The Boys “The Only Man In The Sky”

So, there’s a scene or two in this episode where Frenchy and Kimiko go to a Vought amusement park, complete with costumed Homelanders and the like.  So, here’s the thing:  I am well aware that even a big budget TV show can’t exactly create their own version of Disneyland that will look as impressive as, well, Disneyland.  So, instead, these shows will find an existing, smaller park, dress it up a bit, and call it the in-universe equivalent of Disneyland or something.

Point is, right now my personal headcannon is that this is the same amusement park Cousin Greg briefly worked at over on Succession, and he might have known the guy in the Homelander costume.

In the meantime, one thing did jump out at me for this episode.  It was something I no doubt should have noticed ages ago, but it just seemed a lot more apparent here and now:  there are a lot of messed up people on this show.

I don’t just mean Homelander here either.  It’s obvious in his case.  The smile and those dead eyes of his are a big giveaway, and his moral and mental degradation continue apace here and during the live televised broadcast of his birthday party.  The episode title refers to a line of his, one that was probably taken from an issue of the comic where Homelander, after carrying a family away as a prize inside of a convertible from some Christian outdoor festival, gives a speech about how there’s no God and then drops the car from forty thousand feet or so…and the family wasn’t exactly having a good time by that point anyway.

No, this episode makes it clear that as Hughie starts looking into Victoria Neuman’s past (without Annie for back-up, something that I am sure is going to cause problems later) and while Butcher sends what’s left of the team to look into the death of Soldier Boy, the Boys are collectively a bit messed up.

OK, Frenchy seems to be OK, but he’s the exception.

Kimiko?  She and Frenchy go to see Soldier Boy’s widow the Crimson Countess at the aforementioned amusement park, and while she is initially rather delighted by everything, the questioning of the Countess does not go well and the guy in the Homelander suit…dies rather violently thanks to the Countess’s poor aim, leading Kimiko to reflect some nearby children were traumatized in ways that she was too at that age.

Mother’s Milk?  Soldier Boy is responsible for something involving his family, and he is doing his best to avoid all that until his ex-wife says he needs to gear up and go check things out himself with Butcher because he won’t be able to function otherwise.

Hughie?  He feels rather weak and pathetic next to Annie.  He has some old fashioned ideas on masculinity from the looks of things.  That…probably will cause problems later.

Butcher?  His own interrogation of Soldier Boy’s old sidekick Gunpowder goes so poorly that he considers calling it quits.  His heart’s not in this anymore, and he’s not even sure why he does what he does.

So, what changes all that?  For Butcher, it’s simple:  Hughie calls him and tells him about Neuman and suggests that Butcher was right all along in how to do things.

That leads to a second, more productive (sort of) meeting between Butcher and Gunpowder, though this one ends with Gunpowder dead because, um, Butcher took the temporary V and gave himself some invulnerability and laser vision.

I never said Butcher’s change was healthy.