Diksha Sundriyal
In its sixth episode, ‘The Boys’ Season 2 answers a lot of questions and prepares the ground for the finale of the season. The true nature of Stormfront and Vought is brought to light, and the Boys make an unlikely alliance that will get them closer to destroying Vought. New Supes are introduced into the fray and it is, overall, a pretty exciting episode. Here’s what it means. SPOILERS AHEAD
Plot Summary
After being threatened by Stormfront, Starlight decides to get rid of the chip that Vought had placed inside her to track her down. Maeve uses Deep’s help to find the black box of the flight that had crashed in the previous season. She wants to use it as leverage to stop Homelander from interfering with her and Elena’s life. Annie tells the Boys about Stomfront’s email with Stan Edgar that mentions some “breakthrough” in Sage Grove Centre. They visit the facility and make some interesting discoveries. The Deep meets A-Train and tries to recruit him into The Church of the Collective.
What Happened with Lamplighter?
We are introduced to the Boys through Hughie, who discovers that they have been fighting the battle against the Supes long before his girlfriend was killed by A-Train high on Compound V. We get the backstory of Billy Butcher bit by bit, and this episode, we get to know more about Frenchie. One of the things that were hinted at before was his hatred for Lamplighter and his guilt for not being able to save the children whom the Supe had mercilessly killed. In this episode, they come face to face and old transgressions are addressed.
Five years ago, Colonel, Butcher, MM, and Frenchie were the only ones trying to bring down Vought. They found some incriminating evidence against Lamplighter, who was a part of The Seven back then, and blackmailed him to pass information about Vought. Even though he agreed to the deal, Colonel didn’t trust him and asked Frenchie to keep an eye on him. He followed Lamplighter to a party but was distracted by Cheri who told him that their friend has overdosed and was dying. By the time Frenchie returned, Lamplighter had left the party, and that’s where the trouble began. Lamplighter ended up at Mallory’s house where he planned to kill her in her sleep so that he wouldn’t have to be blackmailed any more. But he didn’t know that her grandchildren were there that night and he burned them. By the time he realized what he had done, it was already too late. Frenchie blames himself for the death of the children because had he not left to see his friend, he could have stopped Lamplighter.
What does Vought want?
After throwing a trail of breadcrumbs and hinting at the central mystery several times, ‘The Boys’ finally reveals the true purpose of Vought. And if you guessed world domination, then you’re right. The entrance of Stormfront and her greater involvement with the company, as compared to the other superheroes who are only assets for them, meant that there is more to her than being just a regular superhero. We got a glimpse of her ruthlessness and her racism when she called Kenji a “yellow bastard” and then, as Liberty, killed Valerie’s brother because he was black. That she didn’t particularly like A-Train also seems understandable in the context that we get when she explains her life story to Homelander.
It turns out that Stormfront is much older than previously imagined and has a much deeper relationship with Vought. She was born in 1919 in Berlin where she met Frederick Vought. He had been developing Compound V and did its first successful testing on her. As Stan Edgar had previously told Homelander, Vought had been a Nazi, until in 1944 he felt the changing winds and landed himself with the Allies. Stormfront was not only his first successful subject but also his wife. The whole purpose of their research and the practical application of Compound V was to further Hitler’s ideologies.
They tested the drug on infants, and it worked out just fine. But for the success of their plans, they also need it to work on adults. They are trying to stabilize the compound, which explains the test subjects in Sage Grove Centre. Once they achieve that, they plan to inject every person belonging to their “superior” race with it, so they can literally become superior to all the other races and then rule over them like gods. All in all, they want world domination. Or at least, that’s what Stormfront told Homelander, while also consoling him with the fact that he is supposed to be their poster boy for this program. He is to be their leader.
The Ending
After the tense events of the day, Annie and Butcher get Hughie to a hospital and bond over their mutual liking for him. MM, Frenchie and Kimiko remain stuck in the hospital with Lamplighter until Stormfront arrives to contain the situation. Lamplighter leads her away and allows others to leave without being noticed. In the end, he also meets Mallory and apologizes to her. After much consideration, she decides not to kill him, which means now, Lamplighter is going to work with the Boys. Stormfront tells Homelander everything about her past and Vought’s plan and they reconcile. In the last scene, we see one of the supervillains, who has the power to crush people and is most likely the one who killed Raynor, leaving the facility and hitching a ride.
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