on Blu-ray.
{Spoiler}
Butcher Out of all ‘The Boys’, he’s definitely the biggest jerk. He’s spent three seasons now wanting to take out Homelander, comes close to doing so during the ‘Herogasm’ episode (but Homelander, showing what a coward he really is, flew off as soon as he thought he was in actual danger) and then in the season final gets his
second chance when Soldier Boy is ready to do what he was freed by Butcher and the rest of The Boys to do: zap Homelander with his depowering power. But because SB slaps around Ryan (the kid Butcher was entrusted by his late wife, Becca, to look after since the brat is
her kid), we’re expected to believe that Butcher gives up his vendetta against the worst Supe of them all, suddenly decides SB is 'worse' and even
joins Homelander in zapping SB with their eyebeams...all because the kid was there? Isn’t he supposed to be (or eventually become)
stronger than Homelander? So, he was never in any danger. It was complete crap. As I always say, kids ruin EVERYTHING. If Ryan hadn’t been there, Butcher would’ve left SB alone and he could’ve done to Homelander what he was there to do.
It wasn’t enough that Butcher screwed up their season-long plan, but he also showed what a hypocrite he was by being someone who HATES Supes and wanted them ALL dead...yet he takes Temp V and turns
himself into a Supe (albeit temporarily) in order to have a fighting chance against Homelander. So, he wants all super-powered people dead...but will *become* one if it serves his goals. His actions this season made it hard to like him, but Karl Urban’s performance kept him from becoming totally hateable (even when it seemed like he was going to do the lowest thing he possibly could by *not* passing along Starlight’s message to Hughie that continuing to take Temp V would
kill them and instead he actually
encouraged Hughie to keep taking it. Thankfully, it turned out Butcher
wasn’t a complete shit of a human being and he knocked out Hughie so he wouldn’t follow him on his mission).
While most thought the scene in the first episode this season between Butcher and Homelander, when they sat down to have a semi-civil (at least for them) conversation, was the ‘best’ scene of the episode, I actually really enjoyed the one between Butcher and Queen Maeve (it was so weird seeing her in normal clothes, even though we have seen this previously), as I couldn’t recall really having seen them have one-on-one conversations previously (it’s possible they did at the end of Season 2, but it’s been so long since I watched it that I can’t remember for sure). It was interesting watching Butcher being so close to a Supe and even still maintaining every single one of them had to go - I’m imagining he excluded Starlight and Kimiko from that since they’re both involved with members of The Boys - Hughie and Frenchie - and offing their g/fs would just lead to Butcher being on EVERYONE’S shit list including his own teammates). Anyway, even without targeting the significant others of members of his crew, he *still* managed to piss each one of them off this season in various ways. While we did see them (especially Frenchie in the season final) stand up to Butcher, they end up just going right back to working with him. It remains to be seen if they'll continue standing up to him next season or not. There are only so many times they can say they're through with Butcher only to return to him before it gets ridiculous. I wonder if he’ll eventually reach the stage of pushing them *too* far.
In a surprising turn of events, Butcher and Maeve did the deed in one episode (I think after she supplied him with more Temp V). I wonder if she got preggers which we’ll later find out? I hope not. He seemed to just go along with Starlight becoming an official member of The Boys in the season final, and we got flashbacks to how he ended up the way he is (his abusive father that beat the shit out of him, who he stood up to, but then he left his younger brother alone with their father and the kid offed himself as a result - if Butcher's memories whilst being stuck in a mind whammy by a Supe were accurate). While it was fun to see Butcher with powers for a while, he’s now suffering very real consequences for subjecting himself to it and is supposedly ‘dying’. Since I think it's pretty clear the show's lead isn't going anywhere before the series is over, I'm not sure how the writers are going to solve this one, as it seems they’ve written themselves into a bit or a corner with his character. Where can they go with him next? He takes Compound V to become a Supe permanently? That’d kind of defeat the whole point of his character. Will they have him discover some miracle cure? That'd be cheap/a cop-out. Despite all the terrible things he did/said this season, I still don't hate the guy. As foul-mouthed as Butcher can be, he still manages to make the dirtiest word (which is also his FAVOURITE word, it would seem) far funnier than it should be when he uses it so frequently.
HughieButcher wasn’t the only one who became hard to like this season, as Hughie ended up succumbing to his feelings of inadequacy in regards to being a powerless human dating a superhero (Starlight). This led to him taking Temp V and gaining the power of teleportation (which came with the unfortunate side effect of him teleporting out of his clothes - which also extended to anyone he teleported with him, like Starlight). He kept repeating over and over how he was doing this to ‘protect/save’ her, but as she continued pointing out to him, she didn’t
need to be protected/saved, she just needed *him*. Something as simple as not being able to open a jar at breakfast and having Annie do it for him was clearly something that bothered Hughie and once the option to become a Supe (even if only temporarily) was available, he immediately leapt at the chance due to his need to be ‘equal’ to her. I’ve seen more than enough evidence certain guys can’t handle powerful women (whether it be figuratively or literally, they just can’t accept females - or even female characters - who are stronger/better than males). Another good point Annie made to Hughie was him injecting himself with an UNTESTED substance. I had to roll my eyes at all the people badmouthing her character for making fair points and that they dismissed her as 'woke'/'feminist crap'/etc...but I imagine if
Hughie were the superhero and
Annie the human who was injecting herself with an untested substance to become just as strong as him, they'd totally be on Hughie's side (they're just
that predictable). It's so typical when certain people can't take a female character being *right* about something.
Kripke had said this season would tackle the topic of ‘toxic masculinity’ and such, and while that term was embodied with the character of Soldier Boy, we also saw Hughie verging into that territory. Thankfully, by season’s end he came to his senses, realised that staying
alive was more important than being the ‘strong one’ in his relationship with Starlight/Annie, and instead of taking one final lethal dose of Temp V, he used his *brains* and gave her a power-up by turning up all the lights in the room everyone was in when taking on Homelander and SB, so he helped her out
that way. Hopefully he’s now gotten over this addiction he had to superpowers and will continue helping his superhero g/f out in ways that
aren’t harmful. On the plus side, at least while Hughie was suped up he got to get a lick in against A-Train whilst demanding an apology from him for that time he exploded Hughie’s former g/f by super-speeding straight through her. Also a plus? When the first episode of the season ended with Hughie discovering that his new boss, the Congresswoman Victoria Neumann, was the ‘head popper’ from last season...at least he wasn’t covered in blood & guts like he usually is every season (instead *she* was when she exploded bit by bit the head of a guy who she used to know - not that I actually
watched any of that part, as I knew it was coming and averted my eyes - which I seem to do a lot of when watching this show). Hughie *did* get vomited on by Butcher, though, as a result of his taking Temp V, so the show did keep up the tradition of Hughie getting covered in some sort of grossness after all. Jack Quaid continued to do a good job as Hughie (his expressions/reactions to all the crazy shit that goes on around him is always amusing), and even though he was rather frustrating this season, I never hated his character.
HomelanderIf ever there was a character that richly deserved to be called Butcher’s favourite word...it’s
this guy. To list all of his crimes this season would take forever, but suffice to say the *only* time he was ‘decent’ was in the ‘Dawn of the Seven’ movie which the first episode kicked off with (including an amusing cameo from Charlize Theron portraying Stormfront - which I think I’d read about when the episode originally aired in America but had forgotten about since then and so it was actually a surprise for me when I watched). The rest of the time, however, he was his usual supremely dickish, controlling, abusive, homicidal, psychopathic self. He really does make being a member of The Seven the most unpleasant job in the world. This season, he body-shamed A-Train (not that I felt sorry for him, since he did his own fair share of crap), forced The Deep to eat his tiny octopus friend, Timothy, just to get back in The Seven (what is up with this show and its need to include animal cruelty every season? Obviously the writers find it ‘funny’, but it just tells you how messed up in the head they are), and regularly threatened/blackmailed Starlight into doing what he wanted (including pretending to be in a relationship with him) and then offed her old flame, Supersonic, in a particularly gruesome way as a demonstration of what he’d do to Hughie if Starlight didn’t fall into line and quit conspiring against him.
While I can’t deny that Antony Starr’s performance as Homelander continues to be top notch in the chilling department (the way he can express so much with his face and you can see him switch from the hero the public *thinks* he is to who he
truly is in the blink of an eye, all whilst smiling for the camera, shows just how skilled an actor he is), there’s only so much longer they can keep dragging out this character’s existence before it becomes stale, I think. The good guys
need to have a ‘win’ at some point, and while they came close to being rid of their greatest enemy this season...naturally, it didn’t go quite according to plan and now Homelander’s completely unleashed since the one person who seemed to keep him in check (well...as much as it was possible to do so, at least) and kept others safe from him (like Starlight) - ie. Stan Edgar - has been removed. Plus, the public has seen Homelander freak out and express his true views (expletive-laden and all) on TV and in the season final actually witnesses him murder someone...yet this hasn’t reduced his supporters (I felt particularly sorry for the poor suicidal girl who changed her mind when Homelander decided to take out his frustrations on her and forced her off the rooftop to her splattery death). There are those who *love* him for it (which seems pretty true to life, as I know there are those who worship the character of Homelander in r/l and just don’t seem to get that he’s the BAD GUY). So, really, there’s not really anyone who can oppose him now that SB’s been returned to his cryo-sleep. I guess the writers are going to have to come up with contrived reasons for why Homelander doesn’t just off all the characters he doesn’t like, otherwise there’s barely going to be anyone left standing by the end of next season.
The problem with 'popular' villains is there are only so many things writers can do with them if they’re determined to keep them around. Either they ‘redeem’ them and they become reluctant good guys (which I think is pretty much off the table with Homelander, nor would I ever want to see that happen with him since he’s definitely unredeemable at this point), they *force* him somehow to not do evil deeds (ie. like chipped Spike in BtVS - though that would kind of take away what makes his character interesting), he loses his powers and is stuck being human (which would mean he could still do his evil deeds...only it’d be a lot
harder, as he’d have to achieve them like regular evil humans do. Plus, there’s the fact that if he became human, what would stop all those who want him dead from being able to kill him since it’d be so much easier to?) and those are the only options I can think of - none of which sound appealing. I really think Homelander needs to be defeated before the series is over, but am afraid the writers have too much ‘fun’ writing for this sadist and wouldn’t know how to keep things ‘interesting’ without him around (either that or they’re afraid they’d lose a significant amount of their audience if they killed him off). What’s clear is something drastic needs to happen with his character in the next season, otherwise we’re just going to be repeating the first three seasons with him - ie. he threatens/kills as he wants, has a moment or two of seeming ‘vulnerable’, but doesn’t really ever ‘grow’ as a character and just continues doing (in his words) ‘whatever the fuck he wants’. Please, show, don’t drag out this character’s existence to the point where we become sick of him (though I think some have already reached that stage).
StarlightNaturally, there are those who resent her for A) simply being a female superhero (though when she
does display her powers, they insult them as being ‘weak’/’lame’, yet if she displayed
greater powers they’d label her as being ‘woke’ or 'OP' or some other buzzword because they can’t handle female characters that are in any way, shape or form stronger than male characters. Funny, they probably didn’t even learn a single thing from the storyline this season about ‘toxic masculinity’ and Hughie not being able to handle Starlight being stronger than him). She was used, abused, lost at least two friends/allies this season (Supersonic, who Homelander killed, and Queen Maeve who the world was led to believe got killed but in actuality managed to get ‘out’ of the superhero business) and at this point I don’t know how she’s still managing to stay alive with Stan Edgar gone (he’s not dead, but he’s not around either, and he was the only one at Vought keeping Homelander from killing her, I think). While it’s always cheer-worthy whenever she stands up to Homelander (and she did a good job of getting more evidence against him - since apparently he no longer cares about that video Maeve was using against him which showed them leave behind a plane full of passengers to die), I honestly don’t know how they’re going to believably write it that he doesn’t just off her when he’s next feeling in the mood - especially now that she’s ‘quit’ being Starlight/a member of The Seven and has fully joined The Boys’ team (then again, with her no longer one of The Seven, that means Homelander doesn't have to share his 'Captaincy' with her anymore after she was promoted to co-Captain at the start of this season. Erin Moriarty did a great job of conveying Starlight's 'oh,
shit' reaction to this news and I loved the fact that at one point she said if anyone should be co-Captain, it's Maeve - showing her loyalty to her. Meanwhile, Homelander was quietly fuming and you could tell that as much as the idea of being a co-Captain who could actually do some *good*/create some change within The Seven appealed to her...she also knew just how dangerous accepting the offer would be but was eventually talked into it by Stan Edgar who assured her he'd keep Homelander in check).
I liked that we got to see some more backstory with her, showing just how much of a ‘stage mum’ her mother was when she was a kid (that inappropriate-for-her-age performance she did of Britney Spears’ ‘Hit Me Baby’ illustrated how messed up Annie’s childhood was, including the fact that she would dig her fingernails into her palms whilst making a fist when trying to contain her emotions - which she not only implemented during her childhood performance but again when Homelander forced her to be part of the #HomeLight coupling with him), and on top of all the threatening from Homelander, she had to deal with Hughie’s feelings of inadequacy and that bitch I can’t stand at Vought, Ashley, cooking up a BS story about her being into child trafficking or whatever. This was NOT an easy season for Annie, but there was the occasional ‘bright spot’ like her scenes with Kimiko. It was nice seeing them interact one-on-one and discuss Kimiko’s wish to regain her powers after having lost them thanks to getting blasted by SB's depowering power. Annie’s a good friend to her. Same goes with MM, who she shared some scenes with again this season. They’ve gradually been building up a quasi-‘friendship’ between them and while they have opposing viewpoints at times, I do think she’s one of the few who MM will listen to when he’s not thinking straight and only has his mind on revenge. Meanwhile, I doubt Butcher would ever listen to her. I think him getting along with her is quite a ways off, especially considering she probably considers him as someone who endangers Hughie’s life time and time again (which he did once more this season). I do look forward to seeing how she works as now being a fully-fledged member of The Boys next season. While the usual suspects online keep hating on her, she remains one of my favourites in the show. What I
really enjoyed, though, was how her relationship with Queen Maeve has been built up over the three seasons. Speaking of...
Queen MaeveFirstly, she was criminally underused this season. Actually, I’ve felt she’s been underused/underutilised from pretty early on in the show. She just seemed to be there for Homelander to torment/treat like crap and not much else. Of course, she was one of the few to actually stand up to him (LOVED it when she told him this season that she’d always hated him even when he was claiming there had been something there between them and that he’d ‘loved’ her in his own way - she wasn’t having any of it). Naturally, she paid the price for being one of the only ones who actually let him know TO HIS FACE what she really thought of him by getting jumped (was it by Black Noir? If so, I guess that was revenge for her shoving that Almond Joy he was allergic to down his throat last season to save Starlight from him) and thrown into a prison cell, then having Homelander inform her that he was going to harvest her eggs (as if he hadn’t already violated her enough). Whilst she was offscreen a lot of this season, we did get some development with her character. Clearly the part she played in leaving the plane passengers to die in the first episode of the show was eating her up inside (though, really, what COULD she have done differently? She had two options: stay and most likely die with the passengers since I doubt she would’ve survived the crash OR go with Homelander and make it her mission to bring him down to avenge the plane passengers' deaths. If she hadn't gone with him and survived, no one would ever learn the truth about what happened) and she was pretty blunt about no longer caring if she lived/having a death wish, informing Butcher in no uncertain terms that she was willing to die (and even felt as if she ‘deserved’ it) in their attempt to take down Homelander.
It was good to hear that Maeve had sobered up and planted fake rumors about herself to disguise her training in preparation for the fight with Homelander whilst she aided Butcher in their common goal. While everyone was busy praising Karl Urban, Antony Starr and Jensen Ackles this season, I feel Dominique McElligott never got the credit she deserved for what she brought to the character of Maeve. Hers wasn’t a ‘flashy’ performance, but understated and you really had to pay attention to those blink-and-you’d-miss-them reactions her character would have to other various characters. She really nailed the eyerolls whenever Maeve interacted with Hughie, for example, and her toughness with Annie/Starlight being a disguise for how she truly felt about her (ie. she was one of the only people Maeve actually
cared about, I think). If you looked for it, you could see all the nuances that were put into her performance...which makes it even
more of a crime that she wasn’t given the chance to shine more often than she was. Maeve may not have appeared much this season, but when she *did* she made it
count. I especially loved the joy she took in seeing Homelander
afraid - the part about it being one of her Top 3 days despite the fact that she was locked up and he was going to harvest her eggs was really good. Even better was her grin when she made Homelander
bleed in the season final (not once, but TWICE, I think).
Of course, there are arseholes commenting underneath YouTube videos of the Maeve vs. Homelander fight saying how he was ‘nerfed’ (ie. his power was reduced) and she was only able to take him on because of ‘feminist BS’ and whatnot. These dickheads need serious help for their mental issues, as they clearly wish she’d remained a victim of his abuse and/or been killed by him. Why? Because they think Homelander’s treatment of her (and other female characters) is ‘okay’ and they ‘deserve’ what he does to them/he's putting them 'in their place'. This lack of self-awareness and how fucked up they are for thinking the way Homelander does is truly astounding. What I think happened was that we knew Maeve had been training all season, biding her time, and she wasn’t holding back - she was giving the fight her all. People have always just assumed she was so far below Homelander as far as strength goes (including Maeve herself, probably), but once she saw that she could actually make him
bleed, she realised her full potential and put everything she had into her fight against him. Naturally, there are those who just can’t accept that she was able to take what he was dishing out (obviously his eyebeams to her arm gauntlets hurt like hell, but she managed to tough it out). The only real time he got the ‘upper hand’ against her was when he gouged out her eye (I’m sure all the women-hating Homelander fans got their jollies when watching this part). Still, she proved what a true hero she was by seemingly sacrificing herself (saving Annie once again, as well as all the other members of The Boys in the room) when tackling SB (who was about to explode), sending them both crashing through a widow at the top of Vought Tower into mid-air before he blew.
A lot were surprised to learn that The Boys helped her get away (it was the LEAST they could do for her, after all, and I was glad to see them repay the favour for her having saved
them) and that she ended up with just some bruising and, of course, was minus an eye. I was SO relieved when I’d read that she’d survived (because I just HAD to find out when the episode originally aired, so I spoiled myself by reading about it online at the time) and was happy to see Annie pay Maeve a visit where she was hiding out with her g/f. Maeve getting depowered by the SB blast, but living and being able to get away from it all with her lover, was probably the best possible outcome she could’ve had (even counting the missing eye - her discussion with Annie about whether she should go with a glass eye or an eyepatch was fun, and I agreed with Annie that Maeve could most definitely rock an eyepatch). I’m glad she got out and I’m hoping that the writers
stick to this (relatively) happy ending for her, since it’s what she deserves after all the misery she’s had to endure. I just hope they don’t feel the need to adhere to the comics and bring her back just to off her. I have read rumours about why Dominique McElligott no longer wished to be on the show, and if these are indeed true I’m sure she’s glad to get out of there/is unlikely to return (they better not just give her an offscreen death and have someone refer to it or have Homelander toss a prosthetic of her head or something in front of Annie and
that’s how we learn he killed her). Let Maeve live in peace, Kripke, and don’t eff it up!
A-Train & The DeepAre there two more pathetic characters in this show? A-train remains a selfish A-Hole (
that’s what he should change his name to) who only cares about himself and will screw over anyone/everyone (as he did with Starlight and Supersonic, which led to the latter’s death, since he informed Homelander of their plan to take him down after Supersonic had brought him in on the plan. Naturally, everyone blames
Starlight for this, saying she should’ve told Supersonic that A-Train couldn’t be trusted...but, hey, Supersonic was an adult, he could’ve asked questions/checked with her first about who it was okay to bring in on the plan and who wasn’t. And, really, the two people who deserve the majority of the blame here are Homelander for brutally torturing/murdering Supersonic and A-Train for being the one who was the reason it even happened). A-Train also claimed to want to be returning to/embracing his ‘roots’ or whatever, but it was all just to garner popularity. Even when he forced the racist Supe, Blue Hawk, to apologise to the community he’d been menacing, A-Train did this to serve his own personal goals and as a result his brother got paralysed thanks to Blue Hawk. It was such a satisfying moment when A-Hole’s brother told him off/kicked him out of his house in the season final. The show had the perfect opportunity to off A-Train after he’d gotten his revenge against Blue Hawk (in a very gruesome way which, again, I did NOT look at even though he was pretty much asking for it) and he finally apologised to Hughie for that time he ran straight through his g/f, exploding her. This seemed to wrap up his character, and yet he was given Blue Hawk’s heart by Ashley (way to give a POC a racist’s organ without their consent, Ashole!) and continues breathing - for what purpose, I have no clue (other than being abused/body-shamed by Homelander whilst also being his rat). They should’ve just let him die from his heart attack. I also didn’t buy his apology to Hughie as 'sincere' (even though we were probably meant to), as I felt that if what happened to his brother
hadn’t happened, he wouldn’t have been feeling in a guilty/apologetic mood. If they try to ‘redeem’ A-Train, I'm totally calling bullshit.
As for The Deep - he continues to be the sort of character I think the writers are only keeping around because they enjoy coming up with sick, twisted bestiality-related acts for him to perform and also they love torturing his character by causing maximum cruelty to all of his sea life buddies. The Deep, ironically, isn’t very ‘deep’ at all and is actually a pretty shallow character. We saw his wife that he got married to thanks to that cult last season (which I barely remember) being the ‘brains’ behind his public persona and he didn’t take too kindly to her controlling him, then he pushed her too far by trying to have a threesome with her and an octopus he was screwing at ‘Herogasm’ (it was funny seeing Annie catch him in the act and film it on her phone as blackmail material to show to Homelander) and escaped with inside a bag of ice after SB exploded the building. I imagine his wife’s not long for this world and wonder if it’ll be The Deep who offs her or Homelander (which The Deep will probably be grateful for). His was another apology I didn’t really buy, when Homelander brought him back into The Seven (after that whole nasty Timothy-eating thing) and he ‘apologised’ for what he’d done to Starlight back in the very first episode. The sad thing is there are those who still maintain he
didn’t rape Starlight and think that eating his octopus friend was ‘worse’. Well, now he knows what it’s like to have something forced down his throat against his wishes (which is what he did to Starlight). I dread to think what further cruelty to marine life the writers will cook up next season, and like with A-Train, I think The Deep has pretty much worn out his welcome. He’s basically a ‘joke’ character and nothing more at this point (though I do commend Chace Crawford for fully committing to the role of playing this pretty thankless role - he's come a long way since his
Gossip Girl days, but isn't really having to do much other than take part in a some truly gross acts onscreen). The Deep *did* commit a murder in the season final at Homelander's behest, so maybe we'll get to see him be a bit more 'dangerous'? They really need to do something of substance with his character next season, since so far there’s really not that much to him.
MM, Kimiko, FrenchieFor starters, I’m glad that this season characters mainly stuck to referring to MM *as* ‘MM’ (because, comics-accurate or not, ’Mother’s Milk’ is an effin’ STOOPID name to hear uttered out loud by characters onscreen). This season it was all about two things for him: 1) Dealing with the fact that after he was brought out of retirement (which he’d been happily spending with his family) by Butcher, that this meant the guy his wife was now with got to swoop in, influencing MM’s daughter and getting her into the whole Supe world despite the fact these were the very people MM was fighting against. 2) Getting revenge against SB for having killed his family. One was linked to the other, since the seeking vengeance part was what managed to bring him back to The Boys after he’d gotten ‘out’. It was mainly through exposition that we learned that SB had been ‘patrolling’ in MM’s neighbourhood and fighting what he deemed to be ‘criminals’, in the process tossing aside a car all willy-nilly, not considering the home it crashed into which just so happened to be MM’s and thus killing his family. His need for revenge got the best of him and this combined with Todd ‘raising’ his daughter led to him delivering a punch to the guy who it was revealed basically worshipped Homelander. It was only through talking to Annie that MM realised what was most important (she also snapped him out of his singlemindedness when he futilely tried to take on SB at Herogasm and got him to help with the victims of the SB explosion). He’s another one who is beyond sick of Butcher’s BS and was drugged by Butcher to prevent him getting in the way of the plan they had for SB to take down Homelander. It’ll be interesting to see where MM and Butcher’s strained relationship goes next season, but I do hope they keep the Annie/MM ‘friendship’ going.
Kimiko & Frenchie’s story this season seemed almost completely separate to the rest of the characters’ storylines, as it began with Frenchie trying to have fun with Kimiko and taking her to ‘VoughtLand’ (of course, that all went to hell when one of SB’s old superhero crew, Crimson Countess, didn’t wish to answer their questions about SB’s supposed ‘death’ and she pursued them, accidentally exploding a mascot of the theme park dressed as Homelander in the process). Then there was the business of Kimiko doing a job for Frenchie’s old evil Russian boss, Little Nina (Katie Winter, who I last saw in a series called
Blood & Treasure - which I’m
still waiting to see the second season of), and offing a Russian mobster and his men (with The Seven-themed dildos, no less) and scaring a bunch of the women in the process (I don't blame the one who shot her, since anybody would probably have done the same after witnessing the carnage Kimiko unleashed...even if doing so thereby
freed the women). Kimiko had been convinced that her powers were what made her a ‘monster’ (which Frenchie kept saying she
wasn’t), but then she was still just as vicious *without* her powers when fighting enemies, so this just made her think she herself was the problem. Anyway, after spending so long
not wanting her powers...she then decided she wanted them
back and got Annie to steal some Compound V from Vought to regain them. It felt like a bit of a waste of time this season, but the actress who plays Kimiko does a lot with just her expressions and body language, I enjoyed her scenes with Annie and it was nice to hear her voice (though the musical portion of an episode where we heard her sing was kind of random/felt like it didn’t really belong). I still have a hard time understanding Frenchie quite often, but by the end of the season he'd learned to stand up to Butcher thanks to Kimiko's encouragement (him saying “No! No, my cake hole shall remain OPEN!”, after Butcher had told him to shut it, was amusing). Hopefully next season they better utilise both these characters.
Soldier BoyMuch hoo-ha was made about Jensen Ackles joining the show this season. Unfortunately, wherever he goes, so too goes his cult of fangirls (and I’m sure fanboys as well), and because they refuse to accept him playing a ‘bad guy’, they rationalise all of his character’s actions/come up with excuses for them since they seem to think of Jensen Ackles as The Second Coming or whatever. I have no such devotion to Ackles and thus could judge his character and performance without any ‘attachment’ to him getting in the way. Basically, I’d just wanted to see him in a different role after FITEEEN FRICKING SEASONS OF SPN. I should’ve known it was overpraise from fans and critics alike. I really didn’t see a whole lot of stretching his ‘range’ here. Sure, his character was a supreme douchebag who killed people (both those who deserved it and those who didn’t), had a potty mouth to rival Butcher’s and was the living embodiment of ‘toxic masculinity’...but all I saw in Ackles' performance throughout the season was stuff I recognised from his performance of various versions of Dean Winchester in SPN. When he was getting intense in his speech to Crimson Countess about how he'd loved her and had held out hope she’d rescue him from the experimentations he went through after being taken prisoner by Russians, I remembered all those times Dean gave impassioned speeches. When he was being a major a-hole to people, I just thought of demon Dean. Nothing really made me feel like he was as fully realised a character as all the other main characters in this show. His misogynistic behavior just felt as though the writers looked at how jerks on the internet behave and wrote that into the scripts. Despite the attempts to make me feel sorry for SB...I never did. When compared to Homelander, I just didn’t find him nearly as interesting. In the end, he didn’t really ‘gain’ anything (other than revenge on his old team who sold him out due to him being, by all accounts, an abusive a-hole to them but especially to Black Noir) and he wound up right back where he started - ie. back in his box in cryo-sleep (only difference was now he wasn’t being taken out to be experimented on). While I certainly wouldn't say Ackles was 'bad' in the role, I just don't get the worship of his performance and I can’t say I’m itching for his character to return, as I found him rather disappointing after all the fuss made about him.
Other CharactersLike Dominique McElligott, I’d read rumours of the actor who played Black Noir having issues with certain people on the show and that he wanted out of the show. I guess that’s why he was hardly present this season (much like Maeve) and they seemed to power through his backstory/origin of how he got his scars (which we caught a partial glimpse of last season during the aforementioned Almond Joy incident). If I hadn't read about the whole cartoon character hallucinations prior to watching this season, my reaction to seeing them probably would've been of the WTF variety. As far as I can recall, we'd never had any indications previously that he imagined cartoon buddies brought to life who acted like his friends...but also had potty mouths (is there *anyone* in this show who
isn't foul-mouthed?). We basically learned of SB's abuse towards Black Noir via seeing various characters including Noir, SB and SB's superhero team called Payback (who were a bunch of jerks that got out of control in the first episode to feature a flashback of them) 'played' by different cartoon animals (SB as a bald eagle, Noir as a sheep, Crimson Countess as a fox, etc) with the actors' voices (all except Noir, who I'm fairly certain was voiced by a totally different person to who portrays him onscreen in the costume) and I wonder if part of the reason all of this was shown to us in cartoon form was because the beyond brutal beating SB gave Noir when he 'got out of line' would've been too much to show (even for *this* series) in live-action with the actors? We see Noir's brains exposed in amongst all the splattering blood flying everywhere at one point. Anyway, after hardly doing anything all season, Black Noir went to join Homelander against SB...but he ended up gutting Noir with his fist (after hugging him) due to the fact that his 'friend' had hidden from him that he knew SB was his father.
Apparently Homelander doesn't take too kindly to someone he considered a 'friend' keeping such secrets from him. As Noir died on the floor, his cartoon friends once again appeared and comforted him as he passed (when Noir died, he still had his mask on as Homelander walked away from him, but later he dumps Noir's mask in front of A-Train, The Deep and Ashley, so it amused me to think that Homelander had to go back to retrieve it since he hadn't removed it when he exited the room after killing Noir). Black Noir seemed to be one of those types who
seemed cool in his whole violent but silent persona...but never hearing him speak (other than in cartoon form) meant we never really got to *know* him and he was hardly developed as a character. Consequently, I don't think there was that much the show could've done with him since they refused to have him utter a word and he only communicated via writing - that coupled with the fact we never got to see any expressions from him meant we couldn't really 'connect' with his character (unlike Kimiko who, whilst also silent, at least has her full range of emotions that she can display on her face that isn't perpetually covered like Noir's is). Some seem to be whining about Noir getting unceremoniously offed and that it was a 'waste' of his character, but since the show seemed to not be going down the same road with his character as the comics (thus doing away with one HELL of an eventual reveal to who he really was), it left them with limited options. I guess they could always have some other actor step into the role/costume if they wish to resurrect him at any point, but really...I didn't feel much of anything over his 'death' and won't particularly miss him.
Someone who I
wish would die, but seemingly refuses to (because, again, I think the writers are too in love with the character/actor) is Ashley, the PR woman who got promoted to CEO this season after Stan Edgar was given the boot. She was even more of a bitch to various characters this season than she had been previously, and I think that was mainly due to her getting a taste of 'power' (though not of the
Supe variety). She parroted words used by actual powerful characters back at others she deemed 'beneath' her, she spread vicious rumours about Starlight, went along with keeping Maeve stuck in captivity and on the whole was just completely loathsome. Added to this is the fact that I can't stand the actress's face (ever since first seeing her in Season 1 of
Jessica Jones - which Erin Moriarty also happened to be in - where she played another totally unlikeable character, I've been unable to tolerate her bug-eyed visage as it gets on my last nerve whenever I see her). She displayed a modicum of humanity in two instances this season - one was when Starlight was trying to find out what Homelander had done with Maeve and was telling Ashley to quit being Homelander's/Vought's bitch - she looked to be getting through to her...but then her power-hungry self took over and she was back to being Butcher's favourite word again. The other instance of her being 'a fucking human being' - which Maeve had told her to be in a previous season - was, fittingly, when she and an analytics employee were looking at the footage caught on camera of The Boys helping whisk Maeve away after the SB explosion and apparently Ashley deleted it (I had to look that up, as I wasn't sure since all I saw was her exchange a look with the other person viewing the footage). So it appeared that Ashley finally did act like 'a fucking human being' for once in her life. I just hope that she doesn't rat out Maeve's alive status to Homelander next season and that she sticks to this one good thing she's done. She acquired an 'Ashley' of her own this season who she treated like crap and left to fend for herself when Vought Tower was told to evacuate before the SB explosion. I'm hoping maybe 'Also Ashley' will off original Ashley next season, but figure that's probably unlikely since the writers appear far too attached to the character/actress.
We were treated to some backstory regarding the Congresswoman, Victoria Neumann, this season. I can't say I really felt anything for her character, especially after she backstabbed Stan Edgar who'd adopted her (which we learned via flashback). Speaking of Edgar, I hope we eventually learn why he was the one person who could insult/talk down to Homelander without fear of death since anyone else who said the things he did to him would've gotten splattered everywhere. It's fine to keep Edgar's secret a mystery for a while, but eventually we NEED to be given a proper answer for why he holds so much power over Homelander otherwise it's just a cop-out/cheat. I was bummed that Laurie Holden, who portrayed Crimson Countess, was used so little this season. We basically met her as someone who performed cheesy songs in front of audiences at VoughtLand (including one called 'Chimps Don't Cry'), then saw she spent her off-hours providing kinky online videos for Seth Rogen (who I wouldn't have even recognised had it not been for his unmistakable voice). Add to this the fact that she apparently had a chimp fetish (because it seems the writers have to give almost all of these Supes some sort of weird fetish - with The Deep it's marine life, with Homelander it's milk, with SB it's old fogeys, and with Crimson Countess it's apparently chimps). Alas, we hardly knew ye, CC (before you were crispified by SB's blast)! Kudos to Aya Cash for returning for such a small part this season as
Stormfront Stormstump and while she's rambling about Homelander carrying on her dream of him creating a 'master race' she's amusingly giving him a handy. Clearly he didn't share her vision, describing *himself* as 'the master race' and leaving her in an upset state, then we later find out via a big honkin' billboard reporting a news story that she's died and Ashley learns over the phone that Stormfront bit off/swallowed her own tongue - which I found a rather anti-climactic ending to her character (how does that even work? Last season she seemed unfazed by Homelander's eyebeams at full blast shooting straight into her chest, but then Ryan - little future psycho that he is - blasted her and turned her into Anakin Skywalker...but she doesn't heal from it (well...she *does*, but veeery
slowly and even after a year's passed she's still pretty messed up. So, how exactly did swallowing her tongue kill her? Seemed like an odd choice for her death).
After the big deal made about the Herogasm episode which I'd heard...it didn't really end up being that shocking (though the fight between Homelander/SB/Butcher/Hughie was pretty good). There's been WAY more shocking stuff happen on this show than what we were subjected to inside Herogasm - like in the first episode this season with a scene that involved an Ant-Man-like character called Termite shrinking down to GO INSIDE HIS LOVER'S PENIS. That was certainly graphic...as was what happened when Termite accidentally sneezed himself back to regular size whilst
STILL INSIDE HIS LOVER'S PENIS. Apparently since those who wanted to see Ant-Man crawl into Thanos' butt (what is WRONG with people?!) and explode him from the inside were never going to get their wish from the MCU, Kripke obliged by offering us...this. Termite later met his end at Herogasm curtesy of Homelander's boot. It seems others felt this season was the 'best yet' (including Kripke himself), but I'm afraid I must disagree. Whilst there was character development/interactions that I enjoyed this season, as well as some awesome moments and pretty funny stuff (I don't think any other current show makes me laugh quite like this one does), on the whole I found Season 2 was 'better' imho. As always, I'm anxious what fucked-upness the writers will think of in the next season (and, as always, will probably spoil myself for it as soon as it airs in America and then will promptly forget a fair percentage of since it's such a long wait for seasons of the show to be released here on DVD/Blu-ray).