Summary
The Boys season 2, episode 5 continues its momentum — it’s less destructive than the previous chapters but it shows the characters facing their challenges head-on.
This recap of Amazon’s The Boys season 2, episode 5, “We Gotta Go Now” contains significant spoilers.
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The opening
Episode 5 kicks off with Queen Maeve acting in a scene for The Seven; it’s a scene where she reveals herself to be gay. Maeve asks Homelander if he’s going to stop manipulating her — all this happening because of him; she wants her and Elena to be safe so is going along with it. He claims he doesn’t want her to stop seeing Elena because she loves her. Homelander is all about controlling every situation he can. The Boys season 2, episode 5 shows the theme of “trust” wear off a little as the characters face their challenges head-on.
Popularity has dropped massively
Homelander is then shown footage of him zapping a civilian while stopping a terrorist in a foreign country by Ashley. His popularity has dropped significantly by 9 points. Protests are happening over the country calling him a “war criminal”. Homelander is fuming and he doesn’t want to state an apology. Ashley insists that the crisis team deal with it. Stormfront irritates Homelander more by intervening in the conversation. Episode 5 is fascinating because Homelander cannot control this, he needs help for once — influencing a nation is different than manipulating a single person.
Drowning in sorrows
Billy is drinking himself to oblivion at a rock bar. He randomly starts a fight with someone — obviously his wife rejecting his proposal to run away has gotten to him. Hughie calls and tells him that Liberty is Stormfront. Billy claims he is enjoying an early retirement with his wife and Hughie is a tad emotional that he never said goodbye. Hughie tells Mother’s Milk that Billy was nice which means something is wrong. Billy is never nice!
Finding Billy
Billy visits his Auntie — after taking out the dog, he returns to the house to see Hughie and Mother’s Milk sitting on the couch. They ask him to help him out with Stormfront. Hughie tries to make out like he’s sorted but they refuse to leave as they are worried about him. As Billy walks out of the house he notices something — he heads back inside and tells them that Black Noir is outside; he closes all the blinds. He reveals that Becca didn’t want to leave with him rather casually. Clearly, with their lives at stake, there’s no time for bullsh*t.
Mother’s Milk reports a gas leak in the area to buy themselves time.
Forgiveness
At the production set, Starlight sees her mother and she is confused as to why she’s here. Her mother wanted to see her as she misses her. Stormfront sits there casually which makes the conversation even stranger — Compound V is brought up and she wants forgiveness. Starlight feels it isn’t the time and place. Stormfront is a character that knows how to worm her way into every person’s business — she’s a female version of Homelander.
LGBTQ marketing opportunities
The Boys season 2, episode 5 shows how far Homelander is taking it with Queen Maeve by engineering how the company image her.
Vought International has plenty of marketing opportunities for Maeve and LGBTQ+ — they involve Elena and discuss gender roles. Elena doesn’t want public relations and walks off. Maeve chases after Elena and explains that it is Homelander doing all this and that he is f*cking with them both — “I can’t protect you if you leave”. Maeve vows to take Homelander down. Episode 5 makes the story juicier — what will Maeve do to take Homelander down?
I’ve given up
Billy has a change of heart and realizes that Black Noir is here for him — he wants to give himself up. Hughie doesn’t want this to happen but Billy feels tired. Hughie reminds Billy that he felt like giving up after Robyn, but he didn’t, but he states that Billy’s wife is at least alive despite not wanting to follow through on Billy’s plans. Billy calls Hughie pathetic and a man that is afraid of being alone. Hughie refuses to move out of the way and Mother’s Milk also stands in front of Billy.
This was a great scene of unity between Mother’s Milk and Hughie — both of them understand Billy is having a crisis and want to help him.
This ain’t the life for you
Kimiko enters a bar and kills three men brutally. Frenchie is spying on her and follows her into the bar. He learns that Kimiko is working for the woman he has been sleeping with and killing for the Albanians. Frenchie tells Kimiko that this isn’t the life for her — Kimiko kicks Frenchie over and she signs languages to him that her brother was the only thing that mattered. Frenchie doesn’t understand what she’s saying so walks off and tells her he is done.
You don’t speak for us
At a protest rally that’s “anti-Homelander”, Homelander flies down and grabs the microphone. He tells them that they all have the same goals to fight for American lives first — the crowd gets irritated by him and chant “You don’t speak for us” so he massacres the crowd with his laser eyes — well, actually, this didn’t happen. Luckily, he imagined doing this or this would have been a devastating scene. Homelander is struggling with his reduced popularity. We have to wonder at this point how far the writers are going to take it when it comes to Homelander — will he shockingly massacre a large population when he presumably has a breakdown?
Dealing with Black Noir
The Boys have to deal with Black Noir so they place traps around the house and hide in the basement. There’s a loud commotion in the house. A smoke grenade is thrown into the basement so they have to go. As the others leave the house, Billy heads back in. Black Noir confronts him. Mother’s Milk walks in and he’s hurt. So does Hughie and he is also hurt. All three men are defeated initially by Black Noir — when Billy sees the Supe is about to kill Hughie, Billy warns him that he will lose his position as a Seven as he knows Vought’s dirty little secrets, including Homelander’s son. He threatens to leak photos with evidence.
Black Noir grabs Billy by the throat and Stan calls using video — he asks Billy to show proof of the photos. Stan makes him a deal — don’t leak the secrets and Black Noir will let go. Billy tells The Boys he doesn’t really have photos.
But more importantly, this scene proves that Billy has a lot of love for Hughie — he sees him as a family member and can’t bear to see Hughie about to get killed.
What a performance
Starlight heads to Stormfront’s makeup trailer and looks around. Stormfront walks in and Starlight springs into action and shouts at her about her mother — she claims she doesn’t want a broker for peace. Stormfront tells her that’s she’s putting on a good performance and that she knows she leaked the Compound V scoop. Starlight then reveals that she knows Stormfront used to be Liberty and that she’s a racist. Homelander then walks in so Starlight walks out. The fear is still there for Starlight — she can’t bear being in the presence of that Supe.
Memes sell
Homelander tells Stormfront that the social media campaign and memes she set up that revolves around patriotic propaganda have helped him increase his popularity by 5 points. It looks like Homelander has finally given into Stormfront and is embracing her ways.
The ending
As the episode draws nearer to an end, Billy is back to his usual self as The Boys hit the road. Homelander and Stormfront passionately hook up and fight each other. Stormfront asks him to laser her t*ts — she wants to prove she doesn’t break easily. They then have destructive sex.
The Boys season 2, episode 5 continues its momentum — it’s less destructive than the previous chapters but it shows the characters facing their challenges head-on. Episode 5 sees Homelander’s insecurities grow stronger but with Stormfront lending a hand, it will be interesting to see how this pair gel, especially now they are having sex. As for Billy, he’s clearly having a crisis but he cannot live without the thrill of The Boys, especially with his wife absent in his life.
But more interestingly, Queen Maeve is lurking and looking for revenge — this is only going to end in plenty of violence.
Additional points
- On the news, it’s revealed that The Deep has gotten married to Cassandra. He’s now the face for the Church “The Collective”, doing videos about standing up for women and preventing bullying.
- A-Train wants the script changing on the show to make it sound like he isn’t leaving The Seven. Ashley warns him about the breach of contract. A-Train delivers the lines for the show.
- Stormfront reveals she used to be part of the Church “The Collective” to A-Train.
- Hughie learns that Billy has a brother by the aunt and she implies that he’s dead.
