Peacemaker’s Origin Just Did GOTG’s Awesome Mix Tragedy Even Better

Warning: Contains spoilers for Peacemaker episode 7.

James Gunn is famous for comic adaptations and great soundtracks, but Awesome Mix Vol.1 and Vol.2. The music is carefully selected to score dramatic fight scenes and emotional moments equally well, but James Gunn just one-upped himself.

Throughout Peacemaker, conversations about 1980s rock have been a strangely prevalent element. In Peacemaker episode 1, when Chris Smith (John Cena) is supposed to be escaping from an apartment building he stops to loot some CDs and records before having a conversation with Amber (Alison Araya) about great music. All of this is explained, to a degree, when flashbacks reveal that Peacemaker was introduced to this music by his brother, Keith, before he died. An emotional moment in Peacemaker episode 7 reveals just how much Peacemaker valued his relationship with Keith when he says that his brother and Eagly are the only ones who have ever really loved him.

In Guardians Of The Galaxy, Peter Quill’s love of 80s music and the Awesome Mix is a link to a mother his mother and to his home planet. While it is important to him it is also a keepsake of a person and a place that he never really knew and doesn’t fully . In Peacemaker, James Gunn keeps the best elements of his Guardians Of The Galaxy trick, but the music maintains a deeper connection for Chris. It serves as a bridge to Peacemaker's brother and a memory of the only human that Peacemaker thinks ever really loved him, but it also serves as a penance to him. This becomes painfully clear at the start of episode 7 when it is revealed that the last song that Chris listened to with his brother before accidentally killing him was Mötley Crüe’s “Home Sweet Home.” This was the same song that Peacemaker played a piano arrangement of at the end of Peacemaker episode 6 as he reflected on not liking the man he had become.

In Guardians Of The Galaxy, the music that Quill listens to is used to evoke either joy or sadness for what has been lost. But in Peacemaker, the soundtrack helps to demonstrate the more complicated relationship that Chris Smith has with his father. He clings to the music as a celebration and memory of this brother, and while that is often accompanied by sadness and an element of guilt, the fact that he is not repulsed by the music suggests that he has always known on some level that Keith’s death was his father’s fault. This makes the fact that Peacemaker has consistently still attempted to show his father the devotion he has demanded and tried to win his love and approval particularly tragic.

Far from being a simple gag or an excuse for a rock soundtrack, the start of Peacemaker episode 7 gives the DCEU TV series’ music an important additional note. While Peacemaker has tried to gain his father’s approval, it seems he never really embraced his father’s white supremacist stance, with the public assuming that he is racist because his father is White Dragon. One of the last things that Keith says to his brother is “f*ck white power” as he pushes for the love of music (and other things) instead, and it is clear that over the years Peacemaker has internalized his brother’s legacy through his love of music while ing to push back on his father’s white supremacist messages.

Next: Peacemaker Has Forgotten To Answer One Major Mystery

Peacemaker releases new episodes Thursdays on HBO.