Best Friends, For Never

"**Best Friends, For Never**" is the second episode of the HBO Max series based on the DC Comics character Peacemaker. It also serves as the series premiere and aired on January 13, 2022 as part of a three episode premiere along with A Whole New Whirled and Better Goff Dead respectively.

## Synopsis

*After Peacemaker’s hazardous escape, tension and mistrust build within the team. Later, as Peacemaker grapples with his new assignment, he receives a surprise visitor.*

## Plot

Not wasting any time, Peacemaker quickly calls his teammate Emilia Harcourt for help after he killed the woman who attacked him.

Unfortunately for Peacemaker, the police are hot on his trail so he high-tails it (in his tighty-whities no less) back to his one night stand's apartment to get dressed and collect his gear, and also to take some of her classic rock vinyls and an alien device for good measure.

Harcourt wakes up Leota and gets her to come along to help Peacemaker, and while they arrive in good time he manages to get the police's attention by sticking his head out of the window of the deceased woman's apartment.

As a result, the supervillain has to find another way out of the building and he heads up a floor to find someone else's apartment to get into while the police pursue him.

Peacemaker knocks on one unsuspecting couple's door and forces his way in, and in an amusing turn of events he gets the husband, Evan, to pick up his vinyls after they dropped on the floor and the wife, Amber, to get rope to tie them up with.

Smith and Amber immediately hit it off because of their similar taste in music and the fact Peacemaker compliments her negligee, something that causes an argument between her and her husband.

After tying them up, Peacemaker escapes by jumping from their balcony to the one below it, hurting himself in the process but forcing himself to go on anyway.

Harcourt heads out to assist in his escape and shoots tranquilizer darts at the police, and they manage to get away despite officers Sophie Song and Larry Fitzgibbon shooting at them.

While Peacemaker escapes alongside Harcourt, Adebayo and Eagly, John Economos changes Smith's car registration on the order of their team leader Clemson Murn.

The tech wizz gets a little too ahead of himself, though, because he changes Peacemaker's registration and his fingerprints in the system to point to his father Auggie. Murn is, understandably, not too pleased by Economos' decision to put the blame on Peacemaker's father because it will likely still lead back to Peacemaker one way or another.

Meanwhile, Song and Fitzgibbon visit Auggie to question him over the "evidence" they found of him at the crime scene, in a conversation where the patriarch shows his racist colors by calling Song "chopsticks" and declaring he doesn't have to answer to her.

Peacemaker, Harcourt and Adebayo make it back safely, and the group debrief over the case at hand, though no one wants to explain what a Butterfly is to Smith quite yet.

After annoying his colleagues once more with his bullish personality and bullying-like remarks, such as calling Economos "dye-beard", Peacemaker returns home and breaks down over his actions.

He's a horrible person, he thinks, and he cries over being incapable of getting anyone to like him because he pushes them away, concluding that everyone "hates" him.

While he's having this moment of vulnerability, Peacemaker is met by Vigilante with Peacemaker telling his fellow crime-fighter that he was doing "face muscle exercises" and definitely wasn't crying.

The pair catch up after Peacemaker's four-year prison stint, with Vigilante admitting he's happy to have his "best friend" back, even if said pal thinks Eagly is his best friend, and Smith reveals he's a contract killer for the government.

Vigilante advises Peacemaker on their crime-fighting profession, saying they are natural born killers and they shouldn't feel bad about killing bad people.

After this touching heart-to-heart, the pair decide the best way to blow off steam is to shoot at random household objects in the woods, drinking, and smoking weed with former kidnapee Amber in bed joining the two men.

While Peacemaker and Vigilante were enjoying this time together, Adebayo heads back to the scene of the crime to speak to Evan and Amber to offer them a bribe so that they frame Auggie.

Now with witness testimony, Song and Fitzgibbon take the patriarch into custody and send him to a local holding prison to await trial.

While Auggie is in prison, he walks up to a young black prisoner to demand he move from his seat while the white inmates stand in support of him. Eventually, the white inmates kneel before Auggie and give a Nazi salute as they shout "all hail the White Dragon".

## Cast and characters

### Starring

* John Cena as Christopher Smith/Peacemaker
* Danielle Brooks as Leota Adebayo
* Freddie Stroma as Adrian Chase/Vigilante
* Chukwudi Iwuji as Clemson Murn
* Jennifer Holland as Emilia Harcourt
* Steve Agee as John Economos
* Robert Patrick as August "Auggie" Smith/White Dragon

### Guest starring

* Elizabeth Ludlow as Keeya
* Lochlyn Munro as Larry Fitzgibbon
* Annie Chang as Sophie Song
* Alison Araya as Amber Calcaterra
* Lenny Jacobson as Evan Calcaterra

### Co-starring

* Dee Bradley Baker voices Eagly
* Crystal Mudry as Annie Sturphausen
* Mel Tuck as Auggie's Neighbor
* Kevin O'Grady as Johnson
* Zak Santiago as Prison Guard
* Veena Sood as Captain Miele
* Rochelle Greenwood as Peggy
* Paul Lazenby as Dickhead
* Gabriela Reynoso as Lookie-Loo
* Darryl Scheelar as Dickhead
* Bzhaun Rhoden as Young Man
* Neil Webb as Cool Steve

## Gallery

### Videos

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