And we're back with the Tuesday TV Touchbase Too!
We've got another series finale to write about, the end of The Boys.
I will cover some specifics on the final episode so be warned:
SPOILERS!
The series debuted in 2019 but I didn't catch up to season 1 until the next year. It was 2020, I was stuck at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic and I was laid off from my job. I had time on my hands and used some it to catch up on some TV shows.
The Boys is about the real implications of living in a world with super heroes. The concept of super heroes intersecting the real world had been done before in DC's Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons as well as Marvel's Squadron Supreme by Mark Gruenwald.
But what The Boys did was push the boundaries of ethics, morality and good taste past their breaking points.
In the world of The Boys, super heroes are not at all heroic but are micro managed and monetized corporate resources. These Supes (as they are called) spend more time making movies and music videos than they do in any actual super heroic activity.
Supes are on a downward spiral of selfish greed and hedonistic pleasure. Some plot and scheme their way to elevated levels of political and even spiritual power.
Take Homelander, a Superman expy with over the top Capt. America branding. Over the course of the series, he becomes more and more obsessed with his image as an elevated avatar of superiority, his growing disconnect from humanity.
By the 5th season, Homelander thinks he's God and he's gonna make people believe it or they can just die.
Meanwhile, he has taken a special Vought compound called V1 that confers immortality. Which just adds to his god complex.
Billy Butcher, the profane misanthropic leader of "the Boys", grows ever more disconnected from his humanity in a ruthless quest to destory Homelander once and for all. Even if he has to kill all the Supes to do that.
Even the super powered Annie and Komiko who are on his team.
As the final episode begins, the Boys are dealing with the loss of one of their own. Frenchie was killed by Homelander in the previous episode. Frenchie died protecting Komiko.
The gang has gathered around to bury Frenchie. Hughie reads from Frenchie's will. Frenchi used the word "asshole" in his will like a lot.
Komiko was the subject of a radiation experiment to augment her powers with a special energy burst that will strip a Supes' powers.
It's their last and only chance to stop Homelander.
The super intelligent Sister Sage, now on the run from Homelander, starts talking shit about Frenchie which pisses Komiko off and triggers her energy burst.
The power blast works and now Sister Sage is as stupid as a regular human. So she leaves to go to Harry Potter World in Orlando.
The Boys have one chance to take out Homelander. He's scheduled to make an address to the nation from the White House Oval Office on Easter Sunday to announce he is God.
The Boys have a plan to infiltrate the White House and attack Homelander.
This being The Boys, the plan is all fucked up from jump and heads straight into the shitter.
Luckily, unknown to the team, they may have an ally in the White House.
Let's talk about Ashley Barrett for a moment.
Right from the very start as an executive for the Vought Corporation, she has been an obsequious toady in service to the company and the Supes, perpetually apprehensive that any single misstep will get her killed. Somehow she survives to Season 5 and in a bizarre sequence of events has become President of the United States.
She also gained super powers that manifested like this:
- her hair fell out.
- on the back of her bald skull, a second face grew.
- that face has telepathic powers.
Ashley and her 2nd face do not get along. Ashley has been such a snivelling syncophant for so long now and her 2nd face complains that Ashley should grow a pair and do the right thing for once.
SPOILER: Ashley does the right thing and surprisingly does NOT die. Although there will be consequences.
ANOTHER SPOILER: elsewhere, Annie throws down with the Deep where she blasts him into the ocean where he is eaten by sharks. Sea life is pissed at the Deep for allowing a leaky oil pipeline to kill millions of fish. It's a fate the Deep really deserved.
Anyway, Homelander is giving his nationally televised speech, bringing good tidings of great joy that he is now God.
Someone had written a nice speech about Homelander being a loving, benevolent god but Homelander can't stay on script and would rather talk about those that will not believe in him and how much he's gonna smite them, etc etc.
Threats are more fun than promises, am I right? (Li'l Donnie knows what I'm talkin' about.)
Billy Butcher and Komiko make it to the Oval Office as does Homelander's super powered son, Ryan.
Ryan has picked a side.
And it ain't dear ol' dad's.
With the cameras still rolling, we get a knock down drag out in the Oval Office before Komiko can unleash her energy burst.
Caught in the blast radius, Billy and Ryan lose their powers. So does Homelander.
It's so funny when Homelander squints real hard to make heat vision happen and it doesn't.
Or when he hops up weakly expecting to fly and doesn't.
Billy has the moment we've waited 5 seasons to get: he beats the unholy shit out of Homelander.
A lot.
The cameras are still rolling with a battered and bloodied Homelander begging Billy Butcher for his life, promising anything not to be killed.
Including sucking Billy's dick.
Whatever my expectations for the series finale, I only had one that was non-negotiable.
1) Homelander needs to die.
2) It needs to be a really gross death.
3) And he dies in abject humiliation.
Billy obliges with a crowbar jammed into Homelander's forhead and prying open his skull, shredding brains everywhere.
Across America, everyone walks away from their TV sets, totally disavowed of their hero and would be god.
Homelander died alone, powerless and unloved.
But we're not done yet.
Even with his revenge on Homelander complete, Billy Butcher is not satisfied. Stan Edgar has returned to lead Vought once more and Billy knows the next Homelander will inevitably rise up and all this shit will start up again.
Billy Butcher prepares to unleash the Supe killing virus.
Hughie Campbell shoots Billy who dies in Hughie's arms.
I never expected Billy to survive this series.
And kind of thought it would be Hughie who would need to take him out.
The gang gathers for another funeral, this one for Billy. It's hard to come up with nice things to say about the departed.
Billy Butcher's tombstone sums him up best:
The episode's coda gives us some happy endings:
- Komiko with a poodle in her lap enjoying some beignets at a Parisian cafe as she had hoped she would do (with Frenchie) when all of this was over. She smiles wistfully.
- M.M is reunited with his wife and daughter with Ryan along as an adopted son.
- Hughie and Annie are a couple, working in his dad's old computer tech store and she's pregnant, 8 or 9 months from the looks of it.
Series finales are hard to pull off but I think for the most part The Boys checks off enough boxes to deliver for me a mostly satisfying conclusion.
No matter what, Homelander needed to die as he did and really, I knew Billy Butcher would not survive this. Even Billy himself did not expect he would.
The rest of the internet seems divided with assessment ranging from "spectacular" to "pathetic".
Elon Musk said he didn't like the ending, then admited he hadn't watched it but from what he heard about it, the ending sounded "fake" and "gay".
Elon, try to follow this: Homelander was NOT the hero of the story. He was the BAD guy. You see?
...
...
No, Elon doesn't it get it.
There's a scene where Homelander flies a white nationalist tech nerd billionaire into space...without a space suit. Gee, I wonder who that was supposed to represent?
Hey, Elon, what did you think about that scene, eh?
...
...
...
No, Elon doesn't it get it.
That is that for this Tuesday TV Touchbase.
Next week: the series finale of Hacks!
And a Tuesday TV Touchbase Too with Taylor Tomlinson.
Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.
Oi! Fuck off you c***ts!
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