Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker
Using the fear of immigration, Episode 7 of The Boys Season 2 wastes no time hitting the satirical heart of what makes this show so good. Stormfront takes to the news and riles up paranoia and fuels own personal army. Among them is a bearded man who slowly gives in to his fears and shoots a shopkeeper in cold blood. Believing wrongly that he’s a Supe, it’s apparent that Stormfront’s message is getting through and working. With Lamplighter’s testimony, Butcher scoffs at Congress as they reveal they don’t have enough evidence surrounding Compound V. In order to take a shot at the King, they need to trust each other and really hit The Seven where it hurts. Butcher receives a call from his Mother, confirming that his Father has died. She pleads with him to meet and he does just that, showing up at the apartment. Only, it turns out his Father isn’t actually dead. He’s sitting on the porch outside. Reluctantly they talk, with Butcher blaming him for Lenny’s death and leading the two to come to blows. He accuses Butcher of being the reason for Lenny’s death At the same time, Hughie is stuck inside watching porn with Lamplighter. With changing channels off the table, they both instead talk about their families and how they’ve been pushed to the sidelines. Starlight is cornered by her Mum in a restaurant, who pleads with her daughter to talk. There, she mentions how alone she feels. Unfortunately Starlight isn’t actually alone, thanks in part to her Mother phoning Ashley prior to their meeting. Black Noir bursts in unannounced and starts beating Starlight down, eventually capturing her. Capitalizing on this death, Stormfront and Homelander work together to get their message across. They plead with the angry crowd to allow Compound V to be approved and have more superheroes counteract the villains. They also confirm the “mole” (Starlight) has been captured. Hughie happens to be watching and encourages Lamplighter to work with him to free Starlight. Things take a turn for the worst when Stormfront and Homelander show up at Becca’s with Ryan. At the same time, Grace Mallory arrives with M.M. to see a former scientist who used to work at Sage Grove. Pleading with him to work together, Jonah eventually declines their invitation. They’re not the only visitors either, as Butcher shows up and asks questions about Homelander’s upbringing. Originally, Homelander didn’t even want to be a powerful superhero but Jonah soon turned him around. Threatening to kill his entire family, Butcher stares unblinking at the Doctor as he watches on in fear. Elsewhere, A-Train shows up at Deep’s party. Alastair joins them at the bar and reveals that the Starlight issue has opened up places in The Seven for them both. This could be their ticket in. This news is soured slightly by the announcement that Eagle has been kicked out the program. Something is seriously not right with this. With Elena gone, Maeve struggles to contain her anger. Heartbroken, she instead tries to channel her feelings by sleeping with a random guy at Vought HQ. When Ashley shows up, she tells her PR rep to be a human being given what she’s been through. Becca meanwhile takes Homelander outside and pleads with him not to disrupt Ryan’s wellbeing and structure. An impassioned plea eventually sees him agree… but this is all a ruse. Homelander manages to turn Ryan away from Becca and he flies away with his son in-tow. Lamplighter deceives Hughie as he heads up to the main atrium and sees that his statue has been moved. On the back of this, he burns himself to a crisp after mentioning how he only wanted to please his Father. As the alarms blare, Starlight uses her powers to break free from her cage. Only, this brings her face to face with Black Noir who starts beating her down. Thankfully Maeve arrives and grabs Noir round the neck. She grabs an almond bar and stuffs it in his mouth. It turns out he has a nut allergy which sees him choking and writhing in pain on the floor. Pleading with Maeve to join her, she declines and walks away as Annie finally catches up with Hughie. On the way though, Hughie manages to free her Mother from an adjacent cell. This family reunion is short-lived though as they all scramble out the house. With everything starting to unravel for the rebels, Deep and A-Train watch as the church start to slander and bury Eagle. They soon change the channel over as a big committee meeting gets underway. There, Jonah arrives as a witness to what happened in the past. In shock, Homelander and the rest of The Seven watch on. Only, heads literally start exploding as the room is overcome by panic. Unfortunately this also leads to the broadcast suddenly ending. Wondering just what to do next, Butcher’s plan comes unraveled as he watches in unbridled rage.
The Episode Review
Could we see Butcher taking compound V and becoming a Supe to take on Homelander? That seems to be the direction this one is taking next and it really sets everything up for an explosive final episode. In a way, this very much felt like a deep breath before that aforementioned finale and leaves plenty of questions on the table to be answered. I’d imagine Deep and A-Train are going to come back into the fold at some point but quite how their angle will play out remains to be seen. The bloody conclusion to this episode will almost certainly see Homelander and Stormfront take advantage of the fear to rile up their personal army. In that respect, this cleverly written episode really leans into the topical issues gripping various nations across the world and it works so well with the satirical tone of this series. Quite what the finale has in store for us remains to be seen but one thing’s for sure – it’s going to be a seriously wild ride.
