Last night's episode of Peacemaker season 2 opened with Chris Smith finally realising that all is not as it seems on Earth-X. Emilia Harcourt points out that every desk has a copy of Mein Kampf on it, while there's even a mural in A.R.G.U.S. of Adolf Hitler in the U.S. Capitol.
However, it turns out the scene originally had one more sight gag, which filmmaker James Gunn decided to leave on the cutting room floor.
Talking on Peacemaker: The Official Podcast with James Gunn, the DC Studios co-CEO revealed that he cut a scene showing several A.R.G.U.S. workers rocking Hitler moustaches.
"They actually had a bunch of the guys shave Hitler moustaches, and they had to keep these on them for days while we were shooting," Jennifer Holland pointed out.
That prompted Gunn to chime in with, "Harcourt says to Peacemaker, 'You don't notice the copies of Mein Kampf on every desk?' And then she points to these guys standing next to the copier and says, 'What about all those stupid little moustaches?' And there's all these guys with Hitler moustaches. The lame little moustaches looked too cartoony for me, so I cut it."
Our visit to Earth-X ended up being a little more comedic than expected, and "Like a Keith in the Night" wasn't quite the harrowing exploration of this alternate reality that many fans expected.
Addressing Peacemaker's lack of awareness, Gunn said, "He's not a racist, but he was raised in a certain way, and he doesn't notice that there aren't any people of color anywhere around him."
As we explained in our episode recap, this penultimate chapter ends with the death of Auggie Smith, and Keith—a.k.a. Captain Triumph—being saved moments after Harcourt tries and fails to put a bullet in his head. The idea was to stop Keith from ever attempting to enact his revenge on Chris, and it seems that's exactly what the door is being left open for.
"I will say, in the original draft, she kills him," Gunn confirmed. "I think it is [the origin story] of a supervillain. At the end, we see that look in his eye. What a weird supervillain to have as your archenemy, your brother from another dimension who hates you because you killed yourself."
Whether this is a plot point that will be addressed in next week's season 2 finale remains to be seen, but we know that Rick Flag Sr. and A.R.G.U.S. are going to explore what's behind those many doors, and that could be what leads to a vengeful Captain Triumph's return.
Seven episodes of Peacemaker season 2 are now streaming on HBO Max. You can find a first look at next Thursday's finale here.