Summary: Homelander shoves Ryan off a roof to help him awaken his powers. He is successful, but Ryan is angry with him and tells him to go away. The Boys are on a yacht 3 miles offshore as per Butcher's deal with Mallory. At a meeting with a writer, Ashley learns that Compound V has leaked online and she speaks with Edgar. Starlight did it and A-Train confronts her about it, but Starlight keeps him quiet, blackmailing him again. A police helicopter finds The Boys, but Kimiko's brother gets free and crashes it. Word about Kimiko's brother on the yacht reaches The Seven, who all go out to kill him. The yacht is attacked by Deep and The Boys leave on a speedboat. Deep blocks them with a whale but Butcher rams into the whale, killing it and knocking out Deep. The Boys escape into a sewer drain. The Seven arrive and hunt for them. Starlight finds Hughie and Homelander tells her to kill him. Butcher saves him by distracting Homelander and Kimiko's brother buries him. Kimiko and her brother escape but are found by Stormfront. Stormfront kills dozens of civilians while hunting them before killing Kimiko's brother. Edgar holds a press conference where he states he was unaware of Compound V and blames it on Maddy while Stormfront gets all the credit for killing the terrorist, annoying Homelander.
The Good: It looks like we are slowly rebuilding the relationship between Hughie and Butcher, and amongst all the carnage in this episode, we took some compelling steps to get them on the same page again. Tensions continue to boil early in the episode with Hughie punching Butcher after he fails to apologize for anything beyond punching him at the end of the last episode. Then we have Butcher giving him laughably little credit for his role in leaking Compound V to the public, and you can tell that things are bad. When Hughie realizes that they are caught in a storm and likely to die, he loses all resolve and is left as an empty shell. Butcher wants to leave him behind, but M.M. brings up Hughie's value as a moral compass, and while Butcher doesn't show it, you can tell that he does appreciate what Hughie does for him. With Butcher, it's his actions rather than his words that give away his emotions. Butcher could have sacrificed Hughie, but instead he musters up the courage to face Homelander once more, risking everything to save Hughie. It's a nice change to see some humanity in Butcher for once, and it's an effective way to continue to develop the complicated relationship these two have had since season 1. Outside of the Butcher/Hughie dynamic, this episode had a hell of a lot going on and was consistently entertaining. The fact that the Compound V reveal happened off-screen and early in the episode was a big surprise, and it immediately made things feel suspenseful. Seeing every supe react to the realization that they were made into supes by a drug was fantastic. I was consistently interested to see how Edgar would handle the situation considering all that had happened. Deflecting the headlines to a "terrorist attack" was very smart. Homelander's brief parenting arc came to an abrupt end in hilarious fashion. Watching him ignore both Becca's and Ryan's wishes to throw his kid off of the roof was remarkably dangerous, and remarkably hilarious. Even better was watching Ryan faceplant and lie motionless on the ground while Homelander looks only mildly disappointed was a fantastic comedic choice. In the end Homelander was right, and Ryan got to awaken some of his powers, but he completely missed the point of connecting emotionally with his family, and so despite the fact that he did a "good" thing, he pays the price dearly and finds himself not wanted by anyone. This was great storytelling, and I like that it led to Homelander trying to reconnect with Maeve so that he could maybe have just one person in his life who genuinely loves him. Then we get to The Boys on the yacht which was the episode's standout storyline, intense and exciting. Once they get made by a police helicopter (which Kimiko's brother promptly annihilates), the episode ratchets up the tension as literally every important supe starts making their way to that boat. The mission is up in flames (as it always seems to be in this show), and the episode's final stretch is a dramatic sequence of the protagonists running away from the powerful antagonists. All of this content is done well, minus a few conveniences (see: The Bad). We start with Deep, who makes a most triumphant return, only to fall apart in the most hilarious fashion (see: Best Moment). The entire whale sequence is probably the most horrific thing I've watched in the show and simultaneously the hardest I've laughed in the show. Maybe I'm just a sick bastard, but that was uproariously unexpected and entertaining. Following this, The Seven arrive, and after some amusing interaction sequences with Deep, they move in to capture The Boys. The stand-off with Starlight and Homelander against Hughie was very intense, and Butcher and Homelander coming face to face once more was very exciting. The episode capped off with a very nicely choreographed action sequence as Kimiko and her brother take on Stormfront. The action is exciting, but what made this so good was the reveal of Stormfront's true colours. I was expecting her to be shady due to her being sent in by Edgar, but even that mindset did not prepare me for her horrific nature as she murders civilian after civilian and finally kills Kimiko's brother in the most vile and vicious manner. Out of nowhere, Homelander suddenly has company at the top of the list for the most depraved and diabolical characters in this show. The twist was executed superbly, and I'm sure that it was a huge shock especially for the people who hadn't suspected that she was hiding something. Great stuff. There are some good comedy scenes throughout the episode, but the highlight has to be the movie pitch scene near the start. The conversations here are exceptional, and I couldn't help but laugh at the guy's reductive view on women, which was countered by the guy saying "I have two sisters". Hilarious. Better yet is how out of touch the movie is, especially since they have the wrong Seven in the film (Translucent and Lamplighter are still there). I also got a chuckle out of Black Noir, who has fallen asleep in his chair, clearly bored out of his mind. I like how this show has been characterizing him in the occasional short scene. I hope we see more of him soon. The Bad: The action scenes towards the end were fun, but there were a number of logic leaps that didn't make sense. The biggest one comes from how ill-defined Homelander's powers are. If The Boys are in the sewers, can't Homelander use his vision to see where they are immediately? It is odd that he doesn't use his powers more often, even if he is arrogant enough to feel like he doesn't need them. More annoyingly, I'm baffled at the fact that Homelander isn't more angry at Starlight, who did nothing to stop The Boys after Homelander was buried by Kimiko's brother. Surely Homelander is watching everything from under the rocks, so how does he not see that Starlight simply let them go without a fight? Stormfront fighting Kimiko and her brother had a poor ending. We see the brother jump off of a roof, leaving Kimiko alone with Stormfront, but in the very next scene he is magically back on top of the building. How did he do that? Even worse is that once Stormfront kills Kimiko's brother, she is perfectly content to let Kimiko go. I get that The Seven don't care about her, but she's a loose thread that is quite literally right next to them. It's idiotic for them to let her go, and if anything, these two would absolutely be petty and evil enough to kill her, even if it was unnecessary. In the end, there were too many plot conveniences in this climactic sequence to prevent certain events from happening. Frenchie was really silly to leave a tin can in the same room as a man with telekinetic powers. That bit of writing felt a bit contrived. I'm also still unamused by the fact that The Boys still left Kimiko's brother with only duct tape on his hands. Surely they could have done more to restrain him. Maybe add on some rope, some chains, or any other stronger material to ensure that he doesn't free himself. The Unknown: Who is Liberty? Why was she brought up by Mallory? Will A-Train's heart problems be a recurring problem for him? Will this eventually lead to him being kicked out of The Seven? He was struggling badly throughout the episode. How does Edgar plan to navigate the revelation of Compound V? Will he scapegoat Maddy and stand firmly behind that? Does he have any other tricks up his sleeve? Is Stormfront a mole for Edgar? She was psychotic by murdering such a large group of civilians, but it played up the story of the supe terrorists' threat overshadowing the Compound V. Was this all planned by Edgar? Is Stormfront's entire "rebellious girl" attitude just an act? Is she really just as psychotic as Homelander? Deep's incompetence has been hilarious to watch. But it begs the question, how did he get into The Seven to begin with? Best Moment: Deep's triumphant return was so satisfying for him. You can tell he really loved the moment of having a cool hero scene where he blocks the bad guys on his whale. But then you look beneath the surface and realize how hilariously stupid his plan was: Deep was so focused on making a "cool" intro that he beached a whale and removed its ability to escape, failed to adequately block the storm drain that The Boys were clearly headed towards, and failed to account for the likely possibility that The Boys would not surrender upon seeing him. Watching the realization hit Deep as Butcher accelerated towards him was hysterical, and the sheer butchery (pun intended) of the whale was horrifyingly funny. Once again Deep's best intentions have led to the death of a sea animal, and I can't help but laugh at the fact that this is the third straight time that Deep has failed like this. It's Butcher who puts the cherry on top of this fantastic scene with a fitting and fantastically delivered "f*ucking diabolical" as he and The Boys emerge from inside the body of a barely-alive whale. If there's one thing this show does well, it's entertaining us by doing something so outrageously ridiculous and over-the-top that you can't help but laugh and be amazed. Character of the Episode: Homelander. Conclusion: This episode was a wild ride. Packed with big developments, twists, and intense sequences, this episode blasted season 2 into action in the most dramatic way imaginable. This isn't a perfect episode, but it does enough that it is extremely easy to be invested and entertained. A great return to form after a mediocre episode. Score: 73
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
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