The Bloody Doors Off
Episode 6 of The Boys Season 2 serves up a fantastic episode full of action, drama and big revelations. Interspersed around all of this are a series of flashbacks involving Frenchie. Specifically, what happened to him 8 years ago. He built an explosive while leading a team. Only, things go wrong when he shows up in a police station and facing jail time… unless he decides to work for the FBI. It soon becomes apparent that Frenchie and the others tried to strike a deal with Lamplighter but things went sideways. When he walks away, Frenchie is tasked to follow the man which leads up to the incident involving the kids being killed. This catches us up to the present as Frenchie works to remove the tracking chip from Starlight’s neck. Stormfront and Homelander work together after their passionate session to catch a criminal in the street. Stormfront goads the powerful Supe to kill him before they hook up together. As they take to the cameras and begin flirting some time later, Butcher and the rest of the group watch the news. Together they realize in dread that the duo are sleeping together. Starlight arrives in the basement and tells them about the psychiatric ward linked to Stan Edgar. Butcher decides to follow up on this lead and tells Starlight she’s coming to. If everything goes sideways then she’s the one Vought are likely to go after. Deep meets Maeve privately before heading back out on set and seeing A-Train. He offers his condolences for the expulsion and it’s clear he wants A-Train on his side. After all, Deep knows all about being kicked out The Seven. He invites him along to the Church and concocts a story about wanting to kill A-Train. As the two share home truths, the head of the Church, Alastair, promises to get him back in The Seven. Homelander loses his temper when Stormfront fails to show up. Given he left flowers for her, he slowly starts to realize she may be manipulating him and feels like a fool. When she eventually does show up – not long after Homelander destroys his trailer in a fit of rage – he threatens her. Donning disguises, the group arrive at Sage Grove ready to put their plan into action. Butcher lies with a sniper watching from afar as M.M., Kimiko and Frenchie break in to the facility. Outside, Butcher and Starlight’s issues continue to spill over while Hughie watches helplessly as this fight play out. Only, this is quickly broken up by Stormfront showing up and putting a massive spanner in the works. It turns out Sage Grove plays host to numerous different Supes with different abilities. As Kimiko watches, Stormfront shows up and speaks to a Supe called Tim about his powers. He asks to go home but Stormfront is having none of it. Only, this happens to be Lamplighter in disguise which Frenchie notices and struggles to keep his composure. Things quickly go from bad to worse when Lamplighter’s power blows a hole in one of the doors holding a powerful Supe called Sindy. She can destroy people with a single touch and she releases all the Supes from containment using her telepathic powers. Uh oh. Forced to work with Lamplighter, the group hold up inside the security room as the place is overrun by maniacal superheroes. It’s here Frenchie learns that Lamplighter wasn’t actually aware that the children would be in the pit that night. He thought it was Frenchie’s boss and all of this was an accident. As we soon find out, Frenchie’s friend died of an overdose some time later and he’s been living in regret ever since. Outside, a Supe escapes and uses his shockwave power to knock Hughie, Butcher and Starlight back. Unfortunately, given Hughie was inside the car he ends up injured and Butcher rushes to find a car to take him there. As he and Starlight march through the woods, they try to commandeering a car but the owner brandishes a gun and believes it’s a scam. With time running out, Starlight eventually uses her powers to knock him down before hitting the road, leaving the bloodied man behind and taking Hughie to hospital. Back inside, the group work together to try and escape the facility. However, Stormfront returns and throws a serious dent in their plan. She calls out for Lamplighter after destroying the telekinetic Supe standing in her way. He vouches for them though and allows the group to escape in one piece. Once there, Frenchie apologises to Kimiko for trying to save her as a way of absolving his own sins. Meanwhile, Maeve shows Elena footage she has of the plane crash to use against Homelander. Homelander however, has his own vendetta against Stormfront. He confronts her and demands she tell him the truth. Eventually she does just that and it turns out she was born in 1919 and watched her daughter die of Alzheimers. It turns out she was the first Superhero and successful Vought experiment. She tells him that the “races” are grinding them down and they need to lead an army into an uprising. She wants him to lead them into battle. After some thinking, he eventually kisses her which seems to be code for “yes I will work with you.” Unfortunately things could turn sour when Sindy, the telekinetic Supe from Sage Grove, survives and manages to hitch a ride to town.
The Episode Review
After several slow episodes, The Boys delivers a truly magnificent dose of drama. There’s action, big revelations and plenty of sub-plots finally coming to light and given good pay-offs. Learning more about what happened to Frenchie in the past is a nice inclusion and it’s backed up by equally strong motivations for both Maeve and Starlight. On top of that, the entire segment involving Sage Grove really shows the variety of Supes. The visceral, bloody action really helps sell the power these adopt and showcase some of the more bizarre powers. It seems obvious now that this is supposed to be Stormfront’s “army”. Her regenerative powers means she’s more powerful than Homelander and potentially the worst one out of the bunch. She knows exactly how to manipulate people and her hold over Starlight could prove to be costly for the rebellion late on down the line. Quite how anyone is going to stop her remains to be seen. For now though, The Boys bows out with a really great episode and easily one of the highlights of the entire 2 season run.
