Warning: Contains spoilers for Peacemaker episode 4.
In Peacemaker episode 4, there is a suggestion that the mysterious Butterflies could have a more complex secret mission than if first appeared. The James Gunn-led Peacemaker TV show aired episodes 1 through 3 at the same time. At the end of the first episode, a map shows known active Butterflies across the globe, suggesting that the Butterflies are seeking world domination, but it could be more complicated than that.
The team captured Judomaster (Nhut Le), but in Peacemaker episode 4, “The Choad Less Traveled,” he briefly escapes and Peacemaker (John Cena) challenges him to a rematch of their previous fight. The fight turns in Peacemaker’s favor and a bloodied Judomaster begins to explain that the Butterflies are “not what you think,” but Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) arrives and shoots Judomaster in the chest before he can finish and he has not since regained consciousness. The episode ends with the climactic reveal that the head of Peacemaker’s ARGUS team, Clemson Murn (Chukwudi Iwuji) is secretly a Butterfly himself.
Clemson Murn’s emphatic orders and his use of ARGUS technology were key to Peacemaker and Vigilante taking down United States senator Royland Goff and his family. If Murn is also a Butterfly then this suggests that there are two factions of Butterflies and that the whole species do not share one goal. Amanda Waller’s (Viola Davis) use of Murn and her dismissal of Leota’s concerns about his past, suggests that she wishes to help Murn's faction get rid of the other. The faction of Butterflies that are spread across the globe, given the support from Judomaster, might not be seeking world domination, but rather a new home. As hinted at by the Infowars parody, the Butterflies are masquerading as liberal senators and were pushing for better climate change legislation. Given that climate change already poses a threat to Earth’s butterfly population, the Butterflies might need to push this legislation to keep Earth a safe haven for themselves having had to flee their original home.
Judomaster’s claim that there is more to the Butterflies than Peacemaker thinks might have been an effort to forestall a fight that he felt like he was losing. However, Leota’s timing of shooting him was very conveniently timed to keep Judomaster from explaining too much about the Butterflies, which might suggest that she is under orders from her mother to keep the truth about the supposed villains from Peacemaker. Given that Peacemaker episode 4 also reveals that Peacemaker is keeping Royland Goff’s Butterfly alive, it is likely that more of the truth will be revealed and that the Butterflies might not be the villains that they have been set up to be.
If Amanda Waller is trying to keep the truth about the Butterflies from Peacemaker then, combined with the fact that she often has hidden motivations, there is a question as to whether Peacemaker is on the right side of this conflict. Narratively, it might make sense for Peacemaker to turn against Waller. There are some hints to suggest that Waller is trying to recruit White Dragon, Peacemaker’s father, and there would be a poetic element if Peacemaker concluded with Peacemaker siding with the “illegal alien” Butterflies against Waller and his white supremacist father, White Dragon.
Peacemaker releases new episodes Thursdays on HBO Max.
