Peacemaker season 2's "really, really, really big cameo" appears to have been Nicholas Hoult's Lex Luthor. The villain's deal with Rick Flag Sr. looks set to be a crucial plot point in the upcoming Man of Tomorrow movie, but he's far from this show's only Superman connection.
In last night's "Like a Keith in the Night," Sydney Happersen (Stephen Blackehart) is revealed as the mystery man whom Luthor said could help Flag figure out how to find Chris Smith's Quantum Unfolding Chamber.
Returning to the LuthorCorp command centre from Superman, Happersen tracks it down in a matter of moments and seems to win Flag's approval. Trailers for Peacemaker have indicated that he'll end up working for A.R.G.U.S., implying that Flag will continue heading down a dark path now that he has Amanda Waller's job and power.
The trailer for next week's episode suggests that he's searching for something in the QUC, with one of the most popular theories being that he's seeing out an alternate reality version of his son, Rick Flag Jr.
We'll have to wait and see on that front, but what does all this mean for Man of Tomorrow? James Gunn has described Peacemaker as a "prequel" to the movie, and it won't be until "Full Nelson" hits HBO Max that we see if he was referring simply to Lex's deal with Flag Sr. or something more.
The upcoming Superman sequel may be a Multiversal tale, and if so, that's a bold move when Marvel Studios has struggled to sell moviegoers on the concept (it will also have to "compete" with Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars).
Still, Brainiac is expected to be Man of Tomorrow's big bad, so we're anticipating him somehow factoring into the Peacemaker season 2 finale. The villain miniaturises cities and collects them in bottles, so it's not outside the realm of possibility that, in the DCU, he's a Multiversal threat who created the QUC as a collection of alternate realities he's conquered.
Perhaps Gunn isn't planning anything quite so grand, but Flag surrounding himself with the likes of Luthor and Happersen creates an intriguing status quo for A.R.G.U.S.' place in this world heading into Man of Tomorrow.
The filmmaker's priority, however, may be redeeming Lex as a hero, a route his comic book counterpart has gone down many times on the page over the years.
"There's something, despite everything, that is incredibly heroic about Lex," Gunn recently said. "Take aside morality, which is hard to do, but here is this guy who’s saying, 'You can hold up a building. You can shoot down planes with your eyes. F*ck you, I'm going to kick your a*s because I'm better than you.’ I can't help but admire his tenacity and his ego. I mean, his ambition is beyond compare."
Seven episodes of Peacemaker season 2 are now streaming on HBO Max. Let us know your thoughts on this latest chapter in the comments section below.