SPOILERS

“The Instant White-Hot Wild”

Good lord, what a finale. It was amazing because during the huge showdown at Vought Tower, I wasn’t sure who I was rooting for, and that shows just how compelling this group of characters are.

The Boys season 3 has just been amazing from the beginning with Termite crawling into that penis until this final battle with Highlander, Butcher, Soldier Boy, Starlight, Maeve and the Boys.

When Homelander started the finale by going and retrieving his son Ryan, I knew things were heading for a bad end.

Then, apparently Soldier Boy had told the entire crew that he was Homelander’s father. They seemed to think this was still going to be fine.

Hughie was knocked out by Butcher and he gets picked up by Annie. Hughie still only sees the best in Butcher. He is the only one.

We see Maeve being moved out of Vought and she escapes.

The first twenty minutes or so dealt with a lot of interpersonal issues. Way more than I thought it was going to do.

And then Homelander killed Black Noir.

Did not expect that and the arrival of “Irving’s” cartoon friends after was the perfect way to bid adieu to one of my favorite characters among the Seven. Black Noir was always a mystery and, I guess, when he ceased to be mysterious was when he ceased to be valuable.

Antony Starr was brilliant yet again as the emotionally unbalanced Homelander. He killed Black Noir because he kept the truth of Soldier Boy from him, but you could see how it was tearing Homelander up figuratively as he was literally tearing up Black Noir. Antony Starr deserves an Emmy for this season.

Queen Maeve played a big part here, though her own obsession made things a tad uncertain for me as whom I should be cheering for in this battle. I have to say, Homelander was just looking for a family and his emotional moments were making me forget about the constant atrocities that he had committed this season. How he seemed to legitimately love Ryan and how the kid seemed to love him back made me think that Homelander was not a total monster. He reminded me as he was sticking his thumb in Maeve’s eye.

Hughie came through, big time. Instead of using the Temp V that could have killed him, he barricaded himself in the control room and brought the stage lights up to full power, juicing Starlight up to maximum power standard. This is the first time we see Starlight fly (which she does in the comics)

The battle at Vought was quite a powerful scene and it switched allegiances several times as many of the characters were conflicted with what they were trying to do. It appeared that both Maeve and Soldier Boy had been killed in one of his explosions after Maeve crashed them both out the window, but both of them survived… Maeve powerless and injured, off to have a relationship on a farm, and Soldier Boy in cryogenic chamber at the hands of the CIA.

The wrap up gave us a ton of things too:

• Annie joined the Boys, throwing away her Starlight outfit.
• Butcher found out that he was dying from the Temp V and had 12-18 months to live.
• Homelander introduced Ryan to his fans. Then he blew the head off of a protester that threw something that hit Ryan. The crowd cheered. Very much like Trump saying he could shoot someone and still get votes.
• MM explained his baggage to his daughter and she forgave him.
• Victoria Neuman became the running mate for Robert Singer’s presidential campaign when the VP he wanted was found floating in the pool. We know the drowning victim was not accidental as it was The Deep following Homelander’s orders paying Victoria back for her providing Ryan’s whereabouts to him.

I really thought this was the season where Homelander would be brought down, but it sure seems as if he is only stronger. He has The Deep, A-Train and Ashley totally intimidated and he has the rabble rousers behind him.

The Boys Season 3 has been the best season of this show and I am totally ready for season 4.

SPOILERS

“Here Comes a Candle to Light You to Bed”

Ok…now what????

What a shock at the end of the show. My jaw dropped and everything that I thought was going to happen eventually in season three of The Boys went by the way side. The Boys had their very own, “Luke, I am your father” moment as Soldier Boy told Homelander that he had discovered that Vought had Soldier Boy give them a sample of semen that would become Homelander.

Now what???

The thought that Soldier Boy would be able to stop Homelander, perhaps by taking away his powers with his blast, feels as if it is off the table now. In fact, Soldier Boy was calling Homelander to change the deal and that makes me wonder exactly how this could turn out for the heroes.

I still hate Billy Butcher. He went through a horrible mental illusion caused by Mindstorm that flashed through his abusive past leading up to his brother’s suicide. It felt as if Butcher was finally going to have that reflective moment that made him at least a little less of an a-hole. However, when Starlight called to warn Hughie that 3-5 doses of V-23 causes death, she spoke with Butcher who promised to tell Hughie but, of course, he did not. In fact, he wanted them to steal some more so they could take down Homelander at last.

And then, Black Noir interacts with animated cartoon characters. I could not believe that Black Noir was suddenly Eddie Valiant from Who Framed Roger Rabbit. We saw the animated version of Soldier Boy being betrayed by Noir and the others in Payback when he was given to the Russians. We could see that all of the animation was in Noir’s head and not in reality and it certainly showed us that he was not quite all there.

A-Train lives! I thought he was a goner last week after he killed Blue Hawk, but he awoke in the hospital with Angela right there, telling him the made up story to cover the death of Blue Hawk and that A-Train had a heart transplant from Blue Hawk himself.

I think that next week is the season finale. I have no idea what is going to happen and that is great!

The Deep continues his foray into his sex life with the mollusks. The Deep’s wife was not quite into the threesome.

SPOILERS

“Herogasm”

Seventy years ago. Founded by Soldier Boy. Poor Frenchie.

This is what a lot of the fans of the Boys comic book series have been waiting for. This episode of The Boys goes much farther than just a gimmick.

Are there sections in the show that have to be pixeled out by the YouTube watch along groups in order for their videos to be allowed? Absolutely. There is a ton of nudity and some graphic sexual moments. However, there is a ton of character bits and plot going on around the Herogasm.

Soldier Boy, Butcher and Hughie head to Vermont to try and find the Twins from Soldier Boys’ team. Soldier Boy has decided to kill all of his team and Butcher agrees to help if he adds Homelander to the list.

The battle that ends up at the Herogasm site between Soldier Boy, Butcher and Hughie against Homelander is awesome. They almost got Homelander, but he is able to escape, but he does – though clearly shaken.

So much happened here including:

• Annie posts a streaming video showing the world the havoc that happened when Soldier exploded and she told the truth about everything, including Homelander. She announced that she was quitting the Seven. This was a shocking ending to the amazing episode.

• The Deep and the Octopus. Come on…
• Starlight and Hughie have a major fight as Hughie’s insecurities seem to be getting in the way.
• Kimiko is grabbed by the same Russian thugs that grabbed Frenchie last week. She kicks their asses but thinks that she is a monster. She did stab that guy a few times…
• A-Train out right murders the Blue Hawk by brutally dragging him at super speed across the road. But… is that the last straw for A-Train’s weak heart? Does he die?

• Imagine there’s no heaven…
• GPS, Bluetooth and Internet are made up words according to Soldier Boy.
• Ashley ripped out her hair as she yelled at A-Train.
• Black Noir cut out his tracker and he is in the wind after hearing about Soldier Boy going after former team. Is Black Noir scared of Soldier Boy or is there more to this?
• Homelander stepped and squished Termite.

SPOILERS

“The Last Time To Look On This World Of Lies”

Amazon Prime dropped the fifth episode of the third season of The Boys tonight, continuing the outstanding season. Things are really starting toward building up to the battle with Homelander.

Homelander continues to flex his figurative muscles to the people around Vought, including board members. With Ashley taking the CEO role, Homelander looks like he is finally realizing that running a business is not as easy as he thought. This seems like one more thing that is piling upon the crazy hero.

Highlander “dealt” with Maeve this episode. We are not sure what has happened to her outside of the fact that Black Noir helped take her down. Not before she had sex with Butcher though in a violent encounter with him. Maeve has been in a downward spiral this season. I hope she is okay.

Soldier Boy has found his way to America (pretty easily, by the way) and started blowing things up as he tried to figure out what the world was now like. Paul Reiser, of all people, appeared as The Legend, who provided info to Soldier Boy off screen, and told Butcher and his group about it after wards.

Soldier Boy has apparently made a deal with Butcher now to become the weapon against Homelander. This whole deal had its share of consequences though as Butcher had to slip MM a roofie because he knew that MM would not agree to team with Soldier Boy. It also lead to conflict in the relationship with Hughie and Starlight. Starlight is not happy with Hughie for taking the V-23 for powers. This is all done very well because Hughie is taking the V-23 to feel less of a loser and to protect Starlight, but Starlight doesn’t want his protection. She just wants him. She wanted Hughie to leave Butcher and Soldier Boy, but he chose to follow behind Butcher.

Karma was rearing its ugly head for A-Train, whose tip lead to Super Sonic’s murder by Homelander last episode. Now, as A-Train tried to get the racist hero Blue Hawk to apologize after he had been brutalizing black communities, but it went really poorly, and A-Train’s brother wound up in the hospital, apparently paralyzed. This whole storyline is right out of the headlines with BLM and the police.

Kimiko recovered from the attack in Russia, but she lost her powers, which made her very happy. We also had a song and dance routine to “Who Could Ask for Anything More”. This was remarkably charming with Kimiko and Frenchie leading the background dancers through the hospital. It was all an imaginary scene, of course, but it was still so great.

SPOILERS

“Glorious Five Year Plan”

Every season I get to a point where I am just on the edge of hating Billy Butcher and then he pulls back enough for me to ease down again. We are just about to that point in season three. Butcher clearly cares for Hughie and MM, but he couldn’t give two craps about Kimiko and, because of that, he treats her like a weapon that he can do with what he likes. He looks down on the her, probably because she is a supes.

The season is halfway over and things could not be much worse than they are right now. Butcher and the Boys just awoken Soldier Boy with his gigantic beard and he blasted Kimiko with his chest ray (something I do not know if Soldier Boy could do). The blast was killing Kimiko as her healing did not seem to work. I wonder if that is the eventual way to stop Highlander.

I do not want Kimiko to die, but it was clear that something was going to happen to her or to Frenchie when they had decided to leave the group after this final mission. That is a terrible sign in super hero stories. Don’t be happy and think you are getting out.

Highlander has also really been feeling his oats lately too. He went to Victoria and had her turn on Stan. He had been tormenting all of the members of the Seven. You can tell that he believes he has no weakness right now.

With Starlight and Maeve teaming up to plan an attack on him, Starlight went to Super Sonic for help. This guy has always looked to be a straight laced hero and I did not really expect him to turn on her. However, when he tried to recruit A-Train to the cause (after a confrontation with The Deep), I saw this was a bad move. I even said out loud, “don’t tell him!”

Unfortunately, I was right. A-Train went to Highlander (off-screen) and told him about the plot against him, which led to Highlander murdering Super Sonic as a way to try and keep Starlight in line. It was not surprising that Super Sonic was killed, but it was a shocking moment. Funny, I was listening to John Campea’s show recently when he and Rob Meyer Burnett were talking about Super Sonic, and they set the Over-Under for Super Sonic’s death at 5.5 episodes. Well guys, it is under.

Oh, I skipped over Kimiko’s dildo fight. Not a sentence one would expect to type. It was an awesome segment.

The Boys episode 4 is the low point for the season (at least I hope). I really hope that Highlander gets his comeuppance this season. He deserves it.

SPOILERS

“Barbary Coast”

The third episode of The Boys Season 3 was released on Amazon Prime along with episode 1 & 2 and just like every episode has plenty of amazing moments and shocks.

“The bold and the batshit” was a line dropped by MM in this episode and it absolutely feels like a perfect description of what we get.

Highlander’s crazy rant at his birthday party last episode has made him MORE popular among the people (particularly white males). I should have seen that coming. Highlander is our Trump in this series where the worse he gets, the more his base loves him. Suddenly now, Highlander has a new upswing in his attitude as he is filled with confidence and bravado. So much so that Highlander announced on the decision show for the reality show American Hero, that he and Starlight were in love … #Homelight.

We get our first look at Jensen Ackles’s Soldier Boy in a flashback to a mission where the original super team, Payback, was involved in Ronald Reagan’s Iran-Contra situation. Soldier Boy was believed to have been killed and taken by the Russians. Meanwhile, several of Payback were killed or injured. Black Noir was there and we get a little bit about how he was scarred. I have wanted more about Black Noir the whole series and I love that we are getting info on him.

Butcher is still suffering from using the V-23 last episode. Continually puking green vomit, Butcher tried to keep Ryan safe by turning on the kid and making him hate Billy. Butcher made himself look like a real asshole.

The Deep is back in the Seven, thanks to Highlander’s mind games and attempts to show Starlight who had the real power. However, the scene later where Highlander forces The Deep to eat a living squid (who was begging for his life, to Deep who was the only person to hear it) was horrible. His name was Timothy, and Highlander forcing him to eat Timothy to prove his loyalty was absolutely rotten.

Highlander is really feeling himself as the master manipulator and is taking his newly found leverage a whirl. He had even dared Starlight to release the tape of him on the plane. He believed it would not matter any more and that the public would still love him.

Next week the show will continue as there are 5 more episodes of season 3 coming.

SPOILERS

“The Only Man in the Sky“

Episode two of season three really built on the fallout of the first episode… in a big way.

The knowledge that Victoria Neuman was the “head-popper” sent Hughie into an existential crisis, doubting everything he had done in the last year of his life and sending him into a spiral.

The insecurities and grief drove Butcher to continue his investigation into the death of Soldier Boy by confronting Soldier Boy’s former teen sidekick, Gunpowder, and using the V-23 to give him powers. Those powers leading Butcher into murdering Gunpowder in the typically gruesome manner that we have become accustomed to.

MM is having his issues as well as the talk around Soldier Boy apparently is triggering for him. He realized that he had to do something after losing control in front of his daughter.

But this was the combination of everything that has been going on in Highlander’s life that was the real highlight of “The Only Man in the Sky.” Highlander’s birthday special was being planned and he continued to get crazier and crazier. News of Stormfront’s suicide (by biting off her own tongue, ewww) hit him hard as did the constant pressure from the crowd, his dwindling numbers, Starlight’s continual rise in the ranks, Stan’s disrespect all blurred together to finally send the “hero” off the deep end and spew his vitriol live on television during his birthday celebration. It was a shocking moment that has been building truly for all three seasons.

You could almost hear the Vought P.R. department bouncing off the walls. It was a stunning monologue from a man whose image has meant more to him than just about anything. This was finally the true Homelander coming out for the world to see… not the processed, managed hero that had been carefully crafted for public consumption.

I am anxious to see where the show goes from here.

Also, the show felt extremely topical this episode because the fact that Gunpowder was speaking at a gun show/convention, proclaiming the far right ideas of gun ownership and gun rights and promoting for the Vaught Rifle Association. It felt way too real with the tragic occurrences we have been facing over the last month with the barrage of mass shootings and the desire of many for this to be the time that changes the culture. That scene with Payback was difficult to watch, but placed the character into our understanding right away.

Episode three is also dropped on Amazon Prime today and then it will go into a weekly release schedule.

SPOILERS

I checked in at Amazon Prime tonight, knowing that some times they drop premiere early and there was The Boys Season 3, Episode 1 waiting to be watched.

The streaming site were scheduled to drop the first three episodes of the new season of The Boys on June 3rd and then go weekly after that. I loved getting a chance to see the first episode early (to be honest, I could go on to two, but I’m saving that until tomorrow).

What a wild beginning.

Do you all remember around the time of Avengers: Endgame when there was such an outcry on social media and the internet wanting Paul Rudd’s Ant Man to fight Thanos by climbing inside his butt and then going full size? Well, it may not be Thanos, but we do get an idea of what it might have been like in the opening sequence of The Boys.

The Boys has not lost its crude and graphic nature since season two is all I will say about the arrival of the super named Terminte.

After picking my jaw up off the ground of that opening, The Boys settled into the concept that appeared to be the throughline for season three, and that is the fact that Highlander is cray cray.

They kept poking the mean puppy too as Stan Edgar appointed Starlight as Co-Captain of the Seven and he did not care what Highlander thought. Add that to the fact that he has lost his son, he is having his decision making ability questioned for having fallen in love with a Nazi (in season two) and having to go around to all of the talk shows to constantly explain himself… well, you can see how the stress might be getting to him. Heck, it is not like Highlander was the cover boy for sanity in the first place.

Billy Butcher has had a rough year too. He has been playing by all the rules and having to answer to Hugh in Hugh’s new position with the Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs’ (FBSA). Of course, Hugh works for Victoria Neuman, who makes people’s head explode. A secret that she does not keep from Hugh for long. I’m curious to see what Hugh does now that he was being showered with blood and guts from Victoria’s latest kill. Unbeknownst to her, Hugh saw everything.

Going back to Butcher, he has a few vials of the new temporary drug that gives someone super powers for 24 hours. He may have found his key to taking on Highlander without dying.

The Deep wrote a book…sort of… well, ghost writers wrote it. Then, A-Train came into conflict with Highlander, showing us all that you should never mumble insults under your breath about a man with super hearing.

And we will soon be getting.. Soldier Boy!

Excited to see the next couple of episodes tomorrow.

SPOILERS

Season two came to shocking ending with some horrible scenes and some dramatic revelations.

Intriguingly, the early part of this episode seemed to set up a contradiction between Homelander and Billy Butcher as fathers for Ryan, and it was looking as if Homelander was being set up as a much better father than Billy, who wanted no part of Ryan. Billy only wanted Becca, not the kid. In the end, Billy does the right thing and Homelander shows his selfishness and evil soul.

By the way, the introduction of this episode with the school video was really disturbing.

The death of Becca was extremely well handled at the hands of Ryan. It was one of the most emotional beats of the series. Most of the time, The Boys gives us the shocking violence like heads exploding or pulling off someone’s face, but this was much more powerful.

The head exploder identity was revealed to be Congresswoman Victoria Neuman, as she blew up the head of the Church of the Collective, Alastair Adana at the end.

And they absolutely showed that “Girls Do Get It Done” with Maeve, Kimiko and Annie kicking the crap out of Stormfront. That conflict was so satisfying, but, Frenchie, why are you yelling out that the weapons are your only chance? Why give away your strength?

Homelander continues to lose his grip. He will be coming back in season three still in his role as the leader of the Seven. The final scene of Homelander pleasing himself in the air against the moon leaves us with an indelible impression of him.

Season three starts in June.

SPOILERS

What an explosive episode. Hm, maybe I should avoid those puns while dealing with the penultimate episode of season two of The Boys. Named “The Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker”, this episode continued the run of solid and shocking events leading to season two finale.

The boys believed that they finally had Vought by the short-hairs, but things changed with a bloody pop of a bunch of heads. Who is doing this? Is it Cindy whom we met last episode? Personally, that does not feel right. We did not see Cindy exploding just heads last episode. She blew up the whole guard that time. Why would she specifically target just heads? And this is clearly the same person who killed Raynor in episode one this season. I hope this mystery gets resolved in the finale.

Oh, and C-SPAN.. what’s going on? You can’t go to blank screen sooner? Lots of heads exploded on live TV before you guys decided to shut it down.

RIP Lamplighter. We hardly knew ye…except that you loved porn videos.

Once Hughie talked him into going to the Tower to help try and save Starlight when Hughie was supposed to be babysitting him, it was clear he was not coming back alive. However, I did not expect it to have been by his own hand. Perhaps the same hand that Hughie cut off with a broken wine bottle. Seriously gross.

Hughie going in to rescue Annie, who had been caught thanks to her dumb-ass mother, was an awesome moment. As was Maeve force feeding Black Noir an Almond Joy (bringing that back from last season) because he had a tree nut allergy. I hope Black Noir is not dead because I love him despite his blind loyalty to Vought.

Highlander and Stormfront going to take Ryan away from his mother, by telling the kid the truth and getting him to turn on her was a despicable thing to do. Especially the line “He’ll still have a mother” coming from the O.G. Nazi, Stormfront. This makes me worried big-time for the kid. I assume that Billy Butcher will be involved in saving him, or at least, looking as if he will save him.

More machinations happening with the Church of the Collective. Apparently Eagle the Archer is now persona non grata as The Deep and A-Train are told that no Church member should communicate with Eagle any longer. Sounds as if Eagle has found a way out from his Fresca induced loyalty.

Billy Butcher and his emotional reunion with his father was tough to watch as well. I am just happy that his father did not get tossed over the railing, because I truly thought that was what was about to happen.

There are so many stories dangling around season two and I expect a crazy finale to start to build toward season three this coming June.

SPOILERS

I have not been as big of a fan of season two of The Boys as I was of season one, but last episode was a real step up for me and then episode 6, “Down the Road and Back Again” may have been my favorite episode of the entire series so far, dating back to season 1.

In the episode, we got a Frenchie flashback to the night where he was supposed to be following Lamplighter, but the fiery hero ended up burning children alive. Along the way, we meet Lamplighter in the form of Sean Ashmore (from X-Men movies and The Rookie). Once again, the show takes us in a different, unexpected path by showing us how Lamplighter was being tormented by the memories of that night, how he was not intending to kill the children, and how Frenchie fit into the narrative of the evening. It was exceptionally well done introducing this character and not just making him the evil flamethrower that a lot of series would have done. It even seems that Lamplighter is going to be with the Boys for now.

All of this happening inside the Sage Grove Center, an experimental lab where humans were being given Compound-V and were being tested on how they reacted. Some adjusted well, some were going crazy while others still were exploding. Inside here, we meet Cindy whose powers are terrifying. Cindy escapes too, providing another potential foil for either our heroes or the Seven to face eventually.

This episode also brought more of a connection between Butcher and Annie. I loved how Annie started off with a confrontation with Butcher, laying down some truth that I 100% agree with when it comes to Karl Urban’s character. It was an important scene that may help Butcher eventually be able to accept Ryan, Becca’s son.

There were some tough moments too, as when Annie killed Lt. Randy Disher (from Monk) to get his car in order to try and save Hughie, who had been injured terribly earlier in the show. It showed how Annie and Butcher had more in common than either were comfortable with and that they both have real feelings for Hughie. Hughie was bringing them together while he was unconscious.

There was perhaps the funniest moment of the entire series too as, during the riot at the Sage Grove Center, MM was attacked by the guy whose penis grew and wrapped around his neck.

Stormfront came clean with Homelander, who had been upset prior when he realized that she had been lying to him. She told him about her past as a Nazi and that she had been born in 1919. She laid out her plan to start a race war and how she wanted him to be front and center as the leader. Homelander kissed her after this, but there may still be more to this. Homelander is absolutely still deteriorating mentally. Perhaps this is the recognition his ego requires to keep from losing his mind, but we’ll have to see. He is certainly unstable.

The Deep brought a cell phone to Maeve that contained a video about the plane crash, taken aboard the plane. She planned on blackmailing Homelander to leave her and Elena alone, but Elena found the phone and it may have tainted her opinions toward Maeve.

This was a great episode and I am excited to see where this season goes.

SPOILERS

I feel like this episode was more like it. I was not as much of a fan of The Boys S2 E4 but I believe this one was much more enjoyable.

The emotional downturn of Homelander continued as he accidentally killed an innocent while killing one of the super-terrorist. The nation’s public opinion began to drop, causing Homelander to become even more upset than he was. So upset that he pictured himself frying a group of protesters with his laser beam eyes before he left the area. He also had a violent sexual encounter with the apparently masochistic Stormfront. Homelander’s mental status will be huge for the rest of the season, I am sure.

This episode helped with my dislike of Billy Butcher. I have not liked this character much over the first 12 episodes of this series, but the episode does a good job of making him more relatable for me. A big part of it is the bulldog and the “taffy-making” aunt.

I want more of Black Noir, and he showed up this week. This guy is something special. I want him to face off with Homelander, but it sure seems as if he is totally loyal to Vought. Still, more of Black Noir.

Vought continued to film the movie of the origin of the Seven, albeit of the current roster instead of the originals. The three women of the Seven had their share of moments.

SPOILERS

Not sure how I felt about this episode.

Homelander is certainly one sick puppy.

Billy Butcher is still one big jerk. I don’t care if he is right in his opinion on Vought pursuing Ryan if Billy and Becca went on the run with the boy, he is still one big a-hole. I just do not like Billy Butcher. He only cares about himself. I hope the show changes my mind sooner or later because I love Karl Urban, but as of right now, I could not like this guy less.

Easily the best part of this episode was the “We Didn’t Start the Fire” bit in the car with Annie and Hughie singing and MM trying to put up with it. The road trip part of this story with these three characters was the most effective, character building section of the story.

Homelander is just on the edge. He’s going go on some gigantic killing spree soon. Everything in his life seems to be trying to push him over the edge… including our apparently immortal racist superhero Stormfront (or is it Liberty?).

The episode had a weird framing device talking about love that turned out to be the interviews by the Church of the Collective to find a wife for The Deep. That was all kind of creepy.

That seemed to be the theme of the episode.

SPOILERS

Remember when I said that episode two of season two was more of a character piece? Well, episode three just kicked the crap out of that episode and took its lunch money.

I had watched a season two trailer after I finished season one, and I damn sure wish I hadn’t because that trailer spoiled a whole bunch of shocking moments in this episode that would have been absolutely insane had I not knew they were coming.

For example, Billy Butcher in the speedboat ramming a whale that had been placed in the path by The Deep which sent the boat inside the whale like a giant missile. RIP Lucy the whale. We hardly knew ye.

I mean… holy crap.

That had to be some of the grossest filming that this cast ever had to go through. How much fake blood and intestines did they have to use?

Also, we saw Homelander ordering Starlight to kill a fairly defeated Hughie. Admittedly, there was a whole Billy Joel allusion that made this moment even more painful. I feel so bad for Hughie because he has been taking it in the rump this whole season.

Oh, and Homelander threw his son off the house roof to see if he could fly. It was another moment spoiled by that trailer. I can only assume the tension that might have been built had I not known that Homelander was tossing poor Ryan off the roof. I did enjoy Ryan’s response to his father here.

I am glad that the reveal to the world about Compound-V came here and didn’t carry on through the entire second season. As I said, I felt that this had played out in season 1 and getting it out of the way in season 2 was smart.

Kimiko’s brother having his hands ripped apart by Stormfront, who turned out to be dramatically racist apparently, was a horrible and Stormfront has set herself up for an eventual faceoff with Kimiko.

The Boys are absolutely falling apart. I feel so bad for Hughie, because he has been taking the brunt of the problems, but everyone has been taking their share. The show has truly been sending them down the low level, putting them at the worst possible moment.

I’m not sure where they go from here. With the Compound-V done, and Vought seemingly unfazed with the revelation (blaming it on the recently deceased Madalyn Stillwell), what do the Boys do now? Is it all a revenge season? Is there another path? There are only five more episodes in season 2 and they certainly can’t depend on harpooning a whale with a speedboat. I assume Stormfront will be front and center, but where do the Boys come in?

SPOILERS

The second episode of The Boys on Amazon Prime in season two was less violent than episode one was, but there were a bunch of tense scenes that were character driven.

I officially do not like Billy Butcher. He’s a hypocrite and selfish-as-hell and if I were Hughie, I would have left his ass when he punched me and threatened to murder me. Sure, Butcher just found out about Becca being alive (and Becca has some guts too standing up to Homelander as she did), but he still only gives a crap about his own life and he does not give a care to anyone else.

I love Karl Urban and his performance has been excellent, but I just cannot stand this character and I want him to get his just desserts.

Starlight’s confrontation with A-Train was epic. She came out of her own cocoon and put that jerk in his place. Bringing up A-Train’s murder of Popclaw was excellent and showed some real backbone. One wonders how much the new attitude came from the time Starlight spent with Stormfront, who sure seemed to not take anyone’s crap. I get a feeling that Starlight has been inspired by the latest female in the Seven.

Then, the most ridiculously wonderful thing happened. The Deep got stoned from the cult (with Fresca?) and sang a song with his gills (who were voiced by Patton Oswald). They sang “You are so Beautiful” together in the most bizarre thing I have seen on this show. The Deep is going deep into his soul to try and work out his personal issues and his body shame. This was a character that I never wanted to cheer for, but I am slowly coming around to a new way of thinking for our fish-talking superhero.

Princess Maeve got a great scene too with her secret ex-girlfriend and she admitted to her that she was afraid that Homelander would kill her if he knew the truth. When Maeve admitted that the reason she told her now was that she didn’t want her to keep hating her, well that was powerful.

Sadly, Kimiko’s brother turned out to be one of the super terrorists that the Boys were pursuing. More conflict from within the group.

This episode was a lot slower, but that was not a bad thing. Solid episode that developed characters instead of just exploding heads.