The Boys 4.03 Episode Recap and Review, aka Everyone Had a Bad Day

Ouch.  I’m going to rename “We’ll Keep the Red Flag Flying” to “Everyone Had a Bad Day.”  Or maybe even better, “Confronting the Past.”  As usual, there’s a lot pack into 64 minutes, but this one was a little more scattered and unfocused than the others.  Still, there ’s some important moments to note, not to mention a dream Kripke sequence come true, so it does have value.  Let’s go through each character’s bad day, shall we?

Homelander

Oh boy, this guy is flying off the rails.  Despite all of his supporters in full view, he can only hear and deep focus on the dissenting Starlight supporters.  It’s eating away at him behind that fake smile for the crowd, and it’s creepy as hell.  Despite having full control of Vought, it’s not enough.  He wants control of his son Ryan and also control of the world.  Those parts aren’t going as well.  Of course the hints have been planted that nothing can satisfy Homelander, so he’s probably likely to take everyone down with him. 

He introduced the two new members of The Seven, Sister Sage and…Firecracker?   I see where this is going.   Homelander also mentioned the open 7th chair, and has Ryan in mind for that position.  He touted the bank robbery that Ryan stopped, and I’m thinking, did no one there see the viral video of the guy that went splat?  I mean, that had to horrify some people.  I assume that Vought did something to make sure that never made light of day, but given the public setting that’s awfully hard to do! Ryan was on the stage with Homelander but he wasn’t smiling, so Homelander in terse voice told him he better smile right now.  Still not winning him over Homie! 

One thing for sure, Homelander is an unstable mess.  While interrogating an employee in crime analytics with Sister Sage, that employee has confessed that she’d been in touch with Starlight, but to support her charity.  Homelander, who has been wanting to laser every Starlight supporter there is, decides to take out his frustrations on this poor woman with one quick laser eye shot through the brain.  Sage wasn’t happy, since she was about to reveal some possible useful information, but Homelander didn’t care.  He declared the leak has been plugged, but it’s obvious he detests anyone who is friendly to Starlight and can’t control his impulses to kill them.  

Despite everything going his way, Homelander is crumbling internally.  He confronted Ryan after he went to see Butcher and lost his temper, smashing a mirror which opened up to us, the audience, his fractured soul.  There were five Homelanders talking to him at once through the mirror, and each one represented a different voice inside.  One berated him for being weak, one appealed to his need to be loved, the others threw different things at him and it was too much for him to handle.  Finally the center Homelander took control, and they all agreed that he needed to go back…to the beginning.  Where it all started.  He needs to go home.  Yikes!  This isn’t good.  

Kimiko and Frenchie

Kimiko kicks off a going theme for this season, confronting your past.  She found out that Shining Light had cell nearby and wanted to take them out.  They’re hurting kids.  She’s choosing to face her past by killing them all.  An interesting tactic for healing, but does it really work?  

She and one very stoned Frenchie, who was still dealing with some serious guilt, went to the hideout, knowing they would be up against ten people.  Kimiko went into full killing mode and took on them all, and seeing the fight through Frenchie’s stoned eyes is really fun.  All he saw were rubber duckies and bubbles compared to the actual squirting blood that’s happened.  He instead wandered off into an empty room and as confronted by a fake Colin, and that’s when the truth was revealed out in a completely twisted hallucination sequence.  He killed Colin’s family after doing a job for Little Nina.  Uh oh, that’s going to be a tough one to explain.  

Kimiko on the other hand, takes one goon out after another, but then stops at the last person.  It’s someone she recognized, a young woman with a big scar on her face.  She refused to hurt her and tries to help, but the woman scowled and ran.  A little unexpected twist on confronting the wrongs of the past?  More to come on that I’m sure.  

Annie/Starlight

Things keep going badly at Starlight house with Firecracker on the rampage now.  A nut job showed up with a gun, ready to free those kids that they’re keeping in the basement like Firecracker claimed.  One employee tried to tell him they don’t have a basement, but he wasn’t listening to reason.  Luckily Frenchie was able to take this nut in one quick move, but Annie realized it was time to have a conversation. 

Annie broke into her old apartment at Vought Tower, the one that is now inhabited by Firecracker.  She confronted Firecracker, wondering why she hates her so much.  Oh man, there’s a backstory, and it’s a good one.  Firecracker is stunned she doesn’t remember her.  They were in the pageant circuit together years ago as young teens.  Firecracker, who was Sparkler at the time, had worked really hard moving her way up in the standings and finally made it to the finals.  It was her vs Starlight in the finals.  Starlight, being a cutthroat competitive bitch at the time, fueled by her overly ambitious mother, started a harsh rumor about Sparkler that she was f***ing the judges to get into the final.  It got Sparkler bounced from the circuit.  Needless to say, the grudge has stuck and now she’s paying back big time, ready to expose Starlight for the fraud she is.  Annie’s mother strikes again!  Annie is very spooked by this news, and suddenly little miss America isn’t so innocent.  No doubt that’s a side of her she thought she had buried.  Hmm, Starlight facing her past demons?  I like this idea.  

Her bad day ends with drinking a bottle of booze with Kimiko and Frenchie at the office, realizing the position she finds herself in.  “It’s a lot easier shitting on Vought’s decisions, my mom’s decisions, than making my own.”  Huh, owning up to your past mistakes?  It’s a painful experience.  

Ashley

It’s Ashley’s breaking point, and it’s not pretty.  When Homelander assembled the new team, he kicked Ashley out.  She’s not in charge anymore, Sister Sage is.  A stunned Ashley asked if she’s being fired, but apparently they still need a figurehead.  “Like Ronald McDonald or Buster Beaver,” Sage told her.  Hee, nice call out to last season’s Buster Beaver sequences.  

Ashley sheepishly left the room, constantly dropping her papers along the way, and then later took out her frustrations on her “slave” Cameron Coleman, who was hogtied in handcuffs naked in her office, trying to give her advice.  He told her to leave a floater in Homelander’s toilet!  She decided to quit, and then offered to crush Cameron’s balls, much to his delight. 

However, this new decision quickly goes south when Ashley was part of the employee interrogation with Homelander and Sage.  She was stunned by Homelander’s act.  Actually, she was shaken to the core, and shredded her resignation letter.  Not a wise move Ashley.  I would run and run far!  

Victoria Neuman

Her bad day started in a meeting with her new boss, Bob Singer.  He has a plan to do something about supes with the Superhero Act. He wants to ban supes from the military, from private policing and all other government positions.  “Supes are entertainers, period.  Shouldn’t we take them off the streets and put them on the Masked Singer where they belong?”  Oh, I love this guy!  Neuman reluctantly agreed, but you know that she wanted wants to pop Bob’s head off right there.  

Later she met with Sage and Homelander, who came with their power play all mapped out.   Sage and Homelander will kill Bob Singer, protecting Neuman from suspicion, and then she will do everything she can to put supes in control of everything.  The military, local police precincts, etc.  They also want her to publicly come out as a supe herself!  She refused that idea, so Homelander really dug into her.  “Why do you want to be President?  Just some unchecked lust for power or you want to fucking prove something to Daddy Stan?”  Luckily she doesn’t have to answer as the meeting is interrupted, but more on that a little later.  

Ryan and Butcher

It turns out that Butcher is up to something with Kessler.  Their plan is to capture Ryan and recruit him for the cause.  Butcher was apprehensive, he doesn’t want to give up his boy.  Kessler was a little more dire about the whole thing.  The supes are coming after them and will take them off the camps.  If they can’t recruit Ryan, they’re going to have to find a way to kill him.  Kessler had a drug that they could use on Ryan and take him far away to a CIA safe location.  Butcher needed a way to get Ryan to take that drug. 

So, Butcher hijacked Ryan’s video game and got a message through that only Ryan could hear, he wanted to meet.  He baked cookies and placed the drug in the dough.  He even put them in a cute cookie jar.  Butcher offered him a cookie as soon as Ryan arrived, his Mom’s recipe, but Ryan wasn’t hungry.  Butcher decided to bond with him over foosball instead. 

The conversation between the two is quite endearing, and it’s nice to see these two have an honest chat.  Ryan was still feeling huge remorse over what happened with his first save and told Butcher how he hurt someone.  Ryan didn’t think he was worthy of Butcher’s love and said he was right about all those mean things he told him last season.  Butcher confessed, very honestly and accurately, that he has this nasty habit of pushing people away.  Why?  “Because I’m a bad man.”  Earlier Ryan asked him if he was afraid of dying and he lied, so Butcher said that yes, he’s terrified.  He failed his brother, he failed Ryan’s Mom, and now he feels like he’s going to leave this world without setting things right with the one person he has left.  Then, Butcher throws the cookies away!  Ryan asks why, and he tells him he put too much sugar in them.  They’re terrible.  Back to more foosball. 

Later, Kessler was furious with Butcher, and Homelander was furious with Ryan.  It’s a shame too, because that was a big moment for Butcher.  His conscience got the better of him, putting Ryan above the “big plan”.   Ryan got a glimpse of how dangerous his old man is, and this has to work to Butcher’s advantage. 

A-Train

A-Train, after going through the dog and pony show for the new members of the seven, got a text from his brother that he wanted to meet.  Except it wasn’t his brother, it was Mother’s Milk!  He told the team earlier that he wanted to recruit A-Train to help them.  A-Train was clearly angry about the deception, but MM’s pitch made some sense to him.  MM could clearly see why A-Train wasn’t happy and why he felt the need to help.  He also had a lot of dirt on A-Train that he could use against him, but he didn’t want to.  He told MM about the meeting between Homelander and Neumann at the arena, and in the end he saved Hughie from Homelander.  Hughie asked A-Train why, and yet he silently sped away.  So again, another character confronting the wrongdoings of his past.  

Black Noir

We learned a bit more about our hero replacement.  For anyone who watched Gen V, often times if you weren’t in the crime fighting program, you ended up in performing arts.  Well guess where this guy came from!  Straight out of the Godolkin performing arts school.  He confronted Ashley about how he isn’t understanding his role as the new Black Noir.  He needs direction.  “I have questions but I’m not allowed to speak.”  He wasn’t trained well in ninja arts in the program, and is clearly struggling with what he’s supposed to do.  This is clear during the rally for the new members of The Seven.  He was out there doing his “ninja” moves too enthusiastically and A-Train had to tell him to tone it down.  On top of all this, he fell asleep during the meeting!  “Sorry, I’m narcoleptic.”  Oh man, I think Ashley screwed the pooch on this replacement.  

Vought On Ice

This is the worst day imaginable for everyone involved!  

For this episode’s completely over the top segment, the scene turned to an indoor ice rink.  There was a Queen Maeve look alike in full hero costume on ice skates singing.  Yep, it’s the rehearsals for the big Christmas ice show, Vought on Ice.  Is it hammy?  Very much so.  “Put the Christ back in Christmas?”  Oh man, it’s the evangelicals ice show. There were shepherds, angels, a manger, Jesus ascending from above on wires to be side by side with the supes , all making it very clear Christmas is about celebrating Christ’s presence.  There was even a skating Homelander with a big smile and man, it was creepier than the real thing! 

Mother’s Milk was watching this stuff and cringed over the whole thing, representing what most of us watching felt!   He needed help with surveillance on a Victoria Neuman and Homelander meeting but only Hughie showed up.  Things went a bit awry though when the meeting was moved up so Hughie had to crawl through the vents and plant a bug fast.  Things…don’t go as planned.  A profusely sweating Hughie listened in on the meeting, hearing the whole diabolical plan, not aware of a drop of sweat that fell through the vent from his face and onto Homelander’s shoulder.  The supe of super hearing and smell knew instantly it was Hughie, and started lasering the vents without hesitation.  When Hughie got away (I have no idea how he did, but he did!), they ran out into the arena to follow him.  

Neuman didsn’t want Homelander to hurt Hughie, or his evidence gets release and she gets outed as a supe.  A pissed off Homelander thought that was fine and started lasering all the ducts in the arena where the rehearsals are were on.  He spotted Hughie on the catwalk and was ready to laser him, so MM redirected the bright lights right in Homelander’s face.  He accidentally lasered the Queen Maeve skater in two in a bloody mess on the ice.  All the skaters fled in a shear panic, and the super scared fake Jesus skated over the hand of an actor, taking her fingers off.  Others were impaled by skates in the mayhem of skaters trying to climb walls with skates on, leaving a shepherd with a slashed throat dying on the ice.  This is the ice show of Eric Kripke’s dreams!  

Hughie made it to the roof and Homelander followed, but Hughie wasn’t there.  Homelander angrily flies off, and it’s revealed in a nearby alley A-Train was the one that saved Hughie from the roof.  

Oh, it is mentioned later that there was an electrical fire during the rehearsals of Vought on Ice and the show was indefinitely postponed.  Way to cover up Vought!  Those performers know what really happened.  

Sister Sage

Talk about a weird day for her.  First, she wasn’t happy with Homelander about making her one of the seven.  Her terms were she wanted to work behind the scenes and not wear a costume.  He put her in a costume anyway and was showing her off to the masses.  She was cranky because the spandex was creeping up her butt and also can’t stage a coup with a million eyes on her.  She also knew he did this because she disagreed with him, something he brushed off by sending her to take more pictures.  

Homelander also questioned her choice of Firecracker for the seven, who is clearly not very smart.  “Seems like she’s fallen off her jet ski one too many times.”  This is all part of Sage’s plan, Firecracker is the one that will take down Starlight.  In the meantime Firecracker kept saying stupid stuff like the vaccines from Starlight House caused autism, and “not the Rain Man kind.”  She also offered herself to Homelander in a suggestive way, repeating “anything” so many times it was nauseating.  Clearly he wanted to laser her too, but restrained himself.  

Sister Sage was also named the new head of Crime Analytics, which was where the leak of the security footage happened.  The Deep was in charge of Crime Analytics, but he really sucked at this job.  She started interrogating employees, but it abruptly ended with Homelander’s impulsive vicious kill.  She knows she has to take a different route to find the leak, and this can’t be good for A-Train.  She’s also very aware of the challenge of getting Homelander to stick to script too, with both his outbursts at Vought Tower and the arena.  

At the end though, things get really bizarre!  Sage was in her room, looking a little brain dead, watching a Say Yes to the Dress type reality show and chowing down on an Outback blooming onion.  It’s another twisted product placement!  Remember Fresca from season two?  The Deep came in to confront her about the crime analytics thing, but stopped to ask if that was an Outback blooming onion.  She offered him some, so he dug in, even doing a full dip into the sauce that came with it, fully enticing the audience with it’s deliciousness.  To think, this isn’t even the weird part!  

The Deep softened his stance, saying he thought she was a bitch but she’s pretty cool.  So then she asks if he wants to watch Transformers 2. “Shy is actually a good friend of mine. He wants me to be in Honey Boy 2. The script just isn’t there yet, though,” he replied.  Sage gazed at him with alluring eyes and told him he’s “hot.”  They start throwing themselves at each other and she tempted him with a piece of the blooming onion!  It’s pretty funny the way those two were carrying on.  One hint that Sage was not herself, there was a rod on the table with blood on the tip.  Did she just give herself a lobotomy?  Why else would she be doing this?  Personally, I like the pairing.  If anything though, this could expose a glaring Sage weakness.  I’m very curious now! 

The Rest

The Deep has been blowing off his aquatic octopus lover Ambrosius, leading to an awkward conversation between the two.  He hadn’t even been cleaning out her tank, and she’s not happy, especially since they haven’t had “relations” in over a week.  The Deep brushed her off and clearly the romance is over.  

Mother’s Milk was feeling some real pressure from being in charge.  He actually pulled rank on Hughie, demanding he obey his direct orders.  That is so not MM, so something is eating him.  

Speaking of Hughie, he finally asked his Mom at the hospital, why did she leave?  She was young, depressed, postpartum, and it never went away.  Getting up in the morning was always a huge task, but she hid it from Hughie.  Eventually, she tried to kill herself with pills and failed.  So, the next day, she left.  She couldn’t be a Mom anymore.  Hughie wondered why she didn’t try to reach out and she said she did, but his Dad got in the way.  It was a sweet, open and honest conversation between the two, and at least Hughie is getting some healing from his past, unlike the others. 

Overall grade, a B-.  This is clearly a bridge episode to move plotting along, but the scattered story telling killed the momentum a bit.  If anyone got bored though, the Vought on Ice debacle put us right on track!  Kripke you magnificent bastard.