Hi folks! Welcome back to our weekly recap of The Boys. This week’s episode is named “Over the Hill with the Swords of a Thousand Men”, this name was taken from one of the latest arcs of the comic book and a song, let’s dive right in.
1. A real ‘nice one’
In this episode it is finally revealed to the world that Compound V exists and the supers are not born that way, hi, how are you? Your world is a lie. Surely the ramifications and impact these news brought to the world of the show are going to be shown to us in upcoming episodes, but on the meantime, The Boys are celebrating that Annie and Hughie accomplished what they were trying to tell the world for years, except for Billy Butcher.
And he has reasons to not be happy with the news, I mean, first of all, they are on a stolen boat risking their lives, but most importantly, Butcher knows that this means nothing, while they are celebrating, Vought is planning their Damage Control PR strategy, and if Fox News still exists today in the real world, I’m pretty sure a fictional massive conglomerate that profits from lies and is on Super-steroids is going to be A-OK.
To be honest, I don’t know why I and a ton of folks love this show so much, it is great, it has awesome effects and a solid storytelling, but often it is also disheartening, we don’t have super powered people and our world still is a fucking mess…
2. “You’re having a bad time lately”
So it’s up to us to fight, but the battle is so massive that it feels like a suicidal mission, and we must overcome once and again that feeling that it is an impossible fight, just like Hughie in this episode.
This is the third episode in a row that features a song from Billy Joel, on the first episode it was ‘Pressure’ and we had ‘You’re Only Human’ twice now, and I’m sure that there’s a deeper reason there to use this songs, but I still can’t catch it. What I do know is the immediate meaning of the songs on Hughie’s life.
When they exploded the whale (more on that later, obviously) he opted to wait for his fate inside of Lucy, and when Mother’s Milk managed to get him out of there, he rambled aimlessly trough the tunnels, numb to everything around him.
He is waiting for Starlight to come and help him, but then is confronted by the reality that not even she, his “second wind”, could save him, when Homelander orders her to kill him. So maybe this will be a wakeup call for him, he can’t rely on his safe places and persons, he must risk himself in order to survive.
3. The canary and the light
Both teams in the show had been broken, the Seven never really were one, and since their separation on the first season, the Boys have had a rift between Butcher and Hughie. But this was the episode where both teams came together and bonded… well, almost.
Given that the company might die, Homelander sees this opportunity to take control of his and his team’s choices, and tells them that they are family, obviously he doesn’t believes that bullshit, but at his eyes he still sees his world not as a business but as a place he can own and save (on his fucked up way) and the Seven reassemble with the intention to operate on their own way, including the Deep, who came back to try to save the day.
On the other side, while Frenchie and MM stand by Hughie, Billy still believes that the only way is the violent way, but MM talks to him and warns him: the kid is his canary, and he needs him more than anyone on the team, and he’s right, Hughie is the compassionate anchor of the team, he’s the guy who throws a single life saver to a helicopter crash on the sea, because maybe they survived, because there’s still hope.
Continued belowSo, when Hughie was about to be killed by his own lover, Butcher sets free Kimiko’s brother and he knocks down Homelander. At the end of the episode, the five members stand still watching the news, still bloody and dirty, this signals their union, they come from the same place now, and although they might have their own goals (vengeance, a family, love), they have the same objective again: ending this shit.
4. Goldfishes begging for their lives
Let’s take a little time to talk about the Deep’s journey, as if his personal hell wasn’t enough, he discovered that he wasn’t born with powers, his mother lied to him and he had to suffer all his life for that reason. This is the final push to convince him to join that cult.
But every closed door implies an open window, and he has a chance now, he could be back with the team, so when he joins them on the hunt for the terrorist, he apologizes to Starlight and understandably, neither she nor Stormfront believe him, but at least he is trying, and he seems truly repentant for his past actions, so the debate is still on, does he deserves a second chance? I mean it is always complicated but every criminal deserves to repay society and to truly be remorseful of their actions, it’s the compassionate thing to do, so let’s see how this develops.
5. Whales and buildings
Holy shit! Maybe the past two episodes weren’t so full of action scenes, but this one was exceptional, they rammed a boat INTO a whale! And it combined practical and special effects! They. Built. A. Whale. It was hilarious and disgusting and as Butcher said, diabolical. (AV Club has an in depth interview with the showrunners about this scene).
And then, on the scene when they revealed that Stormfront is NOT a ‘woke’ superhero but a racist with little regard for life, we had awesome effects on the destruction of the bulding, but weirdly enough, the most unbelievable effects is when Homelander threw his son off the roof and he hit the ground, it looked so real (and darkly funny!)
It is amazing that we have this special effects on a show, this dedication and craft and budget for a television show manifests very clearly that we live on a world where excellent cinema and excellent TV can coexist and both be successful.
And that’s it for today, what a great show this is, it might left me sad for a while, but I think this is what we need right now, a thoughtful and funny experience while watching TV. What did you think of this episode? Leave your comments below and join us next week for our take on episode 204, “Nothing Like It in the World”.
