Review: The Boys Episode 207, “Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker”

The Boys delivers up its most gruesome scene yet in an excellent, eventful new episode.

Lamplighter is now willing to testify against Vought, so Grace, the Boys, and Councilwoman Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) begin putting together a case against the evil company. Marvin (Mother’s Milk’s real name) and Grace pay a visit to an old Vought employee to gain intel while Hughie babysits Lamplighter and Annie gets captured by Vought. A lot happens in this one.

Grace and Marvin can’t get Vought’s old CSO, Jonah Vogelbaum (John Doman), to appear as a witness, so after they leave, Butcher pays him a visit. He’s a lot more direct, promises to murder Jonah’s family if he doesn’t cooperate. It’s hauntingly scary.

Butcher has always been a hard man, but he’s been slipping even further away. He has a chilling monologue about how he goes that his humanity is nearly gone, all of it fantastically performed by Karl Urban. Anthony Starr (Homelander) gets a lot of the acting accolades on this show, but it really seems like Urban was born to play this role.

The scene ends with him taking a cup of tea from Jonah’s caretaker, all cool politeness. It’s enough to chill anyone’s bones, especially Jonah’s.

Annie goes to visit her mom, but Vought catches up to them and takes them both prisoner. Annie awakes to find herself locked in a small room with no way out and no electricity to feed off. The news paints Starlight as a traitor and a super-terrorist. When Hughie hears, he marches immediately to the Tower, with Lamplighter in tow. Lamplighter uses his access to get them into the Seven’s headquarters. The pair make a pretty good team and treat us to some genuinely funny moments…at least until Lamplighter lights himself on fire in the middle of the room.

Hughie cuts off the hand of the now-dead Lamplighter to use his fingerprints to get further into the facility, and somehow stumbles on Annie’s mother Donna (Ann Cusack). Annie uses the emergency lights to draw energy and busts herself out only to run into Hughie and her mother. The trio escape the Tower and make it back to the safehouse.

The whole team then gathers around the television to watch the hearing against Vought. It goes on for a whole five seconds before Vogelbaum’s head explodes, followed by the heads of most everyone else in the room. The absurdity of it all is funny at first, but when the carnage doesn’t stop, it quickly becomes gruesome and traumatic. I’ve seen a lot of gruesome and downright disturbing scenes of violence and gore, but this one will stick with me for a long time.

The episode ends with the team staring blankly at a screen. Butcher walks away, and the camera presses in for us to see the light flicker in his eyes.

Grade: A+

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