1x07 The Self-Preservation Society

[8.2/10] I’m glad that things all come spilling out in the penultimate episode. This isn’t a season of television where they save all the good stuff for the finale. Instead, we have (at least) two major happenings that are incredibly relevant for the story and for the characters.

The first is that Homelander figures out that Hughie is a part of the team that’s working against the Supes, and confronts Annie over it. It's a double whammy for Starlight, because on the one hand, it is a jaw-dropping reevaluation for her to realize that the boyfriend she saw as the one goo ting to come out of her transition to big time superhero is, in fact, someone who’s been lying to her and using her this whole time. And on the other hand, it also makes her vulnerable in her job because it puts her in the crosshairs of a suspicious Homelander who thinks she’s complicit and maybe even a collaborator in what’s been going down. The blend of the personal and the practical devastation of that is some strong writing to be sure.

But my favorite part of it is a comparatively small moment. Maeve stands up for Annie, puts her neck out for the newbie, recognizing Starlight’s pure goodness and the fact that she would never. It’s a marked contrast to Maeve’s cynical instruction to Starlight to “never let them see you like that” in the first episode, a sign that she has, in fact, become an ally given what she’s seen and done since that point. It’s a cool arc for a character who hasn't had as much focus as some, but who’s quickly become one of my favorites on the show for her personal struggles and how she lets herself get a little better thanks to them.

On the other end, we have the fact that the Anti-Supe Squad gets completely burned after Mesmer’s turncoat act with Homelander. It throws everything into chaos because now, not only the agitators we’ve seen, but their friends and family, are at risk because of who they are and what they’ve done. And like the situation with Annie and Homelander, there’s a parallel to Billy blaming Hughie for all of this, since he’s the newbie. Each side thinks the newbie’s relationship with the member from the opposing camp has compromised them and made them work against their team. And in each instance, someone on the inside sticks up for the new addition (Maeve and MM), reasoning that it had to be some other, more plausible explanation, even if they don’t agree with the young fool for acting stupidly and potentially allowing this to happen.

I appreciate that parallel a lot. It’s a subtle sign that despite their different aims and temperaments, the two groups aren’t as different as they think.

More to the point, I like what it does for the people involved and for those in their orbit. As we learn from Maeve, the Supes don’t have much in the way of folks close to them, because it’s a vulnerability. Yet, the normies working against them do. MM’s wife and daughter and Hughie’s father are all suddenly in mortal danger thanks to their actions. The civilians who face this unimaginable peril due to all of this adds a new dimension, and I appreciate that despite some pretty grisly business conducted by the Anti-Supe Squad, this is a way to show that their actions aren't costless.

Even better, I like that it motivates Billy to set aside his crusade against Hoemlander in order to get them the protection of the CIA. It’s a marked contrast from his decision just a couple episodes ago, when it was bring down the Big Blue or bust. Him hearing MM out, making nice with his CIA contact for the good of the innocent, is the most noble and decent thing he’s done so far. MM’s statement about him doing “something human” is telling, and helps make Billy sympathetic beyond his sad backstory.

We get more detail on that backstory, which is good given his brutality toward Mesmer in this one. We find out that he was recruited by the infamous Mallory in much the same way he recruited Hughie. She showed him footage that suggested something terrible had happened to his wife thanks to Homelander, and brought him in to help fight the good fight. It adds color to how, once upon a time, Billy was a reasonably normal guy, turned radical and brought into this fight by a tragedy and someone who, like Billy with Hughie, tried to get him to channel his anger and frustration into something that could make a difference.

(Yet, I’m forced to wonder, what really happened with Homelander and Becca. THere’s a part of me that wonders if the sexual relationship between the headlining supehrero and Billy’s wife was, in fact, consensual, or alternatively, something Becca felt psychologically pressured or implicitly threatened into complying with rather than a physical force situation. I suggest that only because it seems like that would be an ironic twist of the knife for Billy, if his wife willingly slept with Homelander, at least in Homelander’s eyes, and Mallory manipulated him to get him to join her crusade much like Billy pressures Hughie, with the added twist that while Becca wasn’t technically forced, she was quietly menaced by a man with godlike powers in the way Homelander quietly menaces everyone to get what he wants. Just have to wait and see, I suppose.)

To the same end, we learn more about that situation from Homelander’s perspective, if only that he wasn’t the one who disappeared her. He’s kind of a dummy, but he’s smart enough to piece together that Billy is the one who’s after him/them, and that it almost certainly has something to do with Becca. The issue is big and important enough to him that he’s able to resist Stillwell’s charms and ignore her come-ons in favor of sniffing this thing out, which shows what a major deal it is to him.

It even prompts him to go confront his handler and surrogate father, Dr. Vogelbaum, over what precisely happened. The flashback scenes are horrifying, with a Cronenberg-esque sense of grotesquery in a birth gone wrong. The concept of a superbaby clawing its way out of its mother with deadly consequences for both chills the blood, and marks Vought as something truly abominable rather than just corrupt.

Nonetheless, there may be nothing more chilling than when Homelander calls himself the greatest superhero ever, and Dr. Vogelbaum demurs and calls him “my greatest mistake.” It’s the clearest explanation we’ve had for why HOmelander is the way he is, someone who grew up without parents, who was an experiment rather than someone with a real childhood, whose psychological hang-ups turned him into the sociopath he became. No wonder he has such mommy and daddy issues. As I mentioned before, it’s odd watching this back-to-back with Stranger Things, because there’s a sense in which Homelander is the dark alternative future that one of the major characters on that show could have had.

For all the major events here, there’s also room for some levity and strangeness from the other characters. I get a bizarre kick out of The Deep being forced to live a humdrum existence in Sandusky, Ohio. Everything from him being only a short drive to the metropolis of Toledo, to him befriending a grocery store lobster who’s butchered before his eyes is a darkly funny portrait of someone who’s fallen from grace. At the same time, the scene with his lady admirer is genuinely disturbing, both for the fact that he sees what it’s like to be on the other end of sexual assault, and because the image of someone fingering his gills for sexual pleasure while it hurts him makes the skin crawl.

Speaking of “heroes” I kind of hate but find myself oddly sympathetic to, I’m intrigued by A-Train here. The dude is a monster, but like so many here, also someone who’s been molded that way. He’s not just cruel with Hughie (though he’s also that). He genuinely blames Hughie for Popclaw’s death, despite him being the one who effectively pulled the trigger. A-Train excuses himself for killing Robin as an accident (even if he laughed about it later). But blames Hughie for deliberately setting in motion the events that led to Popclaw’s death. He’s genuinely upset by it, and is so used to the corporately mandated self-preservation world of Vought that he legitimately can’t see how there was any other outcome possible. It’s as pitiable as it is terrible and unfair.

All that said, the part of this that compelled me the most is the relationship between Annie and Hughie. They genuinely care for one another, and their moment in the hotel room together is a representation of the intimacy and connection they share. But they’re also on different sides of a war, with one having lied to the other, and that’s difficult, if not impossible to reconcile.

Annie being justifiably affronted that someone she thought she loved was not only a different person than she thought, but someone who took advantage of her, is relatable as hell. On the other hand, so is Hughie trying to explain that his feelings for Annie were real at the same time he thought he was acting for a greater good and to get justice for someone else he cared deeply about. There’s no easy answers here, and everyone’s motivations and reactions are comprehensible, which is the mark of good character writing.

Overall, I am very impressed at how well The Boys brings all the dishes it’s kept simmering to a boil as we approach the finale. The presence of another supervillain apart from Kimiko to throw a monkey wrench into the CIA’s ability to prosecute Vought it intriguing as fodder for the endgame. More than that, though, the show brings these ideas to a climax that is both a big deal in terms of its practical consequences for the characters, and one that radically affects their psyches as they reevaluate what they thought they knew about one another, and themselves.

• Homelander just realised who Butcher is :)
• The Deep, maybe consider a ghostwriter?
• Oh no, Homelander be pointing fingers at Starlight now...
• Damn, Maeve defending Starlight

Butcher: "You're a fucking killer, Hughie, just like the rest of us."

• Butcher is a man-child. Omg. "All supes are the same" and "Hughie you're the same as us" is so "us vs them". Actually a great character, though, lol

Hughie: "Right, so better to be loyal to a dead woman who doesn't know and doesn't care? How's that working out for you?"

• Damn, Hughie

MM: "Oh, shit, if he's burned, then I'm fucked."

• Damn

Mr Campbell: "He's acting strange. You know, real jumpy."
Hughie: "Where is he?"
Hugh Campbell: "I don't know, he..."

• FRICK, THAT SCARED ME
• Damn, Hughie's got the leverage
• Wow, Homelander refused a booty call from Stillwell? Damn
• Omg, she's raping The Deep. Wtf
• Damn, Mesmer be running while Butcher be walking
• Omg, Butcher has lost the plot
• So Butcher fed Hughie Mallory's lines, huh?
• My guy The Deep trying so hard to be a hero but he's just incompetent

Monique: "He ain't nothing to you."
Butcher: "Monique."
[Slap to the face.]
Butcher: "Good to see ya.'

Hughie: "Dad, I'm really sorry. I'm sorry about everything."
Mr Campbell: "No, no, no. Don't say sorry. No. Look at you, standing up for yourself."

• Simon Pegg :D

MM: "I don't know what happened with you and Raynor or how that situation got fucked up, but just please call her. Please."

• Dang, MM. C'mon, Butcher

Vogelbaum: "The baby clawed its way out of her."

• WHOA

Vogelbaum: "You're my greatest failure."

• Oof