In “The Boys” recap for the first three episodes of season 2, Billy Butcher returns to lead the Boys on a new mission, Homelander tries to exert his power and a new member of the Seven arrives with a different agenda…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
“The Boys” finally returned for season 2 this week on Amazon Prime as the over-the-top comic book based series offered even more blood, guts, exploding heads and impaled whales than the first season could even hope to deliver.
When the first season came to a close, the Boys had been exposed for hunting down the supes as they sought to expose Vought International for the nefarious moves they’ve been making for years while bio-engineering all of the world’s greatest superheroes.
Sadly, Hughie’s relationship with Starlight came to a crashing halt after she learned he had been lying to her since almost the first time they met as he used her for an inside track to The Seven and Vought International. Thankfully, Starlight still proved to be the one real superhero on the team when she saved Hughie and the rest of the Boys after they were captured and nearly killed.
Meanwhile, Billy Butcher’s thirst for revenge against Homelander after he believed the star-spangled sociopath raped and murdered his wife culminated in a showdown at Madelyn Stillwell’s residence. The Vought VP had become very close to Homelander over the course of the season and Billy was convinced that killing her would be the only way he could exact some sort of vengeance because the de facto leader of The Seven was seemingly indestructible.
His plans went awry when Homelander killed Stillwell himself after she lied to him about Butcher’s wife and the baby he was told had died during childbirth. In the end, Homelander saved Billy when he attempted to blow himself up and ultimately delivered him on the front stoop of a house where his wife emerged still very much alive while raising a child fathered by a superpowered killing machine.
That pretty much catches us up — so with that said, let’s recap the first three episodes of “The Boys” season 2 including “The Big Ride,” “Proper Preparation and Planning” and “Over the Hill with the Swords of a Thousand Men”…
Funeral for a Friend
Following the death of Madelyn Stillwell, Homelander is taking on an even bigger role — at least in his own mind — when it comes to The Seven and the powers-that-be at Vought International.
Weeks after her murder was exposed and blamed on Billy Butcher, Homelander is back on his duties as the United States’ most beloved superhero while he eulogizes his friend and former teammate Translucent, who is receiving a nationally broadcast funeral after he died battling a super terrorist named El Diablo from the Mexican drug cartels. Of course, Translucent was really killed by the Boys after he had some C4 shoved up his ass and Hughie Campbell pulled the trigger to blow him into a million little pieces.
There’s no way Vought International would let that information slip out to the public that one of the most powerful heroes on Earth could be killed by such conventional means so they cook up a cover story to further the ongoing battle where Vought is trying to embed itself into national defense. As Stan Edgar — CEO of Vought International — signs contracts to put his superheroes into the field as a military weapon, Homelander gives his eulogy before Starlight joins him on stage to belt out a song in tribute to Translucent.
Meanwhile overseas, Black Noir is carrying out a covert mission to kill the jihadi terrorist introduced in “The Boys” season 1, who killed several American soldiers. Black Noir eventually beheads the terrorist before returning home while Mr. Edgar seals the deal on the new contracts for Vought International as the primary military provider to the government now.
As for the Boys — they’re stuck living underground in a basement drug den where Frenchie has secured them a safe place to stay while his friends are dealing all around them. They’ve been forced into hiding after Butcher was framed for Stillwell’s death and the entire team was exposed for allegedly helping him orchestrate the deadly crime.
But Hughie’s not content with just staying in the basement so he goes topside and it’s revealed that he’s secretly meeting with Annie as they continue to work together to find a way to expose Vought and their use of Compound-V to create the superheroes now tasked with protecting America from its enemies both domestic and abroad.
While Hughie is still pining for Annie as his girlfriend, she’s more worried about bringing down Vought and doesn’t seem to care much for his advances. Regardless, Annie is providing quite the public face as Starlight while continuing to prove herself as a valuable member of The Seven. Behind the scenes, however, Annie is doing everything possible to bring that corporation down.
Hughie is able to provide her with a name of a supe named Gecko, who he believes can get her a sample of Compound-V that they can then hand off to the press to expose the story. It seems Starlight previously worked with Gecko when they were both teen superheroes for Christ. She agrees to track down Gecko but Annie’s not all that interested in Hughie lamenting about being found out for lying to her after they already slept together.
Back at Vought, Homelander peruses through Madelyn’s old office and finds a bottle of breast milk left behind in the freezer. He heats it up and enjoys one last taste of the woman he loved (or whatever that relationship was supposed to be) before Ashley, the former PR rep fired a season ago, returns to take over her role as VP.
It seems Homelander was instrumental in her re-hiring because he believes Ashley will serve as the perfect puppet to do his bidding while reporting back to him everything happening with the executives working on the 82nd floor. She agrees but then decides to introduce Homelander to the person she hopes will become the newest member of The Seven.
Enter Blindspot — a Daredevil-esque hero, who is blind but uses his heightened sense of sound to navigate the world while doing all sorts of dazzling tricks with martial arts and weaponry.
Blindspot is honored to meet Homelander and he’s even more choked up at the opportunity to potentially join The Seven. That’s when Homelander asks him a simple yet brutal question — what happens when somebody breaks his ear drums and he can no longer rely on his heightened sense of hearing?
Homelander smacks Blindspot on both sides of his head, his eardrums pop and he lays writhing on the ground in agony. Homelander then scoffs at Ashley’s suggestion to add a ‘cripple’ to the team and he reminds her that he’s the person in charge of The Seven so she better not forget it.
Unfortunately for him, Homelander soon finds out that he doesn’t have nearly as much power as he believes. While shooting a commercial for their new partnership with the American military, Homelander and Queen Maeve are interrupted by the newest member of The Seven — a brash, outspoken, social media conscious hero named Stormfront.
She’s live streaming when meeting Homelander and Maeve, which means he can’t be anything but cordial with an audience watching his every move. Stormfront isn’t nearly as worried, however, as she curses and generally doesn’t give a fuck what she says on camera or off while presenting herself as a whole new kind of hero joining The Seven.
The full depth of this character won’t be revealed until a little later.
As for Homelander, he’s enraged that he wasn’t consulted before a new member of The Seven was inducted to the group so he goes to pay a visit to Mr. Edgar.
Homelander attempts to exert control over the meeting but that’s when Mr. Edgar puts him back into his place.
As he explains, Vought International got its start from the founder — Dr. Frederick Vought, who was a geneticist working under Adolf Hitler at the start of World War II. During those days, Vought was provided with any number of human subjects to use for his trials as he developed the earliest versions of Compound-V. A few years later, Dr. Vought was spirited away by American forces and he was pardoned for his crimes in exchange for joining the U.S. side of the war.
Dr. Vought was instrumental in creating the first superheroes including Soldier Boy — a character we’ll meet in season 3 played by “Supernatural” star Jensen Ackles.
Mr. Edgar then explains that Vought International is not a company built on superheroes but rather the pharmaceuticals that they develop. Homelander put them all into jeopardy when he decided to send boxes of Compound-V to terrorist and criminal organizations around the world in order to create super-villains that the heroes could battle.
Now the government knows Compound-V exists, it’s used to create superheroes and it won’t be long before the public is made aware as well. In other words, Homelander’s short play to get a government contract to give the superheroes some new villains to face ultimately put Vought’s entire bottom at risk.
That means, Homelander is considered a grade-A fuck up and Mr. Edgar isn’t going to consult him about what kind of toilet paper they use in the bathrooms at Vought International much less ask his opinion about who gets to join The Seven.
Finally after meeting with Hughie earlier in the episode, Annie springs her trap for Gecko after witnessing her former teen hero teammate selling himself as an S&M prostitute where he allows people to cut off parts of his body for money because his super-ability is that everything grows back. Annie then blackmails Gecko to retrieve some Compound-V for her because he now works in the Vought labs as one of their guinea pigs.
As for the Boys, they soon discover that Frenchie’s associates who gave them a place to stay had not only been smuggling guns and drugs into the country but it seems they were also involved in some sort of human trafficking ring. To make matters worse, the criminals managed to smuggle in a super terrorist, who is now on American soil ready to wreak havoc.
Running out of options, Hughie suggests reaching out to Deputy Director Sarah Rayner, who originally attempted to give them a safe haven with the CIA until the super terrorists first appeared, which handed all of the power back to Vought. Hughie, Mother’s Milk, Kimiko and Frenchie go to meet with Rayner, who agrees to help but while venting on her frustrations over the greed and corruption fueling Vought International, her head explodes like a firecracker inside a pumpkin.
The Boys are horrified as they drive away while stunned that a supe has the ability to explode somebody’s head like that. The good news is nobody followed them, which means the target was always Rayner. The bad news is, a super terrorist is on American soil, Rayner is dead and the Boys are running out of options.
Just when it appears all hope is lost with Hughie convinced he’ll never be reunited with Annie, a knock on the door is heard in the form of an outside guard being dropped down the stairs to the secret underground lair. Followed behind the guard are the familiar stomps from Billy Butcher, who has returned from wherever he’s been hiding.
He’s back to save the day — or at least try to kill a few of the miserable cunts coming after them.
Gods and Monsters
With Butcher back, we get a brief look at where he’s been since the end of season 1.
It seems after he was re-introduced to his supposedly dead wife and her son, Billy was dropped off at a barbecue joint in Fort Wayne, Indiana as part of a deal that Becca made with Homelander to spare his life. After waking up, Billy rushes inside the nearby restaurant to jot down all of the details he can remember about Becca’s house because he has no idea whatsoever where she’s actually been hiding.
A few weeks later, Butcher finally made his way back to New York where he’s been reunited with the Boys.
Now that he has returned, Butcher decides to call on his old leader Grace Mallory to seek her help in order to track down Becca and keep all of them off the top 10 most wanted list. He pays her a visit at Rayner’s funeral and Mallory is none too pleased to see him, especially after their last encounter at her home.
Butcher finally convinces Mallory to give them a second chance and she agrees so long as the Boys can deliver the super-terrorist, which will then give her the power to clear their names and provide them protection from Vought.
Meanwhile with Homelander MIA — more on that in a minute — the rest of The Seven are left to tend to business.
Starlight, Maeve and the newest member Stormfront are sent out on a media tour to talk about how “Girls Get it Done” and the condescending questions are almost too much to handle. Maeve ends up cutting out after receiving a call about a “family emergency,” which leaves Annie with Stormfront while facing off with a slew of chauvinistic interviews.
Finally it’s Stormfront who snaps after receiving a phone call she’s determined to take while blasting the designers at Vought for giving her such a tight fit costume that there’s no room for pockets while Starlight’s is so revealing that you might actually be able to see her uterus.
Both of them are then surprised when the interviewers bring up A-Train, who has been hospitalized after suffering a heart attack in the season 1 finale. Starlight answers the question but the surprise is that A-Train is back on the job and he’s there to join his teammates on the media tour.
Of course, Annie is stunned not only because A-Train has returned but also because he knows she helped Hughie and his friends escape a Vought holding facility.
It doesn’t help matters much that Annie receives another surprise visitor with Gecko arriving at the interview session to hand over a vile of Compound-V that he snagged at the company lab. With no pockets — that same problem arises again — Annie is forced to think quick on her feet to hide the Compound-V before A-Train arrives to confront her.
Annie’s problems are exacerbated further when she does her best to befriend Stormfront, who appears to be the public face of The Seven that just says whatever the fuck she wants. Unfortunately, Stormfront brushes off her advances and mocks the Vought Barbie doll while telling her stories about the greatest superhero of all time — Pippy Longstocking.
Much like Pippy, Stormfront doesn’t give two shits what anybody thinks about her or the behavior she exhibits in front of the camera. She offers Starlight a valuable lesson that somewhere along the line nice got mistaken for good when the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Stormfront also tells Starlight the next time someone sticks a dick in her mouth to bite it off.
Annie is admittedly taken back by the rather brash approach from Stormfront but maybe she’s ready to stop being Miss Nice Girl.
Later that night, Annie receives a visit from A-Train, who discovers the stolen vile of Compound-V that was given to her by Gecko. He’s ready to expose her for the way she’s putting all of Vought International at risk but Starlight fires back by threatening to reveal how he murdered his ex-girlfriend Popclaw.
Even if she doesn’t have enough evidence to prove it, Annie knows that the mere mention of impropriety will get A-Train booted from The Seven and his life will forever be ruined. The two of them come to a begrudging agreement to stay out of each other’s way while they continue to conduct themselves however they see fit.
As for Maeve, she was called away after her ex-girlfriend Elena was forced into surgery to remove her appendix. It seems she forgot to update her emergency contact info after they broke up but the impromptu reunion gives Maeve the opportunity to come clean about their break up and how she’s been ghosting her ex ever since.
It seems Maeve’s brief relationship with Homelander turned him into an insanely jealous boyfriend and when a man once made a glancing pass at her, the leader of The Seven fileted him like a steak. She doesn’t want that same fate to befall Elena so they must keep their renewed friendship secret or risk her safety.
Finally, Homelander takes this break in the action to return to Becca’s home where he seeks quality time with his son, Ryan.
He tries to connect with the boy while attempting to unlock his true abilities, which Becca has forced him to tuck away while they try to lead some sort of normal life. Becca attempts to get Vought to intervene to force Homelander to leave them alone but the leadership at the local facility near her home says that the risk assessment is too great to force him to leave permanently.
In other words, Becca is stuck dealing with Homelander until he’s ready to leave on his own.
The poking and prodding by Homelander to force his son to use powers finally culminates in a trip to the roof when the boy is shoved off the side and falls to the ground. Becca is convinced he’s dead but Ryan eventually wakes up unharmed. Homelander then snaps at Becca and that finally awaken’s Ryan’s powers as he pushes his father away with his eyes lighting up red in order to protect his mother.
Homelander wanted his son to follow in his footsteps and now it appears he’s unlocked that rage that’s been tamped down deep inside of him.
Church of the Collective
The Deep remains on watch in Sandusky, Ohio where he’s struggling to adapt to his new life away from The Seven. He’s making an ass of himself at waterparks and eventually gets arrested for drunken disorderly behavior.
He gets bailed out by another hero named Eagle the Archer, who is in charge of protecting nearby Cleveland, Ohio. Eagle is a knockoff of Green Arrow or Hawkeye with a keen sense of aim with whatever he targets with his arrows.
Eagle tries to help Deep get back on his feet by introducing him to a woman named Carol, who represents a new religious cult called The Church of the Collective.
The Scientology knockoff church seems to think all of Deep’s problems are internal and in order to get him to unlock what he hates most about himself, Eagle feeds him some hallucinogenic drugs that put him on a psychedelic trip.
Deep ends up speaking to the gills on his stomach — and they have Patton Oswalt’s voice — as he admits fear and shame over his own appearance has led to so much self-loathing. Through a spiritual healing session that includes a duet of “You Are So Beautiful to Me” and he’s finally able to accept himself for who he is inside.
With that behind him, The Deep feels like he’s ready to go back to work and Carol has the perfect job to help him return to The Seven.
The Big Wet Dream
In order to secure protection and remove themselves from America’s Most Wanted, Butcher and the Boys have to capture a supe-terrorist and deliver him to Grace Mallory.
After tracking the terrorist back to a party store where he’s hiding, Butcher leads the team inside where he will attempt to either ensnare or kill the man who was smuggled into the country. Just when Butcher gets a beat on a sniper shot, Hughie tackles him to prevent the super-terrorist from being killed.
The terrorist then unleashes his full powers — he’s a telekinetic, which means he can move objects just by waving his hands at them and he throws and entire store at Butcher and the Boys.
Thankfully, Kimiko is there to eventually subdue him and that’s when we discover that the super-terrorist is actually her brother Kenji. He was dosed with Compound-V in their village at the same time she was but Kimiko had already been brought to the United States. Now it’s Kenji’s turn as the rebel forces who dosed them with that blue liquid are ready to unleash them on the American population.
To make matters worse, Kenji has started buying into the propaganda and he believes that America must pay for all its transgressions.
Another fight ensues but again Kimiko is able to overpower her brother, duct tape his hands together so he can’t use his powers and the team prepares to transport him to an undisclosed location where he will be handed over to Mallory. Before leaving, Butcher punches Hughie and warns him getting in the way of returning to his wife again and he’s a dead man.
The next day, the Boys are set out to sea on a boat called “The Big Wet Dream” where they are waiting on a location to rendezvous with Mallory’s forces to hand over the super terrorist. Hughie is struggling following his fight with Butcher and he’s starting to wonder what this fight has really been all about.
He finally decides to call Annie and pour his heart out to her voicemail in hopes that something can be salvaged from this god awful predicament he’s gotten himself into.
Back at Vought, Homelander has finally returned but he’s finding himself introduced to a new dynamic brought on by Stormfront’s arrival.
She’s taken charge of a meeting regarding the next blockbuster film called “Dawn of the Seven,” which the director has painted to look a lot like the “Justice League” movie. Stormfront’s none too impressed by the script, however, thanks to all the women being painted as either “unknowable Hitchcock bitches or Michael Bay fuck dolls.”
The meeting gets interrupted by breaking news after reporters reveal that Vought’s superheroes have been made in a lab rather than by birth. Annie’s plan to expose Vought for using Compound-V has finally hit the headlines and the entire ordeal has the company’s stock dropping like a cinder block in a pool. To make matters worse, allegations of payoffs to parents to hand over their children for testing has the lawyers circling like sharks diving for a bucket of chum.
That puts Vought into damage control mode, which forces Mr. Edgar to call on The Seven to go after the super terrorist in order to change the national narrative. If he can get the rest of the world looking at the good the heroes are doing, it’s not going to matter nearly as much that they were all manufactured in a lab.
But Homelander sees this as an opportunity seize control of his team as he tells Edgar that The Seven aren’t responsible for his fuck ups. They are only responsible for saving the world so Homelander is going to lead The Seven into battle as they seek out this super terrorist because that’s what they were meant to do, not because it’s going to stop Vought’s stock prices from plummeting any further.
Back out on the ocean, Butcher is cruising towards a destination to meet up with Mallory when they get the news about Compound-V being exposed. Mother’s Milk and Frenchie know right away that this was Hughie’s plan after teaming up with Annie and now they’ve struck a major blow at Vought. The entire team celebrates but Butcher still doesn’t seem all that impressed.
Shortly thereafter, the boat is intercepted by an NYPD helicopter. Butcher forgot to mention how he took possession of this boat, which now has the possibly being arrested by the cops.
Downstairs, Frenchie had been trying to communicate with Kenji to better understand the form of sign language he used to speak to his sister since she still hasn’t said a word to him. It seems Kenji and Kumiko developed their own language together after she was dosed with Compound-V and lost the ability to speak.
Frenchie offers Kenji a drink and a snack but he leaves the can behind, which is all the super-powered telekinetic needs to break freak of his duct tape chains. Kenji maneuvers a single finger free of the tape, grabs the can and cuts himself out of the bindings.
Kenji then emerges on the boat where he uses his powers to crash the NYPD helicopter. Kimiko gets control of her brother again but only after several police officers have already been killed.
As the boat continues the voyage towards the rendezvous, they are soon met by a fleet of sharks coming after them. It doesn’t take long for Butcher and the Boys to figure out that the Deep has arrived with his fishy friends.
The sharks attack the boat, which forces Butcher and the team to jump onto the smaller speed boat in a getaway. They race to get to land and a nearby storm drain before the Deep can launch anymore aquatic life at them.
That’s when the Deep races ahead on the back of a whale and he blocks their path to the storm drain but Butcher isn’t about to be stopped so instead of slowing down, he speeds up to set a collision course with the animal. The Deep is shocked as the boat comes racing at them like a missile before exploding through the whale.
When Butcher and the rest of the team emerges, the whale is very dead but the Boys are still alive. Hughie has no interest in going forward — he’s ready to just cash in his chips and let The Seven take him into custody. It finally takes Mother’s Milk threatening to stay with him for Hughie to leave the hollow cavity of the now dead whale before heading into the tunnels with the rest of the team.
When The Seven arrive, they are greeted by the Deep, who attempts to tell him the plan he made to stop Butcher and the Boys. Sadly, his plan backfired after a speedboat tore through Lucy the whale.
Homelander more or less scoffs at the Deep’s attempts to rejoin The Seven and Starlight doubles down on that by telling him he’ll never be part of that team again. Before leaving, Homelander tells the Deep to cover up his gills after part of his uniform was ripped during the battle with the Boys.
It’s clear now that the Deep’s self-esteem issues were only exacerbated by his teammates.
Homelander then leads The Seven down into the storm drains to go after Butcher and the Boys. In the end, it’s Starlight who finally crosses paths with Hughie and he believes she’s there to save him after the voicemail he left for her earlier in the day.
Instead, Starlight blasts him and knocks Hughie to the ground just as Homelander arrives. He orders Starlight to kill Hughie while he watches. Before she’s forced to do the deed, however, Butcher steps out of the shadows and into the light to confront Homelander.
Homelander immediately taunts Butcher while bragging about the breakfast he shared with Becca earlier that morning. Butcher responds by telling Homelander to “eat this motherfucker” just before Kenji steps in front of him and drops an entire street on the leader of The Seven, burying him in the rubble.
Kenji takes the opportunity to escape with Kimiko giving chase behind him while Butcher finally offers his hand to Hughie and this time he takes it.
A Storm is Coming
As Kenji races to escape with Kimiko in tow, Stormfront is the first person to catch up to them. A battle ensues with Stormfront winning most of the exchanges until they reach an apartment building.
Inside is where Stormfront exposes her true nature as she wipes out an entire Black family, who were just innocent bystanders. When she finally catches up with Kenji, she breaks his hands off the bone and the proceeds to call him a “fucking yellow bastard” before snapping his neck.
Kimiko watches in horror before escaping just as Homelander arrives.
He admonishes Stormfront for killing the terrorist that was supposed to be his big win but she laughs off his threats and tells him “you snooze, you lose, Gramps.”
At a press conference later that day, Mr. Edgar passes off the blame for Compound-V to Madelyn Stillwell and then quickly turns the attention back to the “attack” from the super terrorist and how the newest member of The Seven stopped him. Stormfront takes a bow while addressing the media while Homelander offers her a deadly stare from across the room.
Back at their underground lair, the Boys watch as Vought spins even more lies to stay out of trouble while Stormfront is celebrated for her hard work despite the truth being a much different story. Thankfully now, Hughie is back on board, Butcher has returned and the team is more focused than ever before to bring down Vought and destroy The Seven.
“The Boys” will return with a new episode next Friday on Amazon Prime video.
