The Boys talk Butcher off a ledge and Homelander spirals deeper into manipulative madness in “We Gotta Go Now.” Our review of the latest episode:
A nice Butcher isn’t nice at all.
After Hughie has a weirdly friendly conversation with Butcher, who’s just seen Becca, he and Mother’s Milk become worried that something is terribly wrong with him. And indeed, we see Butcher buying dog toys and visiting old family members to say goodbye. He’s completely checked out from the fight and is contemplating suicide. Becca didn’t want to leave with him and his hope of reuniting his family is dead. It takes Hughie and Mother’s Milk to bring him back to himself while trying to escape Black Noir.
The brutal action scenes are cut through by scenes of the crew talking to Butcher’s aunt, who tells them of a younger “Billy.” We also learn that Hughie looks very much like Butcher’s younger and deceased brother Lenny, and suddenly the way Butcher treats Hughie makes sense. Hughie acts as a sounding board for Butcher, letting him no when he’s gone too far, and in return Butcher protects Hughie from fights he cannot win. It’s a dynamic that’s worked for both men, and now where we see where it originated.
In the end, Butcher stops Black Noir by letting Vought know that he knows about Homelander’s son, and his bluff of having picture proof gives them some room to breathe. Afterwards, his vigor for the fight is renewed and he finally seems himself again.
Meanwhile, Homelander continues to spiral into madness. There’s footage out there of him taking an innocent life, and people are up in arms. He tries to use Stormfront’s social media presence to change the tide, but discovers that Stormfront has been playing both sides from the beginning, using her influence to manipulate the masses.
Stormfront continues to be a breakout character. She’s acts helpful to everyone, but we always suspected she was capable of something like this, and we get why characters like Annie are uneasy around her; we are, too. Because of this tension, Stormfront has a ton of presence.
Anyway, Homelander uses his own influence over the other members of the Seven to create the image he’s after, forces Maeve to be a symbol of representation and retiring A-Train. The episode ends with an extremely weird sexual encounter between Homelander and Stormfront, which is just as gruesome as you’d expect.
Manipulation is the name of the game in this episode, and some of the players here are true all-stars. Even some of the Seven have been wrapped up in webs woven by Homelander or CEO
Stan Edgar. But those webs may be getting too big to support themselves, making conflict inevitable.
Grade: A-
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