Ah yes the amazing Imagine video, Gal Gadot, You might be wonder woman, but that video didn't do wonders for you at all. Seriously, I laughed my ass of when the deep started getting "Philosophical", And I guess this is a confirmation that the supervillain attacks are indeed a metaphor for the pandemic, provided, Homelander repeatedly screaming at the screen that its safe to go out wasn't enough.
This episode, for being titled after a superhero sex party is surprisingly deep and deals a lot with Character development.
This can be split into four major story lines in the beginning, which later crisscross and intersect with each other, namely in no particular order
1)The Butcher/Hughie/soldier boy story line.
2) The Homelander story Line.
3)The Starlight/M.M. Story Line.
4)The Kimiko/Frenchie story line.
Of the four The Kimiko/Frenchie story line is the only one that stays completely separate from the other three, and as such I will talk about that at the last.
And for an episode named Herogasm, the episode certainly doesn't disappoint with how much of a role the event plays, but it's more so a setting than an actual plotline.
So after the "Imagine" video that I described, the story gets Right into the Homelander Plot, where the Deep helps Homelander figure out that the killer of crimson countess is indeed a returned soldier boy.
After which Homelander freaks out over potentially loosing the company, thanks black Noir for being the only one on his side, post which Noir sneaks out and cuts out his tracking chip.
Getting this news breaks Homelander and he has a conversation with himself in the mirror, now I have trouble discerning whether this is just a way for the show to show us his inner monologue, or this is just something he does when he has no one to talk to, or whether he this a sign of his Psyche breaking, or potentially this is a callback to the scene to the green goblin or Gollum scenes where their positive side talk to their negative selves.
This could also be, (although I hope its not, cause this mental health condition has enough negative representation for generations) signs of Homelander having dissociative Identity Disorder, cause the talking into the mirrors also reminded me of Moon Knight, but I doubt that because there don't seem to be any amnesia barriers between Homelander(the negative side) and John(the Kid who just wants to be loved.), or at least not any immediate ones that I can see. And also thankfully, the only similarity I see with moon knight is its a person speaking to a reflection
But then again, look at these four images and tell me you see no similarities, and I mean similarities not just visually, but also thematically, if you know the scene of course.
All of this said, this could simply be something that Homelander does to comfort himself when he is faced with something, as performers often do, pre-performance.
Now all that aside, this scene does reveal a lot of things about how Homelander views himself, the world and his psyche, at first it seems like a reaffirmation of all we already knew, like him considering humans as mud people etc. But then, he says something very revealing when Homelander tells John that since childhood, he has saved John, since they were kids, implying this is a habit, which makes sense seeing that he feels so isolated.
Butcher and Hughie are plotting with soldier boy to help him get revenge on his previous team payback, and I must say, soldier boy is played perfectly by Jensen Ackles he is simultaneously intensely unsettling while managing to make us feel for all that he had to go through, While also being a grandpa in a young body.
And obviously butcher asks for Homelander in return for his help.
On the side of Starlight and M.M., Starlight has to go for an interview where Homelander once again demonstrates that he is grasping at straws for any semblance of a connection by randomly holding her hand. Post that Starlight faces Victoria Neuman who has figured out that they know her secret and they have a powerplay conversation which ends with Neuman making Starlight bleed from the nose, any further and her head would have popped.
It is at this point that we are introduced to the episodes namesake, herogasm, and the best character from season two, extremely long P*nis guy, or as he is called here, Love Sausage.
And not too long after that these three story lines collide, where M.M. tries to fight soldier boy, but butcher stops him, so he takes out his anger on him, Hughie meets up with A train, and challenges him to a fight wanting a fight as he is now on temp V, and A train post having nearly lost his brother just genuinely apologizes, not acceptable to Hughie who punches him anyway.
Soldier boy meets up with the twins TnT who appear to be the hosts of this Herogasm and they give up that Noir planned to give Soldier Boy to the Russians, and so Soldier boy agrees to let them go, whether the information was true or not is irrelevant because soldier boy once again hears the song which triggers him, and as was set up earlier in the episode he blacks out and lasers the entire goddamn place, killing TnT, and a lot of other people, while simultaneously ridding many supes of their powers, surprisingly A-train, who was inside, is unaffected.
Oh and love sausage seems to be affected as well, and um... is his dick permanently long now? Never mind.
A lot of people with unaddressed issues here innit?
All that aside, lets get to the main thing y'all want me to Review, Homelander Vs Soldier Boy, cause boy have I never seen anything better.
I guess part of the reason why this is so amazing is because this is a fight between two individuals who have always been so ridiculously overpowered that neither of them ever faced any challenge and hence have no experience fighting anything even close to an equal, and simultaneously, the fact that this show has its physical fights few and far between and add to that their awesome as fuck powers, and you have yourself ten minutes(I think?) of visual perfection.
And add to that the fact that, Homelander saw soldier boy as his childhood Hero and given his current mental state, we know what this battle means, to him, not just that, in the beginning Homelander tells butcher that their deal to fight to the death on scorched Earth is off, might seem like a small thing, but keep in mind, Homelander came to butcher in a state of emotional turmoil, because in the moment ironically, no one else could understand him, he shared with Butcher what he probably shared with no one else, his frustration and vulnerability, Butcher meant something to Homelander, even if that something was highly negative, it gave his life meaning, and he is quickly loosing that.
To add salt on the burning wound, this is the scene where Homelander learns that Butcher has Powers now, and their heat visions meet in the most epic staring contest ever, cause that's what it is right, they shoot out of their eyes, and they are trying to defeat the other with just the power of their eyes, it's a staring contest, see for yourself.
And then Hughie comes in, and with the three of them and one of Homelander, Homelander, who proved to be too strong for Soldier Boy alone was pinned down and Soldier boy almost killed him.
But with his last ounce of strength, Homelander manages to muster up one last effort and flies off into the sky, the man who thought of himself as a god, had to run away, and it matters who he had to run away from, his childhood Hero, the man who is keeping his son hidden from him, and the one who he blamed for it the most, Hughie, cause he was the first who managed to kill one of the Seven, and what's more, he and starlight are in love, someone he is desperately trying to dominate right now.
Man, this must have been absolutely soul crushing for him.
Also, did anyone notice that when Soldier Boy powers up his chest beam it glows up in the form of an X, and it kinda reminds me of X-men.
These three story lines end with Homelander looking at himself in the mirror once again, after what is his most devastating defeat, Starlight and Hughie going their separate ways following Hughie's confession that he doesn't like that starlight is always saving him and the fact that he and butcher are working with a murderer is just the final nail in the coffin, Butcher Hughie and Soldier boy escape, while M.M. and Starlight help the wounded and Starlight reveals the truth to the world live, and quits being a hero.
Now to talk about the remaining story line, the Kimiko/Frenchie storyline.
this story line is shorter compared to the others, obviously, cause those three shared multiple minutes of screen time, but just because its shorter, doesn't mean its any less impactful or revelatory about the characters involved.
This begins with a set up of an ice cream popsicle stick in Kimiko's hand, right before she too is kidnapped like Frenchie and Frenchie is tied up, along with little Cherrie and Kimiko by Little Nina and forced to choose who to kill between Cherrie and Kimiko.
Now what follows is very interesting, cause it goes to show, that even without her powers, Kimiko is a very dangerous person to cross, as she picks the lock of her handcuffs with the popsicle stick and attacks the men cutting one's throat immediately and then getting punched in the stomach multiple times and still having enough of her faculties around her to stab her assailant with a nail, and kill him.
Kimiko says it herself, she associated her violent acts with compound V, but turns out her time in the darkness has marked her, Frenchie and Kimiko Remines over how their earlier life always finds a way back to them.
I find this story line fascinating because it breaks one of the most common tropes of superhero fiction, that is whenever a super powered character looses their powers, they are completely incapable of fighting, this episode goes to the contrary and shows that Kimiko is very capable, with or without powers, this is very indicative of the fact that she probably started training before she was juiced with V.
There is one other "storyline" but its not so much a a sub story as it is a conclusion to a story line from the previous episode, Remember I said, Hughie met A-train at the Herogasm, post Soldier Boys attack, He takes blue hawk by the foot and runs with him at super speed, killing him, but also having a heart attack in the process, and he just lies beside Blue hawk, his fate left un clear, but this far out, without any medical attention, his chances of survival are very low I must say.
So that concludes my review for Boys Episode six, although much of it was summarizing, seeing that most of what happened was pretty self explanatory, and this episode somehow simultaneously, managed to be the one with the most amount of gore, crazy action, violence/sex/nudity and the most amount of character moments/development, which is next level crazy.
Also, Frenchie will be sad after he learns about these events, he always wanted to see Herogasm, just thought it was something worth mentioning, although given his current state of affairs, I doubt that's the biggest thing on his mind right now.
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