The Boys – Proper Preparation and Planning

By starrymag | September 10, 2020

By: Ariba Bhuvad

 

 

The last thing Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) remembers is the image of Becca (Shantel VanSanten) coming out of a house and Homelander (Antony Starr) standing there. He then wakes up after having passed out in the parking lot of a Tony Cicero’s in Fort Wayne. He has no idea how he got there or what if he last saw was a dream, but he’s restless to jot down the address in his head as quickly as he can. In the process of doing so the hostess watches him in fear as the news reports that there is an active manhunt for Butcher. 

 

The scene flashes back to the present as Butcher finds himself amidst Frenchie (Tomer Capon), Hughie (Jack Quaid), Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) and Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara). Ever since they learned about the “Super Terrorist” we see Kimiko trying to tell Frenchie something as she repeatedly writes down “boy” and “girl” on a piece of paper. The message is lost on him and Kimiko grows ever more frustrated. 

 

Butcher heads out to meet a contact that he believes can help them find the Super Terrorist and is sorry that the group wasn’t smart enough to save themselves. Despite Hughie’s frustration, Butcher claims if he wasn’t there who else would the group follow?

 

Homelander remains at Becca’s home and is trying to form a connection with their son Ryan (Cameron Crovetti). Becca isn’t all too pleased with Homelander’s presence, especially since he wasn’t supposed to know about them or their whereabouts in the first place. It’s clear that Homelander doesn’t feel Ryan is using his potential as a superhero’s kid and attempts to get Ryan to use his powers by showing him just a glimpse of his own. Before he can say too much Becca intervenes and sends Ryan off to do homework. Once again Becca asks him why he’s there, especially when she just wants Ryan to have a normal childhood. It’s clear that Homelander doesn’t really care about Becca’s discomfort, despite the agreement they had in place. 

 

Meanwhile, The Deep (Chace Crawford) is sitting down with Carol (Jessica Hecht) the “therapist” who asks him to fill out some sort of questionnaire, which at some point asks him to draw a picture of himself. She’s not too pleased to see that The Deep’s drawing of himself is not accurate, but at the end of the day The Deep has no idea what exactly she wants him to do. When Eagle (Langston Kerman) shows up with a fresh pack of Fresca, Carol attempts to tell him working with The Deep is useless and his perspective is “functionally nonexistent.” The Eagle doesn’t necessarily agree and offers The Deep a “gateway” drug in his drink, which will allow him to go on his journey. 

 

The women of The Seven are making their press junket rounds, promoting their latest team member Stormfront (Aya Cash). In the middle of their day Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) gets a call and she leaves due to a “family emergency.” Starlight (Erin Moriarty) and Stormfront are left to finish up the rest of their day. 

 

At Susan Reyner’s (Jennifer Esposito) funeral Butcher surprises Grace (Laila Robins) by hiding out in her car. She threatens and even attempts to turn him in to the dozen federal officers standing just outside the parking structure, but he convinces her to hold back. He tells her that he sort of knows who killed Susan and in exchange for that he’ll tell her all about the “Super Terrorist” making the rounds. By working together, he hopes he can get his record wiped and get back to Becca.

 

The Deep goes on a trip with whatever the Eagle gave him and imagines that his gills are talking (Patton Oswalt). They taunt him and remind him that he can’t get rid of them, no matter what he does. They feel that because he can’t accept his own body he violates other people’s bodies, which essentially throws him for a loop as he demands that Eagle and Carol let him out of the locked room. They make him stay in there and Eagle says for him to just ride the high. 

 

Where did Maeve run off to unexpectedly? It turns out the call she got was from the hospital regarding an incident with her ex, Elena (Nicola Correia-Damude). She was still written down as her emergency contact and so when Elena was admitted for her appendix almost bursting, Maeve was the first one they called. 

 

Throughout the press junket Starlight gets asked multiple times if she’s single and Stormfront grows rather frustrated on the emphasis of them being women. She doesn’t think it should matter either way and instead goes off on how their costumes don’t have any pockets. In the midst of their interview A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) zooms in just as Starlight was complimenting him. Later on A-Train and Starlight share a back and forth that gets heated as each calls the other out on something they did. At the end of it, he walks away from Starlight reminding her that Hughie betrayed them and she helped him escape. 

 

Butcher returns to the crew with the news that he met up with Grace and has struck up a deal that will benefit everyone. As long as they get her the Super Terrorist she is going to help them get their records wiped clean and allow everyone to resume their normal lives. Hughie is reluctant to trust Butcher after everything, but Butcher responds with an address that Grace gave him that may be tied to the Super Terrorist’s location. 

 

The Deep’s high continues to torture him as he continues talking to his gills. It then leads to him crying as the gills and him sing “You Are So Beautiful, To Me.” He’s in quite a state, and it seems like it’s only getting worse with each passing moment as he dives deeper into self-pity. 

 

Starlight attempts to befriend Stormfront, but it doesn’t go so well for her as Stormfront mistakes her friendly banter as shady. In fact, she’s pretty sure Starlight is wearing a wire and hoping to incriminate Stormfront with something she says. While that interaction goes south, she does walk away victorious thanks to Gecko (David Thompson) who brings her a sample of Compound V. Unfortunately, A-Train seems to be on to her and confronts Starlight after Gecko leaves. He’s unable to find the sample Gecko just gave Starlight, but he’s not convinced something isn’t going on. 

 

Furious and scared of Homelander’s presence in their house, Becca rushes to talk to Dr. Park (Adrian Holmes). She wants to know Homelander has found them, especially after the deal that was made. Dr. Park is not much of a help and says that he happened to find out and now that he knows they can’t really send Becca and Ryan off somewhere else. And she can’t move away either and is essentially stuck with the situation, at least until Homelander decides to leave on his own. Dr. Park believes Homelander will get bored and leave eventually. Unfortunately, that is far from the case as Becca learns later while confronting Homelander, who just tried to have a conversation with Ryan and it went awkwardly. He has no plans of leaving and wants to stay. If she has a problem with it, he’ll be sure to let Ryan know of all the lies he grew up with thanks to her. 

 

Maeve finally comes clean to Elena about why their relationship couldn’t and can’t work out. She shares a story of going to a party with Homelander during which a producer ensured he’d sit next to Maeve. Within a few days that producer was dead with his body split in two. Maeve is pretty certain Homelander is to blame for that and she refuses to put Elena in harm’s way because if Homelander ever knew about her, she’s not sure what may happen. 

 

Butcher, Frenchie, Hughie, Kimiko, and Mother’s Milk arrive at the address given by Grace and prepare themselves with halothane shots they plan to use on the Super Terrorist. Once inside Kimiko sees an elderly man and immediately rips his head off. It turns out he is from the Shining Light Liberation Army, the very same people who kidnapped her. Upon walking around Kimiko sees a man in the store they are searching around. At first, it seems like she is going to attack him, but instead she embraces him with love. It turns out the Super Terrorist is her brother Kenji (Abraham Lim). And the sign of “boy” and “girl” she kept trying to tell Frenchie was her explaining the concept of brother and sister. Given that Kenji is Kimiko’s brother, it makes the whole situation complicated and Hughie gets in the way of Butcher trying to shoot Kenji. The whole situation ends with Kimiko and Kenji running away after Butcher tried to shoot anyway and was blasted back by Kenji’s powers. It’s not a shock to assume that Butcher is livid with Hughie’s interference, but he doesn’t share a connection with Kimiko like the rest of them do. When push comes to shove, Butcher has no option but to tell the group that Becca is alive and being kept captive with her and Homelander’s son. He just wants to find his way back to her and he can’t do that without their help. He doesn’t deserve to even ask, but he’s asking anyway in the hopes they’ll offer to help.  

 

Starlight attempts to talk to Stormfront again and emphasizes that she is not a sellout like Stormfront thinks she is. In fact, she’s inspired by Stormfront because she wants to say everything about Vought the way she does. While Stormfront goes on a rant about hiding behind masks and shielding yourself from the world, Starlight records their entire conversation on the phone. 

 

Kimiko and Kenji finally get out of harm’s way as Kenji shares his regret for not saving Kimiko from the horrors she had to endure. The both of them were put through a horrible experience and call them themselves monsters. It appears their misfortunes unite them more than ever before. And while the siblings play catch up, Starlight tries to text Hughie about the Compound V. Hot on her trail is A-Train who shows up in her house and catches her with the hidden sample. He doesn’t quite know it, but she has ammo of her own to blackmail him with – namely how he killed his girlfriend. A-Train isn’t given much of a choice but to oblige as he’s ready to take her down with him if he needs to. 

 

As the episode comes to a close Kimiko realizes her brother isn’t who she needs him to be and is willing to work with the very same group that tortured her. All he wants is for them to fight the fight together, but it’s clear that Kimiko isn’t going to go along with whatever he has planned. The two end up attacking one another and fighting down the street, wreaking havoc on one another. Finally, Kimiko gets him within her grasp and causes him to pass out just as the boys show up with the van. It may not be what she or even Hughie would have wanted, but Butcher now has his Super Terrorist ready for the bargain and he can hold up his end of the deal. Before they drive off with Kenji by their side, Butcher punches Hughie in the face and reminds him to never get in between him and his wife again.