Do be warned that this article contains spoilers for the finale episode of Peacemaker Season 2.
Somewhat surprisingly, Peacemaker Season 2 didn’t end with some big budget high stakes action sequence like you’d expect from most superhero media. Instead, the show tied everything back to its biggest strength — its character — while also making sure to answer the lingering question that’s been on everyone’s minds since the first episode. What really happened with Chris and Harcourt on the boat?
Revealed through a couple of nicely timed flashback sequences, we see that after the events of Season 1, Chris and Harcourt went on an actual date together. It comes packed with everything you’d want from a perfect first date: hamburgers with shots, singing in public, a hint of toxic masculinity and a swerve away from what almost became a nasty brawl, a rock concert on a boat, and a first kiss.
I love how the whole “what happened on the boat” situation was built up to be some massive, relationship-shattering event that likely led audiences to believe that Chris and Harcourt must have slept together, but the truth is much more simple and sweeter. While enjoying the concert on the boat, Chris and Harcourt dance around for a bit before locking eyes with each other. The conditions are right. The music, the lights, the emotion. Everything is falling into place for a perfect first kiss, and they do so. Only for Harcourt to realize that she’s experiencing the thing she fears the most: genuine connection. She pulls away and leaves, and their friendship seemingly fractures for the rest of the season.
Even during Season 1, I wasn’t a fan of the romantic subplot Peacemaker seemed to be obsessed with pursuing with Chris and Harcourt. I don’t need more cheesy “rivals turn into lovers” romance stories. Plus, Harcourt had a lot of stuff to work through. And so did Chris, for that matter. Wasn’t it enough for them to just be their own people without needing to get tangled up in some romance storyline? Somewhere in the middle of Season 2, though, I started to find myself swayed by the way their stories developed. As Chris continued to work through his family trauma, he began to prove that he was capable of not being so self-centered all the time, especially in the way he interacted with Earth-X Harcourt.
On the other hand, we got a better idea of why Harcourt’s so angry all the time. Aside from, y’know, being disrespected and objectified all the time simply for being a conventionally attractive woman, Peacemaker Season 2 reveals that she shared a complicated relationship with Rick Jr. as well. In allowing herself to acknowledge that she had feelings for Chris, it would be the equivalent of betraying the memory of Rick and her resolve to make his killer pay. Most importantly, though, Rick’s death also reinforced her fear of having any sort of real connection with anyone. As she states, rather poignantly, in the season, Rick was her only friend, which says a lot about her. Losing that friend that she had feelings for probably only exacerbated her toxic qualities, leading her to lash out at anyone who tried to get close.
While I’ve never particularly enjoyed stories about the manic pixie dream girl (see: Elizabethtown, Garden State, 500 Days of Summer, Almost Famous, and virtually every romance movie made in the early 2000s), I have to say I’m a huge fan of Peacemaker Season 2 turning the trope on its head and making Chris its manic pixie dream boy instead. Whereas Harcourt takes on the role of the broken woman who can’t let anyone in, Chris is the one who breaks down her defenses while showing her how much there is to enjoy in life. Chris displays more depth and nuance than your typical MPDG of course, but you know what I mean. He’s basically a hair away from saying he can fix her.
Anyway, all of these threads and arcs culminate in the big reveal on the boat, when both characters finally share a kiss in a moment of true vulnerability. Again, Peacemaker doesn’t do anything particularly groundbreaking in the romance department, but the show has certainly worked its ass off to demonstrate why these two characters can be good for each other, and I’m convinced.
As a hardcore cynic who finds it difficult to be impressed by most media these days, Peacemaker (and Superman, for that matter) cut through the darkness and the grit to deliver genuine stories with sincere and earnest characters that you truly can’t help but root for.
Peacemaker is now available for streaming on HBO Max.
