Written by James Gunn and Directed by Jody Hill.
The team leaves Goff's house with boxes full of samples and evidence, as well as an injured Vigilante and a captured Judomaster. Peacemaker says he's killed the Butterfly that emerged from the corpse, and while the others decide what to do with Judomaster, he and Vigilante offer to execute him.
After they arrive at the HQ, Murn asks Peacemaker about his reluctance to kill his targets, but instead of being angry, he's much more understanding, even thinking about including Vigilante into the team. Harcourt gives Adebayo the low-down about dirtier aspects of the job.
Vigilante drops Peacemaker at his father's house, where they get into an argument about Auggie's racism and his son's participation in it. Afterwards, Chris gets into an altercation with Auggie's neighbor about Batman's no-kill policy, chiding it as unrealistic, and learns that his father is in prison, with Peacemaker realizing Murn and Economos pinned the evidence on him. He goes to visit Auggie. Judomaster wakes up at Economos's apartment and starts untying himself.
Murn tasks Adebayo with dealing with the situation, and she tracks Peacemaker down and tries to explain to him that his father is an unrepentant racist that has treated him like dirt his whole life. The talk with Auggie doesn't help matters, as he decides to reveal everything he knows to the police and insults his son, causing Peacemaker to fall into depression. Vigilante concocts a plan to kill Auggie in prison by getting himself arrested.
Economos is attacked by Judomaster, and Peacemaker challenges him for another fight to avenge his friend. Judomaster tries to explain something about the Butterflies, but Adebayo shoots him in the back, critically injuring him. Harcourt gives her a talk and tells her not to become too accustomed to killing so that she wouldn't turn into Amanda Waller. As he arrives back home, Peacemaker takes the still living Butterfly from his bag, keeping it in a jar.
Murn flies into a rage as he learns that Adebayo gave Vigilante the idea to kill Peacemaker's father and orders to quickly take him out of the prison. In the penitentiary, Vigilante decides to provoke Auggie into attacking him by espousing pro-black sentiments, but while his gang decides to attack, Auggie is smart enough not to fall for it. As Vigilante says that Auggie is a bad father, he starts thinking his son wants him dead and calls for Detective Song.
Peacemaker asks Harcourt about what's written in his dossier and learns that it's mentioned that he's somehow involved in his older brother's death, making him go wasted on weed and alcohol and reminisce about the good times with his brother and his death, how his father taught him to kill people, as well as Rick Flag's death. Vigilante is released from prison, deeply regretful about his decision.
Adebayo finds a card with the name "Glan Tai" in Goff's belongings and this company's worker ID in Annie Sturphauser's purse, while at his house Murn eats the syrup with a probiscus emerging from his mouth, revealing himself as a Butterfly.
Tropes:
- Ambiguous Situation: Just when Judomaster is about to say something important about the Butterflies to Peacemaker, Leota shoots him in the chest before he could say anything. Did she shoot him because he was about to reveal something that could affect Amanda Waller's plans if Peacemaker hears it or was she trying to save Peacemaker's life and didn't read the room?
- Armor-Piercing Question:
- While chewing him out for not pulling the trigger on the Goff family, Murn asks Peacemaker if "Not killing kids just cause you say so!" is really what stopped him from pulling the trigger. Peacemaker just stares at him.
- When the old neighbor tells Peacemaker he's not a real superhero like Batman because he doesn't have a rogue gallery, Peacemaker points out he doesn't have one because he kills his targets. Then he asks him how many people Batman has indirectly killed because he never puts his villains permanently down for good, the old man couldn't counter back and tells him he was just trying to make a conversation.
- Cloudcuckoolander: For some reason, Peacemaker is convinced that martial artists can replace their hearts with one of their kidneys.
- Coincidental Broadcast: A broadcast reports the disappearance of Charlie the silverback gorilla when Peacemaker walks into his dad's house to pick up some helmets.
- Dance of Despair: Near the end of the episode, Peacemaker drinks and dances to Faster Pussycat's 'House of Pain' while remembering his brother's death as a child, his father's subsequent abuse, and Rick Flag's final words to him. It ends with him collapsing to the floor, as Eagly and his captured Butterfly gather around him, possibly out of concern. Clearly, he's not doing too well.
- Didn't Think This Through: After Murn finds out that Leota manipulated Vigilante into killing Peacemaker's father, he points out that this could really backfire on them in two possible ways: If Vigilante does successfully kills Auggie, then Peacemaker will lose all trust in the team, especially Vigilante, and won't be too cooperative with them, and if Vigilante fails and gets killed by Auggie, then they'll be down a member to take on the Butterflies and Peacemaker will still lose trust in them for Leota manipulating Vigilante. They were able to get Vigilante out of jail before he made things worse but they're too late because Auggie really wants to talk to Detective Song now and reveal what Peacemaker and his team did and now he believes his own son is trying to kill him.
- Easily Forgiven: Despite his claims otherwise, Vigilante actually spends the first half of the episode miffed at Peacemaker for letting him get tortured. It's not only until after Peacemaker finally sincerely apologizes for his inaction and later starting to learn just how abusive Auggie was that he lets it go.
- Everyone Has Standards: As implied in the past episodes, Vigilante may have less qualms about doing dirty work than Peacemaker, but he has a staunch hatred for White Supremacy. After getting convinced by Adebayo to get arrested so he can assassinate Peacemaker's father, he gives him and his goons a massive "The Reason You Suck" Speech specifically for this.
- First-Name Basis: Leota starts calling Peacemaker by his actual name, Chris, as a way to connect with him.
- The Glasses Come Off: Vigilante calmly removes his glasses just before he delivers the insult that finally gets the white supremacists to attack him.
- Internal Reveal:
- Peacemaker just now learns from his father's neighbor that his father is in prison because Economos framed him for his actions at the apartment.
- Leota, Harcourt, Economos, and Murn are now realizing who Vigilante is and remember him as the busboy at the restaurant they first met at.
- I Shall Taunt You: Adrian taunts the rest of Auggie's gang into attacking him, but Auggie realizes what he's doing and refuses to make the first move so he won't look like the aggressor to the cameras.
- It Gets Easier: Discussed after Leota shoots Judomaster, when Harcourt tells her it won't and that's a good thing, otherwise you end up like Amanda Waller.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While Peacemaker was certainly being a dick about it, he raised a valid (and often talked about) criticism of Batman’s one rule. More often than not, Batman’s refusal to execute his enemies leads to them escaping and causing many more deaths along the way. While Peacemaker’s methods may be questionable at best, at the very least, his enemies don’t live to cause more misery and pain.
- Never Found the Body: At the beginning of the episode, Peacemaker tells the others that after a Butterfly pops out of Goff's head he shot it dead offscreen. When Peacemaker returns home, he pulls a jar of nectar out of his backpack and then he pulls out a jar containing the Butterfly he claimed he killed still alive.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Economos framing Auggie for Peacemaker's actions at the apartment really backfired on them. Once Peacemaker discovers that his father's in prison, he goes to the prison to apologize for what happened and told him how he got arrested and Auggie tells him he's going to call Detective Song and let her know what he did. When Leota manipulates Vigilante to kill Auggie in the prison to ensure he doesn't talk to the detective, he isn't able to kill him because Auggie quickly realizes that he's trying to goad him into striking first in front of the security cameras and the guards stopping him from fighting any further. When Vigilante tells Auggie he's a bad father, he realizes he's somehow connected to Peacemaker and not only is he dead set on talking to Detective Song but now he thinks his own son wants to silences him. As Vigilante puts it, "I think I might've made things worse."
- Nobody's That Dumb: While Peacemaker is pretty dumb, Murn seems to think that Leota is underestimating his intelligence because he points out if Vigilante or Auggie is killed in prison and Peacemaker finds out, he'll realize that she manipulated Vigilante into killing his father and he'll lose even more trust in the team.
- Noodle Incident: Peacemaker mentions a team-up with Matter-Eater Lad, talking about the time he ate a whole Wendy's.
- Prefer Jail to the Protagonist: While Auggie would prefer not to be in jail, he is so outraged over being wrongly incarcerated by his son Christopher that he decides to stop talking to him anymore telling the guards to let him back in.
- Rogues Gallery: Discussed. Auggie's neighbor doesn't consider Peacemaker a proper superhero because he doesn't have a "coterie of supervillains" he regularly goes up against. Peacemaker counters that the reason he doesn't have one is because the villains he goes up against die, and that the entire concept of a rogues gallery is ridiculous because it implies a chronic failure to keep the villains you go up against from hurting people.Neighbor: Batman has a coterie of supervillains. Joker, Riddler, Mad Hatter...
Peacemaker: So what?
Neighbor: You said you were a superhero, like Batman. Do you have a coterie of supervillains? - Troll: Vigilante baits the racists in prison into attacking him by asking them what they appreciate most about African American culture so he can say that he beat them in self-defense. It ends up working, but Auggie is smart enough to know what he's trying to do and refuses to fight.
- Wham Shot: At the end of the episode, after Leota calls Murn that he discovered something about the Butterflies and he'll talk about it tomorrow morning, he picks up a bowl of the same honey-like substance that Goff and his family were eating and sticks out his long tongue to consume it, indicating he's also a Butterfly.
- Worf Had the Flu: In Judomaster's debut, he easily took down Peacemaker, Vigilante, and Harcourt back at Goff's home. But when he has his rematch with Peacemaker, he's still recovering from the car crash and Peacemaker is able to handle better than last time.
