of Waller, however extra importantly, if Waller left in shame, it doesn’t make sense for any of her closing selections to carry water. It’s bugging me that we are able to’t inform if Harcourt is aware of/suspects this as a result of it’s actual apparent and must be extra so to somebody as distrustful as her. The insistence on her calling him Rick speaks to a possible mentorship state of affairs (please not anything, I’m begging you), however it’s ugly and imbalanced all the identical, given the dynamic we witness.

The best way Economos is tripping up A.R.G.U.S. at each flip with mixtures of feigned helplessness, real criticism, and the occasional act of sabotage is certainly one of my favourite issues concerning the season thus far. It’s an efficient illustration of the toolkit you employ to screw over organizations like this. No matter Pink St. Wild’s deal is, although… he’s appropriating indigenous tradition with an eye fixed towards this concept of restore whereas being extraordinarily bizarre about it, and also you’ve gotta admire the realism of all that. Undecided about that ritual working, although. It simply appears too handy in the intervening time, and I stay unconvinced that it’ll be dealt with nicely.

Adebayo stays MVP of the whole lot besides her personal life (that advert within the rip-off journal, yiiikes). She instantly clocks that Chris can’t simply take over another person’s life and never simply because he’s their Chris—however as a result of it’s utterly unethical to take action. If he (re)begins this relationship with Emilia, he’s beginning that relationship beneath false pretenses, and no quantity of eager to undo what his alt-self did can change that. Similar factor with pretending to be Keith’s brother. Chris can’t see it as a result of the opportunity of being cherished is tipping the scales on all rational thought, and I’m curious if that isn’t the purpose.

Or, to place it extra exactly: How a lot do you wanna guess that the alternate universe the place the whole lot is “good” turned out that approach as a result of Auggie turned his love and a focus towards the son who would do something to keep up these good graces?

Maintaining the Peace (Ideas and Asides)

• No thanks to that opening, I don’t need to watch a small fictional alien homicide! Respect to the sound designer, although: The cry that little man offers is expertly programmed to rend at your coronary heart. I’m curious as to what sounds had been mixed/modified to create it…

• The background on the machine that creates the doorway speaks to an acknowledgement that Chris Smith is so much smarter than he seems at first look. That’s not easy stuff to determine. The concept Auggie might’ve figured that out when he’s so hateful of something that doesn’t adhere to his worldview by no means sat proper, however utilizing his less-loved son to make issues work for him definitely does. Additionally, I’m curious if that being is likely one of the imps talked about within the first episode of the season? It could clarify some issues, notably pointing to the alternate dimension being a really unhealthy one certainly.

• Apparently there was one other background tangent with the helmets and tech that Gunn plotted out, however determined towards utilizing right here, which I’m glad for, truthfully. Don’t give an excessive amount of away directly!

• The cabin is constructed on Settler’s Hill, simply, come on, there’s no approach that an alternate universe model of this household is all of the sudden all cuddly and type. That is their historical past; you don’t trash all of that since you “get alongside” on this iteration.

We’re by means of the midpoint… Time to see the place the second half of the season takes us.