The Boys recap: An orgy of confrontation
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This week's episode of The Boys packs quite a punch. In many ways, it feels like three seasons of stories coming to a head all at once, making for an incredibly explosive, shocking, and satisfying episode of TV. Let's dive in.
After last week's episode saw Butcher (Karl Urban) and Hughie (Jack Quaid) ditch Starlight (Erin Moriarty) and Mother's Milk (Laz Alonso) in favor of teaming up with Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles), we catch up with Butcher and Hughie in a hotel room, keeping Soldier Boy happy by plying him with burgers, booze, and benzos.
After Soldier Boy learned from Crimson Countess (Laurie Holden) that his abduction in Nicaragua was a setup involving his entire team, he decided to hunt them all down and enact his revenge. Butcher and Hughie are down to help, as long as Soldier Boy helps them take down Homelander (Antony Starr). They strike a deal, and Butcher heads out to find a lead.
Back at Vaught Tower, Homelander learns that Soldier Boy is still alive… and it freaks him the f— out. He orders Deep (Chace Crawford), now the sole employee of Crime Analytics, to keep this under wraps… if word gets out that Soldier Boy is alive and turned villain, it could mean the end of both Vaught and Homelander. For perhaps the first time in the series, we see Homelander legitimately scared. So instead of handling the situation himself, he sends Deep to track down Soldier Boy's team.
Homelander rushes out of Crime Analytics and confides in his most loyal subject — Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell), who responds by doing what he always does… staring blankly and saying nothing. Which Homelander really, really appreciates. But Black Noir, a former member of Soldier Boy's squad, knows he's in trouble… so he grabs a knife, digs into his arm, rips out his tracking chip, and bails.
From here, we follow Homelander back to his apartment, where he looks in the mirror and has a private heart to heart with… himself. In a terrific Smeagol/Gollum homage, Homelander's dark side urges him to kill what's left of his humanity, and become the un-killable, un-shakable God he was always meant to be. That's a terrifying thought…
We next check in with Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) in the hospital, hurt and confused by Frenchie's (Tomer Capone) sudden absence after their long-awaited first kiss, unaware that he didn't ditch her… he was taken by Little Nina's henchmen. After sending him a sweet text: "Want to watch Singin' In The Rain next?", she's kidnapped by a Russian goon on orders from Little Nina (Katia Winter.)
Meanwhile, Starlight pays a visit to Mother's Milk who, after being betrayed (yet again) by Butcher, is sort of losing it. He's loading up his weapons and getting ready to use them on… not Soldier Boy… but Butcher. Starlight tries talking some sense into him, but it's no use. MM is on the warpath, and nothing's gonna stop him.
Starlight's facing pressure from all sides in this episode, so the last thing she needs is a private chat with Director Neuman (Claudia Doumit), who admits to being the infamous Head Popper. Neuman wants Starlight's help exposing Vaught and taking down Homelander, but Starlight's tired of sacrificing her integrity for the sake of winning, so she walks out on Neuman, making yet another powerful enemy.
Amazon Prime Neuman tries to get Starlight to work with her
The final few acts of the episode take place at the home of TNT, a fraternal twin pair of supes (Jack Doolan and Kristin Booth) who worked with Soldier Boy back in the day. Deep is the first one to arrive on the scene, and it's not just TNT he finds there… it's a supe party called "Herogasm": a massive orgy of C-list superheroes and prostitutes. Deep, who isn't exactly known for his strong will, folds and joins the party, engaging in some particularly shocking debauchery of his own.
Meanwhile, Kimiko wakes up tied to a chair next to Frenchie's old flame Cherie (Jordana Lajoie). In front of them is a naked, thoroughly tortured Frenchie. This gruesome scene has been orchestrated by Little Nina, who further torments Frenchie by asking him to make a choice: should she kill Kimiko or Cherie? Before he's forced to decide, Kimiko breaks free and takes out Little Nina's henchmen. Kimiko, Frenchie and Cherie manage to escape, but so does Little Nina. And something tells me we haven't seen the end of her…
Soon, Starlight and Mother's Milk find the orgy as well, and quickly realize that this pleasure-party could turn into a murder-party if they don't clear the house before Soldier Boy shows up. But things get complicated when Hughie teleports in to do some surveillance, running into his arch-nemesis A-Train (Jessie T. Usher). Bolstered by the V-24 running through his veins, Hughie finally works up the courage to stand up to A-Train, pushing him to apologize for murdering his girlfriend, Robin, back in the pilot.
And to Hughie's utter shock… A-Train actually apologizes. After watching Blue Hawk (Nick Wechsler) cripple his brother, he's finally come to realize the cost of his collateral damage. Hughie doesn't know what to say, so he simply winds up and punches A-Train in the face. The fight is quickly broken up by Starlight.
It's here that s—- really starts to go down. Hughie teleports Starlight out of the house, trying to save her from what's to come. But Starlight doesn't need a superhero, she needs the kind, vulnerable Hughie she met on that park bench in season 1. The two have it out (while naked, post-teleportation, mind you) in a brutal argument that feels like the death-knell for their relationship.
Meanwhile, back at the orgy, Mother's Milk sees Soldier Boy walk through the door, and he confronts the supe about killing his family. "Which one?" Soldier Boy crudely banters, which causes MM's blood to boil. So he clenches his fists and prepares to fight… until Butcher steps between them and asks Soldier Boy to spare MM. Soldier Boy agrees — he's here to kill TNT, not some rando. So he heads off…
Finding TNT, who beg for their lives, insisting that it was Black Noir who came up with the plan to betray him. Soldier Boy doesn't buy it — Black Noir doesn't make a move without Vaught's approval. As he prepares to execute TNT, a nearby radio suddenly begins playing a Russian pop song, which triggers Soldier Boy's trauma and causes him to lose control of his powers, just like he did in New York. The home, and everyone in it, is decimated.
As the bloody survivors stumble out of the home, A-Train finds Blue Hawk and dishes out some justice for his brother by grabbing the racist supe and dragging him at full speed down a highway until he's nothing more than a mangled pile of meat. But the physical exertion is too much for A-Train, whose heart gives out, leaving him lying alone on the asphalt. Could this be the final stop for the A-Train?
As if this wasn't enough action for one episode… Homelander touches ground outside the wreckage of the house. And if you ever wondered who would win in a fight, Superman or Captain America… here's your answer. In what's possibly the most bad-ass action scene of the series thus far, Homelander and Soldier Boy face off. And just when it seems like Homelander has the edge on Soldier Boy…
Butcher and Hughie show up, powers on full display, to Homelander's confusion. With Soldier Boy, Butcher and Hughie working together, they manage to pin Homelander down. And just as Soldier Boy is about to blast him away… Homelander escapes.
As the dust settles, we end the episode with Starlight, who goes on Instagram Live and lets loose — exposing the truth about Soldier Boy, Vought, Homelander… all of it. She signs off not as Starlight, but as Annie January, and quits The Seven.
Other Observations:
Soldier Boy is truly a product of a different generation. And there's no better example of that than his epically uncomfortable quip about Bill Cosby: "Cos, that's a real man. Holy s— did he make some strong drinks." Yeah… they went there.
Herogasm might be one of the wildest things I've ever seen on TV. Toilet surveillance? A supe simultaneously pleasuring three women with his mind? MM getting covered in semen? Yeah… they went there.
My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I saw The Deep getting a blowjob from an octopus. But, I mean… of course they went there, it's The Boys! What did you expect?
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