SPOILERS FOR THE PEACEMAKER SEASON FINALE

“It’s Cow or Never”

The week where we discovered that Peacemaker had been renewed for a second season on HBO Max, we got an excellent season finale for an excellent first season of Peacemaker. Everybody from James Gunn to John Cena to all of the remainder of the cast brought us 8 excellent episodes of superhero television and it absolutely deserves a renewal.

Among the violence and the Gunn-isms, the characters of Peacemaker all had great journeys for their arcs. It went deeper than just Chris Smith too. Yes, John Cena was tremendous and Chris was the main developing character, but there was so much more here. First, Harcourt developed into the leader that she would become. Adebayo came clean with her background and connection to Amanda Waller and found out how to make amends with her teammates and shining the light on her mother’s orgnaization. Economos found some personal strength after a lifetime of being a loser who had a terrible self-image. Vigilante….

Okay, maybe not as much character development for Adrian Chase’s Vigilante.

Of course, the biggest news coming out of the episode is the shocking cameos that appeared at the end of the episode. Early on, when Adebayo was on the phone with her mother, she made a snide reference to her mother about calling in the Justice League. Then, at the end of the show, the Justice League actually showed up. Not only was it the Justice League, but it was Jason Momoa’s Aquaman and Ezra Miller’s Flash. Superman and Wonder Woman were there too, but not in their famous actors. Peacemaker’s reaction to the late arriving JL was perfectly in character. And the whole Aquaman f**ks fish comes back in a big way.

Viola Davis also made a cameo in the finale as Amanda Waller to drop an F Bomb of her own.

Despite being shot in the head last episode, Robert Patrick returned as a delusion that Peacemaker would see and interact with. Patrick showed back up at the end of the episode showing that he was going to be tormenting his son’s psyche well into season two.

This has been a fantastic season of television. It grew each week, building my anticipation for the next week’s show. John Cena showed off some acting chops that I did not expect. Sure, I knew he had great comedy timing, but his work here was exceptional. I wonder how much of Cena’s performance could be attributed to James Gunn pulling it out of him. He brought Dave Bautista into the acting world by casting him as Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy. He has now brought John Cena the most significant role of his not WWE career.

Here is to more Peacemaker!