'The Boys' Season 2 Episode 8: Homelander makes it to the end but not everyone does, including 'Nazi b***h'
'The Boys' Season 2, Episode 8 begins with an in-show advert about how to survive a supervillain attack at school, and just moments into the show, we have a sinking feeling as we realize how Vought has used the incident that occurred at the congressional hearing against them to their advantage. Many fans had speculated that this attack broadcast to the public might mean that Vought is finally held responsible for what they had done all these years. However, such speculations are too optimistic for a world such as 'The Boys'.
The incident of very many brains being squashed is being used by Vought to also introduce Compound V into the mainstream. "$5 million a pop" and both Pentagon and ICE have already placed their orders. Nothing that Grace Mallory says can change the President or his advisor's minds, not unless they can get Homelander (Antony Starr) on camera to confess to all the crimes that the corporate company backing him has committed. So what will the boys do next? Of course, Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), Mother's Milk (Laz Alonzo), Frenchie (Tomer Kapon), and Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) are all for erasing the existence of the bad supes out of Earth. Only Hughie (Jack Quaid) and Starlight (Erin Moriarty), who is a supe herself ask Billy for a day's time to come up with something that will not involve another incident of mass murder.
It is at this moment Billy's wife Becca (Shantel VanSanten) approaches him to ask for his help after her son was taken away from her home by Homelander and Stormfront. While Billy is away digging up some information about Becca's son Ryan, Stormfront (Aya Cash) and Homelander try to get Ryan comfortable at Vought tower and even attempt to teach him to use his powers. However, none of that works as Ryan's momentary anger at his mother has now dissipated and all that he wants at the moment is to get back together with his mother.
He even asks Homelander if he can call his mother, but Homelander who is extremely influenced by Stormfront is not too excited about this idea. Had he even tried to get in touch with Becca, he would have realized that something was off, and maybe, just maybe; he might have unearthed the plan that was brewing on the other side.
In the meanwhile, part of all our speculations turned out to be true as Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) and the Founder of the Church of Collective were pretty much colluding member inclusions in the Seven. When the founder asks if it is possible to get A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) back in Seven, he explains that Stormfront is not cool with A-train in the team and at the moment, he needs to keep her happy instead. When the founder of the Church eggs him on regarding the differences between Stormfront and A-Train, he indirectly confirms that Stormfront is racist. A-Train, who had overheard the entire conversation decides to help Starlight and Hughie in taking Stormfront out because he hates the "Nazi b***h".
Starlight and Hughie right at that moment are dejected because, despite saving Starlight's life from Black Noir, Queen Maeve is not interested in becoming a witness to testify against Vought. So when they get a file that has the motherlode of information on Stormfront including confirmation on her ties to Hitler, her marriage to Frederick, and her racist past, they come up with a mega plan which also includes separating Homelander from his son Ryan. Vought's Edgar is all for Ryan being separated from Homelander because he believes that Ryan can be the only one who can stand up to his father if things went out of control.
Billy, who had stepped out to dig information cuts a deal with Edgar and tells him to separate Becca from Ryan in the guise of protecting her son. However, when his plan is in place and things go just as they had expected once news of Stormfront hits media. She leaves Homelander and Ryan's side to take care of the mess, the boys use sonic noise that is harmful for supes to get Homelander away from Ryan, successfully use Becca to extract him and when Billy sees Becca and Ryan interact he understands that it is unfair to separate the two of them from each other. Yes, we do need something positive to push forward and continue to watch things unravel, but it is strangely underwhelming to see Billy give in and give up on his wife. He changes the plan last moment, but before they could escape, Stormfront ends up intercepting them and Billy ends up going on the run with Becca and Ryan.
Sure, Becca is killed by Stormfront and the racist supe is in turn smoked by Becca's son Ryan who also abandons his father Homelander for the evil and cruel man that he has turned out to be. It is a tragic turn of events, but until the very end, somehow, it just doesn't feel tragic enough. The scale just doesn't match up and the finale that we had seen in season 1. The ending also makes us extremely curious about what the next season of the show will portray.
'The Boys' Season 2 new episodes will release on Fridays and can be streamed on Amazon Prime Video.
