The 2022 HBO series Peacemaker teased a romance between the title character Peacemaker (John Cena) and Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) throughout its eight-episode run. Though the romance was not confirmed with a kiss or declarations of love, there is definitely an unspoken something between the two of them. Peacemaker season 2 is likely to continue this romantic teasing, but that is not necessarily in the show's best interest.
Peacemaker season 1 followed Peacemaker as he was recruited by the U.S. government to stop an alien invasion. He was aided by the hardened soldier Emilia Harcourt, who worked for Amanda Waller in The Suicide Squad. Throughout the show, Peacemaker flirted with Harcourt and is continuously rejected. Towards the end of the series, Harcourt and Peacemaker became something adjacent to friends. In Peacemaker season 1, episode 8, “It’s Cow Or Never,” the two held hands on Harcourt’s hospital bed, and a spark passed between them.
Peacemaker season 2 needs to kill the romance subplot for now and develop Harcourt and Peacemaker’s individual journies to avoid falling into problematic tropes. At the end of Peacemaker season 1, the characters were established as polar opposites who had begun to see each other as comrades, but for the majority of the season, Peacemaker saw Harcourt as a romantic and sexual object and Harcourt saw Peacemaker as a tool for her mission. The show should halt the romance angle until more time is spent establishing the two characters as equals. Only then would a romantic subplot be fully justified.
After murdering his father, Peacemaker’s guilt manifested hallucinations of The White Dragon. Meanwhile, Harcourt made strides to leave her cold, emotionless persona in the past and became a leader who looked after others. Peacemaker season 1 established Harcourt and Peacemaker as polar opposites who had only just begun to see each other as equals by the show’s finale. The show should take the time to develop mutual respect between the two characters, otherwise, it would be too drastic a change from their initial disjunction. If Harcourt and Peacemaker are coupled without developing their characters outside of a romantic context, the show could fall into some dangerous tropes. Peacemaker worked to become a better person as Christopher Smith, but he's still deeply immature in ways that would make a romance between him and Harcourt completely unbelievable. He acted childishly throughout the show, making Superman poop jokes and bullying his coworkers.
Meanwhile, Harcourt was detached from emotionally connecting with others. The show insinuated that Peacemaker needed to become more serious and Harcourt needed to open up, and both needed to be more considerate of others. At first, it seemed like this common ground would help establish a romance, but Harcourt was Peacemaker's superior officer. She constantly rolled her eyes at him, corrected his childish jokes, and attempted to get Peacemaker to focus on the mission. This put her in a position similar to that of a parent who has to manage an unruly child rather than a romantic partner. Not only that, but throughout the season Harcourt repeatedly rejected Peacemaker’s advances. If Peacemaker season 2's story doesn’t take the time to develop Peacemaker and Harcourt's fragile, new friendship into a relationship with a believably solid foundation, a romance could perpetuate the idea that a woman must be worn down into loving a man.
Peacemaker season 2 may develop the characters to the point where a romance feels natural, but as it currently stands, their dynamic is too uneven to justify a romance. To level this divide, more time must be devoted to these two interacting outside of a romantic context until they treat each other as equals. At this stage in both Peacemaker and Harcourt's journies, wherein both characters are in such a tempestuous stage of confronting who they are at their core, a romance could distract and disengage the audience from their development.
