[7.6/10] Good episode. I feel like I’m missing something about how the pieces fit together. Something about Stormfront’s point about not believing that good is nice and dropping the mask, I guess? But for the most part, this was a lot of disconnected scenes that I, nevertheless, thought were pretty darn good.
My favorite of them is Maeve’s. I dig her realizing that Elena had a medical emergency, going to look after her because she’s still her emergency contact, and the two bonding a bit and rekindling old times. I want to see more of the two of them, since they have good chemistry together, and their back-and-forth is sweet and believable. But I also like where it resolves, with Maeve explaining that she broke up with her girlfriend and didn’t want to be seen in public because she was afraid of what Homelander would do out of jealousy. You understand why this wouldn’t work for reasons other than “the life.” It’s quietly heartbreaking and another sign of the abuse Homeleander inflicts on everyone around him.
But god help me, even Homelander’s vaguely sympathetic in this one. Don’t get me wrong, he’s also utterly terrifying. The way that he softly menaces Becca, or is clearly making his son uncomfortable by assuming a closeness between them that he hasn’t earned, or talking about how he’s a god who shouldn't have to feel pain, is all different flavors of abjectly terrifying. Him insinuating himself into the life of his son the child’s mother, while pretending he’s not forcing his way in like he forced the events that caused this to happen in the first place, is rife with understated horror.
Yet, there’s something in his voice when he responds to Becca’s insistence that he leave so Ryan can have a normal life. He talks about how being isolated can mess someone up, leave them lonely and distressed, and it’s the closest thing to self-awareness we’ve ever seen from him. It doesn’t excuse his actions, but abuse begets abuse, and the way he’s trying to force a family here is horrible, but also a product of him chasing the family that he never had.
I also appreciate the added detail we get to what’s going on with Becca and Ryan. The idea that they got to live in an isolated community, so that RYan could have a normal life, in exchange for protection from Homelander is an interesting concept. It seems doomed to failure, but you can understand Beccca’s fury at being promised protection from her abuser and having to grin and bear it while he tries to bond with her son. I’m also intrigued by her basically trading visitation rights to Homelander in exchange for him letting Billy live.
Speaking of which, I don’t know how I feel about the power struggle between Billy and Hughie. I do appreciate that Billy’s been hunting for something for eight years, finally gets confirmation, and is now that much more determined to find her by any means necessary. His scene with Mallory is great, especially how she diagnoses and dresses him down in an instant. And him coming clean to the rest of his crew about what happened and why he’s doing this is a good scene.
Hell, I like Hughie still being mad at Billy for abandoning the rest of the crew and demonstrating that he doesn’t care about anything except his one-man crusade. Hughie acting to protect Kimiko and Mouse, because he’s loyal to their group, and the other members backing him up when he makes a stand, are both nice moments. It just feels like we missed some connective tissue between Hughie’s issues and Billy’s, and I wish the show would connect the dots beyond a good punch there.
Speaking of picking up lingering issues from last season, A-Train is back and doing some menacing of his own toward Starlight. It’s not clear what his motivation is to me. Why he doesn’t immediately go to Homleander or Vought or someone else is beyond me, but I guess the story needs him around a bit. That said, I appreciate that the episode at least confronts the beef between them. Starlight tries to play nice, hoping that A-Train will appreciate the fact that she saved his life. But ultimately, she realizes that Stormfront’s right, these are jerks, and the only way she can get him to back down is by threatening to blackmail him the way he’s trying to do with her. It’s all good, though it feels like we’re retreading this ground with Starlight’s season 1 conviction to become a fighter and stand for something.
And I don’t know how I feel about Stormfront. On the one hand, I like her. The way she’s able to cut through the bullshit of Vought’s micromanaging and speak real truths through the PR bullshit is rousing. I also like that she basically reacts to Annie the way Annie did to Maeve, in an “I used to look up to you, but now you’ve gone corporate” sort of way. (Granted, that might make more sense if Annie’s turn to corporatehood didn’t feel totally random after what happened last season.) But I’m also worried about the air of manufactured authenticity she puts on, and given that she was appointed by the big boss, I’m convinced she’s a plant or a spy or someone else with an ulterior motive beyond the persona she assumes here. The name still doesn’t help.
Plus god help me, I’m actually liking The Deep. His mushroom trip, with his gills talking to him with the voice of Patton Oswalt, is a trip, but an endearing one. It’s a little too popsci, but the idea that he humiliates women because he’s uncomfortable with his own body and doesn’t want them to humiliate him first is a good-enough-for-TV explanation for his pathology. And the idea of him accepting himself despite the part of him he’s ashamed of is legitimately wholesome, even if it involves singing cheesy songs in unison with his own fish flaps on a drug high.
That just leaves the high point of this one for me -- Kimiko’s reunion with her brother. I like that we get to truly understand Kimiko in her own words for the first time. Plus the story of the two of them, having both been through some insane shit and abuse, coming out on different sides of a war, is heartbreaking. The actors both do a great job, and you really feel for each of them given all that they’ve suffered, with the joy of reunion mixed with the pain of commiseration. The fact that the Supe the squad is hunting turns out to be Kimiko’s brother is rife for conflict, and anything that deepens Kimiko and her motivations is good with me.
Overall, there’s not a lot of clear lines between the different parts of the story or episode right now, but all the individual parts are still good, so I’m on board.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2022-07-29T03:03:40Z
[7.6/10] Good episode. I feel like I’m missing something about how the pieces fit together. Something about Stormfront’s point about not believing that good is nice and dropping the mask, I guess? But for the most part, this was a lot of disconnected scenes that I, nevertheless, thought were pretty darn good.
My favorite of them is Maeve’s. I dig her realizing that Elena had a medical emergency, going to look after her because she’s still her emergency contact, and the two bonding a bit and rekindling old times. I want to see more of the two of them, since they have good chemistry together, and their back-and-forth is sweet and believable. But I also like where it resolves, with Maeve explaining that she broke up with her girlfriend and didn’t want to be seen in public because she was afraid of what Homelander would do out of jealousy. You understand why this wouldn’t work for reasons other than “the life.” It’s quietly heartbreaking and another sign of the abuse Homeleander inflicts on everyone around him.
But god help me, even Homelander’s vaguely sympathetic in this one. Don’t get me wrong, he’s also utterly terrifying. The way that he softly menaces Becca, or is clearly making his son uncomfortable by assuming a closeness between them that he hasn’t earned, or talking about how he’s a god who shouldn't have to feel pain, is all different flavors of abjectly terrifying. Him insinuating himself into the life of his son the child’s mother, while pretending he’s not forcing his way in like he forced the events that caused this to happen in the first place, is rife with understated horror.
Yet, there’s something in his voice when he responds to Becca’s insistence that he leave so Ryan can have a normal life. He talks about how being isolated can mess someone up, leave them lonely and distressed, and it’s the closest thing to self-awareness we’ve ever seen from him. It doesn’t excuse his actions, but abuse begets abuse, and the way he’s trying to force a family here is horrible, but also a product of him chasing the family that he never had.
I also appreciate the added detail we get to what’s going on with Becca and Ryan. The idea that they got to live in an isolated community, so that RYan could have a normal life, in exchange for protection from Homelander is an interesting concept. It seems doomed to failure, but you can understand Beccca’s fury at being promised protection from her abuser and having to grin and bear it while he tries to bond with her son. I’m also intrigued by her basically trading visitation rights to Homelander in exchange for him letting Billy live.
Speaking of which, I don’t know how I feel about the power struggle between Billy and Hughie. I do appreciate that Billy’s been hunting for something for eight years, finally gets confirmation, and is now that much more determined to find her by any means necessary. His scene with Mallory is great, especially how she diagnoses and dresses him down in an instant. And him coming clean to the rest of his crew about what happened and why he’s doing this is a good scene.
Hell, I like Hughie still being mad at Billy for abandoning the rest of the crew and demonstrating that he doesn’t care about anything except his one-man crusade. Hughie acting to protect Kimiko and Mouse, because he’s loyal to their group, and the other members backing him up when he makes a stand, are both nice moments. It just feels like we missed some connective tissue between Hughie’s issues and Billy’s, and I wish the show would connect the dots beyond a good punch there.
Speaking of picking up lingering issues from last season, A-Train is back and doing some menacing of his own toward Starlight. It’s not clear what his motivation is to me. Why he doesn’t immediately go to Homleander or Vought or someone else is beyond me, but I guess the story needs him around a bit. That said, I appreciate that the episode at least confronts the beef between them. Starlight tries to play nice, hoping that A-Train will appreciate the fact that she saved his life. But ultimately, she realizes that Stormfront’s right, these are jerks, and the only way she can get him to back down is by threatening to blackmail him the way he’s trying to do with her. It’s all good, though it feels like we’re retreading this ground with Starlight’s season 1 conviction to become a fighter and stand for something.
And I don’t know how I feel about Stormfront. On the one hand, I like her. The way she’s able to cut through the bullshit of Vought’s micromanaging and speak real truths through the PR bullshit is rousing. I also like that she basically reacts to Annie the way Annie did to Maeve, in an “I used to look up to you, but now you’ve gone corporate” sort of way. (Granted, that might make more sense if Annie’s turn to corporatehood didn’t feel totally random after what happened last season.) But I’m also worried about the air of manufactured authenticity she puts on, and given that she was appointed by the big boss, I’m convinced she’s a plant or a spy or someone else with an ulterior motive beyond the persona she assumes here. The name still doesn’t help.
Plus god help me, I’m actually liking The Deep. His mushroom trip, with his gills talking to him with the voice of Patton Oswalt, is a trip, but an endearing one. It’s a little too popsci, but the idea that he humiliates women because he’s uncomfortable with his own body and doesn’t want them to humiliate him first is a good-enough-for-TV explanation for his pathology. And the idea of him accepting himself despite the part of him he’s ashamed of is legitimately wholesome, even if it involves singing cheesy songs in unison with his own fish flaps on a drug high.
That just leaves the high point of this one for me -- Kimiko’s reunion with her brother. I like that we get to truly understand Kimiko in her own words for the first time. Plus the story of the two of them, having both been through some insane shit and abuse, coming out on different sides of a war, is heartbreaking. The actors both do a great job, and you really feel for each of them given all that they’ve suffered, with the joy of reunion mixed with the pain of commiseration. The fact that the Supe the squad is hunting turns out to be Kimiko’s brother is rife for conflict, and anything that deepens Kimiko and her motivations is good with me.
Overall, there’s not a lot of clear lines between the different parts of the story or episode right now, but all the individual parts are still good, so I’m on board.