Warning: Contains spoilers for Peacemaker season 1.
The Peacemaker season 1 finale tied up the main narrative, but with the Justice League cameo and the return of White Dragon, there are some questions that still need to be answered. Throughout the run of Peacemaker season 1, James Gunn hyped the finale, promising that it would be shocking. Some elements of the Peacemaker finale definitely came out of the left-field, but there are still questions to be answered in the confirmed Peacemaker season 2.
In the Peacemaker season 1 finale, Peacemaker and the team head to take down the Butterflies’ cow by themselves after Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) tries to call her mother, Amanda Waller, to send the Justice League but appears unsuccessful. In the woods before they attack, Peacemaker sees his father (Robert Patrick), despite having killed him in the previous episode. While they take some damage, the team successfully kills the cow, only for the Justice League to arrive after the battle is already over.
The Peacemaker season 1 finale seems to be setting up the future of the DCEU as well as Peacemaker season 2 with the appearances of White Dragon and the Justice League. Meanwhile, its wrap-up of the Butterfly storyline was complicated by its action sequences, and there are some points that could do with clarifying. Here’s what the Peacemaker season 1 finale means for the series and the DCEU as a whole.
Click here to watch Peacemaker: Ending & Season 2 Set-Up Explained on YouTube
What Peacemaker’s Justice League Cameo Means
As Peacemaker carries Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) away from the wreckage of the barn that housed the Butterflies’ cow, the Justice League dramatically appear on the scene. While Wonder Woman and Superman are hidden in shadow, Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and The Flash (Ezra Miller) are present and have a conversation. As Peacemaker brings up the rumors about Aquaman’s sex life, the conversation between Aquaman and the Flash provides an opportunity to wrap up the extensive Justice League jokes that Peacemaker has been making throughout the series.
As well as paying off the Peacemaker jokes, the inclusion of the Justice League cameo hints at some of the futures of the team in the DCEU. Gal Gadot and Henry Cavill not being present for the cameo might be down to scheduling, or a matter of tone for the cameo, but it is important that the characters were represented in silhouette. Cyborg was not seen as part of the team. Ray Fisher and Warner Bros. have said that Fisher will not return to the role after his treatment at the hands of Joss Whedon and how Warner Bros. handled the fallout from the situation, but the character’s absence from this cameo makes it clear that Cyborg will not be returning to the DCEU in the foreseeable future. Batman is also notably absent, though he could have got there as easily as Wonder Woman, and this hints at the complexity of Bruce Wayne in the DC films at the moment. By not including Batman in the cameo, even in silhouette, Peacemaker avoids speculation over which of the three Bruce Waynes would be in the DCEU TV show at this point.
Why Peacemaker Sees White Dragon Explained
In the Peacemaker season 1 finale, Peacemaker sees his father first in the woods, and then again at his trailer in the final shot of the series. White Dragon mocks him saying that killing him won’t have got rid of him, that he is the reason Peacemaker kills, and that he lives in his head. Peacemaker acknowledges that he is not really there and is just a metaphor but still kills him again with a blowgun (or at least, that’s how he sees it).
While Peacemaker explicitly acknowledges that his father is dead and not really present, his appearance to Chris Smith has a deeper meaning in the comics. In the comics, his father is not White Dragon, but the Nazi Wolfgang Schmidt. Peacemaker saw his father’s death at a very young age and, driven by that trauma, continued to be haunted by visions of him into later life, struggling with trying to live up to be the man he felt his father wanted him to be. The introduction of this aspect of Peacemaker’s narrative will certainly help to lay the groundwork for his Peacemaker season 2 struggles.
Peacemaker’s Climate Change Ending Explained
In the Peacemaker season 1 finale, the Goff Butterfly, their leader, now in the body of Sophie Song (Annie Chang) explains their plan to Peacemaker. She states that she and the Butterflies saw what humanity were doing to the planet and knew they were going to destroy it through climate change in the same way as the Butterflies did their homeworld. She goes as far as to point out the same political and corporate interests as well as the desire for convenience that has made the climate change problem worse on Earth. Goff then explains that they took over humans to take the choice away from humans and make sure that they didn’t destroy their own planet.
While Goff clearly has a point and climate change needs to be stopped, Peacemaker rejects Goff’s request for help and kills the cow. While Leota assumes that it was about freedom and choices, Peacemaker makes it clear that his concern was primarily for saving the team. However, Leota’s point highlights a similarity between the Butterflies and the MCU’s Thanos plotline in which the enemy wants to save the population from a very real problem caused by the population’s behavior. While their motives might be valid, in both cases, the methods that the Thanos and the Butterflies are using to achieve their goals are causing indiscriminate death and removing too much choice from the populations involved.
Judomaster Really Believed In The Butterflies
One of the big mysteries that ran throughout Peacemaker season 1 was why Judomaster was helping the Butterflies. While all the other allies of the Butterflies were either ignorant of their plans or were Butterflies themselves, Judomaster knew who they were and had been allowed to remain human. In the Peacemaker finale, Judomaster is referenced by Goff and seen crying at the aftermath of the battle with the Butterflies. Judomaster represents a member of humanity who really believed in the choice that the Butterflies were making and attempted to make that path more viable to highlight how Peacemaker's choice to kill the cow was a big deal. He had seen the weight of killing some humans to help save the planet and the rest of humanity and decided that it was a worthwhile sacrifice.
Why Didn’t Peacemaker Kill The Goff Butterfly?
At the end of Peacemaker, there are still Butterflies elsewhere around the globe, but with their food supply cut off those Butterflies will eventually die. When Peacemaker is killing the ones at the barn, he primarily takes out their head, killing not just the host, but the Butterfly inside as well. When it comes to the final showdown with Locke and Song/Goff, he shoots Locke directly in the head but shoots Goff in the chest. This was clearly a calculated move to keep the Goff Butterfly alive. The pair are reunited as Peacemaker feeds Goff from the last of his jar of their food in the final moments of Peacemaker season 1. In Peacemaker episode 7, Peacemaker says that the only people who have truly loved him were Keith and Eagly, and he fears that he’ll push everyone else away. However, when Goff speaks to him at the barn, she makes it clear that she has seen the real side of Peacemaker that cares for others and isn’t just a killer. Peacemaker doesn’t want to kill someone who can see him like that and helps Goff survive as a friend.
What Will Happen To Task Force X After Peacemaker?
At the end of Peacemaker season 1, Adebayo holds a press conference and goes public about Task Force X and Project Butterfly, much to Amanda Waller’s dismay. An optimistic viewpoint would suggest that this news would shut down ARGUS’ Task Force X branch and prevent the inhumane treatment of prisoners that allows The Suicide Squad to exist. Viola Davis’ small cameo appearances as Waller, rather than appearing as a major character, might signal that this is the case and that there will not be a Suicide Squad 3. However, ARGUS exists, and people like Waller don’t just go away. It is likely that through some form of reshuffling, both Waller and Task Force X will continue to operate, perhaps under new names, new guidance, or in a more public and less inhumane way. The representation of the media in Peacemaker with references to figures like Alex Jones makes it clear that there will be a discussion as to whether or not it is wrong to treat criminals like that (it is), and Waller will find a way to survive and thrive in a new ecosystem. So while the Peacemaker season 1 finale might have caused problems for Waller and Task Force X, they will likely continue to appear either in Suicide Squad 3 or in Peacemaker season 2.
