Warning: Contains spoilers for Peacemaker episode 4.
In James Gunn’s Peacemaker TV series, White Dragon flies an upside-down American flag on his lawn, and there’s a deeper meaning behind this act. Peacemaker has already highlighted the supposed importance of some symbols, with Peacemaker (John Cena) claiming that his balking at killing the Goff family was down to the “Dove of Peace” being missing from his rifle. The use of the United States flag as a symbol has a complex history and its presence here makes Peacemaker better.
When Peacemaker first arrives at his father’s house in Peacemaker episode 1, “A Whole New Whirled,” an upside-down US flag can be seen on the flagpole in Auggie Smith’s (Robert Patrick) front yard, but it is not commented on. When Peacemaker enters the house, Auggie is watching a conspiracy theory show and is openly racist, and is later revealed to be the white supremacist supervillain White Dragon. In Peacemaker episode 4, Peacemaker and Vigilante (Freddie Stroma) visit White Dragon’s house together and discuss the upside-down flag in the yard.
Despite clearly knowing what it signifies, Vigilante/Adrian Chase asks Peacemaker why his father has an upside-down American flag on his lawn and Peacemaker shrugs it off as a “Deep State thing.” Vigilante suggests that it’s because Peacemaker’s father is racist and the two argue. The upside-down American flag actually has a very strict meaning and it's defined in the United States Flag Code from 1998. The code establishes under 8.a. that the flag “should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.” The upside-down flag in Peacemaker is a sign that White Dragon feels that the United States is under an extreme threat, with Vigilante’s comment suggesting that he feels the threat is a move away from the more white supremacist values that Auggie Smith holds dear.
The flying of the United States Flag upside-down as a form of protest is not limited to one political group, and over the past few years’ reports of protests of both the Biden and Trump administrations have included people flying the flag with the union down. However, the use of the upside-down flag and Peacemaker’s and Vigilante’s comments in Peacemaker do make a particular point. Peacemaker dismisses the flag as just being part of his father's “Deep State” political views, a dismissal that is rooted in his consistent attempts in the show to see his dad as merely misguided and not as a bad person. Vigilante’s suggestion that Peacemaker’s White Dragon is a racist (while made evidently accurate by the show) is used as a way to cut through Peacemaker’s claim and highlights that the underlying beliefs in the so-called “Deep State” are tied to racist ideologies.
Peacemaker in The Suicide Squad was a character deeply rooted in the idea of blind patriotism, in which he was willing to kill Rick Flag and to complete the mission that Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) had given him, despite there being reasonable moral grounds on which to question those orders. The Peacemaker TV show is working to deconstruct and rebuild that character as he becomes more self-aware and reflects repeatedly on Rick Flag’s final words to him. Because of this, it makes a lot of sense that the Peacemaker series is including messaging aimed at questioning what patriotism means and demonstrating how Peacemaker’s father has used patriotism as a motivation for some of his worst impulses.
Peacemaker releases new episodes Thursdays on HBO Max.
