Hughie moves out after telling his father how he truly feels. Annie gains positive publicity for stopping the rape but subsequently learns Stillwell wants her to wear a revealing costume. She declines, but Stillwell forces her to do so lest she lose her job.
Butcher brings in his former friend, Mother's Milk (MM), to run surveillance on Popclaw by having Hughie install spyware on her computer, through which they learn that A-Train takes a drug called Compound V. Butcher wants to expose them before Supes can be allowed into the United States Armed Forces, but requires a vial of Compound V from A-Train's upcoming race with another speedster, Shockwave. Beforehand, Hughie meets Annie and invites her to lunch, where they open up to each other.
Meanwhile, A-Train secretly uses Compound V to win and publicly announces he is single, breaking his promise to Popclaw to announce their relationship. With MM deducing Popclaw swiped some vials, the Boys find her heartbroken, high, and in the midst of accidentally killing her landlord during hyper-charged sex. Butcher uses this to blackmail her as an informant. At Vought headquarters, Homelander presents Translucent's remains to Stillwell along with Butcher's message, "COMING FOR YOU".
Tropes for this episode include:
- Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Subverted; Homelander brushes aside the hair of his partner and ex-girlfriend Queen Maeve to the appreciation of the crowd, when he's actually whispering in her ear that he might get really upset if he found out she'd fallen for someone else.
- Air-Vent Passageway: Frenchie crawls through a spacious air vent to reach A-Train's locker where he searches for and eventually finds a Compound V sample.
- Almighty Janitor: Hughie shows shades of this, changing the plan from planting bugs to just using the tech skills he got at the shop to hijack her security and take over all the cameras that every device has these days. He manages to impress the rest of the team with his competence.
- Amazon Chaser: The video of Starlight beating up two men has caused her ratings to skyrocket, and not just among women. Later Popclaw convinces her landlord to forget about the rent that's due in exchange for fulfilling his superhero sex fantasy.
- And Then What?: On seeing Popclaw is going to kill her landlord, Hughie goes to stop her only to be prevented by Billy. In response to his What the Hell, Hero? for letting an innocent man die, Billy asks how, lacking superpowers, Hughie could have got there in time and then defeated a superhero high on Super Serum with claws that could rip him apart.
- Anger Montage: Hughie demolishes his room after seeing an action figure of A-Train on the shelf.
- Bait-and-Switch: During the sex scene between Popclaw and her landlord, the viewer expects something bad to happen to him, so when she pops her claws out, it looks like she's gonna accidentally stab him with them. But she only hits the floor with the claws – and soon after accidentally crushes the landlord's skull with her super-strength thighs.
- Bastardly Speech: Homelander gives The Real Heroes line to an appreciative SWAT officer shortly before he murders someone.
- Beeping Computers: Popclaw's computer makes beeping sounds when Hughie operates it.
- Beneath the Mask: We see a glimpse of A-Train beneath his bravado and designer sunglasses in private with his girlfriend and elder brother, showing his fear of losing his A-list celebrity.
- Beware the Superman: Homelander gripes to Queen Maeve over having to take orders from the mere humans who pay their wages. He then punches his fist through the chest of a gunman who is surrendering to him, then fires the man's rifle at Maeve to make it look like he was Killing in Self-Defense. From their dialogue, it's clear this is not the first time they've done this.
- Blatant Lies: While recruiting Mother's Milk, Butcher claims he hasn't worked with Frenchie in years. Milk is not happy when he discovers otherwise.
- Broken Pedestal: Hughie's room is full of posters of The Seven, and even a statuette of A-Train. He destroys it all in a rage.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: A-Train runs right into Hughie outside his girlfriend's apartment and doesn't recognize him as the man whose girlfriend he splattered, and that he later had to apologize to. Which is just as well.
- But Liquor Is Quicker: Popclaw pours herself and the landlord a glass to help him get into the mood.
- Calling the Old Man Out: A milder example than most, but Hughie's development continues with him telling his dad off for treating him like a child all the time.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Homelander and Queen Maeve casually stroll through a hail of gunfire while he's griping about his job to her.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Homelander notices Butcher staring at him at the racetrack, when everyone else is looking out onto the field for the impending race. This becomes important in "The Self Preservation Society".
- Mother's Milk complains about how conspicuous the rental truck they are using for their surveillance equipment is. Butcher comments "I think a big black van with 'Flowers' on the side is conspicuous." This plays out in "You Found Me", when Billy Butcher notices and evades just such a van.
- Cleavage Window: Starlight bends down for a selfie with a little girl wearing her old outfit, only to get whistles and catcalls from appreciative male fans. She advises her young fan to not spend her money on the Hotter and Sexier outfit.
- Clean Up Crew: Frenchie and Billy shovel up the remains of Translucent, then Billy tosses in a couple of grenades for a Fiery Cover-Up. Invoked when Popclaw commits Accidental Murder; Butcher appears on the scene promising to make the problem disappear in exchange for information.
- Comically Missing the Point: After Hughie gets into an argument with Dad and walks out on him, Frenchie tries to establish a Commonality Connection by talking of how when he was ten, his bipolar father tried to smother him with a Hello Kitty duvet.
- Coming and Going: Popclaw has sex with the landlord while high on Compound V, and squeezes his head so hard during her orgasm she breaks his skull open.
- Curse Cut Short: One of the youths in the detention center referred to his cellmates as "nig-" before being cut off by Milk.
- Dating Catwoman: Hughie initially only means it as a distraction, to keep Annie from seeing Frenchie in the locker room, but when he realizes she's actually interested, he realizes he is, too.
- Death Glare
- Homelander gives an unsettling look to the baby who is taking up Madelyn's attention.
- Butcher locks eyes with Homelander at the stadium.
- Hughie bumps into A-Train right after he's planted a bug in his girlfriend's apartment.A-Train: [after Hughie stares at him without speaking] What, you're waiting for an autograph?
Hughie: I'm sorry, have we met?
A-Train: I meet lots of people.
- Delivery Guy Infiltration: Hughie and Mother's Milk gain access to Popclaw's apartment by posing as technicians ordered to install a new router.
- Disposing of a Body: Given that Translucent's indestructible skin is still intact, Butcher delays the Seven finding it by hiding it in a zinc box that Homelander can't see through and dumping it in the bay, where it's only found by Deep after he's been tipped off by a porpoise.
- Facial Dialogue: Queen Maeve is clearly disturbed by just how psycho Homelander is Beneath the Mask.
- Fanservice: Queen Maeve takes on several burly shirtless males during a training bout who are conspicuously lacking the protective pads they'd need in real life when sparring with a superhero.
- Fantastic Drug: Compound V is explicitly compared to illegal drug use and steroid abuse.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Popclaw's landlord is a willing participant in her sexplay, but she goes too far and starts to smother him; then she crushes his head.
- Head Crushing: After Popclaw hears her boyfriend, A-Train, say that he's single and available, she injects herself with some Compound-V and starts training in a rage. When her landlord comes to collect the rent, she invites him to have sex, and while sitting on his face, she crushes his skull, killing him.
- Hypocrite: Vought gives Starlight a new outfit, calling it empowering. Then they tell her to wear it or else she's fired.
- High on Homicide: Hughie admits that he felt a rush when he killed Translucent, and Mother's Milk cautions him about where this might lead.
- I Kiss Your Foot: Either Popclaw or A-Train is really in to foot stuff, or both.
- Internal Reveal:
- Hughie discovers that Annie is Starlight.
- The Seven discover that Translucent has been murdered.
- The Boys learn that there's something out there called Compound V, and blackmail Popclaw for information on it.
- Ironic Echo: "A price you're willing to pay."
- It's All About Me: LampshadedHomelander: But, if something's happened to [Translucent], then that's a direct attack on The Seven, which is a direct attack on me.
Maeve: You've managed to make this about you in less than 20 seconds flat.
Homelander: Hey, I'm not the one who's down a point and a half. So I think what you mean to say is, "Gee, thanks, Homelander, for showing up out of the blue and bringing the extra press to my collar." - It's Probably Nothing: Homelander isn't happy about the lack of concern over Translucent's disappearance. He enjoys taking Madelyn down a peg by showing her what remains of him.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Despite all his other assholish behavior, Homelander does seem the most concerned about Translucent's disappearance than anyone else, going to great lengths to try and locate him on his own agenda. However, a conversation with Queen Maeve reveals the real reason why he's acting this way; an attack on Translucent is an attack on the Seven, which by extension is an attack on him.
- Kinky Roleplaying: Popclaw roleplays that her landlord is a thief and she's going to sit on his face until the cops arrive.
- Mood Whiplash
- Starlight thinks her job is in jeopardy, only to be told the good news that the rape victim came forward, her ratings have shot up and she's become a Feminist Fantasy icon. Then comes the dramatic reveal of her Stripperiffic new costume...
- Mother's Milk and Frenchie are ready to kill each other, then Mother's Milk has to sweet-talk his wife who's just called on the phone, much to everyone's amusement.
- Ms. Fanservice: Popclaw has nude pictures of herself on the walls of her apartment, showing her past as a superhero sex symbol.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Hughie is horrified to have witnessed Popclaw accidentally killing her landlord without helping. Butcher reassures him there was no way he could have gotten up there in time, nor could have done anything even if he'd been there.
- My Way Or The High Way: Madelyn gives Starlight a choice between wearing her new Stripperiffic Sensual Spandex constume or being kicked out of the Seven. She later pulls Homelander into line when he refuses to read a prepared speech, only to be told that Mr. Edgar, the Vought CEO, has personally approved it.
- Nostalgia Filter: When Homelander muses about the good old days when they used to just fly off to Paris on holiday, Queen Maeve gripes about freezing her ass off flying over the Atlantic.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Hughie literally bumps into A-Train on his way out of Popclaw's apartment. Fortunately, the latter is such a self-absorbed piece of shit he doesn't recognize the man whose girlfriend he murdered.
- Hughie has to stop Starlight from walking into the locker room and spotting Frenchie. Fortunately, he realizes that she's Annie and has a good excuse to strike up a conversation and ask her out.
- Popclaw may have been stoned out of her mind, but she's still horrified to have killed her landlord.
- Out with a Bang: Popclaw's landlord's head is crushed while eating her out.
- Power Dynamics Kink: Popclaw demands her landlord admit he's a filthy pig.
- Psycho Ex-Boyfriend: Homelander to Queen Maeve, implying that he'd get rather nasty if he thought she had fallen for someone else. This is after they've already broken up.
- Removing the Earpiece: Hughie surreptitiously turns off his radio during his conversation with Starlight/Annie so he won't have to listen to the Boys yakking away in his ear.
- The Reveal: A-Train killing Robin wasn't just a mistake, he was high on V.
- Spies In a Van: Butcher thinks a moving truck is less conspicuous than a Van in Black posing as a floral delivery service.
- Stairs Are Faster: The Supe version; Queen Maeve has to take the elevator while Homelander just flies up to the floor, smashes through the window and waits for her, continuing the conversation they were having when she arrives.
- Stating the Simple Solution: Hughie points out that they don't have to worry about planting bugs in Popclaw's apartment when they can just hack into the cameras in her computer equipment.
- Super Serum: Turns out Compound V is a performance-enhancing drug for Supes. Unfortunately Side Effects Include... addiction and affecting your judgement; it turns out A-Train was on Compound V when he crashed into Robin.
- Super-Speed: The audience doesn't even see the race between A-Train and Shockwave, it's so fast. Instant Replay has to be used to see who won.
- Sympathetic Adulterer: To keep up his public image, A-Train claims on television that he's still single when Popclaw wants to publicly be a couple with him. She ends up cheating on him with her landlord, which she also does to cover her rent.
- This Means War!: On opening the trunk holding what's left of Translucent, the Seven find the words Coming For You have been spray-painted on the inside. Homelander realises someone is effectively declaring war on them.
- Title Drop: What are The Boys going to do about Compound V?Butcher: We're going to get some.
- Van in Black: Lampshaded when Butcher sardonically comments that a black van with 'Flowers' on the side would be rather conspicuous. This becomes a Brick Joke in the Season Finale.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Which turns out to be a Fatal Flaw for Supes, as Billy points out—the one thing they care about is their reputation. This leaves Popclaw open to blackmail when she's Caught on Tape murdering someone during sex.
- We Need a Distraction: Hughie inadvertently provides one when he recognises Starlight as Annie, just when she's opened the door to reveal Frenchie doing a "Mission: Impossible" Cable Drop into the Supes locker room.
- White-Dwarf Starlet: Popclaw is on the B-list of Supes, and is not happy that A-Train won't publically acknowledge their relationship.
- Worthy Opponent: Homelander seems quite pleased with the cunning and Refuge in Audacity of Translucent's killers.
- Your Head Asplode: Due to the effects of Compound V, Popclaw ends up bursting the landlord's head open while facesitting on him during sex. Perhaps she should change her name to Popskull?
