THE BOYS Season 2, Episode 6 Recap - The Past Is Revealed
SPOILERS, OBVIOUSLY
Episode 6: The Bloody Doors Off
Recap: The rest of the episode starts with and is peppered with flashbacks about the Boys work with Malory prior to the series. First, we see how Frenchie was recruited by Mallory after discovering his gift for taking down Supes. It turns out Lamplighter, who we know burned Malory's grandchildren alive, was actually a double agent for the CIA who was blackmailing him with unknown material. The night of the burning, Frenchie was tasked with tailing Lamplighter, but was forced to break his tail to help his friend who was overdosing. His friend lived, but later died after another overdose.
Stormfront and Homelander continue pounding each other out, adding a three way with a regular person that they torture to their sexual inventory. Stormfront blows off a sexual tryst by saying she has to do a work errand. When Homelander discovers she was lying, he torches his trailer in anger and menaces Storm after revealing that he knows her fib. At the tower, Stormfront reveals her true identity to him. She was born in 1919, and was a wife to Nazi scientist/Vought founder, Friedrick Vought. Vought's true purpose was racial supremacy, and she wants Homelander to lead an army of Super-humans that she is developing to complete that vision. Homelander apparently accepts this, and they fuck some more.
The Boys + a recently de-chipped Starlight go to investigate Sage Grove, and discover it is essentially it's Asylum of supes run by Stormfront and Lamplighter where Vought is running experiments to stabilize compound V. After inadvertently releasing the imprisoned supes, including an apparently uber-powerful one named Cindy, M.M., Frenchie and Kimiko are trapped with Lamplighter, and reluctantly team up to try to escape. While talking with Lamplighter, the find out that he didn't burn Mallory's grandchildren on purpose. When Stormfront arrives to clean up the mess, he covers for them. After they escape, Mallory meets with them and immediately pulls out a gun to execute Lamplighter, which he accepts. Frenchie convinces her to stand down. The episode ends with Cindy on the road, hitchhiking.
Meanwhile, an escaped Supe attacks Butcher, Huey and Starlight, destroying their car and seriously injuring Huey in the process. They try to carjack a civilian, who Starlight is forced to kill after he tries to fight back. Starlight and Butcher, who hate each other at the beginning of the episode, eventually make amends over their mutual love for Huey.
The Deep recruits A-Train to reluctantly meet with the church of the Collective. A-Train isn't into it but Alistair Adana, the leader of the church, convinces him to stay by revealing the church knows about his debt, his addiction and his heart condition. They also spark his rage by telling him that his name, a Vought trademark, is going to be passed down to his replacement. In the meantime, the Deep discovered video footage of the plane incident from season 1, where Homelander forced Maeve to abandon a crashing plane, and delivers it to Maeve, who thinks she can use it to blackmail Homelander. However, Elena discovers the footage, and leaves her out of disgust.
Reaction:
This episode revealed a lot about where the season is going. Clearly there is going to be essentially a Supe-vs-Super war of some kind, and the real question will be what side everyone lands on. The true wildcard here is The Church of the Collective. They don't have the flashy supes like Vought or the Collective, but they apparently have a rather large stable of B and C list supes.
It was really cool to see some of the Boys work that happened prior to the series. I loved their straight up disrespectful attitude towards Lamplighter was great, and seeing how their irreverent attitude is by no means new was a big plus.
Tomer Capon, who plays Frenchie, had the biggest emotional load this episode and he delivered big time. As did Shawn Ashmore in what is a surprisingly complicated Lamplighter character. Antony Starr, as always, was fantastic in how menacing he can be. There is something related to that, though, that I didn't realize until Robbie pointed it out. Homelander fucking steals every scene he is part of, that is how good Starr is. But as good as he is, Aye Cash has gone punch-for-punch with him in her portrayal as Stormfront. Not only does she have her own tremendous screen presence, but her and Starr bounce off each other in a way that makes both of their performances that much better.
So far in this season, I don't think that Queen Maeve has gotten a fair shake. Her character is kind of boring in that she is essentially only every cowering in fear of Homelander or trying to make amends for something. Considering she is one of the most powerful Supes in the game, I want to see some fucking rage out of her at some point. I don't want to see her being delicate anymore.
Notes:
- The giant dick supe was laugh out loud funny
- The constant Fresca references for the Church of the Collective is going to have a moment later, I'm sure. I don't know if it is going to be a trigger phrase for some sort of hypnotic trance or what, but I'm very intrigued.
- I'm not convinced of the closing moment between Homelander and Stormfront. For him to join this Vought vision makes sense. He would get the opportunity to be loved universally by everyone, which he obviously craves, and he could kill all of the people that disagree with him like he fantasized doing at the protest last episode. But he is a guy that demands singular love and loyalty which he clearly didn't get from Stormfront. I think he may take this as an opportunity to betray and expose her because killing Nazi's will give him a pretty huge popularity boost and help the "Us vs Them" rhetoric he is pushing. Plus, with Stormfront out of the picture, he won't have to worry about sharing power or popularity.
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Easter Eggs (via Gamespot)
- The title "The Bloody Doors Off" comes from the from the 12th and final volume of the comics.
- In the comic books, Homelander actually delivers Lamplighter to the Boys as a peace offering. Mallory promptly shoots him in the head.
- The song at the end, 'Thank You For Being a Friend', is the theme song for 'The Golden Girls', which Frenchie references early in the episode as being an inspirational show for him growing up.