The first episode of Peacemaker saw Christopher Smith discharged from the hospital, thinking he was free to go as no cops had returned to arrest him. However, it’s upon the return home that he’s introduced to Clemson Murn and his team, featuring a few familiar faces. Murn tells Smith he’d only served four of his thirty-year sentence and could return to prison or work for him.
Welcome to Project Butterfly, another “creatively” named mission in which we’ve learned that an alien species of insects codenamed “butterflies” has infiltrated earth. The butterflies are similar to Starro but are not extensions of one larger being. These butterflies are believed to have infiltrated some of the highest levels of government and influence on earth and it’s up to Peacemaker and his new team to root them out and stop them from taking over the world.
Project Butterfly features the return of not only Peacemaker, but also Emilia Harcourt and John Economos. The two of them are Argus agents who worked on Task Force X during Project Starfish but seem to have much more history with the team. Alongside those two is Murn, an ex-mercenary who brought the issue of the Butterflies to Waller and was directly appointed to lead this task force. The final member is Leota Adebayo, who we learn very early on is the daughter of Amanda Waller and is, of course, there with an assigned ulterior motive: to plant a forged diary in the Peacemaker’s trailer.
Perhaps one of the other biggest reveals from the first three episodes is the alter-ego of Auggie Smith, Peacemaker’s father. After being locked up in prison, the other prisoners salute Auggie and refer to him as the White Dragon, an obscure villain mantle from the comics belonging to white supremacists. We knew Auggie was quite a bad guy, but we didn’t know he was that bad of a guy!
We meet Vigilante early on whose describes himself as Peacemaker’s “best friend” and is just plain crazy, looking to kill anyone who breaks even the most minuscule law. Although he was not an appointed member of the team, he makes space for himself in ‘Better Goff Dead’ in which he kills Senator Royland Goff’s family, all of whom are Butterflies, after Peacemaker hesitates.
Of course, we can’t forget Judomaster making his live-action debut in the series. Judomaster is a Charlton Comic’s character just like Peacemaker, but the one we meet here is a more appropriately reimaged character. Judomaster is the Goff family bodyguard and gives the team quite a beatdown.
Peacemaker Episode 3 ends with quite the shocking revelation as we get our very first look at one of these Butterflies, but also the reveal that this isn’t a contained threat. A map within the team’s surveillance van establishes the Butterflies as a global threat.
Episode 4 of Peacemaker, “A Choad Less Travelled”, is set to HBO Max on Thursday, January 20th.
