‘Peacemaker’ Finale Features Explosive Cameos & Character Moments
The Peacemaker finale was a bittersweet BOOM of a good time– here’s everything that happened and what it all means.
There’s a very specific feeling you get when a story you love comes to a close. The thrill of a tale well-told is great, but there’s also that lingering sadness because it’s over. It’s a shame this finale was tainted with the ending of Peacemaker.
OH WAIT. Peacemaker has been renewed for season 2? Aw hell yeah! Well then let’s dive right in, motherf@#%ers! It’s the season finale of Peacemaker! Shit is about to get wild!
You know the drill, this article will be nothing but spoilers for season 1 of ‘Peacemaker’.
“It’s Cow or Never” – The Peacemaker Finale We Deserved
When we last left our heroes, they were all suited up and headed to destroy the cow. While they’ve got their team walk down, things are still tense between Chris and Adebayo moving into the Peacemaker finale.
When she tries to apologize, he expresses his displeasure in a cacophony of fart noises – a respectable mediation tactic. And while Leota admits that he has every right to be angry at her, he needs to let go of his anger with himself over the death of his brother.
Once the team arrives as the farm where the cow is being held, they lay out the various Peacemaker helmets and start to form a plan. Their goal is to drop the sonic boom helmet from episode 1 on top of the barn and activate it as many times as they can.
Now it’s Eagley’s time to shine! Except that he doesn’t actually understand real human words, so he just drops the helmet somewhere in the woods nearby. As the team breaks up to search for it, Chris sees the image of his dead father, who insists that Chris will never be rid of his father’s influence.
Courtesy of HBO Max
Once they retrieve the helmet, Economos has to dress as a security guard in order to drop the helmet inside the barn. John’s not really a grace-under-pressure guy, so when butterfly-Detective Fitzgibbon confronts him, he’s a bit of a mess. Still, he manages to convince Fizgibbon that he’s also a butterfly and makes his way into the barn.
John drops the bag-o-helmet as soon as he sees the cow. He bolts. After all, he’s not down to fuck with another kaiju. On his way out, he’s stopped again by Fitzgibbon, who asks why he (or the human body he’s driving around) dyed his beard.
With the rest of the team listening in, John confesses that he dyed his beard in order to look younger and more handsome. He also adds that he didn’t think anyone noticed until Peacemaker continuously brought it up. In this moment, Chris is once again confronted by the human consequences of his bullying. In this moment, while John’s life is on the line, Chris seems to feel the gravity of his actions.
Just when it looks like John may be free and clear, one of the butterflies finds the bag John dropped. He comes out of the barn with the sonic boom helmet in his hands. The butterflies swarm around John, and in order to save him, the team activates a series of sonic booms that start to crash the barn and its underground structure.
When Goff and the other butterflies realize that the cow is in jeopardy, they run toward the barn in an attempt to save their food source. Adebayo stays behind with John in the woods while Peacemaker, Vigilante, and Harcourt turn out for the high-action shoot-em-up we’ve all been waiting for.
This fight scene is fairly short, but perfectly times and choreographed. We watch as the three of them work as a flawless unit, Vigilante and Harcourt clearing the way for Chris to head for the barn and destroy the cow for good. The shield-and-bullet move that Peacemaker pulls off is worth rewatching alone, but the whole fight scene is gold.
Courtesy of HBO Max
As the fight goes one, both Vigilante and Harcourt take bullets to the slowed-down tune of America’s favorite theme song. Meanwhile, Chris makes his way underground as Adebayo makes her way onto the field when she realizes that Harcourt is down. John follows suit, only to trip and gruesomely break his ankle.
Just as a butterfly flies over Harcourt and attempts to crawl into her mouth, Adebayo intervenes. Harcourt tells Leota to help Chris, and John crawls over with the human-torpedo helmet. Leota uses her phone to track Chris’ location, and we see him buried under the rubble.
But Goff finds him first. After a few punches, Goff tells Peacemaker that she doesn’t want to fight. Instead, she tells him to follow her into the underground chamber where the cow is surrounded by the crumbling infrastructure of the barn.
Save the Planet or Save Free Will?
It’s in this moment that we see the connection between Goph and Peacemaker. We certainly sensed it when the hero fed and cared for the insect-like alien. She thanks Chris for being kind to her and feeding her.
She asks him to help her teleport the cow to another location so they can continue to live. Goff tells Chris that the butterflies took a vow that’s very similar to his own – after the destruction of their own planet, they came to Earth. Only they quickly realized that misinformation and fearmongering were leading humanity down a similar path of destruction, and she vowed to prevent that by taking over humans.
Murn, of course, disagreed. He didn’t think that the butterflies had the right to eradicate human will, regardless of the righteousness of their cause. When Goff asks Chris once again if he’ll help her, he makes a split decision. He activates the torpedo helmet again, sending Adebayo shooting through the cow (gross) and killing it.
While he does shoot the human host bodies carrying the two butterflies in the room, he doesn’t kill Goff. He and Adebayo rush out of the barn as it fully caves in.
Courtesy of HBO Max
Oh, the Justice League Shows Up in the Peacemaker Finale
Let’s not forget that Adebayo called her mother at the beginning of the episode and asked the Justice League to come in and lend a hand. Well who manages to show up after all the action is over? The silhouettes of Wonder Woman, the Flash, Aquaman, and Superman arrive just as Chris and his team are hobbling away from the scene.
When Chris calls them out for being late, he tells Aquaman to “go fuck another fish, asshole”. Lo and behold, we actually see Ezra Miller and Jason Mamoa, as Aquaman says that he’s “so sick of that rumor”. Flash comes back with “It’s not a rumor”, and Aquaman drops an ‘f’ bomb with the “Fuck you, Barry” that will live in rent-free in our minds forever.
#Peacemaker finale was fantastic. Great end to a great first season. The show was definitely a massive surprise. This episode had some touching character moments, the shows best and most brutal action, and that Justice League cameo was hilarious. Great stuff! pic.twitter.com/XnlOadfLFc
— DawVan1028 (@DawVan1028) February 17, 2022
What’s Next for Peacemaker & the 11th Street Kids?
Post-battle, it’s time for the team to get patched up and grapple with the choices they made in battle. While Harcourt and Vigilante are being patched up in the hospital, Leota and Chris talk about Goff’s perspective and Chris’ choice under the barn.
He asks her if he just killed the world, and she can’t really give him an answer. But at the end of the day, he chose to protect his team. Adebayo finally offers an apology that Chris accepts, and he tells her that after Eagley, she’s his BFF.
Adebayo then makes a choice to “do the right thing”. Which is actually the very ballsy move of holding a press conference and telling the truth. Not only does she clear the names of Peacemaker and Vigilante, she tells the world about Amander Waller and Task Force X. She’s then able to go back home to her wife and all their sweet little doggos with a clean conscience.
Courtesy of HBO Max
Meanwhile, Chris spends several days waiting for Harcourt to wake up, and thankfully, she does. We eventually see her undergoing some physical therapy to regain her ability to walk, while John Economos takes a position as the head of Belle Reve now that Amanda Waller is presumably on the outs.
The final moments of the show also show Judomaster surveying the carnage surrounding the barn. He’s devastated, having believed in Goph’s plan to save the planet.
Peacemaker and Vigilante are back to blowing things up for a good time, bless them. And finally, we leave Chris enjoying a beer on his porch when Goph flies over for the last of his stash of golden goo. He feeds his little butterfly friend, and the audience shares his complicated feelings about the fate of this alien race.
Courtesy of HBO Max
It’s likely that season 2 will continue to explore the conflicting ideologies of the hero Peacemaker. Just before the credits roll, we see the imaginary figure of Auggie sitting down next to Chris, indicating that his father will always be with him through the trauma he’s suffered and the conflict he’s had to face.
Just because Chris killed his father doesn’t mean that his internal struggle is over. He’ll still have to untangle a lot of his experiences, and that’s okay. There’s still plenty of Peacemaker’s story to tell.
Until then, we’ll be eagerly waiting for a taste of more Peacemaker.
‘Peacemaker’ season 1 is now fully available for streaming exclusively on HBO Max.
