Was it the right choice to kill “The Cow” in Peacemaker Season 1? Here’s what viewers had to say on Reddit

The final episode of Peacemaker Season 1, titled It’s Cow or Never (Episode 8), which aired on February 17, 2022, ends with one of the biggest decisions in the show. Peacemaker and his team launch a mission to stop the alien Butterflies from teleporting their last food source, a massive alien creature known as “The Cow,” to another location. The Cow is the only thing keeping the Butterflies alive. If it survives, their invasion continues. If it dies, they die with it.

The team infiltrates Coverdale Ranch, where the Cow is hidden underground. Economos is sent in with a sonic-boom helmet to blow up the barn. The explosion distracts the Butterflies long enough for Peacemaker, Harcourt, and Vigilante to storm the compound. In the final moments, Adebayo, wearing Peacemaker’s human torpedo helmet, slams into the Cow and kills it.

That choice stops the Butterflies for good. But it also sparks a bigger question: were they really a threat? Could their warning about Earth have been real? Viewers have been debating that decision ever since. On Reddit, the topic became a full-blown argument, some defending Peacemaker’s move, others questioning whether it was humanity’s best shot at survival.

What Peacemaker Season 1 viewers think about killing the Cow

After Peacemaker Season 1 ended, fans turned to Reddit to debate whether killing the Cow was the right move. The thread, now archived but still active in upvotes, features users breaking down both the moral and strategic weight of that final decision. The most upvoted comment came from u/imtherealcamper, who argued,

"Yes. Ultimately. It went against everything he had been trying to learn throughout season 1 (empathy) but it kept hik true to his character. Keeping that cow alive would mean letting them kill more and more of his friends, family, etc. He will kill anyone or anything for his version of peace."

That opinion matched what we saw in the show—Peacemaker didn’t kill Goff, but he didn’t hesitate when the Cow was on the line.

Another user, u/bumblebee666_, focused more on the Butterflies’ true intent. They pointed out that while Goff made a good argument about Earth being on the brink, the Butterflies were still using human bodies like disposable shells.

“If we want to fix our world, it has to be by us,” they said.

The show backs this up—Butterfly-Song herself admits that her kind doesn’t exactly keep the hosts alive for long. That’s not a partnership. That’s control.

Still, not everyone agreed. u/ChronoMonkeyX called the ending “absolutely tragic,” arguing that the Butterflies were saving the planet at a small cost—taking over world leaders who were probably corrupt anyway. They asked whether it was better to let Earth continue destroying itself when a higher species was offering help.

The show leaves this ambiguous, but there’s no denying that the Butterflies killed innocent people just to feed themselves. Harcourt even said earlier that without the Cow, they’d die in weeks—meaning they were acting out of desperation, not just idealism.

There were also comparisons to other villains. One user likened the Butterflies’ logic to Thanos or Omni-Man—figures who think mass control or sacrifice is justified in the name of the greater good. u/imtherealcamper fired back with,

“We shouldn’t have to give our lives away just to have a better life.”

That line echoes what Adebayo tells Peacemaker in the finale. She admits they might have just killed something that could’ve helped the planet—but at least they didn’t hand over Earth’s freedom to a bunch of aliens without a fight.

The tone of the Reddit thread was surprisingly serious, with users admitting that Peacemaker Season 1, despite being over-the-top and violent, hit on something real. u/FriendlyHastur asked,

“I think the big question is: If we don't save ourselves, are we worth saving? Quite cool that "silly show" actually had a quite interesting dilemma.”

That became a repeated theme. Some users said the Butterflies' ideology was right, but their methods were wrong. Others said they were lying altogether, just trying to guilt Peacemaker into helping.

At the end of Peacemaker Season 1, the consensus leaned toward Peacemaker making the right call—but barely. Most users said killing the Cow was necessary. But many also admitted it wasn’t satisfying. It was just the least bad option. And maybe that’s what made it work.

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