Review: The Boys Season 2 Episode 2, “Proper Preparation and Planning”

“Proper Preparation and Planning” deepens the conflict in The Boys by digging into some of the power-mad superheroes our protagonists are fighting against.

After the return of Butcher, he and the Boys must find the super terrorist to clear their names. But when they discover that the terrorist is Kimiko’s brother, Hughie stops Butcher from killing him, causing a divide between the two.

It looks like we’ll see this struggle play out over the season. Given that Butcher’s main goal — finding his lost wife — has technically been resolved, it’s believable that he would become even less remorseful and more violent trying to free her. His attack on Hughie and near murder of Kimiko’s brother, whom she captures for the team anyway, is evidence of his new ruthlessness. Butcher is finally living up to his name. It’s a little scary, but also great material for Karl Urban to play.

A story isn’t complete until both sides are told. In snippets from the lives of Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) and The Deep (Chace Crawford), we see that these superheroes are still people. Maeve rushes to the aid of a friend/love interest when she suffers a medical scare, and The Deep takes shrooms to confront his inner demons, which manifest in the form of his gills talking to him with Patton Oswalt’s voice.

Maeve struggles to love anyone, since she fears Homelander will kill anyone he sees as a threat to his obsession with her. Of all the superheroes, Queen Maeve has always seemed one of the more down-to-earth — at least, as down to earth as she can when she’s part of the powerful super-team on the planet. Her struggle to hide who she loves for their own safety is handled well here, and produces some empathy for a character technically at odds with our heroes.

The Deep’s story is a little weirder; his gills may give him his powers over marine life and the oceans, but he clearly feels conflicted and dysmorphic about them. And it’s hilarious that Patton Oswalt is the voice of the gills.

Even with the weirdness, the point of the Deep’s story seems to be to show that he’s grappling with his own problems; that doesn’t excuse his mistreatment of women, but it is filling out the character so we can see all sides of this conflict.

Homelander has a son. And though he only recently discovered this and shares him with Butcher’s wife Becca (Shantel VanSanten), he is clearly happy to be a father. In one scenes, he’s having a catch with him and sharing stories about his childhood he knows are fake and designed to project a certain image to the public.

The boy lives in a huge prison that has the appearance of a normal town, all of it designed to keep him from discovering his powers. Homelander tucks his son into bed while rambling about how they are gods among humans, inconceivably better than everyone else in every way. And the way Anthony Starr delivers this, you almost believe it. The thought of two Homelanders is scary indeed, but there’s also a hint of love and longing in Homelander’s voice that almost makes you sympathize with him; he’s finally found someone else like him. He isn’t so alone anymore and maybe that can help bring back what little humanity he has left.

I like the way the show is telling its story from both sides. It makes you think about who’s really in the right and who’s in the wrong.

Grade: B+

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