WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the first three episodes of Peacemaker, streaming now on HBO Max.
In The Suicide Squad, John Cena's Chris Smith had a lot of mental problems, with Bloodsport and the gang discovering he harbored a white nationalist vibe. This made it even easier for Bloodsport to try to kill him because Chris came off as xenophobic, unhinged and way too extremist. Well, as Peacemaker began detailing Chris' survival in the first three episodes, Chris' biggest problem was healed and it came from the unlikeliest mentor.
It occurred when Chris was told he could leave the Mount Rouge hospital after his injuries. Paranoid about people coming after him, Chris approached Jamil, a janitor mopping floors, to ask if the public wanted his head.
Jamil quickly revealed he wanted no part of helping Chris, despite them smoking weed in the past, only to then offer up some advice. He found it laughable that Chris was revealed to be Peacemaker, adding that no one saw him as a hero like how they do Aquaman. It offended Chris, who reminded Jamil he's helped save the country many times, killing man, woman and child to protect people like Jamil.
Jamil then waded into how Peacemaker was actually viewed as a bigot, not really killing white people that much. In fact, he killed more minorities and people of color, with director James Gunn taking a clear shot at police brutality, systemic racism and how institutionalized oppression works. Jamil's words resonated as it reminded viewers how soldiers kill in the name of world powers, not realizing they're the very monsters they claim to hate, with many of these trigger-happy pawns happy to exercise latent racist agendas.
It got Chris thinking as he promised to focus less on marginalized folks and kill more white people, who are equally untrustworthy. Now, this might have seemed like a flippant comedic scene, but it'd be the catalyst for how Chris would start condemning his dad's philosophies. When he went home from the hospital, Auggie was the one making racist, homophonic and misogynistic comments, which clearly conditioned Chris since he was a kid.
The dad grew him up in a toxic, macho and overcompensating environment, and while Chris might not have wanted to be a bigot like Auggie, learned behavior from his idol shaped him as much. It's why he's now cringing at hearing certain slurs, why he's second-guessing his murderous streak and also, why he's trying to be better. Admittedly, women are his weakness so it'll take a lot of work not to remain a disrespectful womanizer, but in terms of a racist bias he didn't realize he had, Chris is scrubbing it.
This has him rebuilding a moral compass away from Auggie, and as Leota Adebayo told Amanda Waller as she spies in on the team, Peacemaker is trying to be a better person. And it's all due to Jamil, an MIT graduate who's scrubbing floors as he hated responsibility, who had no clue he'd have met Chris and helped sow seeds for redemption and rebirth.
To see Jamil heal Chris' issues, Peacemaker is streaming now on HBO Max.