The Boys S2E5 Review: Come Together
Warning! Super Spoilers Ahead!
Read Steve’s review of the previous episode here.
For an episode titled “We Gotta Go Now,” this chapter of The Boys doesn’t really go anywhere. The main plotline serves as a mini-bottle episode where several characters shelter in place to survive a supe sneak attack. The rest maintain a holding pattern over familiar stories: Frenchie pines for Kimiko. Homelander punches down to compensate for losing his triple-A reputation with the public. Relationships underscore the action this week as secrets emerge and alliances form, but the episode mainly indulges its status quo and spends too much time jumping between narratives to move any of them forward.
Much of this episode takes place against the backdrop of Vought filming its supe blockbuster Dawn of the Seven, which is a nice touch that juxtaposes the supes’ public personas with their true identities. Special effects aren’t limited to the screen, and Vought uses the film to inject Maeve’s sexuality into her brand. Marketing execs explain how they’ll capitalize on one of the most traumatic moments of her life by packaging her and girlfriend Elena as America’s favorite new imaginary lesbians. It’s humiliating, and while Elena doesn’t want to change herself to please Vought or America, Maeve fears Homelander’s wrath if they don’t play along. Can she find some kryptonite to make Homelander back down him? A-Train, meanwhile, faces the opposite problem when Ashley does Homelander’s dirty work and bullies him out of The Seven.
Homelander spends his week similarly grasping at the rudder of public opinion when cell phone video shows he carelessly killed a bystander during the hunt for a supe-terrorist. Didn’t Vought cover it up when Stormfront did this two weeks ago? Anyway, Homelander makes matters worse when he addresses a protest outside Vought Tower and fails to win over the crowd with his lab-cooked platitudes. Last week, this so-called leader of The Seven said he didn’t need everyone to love him. How’s that self-love working out in the face of a public outcry? Of course, like Clark Kent and the yellow sun of Earth, Homelander needs validation as fuel. He’s forced to turn to Stormfront and her meme machine to restore his image, and the PR rebound leaves Homelander smiling and in her debt. How will he pay her back? That reveal will come below so I can tell you when you’re older.
Frenchie, no longer a reliable starting member of The Boys’ roster, follows Kimiko around the city. She wipes out a trio of gangsters without breaking a sweat and meets with Cherie, who rents out her services as an assassin. Frenchie wants Kimiko to end this new career, and she wants him to leave her alone. Kimiko feels guilty for failing to protect Kenji—the only person who could communicate with her and who mattered in her life—and although she tells Frenchie to stay away, this burst of emotion is the first time she “speaks” to him directly using her sign language. The scene ends with Frenchie leaving her to be a monster if that’s what she wants.
The rest of the episode with the Boys is all about playing to your audience. Butcher doesn’t convince his audience when he tells Hughie he’s going off the grid. Before he rides off into the good night, Butcher stops at his Aunt Judy’s house and reunites with Hughie and Mother’s Milk; according to Judy, Hughie looks just like Lenny, Butcher’s late brother who had the power to make gentle the heart of Billy. Has a desire to avenge his brother fueled Butcher’s crusade against the supes as much as his desire to avenge Becca? Then, when Black Noir finds the house and threatens to attack, MM calls in a gas leak to create an audience so the knife-happy ninja can’t quietly neutralize them. Be careful who might be watching!
The distraction doesn’t work for long, and Black Noir eventually infiltrates the house. Hughie and MM won’t let Butcher sacrifice himself and unsuccessfully try to shoot Noir into submission. Is this a noble effort to go down fighting with Butcher against an enemy they know is unstoppable? Or do they think they can spur their comrade to action if his canary is in jeopardy? Butcher blackmails Black Noir with a threat to reveal evidence of Homelander’s son, and it’s then we discover even this fight has been for the benefit of an audience: Edgar is watching via bodycam. The CEO negotiates a deal with Butcher to let the Boys go if they keep the damning photos a secret. It’s a risky move for Edgar to let an enemy like this walk away, but it brings the band get back together. Daddy’s home, the remix!
Back on set, Annie tries to assert herself as a power player. She confronts Stormfront about her secret past as Liberty, yet the threat bounces harmlessly off the neo-Nazi’s super suit. Annie’s going to be “a big help,” Stormfront says. What’s she planning? We don’t get to find out because Homelander shows up to repay Stormfront for her help polishing his public image. What does she have in mind? Sex! I don’t want to dust off my Foucault books from college, but sex is clearly about power here as both supes take pleasure in flying around the room and throwing each other into walls at full strength; Stormfront even demands Homelander blast her with heat vision, which barely seems to affect her.
This is truly a match made in hell. A sociopath with delusions of grandeur and a virulent racist getting hot and heavy? What’s worse, I don’t think sex is all Stormfront wants out of Homelander. If she has a plan for Annie, then she’s definitely got a scheme worked out for the world’s most powerful manchild, and now he’s wrapped right around her finger—and a few other places, too.
Notes from the Peanut Gallery:
In the opening scenes, Homelander comments, “This new Joss rewrite really sings, huh?” Not even the universe of The Boys is immune from swapping its creative horses midstream, and Joss Whedon is still the favorite to give your film the Avengers treatment. There’ll probably be calls to release the “A-Train cut” as soon as Dawn of the Seven hits theaters.
Congratulations to The Deep on getting hitched! I hope he and his bride enjoy the lobster pot I sent as a gift.
I personally didn’t like the scene where Homelander imagines himself lasering the crowd of protesters to ribbons. We know that’s how he feels because we’ve seen him kill on a whim before, especially when people upset him. I feel like shows only include sequences like this so they can use them as bait in promos.
The Russians debating Hamilton gave me life. Who knew gangsters were such connoisseurs of Broadway?
Am I the only one thinking Lenny might still be alive? And closer than Butcher might realize? Game of Thrones taught me that they aren’t dead if you didn’t see the body, and with Judy’s vague explanation of what happened to Lenny, it feels like he might be alive. Could Butcher’s brother be the one under Black Noir’s ski mask?