Spoilers ahead.
Last week, Amazon debuted the first three episodes of their smash hit comic book series The Boys’ second season. The response to Kripke’s second stab at reflecting superheroes through a brutally violent, darkly comedic and grossly-realistic lens was overwhelmingly positive yet again. For viewers familiar with what to expect from the show after its thought-provoking freshman year, this should have come as no surprise. What is slightly surprising however, is that a show containing exploding heads, impaled sea creatures, merciless slaughter and talking gills, still found a way to pull the rug from under audiences in the most vile manner. Of course, this is in reference to the jaw-dropping reveal that Stormfront is, in fact, racist.
The reveal came at the conclusion to the third episode, shortly before she brutally executes Kimiko’s brother. This moment is an excellent example of The Boys doing what it does best, which is exploiting the viewers expectation. The show has always enjoyed rolling around in the dirt of the grey area between good and evil in all of its characters. But, its real superpower has always been its ability to peel back the layers of its ‘heroes’ further and further, until we see something truly ugly. The inherent guilt of rooting for a likeable, straight-talking, confident character, that is then revealed to be something much more sinister, is a wonderful reflection of both the characters within the show and also our own world of false-prophet celebrity culture.
The ramifications of Stormfront’s true nature run through episode four heavily, and is beginning to form the backbone of what is looking like this seasons core narrative arc. This backbone is of course the threat that Stormfront poses to Homelander. As a seemingly unstoppable Superman-level being, the star-spangled leader of the seven has never met a physical equal. His fragile ego, unstable emotional state, and overall reputation is his clear weakness, and the cracks are now certainly beginning to show. How grateful Antony Starr must be that he didn’t pass on the role of Homelander as he initially intended. The material he has been receiving lately is a dream for any actor, and he absolutely delivers on its twisted glory every time.
This episode also further develops some of the relationships that have been moved slightly more into the background lately. Billy finally gets his reunion with his long-lost wife Becca, which yields both beautiful and heartbreaking results. In typical Boys-fashion, it was always safe to assume that this wasn’t going to be the happy ending we were all hoping for from the get-go. It will be interesting to see how the inclusion of Becca and Homelander’s son will affect Billy going forward. After all, we cant seriously believe that after years of searching for her, his hatred of supes will let him stop them being together. If so, it would be a seemingly huge betrayal to the character.
Hughie and Annie also explore their unresolved feelings for one another, but once again are left in the same place they started by the end. This reflects the clear problem with Amazon’s weekly episode roll-out strategy this year. It undoubtedly makes good business sense to keep buzz around one of their biggest shows, and maintain subscribers, for six weeks rather than two. However, with the sheer amount of characters and storylines it has now built up, it’s difficult to judge the bigger picture of everyone’s arcs, without binging it in a more compressed amount of time. This slow build can be frustrating, but you can’t argue that it always leaves us wanting more. Now, with Homelander and Stormfront on a collision course, it makes us wonder how much longer before the former’s entire world comes crumbling down. With his unravelling becoming more and more apparent, it can’t be long before his reputation is the next thing to break down, and the world finally sees their saviour for who he truly is.
The Boys, season two episode four
Summary
The Boys episode 4 is available on Amazon Prime Video Friday 11th September.
