In “The Boys” recap, Butcher looks for a new way to stop Homelander, Hughie comes clean with Starlight and Soldier Boy returns home…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Butcher wanted a weapon to stop Homelander and he may have just found it.
“The Boys” returned on Friday for a new episode following an explosive installment last week where Butcher and his team infiltrated a secret Russian base where Soldier Boy has been housed for the past few decades.
Rather than killing him with some unknown weapon, it turns out the Russians had kept Soldier Boy in captivity while doing all sorts of experiments on him and somehow altering the powers he already had as one of the strongest Supes ever created by Vought.
Needless to say, Mother’s Milk was none too happy to learn the man who killed his family was still very much alive and even more dangerous than he was before.
Meanwhile back at Vought, Starlight is living under a new regime now that Homelander is the man in charge after he took out Stan Edgar. Of course, Homelander is learning just how difficult it is to run a multi-faceted global corporation — he can’t just laser his way through every meeting after all — and it doesn’t help matters much that he’s surrounded himself with people who are completely terrified of him.
That leaves Starlight in a tough position not to mention Maeve, who has been working tirelessly behind the scenes to bring down Homelander once and for all.
By the end of the latest episode, Butcher might have found a way to finally stop the star-spangled psychopath but at what cost exactly?
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of “The Boys” titled “The Last Time to Look on This World of Lies”…
From Russia With Love
Following a perilous encounter with Soldier Boy, Kimiko is barely hanging onto life, Mother’s Milk is disgusted after learning that both Butcher and Hughie have taken an experimental version of Compound-V to give them powers for 24 hours and the team is falling apart faster than they came back together again.
While waiting for transport out of the country, Mother’s Milk watches videos stolen from the Russian lab that shows all sorts of experiments being carried out on Soldier Boy after he was taken captive during that battle back in the 1980s. The Russians didn’t kill him — they wanted him so they could learn and adapt these tremendous powers that had been granted by Vought International.
While all of this is happening, Hughie is still vomiting up the after effects of taking V24 yet still feeling better than ever because he actually truly helped his team by stopping the security guard about to kill Mother’s Milk because he had powers. Despite his gruff exterior, Butcher clearly feels some sort of guilt for allowing Hughie to walk down the same path as him but they also survived largely because of the powers they were granted for 24 hours.
The only problem now is Soldier Boy is free, there’s no weapon that could kill Homelander and Kimiko isn’t healing like she should.
So Butcher orders everybody to return to the United States so Kimiko can see a real doctor and the team and continue to deal with the fallout from this latest botched plan to stop Homelander.
Speaking of Homelander — he has Ashley instilled as the new Vought CEO while he’s sitting at the head of the table for meetings with the Vought board of directors. Everybody there learns rather quickly that kissing his ass is the way to go, except for one slightly misinformed woman who asks Homelander about the actual business side of Vought and he obviously has no idea what she’s talking about.
Ashley quickly dispatches the woman but Homelander is finding out that running Vought is a lot more difficult than he imagined even as the most powerful man in the world.
As for A-Train, he gets confronted by Starlight, who calls him out for being a coward after he betrayed Supersonic and got him slaughtered by Homelander. A-Train barely reacts to her words because he was still looking out for himself, which has now resulted in a reward for showing loyalty to Homelander.
In exchange for selling out Supersonic, Homelander has allowed A-Train the time to speak to Blue Hawk — the New Jersey Supe who has been disproportionately targeting Black neighborhoods during his patrols.
This same idea was shot down earlier but Homelander has decided to give A-Train what he wants with the meeting.
Of course, Blue Hawk denies any racism while wondering if perhaps A-Train is trying to cancel him. In the end, Blue Hawk agrees to issue a public apology to the people of Trenton, New Jersey if he’s somehow gone overboard in policing the streets and that’s good enough for A-Train.
The Deep also gets rewarded this week for his undying loyalty to Homelander because he’s put in charge of the crime analytics department — the team that watches the world and finds the crimes that the Supes can solve — but he’s woefully underprepared for this role. Deep does manage to bring some cupcakes to his first meeting so at least there’s that!
Later that night, Maeve meets up with Butcher and she learns the awful truth that not only is there no weapon to kill Homelander but Soldier Boy has been unleashed from his Russian prison.
Both of them are depressed at this latest news, which forces Butcher and Maeve to abandon months and months of sobriety as they share a drink and commiserate about this awful situation that’s seemingly only getting worse.
During the drunken conversation, Butcher admits that he hated the way V24 made him feel because he used his powers so recklessly that it almost scared him. He came to realize that Compound-V really just amplifies whatever the true nature of a person is already lurking inside, which is why so many Supes are just vile people with nuclear charged erections.
Butcher even attempts his own Spider-Man line, although his is honestly better than Uncle Ben’s advice to Peter Parker.
“With great power comes the absolute certainty that you’ll turn into a right cunt.”
~ Butcher
The sullen moment eventually turns physical after Maeve kisses Butcher but he withdraws rather quickly. When she asks if he’s too good for her, Butcher drops his guard and the two of them have wild sex all over The Boys’ offices.
Finally, Annie goes to visit Hughie for an update on everything that happened while he was in Russia but she can’t help but notice that his broken arm suddenly isn’t broken anymore. Hughie then comes clean to Annie about everything — using V24, feeling better than ever with powers and how Soldier Boy is alive and escaped the holding facility in Russia.
She has to down a few White Claws to absorb the news but mostly she’s worried about Hughie because he clearly enjoyed having powers — maybe even a little too much. Hughie tries to explain it away by saying that he just wanted the chance to finally save her instead of her saving him all the time.
Hughie promises complete transparency with her about everything the team is doing but ultimately he’s going to do whatever it takes to protect her from Homelander.
Who Could Ask For Anything More?
With Kimiko recovering in the hospital, Frenchie is disturbed to find Little Nina and one of her goons in the room with her after he returns. Little Nina is not happy with the body count that Butcher and the Boys left behind in Russia because it’s cost her considerable capital back at home, which means she’s going to need a little bit more from Frenchie to get them back to even again.
She hands him over an envelope with a picture of a family she wants eliminated — and despite Frenchie’s objections, Little Nina knows he’s done worse before and he’ll do the same again or she’ll come after him and everybody he loves.
Later that day, Frenchie goes to visit Kimiko and she finally wakes up before discovering that her midsection is still healing from the giant blast of energy she took from Soldier Boy. Realizing that she’s not healing with her super powers, Kimiko has Frenchie hand her a heavy piece of medical equipment.
With her powers, Kimiko should crush it without a problem but she can barely pick it up much less bend or break it. In other words, Kimiko’s powers are gone.
She couldn’t possibly be any happier because this is exactly what Kimiko wanted, especially after committing so many atrocities over the years.
Kimiko ends up sitting in bed with Frenchie watching a Judy Garland movie where it sounds like she might actually utter a sound for the first time. A second later, Kimiko imagines herself in the Judy Garland role as she dances and sings throughout the hospital in a wonderful little musical number with Frenchie.
When she snaps out of the fantasy, Kimiko turns to Frenchie and they kiss for the first time.
Frenchie pulls away after his phone starts buzzing with Nina’s name on the caller ID as he rushes out of the room to get some coffee. There he’s greeted by one of Nina’s goons, who doesn’t seem all that happy to know Frenchie hasn’t carried out the orders that he’s been given.
This time around, Kimiko won’t be able to save him.
Soldier Boy Comes Home
After escaping the Russian facility, Soldier Boy manages to find his way onto a plane bound for the United States and he ends up back in New York. He’s stunned to see all the changes in the time he’s been gone, but he’s especially shocked to see a new super team at the top of the charts now that The Seven has taken over for Payback.
As he walks down the street, Soldier Boy continues to see things that don’t quite make sense to him but then there’s a familiar sound in the distance.
A food vendor on the street is playing a Russian broadcast through a radio and that’s all it takes for Soldier Boy to be transported back to the lab where the scientists conducted all sorts of horrific experiments on him. The torment all comes rushing back to him and Soldier Boy feels something trying to erupt, which is when he unleashes another gigantic blast of energy — this time ripping through a building and killing 19 people.
Back at Vought, Homelander seems far more concerned about running the company and putting a positive spin on the situation than actually going out and searching for the person responsible for causing the blast. He more or less tells Starlight it’s not his concern before going on a TV show to denounce the attacks while feeding into conspiracy theories that perhaps this was Stan Edgar’s doing as revenge for ousting him from the company.
Realizing that Homelander is doing nothing, Starlight tries to track down the person responsible herself but she soon learns the crime analytics department has been gutted after The Deep decided to fire almost everybody for failing to live up to his standards. Now there’s just a skeleton crew keeping an eye on the world and that’s just not enough man power to actually track down the person who caused that explosion.
As for A-Train, he attempt to make good with the Black community fails in devastating fashion after he shows up at his brother’s community center with Blue Hawk in tow so he can deliver his “heartfelt” apology.
In reality, Blue Hawk is reading from a prepared speech and he sounds like he doesn’t even understand what the word empathetic means. The scene turns from bad to worse when some of the people start questioning Blue Hawk’s policing methods, which in turns causes him to lash out as he accuses the Black community of committing more crimes and that’s why he’s there stopping more criminals.
Blue Hawk finally can’t take anymore and he starts tossing people like bean bags — including one shot that sends A-Train’s brother crashing into a wall and then down to the ground. Blue Hawk leaves unscathed by A-Train’s family was not nearly as lucky.
At the hospital, A-Train learns that his brother’s injuries are so severe that he’ll never be able to walk again. Maybe A-Train is finally starting to understand that playing within Vought’s system is a good way to get the people you love most hurt or even killed.
Back at Vought, Maeve sits and watches the carnage unfold from the explosion in the city when Homelander arrives to pay her a visit. He knows that she’s been working against him — he can smell Billy Butcher all over her — and Homelander wants to know what they’ve been cooking up together.
She tries to deny his accusations but Homelander already knows too much.
He doesn’t understand her betrayal, especially considering the relationship they once shared where he appeared to be the only person who could sympathize with the kind of intense loneliness that people as powerful as them must feel. Homelander felt at one time that at least they had each other to dispel some of those feelings but Maeve whispers in his ear that she never loved him — in fact she’s hated him for years and the only thing she ever felt for him was pity.
Homelander doesn’t lash out — not directly anyways — but he knows that Maeve has turned against him and she can’t be allowed to continue working with his enemies. So Homelander springs a trap on Maeve by having Black Noir take her out with a surprise attack.
When Starlight discovers that Maeve is gone, she goes to Ashley looking for answers but the new Vought CEO isn’t interested in cooperating. Instead, she tows the party line that Maeve was sent to rehab but she can’t receive any calls while receiving treatment.
Of course, Starlight knows it’s bullshit but appealing to Ashley’s greater good doesn’t work, especially not now that she’s CEO and Homelander is the man in charge.
Now Starlight has lost another person who was supposed to help her take down Homelander and there may be nobody lonelier than her insight Vought towers right now.
The Ultimate Team-Up
As much as Mother’s Milk wants nothing to do with Butcher or The Boys after what happened in Russia, he can’t help but to turn back to them for help after seeing footage of the carnage in New York City and realizing that Soldier Boy must be responsible. It also doesn’t help matters much that his daughter’s new stepfather has bought into Homelander’s new philosophy where he should be worshipped as a god because he really is the most powerful man on Earth.
Butcher and Hughie arrive at the blast site together to take a look at the damage done now that they’ve all discovered Soldier Boy came home again.
Hughie runs into one of his co-workers, who asks about his broken arm, but he does his best to explain it away by saying it was actually just a bad sprain. It can’t be long until Victoria Neuman figures out Hughie knows her true identity but that will have to wait for another day.
For now, Butcher needs to find Soldier Boy and that’s when Mother’s Milk shows up to have a look for himself at the site where 19 people were incinerated. As much as Mother’s Milk wants nothing to do with Butcher right now, he realizes that he’s as good as dead going after Soldier Boy on his own.
So Mother’s Milk decides to team up with Butcher and Hughie again while revealing a lead that may help them track down Soldier Boy.
From there they pay a visit to an old friend nicknamed The Legend (played by the great Paul Reiser).
It seems The Legend was a former vice president at Vought during the days when Soldier Boy was the top hero and he did the same job that Madelyn Stillwell once did before he left the company. Realizing that the Legend living nearby the blast site, Mother’s Milk figured Soldier Boy must have paid his old boss a visit.
Following his exit from Vought, the Legend had been feeding information to Mother’s Milk from time to time to help his investigations into the Supe community. Now Mother’s Milk needs to know why Soldier Boy visited him and where he’s going next.
The Legend finally tells the team that Soldier Boy stopped by to retrieve his super suit — he still had one hanging in his closet — and he also wanted the address for his old girlfriend, The Crimson Countess.
That’s everything Butcher needs to know to track down Soldier Boy but they can’t just go after him because the three of them together still wouldn’t stand a chance against him. Butcher reveals that Maeve gave him another bag filled with V24, which is what will be needed to handle Soldier Boy if they manage to track him down.
Hughie volunteers to take another dose himself while explaining to Mother’s Milk that this is the only way he’ll actually be able to help them in this situation. Mother’s Milk contemplates a dose of his own but he says that’s a bridge too far and it’s something his father would never want him to do.
At Crimson Countess’ trailer, she’s in the middle of a cam show where she’s talking up her attempt to save the chimps while the man paying per minute just wants her naked so she can get down to business.
Oh yeah, the man paying for the porn? None other than Seth Rogen.
Crimson Countess does his bidding by pulling out a giant string of anal beads but before she can get down to business, she gets tackled to the ground and her camera is knocked over much to the chagrin of the porn patron lubing up with lotion.
Butcher, Hughie and Mother’s Milk tie up Crimson Countess so she can’t use her powers and they inform her that Soldier Boy is on his way. That’s when Crimson Countess finally comes clean that she knew Soldier Boy was being held in that Russian facility and his escape means she’s going to be dead sooner rather than later.
Realizing that Soldier Boy is coming to kill her, Butcher decides to use her as bait to lure him in.
Outside, Butcher and the rest of the team wait for Soldier Boy to arrive but that’s when Starlight makes an appearance. It turns out Mother’s Milk called her as back-up, which is exactly what Hughie didn’t want considering he just dosed himself up with V24 again.
Annie is none too happy to learn that Hughie has given himself powers again, even if it’s only for 24 hours but he believes this is the only way he can actually save her for once. Annie tells Hughie she doesn’t need him to save her — she just needs him.
Back at the front of the trailer, Butcher comes clean to Mother’s Milk that he isn’t planning on killing Soldier Boy when he arrives because he has other plans for the suddenly resurrected hero. A moment later, Mother’s Milk passes out after realizing that Butcher spiked his drink.
As he fades from consciousness, Mother’s Milk sees Soldier Boy approach but he fades to black before he can really lay eyes on the man who killed his family.
When Soldier Boy spots Butcher, he recognizes him from the lab in Russia. Butcher then tells Soldier Boy he has an idea that could be mutually beneficial to both of them — let’s call it the ultimate team-up.
From there, Soldier Boy heads inside to find his ex-girlfriend turned trainer chained to a chair where he finally confronts her for selling him out to the Russians. She tries to deny that the Russians paid her off but obviously Crimson Countess has known for decades that he’s been held prisoner rather than actually dead.
A second later, Soldier Boy allows the power inside him to get fueled up again before unleashing a full blast on Crimson Countess.
Hughie and Starlight see the explosion and come running, which is where they find Butcher carrying Mother’s Milk away from the ruins of the trailer as Soldier Boy emerges without a scratch on him. Crimson Countess has been torched to the bone, which gives Soldier Boy the satisfaction he needed against the woman who betrayed him.
With Starlight ready to unleash her powers, Butcher calms the situation by explaining the real plan he’s had in mind this entire time.
Butcher went to Russia looking for a weapon that could kill Homelander and he finally found it in Soldier Boy. Now he plans on using the alive-again Supe against Homelander — to kill him once and for all.
The plan is crazy enough but Annie figures out that Hughie knew this is exactly what Butcher was doing all along — and he didn’t come clean to tell her about it despite promising no more secrets between them. Butcher calls to Hughie to join him as he leaves with Soldier Boy but Annie begs him to stay with her.
In his mind, Hughie truly believes this may be the only shot they have at getting to Homelander so he tells Annie goodbye and he turns to catch up to Butcher and Soldier Boy. Annie is left alone in the smoldering ruins of Crimson Countess’ trailer where her corpse is still smoking and the love of her life just walked away.
Now the real question becomes will this all be worth it in the end? Can Soldier Boy actually stop Homelander?
“The Boys” returns for a brand new episode next Friday on Amazon Prime Video.
