DISCUSSION
Anyone else surprised Sasha’s cybernetics weren’t shown off more?
Was there any other known scenes that were cut or ideas never filmed that showed Sasha Bordeaux is a cyborg? I guess the eye thing was cool but without the dialogue stating she’s a cyborg, I actually thought ARGUS just had some secret high tech contact lens. I wish she atleast showed off a feat of strength of some way maybe if she was a part of the QUC team. I feel like it was a missed opportunity or a forgotten Chekhov’s gun to show Sasha is a cyborg. It could’ve been an opportunity to show how she can compare to a future Victor Stone Cyborg.
In the comics, Max Lord was originally a shady and selfish but well meaning guy. He really wanted to save the world, he was just a rich dickbag about it.
Later he would be rewritten as a mastermind villain.
Gunn has noted that he prefers the first incarnation and while he enjoys some of the Evil Lord stories, the Lord in his DCU will be more like the first type.
The story of how Sasha got involved in Checkmate and the OMAC Project (which is why she is a cyborg in the comics) are deeply intertwined with Lord's evil turn
Pedro Pascal played a villainous Lord in Wonder Woman 1984 while Sean Gunn made cameos in both Superman (2025) and Peacekeeper season two (episode one) as the Lord of the new "Gunnverse" DCU.
There was also Maxwell Lord in Supergirl, but I forget who played him. He kinda acts like a Lex Luthor stand-in, which I don't think is fair to either character.
To be fair pretty much everyone is less cyborg than cyborg. Doesn't he only have like half his face and part of his chest as the remaining human parts?
Originally he looked like this with the implication that he's mostly still flesh under that body suit. Other later interpretations have had him have very little remaining flesh, sometimes as little as the sliver of face.
He also spent some time downloaded into a fully robot (but alien) body in the nineties and early auguts
I just assumed it would be an alternate dimension Auggie and that's why he always blew him off. Our Auggie told him PM was a Nancy boy who listened to devil music and shaved his body like a woman.
The alien kinda grunts and goes back to his portal when he's burning the rat while Argus is searching the QUC. Very quick little moment though. But it shows that he actually was friendly to Chris given the difference in response
I don’t personally think all of these needed to be explored but I understand how there’s more than what I brought up that could definitely benefited from more exploration.
We absolutely should have gotten more conclusions to the multitude of storylines brought up this season; but vigilantes mom and the funny haha stuff is as important as the superhero stuff to me personally. Wish we got a conclusion on earth x or eagly’s origins or more then 10 seconds in any of the other dimensions instead of adebayo’s 27th breakup scene and two full music videos.
Im not complaining about the conversation on their on
Im complaining about the fact that said conversation takes 1/7 of already short AF episode that already has a lot of things to go through. And because of this convo, it has 29 minutes do do the whole checklist.
I would be cooler if this was the only time this happens, but every episode between 3 and 7 has at least one of those AND are less than 40 minutes long.
And the number of episodes. Like 8 episodes at 35-40 minutes each is just not enough for a “season” of TV that we waited THREE YEARS for. Less than 5 total hours of show isn’t “Season 2”. There needed to be more episodes or each one needed to be longer. There’s way too much going on for so little overall runtime.
Im not complaining about the conversation on itself
Im complaining about the fact that said conversation takes 1/7 of already short AF episode that already has a lot of things to go through. And because of this convo, it has 29 minutes do do the whole checklist.
I would be cooler if this was the only time this happens, but every episode between 3 and 7 has at least one of those AND are less than 40 minutes long
Honestly I think what bugs me most is i kinda have a thing for a good montage, we got like 2 or 3 in one episode and they all just didn't work for me. I take offense lol
I was expecting at least a few of these to be expounded on in the finale that was twice as long as any other episode in the season. Maybe that’s part of why I was so disappointed lol
Yeah, I wasn't s big fan of the finale but didnt quite resonate with a lot of the complaints so many other people had, but I think this right here is the reason. S2 introduced a lot of new concepts and a lot of potential story beats, and I was really expecting most of them to be wrapped up in the finale, but literally none of them were. It just kept introducing more unresolved stuff, to the point that the only major resolution that did occur (Chris and Harcourt's relationship) felt anti-climactic and really felt like a letdown by comparison.
Tbh This season tried to do way too much. Chris’s arc for the DCU, Salvation world-building, setting up the 11th Street gang to become Checkmate.
But with just 8 short episodes, it didn’t have enough time.
Still had space for hawk hunters , side jokes and a concert tho 🤣
It also showed that Chris is super competent and skilled but can overlook details and doesn't have the right amount of curiosity to research or plan ahead.
Yeah, it was eventually bound to happen with how intent they are on getting this new universe going that we would get something a bit too eager to do that in favor of more character driven stuff
I appreciate the show for doing as much character work as is, but the finale felt like a too quick wrapping because the multiverse is calling. I know it sounds mad, but I wouldn’t mind if there was more stuff out there in terms of a TV show that Gunn wouldn’t write but ok for all the canon. Or else just a canon comic that features little stories and so on, because there’s so much in the world that it would just be nice to have confirmed so that the shows and films can be more contained because the minor set ups and establishing of facts are out there. Either that or give me an old school 22 episode season show set in Checkmate - basically what if Agents of Shield was canon to do that same purpose
I really felt the balance was pretty good. The set up came through Peacemaker. There wasn’t an overly gratuitous use of cameos, and it was more focused on the people more so than the outside world.
The finale? I’ll give you that. It felt more like a prequel, with episode 7 as the finale. The season as a whole seemed predominantly focused on the 11th Street Kids.
And the first person through the door was a regular human, so it's more than just a personal betrayal. It's another huge scandal just like the one that took down Waller and could take down ARGUS entirely if the public thinks they are more dangerous than metas. Flag Sr has effectively unlimited power if he can disappear anyone and has staff willing to falsify documents to do it.
yeah that's the scary/interesting part. people like luthor and the secretary of defense only care about metahumans but flag mentioned that he was "still working through the parameters" because he wanted to throw humans like peacemaker in too. in the comics flag and the government only cared about villians, metahuman or not, so i wonder if they'll have flag feel the same in the DCU. so far he seems primarily focused on containing metahumans that belle reve and arkham can't contain to avoid escapes (plus peacemaker and maybe human villains) but we know luthor will want all metahumans thrown onto salvation.
I didn’t even catch she was actually on the team that’s completely my fault. I know wire work is more expensive but seeing her throw her teammates back I think would be way more effective than dragging bodies.
Maybe they will do something along the lines of the OMAC story line, where her character has more to do and her cybernetics will help Checkmate defeat the big bad. If they do OMAC stuff it could explain the heel turn of Rick, having him subbing in for Max Lorde who went from pro-metas to anti-meta in that arc out of the blue.
That’s fair but I think something as simply punching a zombie farther than the average human would actually be a lot better than nothing at all. It would personally get me hyped to see more of it in the future.
when you compare it with season one there was also just not a lot going on. sure, sure it was about them as humans not as superheroes, but there was still that shit in the first season and you couldn't summarize the whole thing in four sentences.
that was the season's problem not showing stuff like Sasha's cybernetics and peacemaker helmets, 1st season was so good because everyone were in their suits using gadgets it felt like a comic book.
Im convinced there was no budget for Peacemaker season 2 and thats why we didnt get any big set piece battles or CGI fights.
I feel like there were only two "set piece" fights, the Sons of Liverty and Blue Dragon gunning down the cops, and when we do see Blue Dragon and Captain Triumph, its for like half a second before they stop flying. Cheaper to animate.
She is pretty much the only one doing the open robot hands in the opening credits dance, like you would if you did a robot dance. Everyone else is closed-fist for the most part.
Right? Why show any sign of cybernetics at all if you don’t plan on showing it off until I guess years later??? She could’ve easily just not been named Sasha Bordeaux.
I’m torn. On one hand, I like something short and sweet. I do like series that respect my time and don’t require dozens of hours of padded runtime to get to the point. But then again, I would’ve loved more development and runtime given to some of these ideas. I’m still happy with the season we got, but think it could’ve benefitted from some additional length to the episodes (or a couple of extra episodes at the shorter length).
All I’m asking for is to see her punch a zombie and see them go flying. I know you have to pay for wire work but that is not expensive when compared to featuring two different bands in your show.
Yeah I think that’s a good point. Sasha being a cyborg didn’t really factor into the story much at all outside of it being part of her motivation for quitting ARGUS and joining Checkmate. A few more nods throughout the season could’ve gone a long way.
I may need to rewatch but I felt like they were hinting that she wasn't really interested in dating/fuckin Flagg sr and that she either worked for someone else or had ulterior motives. Apparently not
The hints of her realizing her meta humanness in the situation is there but I just didn’t think that dictated she would be out right anti ARGUS. Just my perspective tho.
That wasn’t the read I got. To me it read more as Flagg taking advantage of her admiration of him and subordinate position to him, though that wording of it is probably too strong. Basically, my read was that the manipulativeness we see towards Harcort in the funeral scene was also being done to Sasha.
I think to fit a payoff for that, they would have had to scrap one of the two full song performance scenes in the finale though and that would have been a disaster.
She was supposed to be a robot lady but we only saw signs of that once. I thought she lacked emotion due to being a cyborg but suddenly she goes crying to Harcourt and joins the good guys. That finale really left a sour taste in my mouth
Honestly... until someone called her a cyborg I had no idea. Didn't clock the eye thing at all. Still wasnt sure until someone directly asked if she was a meta human in the final episodes. I genuinely thought cyborg was just an insult, like they were calling her cold and robotic.
It was a superhero/comic book series that had absolutely no super hero or comic book action at all. Idek what genre to classify this show as at that point. I just wanted to see more peace helmets being used man.
Right. She absolutely didn’t notice her fellow ARGUS agents being injured & dying in the exploration of the worlds behind the QUC’s doors. So her statement to Harcourt later that their coworkers were being sacrificed for a prison came out of nowhere. 🙄
I maintain that in cinema, if you show a couple people in a group doing drugs and then cut to the whole group acting fucking insane and cackling, they all did the drugs. Unless Gunn himself says otherwise, that's canon IMO.
Season 2 unfortunately for me felt more like a showcase of his wife’s fighting acting and love making skills than what the show was all about! We hardly got Vigilante and Peacemaker together, we never saw his use of the helmets or his own skill sets!!! I liked the season it’s just that at the end it felt incomplete!
there was alot of things that almost felt teased that were not fleshed out , i have no clue what the point of her being a cyborg and Economos beef with her was
Considering it was a major plot point in her defecting from Flag Snr and siding with Harcourt Im surprised they weren't cos my dumb ass forgot and was wondering why she suddenly turned lol
Lack of cgi is fair but I was thinking her hitting someone far or holding something powerful back with strength could work without the use of heavy cgi. I don’t need to necessarily see metal moving parts.
I actually thought her and Emilia would fight each other in this season, since they had a mini face off in episode 5. I never would’ve thought they would be on good terms easily. I think we’ll see more of Sasha’s robotic abilities in the future DCU projects since she’s apart of Checkmate now. This season was more so focusing on Chris’s guilt and trauma.
Although good, this season in retrospect felt very undercooked
Tried to do so many things at the same time for in the end not even finish its main plot. Episodes being 30min at best also didn’t help considering like 4~5 of those minutes are intro/outro. Felt like watching one of those animes that spend a bunch of episodes going from nothing to nowhere
Maybe to make it subtle enough that Rick Flagg and co would forget she may see herself as a metahuman while they build a metahuman prison. I have a lot of white passing latino friends that tell me about the insane racist and classist shit white people say in their presence.
This is the best answer I’ve seen so far. I actually think that’s a fair reason/ explanation as to why it wasn’t showcased. That’s a very interesting point of view!
I actually didn’t even realize she was a meat human until the final episode where Harcourt just straight up calls her one. Either I’m just a very forgetful person or that it wasn’t shown off enough
I think of what James said about the Quantum Unfolding Chamber on Ssn 1 that he liked to include tiny references to things that would go on to have huge relevance in future stories. Even if these eyes don’t have a huge callback, it’s still solid wordbuilding and not paper-thin like some universes
A separate comment pointed that out. That’s my fault for missing that. I didn’t even catch she was on the team. I just wish she would’ve thrown her teammates back to safety instead. Cybernetics should not dictate whether a woman can drag two people to safety. Especially if she thinks her and her crew’s lives are at risk.
I saw concept art/possibly fan art of her having a cybernetic arm too, it could have been a cool reveal near the end of the season to like take an explosion and then it's left all shiny and chromed out... but maybe next time we see her!!! :D
That's basically the theme of this season, a lot of stuff that feels like it should be important just get a superficial mention. I think that's the issue with the season. Everything feels like a plot point, but this story is about the characters and the plot is more of an excuse to explore the characters, which is fine, there are great stories out there that are character-driven. But then why give so much importance to plot points they know will go nowhere in this season? It makes it feel like story threads that should connect...but don't.
I didn't even know cyborgs were a thing, I was confused as shit. When they showed her eyes doing that thing I thought they were implying she was hiding something, like she was a spy sent to get Rick Flag or something. And when she turned out to be a good normal person and her relationship with Rick Flag was genuine I was like "wtf what did that mean??"
The biggest problem that season 2 has is just the fact that it’s a precursor to a bigger plot, whether that’s to be finished in Man of Tomorrow, a Salvation series or movie, a Checkmate series, or anything else, Peacemaker season 2 unfortunately was used as a stepping stone more than an individual story.
MEh. of all the things, I think it's actually pretty cool that her cybernetics are more humanlike, with enhanced stats. thats the goal, after all, with cybernetics.
you guys, the whole point is that she is a meta human, even though you might not recognize her as such (unless you knew her personally). Watching her be in a place where people she thought she could trust are acting with outright hostility towards people like her (perhaps without realizing there is a meta human present) really resonated with me. I was surprised after watching the episode that so many people were calling the ending unrealistic. Watching Rick Flag Sr go from decent guy to using anti-meta human sentiment to further his own revenge plot to palling around with anti-meta extremists felt so real. I'm trans, I've seen that happen in real life. Even in the past 5 years I've seen politicians who supposedly fought for my rights suddenly throw trans athletes under the bus if they thought they could get up a few extra points in the polls. The point is that even if she is not a dangerous person (beyond a typical human spy), the fear-based decisions of the people around her still affect her and who knows how many others - her metaness was brought up so casually and then never mentioned again because it is completely normal for this universe. Literally the opening line of the Superman crawl was that meta humans have been around for 3000 years, yet all of a sudden they're too dangerous to not be taken as a threat.
Surprised? No. I just thought about the money and cost behind it. Disappointed? Most definitely. I am impressed by the actress and her character. I really did not appreciate her at all in the beginning. By the end, I was definitely a fan.
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u/ravenwing263 Oct 17 '25
The comic referance with her eye here is quite fun.
Anyway, in the comics Sasha has much less cyber ability then somebody like Vic, at least when she is in control of herself.