It’s Friday and you know what that means – it’s time for The Boys Season 2 Episode 5! Last we’d seen our heroes, they’d all been pushed to the breaking point. Which means that the expectation for The Boys Season 2 Episode 5 to be an explosive one was quite high. Well, it certainly was explosive, but not in the way you’d imagine. Let’s go over a quick recap of the episode before getting into those top 5 moments!
The Boys Season 2 Episode 5: Recap
The episode begins with Maeve filming a scene for The Dawn of the Seven. Right from the setting to the dialogue, this scene pokes fun at MCU and DC Comics. Maeve is unhappy with her shot because of the changes in the script. But, her angst at the bad writing disappears quickly when she sees that Vought has brought Elena into the fold. The PR and marketing team present their strategies to Elena to announce her as Maeve’s love interest. Elena hates it and almost walks out until Maeve promises to get Homelander for this.
A video of Homelander goes viral. It shows him taking down a terrorist and killing a civilian in the process. His points are down significantly. Stormfront offers to help him with his branding and image. Homelander declines.
Stormfront and Starlight talk about what they know of each other. Stormfront says she knows Starlight released Compound V to the media, while Starlight confesses that she knows that Stormfront is actually Liberty.
Meanwhile, The Boys are trying to track down Butcher. They follow him to his aunt’s house. Butcher shares a touching scene with his doggo, Terror, and if you weren’t already stanning Butcher, you’d be doing so now. We learn that Butcher’s aunt (who is taking care of his dog) is a drug dealer. Butcher has a verbal confrontation with Hughie and leaves the house. However, he spots Black Noir on the roof and comes back.
The Boys hide in the aunt’s basement while Black Noir destroys the house. Eventually Butcher tries to confront Black Noir. When the latter goes in to hurt Hughie, Butcher stops him by telling him that he knows Vought’s dirty secret. He threatens to expose Ryan’s existence, and Homelander as a rapist. Black Noir’s phone rings while he chokes Butcher. It’s Edgar. He strikes a deal with Butcher to keep things quiet. In return, he calls off Black Noir.
We see Homelander trying to address a crowd of protestors by seemingly saying all the wrong things He doesn’t appeal to the Millennial mentality. Instead, he talks about protecting America and killing terrorists. Ashley watches the live stream of the same on her tablet and freaks out.
Homelander enters Stormfront’s trailer. She shows him the memes her team has generated in support of Homelander. She even tells him that he’s up by a few points, with words like “patriotic” associated with him. Homelander’s seemingly disastrous speech is revealed as a marketing tactic.
Finally, Homelander and Stormfront engage in the Devil’s Tango. Oh, and Kimiko now works as an assassin – there’s a mildly gorey scene with her killing Russian gangsters. Frenchie, who trailed her to keep her safe, asks her to stop, only to be rejected again. He finally leaves her alone.
The episode ends here.
The Boys Season 2 Episode 5: Review
While the first few episodes of season 2 have been rather slow, this one picks up the pace and gets the story churning forward. One of the most brilliant things about this season is how they show that it’s very easy to manipulate the media. This episode is mostly about that, and if you’re interesting in marketing, then you’ll love it.
The Boys Season 2 Episode 5 also has a few touching scenes. We learn about Butcher’s dead brother Lenny, who was also his canary. Butcher’s aunt indirectly asks Hughie to take on that role. She even says that he reminds her of Lenny. It’s clear that Hughie loves and respects Butcher a lot, and is more than willing to help protect him the best he can.
The Deep gets married off screen, and we’re treated to the news via a television broadcast. Maeve also contacts him, alluding to the fact that they need to take down Homelander together. With Stormfront in the mix though, there’s a high chance that they will be distracted by this mission, and may just have to take care of her instead.
The Boys Season 2 Episode 5: Top 5 Moments
- Homelander’s Marketing Strategy
Honeslty, this ranks as the top moment because its playing into what seems to be the ethos of this entire season. Stormfront represents both what is good and bad about internet culture, and its interesting to see her manipulate her audience with such ease. Homelander’s branding, which can be deemed Republican, is pretty on-point too. It’s a great reminder that though the loudest voices on the internet often are from Millennials or leftists, there are other parties at play that influence the way things turn out.
- Butcher and Terror having a moment
We’ve been treated to Butcher’s softer side a few times this season. However, to be fair, the character seems to oscillate between soft, and uber mean. In The Boys Season 2 Episode 5, we see this soft side emerge again. He talks to Terror and promises that he’ll bring his mom home. He protects Hughie from Black Noir and we really get the sense that he cares for the boy. And, we learn that Butcher’s parents are alive, his father’s dying of cancer, and his mom wishes he’d call more. All of this humanizes him even further, adding to the character’s richness.
- Homelander and Stormfront teaming up
With two of the evillest people on the show joining sides, we’re going to be in for a great couple of episodes moving forward. Both Homelander and Stormfront have displayed a keen sense for altering public persona. However, while Homelander relied on traditional methods like live interviews, Stormfront understands new media. With the two combined, we should really get a sense of how fake news and propaganda works. Stormfront represents the liberal side and Homelander is alt-right. Interestingly, Stormfront is also a racist, though, so far, she hasn’t let her personal views interfere with her media work. Perhaps she is building up to something super horrifying.
- Edgar controlling Black Noir
Earlier this season, we’d seen Edgar talk about who really controls The Seven. His speech was played over shots of Black Noir killing a terrorist, implying that the Supe is working for him. This was confirmed in this episode when Edgar calls Black Noir mid-fight. The minute Edgar asks him to leave Butcher alone, he does so. This is pretty interesting because in the previous episode, we’d seen Black Noir crying when Compound V was revealed. We don’t know anything about this character’s motivations. He’s not even a part of The Dawn of the Seven! What’s that about?
- Starlight and Stormfront having it out
Finally, we’re being given constant updates on Starlight’s character development, with her growing a bit harder each episode. Having her conform Stormfront with so much ease is a big deal. She’s definitely come quite a way from the quivering girl in awe of Vought and The Seven, to a spy who’ll do whatever it takes. But then again, she might secretly be waiting to overthrow everyone so that she can take the crown for herself.
All in all, The Boys Season 2 Episode 5 was one of the stronger episodes this season, perhaps the strongest in terms of moving the plot forward and offering insights into the character’s motivations. The only dull part was watching Kimiko become a random assassin. Cool, girl, you do you.
These were our favourite moments from The Boys Season 2 Episode 5! What moments really stood out for you? Let us know in the comments below.
