How Peacemaker's Finale Sets up Season 2

By Jenna Anderson

The first season of HBO Max's Peacemaker came to a close on Thursday, putting a bow on the first (but luckily, not final) season of the DC Extended Universe show. Days before the season finale debuted, it was confirmed that the series had already been renewed for a second season, with creator and director James Gunn hoping to work on it after finishing work on Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. While the finale was filled with no shortage of buzzed-about moments, it also included some interesting teases as to where the Season 2 story could even go. Spoilers for the eighth episode of Peacemaker, "It's Cow or Never", below! Only look if you want to know!

For starters, the episode saw the team essentially eliminating the alien Butterflies and the "Cow" that gave them their food. Granted, the Butterfly version of Goff was still alive in the final scene of the season, which sees Christopher Smith / Peacemaker (John Cena) feeding him the last drops of syrup from the Cow, the implication seemingly being that he'll die soon without a steady food source.

While the actual Project Butterfly storyline has come to a close, there's a lot from it that is sure to continue ruminating into future episodes, beginning with Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) going public about Task Force X and their secret missions, to the dismay of her mother, Amanda Waller (Viola Davis). There's a good chance that the ramifications of that decision could play into Season 2, both for Adebayo's individual character arc and for the idea of the characters operating as a black ops team. It also wouldn't be out of the question for the Season 2 threat to spin out on that, as it's safe to assume that some other villains or shadowy organizations could want to target the team — and the world.

There's also the revelation that Chris' now-dead father, Auggie Smith / White Dragon (Robert Patrick) is reappearing in visions to his son, taunting him for his various shortcomings and trauma. That reveal, which has roots in the pages of DC Comics, is sure to play into Season 2 in some capacity, and cause some problems for Chris on journey of processing his trauma. There are also the other individual character arcs set up in the finale, including Judomaster (Nhut Le) being the lone survivor of the Butterflies' whole operation, and Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) being on the road to recovery after nearly dying in the final fight.

Beyond that, the finale fully confirmed Peacemaker's place in the larger DC universe, with four members of the Justice League showing up (albeit, a little too late) to try to help take down the Cow. Now that we know Chris and his friends can feasibly bump elbows with the biggest possible DC heroes, the sky's the limit in terms of bizarre and entertaining connections.

Season 1 of Peacemaker is now available to stream exclusively on HBO Max.

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