The Boys “Wisdom Of The Ages”

So, I had thought that last week the series seemed to be tossing off plotlines for each of the different characters that seemed separate and whatnot.

Now, I think I know why.

Yeah, this episode has me thinking the season as a whole is going for regrets the different characters have.  Some were known.  Frenchie past as a hired killer is haunting him because his current boyfriend used to have a family that Frenchie personally murdered.  Annie regrets her crueler past in regards to Firecracker.  Hughie had to make up with his mother.  But then there are the other characters, and this episode, it shows more of where this regret may be coming from, even from the likes of Sister Sage.

Kimiko, for example, was confronted by a young girl that Kimiko had once kidnapped for the kid fighting ring she came from.

Butcher…well, Butcher is a character that is both full of regret and completely regret free.  He might also be full of worms by the looks of things.

But then there’s Homelander.  Homelander’s past has been something of a sore subject with the guy, and the only reason other character can get away with messing around in his home this episode is because he went back to the lab he grew up in and ended up killing a bunch of people there, some of whom for the crime of being a little less than kind when he was a child.  The lone survivor there is the one older woman who isn’t the slightest bit afraid of him, pointing out that he blasted his way out of his mother and killed multiple doctors when he was born, and quite frankly, he could have left the lab at any time.  That’s…that’s rather creepy in many ways.  I get that Homelander wanted love, but he also doesn’t seem to know how to get it.

Then again, he wasn’t taught what love was, and he’s spent pretty much his entire life being feared, something that he may or may not like.

The thing is, the Annie/Firecracker plot takes an interesting turn as Sage puts Firecracker’s conspiracy theory-spoutin’ ways on live TV for six hours to denounce Annie as Annie is coming out strong for the anti-supes legislation, a law publicly favored by the president elect but not the vice president, and that’s…weird.  I mean, that pretty much never happens in the real world, so I don’t know why it’s included in this one.  But the TV show is pretty gross, so what can anyone do?  Despite Butcher’s best efforts, nothing seems able to stop Firecracker’s attacks, but the whole thing isn’t there for Firecracker.  It’s Sage’s idea to ruin Annie because, hey, somehow Firecracker got Annie’s medical records who then revealed Annie had an abortion, leading to a public beat-down live onscreen when Annie just shows up and starts popping Firecracker in the head as hard as she can.

That’s the sort of thing that makes me think the one person who might have a good handle on regret is Hughie.  He tries to blackmail A-Train to get some V to heal his comatose father, and while Hughie does get the V, he ends up not using it and he also forgives A-Train for everything because, well, why should he live with hatred for someone else?  He’s the anti-Butcher.  Hughie’s not the one to just kill someone.

That might be Butcher, though, for some unknown reason.

I was getting a little weary of this show last week, not enough to dislike it, but to just start to wonder if it lost its step, but this episode makes me think I had nothing to worry about.