2x07 Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker

[7.8/10] It’s being somebody’s child in the world of The Boys. Pretty much everybody in the show has parental issues, and that’s the central theme of this episode.

The biggest of those is Butcher, whose dad (John Noble!) we meet for the first time. When Becca spoke about some hate in him that predated her, we didn’t know that this is where it came from. Butcher’s dad reportedly beat the hell out of his sons, pushed out Billy’s brother to “sink or swim,” and was hard on his boys in a misguided effort to make them tough. It succeeded with Billy, but also turned him into an anhedonic, miserable bastard. Billy obviously still has a ton of issues, one which a confrontation with his father doesn't solve despite his mom’s best intentions, and it helps put Billy’s problems into focus.

Of course, the other big one is poor Ryan, Homelander’s son. Homelander himself has all kinds of parental issues. His mommy complex has been well on display, but it’s also plain that he has issues with his own surrogate father, Dr. Vogelbaum. The “good” doctor tells Billy himself that Homelander was once a sweet kid, one who liked stories of grand adventures and even cuddled up with his would-be dad, until Vogelbaum cracked down on him to make the “greatest hero in the world.” It’s then that Billy realizes he and Homelander suffer from the same pathology, and that maybe they’re equally fucked up, albeit in different ways.

But Homelander’s chief bugaboo is lying, the sense of the world having been kept from him. So when he flies back to Becca’s house, with Stormfront in tow, he’s there to steal his child away and, worse yet, turn him against Becca. In a strange way, he’s a grim reflection of Batman, who tried to form his own crime-fighting family to replace the one he’d lost. Homelander wants to form his own fucked up family, with he and Stormfront as ma and pa, and Ryan as a surrogate self he can turn into his own junior ubermensch.

In a strange way, it comes from a good place, as both he and Becca are trying to avoid the fake, sheltered life Homelander had growing up that turned him into this monster. But it’s devastating, terrifying, gut-wrenching when Homelander exposes the fakeness of their neighborhood, spurs Ryan to hate his mom, and nabs him away from her.

The other big event is a Congressional hearing on Vought, one that has Mallory trying to marshal witnesses to expose the evil corporation. They already have Lamplighter, who’s assigned to be babysat by Hughie. But they’re trying to get Vogelbaum to testify as well. His reasons for refusing are because he doesn’t want to put his family at risk, as a father and grandparent. Mallory knows better than anyone that he’s right, and basically tells MM to give this up so that he can go be with his family.

There’s a grim but strangely sentimental fatalism in The Boys. Annie tells her own mother that everything she believed in is a lie, that the work they do doesn’t matter, that the bad guys profit and prosper. Mallory all but repeats the same line, and the closing bloodbath seems to confirm it. But at the same time, she basically tells MM that if the fight is a losing one anyway, then treasure the time with the people you love instead of waging a losing battle. Hers is a cynical perspective, but also one that comes with the experience of losing something innocent and precious in the name of a fight that couldn’t be won.

Unfortunately for Annie, whether her mom’s in on it or not, their meeting exposes her and burns her with Vought. I still want to know Black Noir’s deal, but him emerging out of nowhere to knockout and kidnap her is utterly terrifying. It gives Hughie and Lamplighter the chance to stop sitting on the sidelines and go become the person who takes action, in an effort to rescue her. The porn and verbiage that motivates the two of them is strange as all get out, but their adventure together is a thrill for a time.

And then things get brutal. Lamplighter self-immolates in a sad scene, uttering that he just wanted to make his dad proud to connect with the larger motif of the episode. He never wanted to rescue Starlight, just find a poetic spot for his suicide. Nevertheless, it manages to free Starlight, who’s trapped in an unilluminated steel cage, by sparking on the emergency lights that allow her to escape. An injured Hughie coming to rescue her, as the two of them meet in the hall with Annie’s mother in tow, shows Starlight that despite her lament earlier, she is not alone. There is at least one person who cares about her more than anything in the world.

Otherwise, Maeve suffers terribly when Elena sees the “real her” after the airplane video and can’t take it. But she has an incredible Big Damn Hero moment when rescuing Annie from Black Noir, with the perfectly ironic solution of jamming an almond joy down his throat for his tree nut allergy. Frenchie and Kimiko have a small but sweet moment of reconciliation after everything, as she begins to teach him her sign language (after he talks about the rougher parts of his own childhood). And even Ashley, amid all of his PR and management, acts like a “real human being” with Maeve, which is subtly uplifting with everything that’s happening.

The other big thing is the way that Homelander and Stormfront’s propaganda is whipping up bigoted elements into a frenzy. We see it at their rallies and the vitriol aimed at the show’s AOC analogue. But we also see it in the chilling opening vignette, where a montage featuring Community’s Real Neil becoming an anti-Supe shooter shows how insidious this rhetoric and instigation can be.

Still, it looks like the (comparatively) good guys have the edge, when despite Lamplighter’s absence, Billy manages to convince Vogelbaum to testify. Then, in one of those scenes that disturbs in the way only The Boys can, everyone in the hearing’s heads start popping. Vogelbaum, the chair, a host of bystanders’ noggins burst like water baloons, and the panic and terror that follows is stomach-churning. Whoever’s doing this (the Eleven-like figure from the last episode?) hasn’t been stopped, and every attempt to rein in Vought or its agents just results in more bloodshed. After a host of parental reunions, the violence still reigns, and none of the children seem better for it. It’s a grim note to end on, but one appropriate to the collection of moms and dads and kids who still seem to carry the scars of their mistakes.

• Omg, Neil from "Community"
• Omg, he's becoming radicalised

Annie: "Mum, they could be looking—"

• Good god, that made me jump

  Annie: "Please let me out. Please."

• Poor Annie...

Lamplighter: "I'm like the cuck in the porn, sitting on the sidelines while the real heroes are out there doing the fucking."

• That was... an analogy...

Homelander: "This used to be a-a beautiful country."

• I don't want to quote Hughie. But that was such a goofy line

Mr Butcher: "You either sink or you swim, and, in Lenny's case, he chose to sink."

**Homelander: "All right, well, Ryan, I'd love you to meet my girlfriend, Stormfront."

• This is so awkward :\
• Is Becca in danger? Is Homelander gonna replace her with Stormfront?

M.M.: "When this is done, I'll take you up on that."
Mallory: "But that's the point, Marvin. It's never done. You just let go. No justice for your father. No revenge against Vought. You get nothing, except your family. Go and never come back. I wish I had."

Alastair Adana: "What do you guys think of Eagle the Archer?"
The Deep: "Oh, he's like a brother to me. Yeah, he was there for me when I was at rock bottom. He's the most kind, loving person that you ever—"
Alastair: "He's a toxic personality, and no Church members are to have any contact with him whatsoever."

• A-Train has doubts

Maeve: "Ashley. For once in your life, be a fucking human being."

Stormfront: "And visits to Vought Land."

• Stop messing with this kid. Stop ;-;

• Butcher kinda similar the Homelander, judging by their father figures...

• Butcher threatening a man's kids? God damn

• Omg, bye-bye Lamplighter

• Hughie, that is disgusting

• Maeve saved Starlight :O

Mallory: "What do you mean, no worries?"
Butcher: "I mean, I've got it sorted."

• Okay
• That look Homelander gives Vogelbaum
• Even the supe's head exploded, omg
• I just learned the VFX were done in South Australia. Cool