Summary: Hughie is left to watch Lamplighter while MM and Mallory go to meet with Vogelbaum to get him to testify. Neuman agrees to go after Vought at the hearing and is protected by Kimiko and Frenchie. Butcher is called by his mother saying his father died. When Butcher goes to see her, he finds his father alive and they have an intense argument. Starlight meets with her mom, but is captured by Vought and publicly declared as a traitor. Hughie convinces Lamplighter to go save her. Once they get in the Vought building, Lamplighter commits suicide, but alarms go off, allowing Starlight to escape. Starlight is fought by Black Noir but Maeve saves her. Starlight and Hughie get away. MM and Mallory are unsuccessful with Vogelbaum, but Butcher visits next and blackmails him into testifying. Homelander introduces Ryan to Stormfront and starts aggressively trying to awaken his powers again. Becca resists, but eventually Homelander and Stormfront tell Ryan the truth, and then they take him away from her. Deep learns from Alastair that Eagle abandoned the program and has been condemned. Elena leaves Maeve, who grows detached from reality. The hearing happens but everyone's heads start exploding, including Vogelbaum and Shockwave. Mallory and Neuman make it out.
The Good: I liked the opening scene a lot. It was a beautiful self-contained story showing how the words of Stormfront and Homelander can affect even the most ordinary of people without them realizing it. The poor nameless man being unknowingly radicalized against immigrants was really sad, and seeing him snap and murder the innocent store owner was really sad. Scenes like this are so good for world-building and show the extent of Stormfront's influence on the world. This sequence was very well done with great editing and music. The main story in this episode comes from The Boys making a deal with Neuman to get witnesses to testify against Vought. MM and Mallory go after Vogelbaum, and while Mallory is soft-hearted enough to let him be, Butcher is not. Butcher does not take no for an answer and blackmails Vogelbaum into cooperating. It's a typical Butcher move, and as ever, it completely sacrifices Vogelbaum who meets a most unfortunate fate by the episode's end, a fantastic climax that sees Neuman's plan go up in flames when everyone important has their heads exploded on live television, stunning everyone (see: Best Moment). That's not all for Butcher in this episode. He gets one of his best storylines yet when he goes to meet his mother and father. Butcher's father is utterly despicable, and learning more about him makes it painfully clear why Butcher is the way he is. For anyone to survive living with such an awful man, you had to become as tough and downright evil as Butcher. Lenny was not made of the same stuff, and his compassion was seemingly preyed on until he killed himself. This is a painfully sad reveal, and you can tell that this complicated relationship with his father informs a lot of what Butcher does, including his dislike for children (such a bad childhood would discourage anyone from parenting). Hughie saving Starlight is a fun side story. Starlight's capture makes sense with Vought using her family to figure out where she has been. Starlight meeting with her mother is silly, but I can absolutely excuse the naive Starlight not knowing that contacting any family in her situation is an awful idea. Hughie using Lamplighter to save her is fun, as is the time Hughie spends connecting with him and watching him watch porn. Lamplighter's suicide was a huge surprise, but it does fit the character to give up considering all he's been through. It also led to one of the crudest moments of black comedy in the show when Hughie goes around Vought tower with a severed hand helping him escape. Lastly, we come to Homelander and Stormfront. Following his rough encounter with Ryan, it felt like Homelander had lost interest and given up on Ryan. But with Stormfront playing up all of his worst habits, Homelander comes back and is more torturous than ever to Becca. It's quite tragic because Becca is clearly able to reach Homelander with her words, but Homelander listens to Stormfront more. Having them show Ryan the truth is a painful moment as they manipulate Ryan to turn against his mother and take him away. This can only possibly end badly, and it's concerning that Ryan now looks likely to spend all of his time with two sociopaths. The Bad: Season 1 was very tightly written. Whenever The Boys had to take the fight to the supes, they always had to be extra careful and creative with their approach, accounting for a number of things that could go wrong. I'm bringing this up because it has been disappointing how season 2 has neglected to include this same level of writing. With multiple encounters happening in "Over the Hill with a Thousand Men" and "The Bloody Doors Off", I've noticed that the writing has grown much more lenient with The Boys handling supes much easier while being unprepared. I can excuse the weak writing in those episodes because they were quite thrilling and had a lot going on. But here? This is more inexcusable. The big problem comes from Hughie and Lamplighter sneaking into Vought. It is absurd that a wanted criminal is able to sneak into Vought tower, and I find it absolutely ridiculous that Hughie is able to go in and out without encountering a single guard or a single surveillance camera. Especially after Lamplighter killed himself openly, I'm baffled that nobody at all came to check out what had happened except Black Noir. You could say that it's the supe's floor so they are the only ones to respond, but we've seen ordinary people walking the hallways multiple times! There's absolutely no way that nobody was around. And even if it is a fire alarm and people went out, I'm sure Edgar would hire people to ensure that Vought's secrets remained secret and these people would come to investigate. Even worse is Starlight's escape. I can't believe that there was zero surveillance in the area where she escaped, be it guard or cameras. Even more absurd is that she somehow finds Hughie in the enormous Vought building when Hughie has no idea of the layout or where to go. I find it unbelievable that they somehow found each other and managed to escape. Also, there's no way that Hughie was able to sever Lamplighter's arm so easily, he needed to struggle a lot harder to break through bone; that stuff is hard to cut through. The Unknown: Who killed everyone at the hearing? Was it Cindy or someone else? Who planned it? Was it a rogue act? Was it Edgar? Was it someone else? What happens to the alliance with Neuman? Can she help in any other way, or is her entire plan screwed after what happened? What will happen to her next? Who was Butcher's dad? What else did he do to influence Butcher's upbringing? What exactly did he do to Lenny that led to his suicide? How did Lenny's suicide affect Butcher? Why did Lamplighter retire? Was he forced out? What happens now that Homelander has taken Ryan? What will he do with him? How will this affect Ryan's upbringing? What can Becca do now? What happened to Eagle? Why did he abandon the Church? Is there something more going on behind the scenes? Best Moment: The heads exploding during the hearing is a shocking moment that completely caught me off guard. The implications are enormous, and this changes everything in the context of the show. There are major deaths, and this feels like a crucial moment where Vought and supes take power away from the world's leaders through sheer lethality. The image of everyone's heads exploding is memorable and gruesome. What a way to end the episode. Character of the Episode: Butcher. Conclusion: This wasn't a perfect episode, but there was a lot to enjoy in it. Once again, "The Boys" specializes with fast-paced plot progression, action and intensity, and small moments of character to stitch it all together. The one issue is this show's increasingly absurd logic leaps, which hopefully will not be a trend going forwards. Score: 66
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
Categories
All
|