Peacemaker
Chapter 01: The Ties That Grind
TV Flash files “Chapter 01: The Ties That Grind” as a desk essential hour — Peacemaker (2022–) on Max, season 2, episode 1, aired 2025-08-21, 44 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E01: listed hour 9 of 16 in the Peacemaker guide, first listed hour of season 2. It aired 2025-08-21 (44 min). The listed hour before it is “Chapter 08: It's Cow or Never” (S01E08). Next is “Chapter 02: A Man Is Only as Good as His Bird” (S02E02).
Essential hour: “Chapter 01: The Ties That Grind”. The Ties That Grind as season-two pun: Peacemaker returning, still helmeted sincerity, still a spinoff that outshined the movie by accident on purpose.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
While Peacemaker attempts to join the Justice Gang, Harcourt struggles to find work, and Economos takes on a challenging new assignment.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Chapter 01: The Ties That Grind sit in the Peacemaker guide?
S02E01 is listed hour 9 of 16 — first listed hour of season 2, season 2 episode 1.
When did Peacemaker S02E01 air?
Chapter 01: The Ties That Grind aired 2025-08-21 and is listed at 44 minutes.
Do I need The Suicide Squad movie first?
It is a spinoff that outshined the movie for many viewers. Helpful for how Peacemaker arrives; the series still plays as Cena, an eagle, a father problem, and a dance credit.
In the series
Why this series still plays
John Cena's dumb-violent idealism with a needle-drop dance credit that became a personality. James Gunn's spinoff outshined the movie by giving a helmeted goon a heart, an eagle, and a father problem. Watch for chaos that still knows where the joke lives, and for comic-book television that likes people more than lore slides.
Once upon a network night, a guest star in a ridiculous helmet would have been the punchline and the exit. James Gunn's Peacemaker, 2022 onward on Max, has the bad manners to keep him. John Cena as Christopher Smith — violent "peace at any cost" antihero, dumb-violent idealism, daddy issues, an eagle, a heart — joins a black-ops team and turns a DCEU spinoff into appointment chaos. Danielle Brooks's Leota Adebayo and Freddie Stroma's Vigilante ride shotgun. The needle-drop dance credit became a personality. On…
Filed against
- John Cena as Christopher Smith / Peacemaker
John Cena’s Christopher Smith / Peacemaker turned a helmeted goon into a heart, an eagle, and a father problem — James Gunn’s spinoff with a needle-drop dance credit that became a personality. Dumb-violent idealism that still knows where…
- Danielle Brooks as Leota Adebayo
Danielle Brooks’s Tasha “Taystee” Jefferson made Orange Is the New Black a yard with a brain — 2010s catalog Litchfield ensemble, then Peacemaker stretching the voltage into James Gunn chaos. TV Flash files her as the inmate who became…
- Freddie Stroma as Adrian Chase / Vigilante
Freddie Stroma played Adrian Chase / Vigilante on Peacemaker — James Gunn's spinoff that outshined the movie, John Cena's dumb-violent idealism, a needle-drop dance credit, an eagle, a father problem. Chaos that still knows where the joke…