Now informed, the Boys know Vought has used super charities to smuggle Compound V disguised as vaccines and make super-babies since 1971.
With Ashley fired, Stillwell demands Annie comply with her designed image, but she refuses, remarking that firing her after reporting a sexual assault would hurt Vought's image. Aware it was the Deep, Stillwell has him publicly apologize and transfers him to Sandusky, Ohio for a "sabbatical".
Butcher brings Hughie to a superhuman survivors' support group but leaves after yelling at them for doing nothing to get justice. Butcher later tells Hughie that Homelander raped his wife, who went missing shortly afterward.
Frenchie and MM get help from telepath Mesmer to see into the Female's mind, learning her name is Kimiko and that she was kidnapped by the Shining Light Liberation Army terrorist group. They also learn that Vought is making Compound V-boosted terrorists to push their agenda for militarizing Supes.
Butcher tells Raynor, but he calls off the deal when she refuses to target Homelander. Mesmer gives Homelander surveillance photos of the Boys. Butcher finds out about Hughie and Annie, warning him not to fraternize with the enemy and threatening to tell her about Translucent.
Tropes for this episode include:
- 0% Approval Rating: The Deep finds himself in this position between the Oceanland disaster and rape allegations hanging over his head. Even Madelyn's support is only restricted to damage control for Vought.
- Actually Pretty Funny: Hughie finally calls out Billy on his reflexive overuse of Country Matters — after which Billy just laughs it off, and acknowledges Hughie as a "good cunt."
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Mesmer would be happy with any posting at Vought. "Low five figures would be fine". As in he'd be happy with a minimum wage job.
- "Anger Is Healthy" Aesop: Butcher takes Hughie to a support group where they meet people who were crippled and maimed by Supes as part of collateral damage. After seeing a victim call Ice Princess, a Supe who broke his penis after freezing it during sex, a god, Butcher calls them all out for letting the supes get away with their abuse and says that they have no self-respect when they forgive the supes so easily for what they've done.Billy Butcher: You, back off, or I'll shove this stick where your dick used to be. You're a bunch of pathetic supe-worshipping cunts. I bet you'd thank a supe if they shit on your mum's best china. Did it ever occur to you that they split your spine or broke your dick just for a laugh? Where's your fucking rage?! Your self-respect?! Sitting here in your little share circle. Having a little whinge and a moan. Fuck 'letting go.' You should be out there with a fucking chainsaw, going after 'em! Just a bunch of scared fucking rabbits.
- Bad Liar: The Deep basically immediately confirms that Starlight was talking about him and that she was telling the truth.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Mother's Milk suggests that treating Mesmer like a person will get his cooperation. Turns out having your wrist broken, your life threatened, and your daughter reject you are hardly incentives to resist the carrot of reliving your Glory Days by going back to Vought. Frenchie argues the same about the Female however, and turns out to be right.
- Beware the Superman:
- Butcher isn't happy about how Hughie is getting close to Starlight, so takes him to a therapy group for 'collateral damage' victims of Supes. They include a woman who was crippled during her rescue, and the boyfriend of An Ice Person who had his penis shattered when his lover transformed during orgasm. When Butcher is asked to tell his story however, he claims they're just refusing to admit the Supes injured them For the Evulz and storms out in a rage. Later he reveals to Hughie that Homelander raped and possibly murdered his wife Becca.
- Mesmer's first attempt to mind-read the Female gets his wrist broken.
- Raynor is, by her own admission, "fucking terrified" of Butcher's demand that Homelander be prosecuted within the fullest extent of the law, citing the possibility (perhaps likelihood) of his own demise, as well as thousands of other deaths, as a result of pissing off someone that powerful.
- Big Damn Kiss: At the end of the episode between Annie and Hughie.
- Blatant Lies:
- Starlight turns up at Madelyn's office to hear Ashley screaming abuse over being fired, then storming out of the office, pausing only to insult her former client. Madelyn then tells Starlight that Ashley decided to leave to pursue other interests.
- In his Ordered Apology, the Deep claims that he mistakenly assumed their sex with consensual, rather than him threatening to accuse Starlight of attacking him if she didn't have sex with him.
- Brick Joke: Turns out the reason Butcher knows so much about The Spice Girls is because his wife was a fan.
- Broken Pedestal: Starlight tells Maeve how she wore out Maeve's biography reading it, but now realises that most of it was just PR hype. Even her image as a rule breaker was just a marketing strategy cooked up by Vought.
- Calling Out for Not Calling: Hughie's friend calls him out for vanishing after Robin died and his store got trashed, but nevertheless he understands and urges Hughie to move on with his life.
- Calling Parents by Their Name: Mesmer's daughter Cleo calls him Charles instead of "dad", showing how distant she and her father have become.
- The Cameo: Billy Zane and Tara Reid appears at a con along with Mesmer and Shockwave.
- Collateral Damage: Worried that Hughie might be getting too close to Starlight, Butcher takes him to a meeting of the local chapter of A.C.D.S. (the Association of Collateral Damage Survivors), a support group composed of people who were seriously injured after being "rescued" by a super hero, and who now move about in wheelchairs and have been outfitted with prosthetic limbs.
- Commonality Connection: Butcher warms up to Hughie given how he's Took a Level in Badass and because they're both people who have lost loved ones. He does not react well on finding that Hughie doesn't share his blind hatred of all Supes.
- Creator Cameo:
- A tweet by Eric Kripke shows up.
- Seth Rogen appears as himself.
- Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: Butcher explaining to Mesmer what he is going to do with him if he talks to anyone."You tell anyone what you saw or heard here today, and I'll cut your hands off and shove 'em so far up your ass, your fingers'll give us a little wave out your throat."
- Bring It: Mesmer defiantly holds out his hand to Butcher in response.
- Dark and Troubled Past
- Butcher reveals why he hates the Supes. Homelander raped his wife, and she went missing afterwards, either due to murder or suicide.
- Kimiko was kidnapped by the Shining Light Liberation Army, raised as a soldier, then shipped to the US where she was converted into a Tyke Bomb super-terrorist.
- Homelander is shown in a promotional video at his dead parents house, telling how he was raised as The All-American Boy. Turns out it's all fake and he was raised in a lab by scientists. He's shown in a sterile room with the only decoration a human target and his Security Blanket (he freaks out on finding the blanket in his fake bedroom).
- Mesmer was a Former Child Star, fired by Vought for insider trading and implied to have drug problems, who no longer has custody of his daughter.
- Destructive Savior: Members of the A.C.D.S. (the Association of Collateral Damage Survivors) are people who were seriously injured while being rescued by a superhero, with one woman saying she was left paralyzed after being "saved" by Tek Knight.
- Dirty Mind-Reading: It's implied one of Mesmer's female fans is encouraging him to do this; he writes his phone number on the DVD she's given him to sign.
- Enemy Mine: Cited when Mesmer is brought in because he has a grudge against Vought. Backfires when Mesmer sells them out for a chance to get back into their good books.
- Family of Choice: Frenchie offers to take Kimiko to the airport so she can go back to her brother, but asks her to stay because they need her superpowers. She chooses to stay.
- Forced Out of the Closet: This nearly happens when Maeve's ex-girlfriend turns up while she's being filmed by a reality show, who secretly film them talking.
- Freudian Excuse: We learn that Homelander was raised in a sterile room, no furniture or carpets or anything, just a human target and his blanket, with scientists playing peekaboo through the window of a door. Presumably he had Eye Beams and Super-Strength even then and it was for everyone else's protection.
- Genghis Gambit: It's suggested the reason Kimiko was being injected with Compound V was to create Supe terrorists who could only be combated with Military Superheroes. It's quite likely there are more out there, waiting to be unleashed.
- Handshake Refusal: Both Butcher and Homelander refuse to shake hands with Mesmer, who can use it to read minds.
- Hypocrite:
- After promoting environmental causes, Deep is shown driving a gas-guzzling Hummer.
- After telling Raynor that Supes shouldn't be in the military because it would be impossible to prosecute the likes of Homelander for war crimes, Butcher makes prosecuting Homelander a deal-breaker condition.
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: MM stops himself from insulting The Female, but it ends with him calling her "this".
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- For all of Butcher's unreasoning hatred of Supes, consulting Mesmer turns out to be a terrible idea, and Hughie dating Starlight could be a worse one. As Butcher points out, how is Starlight going to react when she finds out that a) Hughie has been lying to her, and b) killed Translucent?
- Butcher is a complete jerkass to the victims group, but he's right that their injuries could well be more than accidents—either due to callous indifference or even Domestic Abuse—and they have a right to be angry about them.
- Susan Raynor refuses Butcher's condition that Homelander be prosecuted, for the simple reason that he's a dangerous psychopath with superpowers.
- Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex: Or in this case—Man of Kleenex, Woman Of Ice. A Vought employee had sex with An Ice Person who transformed in the throes of passion and snapped off his penis. He even regards this as an acceptable price when a man loves a god. Butcher is not amused, saying he refuses to admit she may well have done it for a laugh.
- Moment Killer: Hughie finally has a kiss with Starlight, which even makes the hallucination of Robin disappear. Then Butcher 'accidentally' bumps into his pal Hughie...
- The Nameless: Not anymore; Mesmer reads the Female's mind and finds she's called Kimiko.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- Mother's Milk arranges visitation rights for Mesmer, but he reads in his child's mind that she's not really interested, so tries to bargain his way back to a position at Vought by tipping off Homelander about the Boys, including pictures of their faces.
- Butcher throws away a chance for the Boys to get official backing from the CIA. This is when they've still got the murder of Translucent hanging over their heads. Also by refusing to hand over the evidence, he's preventing the authorities from finding out about an impending super-terrorist attack on the United States.
- No-Sell: Not everyone buys Deep's forced apology.
- Oblivious Guilt Slinging:
- A-Train is asked if he could make some anti-drug commentary after Popclaw's death. He's noticeably uncomfortable and denies having seen her for years.
- Robin's hallucination appears again, but Hughie finds she vanishes after kissing Starlight. Then Butcher appears to ask Starlight how come no-one's seen Translucent for a while...
- Open Secret: Madelyn points out that Starlight has not said who assaulted her. Starlight just replies that she thinks Madelyn has known for some time what's going on. Sure enough, Madelyn's later conversation with Deep shows that Starlight wasn't the only woman he assaulted.
- Propaganda Machine: Throughout the episode, Vought are shown making a We Care video with the Seven, though it's suggested this may actually get in the way of pushing for military superheroes. Starlight refuses to go along with any of this but finds her stock footage is being used by Vought to put their own spin on her sexual assault.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech
- Ashley to Starlight, as she's Tantrum Throwing after being fired.
- Butcher bitterly denounces a victims group for not getting angry at the Supes who crippled or mutilated them.
- Queen Maeve gets it from both Starlight and her ex-girlfriend.
- The Reveal: We learn that The Female and her brother were kidnapped as children and forced to become a child soldiers, before she escaped and was brought in by Vought to be used as a threat to be answered by Homelander. And her name is Kimiko.
- Revenge Before Reason: Butcher goes to the CIA with all the evidence they've collected. Susan Raynor agrees to everything on his wish list—financing, immunity, office space...except the condition that Homelander be prosecuted. Butcher walks out on her, taking the evidence with him.
- Retraux: The TV show The Mesmerizer looks like a 1980's style cop show.
- Shame If Something Happened: Butcher keeps pointing out to Hughie that Starlight won't be happy when she finds out the truth, and even implies that he might tip her off about who killed Translucent if he continues to fraternize with the 'enemy'.
- Shout-Out:
- Seth Rogen plays himself, directing a Black Noir movie in the Vought Cinematic Universe.
- The name of Mesmer's character in The Mesmerizer is Lt. Howser.
- Katy Perry's "Roar" plays over the rough cut of the advertisement for Vought's Stargirl show.
- Silk Hiding Steel: Starlight sets down some new conditions of employment, and when Madelyn threatens Starlight with being kicked off the Seven, she points out that being fired right after revealing she was sexually assaulted would look very bad for Vought.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Hughie is pretty much the only good thing Annie has encountered in New York.
- Steel Drums and Sunshine: When Starlight offers to take Hughie on vacation to the Bahamas, he jokes that he'll learn to play the steel drums.
- Technology Marches On: Played with in-universe. Mesmer hands a DVD to his estranged daughter but she refuses to take it because she doesn't have a DVD player. He figures it was only a ruse as she wasn't interested in getting to know him any better.
- Took a Level in Badass: Annie stands up to Madelyn, successfully using The Reveal that she was raped after she joined the Seven as a way to demand some control over her image.
- Tropaholics Anonymous: The group Butcher takes Hughie to see, the A.C.D.S. (the Association of Collateral Damage Survivors) is comprised of people who were maimed when they were "rescued" by a superhero, and who Butcher ultimately chews out for bowing down to Supes, despite them ruining their lives.
- Uptown Girl: An old friend of Hughie points out that Starlight is way out of his league, and Hughie can only agree. They end up kissing by the end of the episode.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Butcher exchanges Snark-to-Snark Combat with Hughie.Hughie: You know, you're always calling people "cunts" or "twats," but I just... I never really got how that's an insult? They're flexible, take a pounding, and they're the reason behind, like, 98% of my life decisions.
Butcher: (smirks) You're a good cunt. - You Can't Go Home Again:
- Especially for Homelander whose home never existed.
- Mesmer too realises he can't re-establish ties with his daughter, so tries to buy his way back into Vought.
