The Choad Less Traveled

*"I made a vow to have peace at any cost, no matter how many men, women, and children I need to kill to get it. But I'm not fucking killing kids just because you say so!*" "*You sure that's all it is?*" "*Yeah.*" "*Good... 'cause right now the world needs a son of a bitch, and you're the only one I got."*
―Peacemaker and Clemson Murn
***The Choad Less Traveled*** is the fourth episode of the first season of *Peacemaker*. The episode was directed by Jody Hill and written by James Gunn, and it was released on Max on January 20, 2022.

## Synopsis

*Following a somewhat successful mission, Murn recruits Vigilante. Meanwhile, after learning that the team helped land his father in prison, Peacemaker confronts his complicated past.*

## Plot

On the trip back after the mission, Harcourt asks Peacemaker how he killed Royland Goff and his butterfly while Vigilante complains about losing his little finger thinking everyone was going to make fun of him, when Judomaster pinned down and faints on the ground, Peacemaker and Vigilante point their weapons at him but Harcourt and Adebayo stop them.

Back at the Henenlotter Video, the team unpacks all the boxes, until Murn arrives and asks Harcourt and Adebayo to go through them, causing Harcourt to complain, shortly after Murn asks to speak to Peacemaker where they discuss why he didn't kill the children last night and they end up talking about Vigilante and Matter-Eater Lad, shortly after Smith walks Vigilante out of the store. Harcourt and Adebayo while working talk about the death of Royland Goff's bodyguard, when Harcourt explains to her, Adebayo goes to the bathroom and begins to sigh. Shortly after, Adebayo meets with Economos who keeps the unconscious Judomaster tied to an armchair.

Peacemaker and Vigilante drive and head to Auggie Smith's house since Peacemaker wanted to collect helmets for upcoming missions, at which Vigilante thanks Smith for testing him last night and they end up talking about his parents. Upon arrival, Peacemaker enters the house to which Auggie's neighbor sees him, Peacemaker enters and sees on TV that Charlie the Gorilla disappeared. Smith finally enters the Quantum unfolding storage area and takes out all the helmets putting them in a bag, in that Vigilante arrives who surprises Peacemaker thinking that he stayed in the car, and they start arguing about Auggie Smith, finally they both leave.

On the way out they meet Auggie's Neighbor who asks Peacemaker if he had a gang of superheroes like Batman, however Peacemaker ends up answering him very rudely, which causes the neighbor to reveal that Auggie was in prison, surprising Peacemaker. Peacemaker angrily calls Murn to talk about his father's arrest and proceeds to go visit him. While Vigilante was driving, he continues talking to Peacemaker about the parents, in that Murn asks Adebayo to visit Smith in prison so she goes. Judomaster gets up from the coma and tries to escape from the chair which he manages after a moment of concentration. When Adebayo arrives she tries to stop Peacemaker saying that it was a mistake of John Economos that his father is in prison, finally Adebayo ends up arguing with Peacemaker telling him that his father is not a good person.

When Peacemaker enters the prison while Adebayo discovers Vigilante while he ends up excusing himself by saying it's not him. Peacemaker later talks to his father and they discuss what happened, to which an annoyed Auggie says he is very disappointed in him, however Peacemaker tries to calm him down but Auggie tells him to go away. Adebayo talks to Vigilante about Peacemaker's father and indirectly ends up convincing him to enter prison to kill him, Vigilante leaves as Peacemaker arrives to ask Adebayo about him to which Adebayo tells him not to worry and takes Smith away. back with the team, on the trip Peacemaker talks with Adebayo while she comforts him. Vigilante arrives at the patio where the policemen were having lunch and goes to lift a garbage can to hit it on a glass, shortly after being stopped by the officers and he allows himself to be arrested.

Economos soon returns to the room and discovers that Judomaster escaped so he calls Adebayo to tell him about what happened but is quickly attacked by Judomaster, worried Adebayo hurries to get to the store. Upon arrival, they find Economos weakened and having trouble breathing, so Adebayo helps him by giving him a respirator, when Economos mentions where Judomaster escaped, Peacemaker goes to chase him. Peacemaker lands in the parking lot and looks for Judomaster, but Judomaster surprises him and begins to fight Peacemaker hitting him hard, Peacemaker manages to defend himself and gets up to hit Judomaster, shortly after Adebayo shoots Judomaster and he falls on the ground but seeing ue still alive they decide to take him back inside. Peacemaker soon returns to his trailer and greets Eagly and then sees Goff's butterfly, while Vigilante enters the prison with the other prisoners, Eagly grabs the jar Goff was in but Peacemaker knocks him out. stops.

When Economos ties Judomaster up again, Harcourt meets up to talk with Adebayo again having a deep talk about killing, to which Adebayo reveals that he manipulated Vigilante into killing Auggie Smith, Murn shortly after meets Adebayo, Harcourt, and Adebayo to scold them for what happened and they end up arguing, finally Economos investigates Vigilante and discover data about him. Vigilante gathers at the table where Auggie and his racist friends were, Vigilante then began to provoke them saying he is grateful for African-American contributions to culture, the racists soon fight Vigilante but he manages to avoid them, the police shortly after arrive and arrest Auggie and Adrian while Smith asks to speak to Detective Song. Chris visits Harcourt again at the bar to ask him about the information in his files, shortly after he leaves.

Peacemaker returns home depressed and puts music on vinyl and begins to dance remembering traumatized how he killed Keith Smith and Rick Flag as well as how his father forced him to kill people, meanwhile Vigilante is released from prison thanks to the team for what Harcourt goes to withdraw him, however Vigilante is sad for believing that he has ruined things. Adebayo then analyzes the Glan Tai Bottling Company cards and notifies Murn, he thanks her for the information and after hanging up the call, Murn begins to drink amber fluid with his tongue out, revealing himself to be a butterfly.

In a post-credit scene, Vigilante discusses with Peacemaker where he compares Auggie Smith with a duck in a human costume, Peacemaker claims that it should to be one of Vigilante's stupidest ideas.

## Cast

### Starring

* John Cena as Christopher Smith/Peacemaker
* Danielle Brooks as Leota Adebayo
* Freddie Stroma as Adrian Chase/Vigilante
* Chukwudi Iwuji as Clemson Murn and Ik Nobe Llok
* Jennifer Holland as Agent Emilia Harcourt
* Steve Agee as John Economos
* Robert Patrick as Auggie Smith

### Guest starring

* Annie Chang (credit only)
* Lochlyn Munro (credit only)
* Nhut Le as Judomaster
* Mel Tuck as Auggie's Neighbor
* Rizwan Manji (credit only)

### Co-starring

* Neetu Garcha as Reporter
* Neil Webb as Cool Steve
* Paul Lazenby as Dickhead
* Darryl Scheelar as Dickhead
* Zak Santiago as Prison Guard
* Kevin O'Grady as Officer Johnson
* Rochelle Greenwood as Officer Peggy
* Bzhaun Rhoden as Young Man
* Troy Anthony Young as Terrified Man
* Quinn Bennett as Young Chris
* Liam Hughes as Keith Smith
* Dee Bradley Baker as Eagly (voice)

### Uncredited

* Joel Kinnaman as Colonel Rick Flag (archive footage)

## Appearances

### Locations

* Earth
	+ Kahndaq (mentioned)
	+ Tokyo (poster)
	+ United States of America
		- New Jersey (poster)
		- Washington
			* Charlton County
				+ Evergreen
					- August Smith's house
					- Evergreen Corrections Center
					- Evergreen Zoo (mentioned)
					- Fennel Fields (mentioned)
					- Henenlotter Video
					- O'Rourke's Sports Bar
			* Goff residence (mentioned)
			* Little Cork (card)

### Events

* Attack on Auggie Smith

* Peacemaker's shield
* Peacemaker uniform
* Vigilante suit
* White Dragon suit

* Humans
* Gorilla (video)

### Organizations

* 38 Special (mentioned)
* Evergreen Police Department
* Glan Tai Bottling Company
* Intergang (mentioned)
* KWUE
* Lynyrd Skynyrd (mentioned)
* Metric Bank (card)
* The Evergreen Sentinel (newspaper)
* ZZ Top (mentioned)

## Music

* *Peacemaker (Soundtrack from the HBO Max Original Series)*

 Beat the Bullet
 I Wanna Be With You
 Jawbreaker
 House of Pain
 Enemy in Me

## Trivia

* The episode's title was originally "Stop Dragon My Heart Around," but it was changed to its current title for unknown reasons. The former title is now the title of the seventh episode.
* According to James Gunn, DC was "not too fond" of Peacemaker calling Batman a "pussy" in the episode. On *The Hollywood Reporter'*s *TV's Top 5* podcast, Gunn said, "I was very surprised because they were not too fond of Peacemaker calling Batman a p—y. I'm like, 'But he talks about all these other terrible things about all these other superheroes that are much worse than calling Batman a p—y.' Not only that, Batman is the only one he makes a fair point about; everybody else he's really just believing stuff that he read on the Internet." When asked by DC took issue with the insult towards Batman but not ones aimed at Batman and Superman, he said, "I don't know. You'd have to ask them. I don't know why him calling Batman a p-y is potentially more offensive than him saying Superman [has a poop fetish]. I don't understand why one was brought up and one wasn't."

## References

1. ↑ "James Gunn Says DC Complained About Peacemaker's NSFW Batman Insult" - Comicbook

## External Links

* The Choad Less Traveled on DC Database
* The Choad Less Traveled at the Internet Movie Database