Summary: Hughie, Butcher and Soldier Boy go after Mindstorm. Mindstorm puts Butcher into a nightmare and Soldier Boy leaves him for dead. Hughie doesn't agree with this and uses his teleportation to get Mindstorm to save Butcher. Soldier Boy catches up with them and kills Mindstorm, but learns something shocking. Vought is trying to discredit Starlight. Kimiko asks Starlight to get Compound V for her. She explains her reasoning to her and Frenchie - she wants to be able to protect. Starlight goes into Vought and runs into Homelander. She tricks him into revealing the truth on a live stream. Starlight learns that V24 is lethal after 3-5 doses and informs Butcher. However, Butcher refuses to tell Hughie. Starlight realizes this and is determined to tell him. Kimiko takes Compound V and regains her powers. Soldier Boy calls Homelander and reveals that Homelander is his son. MM returns to his family angry when he realizes that Todd took his daughter to a Homelander rally despite the danger. After Todd insults him, MM knocks him out. Black Noir experiences memories of the past. He was the one who made a deal with Edgar to get rid of Soldier Boy, and it was Soldier Boy who wounded him so badly when he fought back. A-Train wakes up, having been saved via a heart transplant from Blue Hawk. Deep tries to involve an octopus in his sex life with Cassandra, so she leaves him in disgust. A-Train has survived after getting transplanted with Blue Hawk's heart.
The Good: Hughie and Butcher stole the show once more by having some fantastic storylines in this episode. The last few episodes have seen both characters take dark turns by becoming uninhibited in their desire to take out Homelander. They want to do the right thing, but they are losing their humanity in the process. This episode explores the consequences of their decisions, and once they are separated and unable to bring out the worst in each other, we begin to see shreds of their humanity returning. Hughie is horrified by how Soldier Boy can kill and leave people for dead on a whim, and in seeing how he acts, Hughie is unable to align himself with him in good conscience. If it wasn't for Soldier Boy showing up to kill Mindstorm when he did, I'm sure that Hughie would have actively tried to use Mindstorm to kill Soldier Boy, a welcome return for the moral compass that we lost. Meanwhile Butcher is caught in his own nightmare by Mindstorm, which serves as a brilliant way to explore his traumatic past. Butcher actively watching his younger self with Lenny in the past is a great way to show us how much regret he holds for his previous actions, and how much the baggage of Lenny's death still affects him. It's clear that this is where Butcher's humanity lies, and him re-experiencing Lenny's death in his own imagination is clearly a parallel for him driving Hughie to his death. Watching both Hughie and Butcher's humanity re-emerge at the same time through different situations was fascinating and compelling, a continuation of how well "The Boys" develops its characters in interesting ways in every episode. But "The Boys" had one more twist in store for us involving Hughie and Butcher in the second half. Despite all this development that suggests they will go back on their deal with Soldier Boy, they still ultimately double down and commit to bringing down Homelander. It's so tragic since we can see that they still have their humanity, but they choose to set it aside to accomplish their goals. The biggest and worst case of this comes when Starlight contacts Butcher with the shocking new information that V24 can kill (see: The Unknown). But Butcher reveals the extent of the darkness within his heart as he doesn't tell Hughie about the V24, opting to still give him more and drive him to his death to complete the mission. It's dark, sad, and depressing stuff, and an unexpected conclusion to this story that works really well. Homelander remains a fantastic character even when he isn't a primary focus. He's both hilarious and unhinged throughout the episode as always. The scene with Maeve is quite good as we finally get to catch up with her, and it's immensely satisfying to see Maeve say whatever she wants to his face now that he has apprehended her. The confrontation with Starlight later in the episode is even better, especially with how she outsmarts him effortlessly. Homelander's sheer discomfort when he realizes that she recorded him is hysterical, helped by Antony Starr's tremendous facial expressions. Then we have Homelander's scene with Neuman, which starts off fantastically with him being a creep and drinking milk fresh from a cow. The scene becomes an interesting power grab when Neuman makes her move, and while we don't have answers on what they agreed on yet, I'm intrigued to see where this uneasy alliance takes both characters. To conclude Homelander's role in this episode, we get a big reveal when we confirm that Homelander is Soldier Boy's son. This isn't a particularly surprising reveal, but it shakes up the dynamic between these two characters. I'm looking forward to how they interact in the season finale to see how their relationship changes. MM's story was quite heartbreaking. Despite his continuous best efforts to prioritize his family, he always gets put in a position where his hatred for supes is creating a wedge between him and his daughter. His anger with Todd in this episode felt justified, and he was reasonable to want to take care of her. But of course Todd does not share MM's views, and an out of line comment leads to MM once again breaking his own moral code when he knocks Todd out right in front of his daughter. It's so tragic because we have seen how MM thinks and we know how much he cares and genuinely tries. But it feels like the man is cursed to always get involved in situations that bring out the worst in him. I found Kimiko's story to be the most compelling. Her desire to get Compound V again is devastating considering how she felt so cursed to have these powers before and they brought her such misery. But because she is too mixed up in this world, she feels like she needs to become powerful again so that she can contribute something and help those she loves. Even though the Compound V brings Kimiko such pain, it gives her one very important thing, and that thing is enough for her to get on it once again. It's a very tragic and well-written story that brings so much more depth to Kimiko, who has had some fantastic development throughout season 3 thus far. I also quite like the irony of everyone accepting Kimiko's request but condemning Hughie and Butcher, showcasing that the problem is not in people having powers, but in the motivation behind having powers. Kimiko wants to use her powers to protect, while Butcher and Hughie use their powers for vengeance. The Bad: While I liked finally learning about Black Noir's past, I can't help but be disappointed by how it was executed. The cartoons are a unique way to explore a character who is unable to speak, but then they devolve into simply being flashbacks from the past. Considering this, I would have much preferred to have seen actual flashbacks with actors to better convey the emotional impact and horror of what went down between Black Noir and Soldier Boy. The cartoons take away a lot of the emotional impact and horror, and I feel like they were a less compelling option than live action scenes. I'm usually all for animation, but I feel like the animation was out of place and less effective in this specific instance. Deep wanting to involve Cassandra in a threesome with an octopus is bafflingly stupid. I'm sure even someone as incompetent as him would realize how utterly disgusting this would feel to people who are unable to communicate with sea creatures like he does. Watching him push Cassandra away like this was quite dumb, and if this is the end of her character then I'm massively disappointed by how this storyline ended. The Unknown: How will the public continue to react to Starlight's revelations and Vought's lies? Which side will be backed most? Did Cassandra leave Deep for good? Will he come to regret this? Why did he feel the need to do this threesome with an octopus anyways? What was Neuman's offer for Homelander? Will he accept? Will Starlight's video of Homelander's confession make a major impression on the public? What will happen between MM and his family? How will his daughter handle the sight of MM knocking Todd out? Is Butcher going to continue to take V24 with Hughie? Will either of them die after taking too many doses? Is Butcher ever going to tell him that it's going to kill him? Will Starlight be able to contact Hughie about this? Will this knowledge stop Hughie? Best Moment: One of the more emotionally brutal scenes of the entire show has to be Butcher witnessing his brother's imagined suicide under Mindstorm's slumber. "The Boys" has done a great job of delving into Butcher's complexities, turning him into an excellent tragic character. Character of the Episode: Kimiko. Conclusion: Another very strong episode with a lot of high quality storytelling. There are a few weaknesses this time around, but I still enjoyed the vast majority of the stories being told. Bring on the season finale! 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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