Summary: Homelander comes to see Ryan after getting his location from Neuman, and the two of them reconcile. Homelander takes him away. Butcher knocks Hughie out in a gas station and leaves him behind. Starlight comes to pick him up and tells him the V24 is fatal. Hughie apologizes to her. Maeve is moved in a truck since people are coming to search the Vought building, but she is able to escape. She contacts Starlight and they meet up. Soldier Boy and Butcher head to Vought tower, while everyone else chases after them. Black Noir arrives to help Homelander fight, but Homelander kills him, furious that he kept Soldier Boy a secret from him. Deep kills a senator to allow Neuman to become Vice President. The Boys confront Butcher and Soldier Boy but Maeve betrays them and joins the two to kill Homelander. The others are locked away, delayed for several minutes. Butcher, Soldier Boy, and Maeve confront Homelander and find Ryan there. Soldier Boy goes for the kill but Butcher can't allow risking Ryan's life and stops him. Homelander fights Maeve while Butcher fights Soldier Boy. Everyone else arrives and a huge fight breaks out. Frenchie goes to a Vought lab to create Novichok with Kimiko's help. He gives the drug to Kimiko who takes it to Soldier Boy. However, Soldier Boy stays awake and is about to detonate, but Maeve knocks him out of the building and he blows up in mid-air. Maeve is presumed dead, but she survives and goes into hiding with help from The Boys. Homelander arrives at a rally and publicly introduces Ryan as his son. A Starlight supporter throws something at Ryan and Homelander kills him to silence which ends up becoming applause.
The Good: Ryan's return so late in the season is a great twist, and it gives this finale a real sense of importance, even after we got so much action and suspense in the last few episodes. Ryan growing to appreciate Homelander is unexpected, but it makes perfect sense for the story. Ryan is upset and angry with Butcher for abandoning him and blaming him for killing Becca, a tragic accident that he will obviously be haunted by forever. So when Homelander shows dedication to Ryan by tracking him down and forgiving him for what happened with Becca, it is everything that Ryan could have ever wanted. It's no wonder that Ryan decides to go with Homelander, and after all that he suffered after the events of season 2, Ryan is strong enough to survive in the real world this time. The kid actor who plays Ryan nailed a pretty challenging role in this episode, and it sold me on Ryan's slow transformation into another scary presence, and that final scene was genuinely chilling (see: Best Moment). Outside of that, much of the episode is spent with The Boys as they prepare for a climactic confrontation between Soldier Boy and Homelander. The character dynamics are quite fun to watch. Butcher once again shows us a rare glimpse of his morality as he tricks Hughie into staying behind to protect him from killing himself with the V24; Butcher is willing to lay his life on the line, but he refuses to let Hughie throw his life away like Lenny did. Meanwhile, Starlight and Hughie are finally able to make up after all of their problems in this season. I have my issues with this (see: The Bad), but the interactions between them were well written, well acted, and it was a sensible way to conclude their story for the season. With Butcher and Soldier Boy heading after Homelander, and Starlight and The Boys trying to stop him, the pieces were effectively moved into place for an engaging climax. But a wrench was thrown into the plans with Maeve, who was an excellent wild card in this episode. Initially Maeve agreed to help Starlight, but her motives became clear when she aligned with Butcher (which is consistent since they both share a hatred for Homelander and came together a few episodes ago because of that). The twist caught me off guard, but it works very well. Maeve doesn't think she is a hero and is more of a vengeful beast like Butcher. This made for an exhilarating action sequence at the episode's climax as Maeve took on Homelander in a very personal fight. But of course, Maeve proves to be more heroic than even she expected as she sacrifices herself to stop Soldier Boy in the end. Dialing back to the big action climax, I thought the whole sequence was excellent. Homelander's confrontation with Soldier Boy was excellent (more on that in a bit), and the ensuing fights breaking out was intense and well choreographed. The Boys all heading to the confrontation added an extra level of suspense, making for a climactic sequence that had me at the edge of my seat. It felt like anything could happen, and I was taken on an engaging thrill ride with all the action. There were some nice moments within the climax as well. I enjoyed Starlight getting a moment to shine (pun not intended) as she took on Soldier Boy, and Maeve's big sacrifice to stop Soldier Boy was dramatically satisfying as well. I also liked Butcher standing up to Soldier Boy to protect Ryan, an act that will not help him win Ryan over, but an act that demonstrates Butcher's softer side and ability to do what's right when it matters most. As always, Homelander is a highlight of the episode. One of the best scenes had to be his confrontation with Soldier Boy. We have known of Homelander's daddy issues since the very start, so it was powerful to see him finally meet someone who he thinks will recognize him and praise him like a parent should. But of course Soldier Boy is a textbook awful old-school father, and he squanders the moment by insulting Homelander's personal growth, saying he would have been better if he was raised by Soldier Boy. I love that both characters are similarly self-absorbed, which leads to them never having even the slightest chance of connecting in a meaningful way; of course they were going to piss each other off, their egos are far too big for them to ever cooperate. I enjoyed Frenchie and Kimiko's relationship this season, so I was invested in their side mission. Kimiko's "maniac" sequence was very well made and entertaining to watch, a great way to celebrate the character getting her powers back. I've come to enjoy Kimiko a lot more this season, and I think that she is one of the best written characters of the season. I also love how Frenchie and Kimiko's relationship has grown. This episode's funniest scene came from Frenchie aggressively slandering Butcher while Kimiko silently expressed such pride in his rant. Much like seasons 1 and 2, I appreciate how conclusive these season finales are. Soldier Boy's story was suitably resolved, as was Maeve's, and the pressing conflict resolved cleanly to set up for a fourth season that looks like it will delve into a completely different storyline. The V24 changed the series ina big way this season as the threat of supes was nullified since Butcher and Hughie could fight back easily. But with the V24 being lethal, it's no longer a feasible option and The Boys will have to readjust to having limited options to fight back again. I really love this development as it reinstates the tension and fear of supes that made the first two seasons so engaging. This is an effective reset for season 4, and with Butcher's death seemingly impending, it gives some urgency for The Boys to take down Homelander before it's too late. As a result of these developments, this episode is a very good ending point for the story, and it leaves me excited to see what happens next. The Bad: Black Noir's death is the one part of this finale that I thought was actually bad and disappointing. We spent all season learning more about him and his backstory, and it felt like we were building up to some compelling stuff from him as he returns to face Soldier Boy. But then Homelander just kills him in a scene that feels like such an empty surprise moment. Seeing how mysterious Black Noir was in the first two seasons, and how interesting his backstory was, I'm massively disappointed that the character was killed off like this without providing any memorable emotional moments or story beats. The character deserved a lot more than what we ended up getting. There are several cases of spectacle overpowering logical storytelling, which hurt the episode a lot. I'll list off a few here, but there were several more. Maeve somehow surviving the fall from Vought tower is ridiculous since she would have immediately lost her powers from Soldier Boy's attack. The show doesn't even attempt to explain her survival, which is frustrating. Kimiko's "maniac" sequence is great, but it is so out of character for her to enjoy killing in the way she does. We know that she has her powers to protect Frenchie, and yet she gets so lost in the violence that she lets Frenchie get shot. It all feels quite contrived. Speaking of contrived, Frenchie just being able to make Novichok is a step too far for me, this should not be so easy for him to do. I'm also confused with Frenchie surviving since he was left alone and injured in the lab, and yet he somehow makes it out. Maeve should never be able to hold up in a 1 on 1 fight with Homelander. She performs far better than she ever should have, and it removed a lot of tension from the climax when it became clear that the writers would always find a convenient solution to get the characters out of trouble. Lastly, I found it forced that Butcher would directly fight Soldier Boy the way he did. Yes, he does need to protect Ryan, but I feel like the extent that the two of them fought with each other was completely unnecessary, and the situation escalated in an unrealistic way that was inconsistent with the motivations of both characters. I've seen a lot of people criticize this finale for being anticlimactic and simply resetting things to how they were at the start of the season. While I think that this is almost entirely unfounded considering how much has changed and how much emotional catharsis we had in this season, there are a few aspects of storylines resetting that disappointed me. The biggest has to be Hughie and Starlight making up. They were slow drifting apart all season, but now we see them get reset to being the same as ever in the blink of an eye, which is very underwhelming. Considering that they are the main characters and their relationship is at the centre of the show, I feel like they needed to have a lot more going on in this season. Their story was easily one of the show's weakest aspects. The Unknown: Is Ryan going to get corrupted now? How will he handle his new publicity? Will his relationship with Homelander lead to him becoming a terrible person just like him? So Butcher will be dead in under 12 months. What will he do with the time he has left? It makes sense that there is no happy ending for someone like him, so the big question will be how he dies. How will Butcher die? Will MM be able to keep a good relationship with Janine and his family, or will the evolving political landscape and Todd's fanaticism for Homelander create a rift? It's hilarious to see Deep screw himself over by separating from Cassandra. Will he be able to recover from the damage she did to his reputation? What's next for him now? Will Soldier Boy return in future seasons? He's been sent back to Russia, but I imagine he'll likely be broken out again at some point. How about Maeve? Will we see her again in the future? All she will need to do is take some Compound V to come back.. Ashley and Anika decided to help Maeve and not report her survival. Does this mean that they will eventually act out against Homelander in the future? Are they questioning their loyalties? What will Neuman do with her new position? How will her rise to power affect the dynamic of the show? Will The Boys be able to bring her down? Will they have a plan for her? Best Moment: That final scene is absolutely chilling. Its been three seasons of waiting for the public to find out who Homelander really is, and we finally get that moment here when he snaps and kills someone in public. And in an incredible moment of irony, the moment goes off not to screams and terror, but to cheers and applause. It's a horrifying moment, and Homelander's slow smile as he realizes that the people will celebrate him no matter what he does is genuinely terrifying. An uninhibited Homelander is the one thing worse than what we have right now, and that's what is about to happen. Perhaps even more terrifying is Ryan's slight smile as the episode's final shot, letting us know that Ryan's trauma, Homelander's tutelage, and Butcher abandoning him is almost certainly going to turn him into yet another despicable monster with superpowers. Character of the Episode: Homelander. Conclusion: While this wasn't quite a slam-dunk finale like the ones in seasons 1 and 2, I thought that is was an action-packed, exciting, and revelatory end to the season that changes the status quo and sets us up for an interesting fourth season that will almost certainly take us in a completely new direction. Season 3 was a great season overall, right up there with season 1 as the best in this show. There was remarkable consistency, a standout episode in "Herogasm", and some great developments that propel the show in an interesting new direction for season 4. I thought that the Soldier Boy story was set up brilliantly, and it led up to some fantastic confrontations and action sequences as Soldier Boy went up against Homelander. Other aspects of this season like the V24 were also brilliant, giving the heroes a chance to fight back, but at a great cost in the end. Characters like Kimiko, Maeve, and Homelander were handled very well and I continue to enjoy the dynamics at play in this show. There were some flaws throughout the season as it was far from perfect, but overall I feel very positive about what I watched because of how consistent and entertaining it was while developing characters and pushing the story forwards. This isn't an all-time great TV season by any means, but it's an easy to watch and enjoy season that makes "The Boys" a stronger show overall. If this is the type of quality that "The Boys" can maintain until it finishes, I will be very satisfied. Score: 68
0 Comments
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 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 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 Summary: Butcher makes a deal with Nina to spare Cherie and The Boys head to Russia to find something about BCL Red. Hughie finds out Butcher has been taking Compound V and wants some, but Butcher refuses. Butcher takes some as a contingency. Kimiko is forced to do a hit for Nina, and after it's done she expresses to Frenchie that she wants to leave and he agrees. The Boys check out the lab and are attacked. Butcher fights them off with his powers and Hughie reveals he injected some Compound V as well. They open a tank and find Soldier Boy, who has been modified. He deals a life-threatening injury to Kimiko before leaving. Edgar asks Neuman to speak against Homelander in public, but she betrays him instead. Homelander takes control of Vought, but Edgar still has the final word with him on the way out. Homelander gives Compound V to Neuman as payment, and she injects her daughter Zoe with it. Starlight is uncomfortable with her new role but grits her teeth through it. She tells Supersonic about the plan to kill Homelander. A-Train tries to bring up Blue Hawk but is shut down by Homelander and Deep. A-Train fights with Deep afterwards, angry that he sided with Homelander. Supersonic sees this and tells A-Train about the plan to kill Homelander. A-Train tells Homelander and Homelander kills him, showing Starlight the body and threatening her to comply and give up on any resistance against him.
The Good: This was an eventful episode, which is what I've come to expect from "The Boys". It's always enjoyable to follow the twists and turns that happen in the middle of the season, and this episode had plenty of good ones. While I personally prefer character-centric episodes, a plot-centric episode that features a lot of excitement is still something I enjoy. Look at how I enjoyed episodes like "Over the Hill with the Swords of a Thousand Men" and "The Bloody Doors Off" in season 2. This episode feels like it is in a similar vein as those two with fewer storylines to cut between, tons of exciting action, and some exhilarating twists and turns. The Russian storyline is the centrepiece of the episode and it is consistently entertaining. At the emotional heart of the story, we have Hughie and Butcher's debate regarding taking the V24. Butcher continues to take it, but he understands that it is doing awful things to him and wants to spare HUghie from using it. But Hughie is going through a dangerous character arc right now. He has grown increasingly frustrated and jaded, so his own desire to get some power to fight with is superceding every other aspect of his character. So of course he injects V24 and revels in the rush of his newfound powers to the point of alienating himself from everyone else on the team. It's sad stuff. The episode built up to its climax in the lab when Butcher and Hughie use their powers, and everyone's reactions make it clear that this feels like a betrayal. It's crushingly sad to see how this added power has created such a rift within The Boys, and MM sadly remarking that they are no longer a team that he can hold together is very sad. Kimiko has been getting some focus this season and she deserves it. I just hope that she survives this ordeal so we can get more from her. She and Frenchie have gradually become disillusion with Butcher and everyone around them. It quickly becomes apparent that the only way for them to achieve the freedom that they have desired for so long is to leave everything else behind and live together peacefully. Kimiko being forced to do a hit for Butcher is what opens their eyes to the reality that they will never be able to live a life that they are happy with if they stay with The Boys; it will always be a case where they are forced to do awful things that they don't want to do, perpetuating the cycle that creates broken people like them. By leaving The Boys, these two would finally be able to find their inner peace and their happy ending. But as it always happens in TV shows, when characters find their inner peace there is always something bad coming their way. Kimiko's life is in serious danger after the encounter with Soldier Boy and we don't know if she's going to survive long enough to have this happy ending with Frenchie. It's sad, but this is a show that specializes in showing the horrors of this superhero-ridden world, so I never expected to see a happy ending with these two. Also, Kimiko killing someone with dildos made me chuckle. Homelander had a huge episode. After being second to Edgar for a long time, we finally see Homelander make his move and unseat the big fish definitively. Considering how Edgar's plan was coming along perfectly, I didn't see this coming at all and it caught me completely off guard to see Neuman betray him and side with Homelander. Of course, Edgar was not a supe and sooner or later he was going to find himself in trouble, but I did not expect it to happen so suddenly, and this was a great twist to start the episode. But in a fantastic moment, Edgar does not go down as passively as you would expect. As Homelander arrives to gloat, Edgar refuses to give him any satisfaction and takes pleasure in his early retirement, continuing to disrespect Homelander and acknowledging that it's only a matter of time before he will come to regret his actions. This was another fantastic scene between two fascinating characters that felt like Edgar leaving behind a curse that will haunt Homelander for however long he will maintain control of Vought. Starlight's naivety continues to be her undoing. We can see that she's getting better at playing the game and utilizing her power to her advantage; just look at how she has stood up to Homelander in recent episodes. Plus, she has the wherewithal to play music to disrupt his super-hearing, which is an excellent idea. But she is still naive, and that shows when she tells her plan to kill Homelander to Supersonic, somebody who does not understand exactly what kind of situation he is in. Supersonic believes that the members of The Seven are all heroes, when in reality they will not hesitate to sacrifice integrity to further their own desires. So as expected, Supersonic tells the secret plan to someone he shouldn't, and the result is a terrifying moment that ends up being the best scene of the episode (see: Best Moment). Deep and A-Train continue to be thoroughly entertaining as side characters. It felt like A-Train was turning a corner by focusing on Blue Hawk and trying to bring some love to the black community, something he really should have been doing this whole time. But of course, all it takes is the opportunity for him to get back in Homelander's good graces to immediately give up his newfound integrity and continue to be an awful person in a position of power. But you still can't help but feel bad for him. He was the one who took all the risks for Homelander to help with his supervillain plan, to the point of murdering his own girlfriend; he did all this just to watch Homelander side with Deep over him. It's brutal trying to retain power within The Seven. Speaking of Deep, he has become a hilarious beta male in between seasons. He's just a puppet to his wife's whim, and it's amusing to see him speak up against A-Train just because Cassandra understands how to play this game better than he does. Everyone's surprise at Deep actually making a good point is really funny, and this move set up a fantastic argument scene between Deep and A-Train which was written and filmed beautifully to feel venomous and personal. Great stuff. I appreciate the attention to detail with the Russian graffiti. There were a lot of clever creations on the buildings involving The Seven. The Bad: Nothing outright bad. This episode is action-packed and eventful but it is lacking in the emotion that made the last two episodes so good. As such, this episode is not on a higher level than those episodes like it aspired to be. This is just another consistent episode in what has been a consistent season that is yet to taste greatness. The Unknown: How will Homelander do as the new leader at Vought? How long will it take for him to run himself and the company into the ground? It's a matter of when, not if. Will Neuman be able to help him run the company? Or will his pride not allow for help from a woman who he believes is inferior? How much does Homelander know about Starlight's plan? Does he know that Maeve is involved? What else will he do to her to keep her in line? Will this mess everything up? Will Kimiko survive her injuries? Can she and Frenchie make it out like they want to? Will Zoe be able to handle the Compound V? She's too old to be getting injections right now. What happened to Soldier Boy? How did he end up in Russia? What happened in Nicaragua that led to this? Is there even a BCL Red since he is still alive? What new powers does he have? How was he able to cancel out Kimiko's regeneration? How will Homelander cover up Supersonic's death? Is A-Train back in his good books after telling him about Starlight's plan? Best Moment: Homelander showing Supersonic to Starlight was a terrifying moment. It goes from an unwanted joyride from a villain who can't afford to harm her into something much darker in the blink of an eye. Showing us Supersonic's mangled body was a major shock, and Homelander comes off an intimidating and terrifying with how he conducted himself while Starlight revels in her grief and guilt over what happened to him. This is exactly what makes Homelander such a great villain: his complete lack of empathy and humanity in situations like these coupled with his fake charming demeanour. Antony Starr and Erin Moriarty kill it, and you can't help but feel like Starlight is trapped in a cage of her own making with no way out at all. This is pure despair, written perfectly into the story. Character of the Episode: Homelander. Conclusion: This was an eventful episode with several twists and turns, and some intense moments. Season 3 has been very consistent in its storytelling, and while it hasn't hit that next level just yet, we've had very good stuff throughout these first four episodes. Hopefully the season's second half can deliver a stellar climax. Score: 69 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 Summary: It is Homelander's birthday and he tries to get Starlight to sing Happy Birthday for him but she refuses and Edgar maintains that she will not. Homelander goes to save a girl about to commit suicide for PR, but when he sees news of Stormfront's suicide, he forces the hesitant girl to kill herself anyways. Later at his birthday special, a fan shouts at him about Stormfront's death and Homelander unleashes a speech, finally revealing his true nature to the public. Hughie and Starlight start to track Neuman's history. Hughie is frustrated and goes on his own to explore Red River, an orphanage for supe children. He discovers that Neuman was picked up by Edgar and raised like his daughter. Kimiko and Frenchie confront Crimson Countess to get information on Soldier Boy, but she gets away and accidentally kills someone in an amusement park, which upsets Kimiko who mourns her lost childhood. Butcher goes to blackmail Gunpowder, but he refuses to comply and tries to kill him. Butcher gets away and contemplates getting out of the business. But when Hughie shares what he learned about Neuman, Butcher decides to use a vial of V24 and confronts Gunpowder again. He defeats him, gets the information he needed, and kills him. MM struggles with his compulsions at home and talks to Monique about it. Monique understands and tells him to go back to Butcher. A-Train debuts a new look, trying to tap into his African background.
The Good: There are tons of great character storylines in this episode and I enjoyed them all thoroughly. The standout, as usual, was Homelander. He starts off the episode at his petty worst. It's his birthday and he is awful to everyone as he chases the high of the day being all about him. He is awful and unapologetic towards Stormfront, and his petty attempt to maintain control over Starlight is laughably childish and poorly thought out. It's a delight when Edgar admonishes him yet again, like a parent lecturing their kid when they did something stupid. Homelander's delight quickly turns to agony after another humiliation and then the news comes in that Stormfront committed suicide. Seeing him react when he's supposed to save Chelsea's life is shocking and frightening. The way he forces her to do it when she started to hesitate is horrific, and it's another perfectly acted scene from Antony Starr, who captivates in every moment. Watching Homelander push this girl to her death is horrific and sad (as is his blatant anti-semitism, which isn't at all surprising by this point). The culmination of all of this is reached at his birthday special when he snaps. Losing his love, being verbally abused by a crowd of nobodies, and being overshadowed by Starlight pushes him well over the edge and we finally get the moment we've been waiting for: Homelander snaps. Gone is his public image after this because he finally lets out all of his frustrations over being a superior being yet being forced to play these games by people who he views as nobodies, people who can't even hold a candle to him. His speech is written spectacularly and acted even better. On the other side, Butcher goes through another highly compelling arc. The V24 has him highly conflicted because he feels a need to use it to get vengeance on the supes, but is torn because of his commitment to Ryan and he's afraid that becoming a supe, even temporarily, would endanger Ryan and make him a bad influence. A fairly snappy call with Ryan shows us that Butcher is already getting badly affected, and after he takes the time to watch Ryan's Lego stop-motion featuring Becca, Butcher looks like he has made the mature decision for once. He is willing to give it all up to take care of Ryan. But tragically, it's Hughie of all people, his canary, who drags him back into this mess with the Neuman reveal. Despite being so close to a peaceful escape, Butcher finds himself killing a supe with nearly uncontrollable power by the episode's end. I love that this episode is successfully able to paint this all as tragic, and it's another excellent chapter in the development of Butcher. The third main storyline is Hughie and Starlight trying to learn more about Neuman. We still get more of the annoying love triangle stuff, but it takes a back seat to more interesting things. Hughie is taking the reveal that Neuman is evil very badly. He is a mess throughout the episode, he's impulsive, angry, desperate, and emotionally unhinged. It all builds to a terrific scene where Hughie unburdens his emotions on Starlight, which brought his character arc into focus perfectly. On top of this, I continue to enjoy watching Starlight and Hughie become more competent at lying and being sneaky. Hughie's improvisations at Red River are great to watch, especially with how comedically awkward he is while lying. Luckily for him, he's awkward in general so it comes off naturally. The highlight of course is Hughie and Starlight's fake argument in front of Neuman to get her to stop probing, which was both incredibly smart and incredibly funny. I also got a chuckle out of Hughie telling Starlight that he signed them up for adoption (also, it was nice to see Maddy's orphan Teddy in Red River; of course she injected him with Compound V). There are several other character stories that I greatly enjoyed. Kimiko got more focus here than I think she has ever received. It was cute to see how happy she was at the amusement park, and seeing the joy ripped out of her when she sees more kids get traumatized is gut-wrenching. The idea of a lost childhood that you can never get back is heartbreaking and appeals to everyone. It also humanizes Kimiko more by showing us that she doesn't want others to suffer like she did. A-Train has a funny little story here as he tries to reach into his cultural background (despite almost certainly being born in America) to rebrand. His ideas are hilariously bad, and Ashley's reactions (and the amusingly named Other Ashley's reactions) are great. Lastly, I really enjoyed MM's story. He's trying so hard to be there for his family, but without Monique to anchor him, it's all too much for him to handle and he finds himself succumbing to his OCD and his need to continue his father's work. MM opening up to Monique about his struggles is genuinely heartbreaking, and it necessitates him making the decision to go back to The Boys despite the fact that he so desperately wants to be with his family. Even though we should be celebrating MM returning to The Boys, his story is tragic and emotional because of how much depth that the show has given to MM. He's quickly become one of the more enjoyable characters, and I would love to see more stuff like this. Deep continues to be really funny whenever he's on screen. His brief commercial at the start of the episode was quite funny, and I would pay good money to watch his new movie/TV show. I love this show's commitment to the "Brave Maeve" branding. Poor Maeve got outed against her will and now has inclusivity branding all over the place. Having her own inclusive theme park was hilarious, and the stall names including "BLM BLTs", "Woke Wok", and "LBGTurkey Legs" are fantastic. The Bad: I loved the stories in this episode, but there were too many going on at once. This made it tough to invest in the episode in the way that the best episodes of TV can get you to. If the episode had been more streamlined I certainly would have enjoyed it more. As it stands, this is a little bit too much for an hour of content, and that diminishes the impact of some of these great storylines. Crimson Countess killing a random civilian in the middle of a theme park was a shockingly stupid decision. With how public it was, it's next to impossible for Vought to cover it up and I'm baffled by her decision to commit murder instead of just running away. Furthermore, why didn't Kimiko and Frenchie even try to keep up with her? This continues the pattern of slightly subpar writing when it comes to setpieces which started in season two. The sloppiness continued later with Butcher's escape from Gunpowder feeling a bit too convenient for my liking. Gunpowder should be practically invincible, he shouldn't face much risk from openly going after Butcher before he gets away. Hughie's emotional arc in this episode relies on us understanding how close he was with Neuman. But since they have only known each other for one episode before he was given the revelation about her, I didn't realize how close they were until he told Starlight that they were basically best friends. This is the problem with having long timeskips between seasons, sometimes it damages the emotional stakes because we don't get to experience what the characters experience. I found it tough to buy into Hughie's deteriorating mental state in this episode because I was unable to understand that he was very bothered by the Neuman reveal since it never felt like they were that close. The Unknown: Is Soldier Boy actually dead? Does Crimson Coutness know more than Gunpowder? What did Gunpowder mean about his death being a cover-up? Did Soldier Boy die in a different way? Why was it covered up? Why was Mallory involved? Why hasn't she said anything about this? Will Butcher go after her? What is the extent of Edgar and Neuman's relationship? Can one be used against the other? I greatly enjoyed their scenes as it brings more depth to both of these main villains, making them feel more human. I'm curious to see more of their dynamic. Was Homelander really immaculately conceived? Will Hughie and Starlight actually end up with a kid after Hughie signed them up for adoption? How will the public react to Homelander's speech? How will Vought handle this? Best Moment: Homelander's speech at the end is a huge moment, and it feels like a long-time coming. Finally, the world is going to see Homelander for who he really is and this will likely turn everything upside down. It felt like an Earth-shattering moment, and it was helped by Antony Starr's terrific, vitriolic performance as he highlighted the extent of Homelander's narcissism. A fantastic scene. Character of the Episode: Butcher. Conclusion: As a fan of character-centric storytelling, I loved how this episode gave compelling conflicts to almost every central character, allowing us to dive deeper into who they are. Unfortunately there were a few too many storylines going on, but this was still great stuff. Score: 68 Summary: Hughie has a good working relationship with Neuman but is weirded out when a man named Tony keeps calling her Nadia and trying to speak with her. The Boys work for Neuman now and they try to crack down on Termite. They capture him guilty, but Neuman cuts a deal to let him go. Butcher is angry, and lets it out on Hughie. Hughie sees Tony following Neuman again and he follows. He sees Tony attack Neuman and get killed by her. Dawn of the Seven airs with Stormfront as the villain. Homelander's stock has gone down and he does damage control PR stating he was unaware of Stormfront's beliefs. He gets angry with both Deep and A-Train. He meets with Stormfront but refuses to adhere to her beliefs, wanting only what's best for himself. Maeve meets with Butcher about Homelander and gives him some V24, a new temporary Compound V that Edgar has developed. She also gives him a file about Soldier Boy. Butcher and Homelander have a conversation about their future and their desires. MM is living his new family life, but Monique has moved on and is with someone else. As a result, MM continues to do his work against supes on the side.
The Good: This episode is mostly about catching up with all of the main characters, but it still does a good job of being entertaining and progressing the story. Hughie's new job seems to be going well for him mentally, but you can tell that it has caused a divide with The Boys. They all like him well enough, but he feels like an outsider through all the work that they do. He's not one of them anymore, he's a government official, and this especially rubs Butcher the wrong way. But credit to Butcher, he appears to be turning a new leaf. The old Butcher would have been far more abusive, violent, and manipulative towards Hughie, but now we see that he has much more patience, and his profanity towards Hughie has become almost endearing instead of hostile. It's nice to see Butcher finally developing after what he went through last season. I was thoroughly surprised to see that he genuinely cares for Ryan and spends time with him, and this has evidently softened him up a lot. But Butcher still has that fire within him when it comes to supes. He is softer when interacting with others, and he no longer feels the need to murder supes at every turn, but he will still do anything and everything to bring them down. The group effort to capture Termite is tremendously entertaining with a lot of creative action (Termite trying to crawl up Frenchie's ass and being pulled out by Kimiko is remarkably funny). There is one moment in there that has scarred me (see: The Bad), but overall I enjoyed this stuff. Then we get to Homelander. Homelander is in a bad place right now with his stock rapidly falling after the Stormfront Nazi connections came to light. We know from previous seasons that Homelander is nothing if he doesn't have constant approval and if he isn't the most important man in the room, so we can see his frustration when nothing is going his way. The constant PR that forces him to denounce Stormfront grates on him, and it is frustrating for him to see his fellow supes in The Seven going higher and higher up the ranks while he has tapered out. This led to a few fantastically funny scenes. His intimidation of Deep is clever, an amusing callback to a season 1 scene, and it made me chuckle when Deep remarks how well that interaction went. Even better was Homelander threatening to kill A-Train after fat-shaming him and overhearing when A-Train muttered "f*ck you man" to himself, which was simultaneously funny and terrifying. Then it all explodes when Edgar tells Homelander that he is sharing captaincy of The Seven with Starlight, and that there is nothing he can do to stop this from happening. With Maeve holding him in check, Homelander is genuinely left without any options and is forced to contend with the will of everyone around him. Antony Starr delivers another perfect performance in this episode, conveying Homelander's growing frustrations with his current life, and with Vought specifically with how they control him and (from his perspective) abuse him. This leads to a fascinating confrontation with Butcher, where Homelander seems to be asking him arch-nemesis for help in taking down Vought, who he seems to recognize as an even bigger threat than Butcher. It's amusing to see him sell the idea of an alliance to Butcher before clarifying that this is no alliance at all: he absolutely still wants to murder Butcher and he knows that Butcher wants to murder him. Instead they want to destroy Vought to set up scorched earth for a final battle between them. Of course Butcher will accept, he's too much of a sick bastard not to. I'm excited to see how the show handled this story going forwards. I thoroughly enjoyed how this episode pulled back the curtain further on Edgar, Neuman, and Vought as a whole. We can clearly see that they have quietly achieved everything that they wanted and are in the perfect position for world domination as a pharmaceutical company. Edgar's motives are finally revealed to us in a fantastic scene when he admits that he does not want to produce supes anymore; they are too problematic, too powerful, and too obnoxious to deal with (Homelander is the perfect example). Instead, Edgar simply wants to make his product more profitable, and what could be better than his new V24 invention, a temporary Compound V that ensures that humans will not be revered as gods or celebrities like supes currently are. Instead, this is a product that will make Vought tons of money without any of the drawbacks of creating supes. Furthermore, V24 will have to be purchased consistently from Vought due to it being temporary, so it is a fantastic business move. Seeing Edgar reason all of this out is remarkable, and we can see that he's a ruthless businessman through and through, willing to do anything and everything to make sure that his pharmaceutical products take over the world. Amusingly, he has decided that he doesn't need supes anymore, and he has installed the perfect business to take care of that: Neuman's internal supe affairs office. Here, he has a reliable group that can start removing supes from society when they become too dangerous (while pardoning the supes who are still useful for him with brand recognition and marketing, like Termite) which I'm sure he intends to eventually turn into a unit that will start exterminating the Compound V supes so that they will not get in the way of his new product. Edgar's plan is fantastic and it is fascinating to see him put it into action. But he still has a Homelander problem to sort out. We see him taking steps already by demoting him, but I'm sure that he knows he needs to do a lot more if he wants to get rid of Homelander, currently the biggest threat to his plan. I can't wait to see what Edgar has planned, and I can't wait to see if Homelander will be stubborn and powerful enough to overcome it. It was gratifying to see the final version of Dawn of the Seven. The constant jabs at Disney and the MCU are a continual delight, and there were some genuine laugh out loud moments this time around. Stormfront being replaced by a blonde, blue-eyed actress was extremely funny, as was her constant German dialogue. I also got a chuckle out of Black Noir being played by a stuntman not only in the movie but in real life as well (he's in a coma apparently). The Bad: That Termite scene was one of the most horrific things I've had the displeasure of watching. I didn't need that scene to be included, and I certainly did not need to see it as in-detail as it was. I've said this before with "The Boys", but it is entirely unnecessary to have so many scenes in a show that only serve the purpose of grossing out or shocking the audience with something utterly outrageous. This scene added absolutely nothing to the story, but it has lingered in my mind like a traumatic memory. It's criminal that I remember this one moment more than any of the other good scenes in the episode. This scene did not need to be here, and it puts a bad reputation on the entire episode. Of all the stories that were introduced in this season, Hughie and Starlight's feels the most uninteresting by far. Are we seriously doing a love triangle story? This feels incredibly frustrating, especially with how season 2 was primarily focused on Hughie winning back Starlight, which had great pay-off by the end of the season. But now we seem to be focused on a cheesy melodrama story that might see these two drift apart again. I'm not interested in a Ross-Rachel will-they-won't-they in this show, and I don't like how much focus the show continues to give to creating needless drama between the two. I hope this storyline heads in a more positive direction. This show is still taking shortcuts with its writing at a few points. I can excuse Butcher getting access to Maeve's video of Homelander since they have an alliance (of sorts) currently, but I can't excuse Maeve being able to sneak out the top secret V24 from Vought and giving it to Butcher. It's also hard to believe that Homelander did not see Butcher hiding the V24 vials and growing suspicious with the timing of his arrival. He can see through walls, I'm sure he would have been watching Butcher from the moment he touched down, at which point Butcher was holding the V24. The Unknown: Who was Tony? What is his history with Neuman? What did she do to him in the past? Why did they want to kill each other? Who was Neuman before she joined the US government? What is Red River? Kimiko dreaming of singing was amusing. Will we see her express herself more? It seems like she hasn't got together with Frenchie, but appears to be attracted to the girl playing the piano. Is she lesbian? Deep's new book is a funny development, but why did he write it? I can't imagine that he had the willpower or intelligence to do this himself. Who is in his corner watching his back? Will Edgar be successful in rolling out V24? Will it leak to the public like Compound V did? Who is he going to test the V24 on? Are we going to get a love triangle with Hughie/Supersonic/Starlight? Please give us something better. Will Starlight accept her new role as cocaptain? How will she handle this role if she does? How will Homelander react? Will the others take issue with it? Is Butcher going to leak Maeve's video eventually? How did he get it? Will we see Butcher use the V24 at some point? Or will his pride prevent him from using it? Will he give it someone else, like Hughie? What happened to Soldier Boy and Payback? What is BSL Red? Is that just a red herring, or is it something real? How did Stormfront regrow one of her arms? Was Vought able to do some kind of special healing on her, or is this just an inconsistency? What does Hughie do now that he knows the truth about Neuman? Will he start working against her? Will he tell The Boys? How will he handle having knowledge of this terrible secret? Has MM found any important information about Soldier Boy? What happens when his family finds out what he has been doing? Will Butcher eventually square off against Homelander? Will they potentially work together (to an extent) to take out a common enemy in Vought? How will everyone else feel about this? Best Moment: Edgar speaking with both Starlight and Homelander was fantastic. The co-captain offer was a huge surprise and it put Starlight and Homelander in very interesting situations. Antony Starr steals the show as always with his pent up anger, and his petty attempt to maintain dignity when he was asked to leave. Edgar's calm and collected mannerisms are so fun to watch in contrast to Homelander's fury, and it's very satisfying to see him openly trash Homelander after he leaves, proving that he genuinely does not fear the man; Homelander is a pawn in the game, all things considered. Character of the Episode: Homelander. Conclusion: Barring the horrific Termite scene, I really enjoyed this season premier. It introduced some new mysteries and storylines, it pulled all of our main characters back into the fold, and gave us a few great character conversations as the cherry on top. It's just that there's the one scene that I can't get over; the Termite scene is "The Boys" at its disgusting worst. Hopefully we get fewer scenes like that as season 3 goes on. Score: 64 Summary: Hughie and Starlight try to recruit Maeve to testify against Homelander while the others prepare for battle. Maeve refuses. Edgar meets with Alastair and agrees to get Deep back in The Seven, but not A-Train since Stormfront does not like black people. Angered, A-Train brings documents to Hughie and Starlight to incriminate Stormfront as a Nazi. Becca goes to meet Butcher and asks for help to get Ryan back. Butcher immediately gets a meeting with Edgar, offering that he gets Ryan back and keeps him safe, but that Becca stays with him. Butcher does not tell Becca about the deal. Ryan is uncomfortable with Homelander and Stormfront, and after a failed trip to an amusement park, Homelander takes him to his cabin. Stormfront leaves after Hughie and Starlight leak A-Train's documents and images. The Boys set off a sonic device to disrupt Homelander's hearing, and when he checks it out, they retrieve Ryan. Butcher goes back on his deal with Edgar and tries to get Becca to leave with Ryan. However, they are stopped by Stormfront who attacks them. Stormfront battles Starlight and Kimiko while Homelander kills Vought soldiers in the cabin. Stormfront is overpowered after Maeve arrives and she leaves and finds Butcher, Becca, and Ryan. Butcher is knocked out and Stormfront tries to kill Becca, resulting in Ryan awakening his powers. He demolishes and almost kills Stormfront, but accidentally kills Becca. Becca gets Butcher to promise that he won't blame Ryan. Butcher is furious, but his anger is redirected by Homelander's arrival. Ryan chooses to side with Butcher. Maeve arrives and blackmails Homelander into leaving by threatening to leak the video from the plane. Vought blames everything on Stormfront and Starlight is pardoned, with Homelander unable to act against her due to Maeve's threat. A-Train gets back into The Seven, but he takes Deep's spot. Deep is angry. Neuman is in charge of a new organization, the Office of Supe Affairs, which Hughie decides to work at. Later, Alastair cuts a deal with Neuman over the phone, but his head suddenly explodes. Neuman is the one who has been exploding heads.
The Good: There was some fantastic pay-off in this episode. The biggest of course is Butcher's entire arc culminating in this emotional and epic finale. After such a long time waiting, Butcher finally has the chance he's longed for to get back with Becca. She is right here with him, and nobody is hunting for them. The only thing that is in the way is Ryan, and it's so easy to understand why Butcher would do the sneaky thing and find a way to remove him from the equation. Following Butcher's interactions with his father, it's easy to understand why he wants nothing to do with the kid, and it is so in character for him to go behind Becca's back, boldly contact one of the most powerful men in the world, and cut a deal that exclusively benefits him. This was the end result that Butcher had been looking for all this time, and this is what he has been so ruthless for. So imagine my surprise when Butcher strays from the plan and decides to save Ryan. It's quite possibly the first decent thing we have seen him do, and it's oddly touching even in a moment when the tension could not be higher. Butcher shows us how much he really loves Becca by putting her needs above his own, and even though it was awful of his to make this deal to begin with, it takes a remarkable amount of courage and integrity to deviate from that path himself. But what makes this so devastating is how Butcher is punished for this. Butcher made the right decision for the first time in his life, and it cost him the life of his wife. In a devastating twist, Butcher's actions directly lead to her death when Ryan accidentally kills his mother while trying to save her from Stormfront. The moment is absolutely heartbreaking, helped by how much we have come to care about these characters and by some stellar acting from everyone involved. Caught in an awful situation, Becca begs Butcher to promise him that he'll take care of Ryan, and the ensuing moments become some of the show's most fascinating parts as we wait to see what Butcher will do: will he honour Becca's wishes, or will his grief and anger cause him to lash out at poor Ryan? Pondering this question created a moment that was so incredibly engaging and suspenseful, easily the best moment in this entire series thus far. The only thing that could have possibly satiated Butcher's rage was the arrival of Homelander, redirecting his anger and allowing Butcher a genuinely heroic moment as he stands off against a monster to protect the child he once wanted to throw to the wolves. Fantastic stuff. Then we add in the action and the tremendous climax in this episode to make it even better. This is the most superhero action we have ever received from the show, and it is extremely intense and exciting. Stormfront comes face to face with the entire crew, a fight that has us on the edge of our seats because we know that she is far stronger than anybody there and will easily have the advantage. But in a tremendously funny subversion, Stormfront gets overwhelmed by Maeve's arrival (more on her later), leading to a "girls get it done" satirical joke that lands so well with how the whole season mocked "girlpower" political messaging. It's honestly brilliant. But outside of this great bit of levity (which lets our guard down before the trauma that's about to happen), the entire sequence is purely gripping action. Stormfront's initial arrival got me to the edge of my seat, Homelander picking apart Vought soldiers is thoroughly entertaining, watching the girls kick Stormfront's ass was magnificently cathartic, and Stormfront delighting in her attempted murder of Becca is hopeless and scary in the perfect way. I have no complaints with how this episode handled its suspense. The rest of the episode does not hold back either. There are so many wonderful storylines here. I thought that Ryan had a terrific episode. He was a very convincing child character considering all that he went through. After being detained in the Vought building, Ryan very quickly comes to regret what he said to his mother and wants to go back to his old life, realizing how much better it was. In his attempt to go back, the poor kid suffers through social anxiety, a painful ear-shattering sound, a frightening car crash, and the trauma of killing his own mother. It's the day from hell, and I felt horrible for Ryan with all that he went through in this episode. Vought clearly intended for him to have a cushy childhood, but that all went up in flames in spectacular fashion, and I'm scared to think about what this will mean for his development going forwards. The Neuman reveal at the end of the episode raises tons of questions (see: The Unknown), but it is a terrific twist to cap off the season, ensuring to us that the good guys very much do not have things in control. So much of the final few minutes of the show feel like the story wrapping up with the good guys victorious and moving on with their lives. MM reunites with his family, Butcher connects with Ryan, Hughie lands a new job, Starlight and Maeve find peace within The Seven, Homelander continues to be a child but now he has his wings clipped, etc. It's all satisfying until we realize that one of the "good guys" who has been given a lot of power could very well be the main villain behind all of this. It's a smart way to end the season by completing season 2's story satisfyingly while still making us eager to watch a third season. A lot of other story threads were tied up nicely as well. The Church of the Collective story comes to a compelling conclusion (maybe). There is so much comedy in A-Train taking Deep's place in The Seven, and their entire scene is really funny. Poor Deep is still unable to catch even the tiniest of breaks in this show. I enjoyed Alastair and his antics quite a bit, so I'm sad to see him go. I would have liked to get a bit more from him, but his few scenes were very entertaining. Maeve's story finally reached its climax as well with her finally making her choice. The scene where she rejects Starlight and Hughie is terrific and well-acted, making her eventual decision to fight and blackmail Homelander so much more satisfying. It's a great way to pay off the discomfort that Maeve has felt since the very first episode. Lastly, it's nice to see Hughie and Starlight able to live a peaceful life together with Hughie getting to leave his baggage behind and Starlight no longer having to live in paranoia with Homelander's threat neutralized. Overall, a lot of characters came to satisfying conclusions by the end of this season. Lastly, I want to praise the conversation between Butcher and Edgar. Simply electric stuff from two fantastic actors playing fascinating characters. I'll take these two "ruthless bastards" squaring off with words over action scenes every single time. Their deal was electric to watch, and one of the best parts of the episode. The Bad: There are a few poorly written moments. I have no clue how Butcher found Ryan and Homelander. He just kind of finds them without explanation. Maeve, Starlight, and Kimiko were supposed to keep Stormfront busy while Ryan escapes, but then she just flies away and everyone lets it happen. It's especially egregious for Maeve, who has the ability to chase her. She can fly! Maeve really should have followed her immediately, knowing that Butcher is not enough to protect Becca and Ryan; hell the whole reason the girls fought Stormfront was because they needed to buy time. Why did they just stop? I wish we got to see more fallout from the hearing. Some of the most important people in the country died and we don't get to see how that impacts the world. I wish that we could have seen more of the nationwide impact earlier in the episode; it could have done better to sell the urgency of The Boys needing to make weapons to defeat Stormfront and Homelander. Speaking of which, it's hard to believe that anything they make could harm those two, and I'm not sure why they were so confident that they could win with their weapons, especially considering how desperate the situation to kill Translucent was back in season 1. The Unknown: What was Frederick's solution to keep supes in line? Is there something else about Compound V that we don't know yet? Who was Hughie's mom? Will we ever see her or hear from her? What's her role in this story? Is she anybody important now? How will Butcher handle Becca's death? Will he involve himself in protecting Ryan and his upbringing? Is he going to honour Becca's last wish? What will Butcher do next? Where is Ryan staying? What is next for him? Will this trauma lead to him taking a darker path? Is Stormfront done for good? I don't think she can heal. Is there any way that she can heal or recover? Maybe Compound V can help? The Neuman twist was a huge surprise. What are her motives? Who does she work for? Will she be a main villain going forward? Is this it for the Church of the Collective? Will we see more from them? Will Deep leave since he did not get back into The Seven? Best Moment: Becca's death and the sheer chaos that followed it. Character of the Episode: Butcher. Conclusion: An eventful and impactful finale that ends season 2 in a dramatic and exciting way. In the end, season 2 was very inconsistent compared to season 1, with several weak episodes throughout and a few concerning trends with the overall decline in writing. However, this season ended with a real bang and still had several moments throughout that captured the energy and passion of "The Boys", especially the black comedy, suspense, and outrageous moments. Plus, it all built up to an enormously satisfying finale that concluded this chapter of the story perfectly. Overall, the second season may not have been quite as good as the first, but I think it's still a good season that did justice to the story that started in season 1. I'm still very invested to see what's coming next. Score: 77 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 Summary: Flashbacks show Frenchie get recruited by Mallory after he and his friends, Jay and Cherie, are captured following a bank heist. He agrees to work for her if his friends go free. Mallory brings in Lamplighter to work for them and Frenchie is tasked to watch him. He leaves his post when Jay overdoses so he can save his life. Lamplighter goes on to kill Mallory's grandkids. In the present, Homelander and Stormfront are enjoying their relationship. Stormfront leaves for a Vought meeting. Starlight gets her chip taken out by Frenchie. She follows a lead to Sage Grove Center, a psychiatric facility. MM, Frenchie, and Kimiko go inside to investigate while the others wait outside. They see Stormfront arrive and go in. MM's group discover that Stormfront is there with Lamplighter and they are training supes in this facility. Frenchie isn't able to keep his cool around Lamplighter and a fight breaks out, the inmates get out and everyone starts dying. MM, Frenchie, Kimiko, and Lamplighter lock themselves in a room and air out their grievances. Lamplighter and Frenchie explain their stories. Hughie, Butcher, and Starlight are attacked and Hughie is critically injured. Butcher and Starlight get him to a hospital, but Starlight has to accidentally kill a civilian who didn't cooperate. MM, Frenchie, and Kimiko manage to escape when Lamplighter covers their story with Stormfront. The trio take Lamplighter to see Mallory who decides to not kill him. Homelander is upset that Stormfront has been lying to him so she comes clean: she reveals that she was the first ever supe created by Frederick Vought and was born in 1919. Vought is a Nazi white supremacist organization that aims for world domination, and Stormfront is trying to train an army of supes.
The Good: This was Frenchie's episode, finally covering what happened with the Lamplighter situation, which has been built up since the show's second or third episode. The answers we got were highly satisfying as we were able to put together the complete situation and understand why each character did what they did. Of course Frenchie left his post when the friends he took the job for were in danger. Of course Lamplighter tried to kill Mallory after she cruelly blackmailed him and used him for her own ends. Both characters have been framed for doing awful things and have paid for it (Lamplighter has Frenchie's eternal rage, while Frenchie was ostracized because of his failure). Both Frenchie and Lamplighter give terrific performances, and hearing them come to terms with what happened and tell their stories to receive forgiveness from those who matter most is evocative and emotional. A great story to center the episode around. Crazily enough, this great story is almost an afterthought with how frighteningly intense this whole episode is. The bulk of this episode takes place at the Sage Grove Center as The Boys try to investigate what Stormfront has been up to. What results is a suspenseful infiltration mission that gets more and more dangerous with the presence of Lamplighter, Stormfront, and the many supes that were being cultivated in this facility. It's especially bad when both Frenchie and Kimiko have their judgement clouded by vengeance while MM is the only one keeping a level head. As expected, Frenchie blows it and we have a terrific confrontation that just gets worse and worse. When all hell breaks loose in the facility, the action is exciting, and it feels like life and death with how powerful the supes like Cindy are. It's also a big reveal that Cindy is likely the one who killed Raynor in the season premier. With the reveal at the end of the episode, it's clear what Raynor figured out, but more on that later. The Frenchie/Kimiko/MM storyline goes for much of the episode, but it is consistently tense with the situation worsening at numerous points until they are finally able to make it out safely with Lamplighter in tow - a new ally, regretful of all the bad things he did. As the chaos happens in the facility, we get a tense story outside as Hughie suffers a critical injury and it's down to the dysfunctional pair of Starlight and Butcher to get him to safety. This episode does a fantastic job of making use of Butcher and Starlight being together. They are complete opposites of the morality coin, and it's great to see Starlight refusing to take any of Butcher's shit, even going as far as to compare him to Homelander to his face, which is something that I've been thinking for a long time. It's great to see somebody finally bring it up to him. The episode goes further with the civilian whose car they steal. Starlight wants to spare him, but Butcher knows what needs to be done in these scenarios. Despite Starlight doing everything in her power to resolve things, she ends up killing him. But impressively, she is able to compartmentalize (likely due to how much crap she's had to deal with throughout the show), and Butcher is impressed by it. It's funny to hear Starlight reject even the idea of impressing an awful guy like Butcher, but it's clear that Starlight is being hardened by all that she has had to do to help The Boys. This set up for a nice ending scene as Butcher and Starlight bond in the hospital room by making fun of Hughie, showing that even though they have their major differences, they can still get along for the sake of getting the job done. Elsewhere in the episode, we get to see Homelander and Stormfront's relationship progress. They do terrible things, but are riding the high of being together, with that opening scene in the alley being a gory highlight. I was amused by their interactions on TV, and even more amused by both Butcher and Kimiko coming to the same realization: "they're f*cking". Surprisingly, Homelander is actually smitten, and we see that evidenced by the beautiful bouquet he buys for Stormfront. But because he's a man-child, we get to watch how quickly he goes from smitten to furious in hysterical fashion. Because Stormfront probably took a little more than 20 minutes, Homelander went on a rampage, burned his own trailer down, and threatened to murder her for lying to him (she wasn't at Vought). Homelander is so unpredictable that he's always entertaining to watch. But like any other intelligent character, Stormfront knows how to control him. She comes clean and tells Homelander how much she truly values him by revealing who she is and what her purpose is. The reveal that she was the first supe and that Vought has its foundations in Nazi Germany is fantastic, and it completely changes our perception of the show and of Vought. Suddenly Stormfront's campaigning makes sense as she can gradually push Nazi propoganda into the minds of the many fans she has collected from her relatable and progressive videos. It seems like Vought's main plan is world domination, which is a high-stakes enemy to take down. Deep is so involved with the cult now that he's recruiting others. Seeing him bring in A-Train is amusing, especially with how he goes from treating him like a good friend to admitting that he used to fantasize about drowning him. The dialogue is sharp and funny as ever, and it's fun to see these two disgraced heroes taking such a drastic life change in an effort to get back into The Seven. I'm excited to see where the story goes from here. I've also greatly enjoyed Alastair, the head of the Church of the Collective. He seems like a delightfully evil guy who only cares about expanding the profit margins for the church. I have to give this show credit, it provides a great variety of awful people. A few small things I want to point out: the "brave Maeve" brand is really funny, and I had a blast with the "you can't be proud on an empty stomach" line. I also got a laugh out of Homelander telling Stormfront that he wants to run his lines with Noir... the guy who can't talk. Even when he's practicing his lines, Homelander can't bear to hear out someone else's opinion on his performance. The Bad: I'm amazed that Stormfront let Cindy live, and that she somehow managed to escape on her own. That was shockingly sloppy, and I'm not sure why Stormfront did not take more care into making sure that Cindy was taken care of, especially since she was so powerful. I'm lightly concerned by the Nazi Vought reveal. A two-dimensional evil government organization trying to take over the world is hardly original, and I really hope that this is not the endgame for the series. I have hope since this reveal came so early in the show's run. But I am nervous that the political messaging in the show may just devolve into the age-old and obvious idea of "Nazis are bad". This show has potential to be so much more than just that. The Unknown: Will Maeve find the black box? What will Maeve do with the cell phone footage? What does Elena think of her now? Will this end their relationship? Is A-Train joining the church now? Where is this storyline heading? What's the goal of the church? Are they actually going to be able to help him get back in The Seven even with his new heart problems? Why did Lamplighter kill Tim? How many psychiatric centers like this do Vought have? How many supes have they collected over time? I presume that Raynor discovered Vought's true white supremacy agenda. Was there anything more that she found out? What do The Boys have planned for Lamplighter? What will Cindy do now that she is free? Best Moment: Frenchie and Lamplighter revealing their stories to each other was terrific. A great way to close out a story that has been hinted at since the second episode of the show. Character of the Episode: Frenchie. Conclusion: An excellent episode. This episode is consistently intense, exciting, funny, and revelatory, and it even grounds itself emotionally with the Frenchie/Lamplighter conflict caught in the middle of everything. With all the reveals and dramatic moments in this episode, I'm excited to see where the show decides to go next. Score: 73 Summary: Maeve is forced to do pride awareness scenes in the movie courtesy of Homelander. Angry with him, Maeve goes to meet Deep with a plan to bring down Homelander. Ashley contacts Homelander when a video leaks of him killing an innocent in a poor village, with the public claiming he is a war criminal. Homelander is furious about this and goes to a protest where he tries to make a grand speech, but the crowd is not receptive of it. Homelander almost kills them all, but is able to control himself and leaves. Homelander goes to Stormfront for help and she improves his PR. Later, they hook up. Kimiko is doing paid murders for Cherie, upsetting Frenchie. Butcher calls Hughie and says he is retiring, and he goes to see his aunt and his dog. MM and Hughie track him down to help him get back to normal and they learn that Becca refused to come back with him. Black Noir arrives, and together they hatch a plan to defeat him. Butcher is able to call him off by threatening to leak images of Ryan to the public, leading to Edgar telling Black Noir to let Butcher live. Starlight looks through Stormfront's laptop to find more information but she's caught. Stormfront tells her that she knows she leaked the information on Compound V.
The Good: Homelander continues to be the best thing about this show. The entire opening sequence with him is masterful, perfectly showing us what happens when he is in control. In season 1, Maddy was able to reign Homelander in, so he was beloved in the community without even a hint of controversy. But now that Homelander is in full control, he's successfully tanked his reputation in just five episodes. The cell phone video of him accidentally killing an innocent is hilarious (complete with a small moment of him expressing disgust at being in a third world country). Add on his hilarious reaction when Ashley shows him the footage ("so they're all starving but one of them's got a f*cking cellphone"), and it's a literally perfect encapsulation of everything wrong with this sociopath. But on top of that, it's just a really funny scene. Of course, Homelander rapidly goes off the rails when he sees how bad his reputation is now. His failed speech to the protestors is a standout moment, complete with a horrific imagined massacre (see: Best Moment). It builds up perfectly to Homelander sacrificing his pride and accepting help from Stormfront so that he can get his reputation back. Of course one thing leads into another and the episode ends with a laughably over-the-top supe sex scene that is simultaneously gross and hilarious. Basically, "The Boys" in a nutshell. Butcher's story is quite good as well. I don't think that he ever would have imagined that Becca would not want to be with him anymore, so he takes it quite hard and debates leaving everything behind. But he has friends who will stand by him, and Hughie and MM refuse to let him take the easy way out; Butcher's going to keep fighting because it is quite literally the only thing he knows how to do (evidenced by Judy's comments about him). I really liked this story because it was a natural way to reveal more about Butcher's backstory. He went to visit his family (and his dog, amusingly named "Terror") specifically because he was in a bad place, so this was the right time to explore what makes him tick, and having Hughie and MM learn more about him also makes them view him in a different light. Hughie understands now that Butcher does care about him, and this seems to have fixed their relationship. What makes this story better than last episode's road trip has to be the involvement of Black Noir and Judy. Yes, this is a good story, but it also manages to be extremely funny because of Judy's character, and extremely tense since Black Noir is patiently waiting to kill Butcher. The eventual confrontation is dramatic and exciting, and it made for a great climax to the episode. The reveal that Edgar views everything through Black Noir was a good one, and it was engaging to see him make the decision to spare Butcher to prevent another Vought catastrophe. The rest of the episode has several other good aspects. I loved the satire of the MCU with the "Dawn of the Seven" movie being a clear parody of "Avengers", pointing out how ridiculous and cheesy those movies are. I got a lot of laughs out of the scenes on set. Starlight continues to grow in interesting ways. She is much better at lying than she was before, and her brief confrontation with Stormfront at the end was very intense. Frenchie and Kimiko are relegated to the background, but it was sad to see Frenchie finally give up on her out of frustration when he sees her choosing to go down a dark path. Lastly, have to point out the several fantastic little things that I enjoyed. The dialogue was very good in this episode. Judy telling Hughie he's holding Terror's "f*ck pig" is great, as is Butcher calling Black Noir "gimp c*nt" and then later giving his dog a Homelander doll with the instructions of "f*ck it". Line delivery is everything for these moments. I was also amused by Stormfront's drink being labeled "Storefront", a fantastic subtle joke. And I have to credit the directing for focusing on the colour orange so intently in A-Train's scenes (Stormfront's drink, Ashley's suit) as a clever way to constantly remind him of Shockwave's presence and his own impending retirement. The Bad: Stormfront having such a simple password is unbelievably stupid. She's so secretive and mysterious, but she has the world's easiest password to guess? I don't buy that ever happening. The Unknown: Why is Kimiko doing paid murders now? Will she continue to do this? Is this going to lead to her and Frenchie distancing themselves from each other? What happened to Lenny? Did he die? How did he die? Was it a supe? Is this why Butcher refuses to forgive any supes? Maeve is now actively going to try to bring down Homelander. What will she do? Is she going to reveal what happened on the plane? Apparently Black Noir works directly for Edgar. Why? Is he another plant, just like Stormfront? Who was Stormfront on the phone with? What will come out of her engaging in a relationship with Homelander? What did Starlight discover from Stormfront's laptop? Stormfront reveals that she knows Starlight leaked the Compound V. What does she plan to do with this information? Best Moment: The sequence with Homelander imagining himself killing everyone out of rage. He's such an unstable character that I believed he actually did it for a second, and I was floored. Despite it being a cop-out, this was a fantastic way to show us how easily Homelander could ruin everything during one of his temper tantrums since he was so close to doing this for real. Character of the Episode: Homelander. Conclusion: This was another good return to form. This episode had tension or comedy in every scene, and there was a real sense of momentum as the episode went on. Hopefully the next episode bucks the trend of every other episode being subpar. Score: 67 Summary: Butcher meets with Mallory who gives him information on Liberty and Becca's location. Butcher gives the information to MM and goes to get Becca. He meets her and they share a night of passion, but she tearfully refuses to run away with him, knowing that he will never accept Ryan. Butcher leaves but he is seen on camera by Black Noir who is after him. MM and Hughie depart to find out about Liberty and Hughie brings a sad Starlight along for the trip. They meet an old African-American lady who witnessed Liberty killing her brother years ago and she has been silenced by Vought. The lady reveals that Liberty is Stormfront. Kimiko is distraught and Frenchie is heavily doing drugs. He tries to kiss her to comfort her but she rejects him. Kimiko tries to attack Stormfront at a rally but Frenchie stops her. A-Train is officially kicked out of The Seven. Homelander publicly outs Maeve as gay on television. He grows increasingly frustrated by Stormfront appealing to the masses better than him. He has an epiphany that he doesn't need people to love him and he kills Doppelganger, who he was having transform into Maddy to play into his fantasies.
The Good: Homelander is still a remarkable character. Edgar describing him as a "man-child" is proving to be extremely accurate with how he behaves so irrationally. He gets so angry over the tiniest, most useless things, and Antony Starr plays him so over-the-top that you seriously consider that he is behaving like a child. Homelander is also proving to be laughably bad at everything corporate. It's amusing to see his "saving America" slogan already being dragged through the mud, and his comments about diversity getting flamed by the media. Furthermore, the way he handled breaking bad news to A-Train was horrifically terrible, and he may have just created an enemy for life with how poorly he dismissed him. Then we add on the creepy fantasy moments with Doppelganger, which he is only able to overcome by outright murdering him. It's interesting that he has listened to Stormfront about not caring about what others' think, but this makes Homelander so much more dangerous now that he is pretty much uninhibited. This character shift was explored well and I'm excited to see where it leads. The road trip is pretty fun. There are some nice, fun moments throughout like the singing scene and Starlight commenting on MM's OCD. I also greatly appreciate that we got a look into MM's backstory, namely why he got into the revenge business, why he still does it despite being so vocal about hating it, and his complex relationship with his father. This was all great stuff, and it's good that other characters like Hughie and Starlight are also able to change their perspective on MM. I hope we get to see these relationships between the characters develop even more than this. Of course the main purpose of the road trip is to have Hughie and Starlight reconnect. Their relationship is well-written and a lot of fun, but it's clear that both are in so much danger that they struggle to stay involved with one another. For as much fun as this road trip was, it's a simple pleasure that they both can't afford to frequent. This melancholy emotion is captured wonderfully by the episode's end. As for the main plot, the Liberty reveal was excellent and I didn't see it coming. I have a million questions about it (see: The Unknown), and I'm curious to see where it leads. I liked Butcher and Becca's brief reunion. Their love for each other was captured brilliantly by the writers and actors, and even though they were in disagreement by the episode's end, I had no doubt in my mind that they still loved each other to death. They clearly accept each other's flaws and love each other unconditionally, but those flaws are preventing them from escaping together. The background comedy was very good. I got a chuckle out of the billboard saying "the baby you abort might be super", which is doubly funny after the Compound V reveal. The memes making fun of Homelander were all very well crafted and I thoroughly enjoyed going back to the episode and pausing to appreciate each and every one. The Bad: This episode is a bit of a mess with how many random events are sprinkled throughout with only a few cohesive stories throughout the episode coming from the road trip, Butcher, and Homelander. I felt the weight of it when watching the episode because I experienced whiplash with how often we would switch over to characters who hadn't done much in the episode but were now positioned in important scenes. It felt like nothing was given enough time to breathe, and the episode was moving forward like a clip show, spontaneously deciding what storyline to visit next. It was honestly quite exhaustive to watch, and with the episode clocking in at 70 minutes, I was feeling burnt out by the end of it. Hell, even structuring this review was a nightmare because of how many little story threads I had to address where I didn't have enough to talk about to write a complete paragraph. Compared to other episodes of the show, this one feels all over the place. Another thing that bothered me in this episode was how unconcerned the main characters were about being discovered. The Boys are all still criminals on the run, even more so now than ever before. So why are they utterly unconcerned with being spotted in public or recognized? Why is there never any fear? It bothered me in quite literally every scene. Hughie and Starlight meet in the quiet emptiness of Central Park at the start of the episode to keep a low profile, but then there are multiple scenes where they casually talk to each other in broad daylight, which is crazy to me. Especially with how Homelander literally just threatened to kill Starlight in the Vought building. This is Homelander! He could be watching or listening from anywhere, and Starlight is stuck in the city where she quite literally just saw him. She has very good reason to suspect that he would be following her, so having her take such big risks to speak with Hughie is incredibly stupid. It's doubly stupid when Starlight's main arc in this episode is how she is anxious and paranoid about everything after what she did. It's hard to buy into that when we don't actually see her being anxious and paranoid at all. Then we have Butcher, who casually breaks into a high-security Vought facility without getting caught. I haven't a clue on how he managed to get into Becca's car without being seen, and I have less of a clue how security did not notice him climb the walls when he clearly made no effort to conceal himself (he literally flips off the camera on the way out). If the characters don't face consequences for being careless like this, it becomes impossible to believe they are actually in danger when the show wants to show us a suspenseful scene. The writing needs to be better than what we are seeing here. Frenchie's storyline came out of nowhere and I did not like it. I'm not sure why he is doing so many drugs all of a sudden. I'm not sure if I missed a character moment last episode, but this felt so random and out of character for him. Even worse was his attempt to kiss Kimiko, which again came right out of nowhere. Having characters behave impulsively and spontaneously like this is not good storytelling, especially when they haven't demonstrated a history of doing that before. I also did not like the convenience of Frenchie tracking down Kimiko in the middle of a crowd to stop her from attacking Stormfront. Does he have superpowers too? The Unknown: Where has Stormfront been since Liberty's disappearance? Why did she disappear? What has she been doing? Why did she re-emerge now? How does she look the same as before? Is she immortal? Was she somehow frozen in time? How is Stormfront connected to what happened to Raynor? Was she the one who killed her? How? Why doesn't Black Noir talk? Why is he after Butcher? What will Butcher do to get Becca back? There's no way that he's just going to give up now and let her be. Why is Deep marrying someone? Who is he going to marry? Where will this story go? What will happen with Elena? How will her life and Maeve's life change after Homelander revealed her sexuality? What's next for A-Train now that he's been kicked out of The Seven? Best Moment: Homelander and Stormfront's brief confrontation was the most engaging scene. Two great actors playing off of each other beautifully while their characters come into conflict. Character of the Episode: Homelander. Conclusion: This episode progressed the story in interesting ways, but it felt like a bit of a mess with there being too many storylines crammed into this one episode. This felt more like a compilation of clips than a cohesive story. Add on some more moments of poor writing, and season 2 continues to be much more inconsistent than season 1. Score: 56 Summary: Homelander shoves Ryan off a roof to help him awaken his powers. He is successful, but Ryan is angry with him and tells him to go away. The Boys are on a yacht 3 miles offshore as per Butcher's deal with Mallory. At a meeting with a writer, Ashley learns that Compound V has leaked online and she speaks with Edgar. Starlight did it and A-Train confronts her about it, but Starlight keeps him quiet, blackmailing him again. A police helicopter finds The Boys, but Kimiko's brother gets free and crashes it. Word about Kimiko's brother on the yacht reaches The Seven, who all go out to kill him. The yacht is attacked by Deep and The Boys leave on a speedboat. Deep blocks them with a whale but Butcher rams into the whale, killing it and knocking out Deep. The Boys escape into a sewer drain. The Seven arrive and hunt for them. Starlight finds Hughie and Homelander tells her to kill him. Butcher saves him by distracting Homelander and Kimiko's brother buries him. Kimiko and her brother escape but are found by Stormfront. Stormfront kills dozens of civilians while hunting them before killing Kimiko's brother. Edgar holds a press conference where he states he was unaware of Compound V and blames it on Maddy while Stormfront gets all the credit for killing the terrorist, annoying Homelander.
The Good: It looks like we are slowly rebuilding the relationship between Hughie and Butcher, and amongst all the carnage in this episode, we took some compelling steps to get them on the same page again. Tensions continue to boil early in the episode with Hughie punching Butcher after he fails to apologize for anything beyond punching him at the end of the last episode. Then we have Butcher giving him laughably little credit for his role in leaking Compound V to the public, and you can tell that things are bad. When Hughie realizes that they are caught in a storm and likely to die, he loses all resolve and is left as an empty shell. Butcher wants to leave him behind, but M.M. brings up Hughie's value as a moral compass, and while Butcher doesn't show it, you can tell that he does appreciate what Hughie does for him. With Butcher, it's his actions rather than his words that give away his emotions. Butcher could have sacrificed Hughie, but instead he musters up the courage to face Homelander once more, risking everything to save Hughie. It's a nice change to see some humanity in Butcher for once, and it's an effective way to continue to develop the complicated relationship these two have had since season 1. Outside of the Butcher/Hughie dynamic, this episode had a hell of a lot going on and was consistently entertaining. The fact that the Compound V reveal happened off-screen and early in the episode was a big surprise, and it immediately made things feel suspenseful. Seeing every supe react to the realization that they were made into supes by a drug was fantastic. I was consistently interested to see how Edgar would handle the situation considering all that had happened. Deflecting the headlines to a "terrorist attack" was very smart. Homelander's brief parenting arc came to an abrupt end in hilarious fashion. Watching him ignore both Becca's and Ryan's wishes to throw his kid off of the roof was remarkably dangerous, and remarkably hilarious. Even better was watching Ryan faceplant and lie motionless on the ground while Homelander looks only mildly disappointed was a fantastic comedic choice. In the end Homelander was right, and Ryan got to awaken some of his powers, but he completely missed the point of connecting emotionally with his family, and so despite the fact that he did a "good" thing, he pays the price dearly and finds himself not wanted by anyone. This was great storytelling, and I like that it led to Homelander trying to reconnect with Maeve so that he could maybe have just one person in his life who genuinely loves him. Then we get to The Boys on the yacht which was the episode's standout storyline, intense and exciting. Once they get made by a police helicopter (which Kimiko's brother promptly annihilates), the episode ratchets up the tension as literally every important supe starts making their way to that boat. The mission is up in flames (as it always seems to be in this show), and the episode's final stretch is a dramatic sequence of the protagonists running away from the powerful antagonists. All of this content is done well, minus a few conveniences (see: The Bad). We start with Deep, who makes a most triumphant return, only to fall apart in the most hilarious fashion (see: Best Moment). The entire whale sequence is probably the most horrific thing I've watched in the show and simultaneously the hardest I've laughed in the show. Maybe I'm just a sick bastard, but that was uproariously unexpected and entertaining. Following this, The Seven arrive, and after some amusing interaction sequences with Deep, they move in to capture The Boys. The stand-off with Starlight and Homelander against Hughie was very intense, and Butcher and Homelander coming face to face once more was very exciting. The episode capped off with a very nicely choreographed action sequence as Kimiko and her brother take on Stormfront. The action is exciting, but what made this so good was the reveal of Stormfront's true colours. I was expecting her to be shady due to her being sent in by Edgar, but even that mindset did not prepare me for her horrific nature as she murders civilian after civilian and finally kills Kimiko's brother in the most vile and vicious manner. Out of nowhere, Homelander suddenly has company at the top of the list for the most depraved and diabolical characters in this show. The twist was executed superbly, and I'm sure that it was a huge shock especially for the people who hadn't suspected that she was hiding something. Great stuff. There are some good comedy scenes throughout the episode, but the highlight has to be the movie pitch scene near the start. The conversations here are exceptional, and I couldn't help but laugh at the guy's reductive view on women, which was countered by the guy saying "I have two sisters". Hilarious. Better yet is how out of touch the movie is, especially since they have the wrong Seven in the film (Translucent and Lamplighter are still there). I also got a chuckle out of Black Noir, who has fallen asleep in his chair, clearly bored out of his mind. I like how this show has been characterizing him in the occasional short scene. I hope we see more of him soon. The Bad: The action scenes towards the end were fun, but there were a number of logic leaps that didn't make sense. The biggest one comes from how ill-defined Homelander's powers are. If The Boys are in the sewers, can't Homelander use his vision to see where they are immediately? It is odd that he doesn't use his powers more often, even if he is arrogant enough to feel like he doesn't need them. More annoyingly, I'm baffled at the fact that Homelander isn't more angry at Starlight, who did nothing to stop The Boys after Homelander was buried by Kimiko's brother. Surely Homelander is watching everything from under the rocks, so how does he not see that Starlight simply let them go without a fight? Stormfront fighting Kimiko and her brother had a poor ending. We see the brother jump off of a roof, leaving Kimiko alone with Stormfront, but in the very next scene he is magically back on top of the building. How did he do that? Even worse is that once Stormfront kills Kimiko's brother, she is perfectly content to let Kimiko go. I get that The Seven don't care about her, but she's a loose thread that is quite literally right next to them. It's idiotic for them to let her go, and if anything, these two would absolutely be petty and evil enough to kill her, even if it was unnecessary. In the end, there were too many plot conveniences in this climactic sequence to prevent certain events from happening. Frenchie was really silly to leave a tin can in the same room as a man with telekinetic powers. That bit of writing felt a bit contrived. I'm also still unamused by the fact that The Boys still left Kimiko's brother with only duct tape on his hands. Surely they could have done more to restrain him. Maybe add on some rope, some chains, or any other stronger material to ensure that he doesn't free himself. The Unknown: Who is Liberty? Why was she brought up by Mallory? Will A-Train's heart problems be a recurring problem for him? Will this eventually lead to him being kicked out of The Seven? He was struggling badly throughout the episode. How does Edgar plan to navigate the revelation of Compound V? Will he scapegoat Maddy and stand firmly behind that? Does he have any other tricks up his sleeve? Is Stormfront a mole for Edgar? She was psychotic by murdering such a large group of civilians, but it played up the story of the supe terrorists' threat overshadowing the Compound V. Was this all planned by Edgar? Is Stormfront's entire "rebellious girl" attitude just an act? Is she really just as psychotic as Homelander? Deep's incompetence has been hilarious to watch. But it begs the question, how did he get into The Seven to begin with? Best Moment: Deep's triumphant return was so satisfying for him. You can tell he really loved the moment of having a cool hero scene where he blocks the bad guys on his whale. But then you look beneath the surface and realize how hilariously stupid his plan was: Deep was so focused on making a "cool" intro that he beached a whale and removed its ability to escape, failed to adequately block the storm drain that The Boys were clearly headed towards, and failed to account for the likely possibility that The Boys would not surrender upon seeing him. Watching the realization hit Deep as Butcher accelerated towards him was hysterical, and the sheer butchery (pun intended) of the whale was horrifyingly funny. Once again Deep's best intentions have led to the death of a sea animal, and I can't help but laugh at the fact that this is the third straight time that Deep has failed like this. It's Butcher who puts the cherry on top of this fantastic scene with a fitting and fantastically delivered "f*ucking diabolical" as he and The Boys emerge from inside the body of a barely-alive whale. If there's one thing this show does well, it's entertaining us by doing something so outrageously ridiculous and over-the-top that you can't help but laugh and be amazed. Character of the Episode: Homelander. Conclusion: This episode was a wild ride. Packed with big developments, twists, and intense sequences, this episode blasted season 2 into action in the most dramatic way imaginable. This isn't a perfect episode, but it does enough that it is extremely easy to be invested and entertained. A great return to form after a mediocre episode. Score: 73 Summary: After Butcher sees Becca, he passes out and wakes up in a parking lot. He is determined t get back to her. After reuniting with The Boys, they work together to find the supe terrorist. Butcher convinces Mallory to give him a lead and they check it out, intent on capturing him. However, the supe terrorist is Kimiko's brother. Butcher tries to kill him anyways, so he and Kimiko escape. Hughie and Butcher argue and Butcher reveals Becca is still alive. Kimiko and her brother have a nice reunion, but Kimiko learns her brother has committed to the Shining Light Liberation Army. They fight and he is captured. Starlight works with the other women on Ashley's attempt at feminism-related publicity. Stormfront speaks out against it and Starlight is drawn to her. A-Train wakes up from his coma. Starlight gets the Compound V from Gecko and A-Train finds it. He threatens to tell someone but Starlight blackmails him to keep him quiet. Deep goes through therapy and is forced to come to terms with his appearance.
The Good: The best stuff here comes from the reunion between Butcher and Hughie. They did not part on good terms, and I'm glad to see that reflected in their interactions. The Boys are back together, but they do not feel strong as a unit. Hughie can't stand Butcher and refuses to trust him, while Butcher is still bitter towards Hughie and abuses him physically and verbally whenever he gets a chance. Their dynamic remains fun to watch, especially since M.M. and Frenchie are now loyal to Hughie who has shown more kindness to them than Butcher ever did. I quite liked the scene where Butcher tells everyone that Becca's still alive, which was motivated by his accusations of everyone else being motivated by "pussy". Realizing that he is the same, he decided to come clean and tell everyone. I would like to think that he did this because he felt that he could no longer feel like his goals were more noble, but I'm quite sure that he actually did it because he realized that his motivation is now sympathetic to them and they would side with him if he revealed it. That's very good character writing. The remaining storylines had good moments, but nothing too special. Kimiko connecting with her brother was nice, and it was quite sad when she realized that he had become a terrorist in heart, unlike her. Her acting sold the scene and their ensuing fight for me. Ashley's fixation on "progressive" marketing is consistently funny to watch, especially when Stormfront, Maeve, and Starlight act out. I enjoyed Stormfront's behaviour, and I'm intrigued to find out if she is being genuine or if this is another marketing act targeted at those who speak out against Vought. Homelander continues to be the show's most frightening and engaging character. Seeing him threaten Becca and attempt to awaken his son's powers is intimidating and you just know that it is going to end badly. A-Train waking up was a cool reveal and will hopefully lead to more interesting moments. The Bad: The stories here aren't very interesting, mainly because not much actually happens and what does happen is somewhat weakly executed. Kimiko's relationship with her brother didn't feel as fleshed out as it needed to be. Kimiko is silent, so it's very tough to get us to understand her and care about her, especially since she doesn't have much screentime. As such, I didn't feel much emotion when she finally reunited with her brother, and I felt less when she realized that she had to fight him. The acting was good, but there wasn't enough heft to the scene for it to feel important. It was also quite sloppy that The Boys only restrained his hands with duct tape. His power is telekinesis! It's a real gamble to assume that he needs his hands to use that power just based on what they have seen. What's to say that he won't be able to use a finger to unwrap the duct tape? Or use his mind to attack them without hand motions? I wish that the writing spent more time on how they restrained him. A-Train and Starlight's story was almost bafflingly bad in its execution. Repeatedly, A-Train shows up after Starlight does something and acts like he was watching her the whole time. What? A-Train is not Homelander, he can't watch her from a distance. He just moves fast, and we know when he is around because there is a loud shockwave every time he shows up. So how does he always seem to know what's happening and show up at the most convenient times? I could forgive this if the story went somewhere interesting but it didn't. A-Train threatens to reveal the truth to somebody, but he inexplicably does not tell anyone. Starlight says that it's because he's afraid that she will tell somebody important about A-Train killing Popclaw. But this is such a weak moment because there is absolutely zero solid proof that A-Train is connected to this crime, so he should not be afraid of it. Furthermore, if A-Train tells Vought that Starlight is involved with Compound V, they will have no choice but to eliminate her to keep their secret, which I'm certain is what they would do. If that happens, then Starlight won't have a chance to contact someone like Sports Illustrated anyways! Her threat is nowhere near strong enough to stop A-Train, and it feels like a poorly written plot device to explain why A-Train does not tell the truth to anyone. It sticks out like a sore thumb since almost everything else in this show is so well written compared to this. Deep's story isn't that interesting to me. I had a similar problem in season 1, but the show made up for it by making his storyline incredibly funny. When that humour disappears, we are left with a subpar story. Deep is in an arc where he has to come to terms with his own body, but I'm not invested in this at all, especially considering how disconnected he has been from the main storyline for several straight episodes now. I didn't get much out of his drug trip where he talked to his gills. The squelching sounds were disgusting, and the conversation was so on-the-nose that it disconnected me from his character arc. I was also annoyed that we did not get a resolution to his drug trip in this episode. The Unknown: How long will it take to awaken Ryan's powers? Will Homelander be successful? What happens if he is? What happened to Elena? Maeve telling her such crucial information on Homelander feels like a huge mistake. What will she do with her knowledge? Will she tell someone? Who is Dr. Park and what deal did he make with Becca? Does Becca still love Butcher? How does Homelander feel about this? How far does Homelander's super-hearing go? I was surprised that he was able to hear exactly what Becca was saying to Mr. Park. Is Stormfront genuine in her approach? Does she actually feel like Vought is problematic and wants to raise awareness? I struggle to believe that it's real since Edgar himself appointed her. I suspect that her behaviour is a marketing act to keep the Vought naysayers in check and focused on the wrong things. Because of this, it's a pretty bad idea for Starlight to open up to her. What will happen to Starlight if she does? Best Moment: Butcher coming clean and deciding to tell everyone that Becca is still alive. Character of the Episode: Butcher. Conclusion: This was a surprisingly off-colour episode of "The Boys". Not much of note happened, there aren't many standout scenes, and some developments feel sloppy and poorly thought out. I expect more from this series. Score: 55 Summary: A-Train is in a coma so Starlight continues to work with The Seven. The Boys have gone into hiding. Hughie calls Starlight and asks her to get some Compound V for him. She blackmails an old friend, Gecko, and gets the Compound V. After a super terrorist is smuggled into the country, The Boys go to Raynor to report the information. Her head suddenly explodes and they run back terrified. Starlight calls Hughie, who tells her to be careful and doesn't reveal what happened to Raynor. Frenchie calls Butcher, who returns to join The Boys. Black Noir kills Naqib. Deep is contacted by Eagle, who offers him a way back into The Seven. Translucent's funeral is held. Homelander has taken control of Vought, appointing Ashley in Maddy's old position and ensuring she is loyal to him. However, Edgar appoints Stormfront into The Seven without consulting Homelander. Homelander meets with him and tries to intimidate him, but Edgar isn't fazed. Homelander is angry and leaves to see his son.
The Good: I enjoyed catching up with all the characters and seeing what had changed. It was interesting to see what happened with Starlight/A-Train, how The Boys are laying low, how Vought moved on from Maddy's death, and where Butcher has been this entire time. The gradual resolution of these mysteries was fun to watch throughout the episode. Hughie continues to develop nicely. This quiet life does nothing for him because he has lost everything and no longer has anything that he's working towards, unlike M.M. who is trying to get back to his family. All he has left is to do good in the world and to try to get with Starlight, and he's fighting hard for that to happen. And poor unlucky M.M. keeps getting dragged into situations that always blow up in his face unexpectedly; this time literally with what happened to Raynor. Raynor's death was a huge shock at the episode's climax, but it's a great moment to raise the stakes and set the story for season 2 into action. Starlight's role in the episode is also engaging. It feels like she is operating on borrowed time. She has gotten better with media work, but in exchange she is actively working against The Seven more often than before. She's actively helping Hughie whenever she can, opting to blackmail an old friend to get Compound V for The Boys. And with eyes from Vought watching everything, the risk of Starlight working against them in enormous. It feels like things can be over for her any second. Furthermore, if A-Train wakes up he will have one hell of a story to tell about Starlight. Pretty soon she's going to be busted, and she needs to be as far away from Vought as possible when it happens. Homelander continues to be one of the best parts of this show. With Maddy dead, Homelander sees this as his chance to take over Vought. He plants Ashley as someone loyal to him, and immediately intimidates her when she dares to think that she would have autonomy in the role. Homelander's brutal destruction of Blindspot, and his callous dismissal of bringing a cripple into The Seven is fantastic to watch. He doesn't care about marketing or the way of the world and simply wants to do whatever he wants. It's telling when a focus group is used to figure out some branding ideas, and Homelander completely ignores them. Hilarious. But of course Homelander's dream is not fully realized. He thought he was going to be the man in charge, but his dreams come crashing down after a superb scene with Edgar (see: Best Moment). I enjoy this show's sense of humour a lot. I feel like I laugh in every single scene at least once, and I enjoy this show's style of comedy. I appreciate how many different types of comedy are present here as well. I've noticed dark humour, referential humour, satire, and even slapstick. All four styles are executed brilliantly and I find myself laughing frequently. It's important that a show with such crushing brutality can make me laugh so that I don't end up feeling too bummed out to enjoy watching. The Bad: Did we need the gross scene of Homelander drinking Maddy's milk? This show still has a habit of grossing me out unnecessarily. The Unknown: I saw on a newspaper that Shockwave broke A-Train's speed record. Will he be heading into The Seven soon? Where has Butcher been this entire time? What has he been doing? How has he evaded the law? Who is Starlight dating now? Will Hughie be able to get back together with her, or has that ship sailed? Who smuggled in the super terrorist? Why? What is the goal with him? How do Eagle and Carol plan to get Deep back into The Seven? Why are they helping him? Who is Stormfront? Why was she allowed to stream everything behind the scenes? Why did Edgar let her in? What does she have to offer? Who killed Susan? How? Why? What did she discover? Best Moment: The conversation between Homelander and Edgar was tense and awesome. Two powerhouse actors going up against each other, both commanding the room; I loved it. Homelander thought he had the advantage going in, but Edgar proved why he's higher ranked than Maddy and why he can't be bested. For the first time, Homelander has found someone who isn't afraid of him. Edgar knows that Homelander isn't his best asset, and he knows that Homelander can't kill him or everything falls apart. The way Edgar turned the situation around with such confidence was impressive, and it shows that he is a far more formidable adversary to contend with. Homelander came in feeling confident, and he left feeling frustrated and helpless. Brilliant writing and brilliant acting made this scene. Character of the Episode: Edgar. I already love this new character. Conclusion: An engaging and entertaining season premier. With how much changed between seasons, this almost felt like a second pilot episode with how many new story elements had to be introduced. I enjoyed this, and it did its job of getting me hooked for season 2. Score: 67 Summary: Homelander kills a group of terrorists in Syria and obtains Compound V from them. Susan tells Billy that they decided to keep Compound V secret and that The Boys are still fugitives, angering him. Billy and Hughie go to Mallory for help, she tells them about Homelander's relationship with Maddy. Meanwhile, M.M., Frenchie, and Kimiko are caught. Billy realizes this when he returns and leaves. He argues with Hughie who storms off after realizing Billy only cares about himself and his revenge. Starlight confronts her mother about Compound V and storms out. She goes to church where Hughie finds her to ask for help Starlight is furious, but Hughie's words reach her. Hughie gets caught intentionally and breaks out Frenchie, M.M. and Kimiko with his retainer. They are overrun, but Starlight arrives and saves them. A-Train shows up to stop them, but he has a heart attack from the Compound V. Starlight and Hughie attempt to resuscitate him. Maddy is facing a promotion for her success when Homelander meets with her and reveals that the secret supervillains was his idea. He and Maddy have sex and Homelander realizes that her story about his lost child did not align with Vogelbaum's. Maddy goes home and finds Billy waiting for her. He ties her up with explosives and Homelander arrives. However, Homelander is furious about the lie and has learned from Vogelbaum that his child is alive. He kills Maddy. Billy blows everything up anyways but Homelander saves his life and takes him to see his son, who is being raised by Becca.
The Good: This episode closed out the supes in the military storyline nicely. We see the immediate effects with Homelander annihilating a group of terrorists on his own and obtaining the Compound V to keep it all secret. At first it feels like a victory for Vought, but in reality it's a victory for Homelander specifically. The huge reveal when he tells Maddy his plan is fantastic. This whole time I was certain that it was a company plan, but it makes so much more sense that this ill-fated "supervillain" idea was all because of a crazy, rogue Homelander who just wants to prove that he's more than the failure people treat him as. This implications of this reveal are marvelous. Compound V was a tightly kept secret, and the only thing that caused it to leak and for The Boys to find out about it was Homelander's actions. He was the one who sent A-Train on the mission where he killed Robin, and Kimiko was one of his experiments that went wrong. The only reason Vought was in a pickle to begin with was because of Homelander's actions. Maddy would easily have sealed the deal with supes in the military on her own, but it was Homelander's actions with Compound V and the supe terrorists that led to the plan almost falling apart. As for our main protagonists, they are going through some huge things right now. Starlight has found out the truth about her superpowers, and has had her faith in god utterly shattered. She's horrified that she was raised the way she was under a total lie, and she's appalled at how her mother groomed and manipulated her to make sure that she would do this job and only this job. It's horrifying, and it's no surprise that Starlight is angry about this. With all of this anger behind her, Starlight's conversation with Hughie is perfect. She's angry and unsure of what to do, but Hughie points out the one thing she wants and this is where she finds her resolve: she wants to be a hero. This leads into a lovely conversation with Maeve that pushes her over the line into becoming a rebel. Maeve is the only member of The Seven who seems to understand Starlight, having been like her at one point before giving up. Maeve encourages Starlight to make a better choice than she did, and the result is Starlight finding newfound resolve in being a superhero and helping Hughie. As for Hughie, we finally see him reach his breaking point with Billy. Hughie has continuously been pushed further and further into this mess against his will because Billy has guilted him into doing it. As the season has gone on, Hughie has slowly realized who Billy really is, and he finally calls it out in this episode. The fight between them is an outstanding scene as Billy continues to manipulate, and Hughie finally realizes how bad this man is for him and severs ties permanently. The show has built up to this for a long time, and when the moment finally comes it is one of the finest scenes in this episode. Following this, Billy moves on in his selfish hunt for vengeance, while Hughie does the right thing and goes back to help his friends. It's amusing to see how they treat Hughie when he arrives to break them out (the punching the retainer out scene was hilarious), but it's clear that Hughie's actions meant something to them, and that's more than what they can say about Billy. This takes us to the episode's climax where everything comes together. We get a thrilling escape scene where every character has great moments. Hughie has completed his transformation into a badass as he uses his resourcefulness but is also okay with taking over some shooting to help his friends out. M.M. and Frenchie have finally made peace with each other as M.M. risks his life to save Kimiko. And of course, Starlight makes her choice as she arrives in the nick of time to kill the assailants and let Hughie and his gang go, doing her duty as a superhero. These are all great character pay-offs and they make for a satisfying finale. In the end, we're left with a fateful confrontation with Hughie and Starlight facing A-Train. This is the first case of supe-on-supe violence in the entire show and it is quite the spectacle. I appreciate that the show didn't get bogged down by action scenes and always focused on the characters ahead of spectacle. Even in this action scene, the memorable part comes after with A-Train's heart attack after he went to the Compound V well a few too many times. It's a great way to end the season, and I'm curious to see what happens next. Then we come to the episode's ending with Homelander, Billy, and Maddy. Maddy has been interesting to follow all season. She's a wily company woman who does what she has to do for business, and it seems like what she has to do is also placate Homelander by playing into his fantasies. But this became a real problem because she never had control over him and was always scared of what he would do. Now she faces the consequences of that because Homelander learns she has lied to him and can't be trusted. With Billy out to get both of them, Maddy's only hope lies in a now disillusioned Homelander, and it is remarkable to see the fear in her eyes when she realizes that Homelander will not save her because of what she has done. The exchange between the two is fantastic (see: Best Moment), and Homelander killing her feels like the conclusion of a story. Billy is left with no options, and it's satisfying to see him blow the place up anyways, knowing the game is done. But Homelander doesn't let Billy go so easily, and in a great ending twist, we see Homelander take Billy to the house where Becca is raising his son. It's an enormous shock for Billy, and you get the sense that this is Homelander getting some revenge by showing Billy that all he has done has been over a lie. This will no doubt change Billy in a significant way, and the way the season ends with so many potential avenues for season 2 makes for a highly satisfying conclusion that more than pays off of a whole season worth of storytelling. The Bad: Nothing I can call outright bad. That scene with A-Train being racially profiled feels a bit out of place and unnecessary, but it is still a good scene to reveal more about A-Train's instability. The Unknown: Why is Mallory exiled away? What exactly happened that led to this? Why is Kimiko finding joy in prettying herself up? Is it simply a good feeling for her to do something "ladylike" for once in her life? If so, that's quite sad. Who is Mallory's spy? Is there someone in particular that will come up again or is the spy just there to get Billy to attack Maddy? Who was it that captured M.M., Frenchie, Kimiko, and Hughie? Was it Vought? Will we see more from Lamplighter? He has been mentioned a lot. Was it intentional to have Mr. Edgar reference taking a trip to Belize? There's a clear "Breaking Bad" joke in that, surely it was intentional. Regardless, I found it hilarious, another example of this show's subtle reference humour. What will Starlight do now? Will she openly leave The Seven and join The Boys? Or is there another direction for her? What happens to A-Train? Will he die? Become comatose? Or will he recover? Did Homelander kill Vogelbaum? What does he plan to do now that he's found his son? What will Billy do when he speaks with Becca again? What is Becca's story? Did she willingly raise Homelander's child or was she forced into it? Best Moment: Homelander threatening and killing Maddy was a fantastic scene. Antony Starr kills it once more as his unhinged behaviour is genuinely terrifying to contend with. The way he brutally melts her eyes is horrific and you get the sense that he enjoyed killing her, having separated any emotional attachment to her once he realized that he can't trust her. As for Maddy, she knew she messed up and it was uncomfortable to see her pleading to Homelander and admitting that their relationship only exists because she is terrified of him. Character of the Episode: Homelander. Conclusion: This was a terrific season finale that ended the first season on a high note. The genius of this finale is that it changes so much fundamentally about the show and left me completely unsure as to what comes next. That's how you know this was a significant episode, and it has me feeling wholly satisfied and excited for season 2. This first season of "The Boys" was great. After being so oversaturated by superhero shows, I slept on this show for a long time. But this is exactly what the genre needed. A fresh look on superheroes that cares more about realism, compelling conflict, creative storytelling, and unique themes instead of a cheap thrill ride that feels the same as everything that came before. This show was a breath of fresh air for me, and it managed to do that while telling a compelling story with very well-written and complicated characters. There was little in this season that ended up being must-watch or something downright incredible, but what we got was a layered and interesting story that has hopefully set up for even better things as the show goes on. This finale was the first time I felt that the show was genuinely great as it paid off several storylines that had been building since the start of the show. I hope that this is a sign of even better things to come. I'm very excited to move on to season 2. Score: 72 Summary: A flashback shows Billy and Becca meeting with Homelander at a party. In the present, Hughie has sex with Starlight in a hotel. Later, Homelander meets with The Seven and accuses Starlight of being a traitor, showing the faces of The Boys. Maeve defends Starlight so Homelander lets her be, but Starlight is upset with Hughie. The Boys realize that they are burnt when A-Train calls Hughie, threatening his father. Hughie and Kimiko team up to take out A-Train, breaking his leg, and saving his father. M.M. convinces his family to go to a safe location. M.M. convinces Billy to take the deal with the CIA so that they can protect their loved ones. Billy gives Susan the Compound V and she meets with Maddy, threatening Vogue to comply with their demands. However, their plans go awry when a supe terrorist named "Naqib" suddenly emerges. Homelander meets with Maddy and Vogelbaum, learning that Becca became pregnant with his child, but that they both died during childbirth. Hughie convinces Starlight to meet and he tries to explain himself. The encounter goes badly and Billy shoots Starlight so that they can both escape. Deep is sent to Sandusky where he is ordered to lay low while the controversy goes away.
The Good: I'm quite surprised by how quickly the plot moved in this episode. Mere minutes into the episode, Homelander has already briefed everyone on Mesmer's findings, The Boys have all been burnt, the conflict between Hughie and Billy bubbled up, and Starlight finally found out the truth about Hughie. This was all very exciting and it was compelling television to watch. I expected Homelander to take immediate action, but I didn't think that he would involve The Seven with his plan. Seeing him intimidate Starlight was cruel and engaging, and you got the sense that Hughie's actions were about to result in massive consequences for her. But it seems like that has been put off (for now). Starlight was heartbroken to learn the truth about him, and the episode builds up to their eventual meeting very well. It's sad to see them fall apart when they started the episode closer than ever. Billy has another very strong character episode. We open on a good flashback where Billy meets Homelander for the first time and we see how he always seemed to have an interest in poor Becca. Billy's pain from what happened is again reflected nicely by his conflict with Hughie, where he refuses to accept Hughie's decision and tries to shame him and guilt him into giving up on Starlight at every turn. It's so interesting that one of the main protagonists of the series is such a villainous character. This is again reflected in Billy taking his vengeance on Mesmer. He could have killed him quietly, hell he could have even let him live and used him to help them out. But Billy takes the extreme option. He relishes in letting Mesmer know that he's here to kill him, and he murders him as brutally as you can imagine in the bathroom. There's a fine line between heroes and villains, and Billy's actions clearly plant him on the wrong side of that line, there's no doubt about it. On the other side, he does comply with M.M.'s wish to get the CIA involved afterwards, but it's telling that he does so only when he has no other choice. Again, I respect that this show is bold enough to make Billy the second most heinous character in the entire show behind only Homelander. Speaking of Homelander, he has an interesting story in this episode when he investigates what happened to Becca. Intriguingly, he seems to have been unaware of what happened to her and asks both Maddy and Dr. Vogelbaum about her. Maddy doesn't tell him much (I don't buy her story), and Vogelbaum tells him a horrifying truth about what happened (I feel like he may be hiding something though). Watching Homelander search for answers is more interesting than I expected, and it was especially nice to see him speak with his "creator", who labels him as an enormous failure. We spend such little time with Vogelbaum, but I loved the idea of a man despising retirement because he is guilt-ridden by the mistakes he made during the creation of the supes. Hughie and A-Train finally have a moment of reckoning. Hughie feels like he's at A-Train's mercy, but he uses his wit and some assistance from Kimiko to defeat him in a moment that was hugely satisfying. We also get to see how deluded A-Train has become as he lashes out at Hughie and condemns him, completely ignoring his own role in Robin and Popclaw's deaths. A-Train seems crazy in these moments, and Hughie is able to exploit that perfectly by manipulating him with Compound V. It has been satisfying to see Hughie get better at this line of work, and this moment where he controls a situation by himself is the pinnacle of his growth. Some other parts of the episode amused me a lot. Deep failing to save another sea creature was fantastically funny. With him being a celebrity, it makes sense that he may not realize that the lobsters are killed before being given out at grocery stores, and his reaction when he sees the lobster killed is fantastic. This show is really good with using pop culture references in subtle ways so that people who notice them can laugh and those who don't won't be affected at all. I've noticed it a few times in previous episodes, but the most striking moment happened where as Hughie answers Annie's phone call with "Annie, are you okay?", an amusing reference to Michael Jackson and a fun way to remind us that Hughie is a "smooth criminal". The Bad: That gills scene was horrific to watch. It went too far in terms of being disgusting and was self-indulgent in how long we were forced to watch it. If there is a good reason, I'm fine with television disgusting me and horrifying me. But a throwaway scene like this? I don't see why it was necessary for the show to gross me out like this. The scene almost derailed my investment in the episode. The Unknown: What can Deep get up to in Sandusky? What happened with Mallory in the past? How did Billy's first attempt to fight the supes go wrong? What will Starlight do now? Is she going to stay loyal to The Seven or will she join up with The Boys? Will Maeve face consequences for sticking up for Starlight if she turns on The Seven? Was Becca really killed by Homelander's baby? Is there more to this story? Maddy clearly wasn't telling him the truth about what happened to Becca, so I wonder if there is even more that she hasn't told him. Who is Naqib? How many more terrorist supes are there? Could he possibly be Kimiko's brother? How will the CIA handle the threat of Naqib? Will they be forced to put supes in the military after this? What will Starlight do now that she knows about Compound V? Seriously, who is Mr. Edgar? Best Moment: Homelander briefing everyone on the situation was fantastic, especially when he started threatening Starlight directly. The guy is so unhinged that it felt like anything could happen, and I connected with Starlight's fear. Purely terrifying stuff. Character of the Episode: Billy. Conclusion: This was an exciting episode that kicked things into gear while setting up for the finale. There aren't any incredible stand-out moments in the episode, but it's good storytelling all around, with the notable exception of the nasty gill scene. Score: 68 Summary: Hughie is pulled aside by Billy who tells him the story of Becca, she was raped by Homelander and then either committed suicide or was killed by him. He warns Hughie against getting feelings for Starlight. However, Hughie continues to date her, frustrating Billy who interrupts one of their dates to remind him. Starlight meets with Maddy and refuses to do her bidding, threatening to go public with Deep's sexual assault. Maddy is frustrated and ends up getting Deep to issue a public apology, using the whole situation to promote an upcoming film for Starlight, who is upset that the company turned things around on her. Frenchie convinces M.M. to take the supe lady to Mesmer to learn more about her. M.M. relents and Mesmer finds out she was kidnapped as a child and indoctrinated into a terrorist camp. She's since been captured by Vought and injected with Compound V to turn her into a supervillain that can be defeated by The Seven. Her name is Kimiko. Billy gets this proof and goes to the CIA, but when they can't promise that Homelander will face justice, he relents and leaves, aiming to do the work with only The Boys. Mesmer contacts Homelander and tells him about The Boys, hopeful for getting a position in Vought again.
The Good: This was Billy Butcher's episode through and through. After building up the mystery behind his motivations for several episodes, we finally see him bare it all to Hughie and it is fascinating. It starts with Billy going to a survivors meeting that offers a safe space for people who have been harmed by supes to speak. Billy hilariously uses this as an example to dissuade Billy from dating Starlight, and he's incredibly vicious and awful to the people in the meeting, looking down at them for not selling their souls for vengeance like he has. He unleashes a tremendous rant that is easily one of the episode's highlights. Following this, he takes a more mellowed out approach, telling Hughie the story about Becca: she was raped by Homelander and then she either killed herself or he killed her. Karl Urban is fantastic here in conveying how tough it is for Billy to reveal all this, while also making it clear that he's only telling Hughie this so that he can keep manipulating him. When Hughie hears the story and still continues to see Starlight, Billy feels betrayed and angry, and that's telling of his motivations for opening up with Hughie. Despite being one of the "good" guys, it's blatantly clear that Billy is self-motivated and doesn't care about others beyond the use that they serve him in the moment. Hughie is seeing this from Billy firsthand since he is now consciously motivated to do something that Billy doesn't want. This seems to be setting them both up for a big conflict likely at the end of this season. Starlight's story is also developing well. It was very satisfying to see her spin the speech at Believe Expo in her favour by threatening to reveal who assaulted her to Maddy, ensuring that she could do whatever she wanted. It was a very temporary victory, but it felt good to see Starlight standing up for herself against a company that doesn't care about her wishes at all. Naturally, Maddy makes it her immediate priority to remove Starlight's leverage by having Deep come out and apologize, restoring her control over Starlight. This was a nice examination of how corporations like Vought put in extra effort to keep their control over society, compared to the minimal effort that is put into actually doing good in the world. The Mesmer storyline is solid too. It's good to finally learn Kimiko's backstory (and to finally get a name for her so I can stop saying "the lady" or "the supe lady" in every review). Frenchie has shown her tons of kindness and it's lovely to see it paying off. I was also pleased to see M.M. come around and help him as they seem to be overcoming their past difficulties and developing some respect for one another. It's satisfying to watch. I like how M.M. used Mesmer's humanity to ensure he would stay quiet, but unfortunately it didn't work and Mesmer has sold his soul to the devil yet again by betraying The Boys. I suspect he will face dire consequences for this, and Billy will likely have an unfortunate "I told you so" moment that will only further support his brutal and vengeful approach. I was amused by the propaganda videos, especially the intro one showing the supes doing incredibly mundane things among the community. This idea of making them relatable only to show that they are anything but is quite funny. The best example of this comes from Deep picking up trash on a beach, only for the producers to request that all the trash be put back on the beach so that they can film another take. The Bad: This episode feels like an in-between episode. It fills in some gaps and sets up storylines for the final two episodes, but it rarely feels like it is doing more than that. As such, this episode falls short of the quality of the last few. I'm starting to grow weary of the show constantly presenting corporations doing awful, selfish things with such shock value. It's starting to feel predictable and is losing its lustre rapidly since every single episode spends a lot of time showing us how corrupt this society is. I hope the show has more to say about this idea. The Unknown: What was Homelander's upbringing like? Was he raised entirely in a lab? Is this why he hates that blanket so much? Because it's a reminder of his traumatic upbringing? Was Hughie's friend Anthony an important character? It felt like his arrival was there to set up Billy showing up later, but I wonder if he will serve a greater role in the show. What is Starlight's future? Surely Maddy will want to get rid of her after she threatened the company in the way she did. I imagine that Starlight will have to fight hard to stay in The Seven. So Kimiko was indoctrinated into a terrorist organization, captured by Vought, and injected with Compound V to become a supervillain for the supes to defeat. Is this all correct? Where is her brother? Is he still alive? Will Kimiko try to find him? What's Billy's next move now that he has refused help from the CIA? How does he plan to take Homelander and Vought down by himself? Mesmer leaking information to Homelander was a surprise. Is he going to be killed? Will Billy kill him as vengeance, or will Homelander kill him? What will Homelander do with this new information? Does he remember Billy from the A-Train/Shockwave race? Best Moment: Billy steals the show in this episode. His standout moment to me is him opening up to Hughie about what happened to Becca. Karl Urban acts this scene perfectly, showing us how hard it is for Billy to be telling this to somebody. You can tell that Billy sees himself in Hughie and views them as one and the same, so he shares his most personal story with him in hopes that it will let them see eye to eye. A fantastic moment that answers the question of Billy's backstory in a tragic fashion. Character of the Episode: Billy. Conclusion: This episode felt transitional in terms of plot, but it did a good job of diving deeper into its characters, especially Billy Butcher. Score: 66 Summary: A-Train gets Popclaw to admit that she told someone about Compound V and he kills her. Later he is watching a tape of them having sex and finds a recording of her killing her landlord. He sees Frenchie's face on film and Vought tries to track him down. Hughie and Starlight go to Hughie's Believe Expo. Billy tells Hughie he needs to get Starlight to get him to meet Ezekiel so they can blackmail him. She agrees. Starlight grows uncomfortable with lying at the expo to maintain her image. Homelander gives a speech but veers off script to appeal to the Christians, upsetting Maddy. Hughie is baptized by Homelander and blackmails Ezekiel. He's forced to improvise when his phone is killed by the water, but it still works. Ezekiel reveals the location of the shipment. M.M. and Billy go to investigate and they find that supes are being grown in a lab through injections of Compound V. They are found, but Billy uses a supe baby to kill their attackers. Starlight gives a speech but sticks with her gut instead of spouting things she doesn't believe. The crowd is stunned but Hughie is happy. They talk afterwards with Starlight being upset at him for using her, but Hughie tells her about Robin and they make up. Frenchie is on the run and decides to let the supe lady out instead of leaving her to be found. Frenchie is found by Black Noir. The lady saves him, but she is killed by Black Noir. However, she regenerates and all of her wounds heal.
The Good: This episode is built strongly around religious themes, which was an unexpected surprise. It doesn't go too far in exploring them, but I still greatly enjoyed what the show had to say, and I'm glad that a show about superheroes touched on the role of religion in this fictional world. Very few TV shows do this, and I greatly appreciate that "The Boys" took the effort to do it. The religious themes are limited to simple discussion, but I do admit to finding it quite funny every time the show pokes fun at the hypocritical nature of religion and how flawed religious extremism is. The dark comedy/satire aspect of this show has been really good from the start. Easily the funniest and most crude moment has to come from Billy commenting his thoughts on religion (which are exactly what you would expect) to a random old man at a stall, a laughably cruel condemnation of god to a devout Christian. The scene is played out perfectly. But the best part about the religious theme is how it affected the characters. This Believe Expo is used to have two contrasting speeches that perfectly show us the difference between two characters: Homelander and Starlight. Homelander is as phony as they come and his speech tells people exactly what they want to hear. So as you expect, he's cheered through the roof and everyone loves him. Well, everyone except for Maeve because she is the only one who knows him well enough to see how awful he really is. The plane crash from the last episode still ways heavily on her (I'm very pleased to see continuity from such a cataclysmic event), and seeing Homelander so flippant about it only alienates her more. Then there's Starlight who refuses to read out her script and openly says what she feels. She's honest, real, and empathetic and yet she leaves the stage to sheer silence. Everyone hated it and she is most likely going to have something of a PR crisis next episode. But the one person who loved it is Hughie, who is able to see the good in her and celebrate it. These speeches were terrific character exploration, and they nicely explain why Starlight, who is a good person, likely won't be celebrated by the public while Homelander, perhaps the worst person in this show, is so well loved. Hughie's arc as he becomes increasingly amoral continues to be compelling. This episode is a big step up as he is forced to blackmail Ezekiel and has to develop his skills on the fly. The phone video was supposed to do the job for him, but since his phone stopped working, he had to do all the work himself and he stepped up brilliantly. Despite being so hesitant to do it, Hughie is clearly quite good at blackmail and is an expert manipulator. Tragically, he uses this new skill on Starlight at the end of the episode too. Starlight is frustrated at him for using her, but Hughie is cunning enough to bring up Robin's death in this moment to save their relationship and lie about his intentions for meeting Ezekiel. It's possible that Starlight's speech did connect with him and help him move forward, but it's just as possible that he made all of that up just to stay close with her, both because he likes her and because he needs to use her more in the future. The other storylines had several good moments as well. I'm always fascinated to learn more about Billy, and the additional details on his past were interesting. I especially chuckled at the scene of him openly defiling Rebecca's grave. Clearly he isn't ready to move on yet, just like Hughie. The Compound V reveal is pretty big and I wasn't expecting to learn more about it so soon. The scene in the neonatal ward was huge for the show, and also hugely entertaining. Watching Billy use a baby to kill his assailants was fantastic. Popclaw's death was a shocking moment to start the episode. A-Train is awful as he uses his connection with Popclaw to exploit her for information and ultimately kill her. The scene is deeply sad and uncomfortable to watch, especially since A-Train did seem to genuinely care about her. Frenchie being burned is a major development, and he can't ever go out publicly again without risking his life, which is an enormous obstacle. I continue to enjoy his connection with the lady, and he seems to have finally made some headway as she risks her life to save him. Lastly, we have The Deep who is becoming a comedic highlight in the show. Watching him fidget and panic during Starlight's speech was a delight. The Bad: So Starlight's cover was notably blown a few episodes back, which should be a huge PR problem. Yet we have seen no follow-up on this as Starlight has been going around normally ever since without any interference or instructions. Hell, she's started dating someone and going to public places, but still she hasn't been informed about anything. I'm very confused why Vought is allowing this to happen without at least talking to her. A couple little things bothered me. There was clearly air in the IV tubes going to the baby, so that baby should be dead. Also, I don't understand how Black Noir let Frenchie escape, especially since Frenchie didn't actually go anywhere and is still with the supe lady. The Unknown: Is A-Train really going to sop using Compound V? I doubt it. Will the company say something about Starlight publicly being with Hughie? Especially since her cover was blown a few episodes back. We learn that Billy's wife Rebecca went missing 8 years ago. What happened to her? Is she dead? Is what happened to her the reason why Billy is so hellbent on killing supes? How important will Elena be? She seems like an old relationship for Maeve. Did Maeve's drinking habits drive her off, or was it something else? How does Billy get all of the fake IDs and keycards he is always using? So Compound V is used to create supes in a lab. Are all supes made in a lab like this? What are the risks of doing this? How does Vought choose which babies to inject with Compound V? What is the relationship between Homelander and Maddy? How is the lady able to regenerate? Is this her special ability? Or does it have something to do with the Compound V that was being injected in her? Where is Frenchie going to go? Best Moment: Starlight's decision to stray from expectations and her ensuing speech is great. Character of the Episode: Starlight. Conclusion: Another very strong effort from "The Boys". The show hasn't hit that next level yet, but it's doing almost everything right in building up the story and its characters. I'm sure that if the story continues to be told this competently, we will get some fantastic television soon. Score: 67 Summary: A flashback shows Billy with his wife. In the present, The Boys watch a noodle shop where A-Train gets the Compound V from. They go in and Frenchie frees a trapped girl, but she is a supe and kills all of the workers there before leaving. A-Train goes after her but The Boys try to find her first. Frenchie finds her in a tech store at Penn Station and tries to talk to her, empathizing with her story. But she escapes. Later, The Boys catch up with her again and when she attacks Frenchie, Billy knocks her out with gas. Hughie goes on a date with Starlight and hacks into her phone. Maddy sees a hijacked plane over the ocean and sends Homelander and Maeve to resolve the situation to help get supes into the military. Homelander ends up crashing the plane instead and refuses to save anyone to prevent witnesses. He appears on TV claiming that the plane crashed before he could get there and that supes need to be in the military so that he could respond faster and prevent this tragedy. Maeve is horrified by Homelander's actions. Deep tries to raise awareness on dolphin mistreatment at Oceanland by stealing a dolphin. However, he is stopped by the police and the dolphin dies after being run over by a truck.
The Good: The central story involving an escaped supe who is out for blood is very chaotic and entertaining. This was not at all where I thought the investigation into the noodle shop would go, and I'm curious to learn more about this lady and what was being done with her. We had some great action sequences, particularly when she was released and when A-Train found her, to give us some exciting action and suspense to make this more interesting. However, the highlight of the story was the focus on Frenchie. Frenchie was a bit of a gimmicky character in the first three episodes, but this gave him a tremendous amount of depth. We have a better idea of why Frenchie and M.M. dislike each other (M.M. is all about following orders while Frenchie is more emotionally driven), and we learn a great deal about Frenchie's terrible upbringing, which no doubt played a role into why he ended up in this line of work. It's fascinating to see Frenchie see a kindred spirit in this lady, and his continuous attempts to get her to trust him so he can help her are very well done. Hughie has a great character-based story as he goes on a date with Starlight. There is no action whatsoever in this story, but we get some well written scenes as Hughie and Starlight get to know each other better while Hughie has a crisis of his beliefs. We can tell that he recognizes Starlight as a good person, and that makes him extremely hesitant to hack her phone and use her to bring down supes - he knows she doesn't deserve it. It's further compounded by Billy's black and white approach of "all supes must die", which horrifies Hughie (and us by extension), blurring the lines between which side is good and which side is bad. As such, Hughie is tempted to let Starlight go because he doesn't want to punish her and take advantage of her. But as he goes on this date, he finds himself getting attached to her and is wracked by guilt through hallucinations of Robin staring at him. With her loss so recent, Hughie feels guilty to be dating Starlight and he forces himself to stick to his mission to hide from this guilt. Even though his moral compass is stopping him from hurting Starlight, his guilt leads to him doing despicable things anyways. That's a really complex and compelling scenario to explore. The plane hijacking scene is the biggest setpiece of the episode and it works so well (see: Best Moment). It's been interesting to watch the development of this supes in the military story, and we get a comprehensive reason why they should be nowhere near national security with what happens here. Homelander hits a new level of awfulness with what he does on that plane (again, see: Best Moment), and I am thoroughly disgusted that the whole tragedy was still spun by him to support supes in the military anyways. Maeve's sheer horror at what transpired makes perfect sense and it helps make her more relatable even though she hasn't really been explored as a character yet. Deep is not in this episode very much, but what we get from him is fantastic. He wants to do good by helping the dolphins, and when he doesn't get permission from Maddy to pursue this, he goes rogue, kidnaps a dolphin, and witnesses its death in the most gloriously over-the-top and brutal fashion. It's so obscenely dramatic in its directing, and horrific in terms of what happens that it becomes easily the funniest scene in the whole show (so far). I loved it. A-Train and Popclaw continue to have an interesting relationship. There is a lot of tension between them right now, but they also seem to genuinely care about each other despite the bad scenario that they are in. The acting has been good, and I'm interested to see this relationship develop. The Bad: I am starting to grow weary with how strongly the show is pushing the idea that supes are bad for society. It has felt like the same idea has been hammered repeatedly into our heads for these first four episodes. I hope we start to explore other themes as well, or at least explore the supes in different ways, maybe highlighting their positive impact or exploring different ways that they affect society. I was disappointed to get such little of Billy's backstory. The flashback at the episode's start got me excited to dive into the character, but it ended up being just a tease. I wish we had gotten a little bit more because the scene feels out of place since it was just a one-off. The Unknown: Who is the girl? Why was she being injected with so much Compound V? Was she a test subject? Why was she selected? What is her story? Why did she kill specific people? Is there more to Frenchie's story? Why did he end up choosing this line of work after his traumatic upbringing? Is Ezekiel providing the Compound V? Or is his place just a front? Where is the Compound V coming from? Will there be evidence within the plane of what Homelander did when it went down? What will happen to Deep after his failed rescue attempt? What are The Boys going to do with the girl? Do they have a plan for her? Best Moment: Homelander on the plane was a stunning moment. He easily had the power to use his vision to see where the terrorists were in advance so that he could take them out efficiently. Instead, he chooses to pander to the crowd and soak in the applause, not even caring about what could be happening in the cockpit. And then it's his own rash actions that destroy the plane controls and cause it to crash and sink. The sequence is phenomenal with outstanding acting, and Maeve's horror at Homelander's despicable nature is shared by us as we watch. It's disgusting to see him give hope to people he knows are going to die, refuse to save them at any cost, and just be an overall prick. The sad truth is that these people would have been better off with the terrorists than with Homelander. Character of the Episode: Homelander. What a performance we are getting from Antony Starr. Conclusion: This was a great episode. Good storylines all around supported by a couple standout scenes. I thoroughly enjoyed this. Score: 68 Summary: Billy disposes of Translucent's remains. He meets with M.M. and recruits him to help the team on their next objective: investigating Popclaw. Hughie is able to get access to her cameras and they listen to her speaking with A-Train about Compound V, which they deduce is a steroid for supes. They learn that A-Train was using it when he killed Robin. A-Train is racing against Shockwave so The Boys go to the race to try to find Compound V, but A-Train already injected it all. A-Train wins the race and Hughie meets Annie again, this time learning she is Starlight and getting her number. Popclaw injects Compound V after being angry with A-Train for not going public about their relationship. She plans to have sex with her landlord to get back at him, but the Compound V causes her to accidentally kill him. Billy and Frenchie meet with her after to get more information. Homelander and Maeve used to be dating and Homelander wants to get back with her. Starlight is given a new superhero outfit that she doesn't like, but she's forced to wear it anyways. The Deep finds Translucent's remains in a box with a threat written inside.
The Good: This is more solid stuff. I continue to enjoy Starlight's story as she continues to get jaded by her new job. The reveal of her new costume was outright funny, especially with the men describing it as "feminist". The political bullshit in this scene was amusing to watch, and it was fair for Starlight to feel frustrated. It paid off in a big (though unsubtle) way later in the episode when Starlight interacts with the young girl in her old costume. Starlight's frustrations also make her a prime target for The Boys, and it looks like Hughie has unwittingly made her a target by merely trying to offer her a safe space to vent her frustrations. It's easy to see why Starlight would want to be with someone who treats her normally, but it's heartbreaking for Hughie who would want to help but knows that any interaction with him only puts her in more danger. It's telling that Hughie turned off his mic before continuing his conversation with her. I'm interested to see where this dynamic goes in the future. Hughie has a good episode overall. He gets to show his smarts in a clever way when he gets access to Popclaw's cameras, and shows his emotional side in a great moment with A-Train (see: Best Moment). It's nice to see him admit that he's willing to pay any price to keep chasing down supes to get justice for Robin, only to realize that paying any price could mean becoming a terrible person himself. The episode's climax is well done. The scene between A-Train and Popclaw established their relationship perfectly, provided the necessary context for everything that went down after the race. We also got some key reveals on Compound V and Robin's death, which were welcome. A-Train's race was a big event, and it felt important since I was unsure if A-Train would win or not, and if the Compound V would work or if it would cause another horrific accident. But it was all a red herring for Popclaw to cause the real drama. Heartbroken by A-Train refusing to go public on their relationship, Popclaw drugs up and tries to get back at him by sleeping with her landlord, only to accidentally kill him and provide an opportunity for The Boys to capitalize. This climax was well done, offering a great twist by the end that should make next episode quite interesting. Homelander continues to be a frightening character. His advances on Maeve are very creepy and disturbing. I was also amused by how lackadaisical Homelander and Maeve were in defusing the shooter situation, being more concerned about their conversation than about saving lives. M.M. got a fun introduction. He seems like a genuinely badass character, which made it quite funny that he was so sweet and cute with his wife. The phone call with her was a legitimately funny moment, played up by some good directing. The Bad: This show doesn't shy away from graphic content for better or worse. Sometimes, it feels like a refreshing look at reality as the show doesn't shy away from things that most TV shows avoid. But other times, it just feels over-the-top for the sake of being over-the-top. I feel like the toe-sucking scene was completely unnecessary and is the perfect example of graphic content just for the sake of grossing out the viewers. I don't get anything out of that, and I would rather just enjoy the story. Having some outrageous scenes thrown in my face does nothing but annoy and disgust me needlessly. I find most of the characters to be pretty unlikeable so far. Hughie and Annie are the most sympathetic characters, but they aren't as fun to watch as others like Billy and Homelander. But Billy and Homelander are not good people, so it becomes difficult to fully engage with the story in these early points where the characters aren't yet fully fleshed out and are still tough to like. This issue can iron itself out in a few episodes with some good writing, but it is detracting from these early episodes. A few minor things bothered me. It was disappointing that Starlight's problem from the last episode was immediately resolved without any fanfare. It felt like such an anticlimax to just say that everything worked out in the end and not address what happened for the rest of the episode. It felt very silly that The Boys went to A-Train's race specifically to steal the Compound V when it should be clear to them that A-Train was using it before the race. M.M. should absolutely have suggested to stay on Popclaw instead, especially seeing that he had already identified a fix kit in her house. Billy staring down Homelander felt unnecessarily risky, shouldn't he be minimizing any sort of interaction with him in case he runs into him later on? Why hasn't Vought done anything to better train Starlight for her new job? Especially after her latest incident, they should be on top of her to make sure she understands what is and is not acceptable to them. The Unknown: Did Vought fake the woman coming forward to confirm Starlight's story? I strongly doubt that the woman actually came forward to help the situation. Who are Becca and Mallory? How were they involved in whatever Billy and M.M. did in the past? Why does M.M. hate Frenchie? What happened to Mallory and her grandchildren? Who is Mr. Edgar? Why was he so invested in A-Train's race? What happened in Homelander and Maeve's past? Clearly Maeve can't stand him anymore, what did he do to her? How will Vought address the threat that The Boys sent them? Will they reveal Translucent's fate? Will they set traps? How will they prepare for what's coming? Is Hughie fine with letting other innocents die for the cause of getting revenge on the supes? Or will this cause friction between him and the others? I can see a situation arising where the others are compelled to manipulate or harm Starlight for their cause. Will Hughie allow this? Will he be able to sit by and go through with it? Best Moment: Hughie running into A-Train was a terrific scene. It's clear that Hughie is terrified because A-Train will recognize him and the plan will be busted. But A-Train doesn't even recall his face, and that actually makes it worse for Hughie who feels insulted that A-Train can't even remember a man who he hurt so badly. The fury on Hughie's face is phenomenal, and his delivery of "haven't we met before" is so venomous. He went from being terrified of jeopardizing the mission to risking it all just out of his sheer disgust towards A-Train. A terrific scene that subtly tells its story with some fantastic acting and writing. Character of the Episode: Hughie. Conclusion: Another solid episode with several fun moments, although I had a couple of gripes this time around. Still, this has been a strong first three episodes and I am excited to watch more. Score: 65 Summary: Billy goes to his acquaintance Frenchie to figure out how to kill Translucent before they are found. Hughie panics about his situation. Maddy scolds Homelander for impulsively killing Steve, which she learned from The Deep. Homelander intimidates The Deep to make sure he doesn't report anything against him again. Starlight works a case with The Deep, but it is exploited for PR. Later, Starlight bets up some drunk guys attempting to rape a girl, but it is caught on camera without evidence of rape, getting Starlight in trouble. Maddy negotiates with a senator to get her Supes approved for national defense. Homelander goes to find Translucent himself when the security team can't locate him. Billy checks in with Susan, his CIA contact, but she doesn't help him. Frenchie figures out that they can kill Translucent from the inside and he stuffs a bomb up his butt. Homelander arrives to investigate, but Frenchie and Billy trigger an explosion elsewhere to distract him. Hughie blows up Translucent when he tries to escape.
The Good: This was a fun story to follow. Following the events of the last episode, Billy and Hughie are scrambling to dispose of Translucent, made worse when they realize that he survived and now they need a way to kill him. Billy and Frenchie's urgency in the situation coupled with Hughie's sheer panic makes this a tense storyline to follow. It feels like a hopeless situation, and I was engaged watching the trio come up with a solution to take out Translucent. The episode builds up nicely to the ending with Frenchie finally thinking outside of the box and killing Translucent from the inside, but not before a superbly tense sequence. The story is written wonderfully with sensible plot beats. The bullet ricocheting and destroying the Faraday cage around Translucent is smart writing, and it's sensible that nobody would notice since they are too preoccupied with needing a way to kill Translucent. Homelander himself coming down to search works because of how well the episode established him as something of a loose cannon earlier. This led to a magnificently tense scene when Homelander interrogates Frenchie and starts investigating the van with Billy hiding nearby. This was terrific, and with Hughie on the verge of detonating Translucent and getting Homelander's attention, I was at the edge of my seat to see what happens next. It's always a good sign when a show has you so invested in just the second episode. Homelander has a standout episode overall. Last episode suggested that Homelander was much more intelligent and sinister than he initially seemed, but it's clear that this isn't the case. Instead, he's protected intensely by Vought, but is a total loose cannon. Homelander is frightening, intimidating, and believes he can do whatever he wants because of his position of power. He's a threat not only to his enemies, but also to his allies with how dangerously he operates, and you can tell from Antony Starr's terrific acting that Homelander is not all there mentally. I didn't expect Homelander to steal the show like this, and I'm excited to see more from the character now. His near-breakdown with Maddy was compelling as you could tell he was forcing himself to keep his calm, and his terrifying intimidation tactics with The Deep and Anika were compelling to watch. I enjoy this show's twisted brand of humour. For a show that tackles such a dark subject matter, it's forced to maintain a darker tone of comedy. This is nailed in the episode with the best example being the darkly hysterical scene between A-Train and the cancer patient who was disappointed not to get his wish. The dialogue in this scene was fantastically awkward and funny, and while I felt terribly for the kid, I couldn't help but laugh at how poorly A-Train handled the situation. I'm also enjoying the political aspects of the show, even if they aren't quite fully-formed yet. Starlight is rapidly becoming jaded by her career when she realizes how much of it is political and PR instead of actually doing good in the world. This arc has been engaging to watch so far. Maddy's story hasn't fully engaged me yet, but I'm interested to learn more about Vought and the company's goals. The Bad: Maddy claiming that the photos of the senator are legitimate can still be countered by claims of doctoring, so they aren't as powerful as the show wants you to think they are. Also, what's stopping the senator from coming up with other claims to discredit the pictures? I find it very hard to believe that Starlight wasn't immediately given PR training upon joining The Seven. Did Vought really just gamble by not ensuring that the new Supe is aware of expectations? This is not consistent with a company that is so concerned with public image. The Unknown: Will the Seven learn that Translucent was killed? How will they react to this? Will Homelander connect Translucent's death to Frenchie being in the van? If so, Frenchie iwill be wanted now. Will that be a problem for him? Why did Homelander act on his own to kill Steve? Will he continue doing this? Will there be consequences? How did Steve find out about Compound V? Is somebody from within leaking information? Why doesn't Black Noir speak? What is Susan and Billy's past? I noticed Starlight's camera feed started late. Is somebody trying to frame her by catching her attacking people? What consequences will she face for what she did? What will Popclaw know about what A-Train has been up to? Best Moment: The ending sequence with Homelander interrogating Frenchie combined with Translucent's attempted escape had me at the edge of my seat. Character of the Episode: Homelander. Conclusion: A really strong follow-up episode that follows the classic format of 1) we kill someone and 2) we dispose of the body. It's not the most original, but the concept is executed well and this is a good episode of television. Score: 66 Summary: Hughie is horrified when his girlfriend Robin is accidentally killed by A-Train, a superhero, right in front of him. Hughie wants to sue but is discouraged by his father. After he rejects a settlement, he is approached by Billy Butcher who offers him a chance to fight back at the heroes. Though he's reluctant at first, Hughie joins in and is assigned with planting a bug in the headquarters of "The Seven", a group of the world's best heroes. Hughie plants the bug but attracts the attention of Translucent, who follows him to work and tries to kill him. Billy saves Hughie and fights Translucent, but right when he is about to be beaten, Hughie steps in and kills Translucent with electricity. Meanwhile, Annie, who goes by her superhero name Starlight, is accepted into the Seven but is horrified when she is forced to blow another superhero The Deep, who threatens to ruin her career if she doesn't comply. Annie thinks about leaving, but runs into Hughie who empowers her to keep fighting. A man, Steve, threatens to leak information about something called Compound V used by Vought, the company behind The Seven. Steve is killed in an airplane by Homelander, the leader of The Seven.
The Good: This episode doesn't take long to hook you and get you invested in the storyline. Robin's gory death comes right out of nowhere and is an indication of the type of show that we are watching. After an opening sequence that comedically highlights the superheroes' powers and justice, we are immediately shown the consequences of having such powerful individuals in the world. Robin's death feels completely unfair, but it is very realistic that innocent bystanders will be caught in the chaos of whatever superheroes do. From the get-go, "The Boys" has promised to explore superheroes in a way that most other TV shows do not, and that's a great hook to watch this show, especially for those like myself who are jaded by the sheer quantity of generic superhero films and TV shows in today's day and age. And for those people who cry out for the mass civilian casualties that go ignored in superhero films like "Man of Steel", this show promises to be something far more satisfying. I'm enjoying that this show appears to have a political side to it, exploring how superheroes effect the functioning of our society. Vought appears to have dominated the world with superhero marketing and branding being all over the cities, and this first episode promises to explore this idea in unique ways. I was engaged by Steve negotiating with Vought, and seeing him be eliminated because he revealed knowledge of some shady business perfectly demonstrates the corporate ruthlessness of Vought. I also appreciate that The Seven are not even close to being an idyllic group of people, as Starlight discovers to her horror once she meets The Deep, who hilariously wastes absolutely no time in taking his pants off. Characters like The Deep and Translucent are comically awful people, but they are awful in a way that is still entertaining to watch. The real scene-stealer has to be Karl Urban's Billy Butcher. He comes into the life of the depressed and angry Hughie like a force of nature, offering him a chance at revenge in the most crass way imaginable. Billy is so fantastic to watch because of his natural charisma, his profuse swearing, and his straightforward way of doing things. He's a blast to watch and I greatly enjoyed his interactions with Hughie. The highlight scene has to be him visually instructing Hughie during his phone call. The encounter between these two characters leads to a couple of great sequences at the end of the episode. The first is Hughie planting the bug in the headquarters of The Seven. Hughie's anxiety is gripping to watch, almost as satisfying as his ecstasy in the car after he pulls it off, and the entire sequence in the building is wrought with tension. The second terrific sequence comes at the end of the episode as Hughie is confronted by Translucent, who ends up in a brutal and well-directed fight against Billy, ending with his death. One more scene I want to highlight is Hughie's talk with Annie (Starlight). I thought that this scene was very well done, combining the episode's two central characters for a scene that was thematically quite strong, connecting both characters' tough decisions. I would like to see more of them together, and the episode did well to make me root for them meeting up again and possibly allying with each other in the future. Lastly, I enjoy this show's sense of humour. Despite covering some dark subject matter, this show is consistently funny and I laughed at a couple points throughout the hour. The Bad: Some moments in the show go too far and could use some subtlety. For example, the store filled with constant A-Train references feels like a step too far in showing the influence of the superheroes in the world. It's hard to imagine a store with this much brand marketing geared towards a single individual. If it is an A-Train store specifically, why did Hughie go in there to buy something? While The Deep was amusing in his sheer awfulness, it felt very blunt to have just about all of The Seven be irredeemably awful people in this episode. This episode swung too far towards villifying them, and I hope we get more balanced characterization going forwards so this can become legitimately thought-provoking television. Robin's death at the start was fantastic, but it makes me nervous that this show could become over-indulgent on graphic content like nudity and violence. I hope that the show remains focused on telling a story and doesn't get lost in trying to provide shock value. So far the show is going strong, but the signs are there that the show could potentially get lost in providing cheap thrills. I won't penalize this first episode since it hasn't fallen for these trappings, but I am still lightly cautious going forwards. The Unknown: What's going on with A-Train? What was he taking in that bag? What business is he keeping secret? Who else is involved? Why did A-Train say he couldn't stop? Does he mean that literally? How many of The Seven are as awful as The Deep, A-Train, and Translucent? Will Starlight find anyone who is genuinely good, or are they all corrupt? What is Homelander's role in all of this? The ending scene suggests that he's much more sinister than he seems. How involved is he with the politics of The Seven? How is it that Billy hasn't found any dirt on him yet? What is Compound V? What does this do? Is it connected with whatever is going on with A-Train? I wonder what will come out of Hughie empowering Annie to go back to The Seven. Will this decision benefit him (maybe with an inside agent), or will he come to regret it? Who is Billy? What happened to him that led to him seeking revenge against The Seven? Does he have any other allies? How did he acquire fake FBI identification? How will Billy and Hughie dispose of Translucent's body? I guess it won't be too hard to get rid of an invisible body, but the show has a chance to do something very creative with this. What will be the fallout from Translucent's death? Best Moment: It's difficult to top Robin's gruesome death at the episode's start, which comes out of nowhere and is a propelling force for the story throughout the episode. I have to applaud the special effects department for making it look as brutal and shocking as possible. Character of the Episode: Billy. Conclusion: It's not hard to see why this show has become so popular. The premise introduced in this pilot episode is tantalizing, and the hour of television flies by with several memorable moments, twists, and insightful scenes. This show promises to be more than just another superhero show, and I'm curious to see if it can live up to the potential of treating the world's superheroes as villains. Score: 69 |
Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
Categories
All
|