This is another great episode, but an uneven one by the uneven season 4 of The Boys.
While the episode has its great moments, it feels disjointed and the pacing is kinda off and they could've edited it more evenly. The whole thing with the Boys going to the farm feels dragged for the first half because they're just walking a mile from a barn to another barn, and Starlight's power is for some reason not working again.
I honestly don't even know what her powers even are. I don't remember a time her powers were actually helpful in a situation, except maybe for the last episode where she knocked Firecracker down. Also, you can't convince me that the part where she's looking at her old self with regret and sadness isn't a kind of meta joke from Eric Kripke. Because it's really funny and ironic how she's looking at her beautiful natural face she used to have. If not that, at least I bet Kripke was laughing by himself thinking how accidentally ironic and meta this scene is.
Anyway, I think most of the scenes, if not all, of the scenes from The Seven and Vought are kinda forgettable, though not to say important stuff didn't happen obviously. There are some semi-shocking and reprehensible scenes like that PA slapping that dude really hard, or Ashley going full evil and throwing the news anchor dude under the bus. But other than these two scenes, I just think most of those scenes were just par for the course at this point.
The scenes with the flying killer sheeps were iconic and really fun too, but as much as they tried to exposit us to how in danger they are via Starlight's dialogues, there was not much tension as you knew none of the main characters would die to a V-ed up sheep. But funnily enough, I actually was entertaining the idea of Hughie's dad killing him by ripping his heart out for some reason. I actually had more anticipation of Hughie dying than any of the other ones dealing with the sheep. And also, as others have mentioned, I'm not sure why Neuman didn't just blow up those sheep brains. They could've at least thrown a little line in there saying their brains are too infected or something or she ran out of juice.
But speaking of Hughie's little storyline with his dad; I think it was a really nice subplot, but I wish we'd spent more time with the dad. Those scenes with him are emotional and sad, but unfortunately I'm just not as emotional and sad as I should be watching those scenes. Because we haven't seen the dad since season 1 or 2, and that was like what, 4 years ago?! How do you expect your audience to be emotionally invested in Hughie's relationship with his dad when they lack proper scenes together and you start your season by just making him have a brain injury?
Again, those scenes are great and tragic and all, but I just wish we'd seen more of him to actually have an emotional attachment to him so the last scenes with him would hit harder.
So after half a season of just doing this and that, this episode gives the season a direction we can finally look for and know where this is going and what the season's overall plot is going to be; Butcher's shocking (but understandable, considering everything) way of keeping Shah alive so he could make a supe-killing virus.
Though I do think making a virus to kill Homelander with is kinda lame compared to having Soldier Boy annihilate him, it does make sense since Compound V was also created in a lab and every poison needs its antidote I guess. But I seriously doubt the virus thing is gonna go anywhere, especially this season since there's another season and there is no way Homelander doesn't survive this season. (Maybe Butcher will take out Neuman this season)
I also don't like Frenchie's giving himself up to the police. I'm not sure what the point is to take this character here and it doesn't make sense for him to do it. I know that he's had guilt from the beginning, but this is a really dumb way to deal with it. At least his little plotline with Colin wasn't enough to convince me that Frenchie would do such a thing over that. This whole 4 seasons it feels like the writers don't really know what to do with Frenchie and Kimiko and they just do random things with them every season.
I also find it ironic that they're taking a jab at MCU and its dozens of movies and shows, while doing the same thing with The Boys spin-offs and animated shows.
Anyway, the review mostly consists of complaints about the episode, but I genuinely enjoyed it a lot, it just felt disjointed and the pacing could've been a lot better.
I also wish they went back to actually killing supes instead of just laser-focusing on Homelander every season. Hughie used to be the main character in the first season and The Boys just wanted to kill one supe at a time, but now it's just Homelander and Homelander only. It took them 5 episodes to give a somewhat direction to where this season is actually heading, but it still feels like we haven't moved a bit since last season, or even season 2 in terms of the progression of the plot.
While the episode has its great moments, it feels disjointed and the pacing is kinda off and they could've edited it more evenly. The whole thing with the Boys going to the farm feels dragged for the first half because they're just walking a mile from a barn to another barn, and Starlight's power is for some reason not working again.
I honestly don't even know what her powers even are. I don't remember a time her powers were actually helpful in a situation, except maybe for the last episode where she knocked Firecracker down. Also, you can't convince me that the part where she's looking at her old self with regret and sadness isn't a kind of meta joke from Eric Kripke. Because it's really funny and ironic how she's looking at her beautiful natural face she used to have. If not that, at least I bet Kripke was laughing by himself thinking how accidentally ironic and meta this scene is.
Anyway, I think most of the scenes, if not all, of the scenes from The Seven and Vought are kinda forgettable, though not to say important stuff didn't happen obviously. There are some semi-shocking and reprehensible scenes like that PA slapping that dude really hard, or Ashley going full evil and throwing the news anchor dude under the bus. But other than these two scenes, I just think most of those scenes were just par for the course at this point.
The scenes with the flying killer sheeps were iconic and really fun too, but as much as they tried to exposit us to how in danger they are via Starlight's dialogues, there was not much tension as you knew none of the main characters would die to a V-ed up sheep. But funnily enough, I actually was entertaining the idea of Hughie's dad killing him by ripping his heart out for some reason. I actually had more anticipation of Hughie dying than any of the other ones dealing with the sheep. And also, as others have mentioned, I'm not sure why Neuman didn't just blow up those sheep brains. They could've at least thrown a little line in there saying their brains are too infected or something or she ran out of juice.
But speaking of Hughie's little storyline with his dad; I think it was a really nice subplot, but I wish we'd spent more time with the dad. Those scenes with him are emotional and sad, but unfortunately I'm just not as emotional and sad as I should be watching those scenes. Because we haven't seen the dad since season 1 or 2, and that was like what, 4 years ago?! How do you expect your audience to be emotionally invested in Hughie's relationship with his dad when they lack proper scenes together and you start your season by just making him have a brain injury?
Again, those scenes are great and tragic and all, but I just wish we'd seen more of him to actually have an emotional attachment to him so the last scenes with him would hit harder.
So after half a season of just doing this and that, this episode gives the season a direction we can finally look for and know where this is going and what the season's overall plot is going to be; Butcher's shocking (but understandable, considering everything) way of keeping Shah alive so he could make a supe-killing virus.
Though I do think making a virus to kill Homelander with is kinda lame compared to having Soldier Boy annihilate him, it does make sense since Compound V was also created in a lab and every poison needs its antidote I guess. But I seriously doubt the virus thing is gonna go anywhere, especially this season since there's another season and there is no way Homelander doesn't survive this season. (Maybe Butcher will take out Neuman this season)
I also don't like Frenchie's giving himself up to the police. I'm not sure what the point is to take this character here and it doesn't make sense for him to do it. I know that he's had guilt from the beginning, but this is a really dumb way to deal with it. At least his little plotline with Colin wasn't enough to convince me that Frenchie would do such a thing over that. This whole 4 seasons it feels like the writers don't really know what to do with Frenchie and Kimiko and they just do random things with them every season.
I also find it ironic that they're taking a jab at MCU and its dozens of movies and shows, while doing the same thing with The Boys spin-offs and animated shows.
Anyway, the review mostly consists of complaints about the episode, but I genuinely enjoyed it a lot, it just felt disjointed and the pacing could've been a lot better.
I also wish they went back to actually killing supes instead of just laser-focusing on Homelander every season. Hughie used to be the main character in the first season and The Boys just wanted to kill one supe at a time, but now it's just Homelander and Homelander only. It took them 5 episodes to give a somewhat direction to where this season is actually heading, but it still feels like we haven't moved a bit since last season, or even season 2 in terms of the progression of the plot.
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