I know what you’re thinking. When has Homelander not acted like he’s the king of the world? His megalomania is a defining quality of The Boys, so how can his God complex possibly reach new heights? Well, he quite literally sees an angelic vision of Madelyn Stillwell (Elizabeth Shue), his former flame/boss whom he killed, and she tells him, “Why should Jesus have more love than you? You save more people than he does.” And then, in his hallucination, she bares her chest so he can consume the glowing light oozing out of her, pretending that it’s her breast milk. It truly wouldn’t be The Boys if they didn’t include this ridiculous scene, or the one where Homelander is later bathing in real breast milk he stole from a Mt. Sinai NICU (as Soldier Boy looks on in disgust). Anyway, through Madelyn’s appearance, his subconscious encourages him to pursue immortality and kill his non-believers. He spends the rest of the episode, titled “Every One Of You Sons And Bitches,” chasing that goal and almost punching his pre-teen son to death. At least I hope Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) is alive after standing up to his father.
Still, Homelander beating him up to a pulp rips away the reason he had to control his violent actions. Right now, he doesn’t care about Ryan’s fate; he’s sick of the attention Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) is getting, even though he’s the one who revived his father, and he keeps hearing A-Train’s (Jessie T. Usher) last words to him, especially because his dad also calls him a “pathetic loser” and “the softest, wettest boy.” It’s a recipe for disaster. Homelander is on the most dangerous warpath yet, and he’s determined to acquire V1, the original compound V formula that runs in Soldier Boy’s blood and makes him immune to the Supe-killing virus. I would assume Homelander would fear Soldier Boy more because of this. Instead, he keeps antagonizing his dad by calling him a disappointment. How long until Soldier Boy decides to push back in worse ways than sleeping with Firecracker (Valorie Curry) to take revenge on his “freak” son?
It’s a good thing, then, that Homelander still doesn’t know the virus has seemingly been destroyed by Sameer (Omid Abtahi) and Zoe (Olivia Morandin). Once the father-daughter duo reunite and learn that it was Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) who killed Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit), they decide not to help him or The Boys. I understand the impulse to run away—and Kimiko’s (Karen Fukuhara) decision to let them leave—but they all just ruined the one chance to kill a monster. Luckily, Frenchie (Tomer Capone) can help remake the virus. The Boys also find a new ally in former Vought CEO, Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito), who has been working with the Gen V teens to help take Homelander down.
Stan agrees to assist Annie (Erin Moriarty), Hughie (Jack Quaid), Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso), Frenchie, and Kimiko by taking them to his secret bunker. Stan also introduces the team to an almost invisible Maverick, the superpowered son of Translucent. Remember him? He’s the very first Supe Hughie killed. But Stan has led Maverick to believe Homelander did it so that he can help The Boys with their mission. Hughie, being as thoughtful as he is, naively decides to bond with Maverick about being members of the dead-dad club. It’s his guilt talking, but Hughie firmly reminds Maverick (and, in turn, Annie and the audience) about why holding onto hope in the worst of times is crucial. You have to know what you’re fighting for and what might be waiting for you after you win. The Boys is better off whenever it highlights Hughie’s humanity. I know I could use a healthy dose of it while watching the extreme gore. Plus, Quaid’s gentle performance is the antidote to Starr’s terrifying act.
Back to the bunker we go. After looking at a lot of old Vought files, the group discovers that there’s a chance V1 might still be hidden away in a place called Fort Harmony. It’s the classified location where Frederick Vought conducted experiments on U.S. servicemen during the ’50s using the highly potent V1. The compound killed most people except for a chosen few, including Soldier Boy and Stormfront (Aya Cash). However, Soldier Boy knew her as Liberty. (Based on the look on his face, there’s more history there that’ll be explored in the upcoming prequel.) But before The Boys can head to Fort Harmony, a bunch of Homelander’s puppets arrive. Specifically, The Deep (Chace Crawford) and Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell) are there alongside other Supes like Cindy (Esa Hodlmoser) and Gen V‘s Dogknott (Zach McGowan). Their efforts to break in don’t succeed until Maverick helps them once he learns who is responsible for blowing Translucent up. So much for bonding with Hughie, huh?
“Every One Of You Sons And Bitches,” is fairly gnarly overall: Once Cindy kills Maverick, his blood goes all over Hughie, Homelander fights his own child, The Deep drives a Cybertruck…you get the gist. There’s also the rote storyline of Butcher and Ryan trying to find common ground yet again over their hatred of Homelander and love for Becca (Shantel VanSanten). And it’s because of Butcher’s promises that Ryan talks to Homelander in the first place, so I hope he feels bad about what he put the kid through. But “Every One Of You Sons And Bitches,” penned by Ellie Monahan, feels lighter to digest than the two-part premiere because of its dark humor. Every single time Kimiko talks, now that she’s a chatterbox, a surprise awaits. She doesn’t care who hears about her porn addiction or the desire to try oral sex with Frenchie. I also appreciate Esposito’s acting choices whenever Stan has to react to Kimiko or any of The Boys and whenever VP Ashley Barrett (Colby Minifie) freaks out.
The episode also does a better job of laying out where the rest of this final season might go. For starters, I can’t wait to see how Soldier Boy tries to take Homelander down. Secondly, the bunker chase ends with Black Noir kidnapping Stan and The Deep taking him to Homelander, who promises his old pal that they have a lot of work to do—all while The Boys will try to go to Fort Harmony before Homelander can become immortal and immune. The hunt for V1 is on. Let’s hope it’s an interesting endeavor.
Stray observations
- • “The .1-percent burn the world and then watch it burn from their luxury bunkers.”
- • An opening montage reveals that Vought explains Soldier Boy’s return by claiming that he was undercover in Russia, working with them to weed out sneaky traitors in Ukraine. “Russia isn’t the enemy because they don’t put up with trans bathrooms,” per the voiceover. Sigh.
- • Annie kills Cindy instantly upon assuming she offed Hughie instead of Maverick. She later flies away in haste, telling her boyfriend that maybe she would be better off fighting alone instead of worrying whether Hughie dies.
- • Even Frenchie and Kimiko aren’t on the same page despite all the sex. After years of doing what they have, she wants to settle down with a husband, three kids, and a dog. He wants to travel the world as a DJ and not plant roots anywhere. Oops.
- • Did anyone else think the CGI for Zoe’s mouth tentacles was distractingly bad?
- •Do you think Eric Kripke laughed or cried when he realized Trump chose this week of all weeks to post an AI-generated photo of himself as Jesus Christ?
- • Grossest scene award: You know what? This one goes to that final fight between Homelander and Ryan, specifically when he’s holding his kid down in the rubble and repeatedly hitting him in the face. Viscerally and emotionally gross.
Saloni Gajjar is The A.V. Club‘s TV critic.
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