Things are far from peaceful on Peacemaker right now, and if star Jennifer Holland is to be believed, they’re about to get a whole lot worse.
As per episode six’s multi-part cliffhanger, Peacemaker’s been framed as a serial-killing lunatic by the police (which isn’t too far from the truth), his father is trying to murder him, and the alien butterflies have kicked up their plans to infiltrate the Earth. Not exactly dandy, right?
But, speaking to Mashable ahead of episode seven, Holland was asked how her character, Emilia Harcourt, will react when she discovers the truth about Leota Adebayo’s parentage (she is secretly the daughter A.R.G.U.S. chief Amanda Waller.)
Harcourt started out the season as hard-nosed and anti-social but she’s embraced her co-workers as friends by this point, so Holland expects her to be deeply hurt by Leota’s secret.
“Oh, gosh, I mean — yeah, if Harcourt finds out that Adebayo is working for Waller, that’s certainly not going to go well,” Holland said.” Because at this point she has no idea. She doesn’t know that Adebayo is Waller’s daughter. She’s just totally out of the loop. And she’s really started to build a friendship with Adebayo. I think she was always really hard on Adebayo because she originally saw her as someone who just should not be in this line of work, who was in the wrong profession. She didn’t really trust her, didn’t know how she even got there.
As [Harcourt] started to have some empathy for [Adebayo] and started to understand her a little bit, I think that then she just was afraid for her because she seemed like she just couldn’t hack it. The way that she started to build her relationship with Adebayo and with the team in general, it’s going to be difficult if Harcourt ever figures out that she’s been betrayed or lied to. I think it’s gonna hurt that much more after she opened up the way that she had.”
Adebayo’s already got a lot to feel guilty for as it is. She previously planted the fake Peacemaker diary that made him look nuts at his trailer, which the butterfly-controlled police are now using to discredit him. She’s been grappling with her desire to impress her mother and yet be her own person all season, so she’ll have to make some tough decisions in episodes seven and eight. As for Harcourt, has she opened up enough yet to maybe get closer to John Cena’s anti-hero?
Don’t miss the penultimate episode of Peacemaker‘s first season this Thursday on HBO Max.