“THE BOYS” RECAP: A FORMER VOUGHT VILLAIN RETURNS
The Boys take a farm field trip.
Hugh Sr. (Simon Pegg) is awake! And Hugh Jr. (Jack Quaid) isn’t sure how to feel about it. Yes, he wants his dad to remain among the living, but at what cost? Last week, his mom Daphne (Rosemarie DeWitt) gave Hugh Sr. a dose of V to revive him, and the consequences, surely, are incoming. But for now, it’s a touching family reunion, with Hugh Sr. and Daphne reminiscing about the good times before everything went to s—.
But the sweet moment is doused in doubt when Daphne leaves to go to the bathroom… and moments later, Hugh Sr. is left confused where she went.
Later in the episode, we check back in with the Campbells at the hospital, where Hughie and Daphne discover that Hugh Sr.’s gone missing. They find him in the room of another patient, whose heart he’s just torn out, though he’s got no recollection of it. Not only doesn’t he remember killing the man, he doesn’t even know who Hughie is. And before they can stop him from doing any more damage, he crashes through the wall and runs for his life, killing another patient and a security guard in the process, then turning his murderous gaze on Daphne.
In a delusional stupor, Hugh Sr. chases his son and ex-wife through the hospital, set on killing Daphne, until Hughie corners him in an operating room and manages to talk him back into a (mostly) sane state. Daphne expresses regret for dosing him with V; she doesn’t know what to do, how to fix this… but Hughie has an idea.
Meanwhile, Butcher (Karl Urban) has a rendezvous with Joe Kessler (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), who wants to team up to kidnap Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) and get him away from Homelander (Antony Starr). He’s growing impatient and concerned with what could happen to Ryan if he’s left in Homelander’s care. Butcher’s hesitant, but Kessler reminds him: “...half your brain’s a f—ing tumor. This could be your last shot at Homelander.”
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At Boys HQ, Frenchie (Tomer Capone) is still reeling from his confession to Colin last week, so naturally, he gets high. Very high. Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) is worried, but the team’s focus isn’t on Frenchie’s sobriety, it’s on the information Butcher’s just uncovered – that there’s a virus that’s been created at Godolkin University that kills supes. And Butcher wants to use it to kill Homelander. Only problem, he thinks Vice President-elect Neuman (Claudia Doumit) has taken control of all known doses of the virus (which you’ll know if you watched Gen V). So the plan? Steal the virus back from Neuman. All it’ll take, Butcher says, is one presidential pardon. MM and Butcher pay a visit to ex-Vought CEO Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) in prison. They want his help getting the virus from Neuman, but despite the presidential pardon they offer him, he’s not interested – because she’s like a daughter to him, and he could never betray her. But when they reveal to him that Neuman dosed up her daughter with V, he’s horrified. Quickly, Edgar changes his tune, and a beat later, he walks with the Boys out the front door of the prison.
Edgar leads the team to his old farm, where he thinks Neuman might be hiding the virus. There, they find the remnants of a twisted research facility – shattered glass on the floor and poor little bunnies dosed up with V, but no virus.
And as they process what they’re seeing, Neuman steps inside with her secret service detail and confronts Edgar. He’s pissed Neuman dosed up her daughter, but Neuman calls out his hypocrisy, as he’s the one who dosed her up, and there’s not much Edgar can say in response.
Neuman also comes at the Boys, asking what they did to “Sameer,” threatening to pop their heads open, as she’s wont to do, if they don’t confess. They’ve got no idea who Sameer is or what she’s talking about, and Edgar manages to convince Neuman to hold off on the head popping for the moment so they can all work together to find Sameer and the virus.
As they search the rest of the farm, they fight bloodthirsty, V’d up chickens and bulls (really a typical day in the life of this crew) and finally find Sameer (Omid Abtahi), the creator of the supe-killing virus from Gen V, who turns out to be Neuman’s lover. As a kicker, he’s held onto one last dose of the virus. In order to escape the murderous flying sheep pursuing the team, they inject the virus into a dead body and throw it outside. The sheep eat the corpse, are infected with the virus, and quickly die.
Sadly for Neuman, Sameer goes missing in the melee. His severed leg and the absence of the rest of his body convinces her that Sameer was killed. But later, it’s revealed he’s been kidnapped by Butcher, who, with Kessler’s help, is gonna force him to whip up some more vials of the virus for them to use against Homelander.
But as far as the rest of the Boys know, they’ve failed to obtain the virus, so Edgar’s deal is pulled. He’s sent off back to jail — or that was the plan, until Neuman pops the heads of his escorts and breaks him out of custody.
Amidst a particularly dark episode, there’s a lot of comedic relief in the form of Vought’s annual upfront presentation; an overview of their upcoming slate of projects to their investors. There’s a Firecracker biopic that’s meant to launch the new “Vought Faith'' division, a new Tek Knight film, surprise cameos from Cate (Maddie Phillips) and Sam (Asa Germann) from Gen V. It’s quite the promising slate… if you’re into that sort of thing. It’s all hosted by Vought News mouthpiece (and Ashley’s sub) Cameron Coleman (Matthew Edison).
Backstage, A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) tells Vought CE-faux Ashley (Colby Minifie) that he’s the leak, and asks her to help him take Homelander down. After being publicly demoralized and stripped of her power by Homelander, leading to Cameron breaking up with her midway through the episode, Ashley’s primed to turn.
Let’s check back in with Homelander and Ryan, the life-affirming father-son story melting hearts across the globe… in a sense. Turns out Vought’s in-house film and TV director Adam (PJ Byrne) wants to do a teen “super school” show starring Ryan. But Ryan doesn’t wanna do it, and to Ryan’s surprise, Homelander supports his decision. He wants Ryan to be able to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants. Always a great parenting decision!
Later, Ryan starts to embrace Homelander’s new rules when he forces Adam to apologize to an assistant, Bonnie, who he’s been sexually harassing. Adam acquiesces, but Ryan doesn’t buy his apology. So he tells Bonnie to slap him. Again, and again, and again. And as she does… Ryan smiles and drinks a milkshake. Not a promising sign for the future of this youngster’s psyche.
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But Homelander takes Ryan’s act of punishment a step further back at Vought Tower, issuing a new directive to his fellow supes. “You will no longer be beloved celebrities. You will be wrathful gods.” Homelander says he’s found the person inside Vought who’s been leaking information to the Boys – it’s Vought News host Cameron. (Turns out Ashley set him up as payback for breaking up with her.) Homelander orders the Seven to kill him, and they gladly obey.
If that wasn’t a dark enough ending… we jump over to a police station, where Frenchie, overcome with guilt, confesses to a series of murders and is taken into custody. But that’s not all, folks!
Back at the hospital, Hughie chooses to end his father’s life (with some kind of IV injection) rather than watching him live in the bewilderment and pain he’s seen in the past day. With Daphne by his side, Hughie says a heartfelt goodbye to his father, who passes in peace.
Stray Observations:
- Every one of Deep's (Chace Crawford) lines deserves an Emmy. My favorite this week was, as he lamented his dwindling film career: “Noah Baumbach pulled me from his latest slice-of-life drama.”
- The Boys is constantly taking aim at the TV and film industry in a delightful way. A-Train’s comment about reshoots on a new Vought TV show had me in stitches: “Reshooting is making this the most expensive TV show ever. So… it’s gotta be good, right?”
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.
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