Editor’s note: The below article contains spoilers for Peacemaker Season 1.
After eight episodes, HBO Max’sPeacemakercomes to an end with an explosive finale that proves once and for all how writer and directorJames Gunncan create deeply human stories in the wildest fantasy scenario. Thefirst spinoff ofThe Suicide SquadfollowsJohn Cena’s as the titular wannabe be hero, a flawed man who starts to wonder if the ends justify any sort of means. While the moral dispute at the center ofPeacemakeris a philosophical question that hunts humanity for centuries, the series also dives deep into DC mythology with an alien invasion, mind control, secret government operations, and, of course, superpowers.
So, now that show has aired its finale, it’s time to unpack everything and explain what exactly happens inPeacemaker’s Season 1 ending.
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Is That a Kaiju?
Peacemakerkicks off a few months after the events ofThe Suicide Squad, after Cena’s anti-hero spends weeks in a hospital, healing from an almost-fatal gunshot and an entire building falling over his head.Peacemakerthinks his woes might be a blessing in disguise, as the police seem to be unaware of his whereabouts, and he might get to go back to his old life. But, unfortunately, soon after he escapes from the hospital, Peacemaker gets entangled again with Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) and her black ops teams. This time around,Peacemakeris enlisted for Project Butterfly, a team investigating an alien invasion.
The Project Butterfly team also includesThe Suicide Squadagents Economos (Steve Agee) and Harcourt (Jennifer Holland), with other reinforcements coming from two new characters created especially for the show: veteran spy Murn (Chukwudi Iwuji) and Waller’s daughter Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks). It doesn’t take long for Peacemaker’s BFF Vigilante (Freddie Stroma) also join Project Butterfly unofficially.
As the season goes by, Peacemaker and the team learn more about the alien menace, a legion of insect-like creatures that can enter human bodies, absorbing their memories and gaining complete control of their actions. A body infected with a “Butterfly” also has superhuman strength and agility. The creatures came from outer space after their planet got destroyed, and while they arrived peacefully on Earth, they are now determined to conquer the planet from the shadows by infesting major political players.
In each episode,Peacemakerreveals more about the Butterflies. The team soon discovers their biggest weak spot: the aliens cannot consume any food from Earth and depend on unique nectar produced by a space cow. There’s a single cow on Earth supplying the entire network of Butterflies, and if Peacemaker takes down the food supply, all the Butterflies will die not long after. That’s why, in the season finale, the team launches an attack against the aliens' barn, facing the kaiju-sized caterpillar-blob that the aliens call a cow. While the battle is pretty straightforward, and Project Butterfly’s victory is almost ensured, the finale underlines the show’s moral discussion about the price of peace by giving Peacemaker the chance to join the aliens.
Choices and Vows
Part of what makes Peacemaker such an interesting villain/anti-hero is how he believes, with all his hearths, that he’s doing what needs to be done for the greater good. Peacemaker doesn’t hesitate to pull the trigger because the ends justify the means for him. So, becoming a monster is a small price to pay for preventing innocent people from dying for no reason. In that sense, Peacemaker is not so different from Amanda Waller, who’s willing to break any law and destroy any life for the sake of the United States. And, asPeacemaker’s finale reveals, that’s also how Goff, the leader of the aliens, sees the Butterflies' actions.
In the final moments of the battle against the Butterflies, Goff reaches out to Peacemaker, revealing that the world-conquering plan of the aliens is motivated by the inability of humans to protect their own planet. The Butterflies were forced to flee their home planet because they refused to hear scientists and kept destroying their natural resources. So, once the Butterflies realized humans were walking the same destructive path, they vowed to do whatever they had to prevent humankind’s extinction. Singular lives are of no importance for the Butterflies, because the entire species’ survival is at stake. And just like that, Goff justifies the atrocious acts of the Butterflies, including killing thousands of human hosts – including children – in their path to conquering the world.
When Goff reaches out to Peacemaker, the alien leader points out how the anti-hero also vowed to keep the peace by whatever means necessary. However, while helping the Butterflies to enslave humanity would be a possible action for Peacemaker a while ago, his recent adventures with his new team led him to question his methods and try to improve as a person.
For example, Peacemaker knows he does not want to be like Waller, who forced her daughter Leota to plant a fake journal in the anti-hero’s home to pin on him the blame for all the deaths caused by the black ops team. While Leota followed through the order for the sake of peace in the U.S., she hurt her friend in the process, and Peacemaker doesn’t want to make the same mistake. Peace is not enough when we cannot protect the people we love. So, Peacemaker refuses Goff’s offer, helps to kill the cow, and ends the alien invasion.
While that’s a massive step in the anti-hero’s path for redemption, the finale also teases how the road to self-improvement is full of obstacles. Although Peacemaker killed his Nazi father (Robert Patrick), the White Dragon still haunts his son as a ghost. In the finale, White Dragon promises to be a constant reminder that Peacemaker is nothing but a killing machine that might never get rid of all the blood on his hands.
There’s also good news and a huge DCEU shake-up, as Leota tries to redeem her own sins and comes clean with the press and police forces about Peacemaker’s fake diary. Besides cleaning the anti-hero name, Leota also exposes her mother’s operations, revealing the existence of the Suicide Squad to the entire world. So, at the end of the season, Peacemaker is free to live his life, the team is beaten but on the way to recovery, and Waller will have a hard time keeping Task Force X alive.
There’s a lot the series could explore in theupcoming second season. Still, even if the danger of the alien invasion is over,Peacemaker’s finale proves that the series is, at its core, a study of human nature, the values we chose to enforce, and far are we willing to go for our ideals. Let’s hope Season 2 keeps the focus on the human, instead of the meta.
