At the tail end of Peacemaker‘s fourth episode, Leota Adebayo made a breakthrough in Project Butterfly, connecting multiple dots to one place: the Glan Tai Bottling Company. The team believes that the Butterflies may be using the factory as a plant to ship the amber fluid seen consumed by multiple Butterflies in the previous episode. They believe they’re getting closer and closer to the truth, and if they can cut off the supply of the Butterflies nourishment, they can end their attempted secret invasion.
On top of the Glan Tai situation, they’ve still gotta deal with Auggie Smith, aka the White Dragon, who was previously framed for the murder of Annie Sturphausen, the first butterfly Peacemaker encountered. The framing of Auggie has led to some internal conflict within the team between Economos and Peacemaker. To deal with the White Dragon issue, Murn brings in Caspar Locke, placed within the Evergreen police as its new chief to deter Captain Song and Fitzgibbon.
Arriving at Glan Thai, the team is still unsure if the factory is indeed being operated by the Butterflies. With the aid of Peacemaker’s X-Ray helmet, the team is able to quickly figure out the place is overflowing with infected. Not only is it full of Butterflies, but it also looks to be the main hub of distribution for the amber fluid.
Upon further investigation, the team becomes aware of the guardian angel of the factory, Charlie, the gorilla that escaped from the Evergreen zoo. The ape gives the team quite the beatdown, throwing them through desks and walls. Things seem grim as they are seemingly defeated by the enhanced ape, until the revving of a chainsaw and a fountain of blood covers the team, revealing Economos as the hero after all.
A successful vision that leads to some great moments, and even better development between the characters, brings them closer together as they learn to have each other’s backs. Much of the team’s conflict has come from their anonymity to one another, they’d been so focused on getting the mission at hand done as quickly as possible that it took the heat of battle to bring them closer together.
The episode brought its core characters closer together, with all of them believing themselves to be nothing like one another. It’s Peacemaker and Leota who are much more similar than they think. Leota is still feeling the pressure from her mother, Amanda Waller, to plant the forged diary in Peacemaker’s trailer, betraying her team with yet another Waller alternative goal, most likely to use Peacemaker as a scapegoat if things go awry. The two are blinded by the perception they have of their parents; Auggie and Amanda are bad people, but to Leota and Chris, they’ll also be their mother and father. It’s hard to accept the fact that the people who created and raised you aren’t the idols you looked up to as a child, something both of them will need to face.
Leota plants the diary, something she’d dreaded doing and something that will obviously weigh down on her conscience. She returns to the base of operations to clear her mind and get some work done, but not before taking the X-ray helmet for a test run. This leads to Leota finding out Murn is a butterfly and him chasing her into the street where her fate remains unknown.
