The Boys S02E05 Review – We Gotta Go Now

NOTE: Here is my review from Soda & Telepaths that was posted back on September 26th, 2020

The Boys S02E05 “We Gotta Go Now” Synopsis

The Seven take the time away from their usual work to film their team up movie, which has been rewritten to include Queen Meave coming out as a lesbian (technically she’s bisexual but marketting thinks lesbian is an easier sell) and A-Train leaving the group. It also gives a lot of chances for Stormfront and Homelander to get closer.

Homelander will definitely need to get close to someone who can help him because he got filmed killing a civilian while he was on a mission, an action that has caused him a loss in popularity.

Meanwhile, The Boys finally find where Billy Butcher is hiding and after catching up with him, they see that they’ve been followed by Black Noir. Now the gang must try and work together, despite their many arguments, otherwise the silent ninja assassin will probably tear out their spines and do other nasty things to their very vulnerable bodies.

The Good Boys

Everything that happens on the set of the Seven movie is pure gold. They really recreated the feeling of those early DC films so perfectly, down to the dingy colour grading that really looks awful in a superhero movie. It really helps set up the future of Meave and A-Train’s story for the season, while also taking potshots at the sillier elements of this genre that is well loved enough to deserve such a sharp parody like this series.

One of the few times Homelander leaves the set of the movie is so he can deal with his extra-judicial murder of a civilian and seeing Homelander actually facing some kind of consequences for his actions is powerful, from his barely held in rage to a fantasy sequence that feels like it’s a precursor to something. Just saying, when Homelander finally kills a room of protestors, I called it.

Back with The Boys, the big fight between them and Black Noir is the big action set piece of the episode and it’s where our main three (Butcher, Hughey, MM) are at their absolute best. So we’ve got our main team finally together again and seemingly ready to fight as a group, wonder how long before they take that fight directly to Vought?

The Church of the Collective plot is such a blunt Scientology dig that I can’t help but respect it. The cutaways to the interviews or the awkward PSA video, everything down the font just screams Scientology and it’s so creepy that I’m wondering if this ends with several cups of Kool-Aid.

The episode culminates with what has been expected since the first time Stormfront and Homelander met… the two of them realising they’ve got a lot in common and having violent superhero sex. Now the manifestation of America’s id and, I can’t repeat this enough, a literal goddamn fascist are a power couple. It’s honestly kind of hilarious how on the nose this is and it makes you wonder just how much is Stormfront going to influence Homelander over to her way of thinking, and just how disastrous is that going to be.

The Bad Boys

So this is a personal pet peeve but early in the episode there’s heavy use of strobe lights in a club scene where Billy Butcher gets beaten up. Look, I get that clubs have strobes, but could we maybe not have the strobe lighting aimed right at the camera and cause a massive headache for the viewer?

Also, still unsure why Stormfront’s on the team. They got a little better by bringing up that Vought’s been moving her around like a catholic priest but putting her on this team would be like if the catholic church moved a pedophile priest directly into a leadership position while knowing about their past actions… not saying it hasn’t happened, but there’s gotta be a good reason for it and I’m getting tired of waiting for it.

Stray Observations

“This new Joss rewrite really sings” This. Show. Is. Not. Subtle.
“When you see it on your uncles Facebook page, then you know it’s working” How does The Boys understand politics better than just about every left-wing party?
Billy’s aunt Judy is badass and his dog Terror is the most adorable good boy, I would very much like a series where Aunt Judy sells drugs to her neighbours while Terror just sits there being perfect.
The Deep’s awkward interview with Katie Couric is perfect. I don’t know why I am really enjoying his weekly bout of humiliation but it’s just incredible.
Kimiko ripped a man’s face off with her bare hands… I have no comment, it’s just a gloriously over the top image that actually had my jaw on the floor.
Can someone please tell me where I can get a copy of that poster of Meave waving a pride flag in a field of sunflowers?

In general, The Boys keeps going from strength to strength and has found a way to balance it’s sharp satire of the most popular genre of the day with it’s blunt screaming of “Hey, did you notice there’s fascists making America their plaything?” and every week it just gets better. With only 3 episodes left to go before the end of the season, it feels like we’re setting up something big for the finale and I won’t be shocked if one or more of these characters aren’t around in season 3.