Spoilers

Episode 5 took a huge dive into religion, especially Christianity. Starlight went to speak to the Believe Expo in her home town and to see Ezekiel, a preacher (who we saw in a bar scene in a homosexual encounter) who is also a supe who can stretch. Starlight delivered a speech standing up for herself and making her points about how she did not believe in the messages that were being preached at the Believe Expo.

Hughie came to the Believe Expo as Starlight’s guest, but he had a separate assignment. He had to go to Ezekiel and blackmail him to reveal everything that he knew about Compound-V.

There is a ton of great character moments here too. We learn some info on Rebecca Saunders Butcher (Butcher’s missing, presumed dead wife), Maeve was having some problems, and we started seeing some signs of Homelander had some kind of issue with Madelyn Stillwell’s baby. It looked later in the episode that the answer is that Homelander was Stillwell’s son.

With the info from Ezekiel, Butcher and MM found their way to a hospital where they discovered that they were injecting babies with Compound-V to give them super powers. There was a ridiculous use of a baby with laser beam eyes.

Black Noir battled the Asian woman and left her dead…except she did not die. She healed. However, Popclaw did not heal since A-Train killed her by injecting her with heroin.

Episode 6 Vought began to attempt to revitalize the image of the Seven through a series of vignettes.

The episode had more wonderful character moments including

• Learning the Asian woman’s name (Kimiko) and her back story
• Mesmer, a psychic, helped reveal her past and then betrayed them to Homelander

• We learned what had happened to Becca Butcher
• The Deep was revealed as the sexual abuser of Starlight to the public
• Frenchie and Kimiko continued to bond
• Starlight dropped out of view, hiding out with Hughie
• Hughie and Annie bond, but Butcher played cockblocker
• Starlight stood up to Stillwell
• Vought is making Compound-V boosted terrorists to push militarization of supers

SPOILERS

There were some serious events that happened in these three episodes. It has been a great three episode arc so far. The capture and eventual murder of Translucent, the race for A-Train, the failed attempt to save the hijacked airplane, blackmail of a Senator by a shape shifter, Popclaw popping the head of her landlord with her vagina…

Yeah, that one was shocking.

The team of Butcher, Frenchie, Hughie gained a fourth member with Mother’s Milk. The four of them were investigating A-Train and his use of a performance enhancer called Compound-V. Meanwhile, Hughie is getting closer to Annie, aka Starlight while he was having guilt and flashes to some of the things that he had done.

This continues to be a fantastic deconstruction of the superhero genre and it is doing it with some excellent characterization and storytelling. Vought’s efforts to get superheroes allowed to join the military of the United States, all led by Elisabeth Shue keeps one wondering what is going to happen next. Hughie is getting further away from the supervillain that I thought he might become after episode one.

There is a new and mysterious woman involved heavily in episode 4. She was very brutal and violent, tied somehow to the Compound-V.

The Deep has gone from a horrible sexual predator in episode one to a comedic presence with one of the most unbelievably chaotic scenes of the series involving an attempted escape of a dolphin from a water park. I couldn’t believe what I was watching.

There really are a ton of irons in the fire. I haven’t even mentioned the continued behavior of Homelander, who feels as if he is heading toward big bad status of the series.

This has been excellent so far and I am excited to see where it goes next. There are a lot of storylines underway and I expect that they will intersect before too long.

SPOILERS

“The Name of the Game“

I have heard a lot of positives about The Boys on Amazon Prime. It has always sounded like a series that I would like, yet I have not gotten into it. Today, as I was working on the month banner for June, I came across the fact that Season Three of the Boys will be coming out in June this year. Going over to Prime, I saw that each of the first two seasons had 8 episodes around an hour-ish each. I figured that I could easily blow through those before the debut of season three so I decided to give it a chance.

Episode one grabbed me right away.

The set up was extremely intriguing, especially with Hughie and Robin and their shocking scene. I did not see that coming and my jaw dropped. I also loved how Hughie did not move forward as I expected him to. I saw this as the origin story of a supervillain (and it may yet be for all I know), but the fact that he is my protagonist, and the easiest character to cheer for in the show, that takes what seemed obvious and made it uncertain.

I enjoyed how this show seemed to be breaking down the superhero tropes and playing with the genre. The Seven, the group of heroes idolized by the public, are actually a group of self-centered, selfish, asshats.

The show smartly gives us Starlight, a new member of the Seven for the audience to follow. She has the general qualities that we look for in our heroes which makes the scene with The Deep all the more disturbing.

I am unfamiliar with the Dynamite comic book this show is based upon, which is great. I do not have to worry about expecting what is next and just enjoy the ride.

I also loved Karl Urban and his arrival on the scene. I have no idea the background of Billy Butcher, but I am excited to see.