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Review: The Boys Season 1 (2019)
This was great, I really enjoyed this first season of the Boys. Non stop moving plot with some interesting and relevant themes. I will definitely be watching the next season.
Spoilers.
Story
The story was set in a universe where superheroes are real, and managed by a company called Vought. Vought basically handled them like celebrities, designating them to certain areas for jobs, and controlling their public image.
Hughie’s girlfriend Robin was killed by a hero named A-Train. Butcher took advantage of Hughie’s grief to help Butcher in his own vengeance against the superheroes. Butcher’s wife was raped and killed by Homelander and he wanted revenge. He recruited MM and Frenchie, picking up Kimiko along the way.
Starlight was recruited into the highest class of superheroes called the Seven, and was met with much shock, from being sexually assaulted on her first day, to her image being tightly controlled. She met Hughie and they later started dating. Hughie was urged by Butcher to continue his relationship with Starlight for the sake of gathering intel on Vought, but he did fall in love with her. They did have a fall out in which she found out about his secret, but after listening to his reasoning, she decided to help. More on this later.
There was another story line following Madelyn Stillwell, an upper executive at Vought who was very cutthroat. She also had a complex relationship with Homelander, who was her main account (she was personally responsible for managing him). They had a sexual/romantic relationship but with a maternal twist, and we later found out that due to being raised in a facility, Homelander had no concept of family and probably longed for it. Stillwell would broker deals with politicians and such, as her next goal was having the superheroes as part of the US’s armed forces. The CIA originally had managed to get Stillwell to retract a bill, as they had found out that Vought was artificially creating heroes by pumping babies full of drugs called Compound V. This was the reason why Hughie wanted to continue investigating Vought, and that was part of why Starlight later returned to help him. But shortly afterwards, a terrorist in Syria was found with superpowers, which brought Vought back into relevancy again, since there was a real threat that only they could control. It was later revealed that Homelander was responsible for the operation where Compound V was pumped into adults, including both the terrorist, and Kimiko.
We also learned more about Becca Butcher. She was raped by Homelander and then disappeared, presumed dead. It was revealed that Becca had conceived of a baby. Both Vogelbaum, a former Vought scientist, and Stillwell told Homelander that the baby had died. However, their stories didn’t match up so Homelander got the truth. Butcher tried to hurt Homelander by taking Stillwell hostage. However, Homelander was done with Stillwell’s lies and killed her. Nonetheless, Butcher set off a bomb. Homelander took him to a home where Becca and their son lived. So we were left with the discovery that Becca was alive with another man’s child, and that superheroes could have children and give their superpowers to their children, which kind of negates the need for Compound V.
I appreciated that the plot moved fast. Every episode, something happened. There wasn’t a lot of mulling about. I also enjoyed this show’s exploration of themes, in vigilantism and celebrity.
Production
The production was decent. At the beginning, I thought some of the hero characters had corny character designs. Homelander was clearly a Superman counterpart, Queen Maeve was a Wonder Woman counterpart, A-Train was a Flash counterpart, etc. But as we learned about the characters more, they definitely felt more like themselves than wannabes, especially with their flaws. The acting was good, especially from Karl Urban as Butcher. I thought he was the most charismatic character.
Characters
Homelander
I would almost label Homelander as the main character of the series. He is the Superman but not only does he stand for the paragon of what heroes should be, he also stands for the worst of what heroes could become. He was selfish and self-important about his image most of all.
We were told that there was no file on Homelander at all, and that was because he basically did not participate in society as a child. While all heroes were pumped with Compound V as children, he lived in a facility with no parents, while other heroes did live in society with their families. The most human interaction he had was with scientists playing peekaboo through windows of his cell.
As a result, we see him yearning for familial relationships in his personal relationships. We don’t know too much about his relationship with Queen Maeve, but in this season, front and center was his relationship with Stillwell. Right from the beginning, he was a bit weird about Stillwell being a mother (she had a young baby son). He seemed attracted to the fact that she was a mother, and almost a bit jealous of Teddy getting Stillwell’s attention and affection. We did also see that they had a romantic and sexual relationship. It was implied, but shown in the final episode when they had sex. But still, their relationship had a maternal twist to it, with Stillwell acting very maternal. However, being as how Homelander was selfish and self-important, he found it unforgivable that Vogelbaum and Stillwell lied to him about his child, and he ultimately killed her with no hesitation. So he’d gotten over his relationship with Stillwell. Meanwhile at the end of the season, we see him wanting to have a relationship with his son, showing that he’s turned from being the child in the relationship to the parent. But ultimately still seeking a familial relationship.
There was also the story line with the plane crash. Queen Maeve and Homelander were sent to save the plane from terrorists. However, in the scuffle, not only were the hijackers killed, but the pilots were also killed and the flight equipment destroyed. This meant that landing the plane would be really difficult. Homelander decided to let the plane crash so that there would be no witnesses to his carelessness. Queen Maeve urged Homelander to at least take the children, but he refused, and everyone on the plane crash died. It showed that Homelander did not care about human lives at all, he just wanted the glory of being a hero.
This is also relevant to Homelander being a Christian figurehead. He showed up to the Believe Expo, a religious expo relating to superheroes. He was an ordained minister and was at the Expo baptizing people. I believe that Homelander wanted to become God or Jesus himself, and he would use his powers to instill fear if not respect and awe into the common people.
When he was going to the Middle East to take down the supe terrorist, he kept insisting to the American soldiers that they were the real heroes. This was meaningless as they were standing back and Homelander was going in. But it goes on to show that Homelander didn’t really mean anything he said. He said things because he thought they would make him popular and altruistic.
Homelander was a fascinating character. He really is the worst case Superman. What if Clark Kent was not the midwestern nice boy he was raised to be? What if Superman wanted to use his powers for evil? Homelander at this point still wanted to portray himself as a hero of the people. But what if he decided he was done with that image and decided to rule with terror?
I know his story will become complicated in the next season as he tries to have a relationship with his son. It wouldn’t surprise me if his son took a liking to him. His on did react when Homelander told him he was his dad, and which kid wouldn’t want such a cool hero as their dad? But we know Butcher will have none of it, and Becca will likely be stuck in the middle, just wanting the best for her child. But Homelander now has no other personal connections; Stillwell is dead. He had hung his hope onto being normal through her. She could somewhat keep him in line taking the authoritative role in the relationship but he’s done with that now and he’s taking control of his own narrative. Fascinating villain character.
Queen Maeve
Queen Maeve was the Wonder Woman stand in in this season but she didn’t have a big role plot wise. Unlike Homelander, she was a little weaker to Vought and did whatever they told her to do. She used to date Homelander but it seemed like it was very casual.
Maeve was slightly more sympathetic than Homelander was, genuinely feeling guilty for the plane crash. Didn’t excuse the fact that she still let it happen, though understandably she was probably afraid of Homelander going after her if she did save anyone.
We learned that Maeve had an ex-girlfriend who was a normal common person. However they seemed to have broken up due to both Maeve’s alcoholism and her prioritizing her job as a hero.
Maeve also played a role in Starlight’s story, reflecting themes of women in the workplace. Starlight was understandably upset after being sexually assaulted by the Deep on her first day of work. The only advice Maeve had to offer was to not let others see her weak like that. When Homelander accused Starlight of being a rate, Maeve defended her, saying that she was just stupid for falling in love with Hughie. Towards the end of the season, Maeve admitted that she used to be optimistic and bright-eyed like Starlight, but got that stripped away from her. But she appreciated Starlight for sticking to her guns and being the altruistic hero that Maeve used to want to be. Maeve urged Starlight not to lose who she was. Maeve was only bringing her down because she’d lost hope for herself, but she had hope for Starlight.
Maeve had a small role but I suspect her relationship will come back as a theme in the next season.
A-Train
A-Train was this universe’s equivalent of the Flash. He had killed Robin while high on Compound V, because he was busy trafficking the drug (on Homelander’s orders). Thus, Hughie grew a grudge against A-Train. A-Train was very arrogant and we saw that he made everything about himself.
He had a girlfriend Popclaw who was also a hero but not as successful as him. She knew about his Compound V habit. She was also often wanting A-Train to go public with their relationship but A-Train commonly refused. He made excuses, but I think the truth was that he thought appearing single made him seem more attractive for ads and such.
There was a subplot about A-Train participating in a race with another hero for the title of fastest man alive. He ended up winning, but it was probably because he’d used Compound V. When information about Compound V came out, A-Train confronted Popclaw who only told him part of the truth, including revealing the people she thought was behind the infiltration (the Boys). A-Train took Popclaw into hiding but eventually killed her.
A-Train had tried to take Hughie’s dad hostage to get to Hugh. Hughie used Compound V to try to trade for his dad’s life. In the end, Kimiko came to the rescue and injured A-Train so that Hughie could run away. When A-Train was recovering, he was on crutches. He felt very offended when he was followed by a security guard at a store. The security guard only left him alone when others pointed out that he was A-Train, but he was already quite angry and lashed out at the onlookers. Later we saw that he was back to training, likely having taken Compound V to heal his leg.
A-Train had a brother who was his trainer. He didn’t play too big a role, but he did not approve of A-Train’s Compound V habit. They did argue at the end of the season about his use, and it resulted in his brother running off.
At the end of the season, A-Train found Starlight and Hughie. He got into a fight with Starlight and won. However, A-Train was too hopped up on drugs and suffered a heart attack. Hughie decided to help A-Train so Starlight called for help and then told Hughie to leave so he wouldn’t get caught.
A-Train was also an arrogant hero, but not in the way that Homelander was. Homelander wanted power, but A-Train just wanted popularity and fame. But due to his arrogant personality, he never took responsibility for everything. He never considered the risks of anything. He took Compound V because it made him strong right now. He kept Popclaw a secret because he wanted to both have her and also appear an eligible bachelor.
It looks like A-Train will live, but we shall see whether or not his relationship with Hughie changes. Probably not, since A-Train is so self important. He probably won’t consider that Hughie saved him, and will continue blaming him for all the bad that he’s done, including A-Train’s own decision to kill Popclaw.
The Deep
The Deep was the Aquaman stand in in this show. In the first episode, he sexually assaulted Starlight, implying that she had to do it to keep her spot in the Seven because he was second-in-command after Homelander. Starlight gave in and felt awful about it. Later in the show, Deep and Starlight were paired for a mission and she confronted him, saying that he was not as powerful as he had misled her to believe and that he was just the diversity hire since his powers were not as useful as the other heroes’. At the time, Starlight had basically told him to keep one eye open because she wasn’t going to take his shit anymore.
In the season, Deep would drop lines about how he wasn’t respected as the fish guy. Ironic, considering how he didn’t respect women in the workplace. I believe one of these lines came during his mission with Starlight which of course was infuriating but he was so self-unaware.
There was a subplot about Deep trying to save the animals from the local waterpark but was unsuccessful and also he was technically committing a crime so it didn’t look too great. Deep trying to save captive aquatic animals would be a recurring theme, probably the only thing he was sincerely committed to.
Starlight later revealed that she was sexually assaulted at Believe Expo. Though she didn’t reveal the name, Stillwell apparently already knew that it was Deep who had sexually assaulted her. Stillwell had Deep do a video apology and then put him on sabbatical, moving him to a small city in Ohio that barely had any crime.
There was a scene in which Deep hooked up with a fan. She was obsessed with how weird his gills looked and then forcefully fingered Deep despite him saying no. That scene was obviously meant to mirror his sexual assault of Starlight. Not sure if that made him reflect though.
When the news of the terrorist superhero came out, Deep thought that he’d be recalled to the Seven to step up, but he wasn’t and he was quite upset about it. Going so far as to shaving his head, perhaps implying that he would have a new start, though whether that was for the better or the worse is yet to be seen.
Deep, like Queen Maeve, were more props for Starlight’s story in the first season. However, even if his story were to be expanded, it would focus more on workplace discrimination than vigilantism. Not that that’s a bad thing, but his story would be more of a human one in my opinion. He’s still an asshole, but we’re to see whether he will learn the wrong of his ways.
Translucent
Translucent was one of the heroes of the Seven. His skill was that he could become invisible, due to the chemical makeup of his skin causing a kind of optical illusion. He had a habit of hiding in the washroom to spy on ladies. However, in one such occasion, he had caught Hughie with his listening chip that he was going to plant in the meeting room at Vought. He tracked down Hughie and Butcher, only to be captured by them. Butcher later recruited Frenchie. The three of them were finding ways to kill him since he’d seen their faces. Eventually, they planted a bomb inside Translucent as a way to threaten him.
Translucent was an arrogant hero, which seems to be a theme here. Whenever he fought Butcher and Hughie, he would repeat again and again that he was one of the Seven, implying that they were greater and better. This is a bit at odds with one of his pieces later on when he told Hughie that his job was to watch people and understand them, something more nuanced than his aggressive and arrogant self would say.
Hughie had sometimes tried to extend an olive branch to Translucent. At one point, Translucent was going to escape and he asked Hughie to let him go. However, at the last minute, Hughie decided to detonate the bomb and kill Translucent. The Boys then buried his remains in the sea to delay the time that Vought would learn of his death.
Black Noir
I’m just including Black Noir for completeness. He was barely in season 1 as a character but he was part of the Seven. He was mostly in the show for a couple of comedic relief scenes. He was silent and barely communicated. He feels a bit like a Batman stand in except Batman was far more of a leader so maybe not. In any case, Black Noir has lots of potential to be expanded in the future since his personality was essentially a blank slate.
Starlight
Starlight was our pov character entering the Seven. She grew up wanting to be a hero, encouraged by her mother who took her to all the hero pageants. She was also a Christian and attended Believe Expo regularly. Starlight was optimistic and bright-eyed, wanting to be a hero who saved people. Starlight had several story lines going for her, including one about workplace discrimination, one about vigilantism, and one of her personal relationship with Hughie.
Starlight’s first shock was her first day at the Seven when she was sexually assaulted by the Deep. She later found out he’d been lying but the damage was done. However, Starlight continued to be controlled by Vought to an uncomfortable extent. She had saved a girl from being raped, only to be chastised by Vought because they had no evidence of the potential crime and it could have gotten Starlight in legal trouble. They only let her go because the girl had reached out and confirmed the situation. The next instance of Vought pushing Starlight in an uncomfortable direction was when they changed her outfit into something more revealing. Starlight was uncomfortable and we saw that yielded predictable results; men began sexualizing her immediately and it was discouraging because Starlight wanted to be a role model to young girls.
At Believe Expo, Starlight got into a fight with her mom because she wasn’t feeling well enough to go on stage but her mom pushed her to. Basically, Starlight was shocked that some of the Christian messaging at Believe Expo was so extreme. Starlight had had enough and revealed that she didn’t know if she believed with that messaging, and also revealed that she was sexually assaulted, which led to an outpouring of support.
Stillwell tried to intimidate her into becoming more subservient, but Starlight used the public support she had as leverage to push back. She wanted her old costume back, she didn’t want to be quiet and just take it. And if Vought pushed too hard, Starlight would reveal the workplace discrimination and that would threaten Vought’s stocks.
Starlight and Hughie began a relationship in this season. Starlight knew nothing of Hughie’s conflicting intentions. To her, he was just a nice guy who she met at the right time. It was a huge shock to her when Hughie was revealed to be going against the Seven. She was understandably angry at him and Hughie tried to tell her about Compound V, only to be interrupted by Butcher showing up with a GUN. Nonetheless, the knowledge of Compound V had Starlight thinking about being a hero. Her mom had instilled in her that she was chosen by God, but she now knew it wasn’t true. It was revealed that Vought would cover medical bills in return for their babies as test subjects and her mom was so desperate to have a magical child that she agreed. It appears that Starlight’s father left the familiy because they disagreed part way through about Starlight becoming a superhero.
I think that saga made Starlight think that since she had these powers, she was responsible for helping others, and that was why she decided to return and help Hughie. They didn’t get a chance to talk, but I think we can assume that they’re back on the same side.
Starlight tried to fight A-Train but lost. However, A-Train suffered a heart attack and so Starlight called for help, urging Hughie to run away so that he’d be safe, and perhaps also so that he could continue investigating Compound V.
Starlight was a compelling character and I appreciated that she didn’t lose her spirit. We already have an idea of what that looks like, and that’s Queen Maeve. I’m looking forward to seeing how Starlight continues to stand up for herself and what’s right.
Popclaw
Popclaw was a hero who had turned to acting. She was A-Train’s girlfriend and she knew about his Compound V habit. Initially, the Boys had kept tabs on Popclaw to get to A-Train, but they soon found out that she knew about the Compound V.
While Popclaw and A-Train were in love, she was a bit resentful of the fact that he would never go public with her. One day, out of spite, she took Compound V and slept with her landlord, but due to the Compound V exacerbating her aggressiveness, she killed him. The Boys then used the video footage to threaten her into giving them more information. So she revealed some information about A-Train’s drug route.
Later, A-Train confronted her. Popclaw admitted to telling them some information, but she revealed descriptions of the Boys that later helped Homelander hunt them down. A-Train took Popclaw to another location to hide. He had also told her at some point that they could go public if she just told him the truth. I don’t remember if this was before or after he took her away, but it was pretty manipulative. In the end, A-Train killed Popclaw, probably asked by Homelander to take care of things.
A-Train continued to blame others for Popclaw’s death. He insisted to Hughie that Popclaw was the best thing that happened to him and that it was Hughie’s fault that she died. But we know that she died because A-Train valued his fame and position as the fastest man alive than Popclaw. After all, he kept her as his secret, never considering her feelings.
Mesmer
Mesmer was a hero who could read people’s minds. He had been a child star with a TV series and as an adult he continued to milk the series for money. The Boys wanted to use him to get information out of Kimiko. They did that by getting him time with his daughter whom he didn’t have custody over. He did read Kimiko’s mind, but he later turned in the Boys to Homelander. The Butcher eventually tracked down Mesmer and killed him.
Madelyn Stillwell
Stillwell was an upper executive at Vought. I believe she was a VP of some sort. She was what you would expect of a cutthroat politician. Her one big goal for this season was to have superheroes part of the American military. This would make Vought the prime contractor to the government as only they managed superheroes. It’s a bit telling that Homelander’s name is even Homelander, like Homeland Security.
Stillwell had another story line about her relationship with Homelander. In the first episode, Stillwell was pumping breastmilk as she had recently had a baby (Teddy) and Homelander was oddly a bit mesmerized. We later found out that Homelander was her main account and that they also had a personal relationship. It seemed romantic and sexual but also maternal and as we said before it was likely due to Homelander’s lack of familial relationships in his early years that he yearned for one, and Stillwell took advantage of that parent/child relationship to control him. I think Homelander felt that Stillwell was a girlboss single mom wannabe, but I think it was the jealousy talking. I think he was jealous that Teddy held Stillwell’s attention like no one else could.
Stillwell and Homelander’s power struggle was interesting because he could so easily crush her and yet she held power over him. How? Because Stillwell had power (and money), which was what Homelander wanted. He wanted the good public opinion and he would not gain that if he simply killed his way out.
Stillwell was in a bit of a pickle due to the CIA finding out about Compound V, and was only saved by the terrorist superheroes, which was created by Homelander. They had sex afterwards and we thought all was good, until Stillwell mentioned that his baby had died through miscarriage, which didn’t line up with Vogelbaum’s story about his child having been born and only having survived 10 seconds.
Butcher tried to use Stillwell to hurt Homelander but by then Homelander had already thought things through and felt that he couldn’t trust Stillwell. She lied to him. But also, he could manufacture his own goodwill, just in the way that he could manufacture his own villains to kill. So he didn’t need her anymore and he killed her. I was honestly a bit surprised by her death but I don’t protest it. It did make sense in the context of the story. Homelander doesn’t hesitate to kill. He doesn’t love the same way we love so he didn’t really love Stillwell that way that’s recognizable to us. What’s going to happen to Teddy? I wonder if someone will adopt him. Will it be Homelander? Butcher? We shall see. Maybe he won’t even be important lol.
Vogelbaum
Vogelbaum was a Vought scientist who’d worked on injecting babies with Compound V. I think he was the closest to a father figure that Homelander had. He called Homelander “John.” Vogelbaum was a scientist and even in retirement he worked on breeding dogs. He said that he didn’t like getting too close to his subjects and we saw that in Homelander’s childhood flashbacks, particularly the one of scientists playing peekaboo with him through his cell window while he clutched his blanket.
Homelander first approached him to ask about his baby and as mentioned, Vogelbaum said that the baby had died shortly after birth, killing Becca Butcher as well. At the time, I remember Homelander having asked if the child was a boy and Vogelbaum asking why it mattered. I wondered if Homelander wanted a mini-me. Anyway, Homelander later squeezed the truth from Vogelbaum, that the child was alive and well.
Susan Raynor
Raynor was Butcher’s CIA contact. He constantly tried to get her help but she did have her hands tied as someone working for the government. She was finally able to move when the Boys got Compound V. She was able to force Stillwell to retract her bill on getting superheroes in the armed forces. However, the plan was shredded with the news of the terrorist superheroes. She told Butcher and the Boys that they had to go into hiding.
Hughie Campbell
Hughie was another pov character from the perspective of the radical anti-superhero crew, particularly Butcher. His girlfriend was killed by A-Train. He wanted some kind of justice, wanting to build a case, and so he had refused hush money from Vought. Later, Butcher recruited him, posing as a member of a government agency, only to be tricked.
Nonetheless, Hughie agreed as he wanted to help. He accepted the hush money, only with the condition that he wanted an apology from A-Train. Hughie also took the opportunity to plant a listening bug in the Vought conference room, only for it to be intercepted by Translucent, which led to Hughie and Butcher having to handle Translucent and all that came after it.
Hughie first met Starlight on a park bench, when she had called her mom after being sexually assaulted. Hughie could see she was upset so he tried to comfort her. They bumped into each other again at an event where he recognized her as Starlight and not as Annie and from then on they started going out on dates. He did like Starlight, but Butcher was also urging him to gather intel on the supes from her.
Eventually, Hughie did feel guilty about lying to Starlight and wanted to break things off from the Boys, but Starlight found out from Homelander first. It did cause a rift. All Hughie could do was explain his grief over Robin, and then get into Compound V. Before he could get too far, Butcher showed up and shot Starlight, as he hated all superheroes.
The next time Hughie and Starlight met, he asked her for help in saving MM, Frenchie, and Kimiko. He said that he was hoping Starlight would help because she’s a superhero and superheroes help people. It angered her at first but she did come and help, showing that Hughie remained a positive influence to Starlight.
Hughie himself was a sort of clumsy and awkward but well meaning guy. He was comedic relief at times. He wasn’t a cardboard cut out every man though, he did have opinions and values. After he killed Translucent, he was processing his thoughts about it. And while his decision to save A-Train was very altruistic, that kind of sets the tone for his character. Both he and Starlight are altruistic, just that he’s a human and Starlight is a supe.
Billy Butcher
Butcher had a vendetta against Homelander. 8 years ago, his wife was raped by Homelander and she disappeared. While his wife’s sister believed her to be dead, Butcher had hope.
He recruited Hughie to help him get into Vought. He later recruited Frenchie and MM to help him with the rest of the operation. The thing about Butcher is that at the end of the day, he was always using these guys for his own goals, which was to get to Homelander. Yes, he did believe all supes were bad, but that was secondary to his goal of killing and hurting Homelander. He’s not a good person but he’s a compelling character because he is so consistent.
When MM, Frenchie, and Kimiko were captured, Hughie wanted to save them but Butcher needed to take advantage of the time he had to get to Homelander before Hughie and Butcher were caught by whichever authorities had captured them. So Butcher went to Stillwell’s house to try to hold her hostage. That didn’t work and Homelander killed Stillwell. Nonetheless, Butcher detonated the bomb to try to hurt Homelander anyway. Homelander obviously survived and took Butcher to a house where it turns out Becca and her child lived. The show ended with Becca and Butcher in shock.
As I said, Butcher was consistent. I think in the next season, he’ll continue to try to get revenge on Homelander, at least for raping Becca. But I wonder how Butcher will feel about the child. The child is a supe and he hates supes, but he’s also Becca’s child. No matter what happens, I know he and Becca will come to an argument about the boy.
Frenchie
Frenchie is an expert of some sort. Something to do with the stealth arts I suppose. Butcher first sought him out to find a solution to get rid of Translucent. It was his idea to plant a bomb inside Translucent, since his exterior was invincible but his insides were just the same as anyone else.
Over the season, Frenchie grew a fondness for Kimiko, a violent super they had found locked up. Perhaps it was due to his gentle nature towards her, Kimiko did become more receptive to Frenchie. She would respond to him, and he was able to calm her down. And he always came back for her.
He was shot in the end but he managed to survive and escape.
Marvin/Mother’s Milk/MM
MM was another expert. I don’t remember why he was recruited. He normally worked in a detention center for kids and he himself had a wife and a daughter. He was initially keeping his work with Butcher secret, but the cat was out of the bag once his family was in danger. His wife was furious with him, but at least they’d be in a safe place (sheltered by Raynor).
MM and Frenchie had an ongoing antagonistic relationship. They were always fighting and honestly it was pretty funny. But of course when push came to shove, they would work together to survive.
Kimiko
Kimiko was a mute woman that the Boys had found. She appeared to have superpowers, and they thus deduced that she was injected with Compound V. She was somewhat feral, she was afraid but powerful so the guys other than Frenchie were a bit anxious around her. At one point she had protected Frenchie, suffering heavy injuries, but her injuries healed quickly, so presumably one of her superpowers was super healing.
Through Mesmer, she revealed that she was captured and injected with Compound V as an adult. Towards the end of the show, I think she had basically regained her sense of self. She was no longer so skittish around the guys and she was receptive whenever they talked to her, only that she herself was still mute. She tried to talk but was unsuccessful.
She was captured but MM saved her and she escaped.
Grace Mallory
Mallory was mysterious figure. Years ago, she was the person to have revealed to Butcher information about his wife’s rape. Years later, Butcher asked her for help only for her to decline. She said that her grandchildren had died and that stopped her from wanting to hurt anymore. She told Butcher about Stillwell and Homelander’s relationship but as Hughie and Butcher parted, she told Hughie to not let his hate fester.
Themes
Corporatization of justice
I enjoyed that this show really delved into the risks of superheroes going mainstream. They covered so much ground.
Vought was basically a private army. What makes them different from arms companies? Even Stillwell said that Vought could do what Lockheed Martin could not. But how dangerous is that, that a private company could have this level of firepower. It’s a surprise the government didn’t try to regular them earlier, but perhaps Vought brought in too much money.
On the surface, Vought did good. The superheroes saved the common civilians from crime. However, we saw that a lot of the crime was not handled as cleanly as we might have thought. Deep and Starlight were sent on a mission because Vought expected crime to happen. Did Vought create that crime? Did they create that situation for their heroes to look heroic? And by the end of the season, we see that Homelander is literally creating villains to sustain the superhero race.
The heroes of Vought acted more like celebrities than heroes with their concerns about image and fame. Homelander and A-Train were prime examples, doing so many public appearances. Starlight was chastised by Vought because though she had saved the girl, she was exposing herself to lawsuits because she hadn’t thought about the optics of how things looked. Her mom was a perfect example of a pageant mom who lived vicariously through her daughter. Homelander didn’t want to save the people on the plane because then they’d be a testament to his clumsiness. A-Train was also obsessed with his image and he didn’t even realize that that was why he did the things that he did.
There was also an immense cult of personality surrounding superheroes. People were supposed to accept that they could all do no wrong. There was the support group for people who had been hurt by superheroes. The underlying message was that the victims had to accept themselves as collateral damage of a superhero trying to do good. Only Butcher refused this line of thinking, believing that people had the right to feel rage at being hurt by superheroes who were irresponsible with their power.
The political struggle between Stillwell and Homelander was interesting. Like I said, Homelander could easily kill Stillwell, so why didn’t he? Why did he let her control her? This leads to the theory that true power is in politics and money. Stillwell had power in the way that he didn’t. But by the end of the season, I think Homelander realized that he could leverage his power to overcome Stillwell’s human power. He could ascend to godhood with his powers.
Hypocrisy
Since superheroes were supposed to be perfect and saintly, it resulted in a lot of vices being swept under the rug. Homelander had raped a woman, killed with no remorse, had no love for the common people. Maeve was an alcoholic. A-Team had a drug habit and had also killed carelessly. Deep and Translucent did sexually inappropriate things.
On the other hand, the Boys don’t hide their bad sides and they feel more virtuous because of it. We know Butcher isn’t a good person. He kills, he uses people. But we at least know that his intentions are sincere. He wants to hurt and kill Homelander because he hates him so much. Whereas we do question Homelander’s intentions whenever he does anything.
Feminism and workplace harassment
I was a surprised that this was such a big theme in the show but I don’t dislike it. This hit us very soon into the first episode, with the Deep sexually assaulting Starlight. He took advantage of the fact that she didn’t know the Seven very well. The Deep was on the receiving end of such assault when in Ohio and the fan forced Deep to sit still while she pleasured herself to his pain.
Starlight was sexualized by Vought, including the marketing guys designing a new costume for Starlight that was more revealing. Their only defense for it was that it was empowering, which grinds my gears because it’s so true. So many marketing tactics that apply to sex appeal are being rebranded as empowering because apparently the people are doing it of their own volition and that’s what makes it empowering. Except people like Starlight definitely did not want to wear those revealing clothes so it’s the opposite of empowering.
The only hope we have is that Starlight hasn’t seemed to have her spirit broken. Despite Maeve being a little tiring and negative, she encouraged Starlight to be true to herself and her altruistic goals, because that’s the only way we can strive to be the best versions of ourselves.
Overall
Really interesting show that covered a lot of different topics. Looking forward to watching season two!
Spoilers.
Story
The story was set in a universe where superheroes are real, and managed by a company called Vought. Vought basically handled them like celebrities, designating them to certain areas for jobs, and controlling their public image.
Hughie’s girlfriend Robin was killed by a hero named A-Train. Butcher took advantage of Hughie’s grief to help Butcher in his own vengeance against the superheroes. Butcher’s wife was raped and killed by Homelander and he wanted revenge. He recruited MM and Frenchie, picking up Kimiko along the way.
Starlight was recruited into the highest class of superheroes called the Seven, and was met with much shock, from being sexually assaulted on her first day, to her image being tightly controlled. She met Hughie and they later started dating. Hughie was urged by Butcher to continue his relationship with Starlight for the sake of gathering intel on Vought, but he did fall in love with her. They did have a fall out in which she found out about his secret, but after listening to his reasoning, she decided to help. More on this later.
There was another story line following Madelyn Stillwell, an upper executive at Vought who was very cutthroat. She also had a complex relationship with Homelander, who was her main account (she was personally responsible for managing him). They had a sexual/romantic relationship but with a maternal twist, and we later found out that due to being raised in a facility, Homelander had no concept of family and probably longed for it. Stillwell would broker deals with politicians and such, as her next goal was having the superheroes as part of the US’s armed forces. The CIA originally had managed to get Stillwell to retract a bill, as they had found out that Vought was artificially creating heroes by pumping babies full of drugs called Compound V. This was the reason why Hughie wanted to continue investigating Vought, and that was part of why Starlight later returned to help him. But shortly afterwards, a terrorist in Syria was found with superpowers, which brought Vought back into relevancy again, since there was a real threat that only they could control. It was later revealed that Homelander was responsible for the operation where Compound V was pumped into adults, including both the terrorist, and Kimiko.
We also learned more about Becca Butcher. She was raped by Homelander and then disappeared, presumed dead. It was revealed that Becca had conceived of a baby. Both Vogelbaum, a former Vought scientist, and Stillwell told Homelander that the baby had died. However, their stories didn’t match up so Homelander got the truth. Butcher tried to hurt Homelander by taking Stillwell hostage. However, Homelander was done with Stillwell’s lies and killed her. Nonetheless, Butcher set off a bomb. Homelander took him to a home where Becca and their son lived. So we were left with the discovery that Becca was alive with another man’s child, and that superheroes could have children and give their superpowers to their children, which kind of negates the need for Compound V.
I appreciated that the plot moved fast. Every episode, something happened. There wasn’t a lot of mulling about. I also enjoyed this show’s exploration of themes, in vigilantism and celebrity.
Production
The production was decent. At the beginning, I thought some of the hero characters had corny character designs. Homelander was clearly a Superman counterpart, Queen Maeve was a Wonder Woman counterpart, A-Train was a Flash counterpart, etc. But as we learned about the characters more, they definitely felt more like themselves than wannabes, especially with their flaws. The acting was good, especially from Karl Urban as Butcher. I thought he was the most charismatic character.
Characters
Homelander
I would almost label Homelander as the main character of the series. He is the Superman but not only does he stand for the paragon of what heroes should be, he also stands for the worst of what heroes could become. He was selfish and self-important about his image most of all.
We were told that there was no file on Homelander at all, and that was because he basically did not participate in society as a child. While all heroes were pumped with Compound V as children, he lived in a facility with no parents, while other heroes did live in society with their families. The most human interaction he had was with scientists playing peekaboo through windows of his cell.
As a result, we see him yearning for familial relationships in his personal relationships. We don’t know too much about his relationship with Queen Maeve, but in this season, front and center was his relationship with Stillwell. Right from the beginning, he was a bit weird about Stillwell being a mother (she had a young baby son). He seemed attracted to the fact that she was a mother, and almost a bit jealous of Teddy getting Stillwell’s attention and affection. We did also see that they had a romantic and sexual relationship. It was implied, but shown in the final episode when they had sex. But still, their relationship had a maternal twist to it, with Stillwell acting very maternal. However, being as how Homelander was selfish and self-important, he found it unforgivable that Vogelbaum and Stillwell lied to him about his child, and he ultimately killed her with no hesitation. So he’d gotten over his relationship with Stillwell. Meanwhile at the end of the season, we see him wanting to have a relationship with his son, showing that he’s turned from being the child in the relationship to the parent. But ultimately still seeking a familial relationship.
There was also the story line with the plane crash. Queen Maeve and Homelander were sent to save the plane from terrorists. However, in the scuffle, not only were the hijackers killed, but the pilots were also killed and the flight equipment destroyed. This meant that landing the plane would be really difficult. Homelander decided to let the plane crash so that there would be no witnesses to his carelessness. Queen Maeve urged Homelander to at least take the children, but he refused, and everyone on the plane crash died. It showed that Homelander did not care about human lives at all, he just wanted the glory of being a hero.
This is also relevant to Homelander being a Christian figurehead. He showed up to the Believe Expo, a religious expo relating to superheroes. He was an ordained minister and was at the Expo baptizing people. I believe that Homelander wanted to become God or Jesus himself, and he would use his powers to instill fear if not respect and awe into the common people.
When he was going to the Middle East to take down the supe terrorist, he kept insisting to the American soldiers that they were the real heroes. This was meaningless as they were standing back and Homelander was going in. But it goes on to show that Homelander didn’t really mean anything he said. He said things because he thought they would make him popular and altruistic.
Homelander was a fascinating character. He really is the worst case Superman. What if Clark Kent was not the midwestern nice boy he was raised to be? What if Superman wanted to use his powers for evil? Homelander at this point still wanted to portray himself as a hero of the people. But what if he decided he was done with that image and decided to rule with terror?
I know his story will become complicated in the next season as he tries to have a relationship with his son. It wouldn’t surprise me if his son took a liking to him. His on did react when Homelander told him he was his dad, and which kid wouldn’t want such a cool hero as their dad? But we know Butcher will have none of it, and Becca will likely be stuck in the middle, just wanting the best for her child. But Homelander now has no other personal connections; Stillwell is dead. He had hung his hope onto being normal through her. She could somewhat keep him in line taking the authoritative role in the relationship but he’s done with that now and he’s taking control of his own narrative. Fascinating villain character.
Queen Maeve
Queen Maeve was the Wonder Woman stand in in this season but she didn’t have a big role plot wise. Unlike Homelander, she was a little weaker to Vought and did whatever they told her to do. She used to date Homelander but it seemed like it was very casual.
Maeve was slightly more sympathetic than Homelander was, genuinely feeling guilty for the plane crash. Didn’t excuse the fact that she still let it happen, though understandably she was probably afraid of Homelander going after her if she did save anyone.
We learned that Maeve had an ex-girlfriend who was a normal common person. However they seemed to have broken up due to both Maeve’s alcoholism and her prioritizing her job as a hero.
Maeve also played a role in Starlight’s story, reflecting themes of women in the workplace. Starlight was understandably upset after being sexually assaulted by the Deep on her first day of work. The only advice Maeve had to offer was to not let others see her weak like that. When Homelander accused Starlight of being a rate, Maeve defended her, saying that she was just stupid for falling in love with Hughie. Towards the end of the season, Maeve admitted that she used to be optimistic and bright-eyed like Starlight, but got that stripped away from her. But she appreciated Starlight for sticking to her guns and being the altruistic hero that Maeve used to want to be. Maeve urged Starlight not to lose who she was. Maeve was only bringing her down because she’d lost hope for herself, but she had hope for Starlight.
Maeve had a small role but I suspect her relationship will come back as a theme in the next season.
A-Train
A-Train was this universe’s equivalent of the Flash. He had killed Robin while high on Compound V, because he was busy trafficking the drug (on Homelander’s orders). Thus, Hughie grew a grudge against A-Train. A-Train was very arrogant and we saw that he made everything about himself.
He had a girlfriend Popclaw who was also a hero but not as successful as him. She knew about his Compound V habit. She was also often wanting A-Train to go public with their relationship but A-Train commonly refused. He made excuses, but I think the truth was that he thought appearing single made him seem more attractive for ads and such.
There was a subplot about A-Train participating in a race with another hero for the title of fastest man alive. He ended up winning, but it was probably because he’d used Compound V. When information about Compound V came out, A-Train confronted Popclaw who only told him part of the truth, including revealing the people she thought was behind the infiltration (the Boys). A-Train took Popclaw into hiding but eventually killed her.
A-Train had tried to take Hughie’s dad hostage to get to Hugh. Hughie used Compound V to try to trade for his dad’s life. In the end, Kimiko came to the rescue and injured A-Train so that Hughie could run away. When A-Train was recovering, he was on crutches. He felt very offended when he was followed by a security guard at a store. The security guard only left him alone when others pointed out that he was A-Train, but he was already quite angry and lashed out at the onlookers. Later we saw that he was back to training, likely having taken Compound V to heal his leg.
A-Train had a brother who was his trainer. He didn’t play too big a role, but he did not approve of A-Train’s Compound V habit. They did argue at the end of the season about his use, and it resulted in his brother running off.
At the end of the season, A-Train found Starlight and Hughie. He got into a fight with Starlight and won. However, A-Train was too hopped up on drugs and suffered a heart attack. Hughie decided to help A-Train so Starlight called for help and then told Hughie to leave so he wouldn’t get caught.
A-Train was also an arrogant hero, but not in the way that Homelander was. Homelander wanted power, but A-Train just wanted popularity and fame. But due to his arrogant personality, he never took responsibility for everything. He never considered the risks of anything. He took Compound V because it made him strong right now. He kept Popclaw a secret because he wanted to both have her and also appear an eligible bachelor.
It looks like A-Train will live, but we shall see whether or not his relationship with Hughie changes. Probably not, since A-Train is so self important. He probably won’t consider that Hughie saved him, and will continue blaming him for all the bad that he’s done, including A-Train’s own decision to kill Popclaw.
The Deep
The Deep was the Aquaman stand in in this show. In the first episode, he sexually assaulted Starlight, implying that she had to do it to keep her spot in the Seven because he was second-in-command after Homelander. Starlight gave in and felt awful about it. Later in the show, Deep and Starlight were paired for a mission and she confronted him, saying that he was not as powerful as he had misled her to believe and that he was just the diversity hire since his powers were not as useful as the other heroes’. At the time, Starlight had basically told him to keep one eye open because she wasn’t going to take his shit anymore.
In the season, Deep would drop lines about how he wasn’t respected as the fish guy. Ironic, considering how he didn’t respect women in the workplace. I believe one of these lines came during his mission with Starlight which of course was infuriating but he was so self-unaware.
There was a subplot about Deep trying to save the animals from the local waterpark but was unsuccessful and also he was technically committing a crime so it didn’t look too great. Deep trying to save captive aquatic animals would be a recurring theme, probably the only thing he was sincerely committed to.
Starlight later revealed that she was sexually assaulted at Believe Expo. Though she didn’t reveal the name, Stillwell apparently already knew that it was Deep who had sexually assaulted her. Stillwell had Deep do a video apology and then put him on sabbatical, moving him to a small city in Ohio that barely had any crime.
There was a scene in which Deep hooked up with a fan. She was obsessed with how weird his gills looked and then forcefully fingered Deep despite him saying no. That scene was obviously meant to mirror his sexual assault of Starlight. Not sure if that made him reflect though.
When the news of the terrorist superhero came out, Deep thought that he’d be recalled to the Seven to step up, but he wasn’t and he was quite upset about it. Going so far as to shaving his head, perhaps implying that he would have a new start, though whether that was for the better or the worse is yet to be seen.
Deep, like Queen Maeve, were more props for Starlight’s story in the first season. However, even if his story were to be expanded, it would focus more on workplace discrimination than vigilantism. Not that that’s a bad thing, but his story would be more of a human one in my opinion. He’s still an asshole, but we’re to see whether he will learn the wrong of his ways.
Translucent
Translucent was one of the heroes of the Seven. His skill was that he could become invisible, due to the chemical makeup of his skin causing a kind of optical illusion. He had a habit of hiding in the washroom to spy on ladies. However, in one such occasion, he had caught Hughie with his listening chip that he was going to plant in the meeting room at Vought. He tracked down Hughie and Butcher, only to be captured by them. Butcher later recruited Frenchie. The three of them were finding ways to kill him since he’d seen their faces. Eventually, they planted a bomb inside Translucent as a way to threaten him.
Translucent was an arrogant hero, which seems to be a theme here. Whenever he fought Butcher and Hughie, he would repeat again and again that he was one of the Seven, implying that they were greater and better. This is a bit at odds with one of his pieces later on when he told Hughie that his job was to watch people and understand them, something more nuanced than his aggressive and arrogant self would say.
Hughie had sometimes tried to extend an olive branch to Translucent. At one point, Translucent was going to escape and he asked Hughie to let him go. However, at the last minute, Hughie decided to detonate the bomb and kill Translucent. The Boys then buried his remains in the sea to delay the time that Vought would learn of his death.
Black Noir
I’m just including Black Noir for completeness. He was barely in season 1 as a character but he was part of the Seven. He was mostly in the show for a couple of comedic relief scenes. He was silent and barely communicated. He feels a bit like a Batman stand in except Batman was far more of a leader so maybe not. In any case, Black Noir has lots of potential to be expanded in the future since his personality was essentially a blank slate.
Starlight
Starlight was our pov character entering the Seven. She grew up wanting to be a hero, encouraged by her mother who took her to all the hero pageants. She was also a Christian and attended Believe Expo regularly. Starlight was optimistic and bright-eyed, wanting to be a hero who saved people. Starlight had several story lines going for her, including one about workplace discrimination, one about vigilantism, and one of her personal relationship with Hughie.
Starlight’s first shock was her first day at the Seven when she was sexually assaulted by the Deep. She later found out he’d been lying but the damage was done. However, Starlight continued to be controlled by Vought to an uncomfortable extent. She had saved a girl from being raped, only to be chastised by Vought because they had no evidence of the potential crime and it could have gotten Starlight in legal trouble. They only let her go because the girl had reached out and confirmed the situation. The next instance of Vought pushing Starlight in an uncomfortable direction was when they changed her outfit into something more revealing. Starlight was uncomfortable and we saw that yielded predictable results; men began sexualizing her immediately and it was discouraging because Starlight wanted to be a role model to young girls.
At Believe Expo, Starlight got into a fight with her mom because she wasn’t feeling well enough to go on stage but her mom pushed her to. Basically, Starlight was shocked that some of the Christian messaging at Believe Expo was so extreme. Starlight had had enough and revealed that she didn’t know if she believed with that messaging, and also revealed that she was sexually assaulted, which led to an outpouring of support.
Stillwell tried to intimidate her into becoming more subservient, but Starlight used the public support she had as leverage to push back. She wanted her old costume back, she didn’t want to be quiet and just take it. And if Vought pushed too hard, Starlight would reveal the workplace discrimination and that would threaten Vought’s stocks.
Starlight and Hughie began a relationship in this season. Starlight knew nothing of Hughie’s conflicting intentions. To her, he was just a nice guy who she met at the right time. It was a huge shock to her when Hughie was revealed to be going against the Seven. She was understandably angry at him and Hughie tried to tell her about Compound V, only to be interrupted by Butcher showing up with a GUN. Nonetheless, the knowledge of Compound V had Starlight thinking about being a hero. Her mom had instilled in her that she was chosen by God, but she now knew it wasn’t true. It was revealed that Vought would cover medical bills in return for their babies as test subjects and her mom was so desperate to have a magical child that she agreed. It appears that Starlight’s father left the familiy because they disagreed part way through about Starlight becoming a superhero.
I think that saga made Starlight think that since she had these powers, she was responsible for helping others, and that was why she decided to return and help Hughie. They didn’t get a chance to talk, but I think we can assume that they’re back on the same side.
Starlight tried to fight A-Train but lost. However, A-Train suffered a heart attack and so Starlight called for help, urging Hughie to run away so that he’d be safe, and perhaps also so that he could continue investigating Compound V.
Starlight was a compelling character and I appreciated that she didn’t lose her spirit. We already have an idea of what that looks like, and that’s Queen Maeve. I’m looking forward to seeing how Starlight continues to stand up for herself and what’s right.
Popclaw
Popclaw was a hero who had turned to acting. She was A-Train’s girlfriend and she knew about his Compound V habit. Initially, the Boys had kept tabs on Popclaw to get to A-Train, but they soon found out that she knew about the Compound V.
While Popclaw and A-Train were in love, she was a bit resentful of the fact that he would never go public with her. One day, out of spite, she took Compound V and slept with her landlord, but due to the Compound V exacerbating her aggressiveness, she killed him. The Boys then used the video footage to threaten her into giving them more information. So she revealed some information about A-Train’s drug route.
Later, A-Train confronted her. Popclaw admitted to telling them some information, but she revealed descriptions of the Boys that later helped Homelander hunt them down. A-Train took Popclaw to another location to hide. He had also told her at some point that they could go public if she just told him the truth. I don’t remember if this was before or after he took her away, but it was pretty manipulative. In the end, A-Train killed Popclaw, probably asked by Homelander to take care of things.
A-Train continued to blame others for Popclaw’s death. He insisted to Hughie that Popclaw was the best thing that happened to him and that it was Hughie’s fault that she died. But we know that she died because A-Train valued his fame and position as the fastest man alive than Popclaw. After all, he kept her as his secret, never considering her feelings.
Mesmer
Mesmer was a hero who could read people’s minds. He had been a child star with a TV series and as an adult he continued to milk the series for money. The Boys wanted to use him to get information out of Kimiko. They did that by getting him time with his daughter whom he didn’t have custody over. He did read Kimiko’s mind, but he later turned in the Boys to Homelander. The Butcher eventually tracked down Mesmer and killed him.
Madelyn Stillwell
Stillwell was an upper executive at Vought. I believe she was a VP of some sort. She was what you would expect of a cutthroat politician. Her one big goal for this season was to have superheroes part of the American military. This would make Vought the prime contractor to the government as only they managed superheroes. It’s a bit telling that Homelander’s name is even Homelander, like Homeland Security.
Stillwell had another story line about her relationship with Homelander. In the first episode, Stillwell was pumping breastmilk as she had recently had a baby (Teddy) and Homelander was oddly a bit mesmerized. We later found out that Homelander was her main account and that they also had a personal relationship. It seemed romantic and sexual but also maternal and as we said before it was likely due to Homelander’s lack of familial relationships in his early years that he yearned for one, and Stillwell took advantage of that parent/child relationship to control him. I think Homelander felt that Stillwell was a girlboss single mom wannabe, but I think it was the jealousy talking. I think he was jealous that Teddy held Stillwell’s attention like no one else could.
Stillwell and Homelander’s power struggle was interesting because he could so easily crush her and yet she held power over him. How? Because Stillwell had power (and money), which was what Homelander wanted. He wanted the good public opinion and he would not gain that if he simply killed his way out.
Stillwell was in a bit of a pickle due to the CIA finding out about Compound V, and was only saved by the terrorist superheroes, which was created by Homelander. They had sex afterwards and we thought all was good, until Stillwell mentioned that his baby had died through miscarriage, which didn’t line up with Vogelbaum’s story about his child having been born and only having survived 10 seconds.
Butcher tried to use Stillwell to hurt Homelander but by then Homelander had already thought things through and felt that he couldn’t trust Stillwell. She lied to him. But also, he could manufacture his own goodwill, just in the way that he could manufacture his own villains to kill. So he didn’t need her anymore and he killed her. I was honestly a bit surprised by her death but I don’t protest it. It did make sense in the context of the story. Homelander doesn’t hesitate to kill. He doesn’t love the same way we love so he didn’t really love Stillwell that way that’s recognizable to us. What’s going to happen to Teddy? I wonder if someone will adopt him. Will it be Homelander? Butcher? We shall see. Maybe he won’t even be important lol.
Vogelbaum
Vogelbaum was a Vought scientist who’d worked on injecting babies with Compound V. I think he was the closest to a father figure that Homelander had. He called Homelander “John.” Vogelbaum was a scientist and even in retirement he worked on breeding dogs. He said that he didn’t like getting too close to his subjects and we saw that in Homelander’s childhood flashbacks, particularly the one of scientists playing peekaboo with him through his cell window while he clutched his blanket.
Homelander first approached him to ask about his baby and as mentioned, Vogelbaum said that the baby had died shortly after birth, killing Becca Butcher as well. At the time, I remember Homelander having asked if the child was a boy and Vogelbaum asking why it mattered. I wondered if Homelander wanted a mini-me. Anyway, Homelander later squeezed the truth from Vogelbaum, that the child was alive and well.
Susan Raynor
Raynor was Butcher’s CIA contact. He constantly tried to get her help but she did have her hands tied as someone working for the government. She was finally able to move when the Boys got Compound V. She was able to force Stillwell to retract her bill on getting superheroes in the armed forces. However, the plan was shredded with the news of the terrorist superheroes. She told Butcher and the Boys that they had to go into hiding.
Hughie Campbell
Hughie was another pov character from the perspective of the radical anti-superhero crew, particularly Butcher. His girlfriend was killed by A-Train. He wanted some kind of justice, wanting to build a case, and so he had refused hush money from Vought. Later, Butcher recruited him, posing as a member of a government agency, only to be tricked.
Nonetheless, Hughie agreed as he wanted to help. He accepted the hush money, only with the condition that he wanted an apology from A-Train. Hughie also took the opportunity to plant a listening bug in the Vought conference room, only for it to be intercepted by Translucent, which led to Hughie and Butcher having to handle Translucent and all that came after it.
Hughie first met Starlight on a park bench, when she had called her mom after being sexually assaulted. Hughie could see she was upset so he tried to comfort her. They bumped into each other again at an event where he recognized her as Starlight and not as Annie and from then on they started going out on dates. He did like Starlight, but Butcher was also urging him to gather intel on the supes from her.
Eventually, Hughie did feel guilty about lying to Starlight and wanted to break things off from the Boys, but Starlight found out from Homelander first. It did cause a rift. All Hughie could do was explain his grief over Robin, and then get into Compound V. Before he could get too far, Butcher showed up and shot Starlight, as he hated all superheroes.
The next time Hughie and Starlight met, he asked her for help in saving MM, Frenchie, and Kimiko. He said that he was hoping Starlight would help because she’s a superhero and superheroes help people. It angered her at first but she did come and help, showing that Hughie remained a positive influence to Starlight.
Hughie himself was a sort of clumsy and awkward but well meaning guy. He was comedic relief at times. He wasn’t a cardboard cut out every man though, he did have opinions and values. After he killed Translucent, he was processing his thoughts about it. And while his decision to save A-Train was very altruistic, that kind of sets the tone for his character. Both he and Starlight are altruistic, just that he’s a human and Starlight is a supe.
Billy Butcher
Butcher had a vendetta against Homelander. 8 years ago, his wife was raped by Homelander and she disappeared. While his wife’s sister believed her to be dead, Butcher had hope.
He recruited Hughie to help him get into Vought. He later recruited Frenchie and MM to help him with the rest of the operation. The thing about Butcher is that at the end of the day, he was always using these guys for his own goals, which was to get to Homelander. Yes, he did believe all supes were bad, but that was secondary to his goal of killing and hurting Homelander. He’s not a good person but he’s a compelling character because he is so consistent.
When MM, Frenchie, and Kimiko were captured, Hughie wanted to save them but Butcher needed to take advantage of the time he had to get to Homelander before Hughie and Butcher were caught by whichever authorities had captured them. So Butcher went to Stillwell’s house to try to hold her hostage. That didn’t work and Homelander killed Stillwell. Nonetheless, Butcher detonated the bomb to try to hurt Homelander anyway. Homelander obviously survived and took Butcher to a house where it turns out Becca and her child lived. The show ended with Becca and Butcher in shock.
As I said, Butcher was consistent. I think in the next season, he’ll continue to try to get revenge on Homelander, at least for raping Becca. But I wonder how Butcher will feel about the child. The child is a supe and he hates supes, but he’s also Becca’s child. No matter what happens, I know he and Becca will come to an argument about the boy.
Frenchie
Frenchie is an expert of some sort. Something to do with the stealth arts I suppose. Butcher first sought him out to find a solution to get rid of Translucent. It was his idea to plant a bomb inside Translucent, since his exterior was invincible but his insides were just the same as anyone else.
Over the season, Frenchie grew a fondness for Kimiko, a violent super they had found locked up. Perhaps it was due to his gentle nature towards her, Kimiko did become more receptive to Frenchie. She would respond to him, and he was able to calm her down. And he always came back for her.
He was shot in the end but he managed to survive and escape.
Marvin/Mother’s Milk/MM
MM was another expert. I don’t remember why he was recruited. He normally worked in a detention center for kids and he himself had a wife and a daughter. He was initially keeping his work with Butcher secret, but the cat was out of the bag once his family was in danger. His wife was furious with him, but at least they’d be in a safe place (sheltered by Raynor).
MM and Frenchie had an ongoing antagonistic relationship. They were always fighting and honestly it was pretty funny. But of course when push came to shove, they would work together to survive.
Kimiko
Kimiko was a mute woman that the Boys had found. She appeared to have superpowers, and they thus deduced that she was injected with Compound V. She was somewhat feral, she was afraid but powerful so the guys other than Frenchie were a bit anxious around her. At one point she had protected Frenchie, suffering heavy injuries, but her injuries healed quickly, so presumably one of her superpowers was super healing.
Through Mesmer, she revealed that she was captured and injected with Compound V as an adult. Towards the end of the show, I think she had basically regained her sense of self. She was no longer so skittish around the guys and she was receptive whenever they talked to her, only that she herself was still mute. She tried to talk but was unsuccessful.
She was captured but MM saved her and she escaped.
Grace Mallory
Mallory was mysterious figure. Years ago, she was the person to have revealed to Butcher information about his wife’s rape. Years later, Butcher asked her for help only for her to decline. She said that her grandchildren had died and that stopped her from wanting to hurt anymore. She told Butcher about Stillwell and Homelander’s relationship but as Hughie and Butcher parted, she told Hughie to not let his hate fester.
Themes
Corporatization of justice
I enjoyed that this show really delved into the risks of superheroes going mainstream. They covered so much ground.
Vought was basically a private army. What makes them different from arms companies? Even Stillwell said that Vought could do what Lockheed Martin could not. But how dangerous is that, that a private company could have this level of firepower. It’s a surprise the government didn’t try to regular them earlier, but perhaps Vought brought in too much money.
On the surface, Vought did good. The superheroes saved the common civilians from crime. However, we saw that a lot of the crime was not handled as cleanly as we might have thought. Deep and Starlight were sent on a mission because Vought expected crime to happen. Did Vought create that crime? Did they create that situation for their heroes to look heroic? And by the end of the season, we see that Homelander is literally creating villains to sustain the superhero race.
The heroes of Vought acted more like celebrities than heroes with their concerns about image and fame. Homelander and A-Train were prime examples, doing so many public appearances. Starlight was chastised by Vought because though she had saved the girl, she was exposing herself to lawsuits because she hadn’t thought about the optics of how things looked. Her mom was a perfect example of a pageant mom who lived vicariously through her daughter. Homelander didn’t want to save the people on the plane because then they’d be a testament to his clumsiness. A-Train was also obsessed with his image and he didn’t even realize that that was why he did the things that he did.
There was also an immense cult of personality surrounding superheroes. People were supposed to accept that they could all do no wrong. There was the support group for people who had been hurt by superheroes. The underlying message was that the victims had to accept themselves as collateral damage of a superhero trying to do good. Only Butcher refused this line of thinking, believing that people had the right to feel rage at being hurt by superheroes who were irresponsible with their power.
The political struggle between Stillwell and Homelander was interesting. Like I said, Homelander could easily kill Stillwell, so why didn’t he? Why did he let her control her? This leads to the theory that true power is in politics and money. Stillwell had power in the way that he didn’t. But by the end of the season, I think Homelander realized that he could leverage his power to overcome Stillwell’s human power. He could ascend to godhood with his powers.
Hypocrisy
Since superheroes were supposed to be perfect and saintly, it resulted in a lot of vices being swept under the rug. Homelander had raped a woman, killed with no remorse, had no love for the common people. Maeve was an alcoholic. A-Team had a drug habit and had also killed carelessly. Deep and Translucent did sexually inappropriate things.
On the other hand, the Boys don’t hide their bad sides and they feel more virtuous because of it. We know Butcher isn’t a good person. He kills, he uses people. But we at least know that his intentions are sincere. He wants to hurt and kill Homelander because he hates him so much. Whereas we do question Homelander’s intentions whenever he does anything.
Feminism and workplace harassment
I was a surprised that this was such a big theme in the show but I don’t dislike it. This hit us very soon into the first episode, with the Deep sexually assaulting Starlight. He took advantage of the fact that she didn’t know the Seven very well. The Deep was on the receiving end of such assault when in Ohio and the fan forced Deep to sit still while she pleasured herself to his pain.
Starlight was sexualized by Vought, including the marketing guys designing a new costume for Starlight that was more revealing. Their only defense for it was that it was empowering, which grinds my gears because it’s so true. So many marketing tactics that apply to sex appeal are being rebranded as empowering because apparently the people are doing it of their own volition and that’s what makes it empowering. Except people like Starlight definitely did not want to wear those revealing clothes so it’s the opposite of empowering.
The only hope we have is that Starlight hasn’t seemed to have her spirit broken. Despite Maeve being a little tiring and negative, she encouraged Starlight to be true to herself and her altruistic goals, because that’s the only way we can strive to be the best versions of ourselves.
Overall
Really interesting show that covered a lot of different topics. Looking forward to watching season two!