Summary: A flashback shows Starlight giving a performance she didn't want to do, clenching her fist to cope with it. In the present, Butcher deals with the side effects of the V24. Hughie returns to The Boys. The Boys visit Mallory and force her to tell the story about Nicaragua. She reveals that Payback messed up the operation and killed practically everybody. Soldier Boy was killed by a weapon and his body was taken away. Butcher is angry that she kept this secret, and after a spat, he leaves. Ryan doesn't want him to leave and Butcher lashes out at him, destroying their relationship. Frenchie is not with them. He went to see Cherie who is leaving the country after working for Nina and having her package stolen. Frenchie meets with Nina who gives him an offer to give up Cherie. Back at the headquarters, Frenchie tells the others what happened and Butcher wants to meet with Nina. Homelander's rant unexpectedly increases his popularity. Homelander uses it to wrestle back control from Starlight, daring her to leak the plane video as he will kill everyone in New York in response. Starlight becomes terrified but Hughie tells her to stay on as co-captain until they find the weapon to kill him. Homelander decides to bring Deep back into The Seven, but forces him to eat seafood. Starlight tries to get Supersonic to get out because of Homelander, but he refuses and decides to join The Seven to help her. On the American Hero finale, Homelander reveals that he and Starlight are a unit now and they kiss, while Starlight clenches her fist just like she did when she was younger.
The Good: I was most excited going into this episode to see how Homelander's speech would have backfired on him. So imagine my surprise when the episode kicks off with Homelander's numbers went up instead and the speech actually helped him come back against all odds. Funnily enough, I actually wasn't surprised, which speaks a lot about how stupid our society can be, but it also created such a unique reaction to this twist. It caught me off guard, but instead of surprising me, it made me feel silly for not realizing the obvious truth. Homelander's newfound confidence after this is terrifying to watch. Before he was hindered because he was afraid that people would hate him when they saw his real self. But now that he realizes that people will love him regardless, Homelander feels like he's free to do whatever he wants without consequence, and that is utterly terrifying. Starlight's blackmail no longer works because now Homelander knows that even if he levels a city in response, there will still be people out there who love him. I feel so bad for Starlight who was on top of the world a second ago, but has now fallen farther than ever before as she now exists purely as Homelander's puppet. Seeing her relegated to his love interest is awful, and the final shot showing her clenching her fist is a fantastic bookend to the opening flashback scene, which I had completely forgotten about until that last shot. Brilliant storytelling. Homelander's insanity doesn't end with Starlight. It's expected, but still funny, to see him so utterly opposed to the idea of a Muslim in The Seven. He is so dedicated to avoiding this idea that he ends up bringing Deep back into The Seven, just to have another beta for him to use as his own personal puppet. This can't be better exemplified than it was in the dinner scene with Deep and Homelander. This scene is disastrously uncomfortable as Deep is subjected to Homelander forcing him, and everyone else, to eat seafood in a disgusting power move. But like much of "The Boys", the discomfort is effortlessly overcome by how outrageously funny this entire sequence is. Deep's discomfort goes from awful to astoundingly funny really quick, and the horrifying scene where he's forced to eat "Timothy" is amazingly funny. Homelander's blunt delivery of "eat f*cking Timothy" makes the scene, and is one of the hardest laughs I've had in this show. It's amazing how this is the fourth agonizing sea creature death we have seen with Deep, and yet they somehow keep getting funnier and funnier each time. It's like how Hughie always ends up covered in guts every season: it just becomes funnier with how history continues to repeat itself in increasingly absurd ways. The story with The Boys is very good as well. We start off strong with Kimiko breaking Hughie's arm to a fantastic response, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Kimiko had a good episode overall, and I enjoyed how she got to bond with Ryan - she's the only one who could possibly relate with what he's going through with hating his supe powers. Unfortunately for Ryan, something far worse would happen to him with Butcher's development. As he struggles with the side effects of V24, he is treated to a horrific story from Mallory. Mallory's flashbacks are tremendous and informative (more on them later), but they significantly confirm to Butcher that she knew there was a way to kill Homelander and neglected to tell him. A bad reaction to this information followed by a poor emotional reaction from Mallory leads to a furious Butcher, having been compared to his father, storming out and severing all ties with Ryan in a devastating and uncomfortable scene. It's several steps too far for Butcher and I feel horrible for everyone involved in the situation. What really takes it over the edge is that Hughie ends up agreeing with Butcher on the nature of the world. Hughie has lost faith in everything, and now he's gone from being a canary to being an enabler, which is a troubling development. Mallory's flashbacks told a great story. We got some great background on both Mallory and Edgar by seeing this (great casting choices for both young actors, they absolutely nailed it). This traumatic experience is what made Mallory commit her life to stopping supes from destroying the world like they did here, and it's nice to finally see what motivated her to do so much. She has become a very tragic figure, just like Butcher. Edgar's backstory is also interesting as we likely learned the moment where he decided to no longer be involved with supes, specifically deciding to focus on his product instead. With how badly Payback messed up this entire operation, it's no wonder that Edgar distanced himself. In the end, his main goal is to get Compound V into the military, and fighting to get supes into the military in season 1 was only a step along the way. Payback were portrayed in incredibly dangerous ways and I was horrified. They murdered everyone, including their allies, and it was their careless, egotistical behaviours that caused all the trouble to begin with. I was disgusted with them by the end of the episode, so these flashbacks absolutely did their job. I also really liked the backstory on Black Noir. He wanted to feel represented and get his face out there, but the debilitating injury he suffered from the reckless behaviours of Payback shattered his dreams and forced him into playing the political game he never wanted to play. Sad stuff. Lastly, it was nice to get a look into A-Train's family. We haven't seen a whole lot of A-Train, but I appreciate that we're getting more insight into his character. The Bad: Frenchie's story is a bit dull. Cherie is not an interesting character, and I'm much more invested in Frenchie's relationship with Kimiko. Nina does not feel like a big deal to me. She's a boring character so far and every scene building her up did not engage me. There are far more interesting stories going on and I would rather spend time on those. Once again, there's a bit too much going on in this episode. I continue to finish episodes this season feeling "overstuffed" because there is too much going on at once. The Unknown: How will Supersonic do in The Seven? I get the sense that he may not last that long. What happened to Soldier Boy? How did he die? Where was his body taken? Black Noir's backstory was tragic. Was he unable to speak after this? What specifically happened to him? Was he caught by whatever happened to Soldier Boy? Is Butcher experiencing side effects to V24? Do these side effects affect everyone? It seems like this product isn't as good as Edgar suggested. Who is Nina? Why does Butcher want to meet her and go to Russia? How will Hughie react to Homelight? Will this cause further problems between Hughie and Starlight? Can Starlight keep her cool while Homelander gets progressively more out of control? Is this the end of Ryan's relationship with Butcher? Can Butcher make it up to him again? Best Moment: Deep being forced to eat Timothy is outrageously funny and well-acted. The black comedy of this show really shines sometimes. Character of the Episode: Deep. Poor bastard. Conclusion: Another great episode of storytelling, one that I think is a bit better than the previous one. There is a bit too much going on in each episode, and that is preventing these episodes from being exceptional. But even still, the content has been excellent and I'm loving the story overall even if it doesn't make for the most satisfying episodic experiences. Score: 69
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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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