The Boys – Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker

By starrymag | October 9, 2020

By: Ariba Bhuvad

 

 

A man named Tommy (Charley Koontz) gets up at 7:30 AM every morning with the same routine – going to convenience store and paying $1.45 for the item he buys. But every day his routine also involves watching Stormfront (Aya Cash) on the news spewing hate and rallying all the supporters she can get. The more he watches her, the more paranoid he becomes until he eventually shoots the store attendant, Kuldeep Singh (Kris Siddiqi) because he believes him to be a “Supe villain.”

 

In the hopes of cornering Vought with all their criminal activity, Congresswoman Neuman (Claudia Doumit) sits down with Lamplighter (Shawn Ashmore) to learn everything he knows about Sage Grove. He’s willing to testify against Vought at the hearing, which can go a long way considering he’s a disgruntled ex-Supe. However, according to Neuman she doesn’t feel like he’s a good enough witness. They may know information from him, but they don’t know why Vought has been testing Compound V. While the questioning is going on Butcher (Karl Urban) keeps getting an international phone call, but he continuously rejects it. Grace Mallory (Laila Robins) reveals that they do know someone who knows the full picture, but Butcher isn’t too pleased to contact said person.

 

Starlight (Erin Moriarty) meets with her mother, Donna (Ann Cusack), to talk about everything that’s transpired with the Compund V reveal. Her mother wants to apologize for what’s happened, but she doesn’t understand that Starlight’s entire life has been prefaced on the fact that she was special. Now that is gone she’s not sure who she is. Donna suggests they take a vacation and says she even called Ashley (Colby Minifie) to approve it. Starlight is startled to learn this considering she’s been hiding out from Vought and doesn’t have much time to react before Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell) comes rushing through the window – knocking her and her mother out.  

 

Frenchie (Tomer Capon) is concerned about Neuman’s safety and doesn’t feel that her current security detail will be enough. Mallory asks him to keep an eye on Neuman and Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) joins him. Meanwhile, Hughie (Jack Quaid) wants to join Butcher on wherever he and Mallory are going, but instead he’s asked to stay back and babysit Lamplighter. He is their star witness after all. Unfortunately for Hughie, Lamplighter is only interested in watching porn and refuses to do anything. Butcher’s plans change after he finally picks up the international call and learns it’s his mother, Connie (Lesley Nichol), who tells him she’s in the United States and says that his father, Sam (John Noble) has passed away.

 

Starlight comes to and finds herself in a room that is suppressing her powers. She’s not able to find any way out and grows increasingly frustrated as she shouts to be let out.

 

Hughie and Lamplighter’s time together gets weirder as The Seven-themed porn freaks Hughie out, but he’s not allowed to change it or turn the television off. Lamplighter begins talking about his time as a kid and how he was a prodigy who lit his first fire at age four. Now he feels like a cuck, so Hughie tries to make him feel better by saying he’s the cuck. But according to Lamplighter, he’s worse than a cuck. Hughie is in fact a cuck fluffer.

 

Homelander (Antony Starr) and Stormfront hype people up at a rally as they give their condolences to the late Kuldeep Singh and the family he’s left behind. But Stormfront says that this whole ordeal proves their point and is why they can’t let supervillans cross into their borders and hurt their people. They need more Supes and they need them fast. Unfortunately, they point out to the crowd that Starlight was a mole in The Seven who they’ve apprehended. 

 

After getting fed up with the porn, Hughie changes the channel and ends up seeing the Stormfront and Homelander rally only to learn that Starlight has been caught by them. He immediately starts planning her rescue and asks Lamplighter to help him, who says she is probably locked in 42D in the tower which is incredibly secure and difficult to get into. Lamplighter doesn’t want anything to do with The Seven, the Tower or Vought. But Hughie eventually convinces him because it will make him a hero, at least one last time. 

 

Butcher shows up at his mother’s hotel room only to find that is father is very much alive. Connie just wanted Butcher to talk to Sam because he is dying. Their encounter doesn’t go as Connie would have hoped and instead it turns into Butcher getting into Sam’s face about his horrible childhood and how he still blames Sam for the death of his brother, Lenny. Sam’s rebuttal is that his horrendous treatment helped shaped Butcher into the guy he is today–ruthless, strong and no-nonsense. 

 

As time has gone by Homelander and Stormfront continue to gain support on creating an army of Supes. But there’s something missing in Stormfront’s life and Homelander takes notice of it when he sees her gazing off in the distance at a baby. He decides to take her to meet Ryan (Cameron Crovetti), much to Becca’s (Shantel VanSanten) displeasure. Their entire visit both Stormfront and Homelander do their best to undermine Becca and say that they will be around more often. Homelander wants to be a family and will be showing up as often as he can–with Stormfront in tow. 

 

Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) and Elena (Nicola Correia-Damude) have been strained ever since Elena saw the airplane crash video. Maeve tries to convince Elena that she has a plan for them, but Elena simply can’t comprehend everything, even though she knows it’s not Maeve’s fault. Her anger gets the best of her and Maeve throws the dinner table across the room. Elena says she needs time and the two end up breaking up. 

 

Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) and Mallory go to visit Jonah (John Doman), the former CSO of Vought. Apparently, he has all the information and evidence they need to defeat Vought, but he refuses to help them. Their trip is a bust, which comes as no surprise to Mallory who insists Mother’s Milk leave town with his family. He’d rather wait until they’re done, but Mallory reminds him that they will never be done. Speaking of which, she calls Butcher to let him know that Jonah refuses to help, but he reassures her that he will take care of it. 

 

Frenchie and Kimiko keep an eye on Neuman as people protest outside her house, demanding that she be sent back. After a long time, the both of them connect and find themselves getting along. In fact, Kimiko even teaches Frenchie the word “gun” in her made up sign language. 

 

The Deep (Chace Crawford) and Cassandra (Katy Breier) attend Alastair’s (Goran Visnjic) birthday party and A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) shows up as well with a gift for The Deep. He’s trying to make amends and offers him a fish bowl where the fish even know The Deep’s name. Alastair shows up and tells them that he has a meeting with Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito). With all the chaos going on with Vought and The Seven, Alastair says he can get them back into the group. But, more importantly, The Deep can no longer hang out with Eagle the Archer (Langston Kerman) because he has spoken out against the Church and said the program failed him. 

 

Hughie and Lamplighter make their way to the Tower and, luckily, Lamplighter still has access to the building and gets them in. Meanwhile, Ashley walks in on Maeve in bed with a random guy and she’s shocked to see Elena missing. When she finds out that Maeve and Elena broke up, Ashley begins freaking out because they’ve designed an entire brand around Maeve’s sexuality and now that will shatter. 

 

Homelander and Stormfront continue to make Becca look bad in front of Ryan as they try to form a bond with him. When it gets to be too much, Becca tries talking to Homelander about what he’s doing. He doesn’t agree with how she’s raising Ryan, but she wants him to have a different childhood. It seems as if Homelander is understanding to what she says. That is until he and Stormfront tell Ryan the truth about everything Becca has been hiding from him. In one go, he finds out that Becca has been hiding the outside world from him and has told him next to nothing. He opts to leave with Homelander and Stormfront, leaving Becca behind by herself. 

 

As promised, Butcher handles the Jonah situation by threatening his family. He reminds Jonah that Vought isn’t his only concern, so it’s in his best interest to speak out against Vought at the hearing. Meanwhile, at the Tower Lamplighter leads Hughie to the boardroom because he had other plans in mind. Plans that involve lighting himself on fire in front of his statue, which he is saddened to learn is no longer there. Hughie is caught off guard as Lamplight lights himself on fire and causes all the fire alarms to go off in the Tower. This provides Starlight the opportunity to use the energy from the alarm to make her escape, but she is sidelined by Black Noir who tries to stop her in the boardroom. Luckily, Maeve comes to the rescue and stuffs an Almond Joy in his mouth because he has a tree nut allergy and this will take him down.

 

Moments before, Hughie made his escape by cutting off Lamplighter’s burnt hand so he could use it to access the elevator and exits. On his way out he hears Donna yelling and breaks her free as they run into a a very surprised Starlight who is happy to see Hughie there. Losing Lamplighter; however, is a huge blow for the team, especially with the Vought hearing coming up. Thanks to Butcher, that won’t be an issue since Jonah has agreed to testify. 

 

The day of the hearing arrives and everyone gathers around the television to watch what goes down. As the courtroom prepares to begin, people’s heads begin exploding as they fall one by one. No one knows who is behind it, but in the massacre Jonah’s head is blown off too, leaving the team with absolutely zero options to take Vought down.