The Boys “Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker”

Having recently (as I type this) finished the comic book version of The Boys, I’ve been able to spot a lot more of the various Easter Eggs the TV version has inserted into their version of the story.  This show isn’t exactly a faithful adaptation of that story, but I see they finally worked Jack from Jupiter, a member of the Seven in the comics but not on the show, into an episode and, uh, they even recreated a panel from the comics.

I’d rather not speak more of that given what’s going on in said panel.

Besides, when the show casts Karl Urban’s old Lord of the Rings co-star John Noble as Billy Butcher’s rotten old father, and that isn’t even the coolest moment in the episode, there’s a lot going right with this show.  And I was impressed before when they cast the former Iceman as a guy who controls fire.

Much of the plot centers around a hearing being conducted by ambitious, AOC stand-in Congresswoman Victoria Neuman, a character whose been appearing in a lot of episodes but I never saw fit to mention before.  The Lamplighter is the star witness to talk about Vought’s efforts to get working Compound V into adults.  He’s not the best of witnesses, but he’s the best one they have.

Butcher, he decides to go look for another one after he deals with a phone call from his mom.

Frenchie and Kimiko are going to be security for the set-up to make sure Neuman gets back to the Capitol OK before going back to watch the hearings on TV while M.M. and Mallory try to get Vogelbaum to testify.  They fail.

Hughie, recovering from last episode’s injuries, just has to keep the Lamplighter company so he doesn’t run off, and all that guy wants to do is watch porn featuring actors dressed like his former teammates.  Dude’s in a real bad place.

So, I said Noble being on the show wasn’t the most cool thing about the episode.  What had it beat?  Lots of stuff actually, both in terms of character growth and just intense action.

Like, Maeve and Elena break up.  Elena had learned about Maeve’s role in the plane crash, but rather than Elena leaving Maeve out of disgust, Maeve is the one who ends things because she hates herself that much.  I did not see that coming.

Annie gets captured when her mother tracks her down because Mama January called Vought before going to see Annie out of the mistaken idea that Annie was in trouble.  That means Black Noir shows up and knocks the stuffing out of Annie.  That leads to Hughie convincing the Lamplighter to help rescue Annie at the Seven’s tower.

OK, so, this is The Boys.  How can that go wrong?

Simple.  Lamplighter sees how all the images of him were gone, he’s already depressed, and he burns himself to death.  Hughie still needs the dead man’s palm to open doors…

Annie got out when the fire alarms went off, but then Black Noir came back and was once again knocking the stuffing out of her until Maeve stopped him…but shoving an Almond Joy down his throat because the scary assassin guy on the Seven has a nut allergy.

Hughie does manage to get Annie and her mom back to Boys HQ to watch the hearings.  Sure, losing Lamplighter  hurts things, but by then Butcher has convinced Vogelbaum to change his mind because Butcher is much, much scarier than Mallory who just asked politely.  And Vogelbaum is a much better witness than the Lamplighter.

A-Tran and the Deep…OK, I don’t much care what happens to the Deep, but the cult subplot is suitably creepy.

Heck, it was even cool the way Kimiko is trying to teach Frenchie the sign language that she uses.

Not so cool was Homelander and Stormfront convincing Ryan to leave his mother.

So, lots of cool stuff going on with character or just craziness.  What was the best moment?  The coolest, craziest moment of the episode?

Easy.  The hearing started, and before Vogelbaum could start talking, heads started exploding in the hearing room.  Vogelbaum’s the second.  Lots of panicking, everyone that isn’t the Homelander or Stormfront looking at least freaked out.  People slipping on blood and brains as they try to flee.  It’s a mess.

Exploding heads wins for coolest sight, easily.

And there’s still one episode of this left for the season…