Warning: Contains spoilers for Peacemaker episode 5.
In Peacemaker episode 5, “Monkey Dory,” the James Gunn DCEU TV show has set up the possible death of Emilia Harcourt. Harcourt is one of the few characters that returned for the series from The Suicide Squad, along with John Economos, Amanda Waller, and of course Peacemaker himself. While The Suicide Squad became known for killing a huge number of characters quickly before continuing to kill more characters later, Peacemaker has so far not seen any protagonists bite the bullet.
In the early Peacemaker episodes, Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) keeps her distance from the team. She retreats to drink a beer at a bar by herself and remains emotionally closed off with John Economos (Steve Agee) telling Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) not to worry because Harcourt just hates everyone. However, in Peacemaker episode 5 Harcourt begins to open up with the team and develop emotional connections with them, smiling, taking a group photo, and choosing to create a group chat while drinking her solitary beer suggesting that she misses the others.
In itself, this change for Harcourt’s character seems positive. However, clues in earlier episodes suggest that this might signal Harcourt's eventual Peacemaker death. In episode 1, “A Whole New Whirled,” Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) is concerned that Leota is expressing empathy for Peacemaker, warning that in this job that could get her killed. Similarly, in Peacemaker episode 2, “Best Friend, For Never,” Harcourt sees Leota has her wife in her room and warns her that having a strong emotional connection can be dangerous. With those elements set up, Harcourt's move to develop closer connections with the team suggests that she is betraying her own rules and the eventual result could be fatal to her.
James Gunn has kept the contents of Peacemaker episode 8 a closely guarded secret, fighting to ensure that the episode did not go out to reviewers. This suggests that the Peacemaker season 1 finale contains a shocking event or a twist ending. It is entirely possible that this conclusion could be Emilia Harcourt’s Peacemaker death as a result of her having compromised her values and putting herself in harm's way to help save another member of the team, even Peacemaker who she originally detested.
Alternatively, rather than Harcourt dying in Peacemaker, it is possible that the show is setting her up as a parallel for Christopher Smith's own narrative. Smith has kept people at arm’s length for a long time by being obnoxious as a defense mechanism, in part because of how he was socialized by his dad, White Dragon. If the season sees both Harcourt and Peacemaker take a journey from being closed off and emotionally distant to protect themselves to embracing people and being more genuine about themselves, then it would ultimately provide Peacemaker with some more positive arcs.
Peacemaker releases new episodes Thursdays on HBO.
