3x02 The Only Man in the Sky

[7.4/10] The common theme in the episode seems to be, “There’s something wrong with me, and the only way I know how to fix it is something bad.” That’s not a bad theme for a show with so many folks with various hang-ups and outright personality disorders.

The one that’s the most frightening, and the most telegraphed, is Homelander, of course. He’s used to being the center of attention, the guy who always gets his way, because of who he is and what he is. Now his birthday celebration is being marginalized. He takes Stormfront’s pained suffering to be ignoring his special day. He’s still being criticized for associating with Nazis. He’s being upstaged and power-moved by his “co-captain” Starlight. Everything he knew is being undermined and sidelined.

So it’s finally time for mask off. He finally stops repeating the shtick, and instead says what he really believes. To put it in MJF terms, he’s “better than you, and you know it.” It’s frightening to have him basically demanding to be worshiped, stop playing the part of magnanimous paragon of virtue and start asserting himself as above the “dirt people” and not subject to their whims or their laws. He legitimately thinks of himself as persecuted, as messianic, and him not even trying to keep up the facade is concerning. The only thing scarier than his little manifesto is the boyfriend of MM’s wife sitting on the couch enraptured and cheering it on, a reflection of the real life sick puppies who buy into that type of rhetoric.

What’s interesting is Stan Edgar’s ace in the hole. Candidly, I’ve wondered for a while why he felt so comfortable talking so harshly and firmly with someone who everyone else is afraid of. Frankly, I kept waiting for him to take out some kryptonite. Instead, it turns out, he’s a surrogate father to Victoria Newman, who’s ready and capable to take care of business for him should things go wrong. (Which, incidentally, is my theory for what happened to Soldier Boy.) I’ll admit, like a lot in this episode, it feels like a plot detail that’s tacked on kind of out of nowhere, a bit too conveniently, but it at least made me raise an eyebrow, which is something.

I’m also interested in Hughie pursuing Newman’s story out of a sense that he can’t do anything right, or is starting to feel a certain inferiority complex for not being a Supe, especially when he’s worried that Alex is going to move in on Starlight. Him feeling less than when opening a jar of mustard, prompting him to try to bluff his way through a group home or awkward exchange with Newman over what he saw is at least something rooted in character. It’s never seemed to bother Hughie before, so it feels a little out of nowhere. But he’s already destabilized a little from the Newman reveal and the fact that the past year where he thought he was making progress was founded on a lie, so maybe you can account for it in that way? I don’t love the trouble in paradise between him and Annie, though. Feels a little forced even though the actors do a good job with it.

What I am intrigued by is the reveal that Vought has been running a group home for child Supes, including those whose powers resulted in “parental fatality.” The fact that Stilwell’s son is there is quietly heartbreaking. Stan Edgar using the group home to turn Newman into his own manipulated attack dog plays like another layer sunk to by Vought and its officials, more craven acts to feather their nests.

Still, the toughest parental relationship here is the one between MM and his daughter, and again, I don’t love it. The thesis here is that MM needs to keep hunting Supes, needs to find out the real deal with Soldier Boy, because it’s a physical or psychological compulsion that, if he doesn’t satisfy, he loses control of himself.

Again, I don’t care for it. MM seemed fine being out of the game when we met him. We’d never heard of Soldier Boy until this season, so it’s another apparently uber-important detail that scans as tacked on. Once more, Laz Alonso is a hell of an actor so he’s able to sell it remarkably well, but it doesn’t necessarily feel in line with what we know about the character or the details of the world to date.

Otherwise, I’m intrigued by the idea of A-Train wanting a new identity now that he’s not the fastest man in the world anymore, and so trying to reframe his public image as being about his blackness, when it’s not something that’s ever really mattered to him until it was lucrative. The idea of a middle passage video game is just...yeesh. On the other side of things, Starlight “making waves” and standing up for herself despite being new to the leadership role is...what I was expecting from her in season 2, where she just reverted back to who she was before? So I’m glad to see it, even if it feels a little late.

That just leaves Butcher. I like his shtick here too. He’s trying to hold it together for Ryan, to not give into his worst impulses. He wants to find out what happened to Solider Boy and do it the right way. But he too starts to feel powerless, like so many other people in this episode, and so makes bad choices.

Except, it’s so hard for me to buy him taking compound V. We’ve seen him face impossible odds and supes before and come out undaunted. What is so special about Gunpowder that makes him give in here? You can come up with reasons. He obviously didn’t have the option to become a Supe before, and that was pre-Becca when he had finding her as his animation motivation. Even so, it feels out of step with the violently anti-Supe man we’ve known to date to see him give in. Granted, that too is scary, and one more time, Karl Urban has the acting chops to deliver it. Ut it feels like the show is taking more outlandish and less plausible swings in terms of character development to fuel the story du jour rather than rooting it in established details and character traits. Frankly, everything related to Payback feels that way right now.

Overall, I don’t mind the stories we’re getting this episode in a vacuum. There’s interesting concepts at play, particularly a host of characters making bad personal choices because they feel put upon or alienated from the lives they used to know and felt comfortable with. But I don't know how well it fits with these specific characters or the world the show already established.