This is the Boys Podcast on TV Podcast Industries. We're back with the final season of the Boys, this time talking about episode two, Teenage Kicks. What qualifies someone as an active starlighter? That's going to be anyone who posts pro, starlight, or anti-Homelander content.
Honestly, the Vaught Book algorithm does most of the work for us. We've got, what, 52,000 data points on every user. We truly live in an age of wonder. But we are going to need to triple the amount of freedom camps to hold them all.
Love it. It's just that after we've paid for Vought's military contracts, all those corporate tax breaks, and for the existing freedom camps, Treasury's running a little dry. People get twitchy at rounding up their neighbors, but they'll flat out revolt if we raise taxes. The president is thinking how insane this is right now.
He'll back you. You can do it. Speak up. And a lot of these sympathizers are Vought customers.
Won't there arrest eat into your bottom line? No. We'll just start selling ads on VAT+. Wow.
Amazing Ashley, you're a real Che Guevara. Welcome back, fellow tobe-thumping boys and girls, to our boys' podcast on TV, Podcast Industries. We're talking about Season 5, Episode 2, Teenage Kicks, all through the night. I am one of your hosts, Derek.
Hello there, fellow boys and girls. I am one of your other hosts, John. I hope you're taking care of your anal wellness during this month of April. Yes.
Just like The Deep. It's April Anal Awareness Month. I guess so. Or Anal Health Awareness Month.
I guess so. Not just Anal Awareness Month, that's a very different month. That's a very different month. Welcome back, fellow boys and girls.
Yes, we're on to our second episode of this season of The Boys. Yeah, it does feel like we're podcasting all through the night, really, doesn't it, at the moment? It certainly does. Yeah, we've been covering Daredevil Born Again, Season 2.
We've been covering Invincible, Season 4. And now we on to The Boys Season 5 as well So four podcasts from us this week It been a fun all week It one of the best weeks of TV that we had and one of the busiest weeks of TV podcast industries that we had For sure Yeah absolutely And I'm not even doing the Invincible podcast. I'm only on Daredevil and The Boys podcast. So yeah, lots of stuff for you to do.
So well done. Thank you very much. I have to edit the podcast as well because I'm starting to get really tired while I'm recording. So I'm making lots of really silly mistakes that need to be edited at eight.
They don't even sound funny, so I can't put them in an eight-takes, John. Well, I don't know whether the tiredness is a factor there. Oh, thanks, John. Thanks.
Well, if you haven't subscribed to the podcast to listen to all of those shows, you can go over to our website at tvpodcastindustries.com and subscribe to any bloody podcast player of your choice to listen to our podcasts about all the shows that we cover. We'd also love to hear your thoughts. You can email us to feedback at tvpodcastindustries.com or pop on over to our Facebook group at facebook.com slash groups slash TV Podcast Industries or over to our Discord. You can get the details of that in the show notes for this very episode or search for TV Podcast Industries and you can leave your thoughts on the spoiler posts over there for each of the shows that we're covering.
Yes, indeed. And of course, fellow boys and girls and of course, fellow quizzes. A quick reminder, our Boys Season 5 Pub Quiz and the second question will be available later in this episode. Just as a recap, gather together all those eight answers to this season's pub quiz questions right at the end of the season and then email them all in with your location country tours at feedback at tvpodcastindustries.com to be in a chance with getting your hands on some of the boys' goodies.
Yes, we want to make sure we're able to send out the boys' goodies that we can get for you. So just let us know where you are when you're sending your answers at the end of the season. Great stuff. Looking forward to that, John.
Yeah, absolutely. Me too. Another good question coming up. Fantastic.
But Derek, so that we remain edit-free, what are some of the episode details for Episode 2, Teenage Kicks, or Through the Night? Well, the showrunner, of course, is Eric Kripke. This is based on the comic book series from Gareth Ennis and Derek Robertson. The executive producers for the show are Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.
This episode was directed by Shanna Steen. The second episode of The Boys, after she directed Season 4, Episode 5. Also directed Gen V, Season 1, Episode 7. and we'll be directing two episodes of the upcoming series, Vought Rising, as well.
Jessica Chow who the writer for this episode has a very privileged history on the boys She wrote the Herogasm episode That explains something from this episode It certainly does And she also wrote the Tech Nights episode of Gen V as well. Excellent. Where Tech Nights looking for any portion of storm, I guess we'll call it that. Yes, yes.
The old obsession with holes. Yes, indeed. So, John, do you want to tell us what they gave us with your synopsis for the boys season 5 episode 2 teenage kicks sure butcher leads the rest of the boys to a laboratory where dr samir shah has perfected the virus to take out homelander before they can be sure of the efficacy of the virus they need to do a test and plan to expose rock hard from teenage kicks to the virus the intended to kidnap uh rock hard but he has become so massive they are forced to test the virus at teenage kicks his crib following a train's funeral homeland's self-centered introspection makes him realize his isolation and that only the powerful can understand the powerful so he awakens soldier boy from cryostasis for paternal reasons sorry i mean tactical reasons and orders him to find butcher in exchange for clearing his name as huey butcher and kimiko get the virus from the lab they encounter Soulja Boy on their way back to Kix's crib, forcing them to flee. Huey and Camino race to get the virus to Frenchie Starlight and Mother's Milk, who have been readying Rock Hard and the crib for the test, while Butcher lures Soulja Boy towards the crib as well, as he sees an opportunity to test the virus on Homelander's father.
As Soulja Boy goes after Butcher, he is accompanied by Teenage Kix members Jetstreak and Sheeline, who have been rounding up Starlighters in the neighbourhood. Chasing Dan and confronting Kimiko, She-Line is knocked out, while Jet Streak pursues and catches Huey. Wave flies high to drop Huey. Saved by Starlight, Huey gets the virus to the house, just as Soldier Boy and Jet Streak arrive.
Inside, the two Supes are tricked to go after Huey, but it is Frenchie who releases the virus, killing Jet Streak, Rock Hard, and seemingly Soldier Boy. The team make it back to their laboratory, where Samir tells them the virus does not transmit to humans, allowing Frenchie and Kimiko to be reunited. While Frenchie wants her to leave because of the virus's lethality, she refuses. Both Kimiko and also Starlight are all in on the plan despite the risk to them from the virus.
Back at the crib as Vought scientists begin to decontaminate the scene Homelander arrives and is devastated by the sight of the seemingly dead Soldier Boy As he turns and leaves, Soldier Boy suddenly awakens inside his body bag. Big reminder of Walking Dead there. It was a bit, and that's why it's interesting, isn't it? It's like, is he alive or has he become zombie Soldier Boy?
Well, yeah, we will see. That'll be interesting. Uh-huh. Yeah, it is.
Just that hinging up really suggests zombies. Yes, it does. We will see next week. At this time, we've got lots of things to talk about.
We have chosen our most interesting moments in our boys or protagonist moment, the seven or antagonist moment, and our other outstanding moment from the episode. John, I think you're going to kick us off with our first boys or protagonist moment for the episode. Yes, it's A Train's funeral. Firstly, I think I was surprised that Vought were holding a funeral, that Homander was in attendance, and certainly they were giving him this official send-off, really, the morning of A-Train.
Yeah, I think last season they'd said that he was off on manoeuvres in another country. It was a secret mission that he was on, or even actually in Gen V they mentioned that he was on some kind of secret mission for the government. They couldn't say where he was, so they could eventually convince him to come back and join the Seven. So they never actually connected him with the Homelander.
So here they kind of have to have this ceremonial funeral. Exactly. So I think, you know, this was really interesting and surprising because, I mean, equally, they could have just let him just keep it quiet. Do you know what I mean?
He'd been kept out of the spotlight. So I thought it was really interesting that they gave this huge Vought send-off with the funeral. So tacky. So tacky, including the coffin being in his colours.
You could tell that if you rubbed the coffin, it would be the same kind of style as his outfit. It would be soft and cloth-like. I think the other side of this was Homelander's kind of attendance here. But in two parts.
One, I think, you know, the power of the praise by the Ezekiel version 2. Is it O'Father? Yes, the character in the comic book is called O'Father. Weirdly, it's Davy Diggs who plays the character, but weirdly in the credits they don't have him named there.
But it is O'Father in the comic book, so I presume it's the same character. He's aligned to Homelander. He's got a superpower, which is to orace effectively and kind of scream. And in that scream, it convinces people to jump on board.
It's that power of persuasion as you see them all come to their feet, with the exception of Homelander, who really doesn't seem to be enjoying the experience. Not that he would do, because it is a funeral. I get that. But he is mourning a train here.
And it is interesting, though, as O'Father does deploy his power of praise and persuasion, there's a voice that Homelander hears. It says, my sweet boy. And his face lights up as he hears this sort of motherly tones directed at him. Yeah, who is it, John?
Who is it? I'm guessing it could be Madeline Stilwell. It is 100% Madeline Stilwell. Yes.
Okay, excellent. so I thought that was a really interesting little moment along with Ashley almost losing her wig so it is a wig as well it was hilarious but it is confirmation that her taking of the V compound has not brought her hair back like I kind of thought in the first episode this is still a wig she still has ratty hair underneath her toupee Well, we will talk about that. Agreed, agreed. So there was that element.
And I think the other thing here, which kind of it plays into, you know, Homelander has his own kind of personal moment with A-Train after the funeral, after the church has cleared out. And it's only the kind of introspection that Homelander could do. One that maybe in a sense starts off as sweet, where he says it didn't need to come to this. You know, you clearly sense there is a loss here.
But his ego is so fragile. He doesn't understand because he says, you know, why does this keep happening to me? You know, he counted on a train. He loved him.
And he says, I tried to be your big brother that you never had. And, you know, he gave him the second chance. He wasn like any of the others who are like snakes And I mean he does like then say I know my leadership style can be problematic So it all kind of unwinds He is in a sense trying to grieve what he, someone who he considered to be his best friend, but then manages to switch it. Well, that's how I'm taking it.
And I think it's the complexity of him. He kind of feels whether it's he needs to do this or whether he is compelled to do this. Well, nobody's watching. he's doing it for himself but what he's doing for himself is compartmentalizing the fact that he murdered A-Train because he interfered with the plans of Homelander and the reason he murdered him Homelander has to justify as being A-Train's fault that's all this is about is him getting out loud that he's not at fault here it's an introspection that only Homelander could do it probably starts off with the best of intentions from him personally but ends up where he has to justify how he's done things, how it's played out, and that he's not to blame.
And in a sense, that little moment with Madeline Stilwell saying, my sweet little boy, it is a boy he's not grown up. No, not at all. It's the breast milk. It's everything.
He's a spoiled child that has just been allowed to get everything he could for his life. And A-Train didn't allow him to get everything he wanted, was killed by him and now Homelander has to squarely put the blame on A-Train's shoulders. Even the reference that he's making is back to season one. He's talking about Popclaw, who was A-Train's girlfriend in season one, who turned over information to Butcher.
And if you don't remember, the choice that Homelander gave A-Train was kill your girlfriend or I'll kill you, effectively. So, I gave you a choice and you chose the wrong thing back then. Yeah? That's effectively Homelander saying you chose your girlfriend over me you should have died back then but due to how nice i am as a person it's just so awful awful um and so homelander and i think it's a good refresher of exactly this for me like i think sometimes you can lose sight of these elements uh to homelander and i like that they do bring it back here by referencing madeline stillwell episode one season one almost you know so it was it was really good so this is my boys moment even though in a sense it doesn really involve any of the boys I think we say H was one of the boys It was absolutely For sure.
What I mean is it is kind of a little unusual. Yeah, absolutely. It's fine. It's fine.
This hasn't worked as a format for about three seasons. We're keeping it done. We're on the last season. We don't have to defend it anymore.
I must say I absolutely loved that the opening of the episode was the gospel group singing faster than the speed of light, which I think was either a repurposed version of the theme tune to A-Train's movie, or this is just a song that they've created for his funeral. But seeing the deep and Firecracker just dancing along to it as if they're at a concert rather than a funeral was hilarious. I love just the turn and the two of them. Of all of the characters within the seven, it is definitely right in firecrackers wheelhouse to connect the funeral of uh one of their members to god and to spirituality and to christianity and bringing everybody behind god and that they are justified in their fight against uh against um the starlighters who are the actual devil saying that starlight herself is an emissary of satan connection there is no uh metaphor here i'm saying she's actually the daughter of satan so we are justified in battling against and you see firecracker in the audience hands in the air going yes yes believe yes you know yeah but you do get an interesting uh reaction from the deep here when um oh father is belittling um starlight as a harlot and a poor yeah the deep does kind of like have a puzzled look over him like almost a questioning puzzled look over him as to why that is being referenced, because he knows that's not the case.
Yeah, because he raped you back in the season. So it is, you know, even the deep, maybe something from A-Train's little conversation with him, there's a little turn possibly starting there, who knows. But it was just interesting to clock that kind of like puzzles, questioning cock of the head from the deep in response to O Father's sermon. Well, interesting.
Yeah, I genuinely just thought it was the deep going. Well I was kind of kicked out of the seven for three years because of how I treated her And now they calling her a harlot and saying that she so villainous That interesting Maybe it is Yeah maybe it that Yeah but a really good opening for the episode at this funeral here So much kicking back to the beginning and taking us forward into this episode. I want to talk about the realigning of the boys in this episode to Butcher. Butcher brings them into his pad and we find that he's had Dr.
Samir Shah with him, creating the virus and interestingly he has completed work on the virus. He's actually finished work and is ready to go and ready to be deployed but the big thing is they don't know how it's going to work. They need to test it to see whether it will be able to take down someone as strong as Homeland. Yeah and interestingly the questions they're asking are things like will it kill every single soup on Earth when you open it?
Will it kill all humans on Earth? Maybe it will leave the planet completely extinct. And I just love that they start to align again around Butcher here. You know, Butcher has always been the leader.
And each season there has to be a moment where they kind of go back and join up with his plan. You know, Huey instantly is trying to work out a way that all the rest of them will team up together, take the virus away from Butcher because he knows he will just drop it at a second's notice, killing everybody on the planet if that's what happens with it. He doesn't really care about testing. And it seems like this idea from Butcher is to placate the rest of the team.
really he wants to find out how it works but he doesn't really care if the whole planet is killed and that's what that's what huey believes anyway um huey's kind of the outlier here's the one uh who wants to take the virus from butcher and run yeah exactly but you have mm kind of going we well i think this is we're all going to die anyway so it doesn't matter as we heard last episode he doesn't think he's ever getting back to his family he thinks if everybody dies well that's the consequence uh interestingly starlight is right on board with this uh as we hear throughout the episode she blames herself for all of the deaths of the people calling themselves starlighters over the last year even to the point you know when she brings in the clothes for the rest of the crew she says these were from my friends none of them need them anymore so these are all the people that have been on starlight side and have been killed or taken over the last year she blames herself for all of that and now she's willing to align herself with butcher whether she dies or not because in her mind 10 000 dead soups or the entire world well that balance works perfectly for her she's absolutely fine with every soup dying, including her, including Kimiko, and including Butcher now. She's absolutely fine with that, as long as the rest of the world survives. And it's more, as she describes it later to Frenchie, it's more because, well, if she dies, then she has paid the price for all the things that she put everybody else through. If she gets to live in a white picket fence with Huey and gets married and has kids and goes on with her life, well, she doesn't pay the price.
So she wants to pay the price. Yeah, no, I quite like that little conversation between Starlight and Frenchie later on where she says, you know, it's easy for me to do what I do. I'm bulletproof, my fellow starlighters aren't what she goes, I sent fellow starlighters to a shallow grave and that is why effectively as you say, she doesn't care and she needs to follow them to that shallow grave and this virus does this huge deep scars and guilt here on starlight and in particular as in this episode you see the policy change from the president's office because of Vought, because of Sister Sage, around rounding up all Starlighters who have done effectively questionable memes or posts on social media. Either something supporting Starlight or anything anti-Homelander, or anti-Vought even.
Sorry, it wasn't even just Homelander, it was anti-Vought as well. Yeah, exactly. So there's that context as well. Equally then, like you say, even Frenchie agrees, which is interesting initially because you think, you know, Kimiko has that reaction to Frenchie agreeing that the virus needs to be deployed.
But he's agreeing so he can effectively spend time to come up with and formulate a cure. So he's not as such okay with using the virus, but he wants to protect Kimiko. And so they do make up. But it is just his take is one.
I agree, but it's so that I can get close to it, understand it, in order to see if I can develop a cure. Exactly. So that if she gets infected, then he can help protect her, save her, cure her. Yeah.
But equally, that would be, you know, important for Vought to have a cure. Well, exactly. Exactly. And interestingly, yeah, yeah, they definitely make up, by the way.
There's lots of making up throughout this episode, including with Starlight and Huey as well. Yeah they all making up and making out this episode But interestingly after it been deployed the conversation that happens between Frenchie and Kimiko there is we can the only way to survive this is to go to an island as far away from civilization as possible because this can be stopped There is no way to reverse the impact of this. It will kill soups. Humans are safe.
But I can't work out a way to protect just one person with superpowers from this virus. basically so very interesting yeah definitely yeah that's me um for the for my boys moment just the alignment with butcher again they have he has found a way to get into this crew and make them go along with his plan once again which is interesting you know much to the hatred of huey who spends the entire episode right beside butcher's side in case butcher drops the virus killing everybody yeah he also wants to make sure he has his eye on butcher all the time and that you have that you know moment where butcher is like noted you know he knows huey in essence is after him he's he no longer trusts him um because of how he's gone absolutely he goes is there anything human left in you yeah you know interestingly you do see um butcher have that tender moment with Terra, his bulldog, giving him his sort of meds. So there is something possibly there but he's not letting that creep out in front of the other members of the boys. Absolutely not.
The only tenderness he has for anything left in the world is for Terra. But nice to see Terra back actually. It's so unusual because Terra is a character that's quite a violent little character that will chase down and kill everything around it. Yes, here, as you say, he's got his medication and he's just placated sitting beside his boss.
It's really cool. Right, that's it for our first section for our protagonist moments. John, do you want to move us on to our antagonist moments? Yes, my seventh moment is surprise.
It is Homelander releasing Soldier Boy. That didn't take a while. No, it didn't. And I guess from his moment with a train by his coffin on his own, he kind of comes to realisation is why does this keep happening to me?
Is it because I'm the powerful one? You know he he kind of in a sense at least for himself realises he isolated He thinks all the others are snakes and he needs to find someone else again who he can trust and that is his dad soldier boy and so he ums and ahs and i like the way he almost in a let me just do it so once it's done it's done i don't have to think about it and he opens up the the chamber to release soldier boy who wakes up very slowly and wonders whether that actually, one, he has been possibly defiled whilst being in cryostasis by Homelander. There's some kind of incest thing going on here, which Homelander refuses. I do like the tension here around, well, you betrayed me, you betrayed me.
How do I know you won't stab me in the back once I've done what you're asking me to do? And I do kind of like that there is this uneasy truce here. Absolutely. It seemingly goes a lot better once Homelander has introduced him to the Seven.
But this is the surprise for Sage. She didn't know this was going to happen. He kind of makes it clear to Soulja Boy he's got the president in the palm of his hand, as the president makes Soulja Boy Manhattan, as well as Homelander, who doesn't want any milk, trying to show his manliness here in front of his father. it um but but i do kind of like this he's effectively offered him to be pardoned for his communist crimes because he's being uh blamed for no carrie but but he's not that's the thing well um and he was captured by the communists but so he's been offered a comeback here and a pardon and i think and number two on the number two on the seven uh which deep is very offended by but as as Homelander says we're going in a new direction deep competence which is excellent really really good so I kind of really enjoyed this I think what I loved later on after Homelander's surprise to the Vought Board to Sage the President the Seven is he's kind of I don't know he's like trying to imagine how it would be like being in one of those chambers so he's putting himself into the chamber as sage arrives in and i do like you know he like almost caught with his hands in the cookie jar by sage he like oh you know susan hayward just does a great job in that moment as she walks into the room and you can tell it just crossing over her eyes going where would he be he definitely hasn't left this room oh god he's in yeah exactly he's in the tank isn't he um and i do like like she just goes you did it for tactical reasons didn't you and not just because he's your father and he's like yeah yeah yeah yeah so when he dies if he dies about this virus as well that he hasn't also told him about so the whole trust thing is already out the window because Butcher Boy tells him about it when Soldier Boy finally catches up with Billy Butcher and the other members of the boys so that trust thing there is immediately kind of broken I would suspect from Soldier Boy but this little to and fro between Homelander and Sage where he's like she's just, no no when he does eventually die that you're not going to be devastated and upset because you did this for tactical reasons, not for personal reasons and he's just lying and she probably knows this but it's interesting isn't it it's just so good everybody's seen the episode so we can talk about that end sequence where Soldier Boy is in the body bag and you see Homelander seeing the body.
Now, he knew the virus was going to be there. It was very likely the virus was going to be there. So he knew something was likely going to happen to Soldier Boy. He knew the virus was out there, right?
It almost seems like Soldier Boy is trying to give himself justification for the havoc he's going to wreak from this episode onwards. And the justification here, it's almost the reaction that he has to the death of Soldier Boy is like, oh how could you possibly die and take away my only connection to family that i have left i'll have to kill everybody because of that you know that's what it almost almost seems like but i don't know i think i have to wait till i see the next episode as to whether he is trying to hold that back because he what he promised sister sage or is he trying to push it forward to justify his future actions i just don't know with homelander and that's one of the things i love about this relationship between these two characters sister sage and homelander because she's the most intelligent person on earth. Remember last season how it ended and she was like, well, that was my plan. Sorry I didn't tell you about it, but I thought it was more important that we accomplish something.
The relationship between the two of them is she's the most intelligent person on earth and still can't work out what this guy is going to do next because he is so erratic, has no real concept of how normal people would deal with situations. And Sister Sage cannot predict what the outcome is going to be. She just has to flow with it and has to manage him and handle him. I love that, again, in that conversation with Homelander where he says, you're probably not used to dealing with people of such high level.
Big personality. Big personality, that's it. You see Sister Sage just kind of throwing her eyes up to heaven going, you don't even know what I've had to do to deal with you. Exactly.
But she's got the intel now. I mean, that's the thing. You can see, like, she cursed when Soldier Boy walked in. She's like, oh, feck, you know?
And it's like, she's coming back then to Homelander. She's getting her intel because how do I handle this? Or how do I put in place contingency or plans to protect me at least or what i've done and to try and predict what he will do next yeah so i she is fully aware he did this not for no tactical reason and yes it has a tactical benefit but he did it because he believes soldier boy was the only other person that he would be able to have a connection with he's lost still well that's why it's interesting that her little my sweet boy to him is there it he's lost a train who he says i thought i was your bigger brother yeah i never had whether that's true that's what he believed just a reminder a train has a big brother i know exactly who is in a wheelchair because of what the soups did did to him and so he does have a bigger brother homelander saying the big brother that you never had is meaningless yeah no i agree but he believes that yeah oh and also you say lost battle still and lost a train he murdered both of them yeah exactly but also then with ryan as well he doesn't have all the people he's wanted to have that point of contact with even uh the person who he effectively raped in order to get ryan you know yeah exactly he is are no longer in his life it is this pure isolation. It is sort of the encroaching suspicion on everyone else.
Yes. Like we seen him have Yes And he thought that this person because they like me because they of that superior member of the soup community you know that higher tier and that they understand what it is like to be me and that's why he does it but he also ruins that by not being upfront and honest about the virus being present and the danger that soldier boy would in effect be putting himself in. So it's just a really great moment. It is.
Very strong. Very strong. And I think there is the old adage that Homelander's falling into here, the old adage of if you look around a room and all you see are a-holes around you, you're probably the a-hole yourself rather than everybody else in the world being an a-hole, right? That's kind of probably where we are with Homelander.
For my antagonist moment for this episode, we're going to have to talk about Teenage Kicks. There's obviously the virus that's going on, but I want to talk about the team themselves. This is not an unknown team for fans of the boys. Teenage Kicks is where A-Train started.
It's where Sister Sage started. It's where Translucent, the first soup that we saw killed in the boys where he started out. Murmur, another character that we saw in season 2 or season 3 of the boys, was also a member of Teenage Kicks. And now we have the current team who are basically just influencers living in Soup House, which you can watch 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The Kicks crib, exactly. Yeah, welcome to Kicks Cribs. So they're not really doing anything other than being paid to be influencers, right? That's their job.
I love how it slightly backfires on them. The way that the boys know Rock Hard is alive is because there is a 24-hour live stream and they can see someone going downstairs and feeding him every day at the same time. So they know he must still be there. But the team themselves, you have Jetstream, who's a fairly basic super character.
He's fast and can fly and can punch. There's no real standout elements about him, except for the fact that he seems to be really forceful and making sure everybody hits their advertising marks when they're doing their work. we have Sheeline who is the Catwoman replacement pretty disgusting version here because she has her own adult sized litter tray that you leave to crap in all the time and she has a furball knocked out of her and I'm there going she got her and I guess she got her in other places where is Yes absolutely Where is the football coming from Or is she just licking the rug in the house Well quite literally I did. Exactly.
So I do think that was hilarious. Right into Kimiko's face. Yeah. But you even see her using her claws effectively to strike Kimiko.
I love that it is M.M. that finds the adult-sized litter tray, because again he's the person that has been cleaning his hands for five seasons and he's just walks into the room and goes that is disgusting yeah absolutely awful uh we also have rock hard who's very central to the episode uh similar to the thing he's like rock-like uh character or the blob again in marvel this massive uh character we'll talk a little bit more about that as well of course um but i just wanted to say interestingly in the comic books um teenage Kix does have a character like this who's a rock-based hero. Garth Ennis is from the UK and does have some Irish type of connections as well. So his character in the comic books is, well, it rhymes with Blarney Rock.
There's a little connection to Irish Rock, which I thought was great. You kiss it. Well, I don't know whether you would. Like the Blarney Stone.
Yes, like the Blarney Stone, yes. I guess. And the final member of the team is Countess Crow, who's very similar to Raven from the Teen Titans the Teenage Kicks are very similar to the Teen Titans in DC as well I was kind of interested in the fact that the Ravens were like why are you doing this influencing the Crows trying to persuade her not to do it I have to get my numbers up and all this kind of stuff but they're like saying what are you doing I like the fact that Mother's Milk says, you've only got two. You didn't used to have ten.
Like a murder of crows. Yeah, because She-Lion has been getting them. So I like the fact that She-Lion is also, not only does she shit in a litter tray, not only does she have furballs, but she's going after birds, actual birds as well. So I thought that was really good.
And I do like, obviously, just because um the way it plays out with her mother's milk finds her she tries to be all you know cutting with her and sassy but he's like i've i've got a daughter this this is just bounces off me yeah and and over the course of uh in a sense their weight whilst they waiting for Billy Butcher Huey and Kimiko to come back with the virus so they can test it outside of a controlled laboratory like they're intending on doing, that he kind of possibly sees some good in Countess Crow, some innocence, naivety that he feels doesn't justify by being exposed to this virus? Well, it feels like there's two sides of the soups overall. There's people that are totally willing to go along with everything that Vought wanted to do, and they not only play into it, they play up to it, like someone like The Deep. And then you have people like Annie January, Starlight, who was brought into The Seven thinking they were going to be this wonderful superhero team, and it feels like he sees a little bit of that in Countess Crow.
She's been brought into this teenage version of The Seven, and she's just been told that she has to go into makeup tutorials on screen and all of her birds keep getting eaten by one of the other members of the team and the fact that she's left at home and has to be the one to feed Rockhard and that kind of is her only job other than making these tutorials I would say that he sees a little bit of a well not kindred spirit because it's not him but similarity between what happened to Starlight so he's willing to allow her to get out. Interesting that Starlight was the one that decided that they would have to kill Kentus Crow because she's seen them as well so So they were going to kill her along with Rockhard, but M.M. allows her to go free. And Rockhard has effectively been chosen by Billy Butcher and Samir because, well, he's made of granite.
He's effectively going to be their lab rat for the virus test because nobody really gives two hoots about him. He's big and hard because he's made of granite and almost as strong as Homelander. He's kind of been out of the public eye, so in a sense people have forgotten about him. And when we see him, it's because he has grown into just a pile of rock that is over £30,000.
And he's basically speaking through a voice modulator like Stephen Hawking. Yes, like the text-to-speech thing that he can't even speak anymore. because he's gotten so big and so heavy. But the fact that he's been out of the limelight for a year because he had sex with Lincoln's head is...
is the reason why people don't care about this guy. So I really like that. And I love there's a very quick switch when Soldier Boy arrives on the scene, Butcher kind of goes, well, maybe this is a much better target. Everybody hates Soldier Boy and we can take him out by just using the virus on him, right?
Yeah, well, that's the opportunity that Butcher sees after we see Soldier Boy finding and tracking down Billy Butcher. It's another reason why Homelander releasing because you're the best tracker we have. He gives, I also like, he uses his shield that has been repaired, but it just breaks immediately after the first use of it. It's not exactly vibrating.
No, exactly. And he gets lured back to the Teenage Kicks' crib by Billy Butcher. Billy Butcher tells him straight out there's a virus, didn't your son tell you, effectively? and you have soldier boy shooting at billy butcher and then going oh so it is true you are one of us now so kind of all testing the water chasing down and you get this uh that you know the the deployment of um the virus then back at the crib yeah and it really should have guessed that soldier boy wasn't going to be killed by this virus because his reaction to the virus is completely different to the other two that it kills.
It kills Rock Hard, it kills Jetstream. Both of them have the blood coming out of their eyes and coming out of the black blood. So you see Frenchie, the virus is black, and you see then this black gunk being coughed up out of Jetstream, you have it coming out of the nose of Rock Hard, and then, in a sense, Rock Hard's head just shearing away, which was really brutal and you see Soldier Boy succumb to the virus but it's through the bubbling skin completely different reactions to it you get the bubbling skin on Jetstream as well but Jetstream has this reaction of effectively coughing up black gunk and you don't see that with Soldier Boy whether that's a hint as to why then he hinges up in his body bag at the end of the episode So theory and it the one that all of us should have because we all watched Gen V and we all watched The Boys But theory is that because Soldier Boy is one of the earliest created of the Supes using the original Compound V1 himself and Homelander and Marie Moreau are the only three, as far as we know, that are alive that have been created with that initial version of it. yeah and in addition you have Stormfront was also another one that had um being created through the original compound sorry Homeland is Nazi girlfriend yeah yeah um or mother or both yeah exactly so um yeah really interesting here I think the other thing I quite like is just the switcheroo you have um huey switching the virus to to frenchy soldier boy is chasing him down and but as he grabs him there's all these different uh metaphors being used and he is like just there going all your jokes are about dudes blowing dudes you're kind of obsessed he says and i just love like Soldier Boy doesn't know what he's really saying as he calls him a semen-swilling butt pirate and before that there's loads of others that he said, even to Jetstream he's called a come-forth bucket It's just great, I love Jetson Eccles in this role, it's really good some great stories from behind the scenes this season and the previous time he was on back in season 3 that because of himself and Eric Kripke having such a long relationship.
Jetson Eccles will basically just do anything because he thinks it's hilarious that he's being written for by Eric Kripke. So yes, really good to see this character back, even though he's absolutely abhorrent. He's a horrible, horrible person, but I do really like him on screen. Great stuff.
Yes, I think that's my teenage kicks moment for the antagonist side. Let's go on to our final moments. John, our other outstanding moment. What's yours?
Oh, mine's very quick. It does happen to relate to Rock Hard. And I love the fact that his mountain porn is flowing lava. And he does ejaculate hot, sticky, literally a hot load, almost taking out starlight in the face, I'm guessing, around a lava necklace.
Almost got you guys Yeah exactly But you have friends who go it mountain porn It mountain porn And you know for me as a geographer that just a hot dream And you should really see us geographers with geezers Oh, God. That's terrible. That's terrible. And the fact that I am that geezer doesn't help.
But this was just, yeah, you just don't see that coming, so to speak. And ultimately, that's why he has become so enormous. That's why he is £30,000 plus, because it is £30,000 plus of ejaculate that has formed and solidified around him in the form of, I guess, some kind of tectonic plate. Yeah, basically, you know, like Frenchie's trying to explain it like as if it's tree rings, you know, this is how long he's been here because of all of this.
He's sealed himself to the floor and can't move at all. You know, there's a conversation that happened between Butcher and Frenchie where they were going, well, how do we get this guy? You know, we've got to move him and we can't move him. He's stuck to the ground.
And Billy kind of leaves it with Frenchie to do it, saying, you know, well, we've dealt with whales before. And I was going, so Frenchie's going to find his a-hole, basically. And they're going to shove it inside him there, basically. That was what I thought Frenchie was there for.
But it turns out they just locked down the room and released the virus inside there. But he does hold his breath as well. He certainly does. And because he only does 12 beats per minute, he can hold his breath for a very, very long time.
Yeah, very good. Really good. And very funny character. I like it.
Absolutely. It's an outstanding moment because it's just one of those things that you don't see coming. Speaking of which, my outstanding moment is Ashley's head passenger. We finally have it revealed what Ashley's superpower is.
Poor Ashley. God. I love the fact she's lamenting. I didn't get any laser eyes, just a psychic tumour.
Yes. And, you know, very reminiscent of Professor Quill in The Philosopher's Stone. Yes. With the Voldemort back of the head.
But this one seemingly is for good. first of all this is the psychic element so it is this tumor that is reading the minds of others that how I viewing it given she does say it is psychic whether it very accurate I don know I still don know as we said last episode the the superpower that she maintaining that she has that she can read other people but she's not reading things that just a standard person in a room that pays attention uh isn't it could be reading so um maybe we put her in a room with somebody else uh you know sister sage says don't try reading my mind to her um yeah you you're not going to be able to read it yeah so i i've got the measure of you what you know because she's trying to find out what sister sage's angle is so ashley effectively interrupts her while she's about to get into her mexi melt from taco bell um and she's like you know why are we rounding up people but she's trying to not say that thinking homeland is in the building where she realizes um he's he's not in the vault tower she's like why are we doing this roundup you're clever what's your angle on this um and all the way through this you've got her inner monologue from the psychic tumor trying to get her to stand up with the president in terms of saying why they shouldn't go after americans for social media posts um you know anti-homelander pro-starite social media posts she's again trying to almost find a little bit of a wedge point between Homelander and Sister Sage there must be an angle here something different than Homelander's rationale for it I think just the thing with Ashley since we saw her in the first season is she's just trying to stay alive there are so many points when people that have been standing in her position or standing right beside her have been killed and she just tries to find her way out of it by failing upwards, by turning on people. You know, last season it was, she gave the list of the people that know too much information about Homelander and the Seven, and they were all murdered, except her, until they went, hang on a second, if she gave the list, she also knows too much about her, and that's why she took the V last season, you know? Here she's going, oh God, if people are going to be judged by their social media profiles, I will be dead 10 times over.
I need to find a way out of this that talks to Sister Sage. interestingly sister sage's angle on it is she really likes being treated well by billionaires and having billionaires fall on their knees in front of her because of the power that she's gotten oh now we've got sage with power um yeah i think there are loads of ways this series is going to end do any predictions of how I think it's going to happen. But every character already, by episode two, every character has given a reason for them to be either killed or to go up against Homelander or Butcher by the end of the season. So, yeah, I don't think there's a lot of people going to survive out of this season.
I think you have to have a definitive end for the boys in The Seven. I think there's a lot of people here that are going to die. But Ashley's head passenger is hilarious. It's really good.
The interesting conversation between the two of them was where the head passenger is trying to persuade her to rally a coalition in Washington. Yeah. That they will listen to it. Exactly.
And so I think what's kind of interesting here is it's almost like it's the angel that left the shoulder and got melded into the back of her head. Basically. And the devil one just fecked off somewhere and left her. but she's been left with almost this voice for good yeah like she's i mean she's also cutting as well so after she's trying to stand with the president as to why um you know the coffers are dry and so on she just brings it back to the book sheet or the budget accounts of vort and sister sage is like well we can just start charging on you know vort freeviews or whatever Surprise on Valt Pulse, yeah.
Yeah. That Disney Plus jacket. Yeah, and the inner voice is just like, oh, well done, Ashley. Real Shea Guevara.
Exactly. From the opening of the episode. So it feels like the voice might persuade Ashley. Yes, absolutely.
As I say, though, since season one, it's been Ashley trying to fight to keep her life, whereas this voice seems to be telling her how to save the world, how to save America, how to stop Homelander doing what he's doing. if Ashley steps up with all the knowledge that she has and stands in front of all of the people that are starting to turn on Homelander, well, maybe she can lead them to victory. So, yeah, there is a different voice in there, definitely. I'm just not too sure how psychic it is.
No, agreed. Great stuff. Yeah, really love that reveal, though. I thought it was very, very cool.
John, any other notes? Anything else from the episode you want to mention that we haven't mentioned? No, nothing from me. Derek, what about yourself?
The only thing I just want to mention is the love scene between Kimiko and Frenchie. I was totally pulled out of that love scene because they used one of my favourite songs Never Tear Us Apart by nxs and edited the hell out of it why would they do that why have they removed lines from the nxs song you know like i could i've heard that song probably a million times because it came out when i was a kid my brother was a massive nxs fan it was played all the time in our house um so i've heard it heard a million times and i was singing along with it because it's such a great song and they kept noticing how many lines they removed so that it fit the scene I just didn't like it and I can't believe they did that over the course of the top. Even if it's just the instrumental version of it. No, no, it's a beautiful song.
It's a great song. You could still use the lyrics. I know. But it just felt like the scene was edited badly because they edited the song over the top of it.
It's not even a radio editor of the song. It's just literally taking out the meaning in some lines. But I guess we couldn't have had an extra 20 seconds of sex on the show so they had to edit out 20 seconds of the song and it was just too much for me. But it was lovely to have lots of love in this episode.
It seems to be ignored a lot, especially on adult TV shows. It tends to be just violence and blood that's shown, so I'm glad we did get a bit of enjoyment and sex for the characters this episode. Yeah, absolutely. Great stuff.
Well, that's it for our chat about The Boys Season 5, Episode 2. Overall, John, what did you think of the episode? Again, this was really, really strong for me. I'd give this four and a half hot loads out of five.
Or maybe if we need our PG version, four and a half rocks off out of five. Very good. Very good. I never should be drinking my water while you're saying.
No. Yeah. This, again, lovely surprises around Rock Hard. Who knew that was going to happen?
Ashley's Head Passenger, again, really good. Just, you know, even at this late stage, final season, getting introduced to the teenage kicks, you know, you can kind of understand them through their equivalents almost, like with She-Line and Catwoman, Countess Crow, Raven, and so on. Really good to see that. Again, Homelander and Soldier Boy back in town.
And again, what is the deal with Soldier Boy after his little hinging at the end of this episode where he seemingly comes back alive, whether he is alive or undead, who knows. And decide. Yes. and again just how at least at the start here we have a realigning with butcher around well soups ultimately becoming collateral damage for eight billion people But equally towards the end you know whilst Kimiko has been pulled around to that way of thinking it's for more noble reasons than butchers.
And equally for Starlight, it's like she is being told that if you're not prepared to be there for yourself, then there is Huey and she has at least managed to get out her troubles to Frenchy. So I thought this was another great, strong episode for the boys. So yeah, four and a half rocks off out of five. Fantastic.
One other thing that I really do love about it is how it's tying back to the first early episodes of the show as well to close out the show. It's a great thing to do in the fifth season. You wrap it all up by tying it right back to the start as well. So really good stuff.
Oh, need a drink, Jonathan. I think we need to get down to the pub for the pub quiz. Yes, I think it is time for the pub quiz. So, fellow quizzers and fellow boys and girls, welcome to our pub quiz for the boys season five.
It is episode two, so, of course, we are moving on to our second question of the pub quiz. Here it is. Teenage Kicks member Countess Crow only has two crows left. What are their names?
That's very good. If you say the names of the crows with the crow as the surname, I'll give you a nice little gag in there. Yeah, so two names. John, do you want to get the question one more time?
Sure. Teenage Cake member Countess Crow only has two crows left. What are their names? Fantastic.
That's the second question of eight. Send in the answers at the end of the season to feedback at tvpodcastindustries.com with all the correct answers and your country of origin, and you could be in with a chance of getting your hands on some The Boys goodies for the final season. This episode and, of course, the pub quiz are brought to you by our supporters over on Patreon. You can support us by going over to patreon.com slash tvpodcastindustries or you can support us with a one-off donation by going over to buymeacoffee.com slash tvpi and buy us a coffee over there.
You can also support us, of course, by subscribing to the podcast and sharing it with your friends because sharing the podcast is sharing the love. The love. sharing the lava yeah indeed uh but shall we get into our feedback section as well because we do also love to get your thoughts theories and observations on anything to do with the shows that we cover so for episode one first up on discord we have dr bob who says truly the best and worst of the boys all condensed or should that be distilled into this opening killer of an episode Loved Kimiko finding her voice and lack of social skills. Still adore the Frenchie, and quite brilliant that the end of A-Train is the mirror to his introduction, avoiding the woman crossing the street, unbalancing and coming to a hero's end.
Yeah, really liked that. Yeah, definitely. Really glad you enjoyed this first episode, Dr. Bob.
Hope you continue to enjoy these episodes as we move forward. Also on Discord, we have Ken Lark who says, I just caught up. My only real criticism is the weird audio mixing with Kimiko. Sounds like she's dubbed in, but there's no attempt to mix her audio into the scene.
Interesting. I didn't notice that. No, I didn't. But that's really interesting.
I wonder if it's just so unusual hearing Karen Ficarra speak that we're just not connecting with it. Maybe that's what it is. I'll have to check it out, Ken. Look, I didn't notice any difference in how she speaks.
I do love that they go back and forth, especially in episode two, between her speaking and her using the sign language. It's almost like their secret language between her and Frenchie. When he wants to reiterate how strongly he feels about trying to keep her alive, that's his priority. he moves directly into sign language to say how strongly he feels about it.
It's like their connection is through that because they've spent so many years not being able to speak to each other. So, yeah, I really like that. Exactly. Great stuff.
Thanks so much, Ken Log. And, of course, Dr. Bob. Absolutely.
Over on email, we got an email in from Coffee and Vodka on both episodes. He says, greetings fellow race run defenders. How do you say this is the last season without saying this is the last season? Well, you kill off the Catalyst character from the first show of the first season.
But what an honourable way to go with almost ironically meeting his demise by avoiding a second hit and run and laughing in the face of his murderous oppressor. You'll be missed, A-Train. Their take on the thing was impressively disturbing. But what else would you expect?
Of all aspects of these two episodes, my favourite, like many, no doubt, has to be the new and improved Kimiko. Her social stylings had me thinking, finally, some representation. Ashley seems to have gotten her powers from the bottom of the barrel especially considering the cursed mind reading would be in the face or two of her insecurities and that ending oh can't wait to see what zombie soldier boy is like question time why was Frenchie considered so essential to Billy when the formula had already been perfected a great start to a great end 4.5 Scott take shields broadcasts and tackle bell takeovers out of five peace take care coffee and vodka lovely stuff coffee and vodka um yeah i i'm kind of with you on the points you've raised here you know the a-train thing was really good i mean it's been my points for the first two episodes um and ashley i'm always going to adore her i just think in many respects she's probably the reflection of what I would do in that situation or 90% of people think of being helpful and really not helping at all. Kimiko finding her voice is great stuff as well.
And yeah, interesting, you just call out Zombie Boy. So I'm really intrigued to see what the story is there, whether he's just alive or... Alive but undead, so to speak. Yes.
On the question that you have, Coffee and Vodka, yeah, the minute I read your question, I went, oh, you're right there. But when we went back and looked at it, Billy Butcher doesn't actually say he wants Frenchie to complete the virus. That's everybody else's assumption because Frenchie's job is he's the chemist in the crew. What Billy has always used Frenchie for is finding out how to kill Supes.
So, Billy has the virus completed and Frenchy's job seems to be that he's the one that will work out how to use it on um Rockhart yeah because when they're having the conversation Frenchy seems to connect the fact that they're in uh Pennsylvania the outskirts of Pennsylvania because they're close to Rockhart so he's the one that knows who's there knows how to use it knows what Billy's uh Billy's intention is and he's there to work out how to use it properly right so I think that's what Frenchy's actually therefore why he's so important even though the formula has been perfected it could have just been an error in the writing room but that's how i justify it as yeah he's also the most resourceful like you see that at the freedom camp as well where he he the one getting uh additional supplies in uh doing all the dealing um you know with with drugs or whatever toilet wine so all of that kind of stuff yeah so I think there's that element as well he's a real linchpin for Billy Butcher to just get things done so yeah great stuff thanks Coffee and Vodka as always and finally on Discord Dr Bob says in relation to episode 2 Just when I thought Love Sausage and Bushmaster had pushed the limits of what a hero could do, we get the accretion of rock cars, the place where every geological comic fan had never let their mind wander. At least I hope that's true, John. It is, I must say. It came as much as a bolt out of the sky as it did for Starlight.
Absolutely. And yes, I had really allowed my mind to wander in that direction. But in the end, what is lava but the birth of new rock for planet Earth? Yeah.
The moving of our tectonic plate. Yes, indeed. It's Father Earth ejaculating. Exactly, exactly.
Dr. Bob continues, on top of that, we see our heroes being heroic, self-sacrificing believing in kindness and using the enemy's strength against themselves questions remain will the psychic tumor be a force for good ultimately will soldier boy be impaired or just give volt the source of a vaccine will deep recover from sharing his thrill at laser eyes well indeed yeah no they're really interesting questions i'm hoping the psychic tumor is a force for good in Ashley that she comes up smelling of roses. I hope she survives to the last episode. I think Ashley is the one, I know I love loads of characters in this show.
A lot of people have the Sword of Damocles over their heads right now but Ashley is the one that I'd love to see survive to the end of the show and maybe lose the superpowers at the end and still be alive That would be a really cool thing to have her as the last person standing at the end i think soldier boy as the vaccine i think you right yeah that that should be something that's on the cards and well as we said though if soldier boy has similar um origins to homelander which we think homelander is strong because uh he was created with a version of the initial V. Maybe this is just telling us that this virus can't kill Homelander. Well, that's true. Yeah.
You know, so that's also massively concerning because that's the only reason they're creating it, right? We'll see as the episodes go on again. It's the enjoyment of seeing how this all plays out over the next six episodes. And will the Deep recover from sharing his thrill at LaserEyes?
Who knows? I do think this is probably, again, another sort of, wake-up call for the Deep as to what he's doing, why he's done it in the past, why he's doing it anyway. It must be clear as day at this stage for the Deep. I mean, Homelander says it to him, it should have been you.
So he knows Homelander has literally no respect for him in this episode. He's no longer the number two. He's been replaced by Soldier Boy. You have that little moment at the start with the deep at um a train's funeral so like it'll be interesting to see how the deep is portrayed moving forward so i'm kind of intrigued by that um because he probably deserves to have an uprising from the deep uh literally against him but equally um who knows how they'll play it out it'll be good to see but speaking about how uh the deep is portrayed this season um chase Crawford and Nathan Mitchell doing the podcast, the gag of manhandled podcasts that we saw last episode.
They've released a full episode of it, and it is about 20 minutes long, isn't it? Oh my God. It is very funny in what they're doing. Chase Crawford is, again, living in his own world with this character of The Deep.
He just does such a good job. Go check it out. It's over on YouTube. Love all these connected promotional materials out there I always love them how they do them for Prime Video so go check those out Great stuff I think that it for our coverage completely John for this episode Four episodes in one week only three next week, John.
Excellent. Yeah, looking forward to getting back with lots more stuff next week. Yeah, definitely. The penultimate episode of Invincible, episode seven, coming out on Wednesday.
We've got the fifth episode of Daredevil, Born Again, season two, coming out on Wednesday. We've got the third episode of The Boys, Season 5, the final season, coming out on Wednesday. So, yeah, we'll get our podcast out as soon as we can after that. We certainly will.
We certainly will. And thank you so much, fellow boys and girls, for listening to us for our coverage of Episode 2 of The Boys from Season 5. We'll be back next time with our chat about Episode 3. And, of course, back with our next pub quiz question as well.
Absolutely. Thanks so much for joining us. Speak to you next time. Thank you again so much, fellow boys.
Until next time, keep watching, keep listening, and keep using your Sigma Solarium. Bye. Bye. Bye.
Bye. There's a voice that Homelander hears. It says, my sweet boy. And his light faces up.
Yeah, John, I won't have to do any anything at all. And his face lights up as he hears this sort of motherly tone. Oi, oi. Well, exactly.
And interestingly, yeah, they definitely make up, by the way. There's lots of making up throughout this episode, including with Firestar. Oi, oi. Oi, oi.