Peacemaker season 2’s “antagonist” for Chris Smith (John Cena) is Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo). Flag is here, looking for revenge for the death of his son, Rick Flag Jr. (Joel Kinnaman), and it means that he’s not very pro-Peacemaker.
But in episode 4 of season 2, Rick goes to see Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) to offer her a way to make money after Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) black-balled her from ever getting a job in intelligence. During their conversation, Rick says something to Emilia that she doesn’t push back on and when I heard it, I thought “Okay but you’re ignoring a BIG issue with the situation.”
That situation being the death of Rick Flag Jr. and Chris Smith’s involvement. Towards the end of The Suicide Squad, Chris and Rick come face to face and when Rick has a change of heart about Waller’s mission, Chris executes him as ordered to by Amanda Waller. He was ordered to keep the secrets of Project Starfish and would do so at any cost.
“That information gets out, it cause an international incident,” says after Rick points out that they’re experimenting on children. “Keeping the peace is worth any price, including the life of a hero like yours, sir, so please, don’t make me do this.”
But Rick Flag Sr. tells Emilia that his hatred for Chris comes from the fact that others have defied Waller and her requests when she went too far. What he is missing in that scenario though is what Waller was holding over Chris Smith’s head the entire time: His own life.
It wasn’t an easy choice
Famously, Waller would take “villains” in the DC world and turn them into her own specialized forces called “The Suicide Squad.” Why that name? Well, they each had chips in their brains that Waller could activate at a moments notice and kill the person in question. Meaning if Chris Smith defied her, he would die.
Now, to be fair to Rick Flag, I do think that even if the chip wasn’t there, that version of Chris Smith would have still probably killed his son because he thought he was doing the right thing. The season 2 version of Chris has grown and reflected and probably would have also pushed back at Waller just as Flag and his friends have in the past.
But I do think it is important to remember that it isn’t as simple as “defying” Waller in that moment. He had a chip in his brain that would kill him at a moment’s notice if Waller decided she was done with him. So face to face with a direct order from the former director of A.R.G.U.S. when she had your kill switch on hand drastically changes the stakes from what Flag and his team were dealing with under Waller’s ruling.
Obviously, the new version of Chris Smith struggles with what he’s done but if Emilia can forgive Chris, maybe there’s hope for Rick Flag Sr. too. But only if he realizes that disobeying orders from Waller is decidedly easier for him than it was for a group of people with kill chips in their brains.
(featured image: HBO Max)
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
