WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Peacemaker Episode 6, “Murn After Reading,” now streaming on HBO Max.
In Season 1 of Peacemaker, Chris (John Cena) tried hard to romance Harcourt (Jennifer Holland), but his toxic, overcompensating ways made her despise him. She wasn’t into his macho attitude to begin with; plus, Harcourt merely viewed him as a weapon from The Suicide Squad to help keep America safe under the watch of Amanda Waller’s ARGUS. Bit by bit, however, Harcourt did see humanity in Chris, understanding how tragedy shaped his sympathetic past. Still, it was hard to like him for being such a misogynist jerk, yet the latest episode finally had Chris making a big breakthrough with his crush, but unfortunately, it came at the worst possible time in their mission to dismantle the Butterfly conspiracy.
Following the team’s attack on the Butterflies in the Glan Tai factory, Harcourt has cut a warmer figure. She believes in them as a unit, and more importantly as a family, and this is seen with her exposing Murn’s secret to Adebayo and Economos, as she learns to trust more.
So much so, when this episode ended, Harcourt actually carved the “dove of peace” sign into Chris’ gun so he could feel comfortable killing enemies again in the name of homeland security. It was her way of reassuring him he wasn’t a monster, which is what his dad, Auggie, conditioned him to be. More so, it was a reflex action after the cops nearly arrested Chris for Annie’s death in the premiere, hinting Harcourt was relieved he wasn’t taken in.
Despite not engraving the insignia properly, it led to Chris confessing he was actually scared to kill again, with all the trauma of old, such as murdering Rick Flag and his own brother, weighing on him. Deep down, Harcourt related because she also has dark family problems, and she was also turned into a heartless weapon by Waller, crafting their most genuine, sentimental connection yet.
In this endearing moment, she confessed Chris was only 85 percent of a “douche” and admitted her real name: Emilia. He thanked her as they prepped for the next job — killing the cow at Coverdale farm that fed the Butterflies their goo; however, while he shot her doe-eyed glances as she left, the timing was awful.
With the Butterflies intent on framing Chris, cops all around the country look for him, making ARGUS accomplices and a bit untrustworthy because Adebayo planted the diary, thus incriminating him. In addition, with the Goff Butterfly free and raising an army while masquerading as Detective Song, not only does ARGUS have to worry about these soldiers, there may also be other aliens at the farm waiting to ambush and take over someone like Emilia. Ultimately, Chris has gotten the response he wanted from his crush, but it’s right when they’re vulnerable and in the worst spot against an enemy that has numbers on them.
To see how Chris and Harcourt’s timing is ill-advised, Peacemaker is streaming now on HBO Max.
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