The Boys – The Bloody Doors Off

By starrymag | October 5, 2020

By: Ariba Bhuvad

 

The episode begins with a flashback of Frenchie (Tomer Capon) with Jay (Michael Ayres) and Cherie (Jordana Lajoie) doing drugs and talking about The Golden Girls. Then, they discuss robbing a bank. 

 

In the present Starlight (Erin Moriarty) asks Frenchie to remove the tracker in her shoulder in order to evade Vought. Hughie (Jack Quaid) is there for moral support, but is rather freaked out about what will happen to Starlight when it is removed. Regardless of any pain she might feel, Starlight knows she needs to get it removed because Stormfront (Aya Cash) knows that she leaked the Compound V secret. 

 

In the middle of an alley a man (Luis Fernandes) who had just robbed the bank was looking at all the cash as Stormfront and Homelander (Antony Starr) show up to apprehend him. Instead, Stormfront starts groping Homelander and making out with him as Homelander pushes down on the perp’s face. When he gets rather excited, Homelander ends up squishing the guy’s face into pieces. The two then proceed to have sex around the perp’s remains. 

 

Butcher (Karl Urban) watches the news alongside Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) with anger as they see Stormfront and Homelander giving an interview. It doesn’t take long for Butcher to realize that the two of them have been sleeping together. At that moment Hughie, Kimiko and Starlight show up to the bunker. For a moment it seems Kimiko is going to attack Starlight when she sees her, but instead she ends up embracing her with a big hug. Butcher, on the other hand, doesn’t waste any time showing Starlight attitude and sass. But Starlight isn’t afraid to point out that he shot her, but regardless she is there for a reason – to share the information she has on Stormfront involving the Sage Grove Psychiatric Hospital. Unfortunately, Starlight doesn’t know much since Stormfront caught her looking through the laptop. This calls for a road trip and, much to everyone’s surprise, Butcher asks Starlight to join. However, it’s more of the purpose of using her as a bait.

 

The Deep (Chace Crawford) pays Maeve (Dominique McElligott) a visit in her trailer. He couldn’t find the black box from the plane crash she and Homelander failed to help with, but his oceanic buddies did find a Go-Pro. She reminds him that if he wants back in The Seven taht he has to keep all of this to himself–or else.

 

Ashley (Colby Minifie) shows A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) a demo video of his very own anthem, one that she plans to get Lil’ Nas X to sing the official version of. The Deep pays A-Train a visit on set, hoping to convince him to join The Collective. He tries to lure him into the trap by saying he understands what’s happening with A-Train because the same thing happened to him. At first A-Train says he is fine with how things are now, so The Deep walks away muttering that A-Train doesn’t need “his” help. This sparks A-Train’s interest so The Deep walks back and hands him a Fresca. 

 

Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso), Frenchie, Kimiko, Butcher, Hughie and Starlight arrive at Sage Grove and prepare to go inside. Another flashback shows Frenchie being arrested nearly eight years prior due to weaponizing Xanax. He basically would get Supes activated by rage and then turn them into “cupcakes” by taking their rage away. At that point Grace Mallory (Laila Robins) offers him to work with her and cooperate or be put in prison for 20-25 years. When he refuses to listen she proceeds to threaten him with blackmail over Jay and Cherie. If he helps, then they go free. The rest they say is history as from that point on Frenchie works with Mallory. 

 

Homelander tries to woo Stormfront by asking her to come into his trailer. He has a bouquet of roses waiting for her inside, but she says she has to go to the Tower to meet her social media guys. He tries to get her to stay but she insists on going. 

 

Meanwhile, back at Sage Grove Butcher is camped out on top of the van with a gun while Starlight burns a hole into the fence to get them all in. There’s a brief moment where Butcher aims the gun right at Starlight, but doesn’t do anything. Once they’re inside Kimiko has Frenchie lay down on the stretcher and pretend to be a patient while she and Mother’s Milk pretend to be nurses. Outside Butcher and Starlight start arguing over their mutual hatred for one another just as they see Stormfront arrive and walk into Sage Grove. 

 

Frenchie, Mother’s Milk and Kimiko shoot their way into the security room where they learn that the facility is filled with patients displaying all sorts of strange behavior. From their abilities to their physical appearance there is something seriously wrong with all of them, including a man named Love Sausage (Andrew Jackson) who is incredibly endowed (if you catch our drift). All the patients appear to be victims of experiments, but the sight of a man lighting someone named Tim (Will Carr) on fire catches their eye. It turns out it is Lamplighter (Shawn Ashmore) that just lit the guy on fire according to a very angry Frenchie who wants to kill Lamplighter on the spot. 

 

After Stormfront leaves Sage Grove Hughie tells them to get out of there, but before they can Frenchie locks eyes with Lamplighter and all hell breaks loose. One of the patients, Cindy (Ess Hödlmoser), blasts her way out of lockup and breaks the rest of those locked up out as well. Her “superpower” is being able to make things explode with the wave of her hand, including human heads. From the outside Hughie can tell something is happening inside and it is only confirmed when one of the patients comes outside and blasts them back with vibrating waves. Butcher and Starlight are alright, but Hughie was in the van which flipped over numerous times injuring him severely. They don’t have time to wait for everyone to come out so they rush to get Hughie help.

 

Back at his trailer Homelander is still waiting for Stormfront. His anger gets the best of him and he burns his trailer to the ground. When she finally returns her apologies don’t do much in the way of making him feel better and he goes off to run lines with Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell). But before he leaves Stormfront asks if something is wrong. He reveals that he went to the Tower to look for her, but found out no one had seen her. Without hesitation Homelander begins choking Stormfront and says he doesn’t need any sort of explanation. 

 

The Deep and A-Train get together to have dinner with Alastair (Goran Visnjic) where it’s basically them convincing A-Train to join The Collective. The Deep doesn’t hesitate to “share his feelings” by saying A-Train sabotaged his career and confesses he dreams about drowning him. It becomes clear to A-Train what they are trying to do and he tries to get up to leave, but Alastair stops him by reminding him that he doesn’t have many options. He’s on the verge of being replaced in The Seven and if he wants back in the Collective is really the only way. 

 

Back at Sage Grove they learn that Vought has been juicing people with Compound V. Lamplighter is there working for Vought and doing what they order him to do. As it turns out the Frenchie flashbacks make the connection between him and Lamplighter and how they ended up where they are today. Five years ago Mother’s Milk was celebrating his engagement with Mallory, Frenchie and Butcher. Lamplighter showed up there too and Mallory informed him that he was to report on everything that happened at The Tower. Frenchie’s job, after Lamplighter left, was to tail him.

 

Butcher and Starlight attempt to hitchhike so they can get Hughie to a hospital. Someone pulls over, but when he refuses to cooperate Starlight blasts him back and the guy ends up dying. She cauterizes Hughie’s wound and they rush off to the hospital. On their way Hughie’s fever starts going up as does Starlight’s concern over his well-being. Butcher conveys his appreciation for what she did back there to handle the situation, but the last person’s approval she wants is his. 

 

Since they are stuck in a lab filled with medicine, Frenchie realizes he can make a bomb with Propofol. But in the midst of this, we learn more about his and Lamplighter’s past. It turns out Lamplighter killed innocent children, Mallory’s innocent children, but he didn’t know they’d be in the bed. It was supposed to be someone else, but by the time he realized they were kids it was too late. Lamplighter knew Frenchie was following him that night, but he disappeared and never stopped Lamplighter. This was because he had gotten a call from Cherie informing him that Jay had overdosed. His friend needed help so Frenchie stopped tailing Lamplighter to do so–a fact that not even Mother’s Milk knew about. All these years they blamed Frenchie for ditching his duties only to learn that he did it to save his friend, who passed away a few months later anyway. 

 

After Frenchie creates the bomb they attempt to throw it out into the hallway, but not before Love Sausage tries to choke Mother’s Milk with his elongated penis. To make matters worse the bomb doesn’t work because Cindy crushes it and then Stormfront shows up asking what just happened at Sage Grove from the time she had left to now. She goes off to see if anyone else is around while the rest of them make a narrow escape out of there. All this while Hughie is being treated and is out of the woods. They will have to take it easy for a couple of days, but Butcher doesn’t think they have the luxury to do so. Unexpectedly, in that moment Butcher and Starlight find a mutual interest in making fun of Hughie and his habits of using kid’s shampoo. They realize that Hughie is simply too good for them and he has never given up on either of them. 

 

Back at the Tower Elena (Nicola Correia-Damude) sees footage of the moments before the plane crashed when Homelander and Maeve left all the people to die. She’s disturbed to see all of this and even more so when Maeve says this is their only way out. She didn’t stand up to Homelander then, but now she can use this to make things right. 

 

Frenchie and Kimiko finally make amends, as he apologizes for his behavior towards her and how he couldn’t stop saving her. He thought if he saved her his sins would be absolved, but from here on out he will not bother her. Mallory shows up and immediately points a gun at Lamplighter, who tells her to just do it because it would be a favor to him. It is Frenchie who begs for Lamplighter’s life and says that he is already punishing himself and that may be the punishment he deserves–harsher than death.

 

Stormfront sees Homelander back at the Tower and promises to never lie to him again. She reveals her past as Liberty and even shows him a picture of her daughter who passed away from Alzheimer’s some time back. Older pictures of her reveal that she took photos with Heinrich Himmler and was once married to Frederick Vought, the founder of Vought. He is the one who taught her everything and they went on to fall in love and have a daughter. Basically, it is because of Frederick that she and Homelander and everyone else were made and now it’s their turn to create an army of Supes. It is Vought’s true destiny to retaliate against the races that are trying to grind them down and Homelander will be the one to lead the charge. She loves him more than anything and with him being the only person alive that she still loves, she believes in him wholeheartedly. The two of them kiss as we see Cindy hitchhiking to a location unknown.