Peacemaker Just Received Some Devastating News Following Its Finale

The following contains major spoilers for Peacemaker Season 2, Episode 8, "Full Nelson," currently available for streaming on HBO Max.

Peacemaker just hit a whole new low with its Season 2 finale.

Per ComicBookMovie, the recently released Peacemaker Season 2 finale, "Full Nelson," has officially become the lowest rated episode of the series to date. As of the time of writing, "Full Nelson" holds a mere 6.8/10 rating via the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), whereas previous episodes in Season 2 have been consistently awarded ratings above the 9.0/10 mark. While many have attributed this to the lack of appearances from characters such as Brainiac and the Justice Gang, who some fans expected to appear at some point late in Season 2, others have pointed towards the unexpected turn towards the interdimensional prison plane known as Salvation and numerous abrupt shifts in tone as reasons for the low reviews.

Peacemaker Season 2 has taken some major departures from Season 1, introducing entirely new corners of the Multiverse, as well as a new method of traversing it. Season 2 revolves around the titular anti-villain's trek back and forth from the primary DCU to a seemingly idyllic reality in which his father and brother are still alive and lauded as some of their world's greatest heroes. Eventually, it is revealed that this timeline is that of Earth-X, the Nazi-ruled world where the Axis Powers' victory in World War II led to the establishment of a violent, white supremacist regime that effectively rules the entire planet.

Despite the low ratings for its final episode, Peacemaker Season 2 still managed to bring in rave reviews as a whole. As of the time of writing, Peacemaker Season 2 holds a near-perfect 96% "Certified Fresh" rating via review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, as averaged across 129 verified critical reviews. Season 2 also holds a 79% approval rating via Rotten Tomatoes' audience-generated "Popcornmeter," as averaged across more than 1,000 reviews.

What Salvation Means for the Future of the DCU According to James Gunn

Introduced in the pages of 2007's Salvation Run by writers Bill Willingham and Lilah Sturges, the Salvation of DC Comics is a far-off planet where many of the world's worst metahuman threats and supervillains were sent to life and die in exile at the behest of Amanda Waller. Throughout Salvation Run, readers watched as the villains battled amongst themselves, all while attempting to survive the harsh terrain and find a way home. Gunn previously touched on what Peacemaker's role on Salvation might be going forward, noting, "What it's about, really, is the concept... the part that really spoke to me was the beginning of it, where, in that version, Rick Flag Jr. and Amanda Waller were like, ‘F--- it. Metahumans are a pain in the a--. They keep escaping. Let's just get rid of them permanently.’ And they send them to the other place. And of course, there are a bunch of repercussions about sending a bunch of bad guys to another dimension, you know? And in this case, the sole person there right now is a good guy who has to survive on his own."

Peacemaker is now available for streaming on HBO Max.