Summary: Homelander learns that Soldier Boy is still alive and he refuses to reveal anything to the world. Black Noir cuts out his tracking chip and leaves. Hughie and Butcher speak with Soldier Boy and offer to take him to every member of Payback to kill them, in exchange he will kill Homelander. The next target is TNT who live in Vermont. Deep is sent to investigate and he finds out that they are hosting herogasm, a yearly orgy for supes. MM and Starlight want to help TNT and they also go to herogasm. Starlight sees Deep having sex with an octopus and takes a picture. A-Train arrives to confront Blue Hawk. Hughie, Butcher, and Soldier Boy arrive. Hughie comes in to find TNT and gets into an altercation with A-Train and Starlight finds him. Hughie takes Starlight and teleports her away when he sees Soldier Boy has come inside. MM tries to face off against him but Butcher stands in his way. Soldier Boy finds TNT and causes an enormous explosion after he hears Russian music. Homelander arrives to check it out and crushes Termite. Butcher and Soldier Boy fight Homelander and Hughie joins in. They almost manage to kill him, but Homelander flies away. Butcher and Hughie leave with Soldier Boy while Starlight and MM help the survivors. Starlight publicly announces Soldier Boy's return and that she is quitting The Seven. Kimiko is also picked up by Nina, who tells Frenchie to kill either her or Cherie, or everyone dies. Kimiko breaks free and kills everyone except Nina, who escapes.
The Good: I'm going to start with the centerpiece and undoubted highlight of this episode: the climactic action sequence between Homelander and the trio of Butcher, Soldier Boy, and Hughie. On a show that typically doesn't show too much action, this meant so much because it was a thrilling spectacle that finally saw Homelander get beaten up and overwhelmed for the first time in the whole series. There are no words to describe how good it feels to finally see the tides turn on Homelander, and Butcher's ecstatic grin while fighting him was everything that I have ever wanted to see. This action spectacle was fairly short, but it was extremely intense and had me at the edge of my seat. Captivating television that served as a perfect climax to this episode. The rest of the episode is spent building up to this showdown and it is executed fantastically. We get to see every story thread converge at this herogasm event, and this led to several great moments, interactions, and reveals. Starlight and Hughie's drama was pushed to the limit when they both arrive at herogasm for different reasons: Hughie plans to kill TNT while Starlight is trying to protect them. Their interactions at this time were great, and created the sense that something was going to happen. Also excellent is Hughie running into A-Train. A-Train is here for a completely unrelated reason (Blue Hawk), but this chance encounter allows for an immensely satisfying resolution to their conflict from back in season 1. A-Train has finally grown enough to see how the irresponsibility of supes can ruin lives and he gives a genuine apology to Hughie, but Hughie is in too much of a power rush recently to accept it and lashes out in pure anger, perfectly encapsulating how Hughie's character has descended into darkness throughout this season. It's a great moment. Another terrific encounter is MM seeing Soldier Boy. We finally learned why MM hates him so much (more on that in a bit) and this resulted in an encounter that is both emotional and intense. I absolutely loved this. Lastly, Deep finds himself at herogasm as well, and his nasty sexual attraction to sea creatures comes to the forefront in an awful encounter with Starlight. Starlight seeing Deep commit another disgusting act is a nasty moment, but unfortunately for Deep, Starlight is more than prepared to capitalize on it (see: The Unknown). Speaking of Starlight, she and MM have a fantastic episode. With The Boys splintered between three pairings, it's nice to see that a couple of them still care about the general public and doing the right thing. The two of them becoming the moral compass of the show was unexpected, but it's a compelling team-up, especially with the bond they developed back during the road trip in season 2. The highlight scene this time around comes from MM opening up about what happened with Soldier Boy in his past and the traumatic death of his grandfather. It's a harrowing story, but more importantly it establishes the difference between MM and Butcher since MM did not let his own morality get consumed by his desire for vengeance like Butcher did. Ultimately, Starlight and MM are not enough to stop the chaos and bloodshed, and by the end of the episode they have stumbled upon a massacre at herogasm. This is where I really was surprised as the two of them work to heal the victims and Starlight finally decides that enough is enough. In a choice three seasons in the making, Starlight finally officially quits The Seven and launches a game-changing video to openly out Homelander and Vought, setting us up for what should be a hectic and exhilarating end to the season. With all of the craziness that happened in this episode, I can't wait. We may have just seen the end of A-Train's story (see: The Unknown), and I'm really happy with how his character was handled. Having finally understood what it's like to be a victim, A-Train gets on his high horse and starts to fight for what's right. But Ashley puts him in his place and paints a perfect picture of how A-Train has propagated the system he is now trying to fight for years. A-Train is a terrible person that has done terrible things, and nobody can take his protests seriously because he has been complicit for so long; it's hypocritical for him to ever object about this stuff. We see A-Train take this remorse into his great apology to Hughie, but he also decides to risk it all for his new sense of justice. Having had enough of Blue Hawk, A-Train violently murders him in the most satisfying fashion, but it seems like he gave his own life to do so, completing the redemption arc of the character without anyone ever knowing about it. After all, A-Train doesn't really deserve to have a glorious redemption considering all that he did. Quietly doing the right thing and possibly giving up his life for it is an appropriate way to end the character's story. I greatly appreciate that even in the midst of all this drama, "The Boys" is still a hilarious show, and if anything it plays up the comedy to the maximum. We got our usual pop culture satire with more Brave Maeve branding, A-Train's silly new streaming show, and more. But on top of that, there are so many great jokes packed into the episode. Soldier Boy's confusion over Afghanistan being enemies now is extremely funny, and even funnier is Hughie's horrified reaction when he realizes that Soldier Boy was friends with Bill Cosby. MM's disgusting experience in Herogasm is disgustingly comedic (as is the very concept of Herogasm itself). Visuals like Love Sausage's... love sausage, Deep screwing an octopus, and so much more is incredibly funny. The episode goes far into black comedy as well, as it often does. I couldn't help but chuckle at Homelander crushing Termite under his feet when he arrived, Love Sausage running around frantically with his badly burned penis, and so many other moments. I feel like I don't comment enough on this show's outrageous sense of humour, but it has always been terrific and this episode is one of the best examples of it. The Bad: I still struggle to connect with Frenchie and Kimiko's story against Nina. Especially in this episode where far more exciting events were happening elsewhere, I felt myself getting annoyed whenever we cut away to the Nina storyline. It's a shame, because the show is exploring some great ideas with Kimiko and Frenchie this season. But their disconnect from the main narrative makes it all feel superfluous and uninteresting. Especially Nina, who is an uninteresting character who seems to have specifically been created to be a villain for Frenchie. But she doesn't compare favourably to other villains like Homelander, Edgar, Stillwell, Stormfront, and Soldier Boy. These characters are all tied in to the main narrative and have connections with each other, but Nina feels like a separate entity from a lesser TV show. Despite the scenes with her being well written, well acted, and action-packed, I find myself being completely disinterested in them and eager to return to the other storylines. The Unknown: Neuman's offer to Starlight was interesting. Will this lead somewhere? Will Neuman reach out again now that Starlight has left The Seven? What consequences will befall Starlight for turning on Vought? Will she be vilified by the media? Or will the general population stand by her? How will Homelander handle his name being trampled on by her? That, alongside his humiliation in this episode will certainly have him behave especially temperamentally. Did A-Train die out in the country? Is there any way he could be saved? Is Starlight going to post the picture she took of Deep? Will this result in him being kicked out of The Seven again? Where did Black Noir go? Why did he take out his chip? What is he doing? Where did Nina go? Will we see her again? Best Moment: Soldier Boy, Butcher, and Hughie taking on Homelander. Words can't describe how cathartic this felt after multiple seasons of watching Homelander be virtually untouchable. The show's overall restraint on supe vs supe action made this rare action sequence feel so much more intense and special, and I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. Fantastic, engrossing television. Character of the Episode: Starlight. Conclusion: A wild rollercoaster of an episode that feels like a proper gamechanger. This episode had everything that I've come to enjoy about "The Boys" and it is easily the highlight episode of the entire series so far. Season 3 continues to be immensely satisfying. Score: 77
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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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