‘The Boys’ Season 2, Episode 5 – Review
The season is now running full steam ahead.
Warning: spoiler alert for episode 5 of the second season of The Boys.
The fifth episode of the second season of The Boys has picked up everything the previous one laid the ground for, and we are now in the very center of the plot, where things are becoming clear for our character’s paths.
Homelander is now a war criminal according to the public eye, but I’d rather say that he is in the middle of a war against himself. After what happened in episode 4 between him and the Doppelganger, he is now seeing that his way of handling things doesn’t always work, especially when he sees his own video after interrupting the protestors. And once again, he tries to confront that internal pain in a very twisty way, this time through the most sadomasochist sex ever.
The question to me now is, what does Stormfront want? Did she want that to happen, or is she just doing it as a way to achieve something else? I think the latter is the right answer, but what is that something else exactly? I’d be rather disappointed if it was the former, as it would leave her character to be very bland and underwhelming.
On the other hand, the Boys are going to war with Black Noir, and Butcher ended up making a very bold move, bluffing his way out of a death sentence, one that I believe he will have to pay later. I’m glad that, in a way, while season one was Homelander vs. Butcher, this time around they are turning it into Black Noir vs. Butcher, because there is no way Noir doesn’t go on hunting them. Also, I hope in this universe he is not considered the best detective in the world, like his alter ego Batman is, because Butcher spotting him on the roof was pretty clumsy.
When it comes to Starlight, I’m still not sure where she is going to end up this season. Clearly, her arc consists of standing up for herself and helping her friend (if we can call him that) Hughie as a much more mature and less naive character than in season one, but where exactly is she going character-wise? I’m still not sure about that, and I really hope she ends up in a great place.
On another note, Queen Maeve’s and Deep’s paths are crossing again, and I love they waited this long to give Deep a chance to go back into the Seven, because now he will be put on the spot once again, I think. While I’m still not sure he believes 100% the stuff he predicates to the world, I think that joining that sect has changed something inside him, so I wonder how that will affect him moving forward. Otherwise, if it turns out that it was all a bunch of bullsh*t and he is still the same guy, that it is only a façade, why did we invest all of that time on his arc?
On a final note, I cannot conclude this review without mentioning the “Joss rewrite” that Homelander mentioned. While it was a very quick moment, it was a great addition that adds more and more layers to the show. In a show that literally has a guy lasering another girl’s breasts for fun (and that goes both ways, actually), the thing I find less plausible is the whole superheroes making superhero movies playing themselves and reflecting reality through that. But I really enjoy all the commentary that it has on Hollywood and what the industry has become, so this is just another great addition to a part of the series I already loved.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
