The Boys S2E3 Review: He Sleeps with the Fishes
Warning! Super Spoilers Ahead!
Read Steve’s review of the previous episode here.
Up until now, season two of The Boys has been a chess match masquerading as a TV show. We’ve watched as pieces move across the board and players lay plans to press the offensive. We see the first clash between opposing forces in “Over the Hill with the Swords of a Thousand Men,” but as in chess, the battle doesn’t start on schedule when one army sets its strategy in motion. The battle comes after one player makes a mistake and their opponent jumps on it. By the end, the scales tip decisively toward the supes as they unleash their queen to devastating effect.
I’m not surprised that this would be the last episode included in the season two debut before the show pivots to weekly releases. To me, it feels less like TV and more like a film setting up later installments in its franchise. “Over the Hill with the Swords of a Thousand Men” gives off movie vibes because the show’s relatively parallel plotlines melt down into a single story: Annie’s expose on Compound V lights a fire under Vought to change the media narrative, so they pursue the supe-terrorist Kenji, which brings The Seven and the Boys face-to-face. Even The Deep shows up. Anyway, with the SparkNotes out of the way, it’s time to dive into this whale of an episode (not sorry).
The Boys are out to sea waiting to hand Kenji to the CIA. Hughie decides there’s no better time to share your true feelings toward someone than when you’re trapped together in a confined space, so when Butcher offers him an apology, he responds with fists of fury. His strike at Butcher is laughable, but he does land a serious blow against Vought when CNN breaks the news about Compound V. Annie did most of the work bringing the story to light, Hughie freely admits, yet that’s not enough to stop Mother’s Milk and Frenchie from showering him with hugs and praise.
Butcher, whose hatred of Vought gets him out of bed in the morning, is the only one who doesn’t share in the celebration. Hughie’s victory over the supes, achieved completely without Butcher’s help, is what hurts the Boys’ ringleader more than any farcical punch ever could.
Meanwhile, playing house loses its appeal for Homelander. He’s tired of acting like it’s perfectly fine for Ryan to behave like a normal (read: lesser) person since his interest in the boy hinges on whether he has powers. Homelander tries his deranged version of a paternity test by throwing Ryan off the roof to see if he can fly, and when Becca rushes over to pick her son off the ground, Homelander twists her arm. Ryan intervenes to protect his mom. He screams and pushes Homelander to the ground, and his eyes glow red-hot with rage and the laser vision he inherited from his monstrous father. Once again, Homelander uses force to get exactly what he wants.
Aboard the S.S. What Could Go Wrong, the Boys are inches away from cementing their alliance with the CIA, so it’s time for the supes to hit the fan. Kenji escapes and destroys a police helicopter, sending our heroes scrambling to a safehouse on shore. Edgar, hoping the takedown of a supe-terrorist will restore public opinion in Vought and shift the media’s focus away from the Compound V story, sends The Seven in pursuit.
Somehow, The Deep is already on the case. He rallies every shark in the tri-state area to attack the Boys. Butcher kamikazes the boat into a whale The Deep has positioned as a giant roadblock, which explodes like a blood and blubber piñata. Scenes like this make me wonder if the show is just a vehicle for props and special effects guys to live out an escalating series of “Wouldn’t it be funny if…?” gags. Even so, I’m not complaining.
The Boys don’t make it far before The Seven catch them in some drainage tunnels. Homelander orders Starlight to kill Hughie and prove her loyalty to the supes, threatening to kill her if she doesn’t, but Kenji manages to incapacitate Homelander long enough for everyone to escape. His efforts are ultimately in vain as Vought’s queen enters the game. Stormfront catches up to Kenji and Kimiko, destroying a residential building and casually massacring civilians in the process. When Kenji attacks The Seven’s newest member to save his sister, Stormfront snaps his hands off and strangles him. She even delivers a racial slur before snapping his neck.
Stormfront’s loyalties seemed like an open question so far. Yes, she’s inherently suspicious as a supe, but her willingness to break ranks with Vought made her a bit of a wild card. Would she align herself with Starlight to help bring down The Seven from the inside? It’s now clear that the answer is a resounding no. Stormfront is a monster. In my review of this season’s first episode, I discussed how Homelander embodies Alan Moore’s insight that superheroes serve as white supremacist fantasies of racial superiority. Stormfront might actually give him a run for his money, and what’s worse, she’s willing to kill to make that fantasy a reality.
The episode ends with Vought ascendant and the Boys fully routed. Kenji’s death means Butcher has lost his bargaining chip with the CIA. A successful operation neutralizing a supe-terrorist allows Vought to brush aside the news about Compound V and keep the public’s focus on the supes illusory heroism; even Stormfront’s atrocities are written off as Kenji’s doing. Is this checkmate? Unfortunately, we’ll need to wait until next week to find out.
Notes from the Peanut Gallery:
There’s a scene where a director presents plans for Dawn of the Seven, an Avengers-esque film, to the very superhero team it chronicles. Stormfront calls him out for his shallow portrayals of women, and he responds, “Excuse me, but I do have two sisters, thank you very much.” Yeah, Stormfront. This guy’s met women, so how can he disrespect women? It’s a funny moment that skewers the tired line men offer up in half-baked denouncements of sexual misconduct, “As the father of daughters,” because of course we need to establish a woman’s connection to a man before we can take her seriously.
I had a hard time suspending my disbelief during this episode. First of all, I can accept that the Church of the Collective has friends in high places that tip them off to major supe-related events. But how in the name of Billy Joel does The Deep get from Ohio to the Atlantic Ocean fast enough to rally a fleet of sea creatures before the Boys can even make it back to shore? And if Homelander has super-hearing, then why doesn’t he hear Hughie and the gang splashing through the tunnels?
Black Noir’s identity is still a mystery, but he’s outed as a big softie twice during this episode: first when we see him crying at the news of Compound V and then again when he puts his hand over his heart to honor Lucy the whale’s noble sacrifice. Maybe he wears all that black just to hide his feelings?