Peacemaker S2E8 Recap: “Full Nelson” — Not Letting It Go (Season Finale)

The following recap contains spoilers for Peacemaker S2E8, “Full Nelson” (written & directed by James Gunn) ← Good Lord, does this man even sleep?

We open one month ago, with Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) and Peacemaker (John Cena) enjoying some dinner at Big Belly Burger. Peacemaker is really loosened up, singing at the top of his lungs and telling Harcourt her how special she is. She pushes back, saying how she doesn’t want to be special, before a round of shots get ordered. Exiting the restaurant, Harcourt responds to a catcall, which threatens to escalate until Peacemaker intervenes. Harcourt responds to this with aggression as well, calling him out for “protecting” her, but he manages to de-escalate.

They continue along the boardwalk, with Harcourt telling Peacemaker he should be nicer to Vigilante (who clearly is enamored by him) and admitting that Peacemaker was right about their visit here, before Peacemaker spots a Nelson concert on the boat, and begs her to come along, finally getting her to relent as the opening credits kick in.

In the present, Peacemaker is sitting in prison, and a guard comes by with a list of people who want to see him: it’s the 11th Street Kids. Peacemaker denies the list, calling himself “the angel of f*cking death,” still clearly traumatized at everyone he touches dying. He’s resigned to being alone.

Peacemaker sitting in a jail cell. — Screenshot/HBO

Meanwhile, Harcourt, Fleury (Tim Meadows), Judomaster (Nhut Le), Kline (Brandon Stanley), and other ARGUS agents are wandering the Quantum Unfolding Chamber trying different doors at the behest of Rick Flag (Frank Grillo), with Economos (Steve Agee) and Sydney Happerson (Stephen Blackehart) monitoring. The first unlocked door (after numerous locked doors) leads to some sort of Candy Land-esque world with something traveling through the grass towards them. It’s an adorable large-eyed tiny little imp creature! Half a second later, sharp teeth, a snarl, and an impressive vertical sends the imp and countless others latching onto the team, attempting to tear apart their protective suits. They manage to escape, but not before the imps break through Kline’s face mask and eat him to the bone. Fleury in particular is devastated by this. Bordeaux can only shake her head at Flag.

Economos is walking through the house, checking doors and venting to Harcourt about Flag’s new alliance with Lex Luthor. After a comment from Harcourt, Economos responds, “When has anything we’ve ever done been for the good of the people,” which causes his friend to take pause. Economos finally gets to the pantry, finding a deeply despondent Eagly, hiding out after Peacemaker went to prison.

As for Adrian/Vigilante (Freddie Stroma), his mom is checking in, with him reliably treating her like absolute garbage, but Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) is here to see him. He reluctantly lets her in, where they have a sit-down against a pallet of cash. Adebayo tells him they have to use the cash to bail out Peacemaker, and while he initially refuses (using the “blood money” will put a curse on them and their descendants, and he would rather do a prison break or kill/threaten the judges’ families), she manages to convince him.

ARGUS continues to try different doors in the QUC, in a montage of them encountering increasingly dangerous scenarios (zombies! Giant screaming skull spiders!) to the frustration of Fleury and Bordeaux, the delight of Flag with their progress, and notes of excitement from Luthor. They finally find a habitable planet that is congruent with Earth’s attributes. Upon their return, Flag couldn’t be more excited, but ignores Harcourt when she asks him why they’re doing it. She exchanges a look with Bordeaux. Later, at a meeting, Flag reveals that the planet, dubbed Salvation, is a prison for metahumans, and they send them directly there without going through the QUC. This is the final straw for Bordeaux, who meets up with Harcourt and reveals Flag’s plans.

At the Nelson concert on the boat a month ago, Harcourt is really vibing with the music as Peacemaker looks on with love in his eyes, and you can, in that moment, feel how much she means to him. As the music crescendos, they finally kiss, and the camera spins around them in a beautiful, climactic moment, as they ignore the dancing crowd around them. Harcourt breaks away and awkwardly says she needs to leave. She makes her breathless, confused exit, leaving an equally confused Peacemaker behind. I originally thought that “that night” Peacemaker wanted to talk about earlier in the season was a one-night stand, but this kiss was the actual incident, which is so much more meaningful.

Peacemaker and Harcourt holds hands at a concert — Screenshot/HBO

Adebayo visits her estranged wife Keeya (Elizabeth Faith Ludlow), and they have a heartbreaking conversation where Ads tells her that it’s time to let go: they love each other, but their dreams are incompatible and they’re not right for each other. They hold hands for a final time, and Keeya lowers her head to their hands and weeps bitterly.

Having reluctantly made bail, Peacemaker visits the 11th Street Kids’ house to pick up Eagly and hit the road, checking into a remote motel. His friends later debate how they’re going to get him back. Their clearance for accessing the tracking chip in Peacemaker’s head has been revoked, but Bordeaux, now welcome in the 11th Street fold, still has access. At ARGUS, Harcourt and Bordeaux try to triangulate Peacemaker’s location and instruct Economos to distract the rest of the room, which he hilarious stumbles at doing.

Finally tracking him down, the 11th Street Kids get to Peacemaker at his motel, and as Peacemaker rebuffs their attempts to get him back and gets into his truck, Vigilante comes out of nowhere, full-body tackling Peacemaker, practically taking the door off of the truck, and tases him. “Got him!”

In the motel room with a bag of ice to his head, Peacemaker listens to his friends attempt to convince him to come back. After an emotional monologue from Peacemaker in which he lays out how why he’s trying to run away, Adebayo reminds him that when he listens to himself, he touches people: when she’s around him, she feels loved. Vigilante chimes in that Peacemaker is his best friend: he doesn’t want to do cool sh*t without him. Adebayo tells him that Economos keeps putting his life on the line to help him. Finally, Harcourt says that they are tied together, that all of them are tied together, and that they haven’t been listening to themselves, and that it’s time for that to change.

This scene, and the one that follows, is where I had to close my door and turn up the volume so no one knew I was crying.

The Kids exit the room, and Peacemaker follows Harcourt out, asking once again if their kiss on the boat meant anything. Harcourt reacts again with exasperation, telling Peacemaker that she’s not right in the head. He cuts her off, asking her again: “I just want to know if it meant something to you at all.” She turns away, before turning back towards him. “Of course it did, you f*cking a**hole. It meant everything.”

Getting back into the motel room, Peacemaker starts joyfully dancing as “Oh Lord” kicks in. One week later, the song is set to a montage of the team collecting money from Vigilante’s stash, and setting up shop in a new office, Checkmate. Peacemaker, Harcourt, Economos, Adebayo, Vigilante, and even Fleury and Judomaster are all there, and Vigilante has finally found someone to entertain his animal facts obsession in Fleury. We also get a very sweet moment where Eagly gives Economos a hug, and Peacemaker and Harcourt look lovingly at each other at the Foxy Shazam concert.

Unfortunately, the joy is short-lived, as Peacemaker is abducted by ARGUS at his motel room, thrown into the back of a truck, and transported to the facility. They shove him through the doorway into Salvation, and on the other side of the threshold, Flag says he wanted to see what effect this dimension has on the human body before tossing all of the metahumans in. “This is for Ricky, you piece of sh*t,” Flag says, before closing the portal. Peacemaker makes a dive for the doorway, but it barely closes before he can make it. Nooooo! That’s the end? Our boy is just stranded on the prison planet and no one knows, and there are dangerous sounds beyond the tree line?

“Full Nelson” has its moments (and they are good moments, don’t get me wrong), but this finale overall felt more like setup for future storytelling than it felt like a proper conclusion to the existing storyline. “Full Nelson” is just a pretty good episode, and not as good as the two that came prior. The conclusion of the Peacemaker/Harcourt romance is sweet, if abrupt, and the double-length episode could have used just one more half hour episode beforehand to let things breathe a little bit more. There are absolutely fantastic individual scenes, but as a whole package it barely doesn’t come together. Still, it doesn’t shake my faith in Gunn as the architect of the DCU. Great things are in store for the universe. Making the second season of Peacemaker a character drama was a huge swing for the fences, and I think Gunn mostly succeeded, even in much of “Full Nelson.” It was a hugely enjoyable season with a couple of stumbles, but I’m excited to see what comes next.