Peacemaker Season 2’s Real Villain? All Signs Point To Captain Triumph
Peacemaker Season 2 is charging toward a finale with a threat that hits home. After Chris Smith’s brutal clash with his Earth-X brother Keith Smith, aka Captain Triumph, Episode 8 could crown the returning foe as the season’s real villain.
Peacemaker might have one more headache to punch his way through. After the penultimate episode of Season 2, it sure looks like John Cena's helmeted man-child is headed for a final round with a very angry blast from a Nazi-ruled parallel Earth: his brother, Keith Smith, aka Captain Triumph.
What Episode 7 actually set up
Episode 7 brings the Earth-X versions of two familiar faces crashing into the main timeline: Auggie Smith and Keith Smith. Quick refresher if the multiverse makes your eyes glaze over: Earth-X is the DC world where the Nazis won, which is why Captain Triumph is not just edgy, he's a straight-up white supremacist. Inside baseball, yes, but it matters here.
- Earth-X Auggie and Keith finally find our Chris Smith (Peacemaker) and learn he is the guy who killed their Earth's Peacemaker.
- Already grieving his brother, Captain Triumph snaps when Earth-X Vigilante kills Earth-X Auggie.
- Keith goes on a full-on rampage against Chris and the team, driven by his ideology and grief.
- It does not go his way: Emilia Harcourt gets the drop on him with a gun.
- The team leaves him alive. Harcourt basically says the quiet part out loud: he will probably follow them to Earth-1 to get revenge.
So, yeah, not exactly subtle foreshadowing for Episode 8.
Is Captain Triumph the real Big Bad of the season?
Fans are already betting on it, and James Gunn all but circled it in red ink on the official Peacemaker podcast. He described what Season 2 has been doing with Keith Smith like this:
'In one way, Season 2 conveyed Captain Triumph's origin as a super villain, a white supremacist piece of s-- super villain. And at the end [of Episode 7], we see that look in his eye.'
That is about as clear a 'see you in the finale' as you can get without flashing a neon sign. If they do hold him back, expect David Denman's Captain Triumph to boomerang into a potential Season 3 or whatever Peacemaker-adjacent DCU thing pops up next. Either way, the show just built itself a personal, hate-fueled nemesis for Chris that fits the universe and the character way too well to waste.