HBO Max’s new seriesPeacemakerhas been the surprise hit of 2022. From the show’s incredible opening credits to Gunn’s trademark ability to find humor in the darkest of places,The Suicide Squadspinoff series has been a breath of fresh air for the DCEU. On top of all that, Gunn may have shattered some childhoods when he revealed a dark secret about The Berenstain Bears.
In thethird episode ofPeacemakerA.R.G.U.S operatives Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) and Jon Economos (Steve Agee) are staked out in a surveillance truck, waiting for their latest target to arrive. In a scene right out of a classic spy novel, Economos reports to the rest of his team that the family of potential targets has arrived. He uses codenames, referring to them as “The Berenstein Bears,” after the classic children’s book series of the same name.
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However, Adebayo is quick to correct him, pointing out that the proper pronunciation is actually BerenSTAIN Bears after the novel’s creators Stan and Jan Berenstain. Economos, and likely half the audience, is quick to dismiss this. He grew up with these books, as many others did, he knows it’s BerenSTEIN. It’s not until later in the episode that they Google it, and it is in fact BerenSTAIN, proving Adebayo correct.
Gunn recently tweeted out this scene and revealed that the inspiration for the conversation actually came from his own experience learning the truth about the Berenstain Bears. In the tweet, Gunn wrote, “Based on a real life situation where I found out that it was indeed “Berenstain” after calling them the wrong name for my whole life.” He’s not the only one. The pronunciation of Berenstain Bears has been a well-documented example of what’s referred to asThe Mandela Effect, a phenomenon in which a large group of people remembers something that never happened or was never true. The term is named after the fact that many people believed former South African president Nelson Mandela actually died in prison and were shocked to discover that he was alive after his release in 1990.
While this scene can easily be chalked up tojust a funnyPeacemakermoment, it also serves the greater narrative. Adebayo being the only character to know the correct pronunciation of Berenstain sets her apart from the rest of the team, showing that despite being the rookie, she’s more capable than she seems. The scene also works as a metaphor for one of the major themes of every good story: that things aren’t always as they seem.
Peacemakerhimself is a much sadder and more guilt-ridden character than he appears, and the butterflies aren’t just meta-humans, they’re actually small winged creatures living in human bodies. Even Adebayo is harboring a secret for at least the first three episodes, that she is actuallyAmanda Waller’s daughterand has been tasked with keeping tabs onPeacemakerand Project Butterfly. All of this just goes to show the effectiveness of Gunn’s writing. Even a seemingly throw-away joke has a deeper meaning.
You can watch the first four episodes ofPeacemakerexclusively on HBO Max, with new episodes streaming every Thursday.
