Episode 2 of The Boys Season 5 opens with Oh-Father hosting the funeral ceremony for A-Train, and in attendance are Homelander, Sage, Ashley, Firecracker, Deep, Noir, and a bunch of other people associated with Vought. By the way, this is where Oh-Father’s power is revealed: he can scream really loud. You have heard about DC’s Black Canary and Marvel’s Banshee, right? Yeah, it’s basically the same thing, but since Oh-Father is sermonizing and not killing people, he keeps his powers on the down low so that his voice has a hypnotic effect and doesn’t burst anybody’s eardrums. Now, the more Oh-Father speaks, the more uncomfortable Homelander gets, which is something that we haven’t seen before. He’s usually pretty unsympathetic towards the people he has murdered; he is great at lying about the circumstances under which someone has died, but he’s pretty unperturbed by the death itself, because he’s truly a monster. However, it’s evident that the cracks in his psyche are starting to build up and causing him to unravel. I think this devolution started somewhere between Seasons 2 and 3, and his internal issues have metastasized to such an extent that he’s on the brink of an epic meltdown. Is there any way to push him over the edge? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
The Boys Target Rock Hard
The Boys take shelter at the abandoned Erie County Public Elementary School. I’m sure there’s some commentary here on how fascism destroys everything, especially educational institutions, because if kids aren’t learning anything, then they won’t have the tools to oppose fascism. But given how aggressively that’s happening in real life and nobody seems to care, I’m sure that this fictional depiction of fascism isn’t going to move anyone too. Anyway, Butcher and Sameer have turned the place into their personal laboratory where they are cooking up the Supe-killing virus. In case you all have forgotten, Victoria had tasked Sameer with recreating the Supe-killing virus, which originated from the Woods in God U (in Gen V). He was found hiding in a barn while being attacked by animals infected by Compound V. Butcher faked Sameer’s death by severing his leg and then forced him to continue recreating the Supe-killing virus. Sameer did Butcher’s bidding, but he used the virus to infect Kimiko and then escaped. Since then, he’s been missing. In Gen V Season 2, it was revealed that neither Zoe nor Stan had any idea where he was. Now, it’s evident that Butcher has re-recruited him, that too under false pretenses.
Yeah, Butcher has somehow convinced Sameer that it was Homelander who killed Victoria (Butcher killed her, actually), and hence, he needs to make the Supe-killing virus so that they can use it on Homelander, thereby avenging Victoria. I don’t know if Sameer actually believes Butcher, or if he’s working for him because if he doesn’t, Butcher will kill him. Either way, Sameer has “perfected” the Supe-killing virus; all they need to do is test it on a Supe called Rock Hard (a knockoff of Marvel’s Thing), because he’s as powerful as Homelander. So, if the virus works on Rock Hard, it’s bound to work on Homelander. Why “perfected” and not perfected, though? Because there’s a good chance that once the virus is let out into the open, it may not only kill every Supe, but also cause the extinction of humanity. That’s nuts, and the only two people who address this mammoth in the room (when Butcher isn’t around) are Hughie and Kimiko. Since they are outnumbered, they have no choice but to go along with Butcher’s plan. And given how going along with Butcher’s plan means that they might end up dying, Hughie gets freaky with Annie while Kimiko does the same with Frenchie.
Rock Hard Becomes Impenetrable
Butcher, Milk, Kimiko, Hughie, Frenchie, and Annie arrive at Rock Hard’s crib in their van. They wait for his minions or helpers, Sheline, Jetstreak, and Countess Crow (who seems to be a knockoff of Raven from Teen Titans) to leave for the day so that they sneak in, knock out Rock Hard, bring him to the van, return to the lab, and then test the virus on him. In classic The Boys fashion, the whole plan goes sideways as they find out that Rock Hard has turned into a giant mountain of volcanic rocks, which basically means that he can’t be transported to the lab. So, the immediate solution is that they bring the Supe-killing virus to Rock Hard’s room, release it there, and see if it works. Well, there’s a problem with that too; Rock Hard is able to hold his breath for hours. If the virus dissipates before Rock Hard starts breathing again, then the test will fail. Butcher orders Milk, Annie, and Frenchie to figure out a way to get the virus into his body, while he, along with Kimiko and Hughie, goes to the lab to fetch the virus. First things first, Annie and Frenchie work on making sure that Rock Hard’s room is airtight, so that the virus has no chance of leaking into the outside world.
Rock Hard tries to hinder that by shooting lava out of his phallus (yeah, all that volcanic rock that has rendered him immovable isn’t his flesh; it’s his semen), but he misses them by an inch. Annie and Frenchie speed up their room-sealing process so that their job is done before Rock Hard is ready to shoot again. While they are doing that, another little hiccup is unveiled in the form of Countess Crow; yeah, she’s still in the building and hasn’t left with Sheline and Jetstreak. Thankfully, she isn’t much of a threat and is easily apprehended by Milk. However, Annie, Frenchie, and Milk have a difficult choice to make: should they keep Crow in the room with Rock Hard and leave her to die with him, or should they let her go because she’s just a child? Annie has been watching Starlighters dying while trying to bring an end to Vought’s tyranny, and she also feels responsible for the massacre at God U (the one in Season 2). Yet, she takes the hard call of letting Crow die alongside Rock Hard. Butcher, Hughie, and Kimiko come across Sheline and Jetstreak while going to the lab, and although Hughie and Kimiko want to help the people that those 2 are rendering homeless, Butcher compels them to focus on the mission at hand; they have no choice but to comply with Butcher.
Homelander Thaws Out Soldier Boy
When everyone has left the funeral house, Homelander is seen talking to the ghost of A-Train. It’s evident that he regrets his actions, but he doesn’t want to stop being Homelander, walk away from the limelight, and work on himself. He knows that he is too deep in the swamp to go back to a time when he hadn’t turned into a power-hungry maniac. All he can do is turn things up to eleven, destroy his critics, and hope that when the dust settles, whoever is still standing gives him the love and devotion that he thinks he deserves. That’s the long-term goal; the short-term goal is to find A-Train’s replacement, and Homelander thinks that Soldier Boy is the guy for this job. At the end of Season 3, Soldier Boy was put in a cryogenic capsule by Grace and stashed away in a secret CIA facility. After Grace’s death, President Calhoun (the seventh vice president of the USA was a guy named Calhoun, by the way, and he looked a lot like David Andrews, the actor playing President Calhoun) had unearthed Soldier Boy and handed him over to Homelander. In the present day, Homelander unboxes Soldier Boy in his bedroom and tells him to go find Butcher for him. Soldier Boy is in no mood to work for Homelander, but when Homelander promises Soldier Boy that he can help him clear his name (everyone thinks Soldier Boy is a Russian spy, given how he was captured and experimented upon by the Soviets after Vought found his replacement in Homelander), Soldier Boy changes his stance and decides to go and find Butcher.
The father and the son (technically, that’s their dynamic) barge into a meeting between Sage, Ashley, Calhoun, Deep, and Firecracker, where they are talking about executing Homelander’s plan of curbing free speech and ramping up the crackdown on the Starlighters. Homelander announces that Soldier Boy is going to lead the nation-wide search for Butcher and co., and that’s that. Later on, Sage confronts Homelander in his room and asks him if he has thawed Soldier Boy out because he’ll be useful, or if he has let his daddy issues govern his actions. Homelander states that there’s no sentimental value attached to Soldier Boy; he has merely brought him out to serve as his “canary in the coal mine.” Soldier Boy’s gonna go out there and test the strength of the Supe-killing virus; if he dies, he dies; if he lives, great. Sage seemingly buys this lie and allows Homelander to continue with this “plan.” Later on, she’s confronted by Ashley, who wants to do something to stop Homelander instead of enabling him, but Sage doesn’t listen to her. That frustrates Ashley, and when she goes to her car to vent, it’s revealed that consuming Compound V has turned her into Professor Quirrell; as in, her “inside voice” now has a face, and it’s protruding out of the back of her head and giving her advice.
The Undead Soldier Boy
While Butcher, Hughie, and Kimiko are driving back to Rock Hard’s crib with the vial of the Supe-killing virus, their car is attacked by Soldier Boy. Butcher takes on Soldier Boy while Hughie and Kimiko start running towards Rock Hard’s house with the Supe-killing virus. The fight between Butcher and Soldier Boy attracts Sheline and Jetstreak’s attention, and Soldier Boy tasks them with going after Kimiko and Hughie. Kimiko engages Sheline, and she either kills Sheline or knocks her out; I heard a neck-snapping sound, but I’m not entirely sure if Sheline is dead. Jetstreak almost kills Hughie and exposes the world to the Supe-killing virus, but thanks to Annie, both Hughie and the vial of the virus are in one piece. Annie delivers Hughie to Rock Hard’s house, and just when he’s about to crack open the vial in Rock Hard’s room, Soldier Boy gets ahold of him (because he has followed Butcher all the way to Rock Hard’s house). But Hughie reveals that he only has the protective case that the vial was in; the actual vial is in Frenchie’s hands, and he has already unleashed the virus. Soldier Boy, Rock Hard, and Jetstreak are the only Supes in that room, and all of them start coughing up blood and develop boils. Even though humans aren’t supposed to be affected by it, Hughie, Milk, and Frenchie mask up and watch the Supes die.
Once they are more or less sure that they are dead, thereby proving that the virus works and Sameer hasn’t duped them, Hughie, Frenchie, and Milk completely seal off the room, as well as the rest of the house, and leave the scene with the rest of the group. What about Crow? Yeah, Milk has let her go because, firstly, she’s essentially innocent and just wants to go back to her family, and secondly, she is Milk’s daughter’s age, and Milk can’t bring himself to kill someone who has her whole life ahead of her and isn’t evil. She is a product of the corrupt system created by Vought, and there’s a chance that she might use her powers for the good of mankind after experiencing kindness. The titular group heads back to their lair and does a low-key celebration of what they have achieved in the last few hours. It’s “lowkey” because now that they know that the virus works, there’s a distinct possibility that a time will come when they have to release it somewhere that isn’t a closed room that they can seal off, and all the good Supes will die with the bad ones. If that’s what’s on their mind, they should rethink their strategy because, in the ending of episode 2, it’s revealed that Soldier Boy isn’t actually dead. Yeah! He is alive. In what condition? That I can’t say. However, he has clearly managed to return from the brink. That can mean 3 things. One, there’s a flaw in the virus, and it has to be stronger, and if the Boys don’t figure that out before unleashing it on Homelander, they will fail. Two, the virus has killed Soldier Boy’s powers, and he’s just a regular guy now, which is still a win. And three, Soldier Boy is a zombie now, and if he is a superpowered zombie, then the protagonists and the antagonist may need to join forces to take him down.
