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
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
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