The Boys | Amazon Prime Video | Season 2 Episode 6: The Bloody Doors Off
If last week’s episode was nothing but filler (and it was), this episode was nothing but killer. We got tons of backstory, secrets revealed, allegiances tested, several Golden Girls references, and a whole lot of action. Let’s recap!
Flashback Frenchie
Flashback (1): Frenchie is extolling the virtues of The Golden Girls to Cherie and Jay (Michael Ayres); he says the Girls made their own family, and Cherie and Jay are his Blanche and Dorothy, respectively, and that of course he is Betty White. He holds up a bomb and asks “Who wants to rob a bank?”
The Boys
Starlight tells Frenchie and Hughie she needs her Vought tracking chip removed because Stormfront knows she leaked the story about Compound V. Frenchie uses a small circular saw on Starlight’s neck, and manages to puncture her skin (grossly) and take out the chip.
In home base, Butcher and Kimiko watch Stormfront and Homelander in an interview and Butcher says “they’re f***ing,” keying in on their relationship. Starlight goes back to the underground lair with Hughie and Frenchie; Kimiko hugs her when she see her.
Hughie tells Butcher that Starlight has a lead on Stormfront: dozens of e-mails from Stan Edgar regarding a potential breakthrough at Sage Grove Center, a psychiatric hospital in Pennsylvania. Butcher says they’ll investigate with Starlight, in case Vought comes looking for any of them.
At Sage Grove, Frenchie, Kimiko and MM dress as orderlies. Butcher and Hughie wait in a wooded area with their van, and Butcher watches as Starlight fries a chain link fence so the “orderlies” can get through; they take off running towards the hospital and Starlight heads back. She asks Butcher why he hates her so much, since she hates Vought as much as he does. She says he’s just a bigot and a bully just because of what’s in her blood. Just then, Stormfront arrives at the hospital…
Flashback (2): Later, potentially after said bank robbery, Mallory interviews Frenchie in an interrogation room; she offers him a job working for her. He’s not too keen on the idea at first, but Mallory says Cherie and Jay can go free instead of going to a super-max prison, if he joins her.
MM, Frenchie and Kimiko
Inside, Frenchie tells Kimiko to get on a stretcher, but she motions and he gets on instead; she and MM wheel him through the halls.
The Boys take out a guard and manage to get into the security room, where they see dozens of cameras on cells that contain people with super powers. They watch as a male orderly (Shawn Ashmore) and Stormfront go into one of the cells. They talk to one of the patients and ask about his powers; they say he was admitted because he was suicidal. When he says he won’t cooperate until he can talk to his sister, Stormfront agrees and leaves the room; the male orderly closes the door behind her and lights the patient on fire.
In the control room, Frenchie yells out that it’s Lamplighter, and they have to kill him for what he did to Mallory’s grandchildren. Hughie calls MM and tells him Stormfront just flew away so they need to get out of there. Frenchie gets back on the stretcher and Kimiko and MM wheel him out again.
The Boys pass Lamplighter in a hallway, and he seemingly recognizes Frenchie; Frenchie jumps off the stretcher and Lamplighter tries to attack him with fire, but Frenchie pushes his arm, so he ends up incinerating a nearby door. The patient in the room, Cindy, comes through the door and Lamplighter tries to keep her calm. A guard comes behind Cindy and shoots her several times, but she simply turns around and makes a fist and the guard explodes (grossly). The Boys and Lamplighter run away and barricade themselves in the security room as Cindy crushes all the doors to the patient rooms. The patients come out and start killing all the guards and doctors.
A patient who vomits acid breaks into the security room and attacks Lamplighter, but Kimiko pulls him off and throws him as his acid burns his own face; he dies in front of them. Lamplighter takes The Boys to the drug storage room and tells Frenchie he remembers him: he was following him the night he “torched those kids.” He asks why Frenchie didn’t stop him; Frenchie gets enraged, but is held back by MM.
Flashback (3): In a warehouse, MM shows Frenchie and Mallory an engagement ring. Butcher gets their attention, and Lamplighter walks in. The Boys laugh at the spectacle of his costume and flaming staff and say he looks like a majorette. They’re not wrong! Mallory shows him some pictures, and tells him he’s going to tell them everything he sees and hears in Vought Tower. Lamplighter leaves, and Mallory says she doesn’t like the situation; he’s an animal backed into a corner. She tells Frenchie to follow him.
Back in the hospital, Frenchie helps himself to some drugs, and says he can make a “knockout bomb” with some supplies. He asks Lamplighter why The Boys were still alive; Lamplighter says they “weren’t worth it,” but Frenchie realized Lamplighter never told The Seven what he had done. He tells Frenchie he didn’t know the kids were going to be there, and that it was supposed to be Mallory who died, but once he realized it wasn’t her, it was too late. Lamplighter says he saw Frenchie following him, and then Frenchie disappeared; Lamplighter asks Frenchie again why he didn’t stop him, which MM says is a good question.
Flashback (4): Frenchie follows Lamplighter, but gets a call from Cherie, who tells him Jay is OD’ing. He leaves and goes back home, and tries to resuscitate Jay; he does CPR, gets him breathing and tells Cherie to look after him. He leaves them to go back after Lamplighter.
Frenchie finishes his makeshift bomb, and Lamplighter explains what they’re doing at Sage Grove: trying to stabilize Compound V. Infants take it well, but adults have a random sets of outcomes when exposed to it. Vought wants to create a stable compound that works on any adult; Lamplighter doesn’t know why, he just burns the evidence. Frenchie tells Lamplighter about Jay and why he wasn’t there to stop him; Lamplighter asks if he lived, and Frenchie says he did, but died a few months later from another overdose.
After a fight with a patient’s Supe penis (let’s leave it at that), The Boys and Lamplighter try to make their way out of the hospital; they come across Cindy, and Frenchie throws his bomb near her. Gas comes out but she just crushes and breaks it. As she’s turning towards them Stormfront comes in and zaps Cindy, knocking her out, as she yells out for Lamplighter. He goes out and leads her away from The Boys; she leaves and he rejoins them.
The Boys take an ambulance and get away from the hospital; in a wooded area they regroup. Frenchie apologizes to Kimiko for trying to ‘save’ her; he thought he could make up for the things he did, but she never asked to be saved and she can’t absolve him. He says he’ll leave her alone.
A car comes to meet them, and Mallory gets out; she asks where “he” is. They open the ambulance and Lamplighter is sitting there; Mallory pulls her gun on him, and he says she’d be doing him a favor if she did it. Frenchie begs her for his life, but she says she has no choice; Frenchie says Lamplighter is tormented by what he’s done and she’d just be ending that torment. She asks Frenchie what they should do with him…
Butcher, Hughie and Starlight
Hughie is watching the carnage at the hospital, while Butcher tries to call MM. One of the patients comes near Butcher, Starlight and Hughie, and he releases a burst of energy, knocking Starlight and Butcher back and flipping the van with Hughie inside. Butcher shoots the patient dead, and checks on Hughie, who’s been impaled through the stomach. Starlight tries to use her powers to cauterize the wound, but her powers are drained; Butcher and Starlight take Hughie to get help.
They stop a passing car and try to commandeer it, but the driver gets antsy and pulls a gun on them. To get Butcher to stand down, Starlight uses her powers on the man, who flies back and hits his head, inadvertently killing him. She takes some power from the car to cauterize Hughie’s wound; Starlight and Hughie get in the back of the car, next to a car seat, and Butcher drives as they leave the scene.
Butcher tells Starlight he appreciates what she did, and that she didn’t have a choice. She tells Butcher maybe once she would have cried over the situation, but now that man was just another person in her way. Butcher seemingly approves, which angers her; she says they are nothing alike.
Butcher and Starlight get to a hospital, where Hughie is treated; Starlight talks to the doctors and tells Butcher that Hughie should be okay in a few days. They bond over Hughie’s kid shampoo and Axe body spray; Starlight says Hughie never gives up on them, and that he’s too good for them.
The Supes
Homelander and Stormfront find a man who just committed a robbery in an alley; Stormfront forcefully knocks a gun out of his hand, potentially breaking his hand. They discuss what to do with him, and say if they take him to the cops he’ll just be back on the street the next day. As Stormfront rubs his crotch, Homelander crushes the man’s skull and they proceed to have sex next to his corpse. #Classy.
Stormfront leaves Homelander to go to Vought Tower, and he waits in his trailer. Later, he sets the trailer on fire – from boredom, or anger. Stormfront comes back, and Homelander says he knows she didn’t go to the tower. She says she’ll explain, but he asks her why she would need to explain anything to him.
At Vought Tower, Stormfront finds Homelander in her apartment and tries to explain the situation. She says she’ll never lie to him again and tell him everything. She shows him a picture of her with an old woman – her daughter, Chloe – who died of Alzheimer’s a few years ago. She says she was born in 1919 in Berlin and shows him more pictures of her: in Nazi Germany, and in a wedding photo with her husband, Frederick Vought (!), who gave her the first successful injection of Compound V. She says Frederick didn’t care about superficial nonsense, only about fighting back at other races. She says Homelander will lead their army and that she loves him with all of her heart. She says neither of them need to be alone ever again; he turns and kisses her as The Golden Girls theme plays.
Elsewhere
The Deep comes to visit Queen Maeve on the movie set, and he tells her he didn’t find the ‘black box’ but he’s got aquatic friends keeping an eye out. He gives her a camera from ‘the wreckage near Iceland,’ and she tells him if he wants to get back into The Seven he can’t say a word about ‘this’ to anyone.
Ashley shows A-Train the video for his potential “anthem,” then A-Train talks to The Deep, who’s presumably just came from Maeve’s trailer. The Deep offers A-Train a Fresca while pitching him on the Church of the Collective. A-Train has dinner with The Deep and Alastair Adana, who tells A-Train he can help him with all his problems. Convenient!
Later, Elena finds the camera hooked up to Maeve’s phone and watches the footage – it’s Maeve and Homelander leaving the hijacked plane (from season 1) to crash. Maeve says she’s going to show that to Homelander in order to get him to leave them alone, or else she’ll leak it to the press.
Literally elsewhere, a hitchhiker is walking down the road, and it’s revealed to be Cindy, who finds a ride…
The Wrap Up
What a crazy episode, with so much exposition! We finally learned more about what happened to Mallory’s grandkids, and the roles that Frenchie and Lamplighter played. We learned what Vought is up to at Sage Grove, and the role Lamplighter is currently playing. We learned about Stormfront’s history, and what she really wants from Vought and Homelander. We learned not to mess with Cindy, who may come back to haunt Stormfront at some point. And we learned Maeve is going to try to blackmail Homelander into leaving her and Elena alone (which can’t end well).
I enjoyed how Butcher and Starlight seemed to bond over their mutual affection for Hughie; it showed how hardened Starlight has become since this started – she’s certainly no longer the idealistic, wide-eyed young girl that came to The Seven.
I’m still not a fan of the Church of the Collective subplot; since The Deep and A-Train were kicked out of The Seven it seems like they’re reaching for reasons to keep them around. With so many characters they should either cut them out, or find some way to bring them back into the fold. I did like tying The Deep and Maeve’s storylines together; A-Train and The Deep could be double agents working for The Seven but also for their own agendas…
There was so much stuff going on in this episode that probably also sets up some things for the end of the season… With some Supes like Lamplighter and Starlight (seemingly) on The Boys’ side, and Maeve turning on her team leader, the only logical conclusion is a huge showdown between Homelander and Stormfront vs everyone else, right? M
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