My Review of Peacemaker: "Full Nelson"

 

Written And Directed by James Gunn 

Peacemaker (to Flag Sr): "What the fuck is this?"

I woke up this morning and found a lot of people were massively disappointed in this finale. For those hoping for cameo fest galore, this will disappoint. Supporting that you likely didn't care about from Superman (2025) like Happersen and Otis just ain't it.

Now, does the lack of fan pleasing faces make for a bad finale? Not really but James Gunn absolutely did himself no favours by making it sound like there were going to be big cameos in the weeks leading up to it. That was a bad move on his part.

Anyways, back to the episode itself, Flag wasted no time in using the Quantum Unfolding Chamber to scope out new worlds. It was a fun of seeing different places and killing off a few ARGUS members but of course, Flag's motives were rooted in something else.

All season long, Flag's wanted to get back at Christopher Smith and finally he got it. The discovery of Planet Salvation meant that that the government had a prison for metahumans away from Earth. It's also where Chris ended up at the very last moment because Flag Sr really was that vengeful. How will Chris ever get out of this one?

Going back a bit, this episode felt more full circle moment for the 11th Street Kids. They also went through getting some personal moments of closure with certain issues. By the near end of the episode, Checkmate had been formed and with it, probably one of the next DCU shows to boot.

I did like that the episode explored things like that boat incident between Chris and Emilia (they kissed at a Nelson concert), Leota ending her marriage to Keeya along with Adrian and John having some nice moments. Still though, this wasn't the way I expected Checkmate to be formed in the DCU.

- James Gunn did confirm that the Planet Salvation storyline will be continued in the DCU. The show won't be getting a third season.

- Kline got his whole face eaten by whatever those tiny creatures were. He also puked on a stripper, which no one needed to know about.

- Sasha, Fluery and Judomaster all signed up with Checkmate. Fluery was the only I feel they didn't build towards changing teams.

- For a moment, I did think the show was setting Sasha Bordeaux to go and work for Bruce Wayne. I mean they could still happen.

- Standout music: We got to see both Nelson and Foxy Shazam perform To Get Back To You and Oh Lord live on a boat.

- Chronology: The boat incident happened on May 22nd. I liked the way they spaced out the reveal over the course of the episode.

Full Nelson wasn't as horrible as many made it out to be. Yes, it failed on the big cameos but it did have some nice character moments and good shift in direction. Despite a third season not happening, it won't be too long before we catch up with this lot.

Rating: 7 out of 10