The Boys “We Gotta Go Now” was written by Ellie Monahan and was directed by Batan Silva, whose other credits include Chicago Fire, S.W.A.T. and Mayans M.C. Once again the title applies to each of the storylines in the episode – more or less. I have to admit that this episode felt a bit disjointed for me, partially the result, no doubt, of the team being broken up, but at least partly also due to the writing on this one.
A lot of the episode actually centers around the Supes filming one of their movies. This one centers on Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) discovering her sexuality. Just one more way for Homelander (Antony Starr) to twist the knife and another way for Vaught to exploit her. We also get another example of how not good Homelander is on his own when he goes rogue to take down a terrorist and kills an innocent civilian. Homelander doesn’t appear to care about killing an innocent bystander, but he really cares when he finds out his popularity is down almost 10 points. And of course, Homelander makes it worse when he decides he’s going to handle it himself.
Homelander’s racist response to the boy he killed is echoed by Stormfront (Aya Cash) who also considers them simply ungrateful and not worthy of them. She offers to help him, but he initially turns her down.
Butcher (Karl Urban) goes to a punk club and intentionally gets himself beaten up. Hughie (Jack Quaid) finally gets through to Butcher, who tells him he’s out and that Hughie is his canary. The reference is clearly to canaries that were used in mines to tell the workers that they were running out of oxygen... Hughie goes to Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) and tells him about the call, and MM gets concerned about Butcher’s canary remark.
Butcher shows up at his Aunt Judy’s (Barbara Gordon), who turns out to be the local prescription drug dealer. She’s also babysitting that dog that Butcher said he didn’t have last year – but Terror IS in the comics and I was thrilled to see him! Great casting… There’s a little footage of the Deep’s (Chace Crawford) wedding on a gossip show on her television – it’s clearly as about as truthful as the movie being shot. The Deep and Cassandra (Katy Breier) also appear together on Katie Couric Live. Cassandra acknowledges the Deep’s “past” issues, but declares he has a beautiful soul. Couric also asks them about the Church of the Collective.
Also on set, A-Train (Jessie T Usher) tries to resist his swan song, but the director (PJ Byrne) won’t let him change a word of it, saying it’s above his pay grade. Starlight (Erin Moriarty) is ambushed by her mother (Ann Cusack) on set – at Stormfront’s instigation. Donna shows her usual good judgment in liking Stormfront, and Stormfront clearly knows that Starlight leaked the news about compound V.
I loved the gangsters debating about Hamilton right before Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) comes in and brutally murders them – it’s a spectacular sequence! Peeling the guy’s face off was particularly inventive! I have to admit that having Kimiko turn to be an assassin at this point was one of the things I felt was disjointed even though she’s actually an assassin in the comic.
Hughie and MM show up at Aunt Judy’s. Hughie asks him to come help with Stormfront, but quickly admits that they came because they were worried about him. Hilariously, Hughie thought he heard a dog toy in the background when he was on the phone with Butcher, making MM assume he was with Terror – but Butcher had been in a drug store at the time. MM asks about Becca and Butcher lies. It’s also hilarious that Hughie is holding Terror’s fuck pig – not realizing that IS a dog toy… Butcher goes to leave, but when he sees Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell), he comes back into the house – and he confesses that Becca didn’t want to come with him.
MM comes up with a plan to buy them time to fortify Judy’s house – they report a gas leak and the street is overrun with first responders.
Seth Reed (Malcolm Barrett) and Evan Lambert (David Reale) – named for Seth Rogan and his producing partner Evan Goldberg – are back to pitch Maeve’s coming out with Elena (Nicole Correia-Damude). There are actually three Timeless alums in this episode – Barrett, Claudia Doumit as Victoria Neuman, and Goran Visnjic as Alastair Adana, Head of the Church of the Collective.
Elena is utterly appalled when they want to completely change her into a Lesbian Ken doll – and then offer to “compensate” her. Maeve tells Elena that she can’t leave – it’s not safe, Homelander will kill her, so Maeve is going to find a way to take him down.
We get a really good scene between Hughie and Butcher. Butcher is going to sacrifice himself so that the others can get away, but Hughie calls him on it. Hughie then confesses that he felt like ending it after Robin – and still does. I loved Urban’s reaction to this – it’s subtle. Hughie oversteps when he tells Butcher to get over himself because Becca is alive and just doesn’t want him – and that just pisses Butcher off. Butcher accuses Hughie of not wanting to be alone – and going to any lengths to avoid it, but that seems a lot like projection by Butcher to me! He’s going to move Hughie out of his way to leave, but then MM is there too.
After the assassination, Frenchie (Tomer Capon) follows Kimiko to a church where she gets an envelope from Cherie (Jordana Lajoie) who is acting as her agent for the hits. The Albanians are the ones ordering the hits… Frenchie tries to dissuade her – he tells her that he understands her rage, but this isn’t helping to get Stormfront. Capon and Fukuhara are great in this scene. Kimiko tries to tell him how alone she is and how much her brother meant to her. He in turn is frustrated because he doesn’t understand because she’s refused to teach him to communicate with her. He finally tells her to just go and be a monster. She takes another assignment from Cherie.
We get another shot of the Deep as a spokesperson for the Church of the Collective in a commercial – that contains our first look at Adana too – in a commercial that A-Train is watching on set when he’s interrupted by Stormfront. Apparently, she used to belong to the Church – when it used to be PURE! She basically calls A-Train garbage and she’s also clearly happy he’s being retired. Ashley (Colby Minifie) has to threaten to expose A-Train for using compound V and giving himself a heart attack to get him to agree to go quietly. A-Trains shoots his final scene – and Homelander doesn’t even show up to shoot it with him – it’s his stand-in.
Victoria Neuman holds a rally, declaring that they are going to hold Homelander accountable for his “war crime” and that the house judiciary is holding hearings on Compound V. Homelander surprises everyone by suddenly landing beside her. She looks shocked AND terrified. As soon as Homelander references the “Walk Like an Egyptian” dance that she did online, I was completely certain that Neuman is a stand in for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Meanwhile Ashley watches it all unfold in horror. She is literally pulling her hair out. She’s not wrong. Homelander doesn’t get the crowd on his side – he simply makes it worse. I have to say that I was shocked when he lasered the entire crowd to death…. And then we see, he was just thinking it – and at least for now he even scared himself.
We get our first look at Shawn Ashmore (Lamplighter) who appears to be working for Stormfront. He’s clearly being made to do something nefarious to some 17 year old kid. She tells him that the kid is a hero… Homelander arrives in her trailer for help. She’s clearly the Queen of social media.
Once the first responders leave, Judy takes them all to the “taffy room” where she keeps her drugs. The house is booby-trapped and they wait for Black Noir to show up. Hughie takes the opportunity to ask Jude who Lenny is as she said that he looked like him. It turns out that Lenny is Butcher’s younger brother – the only one who could calm him down. Judy points out that Butcher needs someone like that. Before Judy can tell Hughie what happened to Lenny, the booby-traps start going off.
They all flee the basement when a tear gas cannister comes down. Judy’s house is trashed. Butcher gets them all out the side door and goes after Black Noir. It’s hilarious when Noir shows up and he’s got nails and glass sticking out all over. Hughie and MM burst back in and MM gets stabbed and Butcher gets knocked almost senseless. He comes to in time to save Hughie by threatening to reveal pictures of Ryan.
Noir picks Butcher up by the throat, and then Noir’s phone rings. It’s Mr Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) and he’s ready to make a deal. The pictures never surface, and he’ll call off Noir. Noir leaves and Butcher assures Hughie that he does have the pictures. Hughie smiles – because it seems like Butcher is back in the game, but I don’t think he really believes the pictures exist.
Maeve shows up at the Church of the Collective where the Deep is giving out books on the Church – much to the disgruntlement of the people in line who just want food! The Deep is thrilled to see Maeve and asks if she’s there for the church – “oh fuck no!” Maeve offers to be the woman who tells everyone he’s not a piece of shit – even though she really does believe it – to help him get back into the Seven. Clearly, she wants his help to take down Homelander.
Back on set, Starlight breaks into Stormfront’s trailer. Stormfront wants to know why she’s in the trailer. Starlight goes on the offensive and tells her to stay out of her relationship with her mother. Stormfront compliments her on her performance – and then reveals that she knows how Starlight got the V. Starlight counters with Stormfront being Liberty – and then calls her on being a racist. The two are interrupted by Homelander, who has come to thank Stormfront – he’s up 5 points!
Butcher tells Terror he’s not giving up – he’ll bring her Mum back. He doesn’t leave before giving Terror a gift – a Homelander doll and then he tells Terror to “fuck it” – which is what Terror in the comics does to whatever Butcher sics him on! Butcher says good bye to Judy and the music comes up – “Dream On” by Aerosmith – totally a Kripke choice!
The music continues as Homelander and Stormfront engage is very rough, very weird sex, including him lasering her tits. Talk about hitting all his fetishes!
It seems like everyone had to get going in this episode – Homelander after killing the terrorist and dropping in on the protest; Kimiko after the assassinations; Frenchie after not getting through to Kimiko; A-Train from the team; Starlight from Stormfront’s trailer; and of course, Butcher, Hughie, and MM from Black Noir. Fortunately, it doesn’t look like Butcher’s gotta go from the Boys just yet though! What did you think of this episode? There were some fun moments for me, but over all, not the most satisfying episode for me. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
