As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
That's considered a cow?!
- The way that Vigilante cheerfully and casually murders Senator Goff's Butterfly-infected family in "Better Goff Dead" is genuinely disturbing. It serves as a chilling reminder that beneath his Cloudcuckoolander antics, Vigilante is still a cold-blooded killer. Harcourt, Murn and even Peacemaker are clearly shaken by it.
- When Vigilante is tortured, we get a close-up of his bloody toe being partially cut off (with what is apparently a dull blade), which nauseates even Peacemaker.
- It's revealed that Auggie forced Peacemaker to stab a tied-up man to death as a child. Auggie looks sadistically satisfied the whole time, even while Chris is crying his eyes out.
- Auggie Smith in general qualifies for this trope, on account of being an abusive white supremacist who twisted Chris into a killing machine with no concern for his son's wellbeing (even the fact that he seemed to care about Chris' dead brother could just as easily be another means for Auggie to guilt-trip his son into obeying him).
- How a butterfly takes on a new host is horrifying to see; the first time we see it, it's when the queen takes over Detective Song. The butterfly crawls into her mouth to get at their brains, and its victim begins to have a seizure, coughing up blood until they fall still. By the time they wake up, the butterfly has taken control, and any semblance of the person they once were is replaced with an emotionless husk.
- Butterfly!Murn reveals that they are basically just using the bodies as a puppet, with the hosts having died from the symbiosis. Not only do they take over their bodies, the butterflies also inherit their current hosts' feelings, thoughts, and memories.
- The Butterfly-infested Song bringing a horde of Butterflies to claim the entire Evergreen police force, including Fitzgibbon and Locke, alongside the prisoners incarcerated within, culminating with the Butterfly army striding down the prison halls, all flashing grisly, bloody, and unnatural smiles.
- We finally get to see the cow the Butterflies use for their food supply. It's nothing like a cow, instead being a gigantic worm-like thing that seems to scream or groan constantly. In the final episode, Adebayo gets launched through its belly using the "human torpedo" helmet, killing it gruesomely and painfully.
- In a more existential way, Goff revealing that humanity is on the same trajectory that destroyed Goff's home planet and nearly drove the Butterflies to extinction. In particular, her comments about how the current leaders care more about their approval ratings than the people they lead and how the human race is willing to overlook the consequences of their own destructive actions but treat minor inconveniences as an infringement on their freedoms are distressingly in line with real-life current events. Even Peacemaker is unsure if he did the right thing by foiling her plans.
- Just to finish off this bit of Fridge Horror, think back to Man of Steel, where Krypton was destroyed by its people's myopia. It looks like the hopes and dreams of the House of El might truly be in vain after all.
- Even after killing White Dragon point-blank, Peacemaker is still being haunted by his father through hallucinations, being the only victim of his to do so. Even though he knows Auggie's not real, he still talks to him and even "kills" him again with a poison dart. Harcourt sees this and is disturbed and confused.
- The final scene of Season 1: Chris is shocked the hallucination of his father is still around, who sits calmly next to him with a devilish grin on his face…
- An extra little fuel for the nightmare is that it might be a real ghost of sorts since when he dies a second time Auggie's ghost makes a slightly metallic thud when it falls on the helmet hidden in the leaves.
- Caspar Locke. He’s bizarre and menacing from the moment you meet him. Seeing him make a deal with Murn, one would assume that he’s one of the butterflies. That’s already an unsettling idea, but then you see his cold-blooded and sadistic nature in full display when he gleefully executes multiple police officers in the woods. He even mockingly imitates one of the officer’s pleas for mercy before shooting her. Perhaps the scariest part is the fact that he was NOT controlled by a butterfly when he did this. Even before he gets possessed by a butterfly, his mannerisms are so uncanny and alien, and his brutality so inhuman.
