Summary: The Boys learn that Russia was experimenting on Soldier Boy this whole time before they return. Kimiko is taken to a hospital and is okay, but she has lost her superpowers. Nina tells Frenchie to do a hit for her. He doesn't and he and Kimiko kiss later. Frenchie steps out briefly but is kidnapped by Nina. Butcher gets more V24 from Maeve. Soldier Boy takes a cargo plane to America. Ashley becomes the new Vought CEO and Deep becomes head of Crime Analytics, promptly firing almost everyone over past tweets critical of Homelander. MM tries to get back to his life but Soldier Boy kills some people in New York and makes the news. The Boys get back together, and after speaking with The Legend, they learn he is after Crimson Countess. They get to her first and trap her in her room. MM calls Starlight and Hughie tries to talk her out of staying. Butcher drugs MM and he passes out. Butcher lets Soldier Boy kill Crimson Countess and makes an alliance with him. Starlight is horrified that Hughie went along with this. Black Noir wakes up and Homelander confronts Maeve, realizing that she has betrayed them. A-Train gets Blue Hawk to make an apology to his community but it goes awry. Nate is paralyzed and Blue Hawk is fine, saying that he fought Antifa.
The Good: Homelander is charge has been a joy to watch so far. He is so unstable, uneducated, and childish with how he handles things. He doesn't know anything, and tries to cover it up (poorly) by shouting at others and threatening them. It's a joy to watch Homelander make stupid mistake after stupid mistake and I can't wait for it all to catch up to him. For example, his idiotic decision to focus on social appearances instead of addressing Soldier Boy is sure to backfire imminently, and we've already seen how appointing Deep as the new head of Crime Analytics went. I couldn't help but laugh that Deep fired everyone who criticized Homelander in past tweets, which is a fantastic satirical joke about how social media is used against people in modern society. The centerpiece of Homelander's story comes from his great confrontation with Maeve. Maeve has been working against him for some time now, and finally Homelander has heard enough of her plots to take her out. Black Noir being the breaking point makes sense considering what went down between them at the end of season 2. Another great scene came from Starlight's confrontation with Ashley. Starlight has continually manipulated people into risking their own necks to do the right thing, and she always seems to somehow get out of it alright. Sure, Starlight is fighting for the right cause, but we get to see how disgustingly manipulative it really is from Ashley's perspective. Ashley is a total sellout, but we can see clearly that she does it all just to survive and get by. Why should she lay down her life for Starlight's cause, especially if she does not want to? And we all know that Ashley's life will be forfeit the second that she turns against Homelander, and nobody is going to risk their lives to save her. I honestly cheered for Ashley when she turned Starlight down, and I realize that I'm starting to grow fond of her, especially with how much comedy she brings to the table by being such a sellout. The Boys went through a pretty good arc in this episode. They are separated after the catastrophic events of the last episode, but the return of Soldier Boy has brought them back together. MM continually fails to get back to his old life as something new always brings him back to the fight. Meanwhile Hughie tries his best to repair things with Starlight by being completely honest, but he even fails to do that as we realize that Hughie is becoming more and more like Butcher as he commits his entire being to fighting and killing supes once and for all. It's sad to see the distance between him and Starlight after they were so close in season 2. The hunt for Soldier Boy is a fun story. Visiting The Legend was an amusing side story, and I enjoyed the character a lot. He was traditional and funny, and it was fun to see how Butcher and Hughie interacted with him. It all led to a fantastic ending twist as Butcher shows no interest in taking him down and instead opts to do something totally risky and despicable: ally with Soldier Boy. This is a huge problem for MM, who has been traumatized by Soldier Boy and is sure to exacerbate the rift between them. But Butcher and Hughie both don't care and they know that they have to do what's necessary to bring down Homelander. Allying with someone as dangerous and unpredictable as Soldier Boy is a massive risk, and I'm excited to see how the story handles this new storyline. A-Train has hit a new low with his story. He finally had the opportunity to make a genuine difference, but showed a comical misunderstanding of the problems his community faces, highlighting how the social privilege of being in The Seven has alienated A-Train from everyone he knows. For some baffling reason, he thinks that a Blue Hawk apology is all that's needed and that it will go over well with everyone. Predictably, it all goes awry and leads to a breakout of violence and the darkly hilarious realization that Blue Hawk will get away scot-free because people are willing to cover up his mistakes (the Antifa news report is fantastic). A-Train faced very real consequences from this with Nate's paralysis, and I wonder if this is finally the thing that can make this rotten, spineless man finally change for the better. It's a small thing, but I got a good laugh out of Soldier Boy being so horrified by the amount of immigrants and openly gay people in society. It must be very jarring for him after not seeing America for about 50 years. The Bad: I can't bring myself to care about Nina at all. In a universe where threatening supes like Homelander and Soldier Boy exist, Nina feels so tame and uninspired; I can't help but feel like The Boys can easily dispose of her without issue. She also doesn't carry nearly as much presence or menace as someone like Edgar, so I don't buy into her role as an intimidating enforcer, especially considering her lack of superhuman abilities. I'm not interested at all in her story with Frenchie and Kimiko, especially since Kimiko appears to have been conveniently nerfed just to make Nina feel like more of a threat. How the hell did Butcher, Hughie, and MM reach Crimson Countess before Soldier Boy? That's completely unbelievable. The Unknown: Maeve and Butcher hooking up was an interesting development. Is this going to go somewhere further down the line? Or is it just meant to be seen as another example of how these two have sold out their personal values for the cause of taking down Homelander? Has Kimiko lost her powers for good? Does Soldier Boy have the ability to remove powers from all supes? Can this be used to turn Homelander into just an ordinary guy? What does Nina plan to do with Frenchie? What was the deal made with Crimson Countess and Russia? Why were they allowed to experiment on Soldier Boy? Why did Crimson Countess agree to do it? Will Soldier Boy and Butcher be able to keep their alliance? I suspect Butcher will try to kill him at some point, so what happens then? What will Homelander do with Maeve? Where did he take her? Is Starlight going to leave Hughie seeing how much he has changed from his old self? Hughie's priorities have changed drastically since the season premiere. Best Moment: Maeve and Homelander's confrontation was intense and engaging. It looks like this is a big turning point since Homelander is finally taking action against someone who has openly been defying him for a while now. But on top of the plot importance, this is just a well-acted and intense scene that had me at the edge of my seat. Character of the Episode: Butcher. Conclusion: A solid episode that progressed the story nicely and features some engaging twists and turns. I don't think this is quite strong enough of an episode to stand out on its own, but it's a good episode. Score: 66
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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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