James Gunn delivers another winner in a show that balances ridiculous comedy and heartfelt, flawed characters. Peacemaker started as a fun show that quickly became so much more than that. The second season expands on character-driven stories, and at the center are John Cena’s Christopher Smith and Jennifer Holland’s Emilia Harcourt as they circle each other and fight their inner demons. The tension between Chris and Emilia finally comes to a head in Season 2, Episode 6, “Ignorance is Chris,” with Cena and Holland as brilliant scene partners.
After the first season, each member of the 11th Street Kids has had their lives turned upside down (well, except for Freddie Stroma’s Adrian Chase). Chris has been desperate for a connection, and even though he has his friends for support, his life is a mess. As is Emilia’s life without ARGUS, and the fact that no government agency willing to hire her. She needs a purpose, and the lack of one is eating away at her.
When the 11th Street Kids go to the alternate reality to bring Chris back, Emilia and Chris finally expose their feelings in a charged conversation with vulnerability fully on display. Emilia rightfully calls Chris out for running away from his problems, and Chris apologizes, haphazardly, for believing the worst of her. Through all of their struggles, the scene reveals how Chris and Emilia mirror each other. He understands the way she lashes out and has called her out on it all season. Plus, the fact that he thought she’d actually betray him puts into perspective that they still have a lot to learn about each other. Still, witnessing her say that his disbelief hurt is monumental, as she even admits later to not being in touch with her feelings as he is.
Chris declares his love and pushes her to tell him how she feels. Throughout the whole season, he has been yearning for the answer, and it is immediately what he goes back to upon seeing her again. This is when Emilia responds with, “I’m a f–ing nightmare!” with tears flooding her eyes, that somehow never fall. Holland’s performance is so raw, I wish I had the words to honor it properly. It’s easy to feel the pain that Emilia has been carrying.
Emilia is not in touch with her feelings and doesn’t know how to handle them. She just wants him to come back to where he belongs. She nods again at his repeated confession, unable to address it, but asks for him, once again, to come back, which is an answer on its own. Without security in Emilia’s feelings, Chris struggles to leave this universe where his brother and father are alive. As well as the alternate Emilia wanting to be with him. It’s a betrayal to our Emilia, their friends, and himself. She calls him out on it, thankfully. He’s taking the coward’s way out in love, but doesn’t want to run away from the family and friends who care for him in ways that he has been deprived of for years. Still, he never stops to ask himself if it’s the right thing for him to do.
They are both deeply flawed characters who feel so real as they struggle to navigate life’s harsher realities with what is familiar to them. There is still so much for Emilia and Chris to work through in the last two episodes and a lot to unpack on Earth X, so I cannot wait to see how the rest of this season unfolds.
Peacemaker is now streaming on HBO Max.