SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from “Like a Keith in the Night,” Episode 7, Season 2 of “Peacemaker,” now streaming on HBO Max.
After being fired from her high-level position at A.R.G.U.S, Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) is frustrated with a world that has seemingly abandoned her, even after she helped save humanity from being taken over by butterfly-like aliens. As Season 1 teased the growing attraction between Harcourt and Christ Smith (John Cena), the second season revolves around the fallout between the two, and how it has affected the people around them. When Chris discovers a device that allows him to transport to a different dimension, he finds himself falling in love with a different version of Harcourt inside an alternate reality, Earth X, where he is well-respected as an American hero.
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It’s until we learn in Episode 6 the truth about the different dimension Chris has found solace in, revealing that the alternate dimension is what it would’ve been like if Nazis had won World War II, and a world where no minorities are allowed to exist. As the 11th Street Kids open the doorways between dimensions to find Chris and bring him back home, Harcourt grapples with her feelings for him, forcing her to confront everything that she has been running from.
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Holland spoke to Variety about Harcourt and Chris’ interrogation room confession, why she chooses to attempt to kill Keith (David Denman) in the final moments of Episode 7 and fighting off Nazis in Season 2.
How early in the pre-production process did you learn about what would be happening with Harcourt for Season 2? Did you discuss it with James Gunn — the show’s creator, and your husband — or is that something that he kept as a secret?
I obviously have a close relationship with James, and he’ll share different plot points with the story and run it by me. I learned a lot of what was going on with Harcourt’s story early on, but not everything. Sometimes, James holds things close because he’s afraid something might change in the writing process. From the very beginning, he had very rough early outlines of the show that were completely different. We had early conversations about Harcourt’s relationship with Rick Flag Jr., and that being the genesis of her deep vitriol and hatred towards Peacemaker [in Season 1].
Throughout this season, Harcourt gets herself into two pivotal fight scenes: In Episode 1, she gets into a bar fight with a group of men, and then in Episode 7, she fights back against A.R.G.U.S, who are revealed to be Nazis in their respective dimension. What was it like to shoot both of those scenes?
It’s pretty different, such as the bar fight scene. We rehearsed for weeks and it was really draining. It was a difficult two days, but I had an incredible time with the best stunt and fight coordinators. The bar fight was incredibly emotionally charged, because it has things about Harcourt that we haven’t explored yet are coming out in that aggression. The fight scene in A.R.G.U.S. [in Episode 7], I walked onto set, and learned that I was going to learn a fight sequence that I had never learned before. Fortunately, with the stunts team, they had worked with me with multiple other fights prior to this one in this episode so I knew what to expect. It was so fun, because I got to throw a “Mein Kampf” at a Nazi’s face. It was pretty amazing.
Chris and Harcourt finally get to have a conversation about their feelings in the interrogation room, where he confesses his love for her. Harcourt can’t bring herself to say it back to him, but you can tell that everything she feels for him has been shown throughout the season as she’s actively fighting to get him back to their dimension.
She doesn’t want people to know she’s feeling all kinds of emotions. She still doesn’t want Chris to know how vulnerable she is, and what’s really going on inside. I think we as human beings have a hard time expressing our feelings, because we’re always stuffing them down and not allowing ourselves to feel our feelings on a daily basis. It’s why she’s having a hard time throughout her life right now, because she’s not allowing herself to feel anything. In some ways, she’s faced with this do or die situation to tell him now or he’s not going to come back, and yet she still can’t tell him how she truly feels.
If I look at it from Harcourt’s perspective, she’s basically saying what Chris wants her to say, even though she can’t say the three words he’s looking for. She can’t be as good on the surface with her emotions as he is. She’s thinking, “Isn’t it enough that I’m telling you that I want you to come home? I’ve come all the way to this other dimension to tell you I want you back.” He needs her to say it, and she just can’t. It’s a well-written scene from James, and I had an incredible time performing that scene with John, because he was so available and present throughout filming.
Do you think Harcourt’s decision to protect Chris by killing Keith is her way of making her feelings for Chris known?
When I read that scene, I was like “She’s doing this,” even though she knows that if Chris ever finds out that she killed him, he will never forgive her. It’s the one thing that he cannot accept. He found his brother alive, which is something that when you don’t have someone throughout your whole life, you think about the idea a lot. With my mom who passed away and my dad who passed when I was very young, sometimes I wish I could pick up the phone and call them. You daydream about the ability to have a relationship with them, and Chris has gotten that with his brother, even if he’s from a different dimension. He can’t watch Keith die again in front of him.
Harcourt makes that decision despite the fact that she knows that it’s not what Chris wants, but she has to do it to protect him, and to make sure that she doesn’t have to watch over his shoulder all the time wondering if Keith would kill him. It’s a crazy decision for her to make, even though she’s not able to go through with it because she has to make the decision between her life and taking his.
As we lead into the Season 2 finale, where does Harcourt find herself in the crossfire between A.R.G.U.S. and Chris?
At this moment, she’s just feeling like he’s given up. They have avoided his capture this long, and she’s put herself on the line [for him] multiple times, especially with her job. He’s not just giving up on himself, but he’s sacrificing himself for the rest of the team. She’s faced with this question in her own mind about what she will do from here. Chris is taking the fall for everyone, so are they all just going to stand there and see if maybe they can fix it in the future? She’s panicking a little bit, because she just can’t believe that he’s [throwing everything away] after, even though she gave him everything he was asking for in the interrogation room. A lot of questions are answered in the finale, and the finale poses more questions to be answered soon.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
