The Only Man In The Sky
Episode 2 of The Boys Season 3 starts with Butcher conflicted over whether to take the temporary Compound V or not. After his pact with Homelander, he’s stuck in an impossible position. Butcher heads off to see MM, handing over a peace offering (a 523 piece puzzle) and needing his help in finding the weapon that killed Soldier Boy. Given we know MM’s father was obsessed with this, Mother’s Milk is not prepared to do the same thing and jeopardize his family. A family he’s spent the last year piecing back together again. As a consolation prize though, MM does hand over an important file that could help. Hughie takes what he’s learned to Annie, bringing up Nadia (Neuman) being a Supe. They’ve done some research on Red River but for now, all of that is on hold for Homelander’s birthday. Annie needs to go for a soundcheck for the big celebrations. Only, that soundcheck turns into Homelander making changes to the script and forcing Annie to sing happy birthday to him. Stan Edgar interjects though and directs traffic, deciding Starlight doesn’t have to demean herself after all given she’s the one with the higher popularity levels. Homelander is, understandably, livid. Hughie twiddles his thumbs at home, before eventually showing up at Red River. This happens to be a school for Supes. Hughie tries to make up a story about how they’re going to adopt a Supe child, and surprisingly it works! Hughie’s infiltration skills have come a long way since fumbling with bugs in season 1. He finds Nadia on the system, and in turn, details surrounding Stan Edgar showing up to adopt her. Frenchie and Kimiko head off to find Crimson Countess. She’s doing shows like a red Elsa performing Frozen… but the real ice is behind the scenes. In her dressing room, she’s snorting drugs. Frenchie and Kimiko show up and immediately begin asking questions, which causes her to grow spooked and bolt. She obliterates the mascot outside, and Kimiko is shocked when she notices a boy and girl sitting together, huddling in fear. This, of course, brings back memories of her own sibling relationship. While that meeting goes completely awry, Butcher arrives to see Gunpowder at his rifle expo with similar results. Butcher attempts to bargain, coming armed with a complaint letter that Gunpowder filed at Vought about Soldier Boy’s abuse. After prodding the hornet’s nest, those angry yellow hornets come out to play in the parking lot. Gunpowder attacks Butcher, as a tense shootout between the two ensues. It’s nail-biting, but Butcher does eventually manage to eventually get away. Homelander’s birthday goes from bad to worse. Breaking news sees Stormfront commit suicide by biting off her own tongue, which overshadows the celebrations. Off the back of this, Homelander forces a suicidal woman to jump off the roof. Hughie shows up at work but he’s immediately face to face with Neuman. Starlight saves him from an awkward predicament, as Hughie bemoans his situation. He feels like a failure, and blames himself for not seeing the truth about Neuman sooner. MM speaks to Monique about his situation, admitting that he’s starting to lose control. She believes he should go back to Butcher and confront this black cloud of Soldier Boy head-on. That way, he can gain some much-needed closure. At the same time, Hughie speaks to Butcher and tells him that Neuman is the head-popping Supe. So as a result, they need to do things his way this time. Butcher takes the temp Compound V, confronts Gunpowder once more and this time, finds out the truth. Soldier Boy used to haze him, slapping him around, and that time things went a bit too far. They were on a mission in Nicaragua when Soldier Boy went missing. He also confirms that they were working with the CIA and, in particular, Grace Mallory. Alas, the plot thickens. Using his newfound strength, Butcher burns Gunpowder using his laser eyes. With Gunpowder dead, attention instead turns back to Homelander’s birthday celebrations. A-Train debuts his brand new costume and a heckler in the crowd points out that Homelander is a Nazi sympathizer. He snaps. Homelander goes completely off-script, giving a passionate speech about how he’s better than everyone else and how those in power are controlling everyone. “I’m the real hero” He says eventually as the crowd are left stunned.
The Episode Review
The second episode of The Boys Season 3 sees a fair amount of progression for our characters. MM’s character development has been really solid and the fact that he’s intertwined into this whole Soldier Boy situation gives him real stakes for coming back into the team. Likewise, all the other characters have a lot more depth now, especially learning about Red River and Neuman’s history. Not only that, but understanding her ties to Stan Edgar now make a lot more sense. It’s particularly intriguing to see how this will develop going forward, and whether it’ll tie in with Homelander in the end. Speaking of which, Homelander has completely snapped now and I can’t help but feel this may actually see the people rally by his side. Bearing in mind at the time of writing, I haven’t seen the future episodes. These recaps are written “in the moment.” We’re now seeing the real Homelander and although I loathe to compare this to real politics, there are stark similarities to politicians voicing their real opinions, no matter how racist, controversial, shocking or outright diabolical it may be. However, all of this combines to deliver a delightfully delicious follow-up episode and thankfully we don’t have to wait too long to find out what happens next. Roll on episode 3!
