The second season finale of The Boys is already here and I’m really sad about it! Pumped to see what happens, but sad nonetheless. Mainly because I know they aren’t even done writing the third season yet and filming won’t start until at least the start of the year. I digress. Let’s recap all that went down in that finale! SPOILERS AHEAD. There, you’ve been warned.
Homelander and Stormfront have taken Ryan and Becca is not okay with it. She manages to escape the watchful eye of Vought and make her way to Butcher. He vows to find him, but then goes behind her back, striking a deal with Vought CEO Stan Edgar that he’ll hand Ryan over to them so long as he has Becca all to himself. That’s cold. But not really unexpected, right? Edgar keeps his word and finds where Homelander is hiding with Ryan and trying to teach him how to use his powers.
Butcher’s suggestion is to just kill all the supes, but Annie decides to try Queen Meave for help to no avail. She yells at them and then sadly exclaims that no matter what they do nothing changes (a little like now, no?). Annie and Hughie almost give up hope until A-Train hands over Stormfront’s Nazi file, since she’s the reason he’s not allowed back in the Seven. As the boys prepare for their rescue mission, the two email all of Stormfront’s incriminating history and bascially blow up her reputation.
Now that she’s distracted and the public denounces her, it’s almost easy for the boys to distract Homelander into leaving Ryan alone. Becca and Butcher retrieve him, but overcome with guilt, Butcher admits his betrayal. Becca forgives him but Butcher insists they get out now so Vought won’t find them. That’s when Stormfront shows up and causes a bit of destruction. She wrecks the getaway car, but then the remaining boys and Starlight try and fight her. Really, it’s Kimiko and Starlight doing most of the work, but Stormfront is too powerful…until Queen Meave shows up! Here’s is The Boys‘ cheesy girl-power moment, but they also realize that, having Frenchie murmur, “girls really do get it done.” Look, it was much more palatable than Marvel’s take, but still a little eyeroll worthy.
They beat on Stormfront mercilessly until she flies away right to where Butcher, Becca, and Ryan have made it to in the woods. She’s about to asphyxiate Becca to death until Ryan’s fury finally unleashes and chars her to stump limbs and half a face. Unfortunately, Becca is caught in the crossfire and succumbs to a pretty gnarly neck wound, but not before telling Butcher that Ryan is good. Thinking they’re in the clear doesn’t last long when Homelander shows up, but Ryan chooses Butcher over his own dad. Before he can do anything about it, Queen Meave shows up again to save the day showing Homelander the video from the plane wreck. The only thing Homelander would hate more than losing his son is losing the love of the people.
You can tell he’s furious that she’s been able to derail him like this, but she’s got the upper hand for now. Once again, Homelander ends the season alone (and masturbating on top of a building), but he’ll almost surely be back with a vengeance next season somehow. Kimiko and Frenchie are together and Mother’s Milk goes back to his family finally, while Butcher gifts Ryan a necklace from his mother before passing him along to Mallory and the government. She tells him they’ve got a new task force tracking supes if Butcher wants in, but he walks away (for now). Hughie also tells Annie, who I assume is now his girlfriend, that he needs to stand on his own two feet.
In the land of the Seven, A-Train is rewarded with his place back in the group with his efforts of stopping a Nazi, which leaves the Deep pissed. Again, I’m hoping for more from him, so maybe next season he’ll snap somehow. Either way, we see Alastair on the phone with Victoria Newman, the congresswoman who had it out for Vought, telling her he’s got quite a few more incriminating files on other supes. Right after they hang up, Alastair’s head explodes and we see the congresswoman right outside his office with the cloudy eyes of a supe. What does this mean?! All I know is it can mean good things, especially since we see Hughie ask for a job on her staff at the end!
What’s Victoria’s agenda?! She’s against Vought, but is also killing key people who were going to help? Also, it seems the fates of Black Noir and Stormfront are sort of up in the air. Both are half dead for very different reasons (remember that tree nut allergy?). I really hope Queen Meave and Elena can reconcile next season, too. And even though Ryan is now in “good hands” I can’t help but think that either Homelander or Victoria are going to get to him somehow. The episode was great, albeit a little rushed at times. It did tout some really relevant messages about crap that’s going on in our world (white supremacy anyone?), but it smartly addressed them without the audience realizing it until they wanted you to. Aside from all of that, I also felt like it ended in a nice little bow, unlike last season. Perhaps that’s because they didn’t know at the time that they were getting another season. I can’t really complain though because this show is just so violently amazing. Until next year (hopefully)!