Adaptational Context Change: Mallory's origin story is moved from the Battle of the Bulge to the Contra War, with her serving as a CIA officer rather than an army officer.
Alternate History: A downplayed example. The CIA was involved with the Contras, the Contras were narcotraffickers, and the CIA did run interference with other agencies to protect their trafficking, it's never been demonstrated that they were deliberately targeting black and brown communities nor that there was large scale trafficking by the CIA themselves. However, multiple government reports have said that there were a lot of troubling things in both the US and in Nicaragua that are difficult to justify or explain, but it's also difficult to say that the CIA was acting at a large level. Instead, they conclude that it appears to have been individual officers or teams going over the line.
Be Careful What You Wish For: The Deep gets back into the Seven, but this just puts him closer to Homelander who continues to abuse and belittle him.
Been There, Shaped History: Mallory was part of the Iran-Contra affair, specifically, she was responsible for trafficking cocaine into the US, specifically targeting black and brown communities.
Blackmail Backfire: When Starlight brings up the Flight 37 video, Homelander tells her exactly what he'll do if she releases it — destroy the White House, Pentagon, all US communications infrastructure, New York City, Des Moines and also Maeve's bumfuck home town.note later stated to be Modesto If he can't be loved, being feared is a close second, and there's nothing on Earth that can stop him so far as anyone knows. He assures her that he'll really do it, daring Starlight to release the video. She backs down.
Book Ends: The intro flashback scene ends with a young Starlight clenching her fist behind her back after being pushed by her mom to do a child beauty pageant. The episode ends with Starlight doing this again when being forced to pretend she is in a relationship with Homelander.
Break His Heart to Save Him: Butcher telling Ryan that he doesn't even want to look at him because of what he did to Rebecca, although he was actually just trying to distance himself from Ryan because it's too dangerous.
Broken Pedestal: Butcher and MM lose a lot of regard for Mallory. Not only was she involved in the CIA's drug smuggling which impacted African-American communities, but she'd also been sitting on information regarding Soldier Boy and a potential anti-supe weapon for as long as she's known them.
The Bus Came Back: Nathan Franklin, A-Train's older brother, appears for the first time since season 1.
Child Soldier: Gunpowder is assigned to a military operation in Nicaragua when he is only 14 years old. The other members of Payback aren't much older, excluding SoldierBoy and possibly Mindstorm.
Clark Kent Outfit: An inversion. We finally see what Homelander looks like outside of his 24-Hour Armor. He's much thinner than his costume, which is a padded muscle suit, makes him appear.
Curse Cut Short: Butcher stops himself swearing in front of Ryan while they bond over their shared dislike of saltines.
Butcher: Yeah, and they don't half make your mouth drier than a nun's... Ryan: [eyes wide] You were going to say "vagina". Butcher: Yeah, something like that.
Dissonant Laughter: Young Gunpowder is all laughs as he fires a machinegun.
Eat The Dog: Homelander forces the Deep to eat his octopus buddy alive. Deep notes that the poor creature is begging him not to while it's happening.
Eaten Alive: Homelander forces the Deep to eat his octopus friend, Timothy, alive.
Epic Fail: Payback's fight against the Sandinistas end up being this, with them being ambushed because Swatto flew too high, Black Noir and Crimson Countess murdering several of Mallory's forces, Swatto getting blown up after trying to fly away, the TNT Twins and Mindstorm cowering due to Gunpowder's loud firing, killing everyone in the camp indiscriminatly. Soldier Boy is the only one who fights with any degree of competence and the fight ends with him presumably killed by the Russians.
Even Evil Has Standards: Ashley looks horrified when Homelander forced the Deep to eat his octopus friend alive. She even gave a pitying look before it happened.
Facial Horror: Mallory witnessed Black Noir surviving the attack by the Sandinistas, but with the left side of his face horrifically burned and his eye basically melted, along with a deep gash exposing the bone on the right side of his skull. The injury is so bad that it seems to have been too much for his Healing Factor to handle, as the brief glimpse we got of his face last season showed he still had the burn scars.
Foreshadowing: In response to his unwanted advances, Mallory bluntly tells Soldier Boy his chauvinistic pick-up lines don't work and any women who act like they do are just humoring him and don't actually like him. It is later revealed his lover Crimson Countess hated him and sold him out to the Russians.
Gatling Good: Gunpowder uses a Gatling gun to gun down Mallory's men.
Good Is Impotent: Hughie essentially says this to Annie when telling that he is working with Butcher again and asks her to stay close to Homelander. Despite all their efforts, Vought has subverted every victory the Boys have made, and he is tired of losing.
Handshake Refusal: Mallory refuses to shake Edgar's hand when he introduces himself in Nicaragua.
Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Deconstructed. Black Noir insists on dropping his helmet-like, concealing mask and is then seen fighting without it. He gets half of his face damaged so severely that he ends up wearing the mask for the rest of his life to hide it.
I Have a Family: When Homelander tells the Deep to eat Timothy, the latter is appalled saying that Timothy is begging for his life and has kids.
Just Following Orders: Mallory is somewhat ashamed of her role in Iran-Contra, but that quickly falls out of focus as the story continues to the death of Soldier Boy.
Kick the Dog: Homelander does this twice over for his birthday.
He invites the Deep back into the Seven, visibly triggering Starlight. Then he essentially forces her to be his girlfriend.
Homelander forcing the Deep to eat his octopus friend alive goes past Kick The Son Of A Bitch and into this trope, both due to how petty it is and because Homelander knows that the Deep can hear said octopus screaming for mercy. Also counts as an example for the Deep's wife Cassandra, who shows him No Sympathy and outright tells him via text to "eat the fucking octopus".
Moonshadow and Silver Kincaid are promptly sent packing when Homelander announces neither will be joining the team. Homelander adds insult to injury by making it sound like it was Annie's idea.
He follows that kick with another when he forces Annie to pretend to be his girlfriend.
Lethally Stupid: The members of Payback panic during their first battle in Nicaragua, losing Swatto and Soldier Boy and slaughtering friend and foe alike. Or so it seems.
Ludicrous Gibs: Crimson Countess reduces two Contras to this during the Sandinista attack, to Mallory's incredulity.
Mood Whiplash: As Hughie expresses how he's coming around to Butcher's way of thinking, Butcher blows chunks all over poor Hughie, who manages a delayed "what the fuck?"
An Offer You Can't Refuse: Much like he did with Vogelbaum, Butcher threatens to expose every asset Mallory has if she doesn't tell the truth about her Nicaragua operation.
Once Done, Never Forgotten: Butcher makes it clear he won't let Hughie working for a supe for a year be forgotten.
Butcher: I mean, there he was, right? In his fancy pants, lording it over us like the viceroy of Vought Square, eh? And that whole time, he weren't nothing but a Supe's bootlick, eh? [...] That, my son, is a Lifetime Achievement at the Cunt of the Year Awards, isn't it? Hughie: Yeah, it is. Yeah. It is a Lifetime Achievement. Are you done? Butcher: No, mate, I am just getting started, believe you me. Hughie: Great.
On Three: Hughie counts for Kimiko to break his arm. She breaks it right when he was about to say "three".
Outside-Genre Foe: This is a show about fighting assholes with super powers, in comes Nina, a Russian gangster.
The Reveal: The reason Black Noir is The Voiceless is because of the injuries he received in Nicaragua. He used to be perfectly capable of speech and was going to be given a more prominent role in Payback.
Rewatch Bonus: Payback feels a lot less incompetent after the meeting between Black Noir and young Edgar, and Soldier Boy's demise are revisited in the episode before the season finale. It's become fanon that Payback was deliberately killing Mallory's men during the Sandinistas attack in order to eliminate witnesses and facilitate Soldier Boy's capture by the Russians. Also that Mindstorm was controlling Gunpowder when he was firing the jeep's gun, as he was not in on the plan to betray Soldier Boy; this is supported by Mindstorm giving water to Gunpowder in the aftermath of the battle, because some of Mindstorm's tricks cause dehydration. Then again, Mindstorm could have simply knocked Gunpowder out like he did Butcher, because he was out of control.
Sanity Slippage: Homelander's sanity has been fraying since episode 1 (and was never that stable to begin with), but it's particularly prominent here, with the realization that his popularity is soaring with his target demographic, combined with his increasingly petty ways of asserting dominance over the Deep and A-Train. When Annie tries to use the Flight 37 video he threatens to go full Beware the Superman since even though he'll lose everything, he'll have nothing left to lose.
Sent Into Hiding: This trope multiplied by itself. Ryan and Mallory, already in hiding from Homelander and Vought assistance, are sent into hiding again because Neuman is secretly working for Vought, too, and she knows where they were.
Shell-Shock Silence: When Homelander drops the bomb on her that he's forcing her to pretend to date him, she goes into this for a minute.
The Deep eating his octopus may be one to Oldboy, in part due to the mention that the dish is South Korean, which is where that film is set. It should be noted that while the South Korean dish in question does feature a live octopus, it's a live octopus that's cut into pieces rather than a whole one — both the Deep and the lead of Oldboy opt instead to swallow it whole.
A blatant one when The Deep brings up Charmed (1998) after his wife mentions he has an upcoming panel on feminism featuring Rose McGowan and Alyssa Milano. May also double as a Take That! given the real life feud between the two actresses.
Frenchie's appearance and outfit during his meeting in the park with Cherie, the hair cut down to a mohawk and a military jacket with the sleeve held on with safety pins, is a copy of Travis Bickle's appearance at the end of Taxi Driver.
It's the '80s, black people won't play well in the south, and Black Noir argues that he could be bigger than that, he could be Eddie Murphy.
Stage Mom: We get to see how bad Annie's mom was in the opening flashback.
Surrounded by Idiots: How Mallory felt when she was paired with Payback in Nicaragua.
Team Killer: Crimson Countess attacks a couple of fleeing gunmen whom Mallory identifies as her own men. Gunpowder and Black Noir also appear to attack their own Contra allies as well.
When Payback arrives at the camp in Nicaragua, the first thing Soldier Boy does is grab an RPG to show off... and aims it at the camp's munitions dump.
Swatto gets the Sandinistas' attention by going for a flight even after being warned and ordered by Edgar to clear any flights with Mallory. He then does it for the third time, while running away, which only gets him shot down from the sky as he's a slow-moving, low-altitude target.
Tragic Keepsake: Butcher kept Becca's necklace after Ryan threw it on the ground.
Villain Raises a Toast: Homelander, The Deep, Ashley and Cassandra celebrate rejoining The Seven of the second one with food and drinks.
To us.
Villainous Friendship: Edgar and Noir, back in the 1980s, are shown to have an open and frank rapport.
Visual Pun: Swatto is a supe with insectoid wings, capable of flight. When trying to bolt from a skirmish with Sandinistas, he gets swatted out of the sky with a rocket launcher.
Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Butcher throws up all over Hughie while the latter is comforting him about breaking Ryan's heart to keep him safe.
Wham Shot: In-Universe. Starlight kissing Homelander while filming for the announcement that she is his new girlfriend, which was not in the script and nobody having expected that reaction from her. Ashley is especially shocked but excited.
Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Knowing Vicky will never buy his fake being sick, Hughie knows the only way to be out of the office for a few days is to have Kimiko break his arm. Even Butcher is impressed at Hughie taking it with no drugs to boot.
fanon that Payback was deliberately killing Mallory's men during the Sandinistas attack in order to eliminate witnesses and facilitate Soldier Boy's capture by the Russians. Also that Mindstorm was controlling Gunpowder when he was firing the jeep's gun, as he was not in on the plan to betray Soldier Boy; this is supported by Mindstorm giving water to Gunpowder in the aftermath of the battle, because some of Mindstorm's tricks cause dehydration. Then again, Mindstorm could have simply knocked Gunpowder out like he did Butcher, because he was out of control.