Interview
‘Peacemaker’: Jennifer Holland on What Harcourt’s Kiss With Chris Could Mean for Their Future
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Peacemaker Season 2 finale, “Full Nelson.”]
Peacemaker‘s second season finally answered the long-lingering question of what happened between Chris Smith (John Cena) and Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) on that heavily alluded to boat in the finale episode, “Full Nelson.”
What could have caused her to shut down when Chris asked if what happened between them meant anything? It turns out it was just a kiss. But a kiss for Harcourt means so much more than might be construed on the surface, as Holland tells TV Insider, “For Harcourt, allowing her guard to be let down enough that she kissed the man who killed her only friend is an extraordinary circumstance.”
As viewers learned earlier this season, Harcourt had a friendship and fling with Rick Flag Jr. (Joel Kinnaman) before he was killed by Peacemaker in Corto Maltese during 2021’s The Suicide Squad. “It’s the worst case scenario, and she can’t accept that she’s gone so far as to allow his charms to break down her walls enough that she’s gone from being a person who was this close to doing everything that she could to ruin his life to being a person who maybe loves him, if she’s capable of that.”
In the moments leading up to the kiss aboard the rock cruise where the band Nelson is playing, Chris and Harcourt’s warm banter is on full display as they eat and drink at Big Belly Burger. Things get goofy as Chris serenades Harcourt, and they giggle. And when one patron delivers a demeaning comment to Harcourt, Chris diffuses the situation, showing audiences that they could make a good pair if they’d just get out of their own way.
HBO Max
“They’ve come to be great friends, and they have a really great rapport. A lot has happened since the end of Season 1 in terms of how much they’ve opened up to each other,” Holland explains. “If you go back through Season 2, she’s just completely shut herself off to him, and he’s just going, ‘Hang on a second, like we were going great, everything was fine… what happened?’ And she’s just like, ‘I don’t wanna talk to you about the boat.'”
On the boat, the pair sway to the music, dancing to “To Get Back to You,” and when Chris twirls Harcourt to pull her back in, the pair kisses under a hazy glow reminiscent of a rock music video. But when realization rocks through Harcourt, she backs away and takes off running, not offering an explanation. “I have a lot of empathy for Chris in this season with what Harcourt’s done. She’s literally in front of his face, just ghosted him. She’s not returning his questions in real life. She’s a different human being,” Holland adds. “This is an extraordinary incident that happened on the boat. She’s not good at communicating her feelings.”
That much is clear when Harcourt went to find Chris in the alternate dimension. “I don’t think she’s even present to her feelings most of the time, so the only way that she can communicate that she does care about Chris and that she does want him in her life is to go there and get him back,” Holland explains. “And when she sees him there, and they have the conversation in the interrogation room, for her, I think she’s just like, ‘Why do you keep asking me these questions? You know I’m not capable of giving you what you want, but I’m here.'”
While Harcourt and Chris had begun working through their complicated relationship, with her finally admitting that the kiss meant something to her, it wasn’t entirely clear if they’d pick up where they left off on that end, or if it would be a gradual process. “She’s not suddenly turned into some open book, but I think it was a breakthrough when she said that to him,” Holland shares.
As viewers saw in the Season 2 finale’s final minutes, Harcourt and Chris went on another rock cruise, this time headlined by Foxy Shazam, the band behind Season 2’s theme song, “Oh Lord.” And while they didn’t kiss, Harcourt’s guard was down as she belted the lyrics. “I think the fun thing that you realize at the end of the show is that we’ve been hearing Foxy Shazam through the whole season, and when you wrap around to the end of the season, you realize that Foxy’s not Chris’ music, Foxy is obviously Harcourt’s music, that’s Harcourt’s song that she’s in love with.”
Can they find that joy and road to romance in the future? Only time will tell as Chris was kidnapped by Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo), and sent into Salvation, a planet A.R.G.U.S. intends to utilize as a prison for Metahumans. We’ll keep our fingers crossed that Chris’s pals at Checkmate will have what it takes to save him, but let us know your theories and what you thought of the boat revelation in the comments section below.
Peacemaker, Seasons 1-2, Streaming Now, HBO Max
