The Boys – What I Know

By starrymag | October 18, 2020

By: Ariba Bhuvad

 

The season 2 finale begins with a disclaimer as Homelander (Antony Starr) is seen in a public service announcement about how to survive a supervillain attack at school. Alongside Sheriff Ed Flanagan (J.D. Nicholsen), Homelander talks to a group of school kids about heroes showing up to the school in the case of an emergency and that they have to follow something called–LAW (Lock, Arm Yourselves, Wait for a Hero). 

 

Robert (Jim Beaver) informs Victoria (Claudia Doumit) and Grace (Laila Robins) that the President doesn’t want to talk to either of them. In fact, he will be declaring a national emergency and authorizing the use of Compound V by law enforcement and first responders–for $5 million a pop. The Pentagon and I.C.E. are up next.

 

Grace and Mallory think it is a horrendous idea to do so and that Vought is behind all of this. However, as much as Robert agrees with them, he tells them there is no proof and people are scared. Despite trying to threaten Robert, he doesn’t seem to care too much. And even though they insist they have a witness, it won’t matter unless Homelander himself comes forward and says something.

 

After Homelander and Stormfront (Aya Cash) took off with Ryan (Cameron Crovetti), Becca (Shantel VanSanten) is desperate to make a run for it and find her son. She attempts to do so as the Vought authorities try to track her down.

 

Starlight (Erin Moriarty) is sending her mother, Donna (Ann Cusack), away for protection, despite her wanting to stay back. As she gets ready to bid farewell, she asks Starlight if she’s absolutely sure about being with Hughie (Jack Quaid) and hands her a new cross necklace, 

 

Back at the bunker, Frenchie (Tomer Capon), Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) and Butcher (Karl Urban) are getting their weapons ready. Frenchie has a gun that will hurt Stormfront and, thanks to Starlight, they know that Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell) has a tree nut allergy and can be taken down quickly. As for A-Train (Jessie T. Usher), all he needs is a shot of epinephrine to send his already failing heart into overdrive. Against their plan of murder and chaos is Hughie who feels they can’t stop Vought. They’ll just make more Supes and keep doing what they’re doing. Starlight has a plan and asks for the day before any of them do anything. 

 

Stormfront tries to calm Homelander down who is pissed off watching the news and seeing the world’s reaction to recent events. Plus, everyone in the Seven is all over the place–Black Noir is in a vegetative state and Starlight is in the wind working against them. But Stormfront reminds him none of this matters, they’re getting close to getting past all of this. Now they just have to make sure the right people get the doses of Compound V for their grand plan.

 

Starlight makes fun of Hughie for listening to Billy Joel, but as it turns out he grew up listening to his music because his mom loved him. But their conversation switches to what is going on and Starlight asks why Hughie wouldn’t give up on her. When he says he would never, she confirms to him that this is why she wants to help him now. Their short road trip ends with them at Quuen Maeve’s (Dominique McElligott) house, asking for her help. Of course, Maeve wants nothing to do with The Seven anymore because she doesn’t care. She’s tired of it all and doesn’t really care much when Hughie says that they are all tired, but Vought is hurting people. Starlight tries to plead to her too, but Maeve says she already saved Starlight’s life so how much more is she supposed to do. Nothing will change, it never does.

 

At the bunker Becca shows up looking for Butcher, frazzled with the news that Homelander and Stormfront took Ryan. She’ll need his help and support and, despite what has already transpired between them, Butcher is willing to be there by her side 100%.

 

Meanwhile, at the Church of the Collective Stan (Giancarlo Esposito) and Alastair (Goran Visnjic) have a meeting. Of course, Frescas are involved as Alastair talks to Stan about letting The Deep (Chace Crawford) back into the Seven. The Church has done a lot to rehab the Deep’s image, but Stan isn’t too eager to listen to him. A-Train could be the better option, but Stormfront has issues with the Church as she was one of its first followers. Going against her is not something Stan wants to do at the moment because he needs her. A-Train overhears their conversation and isn’t too pleased with what they had to say.

 

Back at the bunker Becca’s unexpected visit has everyone in an uproar. After all, she’s the only person they know Butcher truly loves and they know how special she must be to him. While they know everything about her, she doesn’t know much about them. Butcher shows up and asks everyone to give Becca some space as he reveals that he couldn’t find anything on social media about Ryan. Most likely he is at the Tower. Feeling overwhelmed, Becca apologizes for what she had said to Butcher when they last met and he simply promises her that he will find Ryan. And he wastes no time getting to work as he ensures Stan knows he wants to meet with him. During Butcher and Stan’s meeting, Butcher reveals he knows where Ryan is and knows that he is Vought’s contingency plan. Edgar doesn’t seem too eager to betray Homelander and the whole debacle behind Compound V is what brings in the big bucks for them. And with all that in mind, he’s not willing to just give Ryan up on a silver platter. Butcher is quick to point out that Stan should have a big problem with Stormfront and how things have been taking place within Vought as it’s only a matter of time before Stormfront stops listening to Stan altogether. Instead, Butcher offers up a deal–get Ryan away from Homelander give him to Stan, and in exchange get protection and a new life for him and Becca. He’s okay giving up Ryan if it means he will get to be with Becca. Stan reluctantly agrees while judging Butcher for betraying the love of his life.

 

Ashley (Colby Minifie) is babysitting Ryan, but she’s extremely stressed with all that is going on. Stormfront and Homelander show up to find Ryan doing homework. At this point, Ryan is homesick and missing Becca. He asks to speak with her. Stormfront tries to distract him with the offer of going to Planet Vought. When they get there everyone is ecstatic to see Stormfront and Homelander, but it’s extremely overwhelming for Ryan. Realizing how flustered he is, Homelander takes Ryan out of there. 

 

After visiting Maeve, Starlight and Hughie find a surprise guest in the car in the form of A-Train who comes bearing some damning evidence against Vought. He offers it up to them because he hates Stormfront and wants to take her down. 

 

Homelander is with Ryan at the cabin, who is still disturbed by the crowds swarming them at Planet Vought. He’s really scared and all he really wants is his mom. Ryan feels extremely bad for freaking out and, in an unexpected turn, Homelander shares a similar experience he had once too. He ended up flying away when that happened and didn’t have anyone to help him. But he says it is different for Ryan because he has him, even though Ryan is quick to reveal he doesn’t really want to be a superhero. But Homelander promises he will teach him everything he needs to know.

 

Butcher finds Ryan’s location which is tagged up in Rochester somewhere. He begins making preparations to go, but is then given all the evidence Hughie and Starlight got from A-Train. Clearly, they have a lot of stuff on their hands, but his first priority is to get Ryan. The whole group is behind Butchers’s plan despite him saying they don’t need to come. Mother’s Milk says they have been by his side for some crazy stuff and this is no different. 

 

Everyone starts to gather the weapons while Butcher tells Becca she can’t come with them. She insists on going because Ryan will not warm up to Butcher and will respond better if she is there. She pleads with so much love to Butcher that he promises that they will get Ryan back. She asks him to swear on his brother Lenny’s life, solidifying that he indeed will make it happen.

 

Back at the cabin Homelander tries to train Ryan and asks him to practice burning things with his eyes. Ryan gets flustered because he can’t do it and doesn’t want to swear or get mad like Homelander suggests to incite anger. On cue, Stormfront steps in to tell Ryan that their kind is under attack, a genocide of sorts, and they need people like him to protect everyone. Unfortunately for her, she learns right at that moment that all the information about her has been leaked, specifically her Nazi ties of the past. She gets pissed and flies back to the Tower while the rest of the group get to work right on cue.

 

A sonic sound is used to weaken Homelander (unfortunately, it impacts Ryan as well) just as Stormfront leaves. Becca and Butcher rush to the cabin to get Ryan while Homelander flies out to find the source of the noise. They successfully find Ryan, but Butcher changes the plan last minute. He takes them to Mother’s Milk and asks for him to take them to Grace, who he knows will give them protection. He confesses to Becca that he cut a deal with Stan and that they were going to take Ryan away at the cabin. He couldn’t do it and now he needs them to go. Becca doesn’t care about what he was going to do because he didn’t and all she wants is for him to go with them. But he wants this one thing, the one nice thing he can do in his life. 

 

Homelander shows up back at the cabin to find that the entire place is flooded with Vought officers. When he hears the name Butcher, his anger increases ten-fold and he shuts the door behind him as he fries and kills every officer until they’re nothing but guts. 

 

Right as Mother’s Milk starts driving off with Becca and Butcher in tow a very angry Stormfront shows up and attacks the car, causing it to flip multiple times. Stormfront walks towards Starlight, Frenchie, Kimiko, Hughie and Mother’s Milk as she declares what they’ve released is fake news. Meanwhile, Butcher runs off with Becca and Ryan to find them a safe place to hide.

 

Starlight and Kimiko begin attacking Stormfront as the men watch from a distance. But along the way, Stormfront snaps Kimiko’s neck. Unfortunately for her, Kimiko revives herself just as Maeve shows up. Together Stormfront is attacked repeatedly until she gives up and flies away. Unfortunately, she finds Becca, Butcher and Ryan and tries to get Ryan to come to her. With her strong mama bear instincts, Becca stabs Stormfront in the eye but finds herself being choked to death by her instead. Watching his mother being attacked brings out the anger and fear in Ryan that Homelander was trying to produce earlier. A huge flash of light later and Butcher comes to as we find Stormfront lying on the ground–burnt and with no legs while talking in German. Sadly, Becca is hurt too in this accidental attack as Ryan cries over what he’s just done. Becca understands that Butcher will be angry with Ryan for what he’s done, but she asks him to tell Ryan that it was not his fault and repeats that Ryan is good. The last breath in her leaves as a very angry and emotional Butcher grabs the iron tire. For a moment it seems like he is going to attack Ryan, but then Homelander shows up and sees Stormfront lying on the ground. 

 

He asks Ryan to come to him in a very intimidating manner, but instead he hides behind Butcher. Homelander is about to attack when Maeve shows up and tells him to let them go. She has the video of Homelander letting all the people on the plane die,and she will release it if he doesn’t stop what he’s doing. Not only does she want him to let them go, but she wants him to stop hunting Starlight and to leave her and Elena alone. He promises to make everyone’s life miserable if she releases the video, but she doesn’t care because at least the world will know how horrible he truly is. 

 

Later, at a press conference, Edgar announces that Compound V is on hold and then Homelander takes over to say some words. Clearly forced to say them, he thanks Maeve and Starlight for all that they did and apologizes to Starlight for accusing her. He promises that Stormfront has been neutralized and now justice will be served for what she’s done. In the meantime, they will continue to protect the public. 

 

The Deep and A-Train are watching the press conference on the news as Alastair shows up with good news for A-Train–he’s back in The Seven. When he brings up that files were stolen from their archive, A-Train looks uncomfortable and is surprised to learn that Alastair was impressed with what he did. It only helped them which is why him being back in The Seven makes sense. Unfortunately, The Deep is not back in The Seven and is extremely upset to learn so. He’s spent a lot of money and given his life over to the Church and it has resulted in nothing. 

 

Starlight and Hughie share a moment of reflection after the events as they look to the future. Hughie wants to go off and do something that will allow him to stand on his own feet. Starlight assumes he is trying to break up with her, but that is far from the truth. He just wants to do something for himself and has an idea of what he will do next. 

 

Butcher and Ryan are sitting together while waiting for Grace. He gives Ryan a necklace that Becca gave him. She told him it would keep him safe and now it will keep Ryan safe. Grace finally shows up as Ryan and Butcher say goodbye. Before leaving, she tells Butcher that all the charges against him and The Boys have been wiped clean and that he is now a free man. However, Victoria has just become the head of the White House’s new office–the office of Supe Affairs. They want a team to keep an eye on all the Supes and Victoria will be giving off-book funding to Grace for helping out. Grace wants Butcher to be a part of it, but he simply walks off. 

 

After all that has happened, Mother’s Milk goes home to his family, Kimiko and Frenchie leave the bunker dancing and smiling, while Homelander is masturbating off the top of a building while trying to talk himself up. 

 

The final moments of the finale show Victoria talking to Alastair on the phone, thanking him for helping her take down Stormfront. It was his intel after all that allowed them to do so. In exchange, of course, Alastair is looking forward to a tax-exempt status for the Church. He wants her to call his office and set up a meeting as they say goodbye on the phone.

 

Alastair’s head and body explode all over his office. The scene pans out to show Victoria standing outside as her eyes go from white to normal. She’s the one that just killed him and likely everyone back at the courthouse. The episode ends with her returning to her campaign office, as Hughie waits to have a meeting with her. He wants a job with her and is ready to do something profound with his life. Of course, no one knows he’s there, but he’s ready to help out and change the world.