The Boys | Amazon Prime Video | Season 2 Episode 5: We Gotta Go Now
After last week, where Becca effectively chose her son over Butcher, Homelander effectively took out his support system, and Stormfront effectively raised an army, The Boys, The Supes – and this week, a Terror – are back in action.
The Supes
We open on a scene where Queen Maeve is looking for ‘Ruby’ in some wreckage in New York City; they find each other and after a tender moment, a director – Adam Bourke – yells ‘cut’ and we see this is a movie shoot for ‘Dawn of The Seven.’ Homelander is reviewing the movie footage when Ashley shows him some footage of her own: Homelander accidentally killing a civilian while taking out a villain. She tells him Mr. Edgar and the legal department don’t want him addressing the incident.
Starlight’s mom, Donna (Ann Cusack), comes to the movie set and talks to Stormfront; she asks Starlight to forgive her for using Compound V on her. Stormfront tells Starlight she should forgive her mother; she says her mother, Adele, never let her do superhero pageants like Donna.
Congresswoman Victoria Neuman speaks at a rally about the Homelander incident; she says she will have hearings on Vought and Compound V. Homelander flies to the scene next to her, and she looks terrified; he takes her microphone and addresses the crowd. He says he’s upset too, but sometimes ‘these things just happen.’ He says freedom comes with a price, but a soldier in the crowd yells that Homelander doesn’t speak for them. The crowd starts chanting ‘you don’t speak for us,’ and Homelander gets angry; with his heat vision he incinerates dozens of people at the rally – in his mind, at least. Instead, he says they are the real heroes and flies off. Later, he watches the footage of himself at the rally, and has a mini breakdown.
On the phone, Stormfront talks to a male nurse (Shawn Ashmore) at a place called Sage Grove Center, about a kid who’s a hero. #Cryptic! As they hang up Homelander shows up; she tells him she’ll have her meme person put together some memes for him (as a way of getting support for Homelander back).
Later, Starlight goes into Stormfront’s trailer after she leaves, correctly guesses her tablet password (Adele), and sees e-mails about Sage Grove Center. When Stormfront comes back, she tells Starlight she knows she leaked the story about Compound V and she’ll tell Vought. Starlight says she’ll tell the world that Stormfront used to be Liberty; Stormfront says Starlight is going to be a big help to her, confusing Starlight. Homelander comes in, Starlight leaves, and Homelander tells Stormfront he owes her for his poll numbers going back up.
Stormfront throws Homelander against a wall and starts kissing him; he returns the favor and they start getting rough. His eyes glow and she tells him to do it; he burns her chest with his heat vision and she tells him she doesn’t break easily. They continue to throw each other around and end up having superhero sex.
(Most of) The Boys
In a bar, Butcher is drowning his sorrows; he picks a fight and takes out some aggression. Later, Hughie calls him, and tells him about Stormfront being Liberty. They discuss this and Becca, but Butcher says goodbye and destroys the SIM card in his phone. Hughie tells MM something is wrong with Butcher because he was being nice…
At the house of Judy Atkinson (Barbara Gordon), the doorbell rings and Butcher is standing there with groceries; we learn Judy is his aunt. In her kitchen, she tells him to call his mother because she’s worried about him. Judy tells him his father’s cancer is getting worse, but he isn’t interested in talking to or seeing either of his parents. He asks Judy where ‘his boy’ is, and finds him – a bulldog names Terror. Butcher takes Terror for a walk – without a leash! – and he talks to the dog; he tells him he thought he, Terror and Becca would grow old together.
Butcher and Terror come back to Judy’s, and Hughie and MM are there waiting. MM says Hughie heard a dog toy and he knew Butcher kept Terror at his aunt’s. Judy asks Butcher if Hughie looks like ‘Lenny’, but Butcher isn’t interested. Hughie and MM ask for help with Stormfront, but Butcher refuses. He gets in his car, but sees Black Noir on a roof across the street. He goes back inside, starts shutting windows and curtains, and apologizes to his aunt. MM calls in a gas leak to get the entire neighborhood to be out on the streets; he wants an audience for whatever Black Noir is planning.
Black Noir watches as firemen arrive; Butcher decides to keep him busy while Hughie and MM escape – he says he’s tired and needs a break. Hughie says he thought about ending things after Robin died, but he didn’t; he says Butcher is feeling sorry for himself because he doesn’t have anything, but neither does anyone else. Butcher tries to pass, but Hughie and MM block his way.
The firemen eventually leave and the neighbors go back inside. Judy leads The Boys to the ‘taffy room’ – a safe room in the basement; they learn the sweet old lady is also a drug dealer on the side. They also set up explosive traps for Black Noir, should he get into the house.
In the taffy room, Hughie asks Judy who Lenny is, and she tells him Lenny is Butcher’s little brother. She tells Hughie a story about when Butcher and Lenny were kids and how Lenny had a way of making “Billy not be Billy.” She says she thinks Butcher needs someone like that in his life; as she tells Hughie Lenny is dead, they hear several explosions, then footsteps, up above them.
A smoke grenade comes through a vent to the taffy room, and everyone hurries out of the house. Butcher stays back and locks the door; he yells to Black Noir to come out, and he does. MM comes in and starts shooting at Black Noir, but Noir hurls knife into MM and he falls down. Hughie comes in shooting and the men fight; as Black Noir is going to attack Hughie, Butcher tells him he’s got pictures of Ryan and if he lays a finger on any of them, they’ll be released.
Black Noir chokes Butcher, and gets a phone call from Stan Edgar, who can see Butcher from a camera on Black Noir. They make a deal; Butcher won’t release the pictures and he’ll call off Black Noir. Edgar calls him off, and Black Noir leaves. Hughie asks Butcher if he really has pictures; Butcher says ‘of course I do’, and Hughie smiles.
Later, Butcher tells Terror he’s going to get ‘his mum’ back, and he should hang in there and be a good boy for Judy. He gives the dog a Homelander toy to hump; Butcher, MM and Hughie say goodbye to Judy, and take off.
Kimiko and Frenchie
Frenchie follows Kimiko, who goes to meet some men in a bar; she proceeds to kill them, quite violently, despite being shot several times. Frenchie walks in and sees the carnage, and follows after her.
He follows Kimiko to a church, where she goes in and meets Cherie, who hired Kimiko to take out the men. Frenchie tells Kimiko doing this won’t help her, and that it is only poison to her soul. Kimiko signs to him that she got her baby brother – the only thing that mattered to her – killed, and she doesn’t want his help. He doesn’t understand her, gets annoyed, and leaves.
The Deep
We learn through Nancy O’Dell and Extra that The Deep got married! Later, Katie Couric interviews The Deep and his new wife; Cassandra says Kevin had issues, but he’s grown and changed.
A-Train watches an ad The Deep filmed about the Church of the Collective, ending with shaking hands with the founder, Alistair Adana (Goran Visnjic). Later, Maeve goes to see The Deep and tells him she can help him get back into The Seven if he helps her…
Elsewhere
A-Train talks to Adam and gives him a proposed rewrite; his dialogue doesn’t seem authentic, and he wants his ‘goodbye speech’ to be open-ended, as if he’s not 100% leaving The Seven. Adam shoots him down, and when A-Train says he’s not going to do the scene, Adam tells him to talk to Ashley.
Stormfront and A-Train chat, and she taunts him about being fired. Ashley comes over and grabs A-Train; they talk about his career and Ashley tells him she’s sorry, but he can either leave with dignity or get fired for shooting up Compound V. He relents, and shoots his goodbye scene as written.
Maeve and Elena talk to Vought’s PR team about re-branding Maeve as a gay superhero and Elena as her girlfriend; Maeve says this is Homelander messing with her and they need to play along in order to be safe, but they’re going to take him down.
Wrap Up
I was able to write a lot of words, but nothing really happened in this episode. The Boys kinda took on Black Noir. Homelander and Stormfront boned. Kimiko took out her anger about losing her brother. The Seven shot a movie, which took up the bulk of the episode.
That last point was my biggest issue this week. Why would actual superheroes be starring in a movie about themselves? Even if they were all brought up in the Vought ecosystem and taught how to act – even though we know they all weren’t, because Starlight and Stormfront recently joined the team – you would have to imagine they wouldn’t be good actors. It’s like putting real doctors on Grey’s Anatomy, or real lawyers on Law & Order; it’s just odd. I think they missed an opportunity to ‘cast’ The Seven – they could have had lookalike actors talk about each superhero and their motivations…
While there were a few interesting story beats – Butcher’s dog, his brother, and Stormfront’s mysterious connection to Sage Grove Center (and Shawn Ashmore’s Lamplighter) – it definitely felt like a filler episode. Hopefully we’ll quickly (and finally) learn what Stormfront’s agenda really is, and what happened with Lamplighter, and his connection with Frenchie, before the end of the season! M
mikexmachina 
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