Movies & TV Peacemaker Peacemaker Finds Its Way to Checkmate in Season Finale “Full Nelson” Move over, Peacemaker has a whole new entertainment universe to set up. By Emmet Asher-Perrin | Published on October 10, 2025 Image: Jessica Miglio/HBO Max Comment 0 Share New Share Image: Jessica Miglio/HBO Max Here’s hoping we don’t have to wait another three years for an end to that cliffhanger… Recap Image: Jessica Miglio/HBO Max One month previous, we see the hangout where Chris and Harcourt met for dinner, got drunk, and wound up on a rock cruise. They dance and it ends in a kiss. Harcourt panics and leaves. Presently, Chris is in prison and refusing all visitors because he believes he’s the angel of death. Harcourt and Economos are working at A.R.G.U.S., which is pulling in more and more of Luthor’s people to help with operations into the quantum realm; they’ve been instructed to find an unoccupied world with resources that can support human life. Many of these missions turn dangerous and people die in these other worlds, but the A.R.G.U.S. base crew seem unbothered. After hours, Economos points out to Harcourt that they don’t know why they’re looking for a place like this, and that their jobs classically don’t help people. Eagly is depressed with Chris gone, and Economos keep trying to figure out how to feed him. Adebayo goes to Adrian’s house and tells him that he needs to be nicer to his mother, and that he needs to use some of his “blood money” to hire Chris a better lawyer and help bail him out. When he won’t, she manipulates him by suggesting that she’s Chris’ better friend for being willing to take on a blood curse for him. They use the money to bail Chris out and he takes off, disappearing. A quantum realm team finally finds a verdant world that can support human life and doesn’t appear to have people on it. Flag takes a meeting at the Pentagon and tells everyone that this world is the perfect prison site of metahumans, and he calls it Salvation. Bordeaux is horrified and Harcourt asks if she’d be willing to meet. The two women go to the same place Harcourt ate with Chris before their boat debacle, and Bordeaux tells her everything about what the site will be used for. Harcourt points out that Bordeaux is also a metahuman; she could be courtmartialed for telling her this. Bordeaux says that she can’t stand working for a broken system anymore. Harcourt says that she’s got an idea, and wants Bordeaux to meet a friend of hers. They head back to her apartment, and Adebayo joins them, bringing in all her ideas for a better organization. Harcourt asks Bordeaux if she’s got clearance to track Chris. Adebayo goes to see Keeya, and tells her the truth—that she’ll always love her, but that their desires in life aren’t compatible, which is no foundation for a marriage. They both have to accept that it’s over, and cry in each other’s arms. At A.R.G.U.S., Harcourt and Bordeaux work to pinpoint Chris’ location on a computer, using Economos as a (terrible) distraction. They find the motel he’s holed up in and everyone confronts him at once. When he tries to escape, Adrian tackles and tazes him. Back in his room, Chris explains that he can’t be around any of them because he brings death. Adebayo points out that death only ever occurred around him when he didn’t listen to his inner voice, either doing what others told him to, or what he wanted to be true. She tells Chris that when he follows his own principles and desires, he shows nothing but love and care toward the people in his life. Everyone agrees, and they tell him that they have a plan they can’t execute without him. As they all make to leave, Chris asks Harcourt one more time if the boat incident meant anything. She finally admits that it meant everything to her. Chris is elated. The group reunites, using Adrian’s money pile to open up their own organization called Checkmate, bringing Bordeaux, Fluery, and Rip Jagger with them. Chris and Harcourt go on another rock cruise, this time for Foxy Shazam, who play the opening number for season two. They seem entirely happy together, Adrian hangs out with Fluery and talks about spiders, and Eagly befriends Economos. One evening, Chris is bagged and bound and brought back to A.R.G.U.S. Flag puts Chris in Salvation and tells him that he’s volunteered to be the first person to find out if it’s fit for human life. Chris is left alone on this unknown world and creatures howl in the distance. Commentary Image: Jessica Miglio/HBO Max This finale basically loaded up everything I wanted to be seeing all throughout the season and set it out as a buffet. It’s nice to finally have it, but I’m a little aggravated that it took eight whole episodes to get here. And that we finally got a full-length episode again, but only for the end. There are some beautiful emotional pieces in this finale, but they would have landed much harder if they’d gotten more build. Easiest way to do that? Stop writing half-hour episodes. Put some meat on the bones and let us watch people keep trying to work things out. This is mostly for Adebayo and Bordeaux, of course, but also for Fluery and Rip Jagger! We needed to see a bit more of Fluery warming up, get more of Rip’s backstory, spend a day finding out what Bordeaux’s deal was. My assumption that Bordeaux was going to be working for someone like Waller came from an expectation that the show was going to shorthand her turn on Flag. Which it did, but we only get a few reaction shots to indicate her growing unease before she u-turns out of her entire alignment. This complaint extends to Adebayo’s goodbye to her wife, which is arguably even more important because it’s so rare for queer couples on television to get complicated material like this. It’s well-written, beautifully acted, but it would have had such a searing impact if we’d spent more of the season watching Adebayo try to repair the relationship and failing for one reason or another. Literally two or three more scenes would have made all the difference. There was time for it! Having said that, Danielle Brooks is the MVP of this entire episode, and I can’t help but shrug a little at Chris and Harcourt finally working things out when Adebayo is the character who holds the show’s heart in her hands, every step of the way. This is not to diss any of Cena and Holland’s hard work, who both did a lovely job bringing these characters together over the season. I just wonder if some creators remember that central romantic entanglements between characters are optional parts of a story; they don’t belong there just because it’s what an audience expects. (They are also allowed more time to come to fruition! Most of us enjoy a slow burn, come on.) I am nearly always down for romantic subplots, but when friendship and support are the center of your concept, it seems weird to keep harping on it like it’s the entire point of the story? It’s very similar to the problems I had with the Guardians of the Galaxy crew under Gunn’s eye. Loved the all-woman brainstorming session at Harcourt’s place, by the way. It’s just rough when it’s pitched at the ending, and honestly worthless if the show doesn’t get more seasons where it centers this dynamic. It was annoying enough in 2019 when Avengers: Endgame acted like they could shoehorn in one short action sequence with all their female characters working hand in hand to make up for their never-more-than-two-girls-at-once team rosters. Adding to the good side of this episode, the music cues are completely over-the-top, but in a fun way—and getting the live rock performances in there was a real treat. (Foxy Shazam has the best wardrobe of anyone this season, aside from Adebayo.) The talk with Chris in the motel was genuinely moving, even if it did get a little undercut by going right back to the boat question with Harcourt again. The interchange between the dimension divers getting slaughtered while Flag and Luthor’s people sit around laughing was incredibly effective. Also the tiny murder gremlins in the candy world. I’m a sucker for cute evil. This cliffhanger seems particularly cruel when we have no idea how long it’s going to be before we find out how Chris has faired in Salvation. Guess Checkmate’s got their work cut out. Keeping the Peace (Thoughts and Asides) Image: Jessica Miglio/HBO Max When do we get to find out why the alien is disposing of rodents? Inquiring minds wanna know (and hang out with them more). There is nothing more satisfying than watching everyone try to convince Chris to stay and talk, and Adrian moving right in with the taser and no words at all.  Obviously, Checkmate is an organization from the comics. This is a great way of bringing it into the DCU and an equally great set of characters to start it up with. Wonder if they’ll use the chess piece codenames… It’s, shall we say, a little worrisome that they’ve basically used this season for the purpose of giving the U.S. government (and Lex Luthor) access to an even better prison dimension. Having said that, I hope that if they get a third season, the major arc doesn’t have to set up more stuff for movies. Let them do their own thing. Bets on where we’re likely to see Salvation next? See you next season, mayhaps…[end-mark] The post <i>Peacemaker</i> Finds Its Way to Checkmate in Season Finale “Full Nelson” appeared first on Reactor.