Well, this episode definitely lives up to its name since there are plenty of supes and a lot of them were seen attending the, um, Herogasm, which Soldier Boy apparently started back in the day. The twins, who were found by both Vought and Butcher, were those in charge of the event at that point, and to be fair it didn’t appear that anyone really cared if they were there or not. For those who haven’t read the comics, this opens up the idea that the world of The Boys is infested with supes, and most of them have tastes that are anything but savory. But as things have been progressing, it’s been seen that having a moral center isn’t always a surefire way to be successful. This is kind of proven since MM and Frenchie, for all that they’ve tried to keep the team on the straight and narrow, have been failing left and right. Even with the changes that have been made from the comics, it’s fair to state that the two men weren’t enough to keep Butcher from doing whatever he wanted in his pursuit of Homelander.
Everything Butcher has done to date has been as messed up as it could possibly be, but one would have thought that taking Homelander’s son away from him in season 2 would have been enough to unseat the unstable supe. Unfortunately, the loss of his son and Stormfront did manage to do something to Homelander’s state of mind, but it wasn’t a positive shift that occurred, as the third season has revealed. Soldier Boy’s return has caused all sorts of problems at the moment since the power he’s been given to virtually disintegrate those caught in his beam obviously wasn’t at full power when it hit Kimiko, or her powers kept her safe enough to survive the harrowing experience. Now that he’s back though it’s kind of obvious why anyone would turn on him since he’s not the nicest guy and he doesn’t have the best habits since his addictions are being made kind of obvious, even if they’re fairly tame compared to the psychotic mindset that Homelander utilizes so often.
In the meantime, the preparation for the fight with Homelander isn’t going quite as well as one could expect since Hughie and Starlight are apparently on the outs, as Hughie’s insecurities are finally breaking through the surface in a big enough way that Starlight can see Hughie for who he is. His addiction to the compound that has given him the powers he enjoys made it possible for Hughie to smack the hell out of A-Train, surprising the other supe before he and Hughie parted. When Hughie admits that he wants to save Starlight instead of the other way around, the look of hurt and betrayal in her eyes is enough to make it clear that she’s seeing his true person for the first time, and she doesn’t like what she sees. It’s fair to think that if these two get back together, and that’s a big IF, it would take a serious act of contrition and a lot of time for both of them to heal from this debacle.
But the arrival of Soldier Boy to Herogasm is intense since not only is The Deep there, and doing something that Starlight takes advantage of by taking his picture with the threat of sending it to Homelander, but Hughie, Butcher, and MM are there as well. One has to feel a bit sorry for MM since between being teased by a massive, snake-like penis to opening a set of doors at just the wrong moment, the guy is going through it. He’s so bent on taking down Soldier Boy that he’s ready to die to do so, and Butcher’s interruption is enough to enrage him to the degree that he actually attacks Billy, to no avail. Butcher wasn’t walking into this mess without powers, and once Soldier Boy is being put on the ropes by Homelander, who also arrives in his customary way, the fight begins to even out a bit. When Hughie joins the fight, helping to pin Homelander down, it becomes obvious that the deranged supe isn’t going to win.
Before Soldier Boy can use his chest blast though, Homelander splits, crashing through the ceiling as he flies off. The ending of this episode makes it clear that Homelander now knows that he has competition that can harm him, and that Starlight has had enough. And if that wasn’t enough, it would appear that Black Noir has removed his tracking chip and gone on the hunt for his old comrade. This kind of goes to show that just when fans think that things have ramped up to a level that couldn’t possibly be surpassed, a couple of things happen that ramp up the situation while making everyone wonder what in the hell is going to happen next.
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