PEACEMAKER Fans Are Furious Over the Season 2 Finale — “Not Good TV” and “So F***ing Bad”
With the Peacemaker Season 2 finale now streaming on HBO Max, fans were expecting an explosive and satisfying conclusion. Instead, they got what many are calling a frustrating setup for future DCU projects, and fans on social media aren’t holding back.
The finale, titled “Full Nelson,” dropped on October 10, 2025, wrapping up the show’s multiverse storyline while teasing the introduction of the Checkmate organization and a Superman-related arc, and the reaction online has been anything but unified.
While some praised the emotional moments and John Cena’s performance as Christopher Smith, others said the finale completely missed the mark.
One viewer called it “the worst episode” of the series and slammed it for offering “none of the big DC stars or surprises” that James Gunn had teased. Another fan wrote, “Underwhelming… it didn’t explore much of the mystery of the season. It felt like filler.”
Reddit lit up within minutes of the episode’s release. “That wasn’t good TV at all,” posted user Reddeath10168, summing up the general tone of disappointment. “This is the downside of watching shows weekly, the disappointing moments just hit hard,” added MY-SECRET-REDDIT on the r/DCU_ thread.
Then there was Afromedes, who said: “The show literally did the ‘I don’t wanna play with you anymore’ meme to the ENTIRE F-CKING PLOT of the first 7 episodes.”
It’s a harsh turn for a show that had been one of the DCU’s most consistently loved series. Peacemaker built major momentum through its second season, expanding its world and connecting more directly with the wider DC Universe.
For a while, it felt like Gunn and Peter Safran’s new DC Studios era was firing on all cylinders, especially after the success of Creature Commandos and Superman.
But this finale has reopened an old wound for DC fans, the feeling that studio priorities are overshadowing storytelling. The main criticism centers on the finale’s heavy focus on setting up future projects, particularly Man of Tomorrow, instead of providing closure for Peacemaker’s core characters.
Fans were frustrated that the show seemed to abandon the Earth X storyline, rush through Checkmate’s introduction, and end on a cliffhanger that could take years to resolve.
That frustration cuts deep because Gunn had been vocal about his plan for the DCU, which was to make each entry feel like a complete story on its own, even while connecting to a larger universe.
It worked beautifully in Creature Commandos and Superman, which both told self-contained stories while laying groundwork for what’s next. Peacemaker’s finale, though, has been accused of doing the opposite.
In many ways, it’s the same issue that’s been plaguing Marvel recently, prioritizing setup over payoff. Instead of a satisfying emotional conclusion for Christopher Smith and his team, the episode spent its last minutes laying track for other projects. For a lot of fans, that made the whole season feel less like a story and more like a prologue.
It’s not that fans don’t want Peacemaker to connect to the wider DC Universe, they just wanted the season they invested in to finish its own story first.
Instead, many feel shortchanged. After two seasons of sharp writing, wild humor, and unexpected heart, Peacemaker Season 2 ended not with a bang, but with a setup for something else entirely.
So what did you think? Did Peacemaker stick the landing, or did “Full Nelson” fumble the finale?