Peacemaker Season 2 Episode 8 (finale) review — The end, the music and the man who can’t find peace

The finale of Peacemaker Season 2 is brutal, moving, and almost cruel in how it denies its hero the happiness he finally lets himself feel. After seven episodes of running from guilt, Chris Smith finally begins to believe he isn’t the problem. It takes Harcourt to prove it. When she admits that their kiss at the boat party meant everything, right after Nelson’s performance, it feels like the show’s first real pause for joy. For once, Chris smiles without irony. That moment doesn’t last, though.

The episode spends its first act pulling every thread together. Adebayo, Harcourt, Economos, Vigilante, Sasha Bordeaux, Langston Fleury, and Judomaster unite to form Checkmate, stepping out from A.R.G.U.S.’ control and into something they can call their own. The idea of independence feels bright and earned.

Sasha’s turn is the highlight, having been herself revealed as a metahuman and finally choosing empathy over orders. The team’s chemistry hits a perfect rhythm, even as the universe around them starts to burn.

Checkmate rises, A.R.G.U.S. falls?

The A.R.G.U.S. storyline turns that brief light into horror. As the agency tests the Quantum Unfolding Chamber, it stumbles through one deadly world after another. Agents melt, dimensions collapse, and what looks like exploration is really preparation. A.R.G.U.S. isn’t finding a haven. It’s building a prison. Every new world looks less like discovery and more like bureaucracy armed with godlike reach.

Lex Luthor’s presence hovers like a shadow, his war on metahumans gaining silent allies inside A.R.G.U.S. The partnership with Rick Flag Sr. gives the finale its cruel edge. Flag, pretending to serve science, is serving grief. His revenge against Chris for killing his son turns the entire experiment into a vendetta disguised as progress and peace. When he orders Peacemaker’s abduction and sends him to Salvation, it’s the most personal act of vengeance the DCU has seen in years.

The heart breaks in Peacemaker before the universe does

Emotionally, the final episode of Peacemaker Season 2 balances that violence with tenderness. The scene where Adebayo and the others tell Chris that he is loved might be the most beautiful moment of the series.

Economos ending up with a half-wing embrace from Eagly is exactly the kind of absurd grace Gunn does best. It’s messy, human, and heartfelt. For a second, Peacemaker lets its characters believe they can be happy.

Then the show takes it all away. Chris is kidnapped, branded a volunteer, and thrown into Salvation with nothing but what he was wearing. It’s punishment for daring to change, and the finale doesn’t soften it.

The brief cameos of Superman and the wider DCU feel less like fan service and more like a reminder that the machine keeps turning. Chris’s story ends not with redemption, but with bureaucracy and revenge swallowing a man who finally learned to forgive himself.

A rock requiem for a broken hero

For all its pain, the finale still finds beauty. The two musical performances live, Nelson’s To Get Back To You and Foxy Shazam’s Oh Lord, transform the episode into a rock requiem. Music has always been the heartbeat of Peacemaker, but here it becomes a farewell. The same sound that once framed his swagger now underscores his loss. It’s full-circle storytelling done with volume and ache.

“Full Nelson” is a finale that hurts because it means something. It’s proof that James Gunn understands tragedy not as punishment, but as consequence. The 11th Street Kids have finally found a purpose and themselves once more.

Trending

And Chris Smith had finally found peace, but in this universe, peace never lasts.

Rating: 5/5 helmets — with a touch of heartbreak.

×

Was this article helpful?

Thank You for feedback