The Boys: Season 2 Episode 7 'Butcher, Baker and The Candlestick Maker' Recap & Review
The Penultimate episode of The Boys Packs a Powerful Punch Of Propaganda and Parenting
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
Right off the bat, the show gives that social commentary that I have come to love from this season. The cold open is from the POV of a completely unknown character going through his day to day life and in each shot, a news broadcast of Stormfront (Aya Cash) can be heard espousing racist comments similar to our real world politicians “dog-whistling” by labeling immigrants as potential “Super Terrorists.” Then, to give quick but broad characterization, we see the unknown man lives with his mother as he kisses her before work. He smiles at a cute girl on the street but she doesn’t even notice him. Finally, while paying for his items at a market where the cashier is a POC, Stormfront’s ranting is still playing on the tv behind him. This cycle repeats several times and this brilliantly shows us the life of the modern “Incel;” a colloquialism for involuntary celibate. Usually, straight white men that have a hatred for all women because of perceived inequalities. This, subculture of sorts has only seemed to have spread with the popularity of the internet and social media. These people tend to be racist as well, blaming everyone else for their problems.
Here’s where it gets political as all good art has the ability to do. Stormfront’s propaganda is a clear analogy for the Trump administration. She even uses the lines “Keep America Safe Again,” to provoke fear into her followers, evoking Trump’s slogan. Listening to non-stop propaganda combined with a feeling of fear and powerlessness, the unknown man we’ve been following for this intro scene believes the POC cashier is a ‘Supe’, or at least that’s his implied rationale for suddenly shooting the man point blank. As we’ve unfortunately seen in recent years, the 24 hour news cycle and a government led by rich white men has made white supremacists and young white men radicalize into domestic terrorists in the name of “Making America Great Again” by clearly targeting minorities or minority supporting groups like Black Lives Matter. Even at the latest Presidential debate for the upcoming election, Trump refused to denounce white supremacy and a militia of thugs known as ‘Proud Boys’ to “stand by” as if to await his commands. He won’t denounce them because he’s their leader just like Stormfront is and wants Homelander (Antony Starr) to be.
Speaking of politicians, Congreswoman Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) is going over talking points with Lamplighter (Shawn Ashmore) as he prepares to testify against Stormfront. Butcher (Karl Urban) makes a dig at Congress calling them corrupt but both Congresswoman Neuman and Grace Mallory (Laila Robins) agree trusting each other would be best.
Starlight (Erin Moriarty) vents and tells the truth to her mother Donna (Ann Cusack) about how hurt she feels having spent her youth believing in a God that doesn’t exist. Donna says they should get away and that she cleared it with Ashley (Colby Minifie) at Vought but right then a smoke grenade flies in through the window. It’s Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell) and he knocks Starlight unconscious.
Back with The Boys crew, Hughie (Jack Quaid) gets put on babysitting duty to watch Lamplighter. Butcher gets a call from his mom and she says his father died. She wants him to go to New York to see her.
Starlight is now in a room with no windows and almost no electrical lights so she can’t draw power from them to escape.
Lamplighter and Hughie have a strange bonding moment as Lamplighter is watching a porn parody of The Seven. Hughie tries to sympathize with Lamplighter by calling himself a cuck but Lamplighter says, “actually, you’re worse. You’re the cuck fluffer.” He’s not wrong though Hughie has been sidelined this season while the rest of the gang does the saving. Poor Wee Hughie.
Homelander and Stormfront are on stage in front of a crowd and Homelander plants a kiss on her to many woos and cheers. They give a short, insincere condolence to the liquor store cashier’s family but quickly turn to talk about creating more ‘Supes;’ gassing up the crowd. Homelander then says that they caught Starlight who turned out to be the mole that leaked Compound V. Hughie sees this on tv and convinces Lamplighter to go with him to save her. What could go wrong?
In New York (No idea how he got there so quickly but hey tv magic) Butcher meets his mother Connie (Lesley Nicol). However, it turns out she lied just to get Butcher there to talk to his father, Sam (John Noble). John Noble’s cameo here was a wonderful surprise and it’s nice they got a big name to play Butcher’s brash father who clearly is the source of so much of Butcher’s anger. They seem like they're going to make up at first but Sam calls Butcher’s brother, Lenny weak because, its revealed, Lenny shot himself in the head. Butcher flips and almost chokes out his father before his mother breaks them apart.
After Homelander and Stormfront’s rally, she sees a small girl that reminds her of her own daughter. Homelander, ever needing to impress, takes her to see his son, Ryan (Cameron Crovetti). The last time we saw them together, Homelander pushed Ryan off the roof to try to make him fly. Stormfront tries to establish dominance by asking Ryan about his powers and telling him he’s the “first natural-born” superhero but Becca Butcher (Shantel VanSanten) shuts her down.
Elena (Nicola Correia-Damude) confronts Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) about the plane video. The thought of Maeve killing people is keeping her awake at night so she leaves to her sisters but not before Maeve destroys their dining table.
Grace Mallory and Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) have a meeting with retired Vought CSO Jonah Volgelbaum (John Doman) in hopes to find out more about Sage Grove Center. He of course gives them the runaround and saying, in so many words, that his daughter’s well being is more important to him than doing the right thing. They leave but Mallory then offers M.M. a chance to do just that and go back to his family. He doesn’t.
Frenchie (Tomer Capon) and Kimko (Karen Fukuhara) are on a rooftop near the Congresswoman’s house where a small protest has gathered. Kimiko keeps giving Frenchie looks like she likes him now because obviously that’s where this was headed. She then finally teaches him his first word of her made up sign language; gun. Probably one of their most common items so shouldn’t be hard to remember.
The Deep (Chace Crawford) and A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) are at one of the pseudo Scientology party when their leader, Alastair Adana (Goran Visnjic) gives them semi good news that they’re basically back in The Seven after Starlight’s recent departure. He then tells them to never again mention Eagle The Archer (Langston Kerman) because he was spreading “slander” about the church. Something that, I believe although cannot confirm, has happened with the real Church of Scientology. Cult stuff.
Ashley then catches Maeve in bed with a man and starts freaking out because Maeve has a “lesbian image” to uphold. Maeve calls her out and for once, Ashley seems to back off.
Instead of super powers or even video games like other kids his age, Ryan is apparently into recreating movies like Blindside using Legos. Nothing like a light drama about racism to show your 10 year old. Homelander then explains to Becca that he was raised by scientists and never got to experience childhood and that made him “fucked up.” He doesn’t want Ryan to end up like him and since neither does the audience, we see both sides of their arguments. Solid writing.
Butcher shows up at Vogelbaum’s house (again, tv instant travel) to get what they need since the other two couldn't. He asks what Homelander was like as a child because this is one of the people that raised him without love. Butcher threatens to kill every one of Vogelbaum’s family members if he doesn’t help. It works this time.
Back at Vought Tower, Hughie and Lamplighter sneak in through a secret entrance and “luckily” Lamplighter’s handprint gets them into the building. They end up in the conference room where The Seven holds their meetings because Lamplighter told Hughie it was where Starlight was being held. Then, standing in front of marble statues of The Seven (sans Lamplighter), he shows his true intentions and self-immolates. As he burns before Hughie’s eyes, the sprinklers and emergency lights turn on, allowing Starlight to boost her powers enough to escape. Hughie, however has to use Lamplighter’s hand scan to open doors so he breaks a whiskey bottle and cuts Lamplighter’s hand off his dead body.
Starlight is attacked by Black Noir and he’s about to kill her when Maeve shows up to save the day. She puts him in a choke hold and shoves an Almond Joy down his throat. Black Noir’s one weakness is a nut allergy! That’s amazing. The Boys really explores taking the piss out of everything ‘Super.’ Hughie finds Annie’s mom, Donna in a cell instead of Annie but they run into her on the way out. Hughie has Lamplighter’s charred, bloody hand the whole time.
Back at Becca’s house, Ryan starts to shout at her. Homelander flew Ryan up high enough to see the house is surrounded by a compound at that everything he knew was “fake.” She tries to explain but Homelander encourages Ryan’s anger. Homelander says, “maybe he just needs some space” followed by Stormfront saying, “don’t worry he’ll still have a mother” and they fly away leaving Becca screaming on her porch.
Mallory tells Butcher they lost their star witness in the lawsuit against Vought burnt to death. Butcher tells her not to worry because Vogelbaum’s going to testify. He then meets his mom where she apologizes but she just wanted to bring Butcher and his father together. They hug and it’s a heartbreaking moment between mother and son.
The Deep and A-Train are watching Eagle The Archer on a news broadcast where he says he told the Church’s leader he didn’t want to cut his mom out of his life so the Church leaked videos of Eagle and his partner sexually roleplaying a hunter and a deer. After The Deep says “fuck him” about his former friend, they switch the channel to the impending court hearing.
At the court hearing, Congresswoman Neuman calls Vogelbaum to the stand to prove that Vought has committed multiple felonies and corporate malfeasance. Right as he takes the oath and is about to start speaking, someone’s head explodes right next the Congresswoman. Then, another. And another. Dozens of heads start popping and spraying blood and brains over the entire courtroom as everyone starts screaming and looking around confused. Homelander looks puzzled but not worried. Mallory grabs the shocked congresswoman and they run out. Broadcast on live tv, The Deep, A-Train and The Boys crew all see the massacre unfold onscreen. Hughie asks, “what do we do now?” The camera dollies in towards Butcher’s scowling face.
This has been such a great season so far and with only one episode left, I really hope the already announced season 3 can hold water with its predecessor. A college-aged spinoff series was also just confirmed to be in the works so I hope we don’t start pushing into Boys fatigue areas because college-aged humor and Vought corporate evils is kind of already the focus of this series. Regardless, the writing in this episode was excellent and made up for the lack of action; especially that opening sequence. From a show I expected to be ‘Blood, Sex and Booze,’ we’re getting plenty of ‘American Idiot.’ Those are Green Day references.