The Boys Podcast Season 5 Episode 5 Review

[00:00:00] This is The Boys Podcast from TV Podcast Industries and we're talking about Season 5 Episode 5, One Shots. It's got the Old Testament, the New Testament and the brand new American Testament written by AI trained on the works of Pat Robertson. See, we need to pass the torch, sir. From Jesus to you, sir. We don't get one chance at a first impression.

[00:00:26] Are we really gonna rush something this important? We ain't Arby's, after all. No. We're the Cheesecake Factory. Hmm. Okay. We'll do it your way.

[00:01:11] Totes my goats, fellow boys and girls. This is The Boys Podcast on TV Podcast Industries and we're talking about Episode 5 of Season 5, One Shots. I am one of your hosts, John. I am your other host, Derek. Welcome back. Yes. Welcome back indeed. So, what do you think it's analogous to when you try to shove two grapefruits down a garden hose pipe?

[00:01:38] I love that. That is a great line once again from the wonderful Jensen Ackles playing soldier boy here in the show. Gosh, that was so much fun. It must be. It must be. And certainly this episode, like, it was great to see the Supernatural boys on the box and representing. Absolutely. Yeah, really, really cool to see them all back. But there is a little bit of sad news that we saw just after this episode aired,

[00:02:03] that Bentley, unfortunately, who plays Terror, has passed away at the age of 11, just after finishing his work on the show last year or so. So, yeah, he's passed away. But good boy, Bentley. Absolutely. Well done, Bentley. Lovely little doggy all the way through. The mini-me of the boys. Yes, yes. A lovely evil little doggy, to be honest. But he was a very good boy and had a great presence on the show. He was very central to the comic book, so cool to have him.

[00:02:31] You almost had a chalky shock in this episode. You did. Absolutely. But we will get into talking about the entirety of this episode of The Boys, season five, episode five. So make sure, of course, that you've watched the episode. And if you haven't subscribed to the podcast at this stage, pop on over to our website at TV Podcast Industries to subscribe to the podcast over there. There's only three more episodes of The Boys left to go. And we do have loads of other shows that we're covering. So make sure you subscribe to the main feed of TV Podcast Industries to get access to those.

[00:02:58] Yes. And if you want to send in your feedback, please head on over to our Facebook group at facebook.com. Forward slash groups, forward slash TV Podcast Industries. Also, you can join us on Discord and you'll find the link in our show notes over on our website. And of course, the email is still good and proper. Please send that in to feedback at tvpodcastindustries.com. And you can also send in voicemails as well through the website.

[00:03:27] So any way you want to send your thoughts, theories and observations on all things to do with The Boys, season five, please do so, fellow boys and girls. Yeah. And of course, we are continuing our boys season five pub quiz. The next question will be available later on the episode. Gather together all the answers to eight questions at the end of the season and email us to that feedback at tvpodcastindustries.com address. And you could be able to chance of getting your hands on some boys goodies.

[00:03:55] But I think we should get into the podcast about the episode, John. Yes. Let's get into our spoiler filled discussion. Derek, what are some of the episode details? Well, the showrunner for the show, of course, is Eric Kripke. This is based on the comic series by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. And the executive producer for the show are star Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. This episode was written by Judalina Niera. This is the second of three episodes that she writes for The Boys. And she has written the final episode for this season as well, which is quite cool. And this episode was directed by Phil Skrikia.

[00:04:25] Phil is a legendary director for shows featuring Eric Kripke or by Eric Kripke, having directed almost 100 episodes, not really, lots and lots of episodes of Supernatural. So this was a big reunion for him and the Supernatural boys in this episode. He's one of the most prolific directors, I guess, for Supernatural. Yeah. Great stuff. Great stuff. Good to have him back. So, John, do you want to tell us what they gave us in Supernatural Visits The Boys? I mean, The Boys Season 5, Episode 5. Sure.

[00:04:55] Firecracker is asked by her former reverend for help after his church is vandalized because he won't move to the teachings of the Democratic Church of America. When the church is later raided and the pastor arrested, a troubled and torn Firecracker gives a defamatory news report about him. Meanwhile, Black Noir struggles not only with his partnership with The Deep, but also with his identity as he tries to balance being in The Seven with his commitments to a local theatre group.

[00:05:21] As tensions rise, The Deep kills the play director, Adam Bourke, a la Conga Eel, as he reasserts his control over Black Noir. At The Boys' makeshift laboratory, Frenchie continues to develop the virus while Mother's Milk searches for bombsite and the remaining V1. After a close call between Chocolate and his beloved dog Terror, Butcher finally agrees that he will allow Annie and Kimiko to take V1 when or if they find it.

[00:05:48] Back at Vault Tower, Sister Sage warns Ashley that Homelander must not obtain V1. When Ashley asks what the angle is, Sister Sage says peace. More specifically, her own peace and quiet with a book and no longer harassed by Homelander. To do this, she is planning World War Soup to ensure humans' soups ultimately kill each other. She needs Back Ashley's help finding out Soldier Boy's plans,

[00:06:15] and as a reward, Bashley and Ashley will be allowed to join Sage in her bunker. In the basement, Homelander and Soldier Boy interrogate Stan Edgar, who points them to Mr. Marathon, a former member of The Seven now residing in Los Angeles. Mr. Marathon and his friend Malchemical try to turn Soldier Boy against Homelander after Malchemical incapacitates him, but he refuses and kills Malchemical.

[00:06:42] During a pursuit, Marathon accidentally kills his celebrity friends, running into them at every step of the way. Soldier Boy finally brings him to a halt with lots and lots of Daddy Puff's baby oil and incapacitates him with a heavy dose of snap, crackle and pop of his breaking bones. After getting confirmation from Mr. Marathon that bombsite has V1, Homelander kills him. Back at Vought Tower, after learning Firecracker has been sleeping with his father

[00:07:09] and also the nature of her post-coital chit-chat and Firecracker's doubts, Homelander asks her to pack her bags and go. Firecracker pleads with him for her to stay, saying she is the only one that has ever loved him. As she pushes it too far, Homelander makes her a permanent feature at Vought Tower as he kills her. Death by eagle wing, as he pins her head to the right wing of an all-American bald eagle. Oof. Brutal kill. What?

[00:07:39] And very, very tense, yeah. Very good. Really, um, so well done. But it's always the same with Homelander when he has this, um, you know, Anthony Starr, just the way it's drawn out here made me really uncomfortable. Yeah, we watched the episodes a couple of times, as our listeners will know, before we watched them, and I think you've covered your eyes every time we've watched this episode. Even the second time of watching, it was just like that length

[00:08:08] of time between the last word and Homelander doing his thing is just like, it's way too long, but in a good way. It's just that pause that makes you wonder what's coming next, even when you know what's coming next. Exactly. Absolutely. Let's get into our moments for the episode, John, our top moments, yeah? Yeah, absolutely. Let's start off with our boys or protagonist moment. Oi, oi. And weirdly, in the structure of this episode, um, I wish we were doing our top five points,

[00:08:36] because the structure of this episode is really five major things that happened, but in the structure of this particular episode, there is really only one boys moment because it's all seen from the perspective of Terror the Wonder Dog. So, John, I think you're going to kick us off with the boys moment for this episode. Yeah, I mean, obviously it's sort of couched in the terms or the viewpoint of Terror the Bulldog, and in particular, his various dreams of Homelander

[00:09:06] and his, uh, Domination. His Domination. Yeah. Uh, which ultimately is given true form in the real world with a fairly crispy, uh, Homelander doll, uh, well stained, well loved, and unwashed. It's terrible. Shall we say? It is. Just the description from Kimiko going, did I make up a new word, come not? Is that a new word? Well, I suddenly thought of cronuts. Oh, yeah. And I'm like going, mm, okay, not having them again.

[00:09:35] Not beating us again. Uh, but I do love the idea that Terror is envisaging the real Homelander every time he, um, he makes out with the, uh, with his toy. Yeah, exactly. Um, great idea. So it's all couched in those terms, but I think ultimately, um, given Terror's, uh, close call with a chocolate souffle, uh, which almost kills him off, um, you kind of have, um, almost a little bit of a moment of reconciliation between Billy Butcher and Huey, because Huey saves, um, uh,

[00:10:05] Terror along with Billy Butcher. So they're kind of working together again. And Huey's kind of maybe sees a little different side of, of Billy Butcher in terms of his kindness, his concern for his pet dog, Terror. Um, and Billy is kind of suddenly maybe has that, his humanity kind of comes racing through breaches for a split second. But in that, um, you see Billy Butcher offering to Huey that,

[00:10:35] you know, if or when they find the remaining V1, uh, they track that down that Kimiko and Starlight can have some. Um, so that the virus that they will then deploy, uh, won't kill them. Yeah. So, um, you know, he's, he's kind of acquiesced to Huey's at least overarching thought and point of trying to keep their allies alive in Kimiko and Starlight.

[00:11:05] However, that is done. Yeah. And I, I want to, I want to highlight the kind of, uh, that you said there, because it is Billy Butcher here. He is still an a-hole as he always has been. So it's, if it doesn't screw us, you can use the V1 only on Kimiko and Starlight, not on me as well. That's the other part of the deal. So Billy doesn't want any part of it at all. And if they get the virus before Huey gets access to the V1, well, all bets are off. We're using the virus immediately. So, uh,

[00:11:34] so this isn't a pact between the two of them saying will definitely happen. It's if all of these conditions are met, I can now see why you want to keep your, future wife and one of your best friends alive because my dog almost died from eating chocolate. That's basically what Billy's just said to him. I mean, it's hugely conditional. Just a bit. Uh, for sure. But it is kind of a moment of thought between these two. Yes. Um, you know, it's, it is, it's,

[00:12:03] it's a little bit of an olive branch. Yeah. Um, you know, a, a flock of John Woo doves in the moment and that Billy Butcher and Huey have here. Yes. Um, I just don't want to overplay it. No, agreed. So last three, the last four episodes we've said, Billy Butcher's always an a-hole will be forever. This doesn't change that, but he can see a little crack of, uh, of light coming into his character because his dog almost died. Huey saved him.

[00:12:31] So therefore he's allowed to possibly save his girlfriend if conditions are bad. That's all. Exactly. Which I like. Yeah. Yeah. Really good. As we said, this is a shared point. Uh, so I'm going to just talk about the other tiny thing that's mentioned in here, which I think is really important. Um, you know, we were, I think everybody was focused on what was going on with Black Noir in the season so far. We talked about that, that actually he was just pretty silent because he was kind of peed off and terrified by what was going to happen, what was, what was happening. And we'll talk a bit more about him later on. The thing that we didn't really talk about much, uh,

[00:13:00] this season is how different MM has been. Um, and we kind of learn pretty quickly here in this episode or in this scene, uh, when he drops a Snickers bar on the floor and it rolls across, uh, some pubes, I think, uh, as Billy points out, and then he picks it up and eats it and goes, mmm, tasty. Um, that actually he has changed significantly because he realizes that he is more than likely going to die and he's kind of accepted it. So he's, uh, he's running into, uh, his future death, the way Billy butcher runs into his future death. And he doesn't really care about it anymore. Yeah.

[00:13:30] He's quite relaxed about it. And he's relaxed about not, in a sense, going back to his wife and child. Yeah. Um, that they're better off without him. Mm-hmm. He's more than likely going to be dead anyway. Um, so, that's all the inhibition, all the tension has gone. Um, and, and, and he's more than happy to go with the flow, even if that means that his chocolate bar, uh, falls on the floor and, uh, runs across dust, pubes,

[00:13:59] or other forms of pet dander, I guess. Yeah. Um, so, yeah, he's a changed mental state here. So, no longer the man that, that, uh, washes his hands 15 times, um, for every day. You know, uh, this is a guy that's, that's happy enough to eat his chocolate bar off the floor. Um, so yeah, it's, I think it's an interesting revelation for the character of M. Um, you know, um, because he hasn't really said it out loud, uh, so far and certainly hasn't told Billy. Um, it's kind of sad because, you know, he's,

[00:14:28] the family was so important to him throughout the first couple of seasons. Uh, the reason he got into this fight was because of his father being, uh, being killed by, uh, by the soups were his. Um, for him using his lawyer abilities to try and take, take them down. Um, and here he is effectively giving up on his family, giving up on his future and saying that he will absolutely sacrifice himself. Um, if that's what needs to happen because he believes he's going to die in this war. So yeah. Yeah. Anything else about the moments that we have here through the eyes of terror, John? I think just,

[00:14:59] um, you know, the fact that we do see and hear that Kimiko and French are still having, you know, not, not problems so much, but that there is some, there is a change between the two of them, which makes them come across as less compatible. And you have Frenchy speaking to terror about Kimiko, um, you know, and whether, or how he could give her a normal life, even if he could, you know, and, you know,

[00:15:26] he's still trying to sort of balance out maybe what, what's been said over the last couple of episodes around the changes that Kimiko's experience. And that actually they have two different focuses now, Berlin nightclub or, you know, log cabin by the lake with children. So yeah, very different. I think it's pretty telling that, um, when his chocolate soufait didn't work, he threw it in the bin and almost killed terror. You know, that is his thing. Why, why would she want a dog? Because I will definitely kill it.

[00:15:56] I can't even keep plants alive, you know? Yeah. And then he almost kills terror. So it's starting to feel like the way they're writing the Kimiko and, uh, Frenchie relationship is like a summer camp romance or a summer holiday romance that the two of them were stuck together in the situation. They were around the same age group. They fell into each other's arms because of their past history. And now as she's growing and as she's getting to become her real person, um, the person that she's going to become now that she's got all the, uh, the barriers broken down, that she's no longer compatible with Frenchie. Yeah. That she's,

[00:16:25] that she's learning that the two of them are, are on two different paths completely. Um, since it's the final season of the boys, it's probably not going to have a happy ending for everybody. And I think it's probably they're setting up that one of these two won't make it out of the end of the season and that it's okay that their relationship won't last forever because they're, as they learn more about each other, they realize that maybe we're not actually perfect for each other. Maybe we were just the only two people compatible in the room at the time, you know,

[00:16:54] under that pressurized situation. So that's what it kind of feels like. I wonder what the, uh, what the shipping fans of, uh, of Kimiko and Frenchie are thinking of this storyline. Well, it's certainly an unexpected twist. I mean, certainly for me. So I can imagine it's a bit of a surprise. Um, certainly that's what I've thought about it. And I mean, at the moment it is still really very much, um, touch points around it because I mean, for the first couple of episodes, they were still full on, you know,

[00:17:23] they were going to have sex as they get back to the Billy Butcher's base. Yeah. So it's something that's come to light. So it has altered the relationship, but not necessarily ended it. Um, I think there's a lot of introspection happening between them. Well, it's not as such gone, but nonetheless, it's a new direction. It certainly is. Yeah. It certainly is. Shall we get onto the seven or antagonist moments? Absolutely. You're not the real heroes.

[00:17:53] I'm the real hero. John, do you want to kick us off with your antagonist moment for this episode? The entire episode felt like an antagonist, antagonizing moment. absolutely. Which one have you picked? I think, um, for me, it's, I mean, I guess we'll come to some of the big ones, but I kind of wanted to take the Holy Trinity of sister sage, bash Lee, and Oh, go on then Ashley. Um, you can come just simply because bash Lee is plastered to the back of your head.

[00:18:23] Yes. Um, and in a sense, a little bit of a formation of an Alliance here. Um, sister sage kind of asks Ashley to stay and have a drink. And we've seen it a bit before in the series so far, Ashley is kind of like, what's your angle? What's your play here? Ultimately, what do you want from me? Because you're so intelligent, you know? And I, I like the fact there's a little bit of backstory here. You know, even sister sage,

[00:18:52] both of them are talking about their mothers and sister sage actually is kind of like, well, I got the worst superhero power. Yeah. I became clever. Um, and basically that means you just annoy everyone because you tell them that they aren't and they're riddles with mistakes, you know, as a three-year-old correcting people's grammar and spelling and all that kind of stuff. I feel like my brother Steve got that superpower. Correcting people's grammar from three or four years.

[00:19:22] So, you know, that was kind of a nice little moment here, but I think equally what I absolutely, uh, love in, you know, in a sense. And I'm, I'm assuming this at the moment, cause it may equally not be true, but sister sage seemingly becomes clean with her real plan here to bash Lee. And the reason for it is because she does actually need to understand soldier boy more than homelander for her.

[00:19:52] She's clocked homelander who he is, what he's going to do. He's immensely predictable. What does she call him? And not just an open book and open children's book. Yeah, exactly. Um, soldier boy is more closed off. He's more difficult to predict. And that is a variable that she needs to understand or her real plan, which ultimately is Armageddon on earth. She, I think it's called world war soup.

[00:20:20] She wants to pit the humans against superheroes so that they ultimately wipe themselves out. Other than maybe the survival of some of them. But yes, I, and I love the fact that it's, she goes like, I want peace, real peace, um, effectively real peace and quiet. It's an immensely selfish plan.

[00:20:42] She wants to sit for the rest of her days reading in the comfort of some huge complex that she's, she's got, uh, ready for herself without the nagging or the histeronics of baby Homelander. Yeah. Um, and like if he, if he becomes immortal and she is sitting in this bunker, uh, she just will never get a day's rest. I really like that. Um, so what she,

[00:21:10] what she says about the plan is effectively the virus will be released to kill all soups. And as soon as they realize the humans have released the virus, the soups will go mad, killing all of the humans. Right. And then they'll all die out unless you have V1. So there's a very, very small amount of, of, uh, of soups that will survive. She does say that she has done everything to ensure that Homelander will not get access to V1. Which makes me think, has she taken it herself?

[00:21:41] Well, I think certainly she doesn't seem too worried about the virus being released and her being killed and says that she'll live on in her bunker. So it feels like she's already taken V1 or. I think she's either taken it already or the bunker is in essence also like a nuclear bunker, you know, or it's an antivirus bunker. Like, you know, the air is circulated. It's purified. There's no way that virus is getting in. It's an antivirus bunker. you know, so it's one of those two things.

[00:22:08] It makes me feel she does have some kind of line of communication or she prompted, um, bombsite to do what he did for sure. You know, she is playing the game here. And so, um, ultimately that's what they, that's what she wants from Ashley and back Ashley, which is, uh, get me info, Intel, find out from soldier boy, what he's up to. Yeah. So that we can

[00:22:38] ultimately survive the coming apocalypse as I am predicting it. Um, and we can live out our moments in, um, in the bunker safe and sound. I think it's just because it feels like we've, we've now heard sister Sage's plan that I don't believe it. Cause when, when sister Sage makes a plan to bring people in, there's always a secondary plan. That's what it feels like. Agreed. Agreed. This is, this is the thing.

[00:23:05] Why would she allow Ashley and back Ashley to come and stare at the bunker? Also feels like sister Sage will work out a way to, to be all alone with her, with her library of books as well. So I'm not too sure if she's that close to Ashley, that she'll be willing to live with her for the rest of her life. No, I would think if you wanted peace and quiet, you wouldn't want, uh, Ashley and back Ashley. Yes. Um, we do have a moment of, you know, sort of back chat from back Ashley wanting to get, uh,

[00:23:35] one of Ashley's ex boyfriends back because of his girth. Uh, and because from where she was, it was like being Pepe Le Pew. Oh God. So that was all like, you know, really, I, I love the fact that back Ashley is basically a nymph. Oh, absolutely. In a sense, because, well, I guess Ashley is as well. Yes. Um, hence, oh father. Yeah. forgive me. I have seen. Well, yes,

[00:24:05] exactly. But, um, yes. So this is my kind of main antagonist point. I do kind of like the notion that there is an alliance formed here. However, tenuous that might be. I like the idea that we have gotten some kind of insight into sister sages plan. Uh, what's really going on, but you're right. It's always, is, is it really just that again, is it just subterfuge for Ashley and, and back Ashley?

[00:24:33] It just feels like that's the piece of sister sages plan that she wants, um, their help with. And she tells them enough to get their help finding out what's up with soldier boy. Yeah. And there's some other plan, you know, just wonder if there's another plan out there that she, uh, that she has come up with and just wants, uh, that little piece, um, sorted out by, uh, by Ashley and Ashley. Uh, you know, I would say so. It's, it's, it fits into whatever and she's maneuvering Ashley and back Ashley to do,

[00:25:01] and she's maneuvering Ashley and back Ashley to, you know, be part of her plan unwittingly. I think, but I'm hoping that I'm, I'm truly hoping there was a bit of an alliance there because I like the sharing of the whiskey, the sharing of the tails. Um, but you just don't know. She is so manipulative. Yeah. All for Sage really. Uh, most of the time, isn't it? Oh, definitely. Um, Derek, what about your antagonist moment?

[00:25:30] I think I am going to take the firecracker moment, from this episode as my, uh, antagonist moment. I was trying to work it out in my head. I was kind of going, you know, so often when a character gets killed off in this show, it's because they've turned to the opposing side from Homelander, you know, and the story usually is what will move them into our protagonist moment instead of antagonist moment. And I tried to think about firecracker's story in this episode.

[00:25:54] And actually it's about her effectively selling out her entire ideals so that she can support Homelander even more than she ever has before. Um, in, in the great structure of the episode, we see her early on, uh, trying to sell Homelander, the new, the idea that there's going to be a new Bible published where he's going to be the new prophet of America. Uh, there's now the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the brand new American Testament, which is AI, uh, written off the teachings of Pat Robertson.

[00:26:24] So, um, so yeah, so it's going to be this crazy evangelical, uh, AI written, uh, book. If you think about it as well, this idea was only brought to her a couple of days beforehand and they've written an entire new book of the, the American Bible through AI in about two days. So I'm presuming it hasn't been very properly proofread, um, which is probably the least of the, uh, of the problems. But, um, but yeah, there's just some interesting things in this initial part where, uh, where they're saying they're going to bring back all the,

[00:26:54] uh, soups from abroad as well to protect America because, uh, American, uh, soups should only be, uh, used to protect America. So that's the first kind of element of it. And then we have the cut to the story of firecracker, a kind of a, a, a separate side story with the way that the whole episodes, uh, relayed and she gets the first one. And it's effectively that her reverend from her, her hometown, she is known as this Christian superhero,

[00:27:20] someone that absolutely believes in Christianity and believes in God, believes in Jesus. She has always sold Homelander to those parts of America effectively. And now her reverends come about to her going, well, there's a soup that's targeting our church because we're not signing up to this program. Of Homelander being the new, uh, the new American prophet, praying Manta who is melting their stained glass windows, that they're being persecuted effectively saying if they don't sign up to this new church,

[00:27:48] they will be persecuted as a starlighter church. Yeah, exactly. And I mean, well, it's, it's, it's, he's basically needing more time to try and convert his congregation to the democratic church of America as well. There's a bit of that in it. It's just that like, he's seeing what she can do to sort of prevent this continued, I guess, bullying, coercion, harassment, all that from, uh, this praying mantis. Uh, but yeah, ultimately,

[00:28:18] um, I mean, she doesn't really give him a, any good suggestion here. Well, yeah, her suggestion is why don't you just pay for it? Um, yeah, you know, um, and it turns out that he's saying, well, I can't afford it. Firstly, we can't afford to pay for our electricity bills. We're just a small, humble hometown church. Um, and secondly, I don't care what he says to your face. Homelander is a great man. He's a great American. He's still playing the game a little bit with, uh, with firecracker, but he says, there's no way he's God. There's no way he's a prophet.

[00:28:48] I don't care what he says to you. You know, this, you know, through your beliefs for all of your life, from when you were a child, you know, who God is, you know, who Jesus is, you know, who, what Christianity believes and homelander doesn't align with any of those things, no matter what you say. Um, yeah, absolutely. Even, I mean, it just comes to the point earlier in the Vort Tower where, you know, she's calling him a prophet and he says, no prophets are servants. And she's like, well, we need to do this to ease people. Into, you know, this notion, um,

[00:29:18] that of rebranding and preparing them for your ascension, that you are God. And he's like, no, I am God, not a servant. Um, and it's effectively thrown back to her like that from her pastor. Um, who clearly, you know, she admires, was helped and has some empathy for him. At least you think so here. She's kind of undercover almost with the, you know, the makeup gone, the baseball cap on, absolutely.

[00:29:47] The MCU baseball cap, which means nobody can tell who she is. Absolutely. But of course, as it is Vort, your beliefs have, can't stand in the way of a good story. Uh, and she leads up truth bomb. So, uh, the story for that evening is the attacks on those churches and it is in support of the attacks on those churches and the burning down of those churches and the arrest of her reverent pastor, all saying that the starlighters are behind it.

[00:30:13] All saying that he could possibly be a pedophile, um, because organized religion is full of pedophiles. Therefore, he must be part of that. And firecracker, after a pause to think about it, she effectively does go along with the company line. She says, um, well, he didn't do anything to me, but she can't believe that his fish Fridays weren't anything but a, uh, a cover for a child groomer, effectively.

[00:30:40] Um, so you see the tear coming down her eye as she's, uh, as she's on screen, um, telling these revelations to, uh, to the public and well, to the end of the episode, all for naught. Um, she's having sex with soldier boy. Soldier boy reveals that to Homelander. Homelander is waiting for a firecracker after her show, um, and gets zero praise from Homelander at all. Um, he is literally saying to her, I know you don't believe me. Um, I know you don't believe in this stuff.

[00:31:10] I don't care what you've said. Um, we've heard before that he can tell the truth of, of everybody around him by hearing their hearts. And in firecracker, he sees someone that is playing the game and doing whatever she wants to do, but not on really on his side, despite what she says to him. You know, she says, I've given up everything for you. I've changed my entire belief system. I've gone publicly to say that you are the, uh, the new leader of the church. Um, and nobody else loves you here.

[00:31:39] I've done everything I, I could to help you out. And he still kills her for it. He still. Well, yeah. I mean, well, it's interesting. I don't think he was going to kill her because he basically says to her, you know, you've been having sex with my father. Yes. It's not so much that it is the after sex chit chat and what has been said there.

[00:32:05] And we, you know, we have that a bit earlier on where, you know, you have soldier boy after another round of firecracker saying, well, if there is a God, he sure didn't come out of my balls. He says to her, um, you know, and he goes, do you think I'm Joseph? Like F that, uh, just not involved in the birth of the, the God. Yeah. That's home under is coming on and saying, well, it's that. So I do know that you don't fully believe it. Yes. Or you've had doubts about it.

[00:32:35] And very specifically, she says to him, you're a great man. And he looks at her and goes, you're still calling me a man, not a God. And that's when he chooses to take her action. Exactly. But I also think it's because she, she overextends. She overplays. If she had said, I'm sorry, I'm the only one that loves you here. I'll get my bags. Um, you know, if you ever need me again and walk out because I, I just felt it was more because she keeps pleading with him. And pleading with him.

[00:33:05] And I think we get a sense of that previously in LA, where it's just like kind of in a sense, all the people, he's kind of almost like none of this matters anymore. Yeah. Um, I am a God. So not, this is all beneath me. Yes. Um, speak to my prophets about it in a sense. Yeah. Um, and I just feel she goes in too hard because otherwise I feel he was willing to allow her to leave. To walk away. And walk away. Yes.

[00:33:34] Um, and she doesn't, or she tries not to. And that's when he's gone. No, this, I can't have this anymore. But again, after what she's just done, there's nothing for her to walk away to. No, I agree. She's just turned on her home church. Agreed. Just turned on her and everything that she's known in the past for him. Uh, interestingly, uh, Eric Kripke in an interview this week did say this character was based on Marjorie Taylor Greene.

[00:34:00] Uh, former Trump supporter who Trump threw under the bus, uh, very quickly after she had gone against her own standings, her own morals, everything she believed in prior to his election. Uh, and they wrote this in about June last year. And Marjorie Taylor Greene was thrown in the bus in November because in the writer's room watching the Trump administration, they knew it was going to happen at some point that she would be the one that would be thrown out.

[00:34:22] Well, no, her specifically, like they literally said Marjorie Taylor Greene is the one that Firecracker is based on because beforehand you could believe that, uh, she had some type of religious beliefs. By the end of it, she had thrown everything of her beliefs, uh, in the bin to, to promote, uh, this person as, uh, as the leader of, uh, of America. Um, and that's what Firecracker is doing here. She's literally thrown out everything. She has nothing left.

[00:34:46] If she was still alive, nobody that she ever had any connection with before the seven would touch her with a barge pole. Yeah. And it's also, I think what you get in this moment with Homelander is the realization that it's the tyranny of pure thought. Yes. Pure belief. It's like, it's not only that she played along with this and I think he was willing to allow her to walk out on that, but then she came back for more. But he knows that she doubts him. I get you. And he can't have that. Yeah.

[00:35:16] It's, you know, you're either a true believer or you're no believer at all. Uh, and given her loyalty, I think he was willing. I think he understood she was loyal and he was willing to allow her to walk. But she's not a believer. Um, and remember the conversation he had, that crazy inspirational conversation that he had with the visiting angel was that he is a God. It's not that, not that he can pretend to be a God to get more people.

[00:35:44] Um, he was literally told that if people don't believe in him, he can kill them all. And then he will just be left with the believers and then everything will be fine. Right. Won't some people not believe that I'm God? Well, kill them. And then you only are left with people that will believe that you're God. And here in that moment, she's telling him she still believes he's a man. Yeah. The greatest man of all time, the greatest man in America, but not a God. And then he chooses to kill her. So, uh, yeah. Brutal, brutal. Yeah, absolutely.

[00:36:12] And I mean, like so tense, as I say, um, this whole scene where she's constantly at him, pleasing to remain one of the seven, to remain one of his devotees, even though she's not. And after she finishes and the pause, and I just couldn't watch. And then I was listening and it was like, this pause is good. It seems like it's going on forever. Yeah.

[00:36:39] But like, this is one of the great things about home under as a character and like the performance of Anthony star. And it has been from the first episode of season one for me and the ability of the writing and his character and him as a performer to ring out pure horrific tension that you just can't bear anymore. Yeah. And in terms of what is this crazy man child going to do? Mm-hmm. Because you just don't know. Yeah.

[00:37:06] And that's the thing, there's as many of the ones where something like this happens, there are many where, and it's a breathe out and nothing's happened. And you're just like, they've, they've captured the pure chaotic reasoning of him. Mm-hmm. Um, again, I guess looking at reality to some degree as well. Yeah. And, and so it's just really, really well done. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Um, farewell firecracker. Indeed. Um, didn't redeem yourself as such.

[00:37:36] Um, but, um, lost your life, uh, for changing your beliefs as far as you did. Even the little eye movement after her head has been impaled on the wing, which I just managed to capture after I heard that. Yeah. I looked and I'm like, ooh, the eyes moved. Yeah. Exactly. Brutal. On the wings of the eagle. Yes, indeed. Um, but shall we get onto our other outstanding moments? Because there are certainly lots of other outstanding antagonist moments. Yes, there are.

[00:38:06] Thank you. You have five minutes to make your openings. Oh! Oh! Ha! Um, I'll kick off with Black Noir. I do like here that the kind of tipping point, if you will, is at the start where they're around the table in Vought Tower. Mm-hmm. And, um, you have Soldier Boy giving the Deep, um, some, some, uh, hassle. And Homelander looks at him and says, you know, he bought me Stan Edgar. Go easy on him. Mm-hmm.

[00:38:34] And then it leads into Black Noir's story where, actually, he's been quiet because he's been absolutely furious with the Deep, but is still staying in character. Mm-hmm. And the fact of that he is Black Noir, he was an actor prior to this. Mm-hmm. Um, they've taken away his voice, uh, you know, one of the tools of an actor. You know, the words, the voice, the projection. Yeah.

[00:39:01] All of that has been taken from him, and he's, but he's playing method with silence, and it's getting to him. It's kind of gnawed at him. And Black Noir has this beef with the Deep. Mm-hmm. And, you know, it's getting to him so much that he's effectively double-jobbing as not only a soup in The Seven, but he's also doing local amateur dramatics in theaters as well. Yeah. So that he can actually speak.

[00:39:30] Like, and that's with Adam, who did The Vault Seven, uh, part of the VCU. Ah, yes. And, um, I do like the fact that when Adam is sort of, that when Black Noir is talking to Adam about the Deep without saying his name, Adam's like, oh yeah, I had beef with the Deep as well. Mm-hmm. He's like a Jared Leto level baby bitch. Which is like, oh God.

[00:39:57] But it's just, I like how this plays out. I like the fact that, you know, Black Noir, in a sense, is trying to stand above it, really. Yeah. And saying, okay, look, I'm in The Seven. I've got this gig, and so on. And I will be method, and I'll be as professional as can be, despite what The Deep is doing. But because I'm masked, because I don't speak, I can go out into the world and be me. Yeah.

[00:40:24] And prior to being asked to come on as Black Noir 2. Yes. And it's just, it's kind of like an outlet for him because he has to be silent at all times and pretend to be Black Noir. It's like, okay, well, at least I can go down and join this stage production of the Bee Gees play, by the way, where he plays Barry Gibb. And that's what he's saying. I have an egomaniac in my life. And that's where I'm drawing inspiration from. And that inspiration is from The Deep, which I think is hilarious.

[00:40:52] But I think the other side of it then is you have the conversation between The Deep, O Father, and him, where actually Black Noir gets one up on The Deep because he says, well, we could get Homelander to heal me so that I get my voice back and I'm able to fly. Yeah. You know I can fly as well. And for O Father, this is great. This faith healing will be a nine-point increase or bump with the Pentecostals, he says.

[00:41:21] And he can really see, he can see the benefit in this, whereas he trashes The Deep. And this, as always with The Deep, anyone who trashes him, he's like, gets a bit like Homelander, child obsessed. You know, he's a child. He is, absolutely. He gets upset. But he's learned from Homelander. And so he does everything to ruin Black Noir's local amateur dramatics. Yes.

[00:41:51] That's always been part of The Deep's character, isn't it? Yes. He kind of learned it from Homelander. And that's why he always felt betrayed by Homelander when he was kicked out of the Seven for what he did to Starlight. He always felt like he was following in the footsteps of Homelander. If Homelander could take what he wanted, The Deep could do the same thing. But he's an idiot, you know? So, and Noir has had to sit there for weeks on end, sitting beside him in a podcast like you do, John, pretending that he's the smart one. I'm not saying anything.

[00:42:18] But I do like just one more before we finish this conversation between O Father and Black Noir and The Deep. I do like that The Deep proposes that in the new church to make it better, that it will be that no guys can bone another guy's girl. We should put that in our church. And O Father's looking at him going, that's already in every single church. There is a no adultery law in all churches.

[00:42:48] This isn't a new thing that you're proposing here. And he's just staring at The Deep like he's an absolute idiot. So when Black Noir does propose something that would really bump up their new church of America, O Father's all ears for it, you know? That's the thing. It's when The Deep actually has that moment of self-reflection where he goes, I can see what they're saying, that I am a joke.

[00:43:15] Then it shut us up and it's, well, I just lash out with violence. And this violence takes the form of a conga reel up the drainage system and ultimately up into Adam's drainage system. Well, yes. As conga reel just borrows up from the loo, up into Adam. I love the touch that they have, the Jaws theme tune.

[00:43:44] Oh, yeah, exactly. He's sitting on it, yeah. Just that, there's a little bit of... It's so good. And then, yes, all hell breaks loose and Adam slowly in his dying words to Black Noir as he tells Black Noir to come a little nearer, a little nearer, a little nearer. And he goes, my ass hurts so effing much. So effing much. And then he dies.

[00:44:13] And then just the confrontation after this epic death scene by Black Noir with The Deep. But The Deep threatens Black Noir here, you know? But you can just tell Black Noir is seething under that helmet. You can't see anything and you know The Deep's end will come at the hands of Black Noir. I think so, yeah. I think that has to be it, right?

[00:44:41] You know, I think his mention in that conversation with Ofather, the fact that he can fly, the fact that he can talk, obviously that scared the hell out of Ofather because he thinks he is the actual Black Noir. But he has superpowers, right? Yeah. We don't see it very often. He's not just some actor off the street. He's also an actor with superpowers. So, yeah, I think the confrontation is set right there with The Deep. And he goes back into complete silence, no response from it at all when Deep says to him what he's done.

[00:45:07] And that he'll turn him into Homelander for working in the arts, which is something that Homelander's also shut down. Yes. Yeah. So, yes, I think maybe Black Noir could be for turning. I think he could be. Absolutely. Absolutely. But Derek, what's your other outstanding moment? And it's a biggie. Well, yes. Let's get on to the final and major point from the episode, really.

[00:45:33] So, the final point is really the LA trip for Homelander and Soldier Boy. Just kicks off with them having a discussion with Stan Edgar. Interestingly, Homelander has not been able to get any useful information other than the trip they had last week to find the V1. No further information from Stan Edgar, no matter what he pushes. And there's a moment there that Stan Edgar's trying to push Homelander to kill him. Yeah, I think so.

[00:45:57] He's really trying to antagonize Homelander and knowing how much Homelander flies off the handle with anybody who pushes him that far. It seems to be Stan's willing to just die here because he can't do anything more. He's in this prison. He knows he's going to be killed at some point by Homelander, so why not? And a new tactic comes in with Soldier Boy. Soldier Boy has had the investigators find out where... Crime analytics. Crime analytics, yeah, which the DP used to run. Crime analytics, yeah.

[00:46:26] He has them looking for Zoe and has found where Zoe and her father are. And as soon as Stan Edgar realizes that Soldier Boy's pretty clear he's going to kill Zoe if he doesn't get information out of Stan Edgar, he gives them the link to go for a reunion for a former member of the Seven that we haven't seen before, Mr. Marathon. Mr. Marathon, who was replaced by the A-train. Yes. And, of course, is Jared Padalecki. Yes, he is. Yay!

[00:46:53] Yes, we have the Supernatural reunion that we've wanted as we meet up. Short and sweet, but fantastic. Yes, it's really good. Along with Mal Chemical, played by Misha Collins as well. So, like, this was great to see. But also a whole rake of other names and faces immensely familiar. Yeah. Which was unexpected. It was, wasn't it? I love the Hollywood poker game. This is a real staple of TV shows that want to cram in some special guest stars. Yes.

[00:47:21] Christopher Mintz-Platz in there from Kick-Ass. Yeah, yeah. From Superbad with his co-star from Superbad, Seth Rogen, the executive producer of the show. This is his fourth appearance by Seth Rogen in the show. He had one every season up until season four. But this is his final appearance, I guess. Yes. As it is with everybody. Cool to see Will Forte in there as well. Former SNL star. And Craig Robertson in there as well. And Camille Nanjiani, who is currently appearing on Taskmaster in the UK.

[00:47:50] A comedy show over here. Cool to just really address to see that he's there and on Taskmaster. And, of course, was in Eternals. That's where he got super jacked, as he likes to point out in this episode. So, you know, I really like that they're having this conversation. So, there's loads of cool things about this scene. I love that we have Jared Padalecki when introducing them into his house. They see all the posters for all the movies that he's done since he left The Seven.

[00:48:19] A great slag on Stony Pictures TV. That's where Supes go to die, which is basically the owners of the rights to Spider-Man, who made the absolutely terrible Madame Web, who made the atrocious Morbius. Who've made so many, so many bad movies connecting with Spider-Man. The only ones they've gotten right really have been the Spider-Man movies, which are made in conjunction with Marvel. But once they take them out, you know, I think you even forget that they made Craven,

[00:48:47] which was also absolutely terrible. There's so many movies that they've made. Since they've had those rights. So, I love that they had a little dig at Stony Pictures, who I think are the producers of The Voice. I think so. I think it's on Stony Pictures, isn't it? Yeah. So, it's lovely and meta here. You can sense there's something between Homelander and Mr. Marathon.

[00:49:10] Even just Stan Edgar is joyful in saying, well, it'll be a happy reunion for you both. And he knows it won't be. Homelander is more than sort of rolling his eyes all the time. Clearly doesn't want to be there. Doesn't want to deal with just the sort of chit-chat from the gathered megastars of Hollywood comedy. Yeah.

[00:49:38] But the big problem with Mr. Marathon is that, just like we saw with A-Train back in season one or season two, Homelander always tests the speedsters against the next speedster coming up behind them. And Mr. Marathon was beaten by A-Train, therefore out of the seven. Yes. Big Prince of the seven. And that was the end of any discussion about whether Mr. Marathon could be the fastest man on earth and therefore part of the seven. So, he hates Homelander for that. He's been, well, drug dealing and making crappy films.

[00:50:06] I love the, this one made $35 million. Yeah. On a $220 million budget. Yeah. And storing all the memorabilia of Vought and hence why Stan Edgar says he knows a lot about Vought. Yeah. There is a nice moment with Soldier Boy looking at Stormfront's picture and, you know, just giving it a little rub but putting it back, trying not to be noticed by Homelander, which I think he is.

[00:50:32] There's also lots of baby oil as well, which I'm not entirely sure he got the reference for, but used to great effect later. I'll tell you. Go on. Yeah. It was P. Diddy. When they raided his house and arrested him, they found his house was full of more baby oil than any man could possibly use. Of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, that's why it's, I think it's Puff Father or something like that. Yeah, it's like Puff Daddy or something. Yeah. But the actual name on the label is something like Puff Father or something like that.

[00:51:02] Okay, grand, yes. Silly me. There you go. Now, as soon as you say it, it becomes very, very obvious. So many controversies, it's hard to keep them all together. And, you know, I think there is, you know, they ultimately say, yes, could be. They know Bombsite. He deals, Mr. Marathon, his, you know, one of his little side hustles. He does deal with Bombsite and they'll get him over. But it is a way of, I don't think they're really doing that.

[00:51:31] Ultimately, they're trying to get Soldier Boy, trying to get in his head about where he stands because they're looking really to try and kill Homelander. Yeah, yeah. They're trying to kill him. I think that's obviously the picture there of Stormfront is a little nod to Vault Rising where we're going to see the return of Stormfront. So they want to just put her back in our minds again. So we will see her again coming up in the future. But, yeah, they're trying to work out where Soldier Boy stands.

[00:52:00] There's a lot of flattery from Mr. Marathon as to Soldier Boy and his love for him. And they are going to take the opportunity to take out Homelander, which is really interesting. God, if they just teamed up with Billy Butcher, Homelander would definitely be dead. Well, I thought, yeah, absolutely. I love that Mal Chemical uses some kind of knockout gas, I guess, on Homelander. Well, that's his superpower. He can make any chemical come out of his mouth.

[00:52:27] And he uses it to knock out Homelander. So what a cool superpower to use there. I love that he's also been hard done by Homelander. He's met Homelander six times, he says. You know, he did a massive campaign for Voss. And Homelander just looks at him as if he's never seen him before in his entire life, treats him so badly. And then also, I love in the background, the poker game that's going on between Seth, Camille, Christopher and Will.

[00:52:55] They're having conversations about what's Homelander's been doing to the acting community. And they're trying to work out how they can do this massive protest that will actually get through to Homelander. You know, they're talking about all the people that have been arrested, people like Benedict Cumberbatch and Benedict Wong have been arrested. All these famous actors have all been arrested. And they're going, well, we could all write a post that goes up at the same time on Instagram. You know, should we use black squares? Well, no, Black Lives Matter is used that. Should we use blue squares? You know, Blue Lives Matter?

[00:53:25] No, I'm not going to post that on Instagram. Should we use a white square? Sure, definitely not. Really good banter between this group. And then, yeah, Will Forte tries to turn them all in to Homelander, thinking that he's going to kill one of them. So it might as well be someone that isn't him. And in that moment, Mal Chemical takes Homelander out. Yeah. Yeah. And then it's down to, can you convince Soldier Boy to kill his son?

[00:53:53] And the short answer is no. No, I love the fact that he ultimately says, nobody screws my son but me. Which, the delivery, excellent. And I think what plays out after, in terms of how he takes them all out by effectively getting Marathon Man to run into them, is brilliant. I mean, the first time it happens with Will Forte, I was like, okay, what just happened there? He was there, and now he's left there.

[00:54:22] And he's just exploded. And I just thought Mr. Marathon had just been covered in it. But it's, no, Mr. Marathon runs into each of them. Even Craig Robinson, as he's coming out of the loo, after some really, lots of bad tacos that he's been having. From Danny Trejo. Yeah. Stick to acting, apparently. Danny Trejo. So good. And then Mr. Marathon ultimately brought down by the same baby oil.

[00:54:53] And, I mean, that in and of itself is brutal with the snapping of the ankle. Yeah. And then the leg. But he does get confirmation that bombsite has V1. Mm-hmm. Doesn't know where he is, but he has V1. Yeah. And that's enough for Soulja Boy who thinks, you know, definitely telling the truth no matter how much of an a-hole he is. Mm-hmm. But then his face gets smashed in by the boot of Homelander.

[00:55:19] And I like the little after bit with Homelander saying, you know, why did you do that? Because screw them. Yeah, exactly. I still don't know. And, again, it goes back to the point you had about Sister Sage earlier on. It's the thing about Soulja Boy. Don't really know where his mind is. Is he supporting Homelander? Is he doing what he wants to do for himself? Does he just change the rules every time he's out here, you know? Just don't know. Yeah.

[00:55:44] Or is it realizing that Stormfront and him, that was the only thing that had any meaning? Maybe. And that it had a son, you know? Well, yeah. Potentially. But also, didn't Homelander kill Stormfront? Yes, exactly. So if he finds that out, he found out that she's dead. Yeah. But if he finds out that Homelander's the one that killed her, maybe that's their standoff at the end of the show, right? I don't know. Definitely. Yeah. What a scene. What a great moment.

[00:56:14] I was worried as the episode went on, I knew it was going to be the reunion of the Supernatural Boys in this episode. I was worried as we got to like the 45-minute mark. Oh, I know. I hadn't seen either of them and then realized the episode was an hour and 10 minutes. So we got a good amount of time and a really good appearance of all these characters and some extra guest stars to die in the way. And of course, a callback to A-Train's first appearance when you have Mr. Marathon running through each of the guest stars here. That's a callback to A-Train killing Huey's girlfriend in the first episode.

[00:56:43] So yeah, of course, if you have a speedster, they will run through a person. Excellent stuff. John, loads in this episode. Anything we missed? Anything you want to talk about that we haven't mentioned at all? No, I think for me, I think covered a good amount there. Lots in this episode for me that was just so, so good. I like the structure of it with the one shots as well. Just how it was based around the opening discussion around heavenly rebranding of Homelander.

[00:57:12] And it's sort of all falling off that into these one shots of Firecracker, Black Noir, Terror, Sister Sage, and of course Soldier Boy. So that was really a nice structure to play with, I think. It was. I think because we're in the final season and we're on episode five, there's lots of pieces that they need to move. And this was such a good way of setting up those pieces. Such a good way of getting a quick insight to everybody around the table and find out where they're all sitting at the moment.

[00:57:42] And some of them no longer sitting there by the end of the episode. So overall then, John, what did you think of the episode completely? Absolutely loved it. Give this five. Do, do, do. Come on, do the conga. Do, do, do. Out of five. Oh, wow. Congareel. Lovely. Well, yes. Congareel. Do the conareel. I did think you were doing the Arches Chain Restaurant. I'm not going to mention them on the podcast. I thought you were doing that tune. So Chris, also. Well, I had Fish Fry Fridays.

[00:58:12] Out of five. And I thought, oh, maybe not. Yeah. But I just think the conga reel for Adam. Because again, another longstanding member of the cast. Adam Bourke, yeah. Adam Bourke. And I just thought that was, I thought that was really good with Black Noir. You can see how that's going to play out. But Firecracker was tragic. But ultimately, you could see it coming. Not a devotee enough.

[00:58:39] Despite probably, as she was trying to persuade Homelander, the most devoted to him. Yeah. Sacrificed everything for him. You know? And good to have Terra. I like that. I love Terra's dreams with Homelander with his turkey drumstick. And then it sort of cuts to Terra thrusting on his toy, his Homelander toy.

[00:59:08] Sister Sage, Ashley and Bashley really liking this notion of an alliance here. However superficial it may be. And yeah, I think the reunion of the Supernatural boys with Jensen Ackles, Jared Pedalecki and Misha Collins just really nicely played here in terms of bringing them together. And the blood, the fun of all of that, so good. Yeah. Excellent stuff. Excellent stuff.

[00:59:37] And yes, once again, RIP to Bentley who played Terra in these episodes. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Brilliant episode. Great to have these reunions here. Really, really enjoyed. Looking forward to how the next episode plays out of The Boys. But John, I think we need to get down to the pub and maybe have a whiskey and talk about our history. I think we do. I think we do. Yes, fellow boys and girls, fellow quizzers. It is question five of The Boys Pub Quiz.

[01:00:04] What does the deep suggest communion wafers be replaced with in the Democratic Church of America? I can get on board with this one. I think wafers aren't the biggest of problems, I think, when you're trying to sell a new prophet or a new god to an entire nation of people. I don't think wafers is the question here, right? I'm surprised his suggestion wasn't as out there as I was expecting. Yes.

[01:00:31] I was expecting it to be like, you know, ham and cheese sandwich or something, you know? But John, do you want to get the question more of a time? Certainly. What does the deep suggest communion wafers be replaced with in the Democratic Church of America? Okay. Fantastic. That's the fifth question of eight. Email the answers to us at the end of the season to feedback at tvpodcastindustries.com with your location. And you could be in with a chance of getting your hands on some season five goodies for the boys. Just the country is all I need of where you are. I'll reach out to you for your full address.

[01:01:00] If you are lucky enough to get your hands on those goodies, I just want to make sure I have some that can be delivered to you. Yeah. That's all. Absolutely. And with that, let's get some feedback from our wonderful boys and girls. Yes. On to our feedback section. First up, we have a voicemail through on our website, tvpodcastindustries.com from Harrison Fox. Hey, fellow boys and girls, Harrison Fox calling in for season five, episode five of the boys. Probably my new favorite episode.

[01:01:29] Didn't really see myself feeling sorry for Firecracker, both during her segment at the beginning and for her untimely death at the end, but here we are. Terror's near-death experience causing Butcher to finally accept that giving V1 to some of his quote-unquote friends, not that bad of an idea. The mansion scene was unbelievable. I like that Seth Rogen appeared as Seth Rogen this time.

[01:01:58] I thought that was really funny. And then Mr. Marathon just brutally exploding a bunch of celebrities. That was pretty wild. Yeah, no. This show just continues to top itself again and again. I can't believe that we started the episode off with the peddling of Trump Bibles. I'm sorry. Homelander Bibles. Just wonderful. Wonderful. It just continues to be wonderful.

[01:02:27] Sage's plan finally being revealed to Ashley and Bashley. Did you know her name? The back of her head is named Bashley. I learned that from the subtitles. Seriously, wonderful episode. Five meat wallets out of five. Soldier Boy really can't turn a phrase. Can't wait to hear what you guys have to say. Talk to you later. Bye. Thanks so much, Harrison.

[01:02:56] I completely forgot about the Trump Bible. Well, that was a thing as well. Yeah, yeah. Was it the gold-covered Bible that he was selling? Doomed. Yeah, it was sort of election fundraising, wasn't it? I think it was eight karat gold sold as 20 karat gold, wasn't it? As usual. Absolutely. Yes, absolutely. Yeah, we're calling all the way back to the beginning with the Trump Bible.

[01:03:20] But yes, this one has an extra new feature in it, a new passage all about the Homelander, which never appeared, in fairness, in the Trump Bible. There was no extra passage in there. But I'm sure he did an introduction as to why you should believe in what he did rather than what the Pope says. Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, yeah, I think there is a little bit of feeling sorry for Firecracker.

[01:03:44] Firecracker, but it's also, I guess, a great reminder of you sleep with the devil. Who knows what you're going to guess? And she, more than most, should have understood that principle. I certainly feel sorry for her being put in this situation. But once she took that step, even with the tear coming down her face, when she took that step to say the things she said on TV about her former pastor, who seemed like a genuinely lovely Christian man,

[01:04:12] and once she took that step, there was no going back for her. She had to meet her end. She'd gone against all of her principles for Homelander. So, yep, it is a sad moment when anybody dies. But yeah, she was due to meet her end from that point onwards, definitely. We have got an email in from Coffee and Vodka with his thoughts on this episode. Thanks so much, Harrison. Sorry for your voicemail as well. Yeah, thanks so much, Harrison. Coffee and Vodka says, Greetings, fellow segmented defenders. Loved the vignette format, with each long-form scene coming together to complete an episode,

[01:04:42] which pretty much led nowhere in particular. It was, however, fun and tragic getting there, with both ends of the bridge burnt. Firecracker's terminal ending seems a mercy, while Black Noir's outcome was anything but. The deeps become a visible threat. He's learned a thing or two about coercion, and is employing the lessons well. Better late than never. Sage's endgame is understandable, if not the global cost to achieve it. But hey, quality alone time is quality alone time. As for the boys, it was nice to see a day of the life, especially through Terror's horny and hungry eyes.

[01:05:12] And in the end, Billy's still willing to compromise. The best bit was the poker-playing, backstabbing celebs. Seriously want to hear the lines they chose not to use for that scene. Greatest line they did use? Best day of my life was when they executed Hater. More offers for the forte. If he didn't know what was coming, Bill must have laughed himself off the couch. A great episode. Five terrorized toys, theatrical barrel rolls, and God-glazed meat wallets out of five. Peace and take care. Coffee and vodka.

[01:05:42] Great stuff, coffee and vodka. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. That would be great to see the improv that wasn't used around that table. Yeah. And yet Sage's endgame is understandable, and maybe it is. It's just whether Ashley and Bashley will be allowed to join her in that underground bunker. I am genuinely expecting that if they do go with the ending the Sage is expecting to happen,

[01:06:11] that we'll have the Twilight Zone ending, where she's sitting in her library going, ah, finally time alone, and then she goes blind, and she can't read any books, which is the famous Twilight Zone episode of her. That's right. Yeah. Excellent stuff. Thanks, coffee and vodka. Yes. Thanks, coffee and vodka. We also have another voicemail in, this time from Steve Brown, who doesn't quite do a live Steve, but does give us his thoughts on the entire episode. Good stuff. Yeah. Hello, TV Podcast Industries.

[01:06:41] This is Steve, and I'm just now watching for the first time The Boys Season 5 episode. Is it five one-shots? Yeah, I think so. Wow. This Homelander commercial is crazy. The title card saying Firecracker instead of The Boys. It's interesting. I was going to do a live Steve, but I'm afraid if I do a live Steve, I might say something that would answer the pub quiz question that hasn't been asked yet. So probably just come back at the end and give you my thoughts. All right. Plus all the religion talk and Christianity talk has got me a little uncomfortable

[01:07:11] with my faith being Christianity. Okay, I get it now. The title card just came up for Black Noir, so we're going to see each events from different characters' perspectives is what it looks like. Cool. And Black Noir 2 as an actor is just perfect. I can't wait to see how this turns out. And now even Terror is getting a piece of the episode. And Sister Sage working behind Homelander's back to hide or get rid of the V-1.

[01:07:40] Interesting also. What? Um, World War Soup. Oh, she's going to try to hide out from the virus. Huh. And the closed captioning calls Ashley's, has I ever had Bashley? I guess I think back Ashley. Oh, and now we get Soldier Boy's perspective. Jensen Ackles. And I guess we'll see what cameos we get from that. Stan Edgar just said, a delightful reunion. We're going to get. There he is. Jared Padalecki, Mr. Marathon.

[01:08:09] And of course, the meta of the posters and the way Jared, the way Mr. Marathon is talking is great. And now so many cameos happening. Misha Collins. Now I can't even name everybody who's in this scene. Our words cannot express that final scene there in Mr. Marathon's house. Wow. I can't wait to watch it again and podcast about it. And so much for Firecracker. Right. Talk to you later. Excellent stuff, Steve.

[01:08:36] Thanks so much for your thoughts through the episode. Yeah. I mean, I think the Black Noir thing as, yeah, just a double jobbing suit, but doing local amateur dramatics. Really, really good. They almost got to play the Broadway though. Well, that's true. Yeah. It's more than local amateur dramatics. Absolutely. But I'm kind of saying that because I think it makes it even funnier. Yeah.

[01:09:03] And this notion that he's in a local sort of theater, community theater doing stuff like a lot of people do, you know. And the director of The Dawn of the Seven has gone to local theater as a director as well. Yeah. It's the fall from grace, I think, which is so good there, even though he's still in The Seven for Black Noir. It's just, and I think that fall from grace comes, you know, more and more, as I think, you know, coffee and vodka said around that, the viable threat,

[01:09:31] the deep and the methods that he's employing. But I do think, I think that might be the Black Noir, the resurrection might happen with the amount of anger he is storing up within that suit and that silence. So it'd be interesting to see that. And yeah, as you say, sort of the LA house scene was just breathtaking. Very good.

[01:10:01] Well done. Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, I really would love to have seen Black Noir do a barrel roll as Barry Kidd. That was such a weird suggestion. Yes, we should do a barrel roll here. I don't believe the dialogue. Excellent stuff. Thanks so much for that, Steve. Great to hear from you. Yeah, thanks, Steve. We also got some feedback in from Denise DeFlorio, John. Yes, Denise says, Hello, I'm all caught up with the show and podcast through episode four. Thank you, Derek. I'm not just a cranky old lady saying

[01:10:30] I can't see a damn thing. Just a general note, appreciation for the costume department. From the library-themed merch in Gen V to the inmates' uniforms to the sweatshirt Annie borrows from her stepmother, that soup song of snark is just perfect. Looking forward to the last episodes and being able to see them. Cheers, Denise. Thanks, Denise, for that. Yeah, I know that some of the messages

[01:10:57] on the costumes have been great. I mean, even just the fact that they get Mother's Milk into a Britney Spears T-shirt. Absolutely. And just really, really good. That was hilarious. You know, I loved that the next episode they had a moment with MM where he gets himself back into his wrap T-shirt and it was like he was getting his uniform back on. You know, like he's getting his super costume back on, in fact. Yeah, really, really good. Yeah, absolutely. Costume department doing a great job, as always. Thanks so much, Denise. Yeah, thanks, Denise. Hopefully you'll hear from me again

[01:11:26] before the end of the season as well with your thoughts. Over to Discord, we had some feedback from Dr. Bob. First up, I want to say thanks so much, Dr. Bob. I forgot to put the spoiler post up on Discord this week and Dr. Bob stepped up and put in his thoughts where everybody left their thoughts for this week. Thanks, Dr. Bob. And Dr. Bob says, it's a week for unexpected death in TVPI terrors, isn't it? After all the characters dying in other shows as well. These Switch and Stitch episodes bring a different perspective on the world. Terror and Noir

[01:11:55] wear beautiful little love notes to pets and the profession. Wasn't expecting Sage's revelation, but it makes a tremendous amount of sense. It's, yeah, you're the smartest person in the world, surrounded by idiots. All you want to be is surrounded by no one and your books, right? Yeah, absolutely. I do like your thought of the Twilight Zone. That would be superly sort of twisted. Dark, gotta go dark. Absolutely. Yeah, and lots of deaths this week

[01:12:24] in the world of podcasting from TVPI. So, yeah, thanks so much, Dr. Bob. Also on Discord, Walt says, I was convinced Noir was going to kill Deep. Still time yet, though. Not sure how Homelander is going to explain Firecracker's death to the others. Is this going to make them more loyal out of fear or turn against him out of fear they will be next? Considering how Homelander wants everyone to love him, it would be poetic

[01:12:53] for him to be alone at the end and for everyone to turn on him and kill him. Would we see Sage go behind Homelander's back and help the boys kill him? Excellent questions there, Walt. Definitely with you around Black Noir. I thought something was going to happen to the Deep and then you kind of got Deep reasserting himself, but like you say, still time yet. And I definitely think that that time is going to come.

[01:13:23] Interesting theory as well around how this may kind of phase out or complete out, I guess, around Homelander in that, yes, you're right, he is looking for affection, love, adoration, devotion. And in a sense, what we have is no one has that towards him at all. Maybe there's some stirring in from Soldier Boy, but it will be very interesting to see if Sage goes behind his back because,

[01:13:53] you know, she has a lot of room for maneuver with her intelligence. It's an interesting one as well is how Homelander would explain the death of Firecracker because Homelander doesn't explain anything. She's dead because he chose her to be dead. That's kind of the way Homelander will play this. We've seen the rest of them don't have any backbone at all around him. The Deep has zero backbone. He's willing to turn in his best friend, knock out his best friend so that he can just get one tiny one up with Homelander. And really all that

[01:14:23] that's paid off now. Homelander just said can you go a little bit easy on the Deep to Soldier Boy. That's probably as far as him bringing Stalacre into him will get for the Deep. He won't get any extra special benefit other than that one moment where Homelander protected him for a quick second. Black Noir is just going to play the silence until he gets the chance to get the Deep I think. And Old Father is really seeing the benefit of being the head of the church. I think he'd be really happy that the other one of the disciples as he said for Firecracker

[01:14:53] he'd be really happy that Firecracker's gone so he doesn't have anybody else in the way and he can get his vision for the church out there without anybody stopping him or slowing down the printing presses as Firecracker was trying to do as well. Absolutely. So that really just leaves Sage and I think if Sage believes she's going to get what she wants by teaming up with the boys team if that's the path to get her to her ivory tower surrounded by books yeah maybe she will team up with the boys yeah if that truthfully

[01:15:22] is her plan. Yes. Great stuff. Thanks so much Walt for your feedback. Thanks Walt. Joe Herbst says Sage hasn't been as interesting lately. I could definitely see her being part of the plan to kill Homelanders since she said she wants him gone. Curious how it plays out with Noir and Deep. My assumption is that Deep meets a nasty end possibly at the hands of Noir. Soldier Boy really goes back and forth. The cameos at the poker party were amusing. It would have been funny if those clans had been the ones to take down Homelander. Most significantly

[01:15:52] I was worried for terror the whole time. Overall it's wild how prescient this show is. It was written like two years ago filmed a year ago and yet so much is lining up with events today. Crazy. Crazy. Indeed it is crazy. There is a moment that you could tell they were adding an extra line of dialogue though because they have a scene where Ashley's talking to someone in Ukraine and she's looking out the window facing away from the camera. I'm sure they were going to replace that with somebody else just to make

[01:16:22] the joke work in case the Ukraine war had finished which it absolutely should be by now. They were writing the dialogue to fix that. So I'm sure there's some things they're doing more recently than a year or two ago but overall the overarching storyline absolutely amazing how prescient it's been. Yeah and I think you're right you know Soldier Boy is in a real sort of grey zone around his thoughts about Homelander and I like how it's not only being addressed

[01:16:51] by Homelander directly like we get this episode but also being picked up by Sister Sage as well with her discussions with back Ashley and Ashley. Absolutely. But wouldn't it be great if the Supernatural boys were the ones to come in and take down Homelander you know just another thing for the board basically. Absolutely great stuff thanks Joe for your thoughts. Ken Log on Discord says really hope Sister Sage dies soon. the issue with writing the smartest person in the world is they can never be

[01:17:20] smarter than the writers and so she instead spends her time losing and going all according to plan and it's becoming tiring. Overall though I really enjoyed this episode seems the deep and noir death flags are fully raised now. Valerie Curry gave an absolutely stellar performance as always got to always be hard to read a script and realize your character dies. Absolutely Ken Log certainly in the way that she does

[01:17:50] it's so in a sense it's deserved in a sense it's undeserved but it's just the trap that has happened to her and the trap that can happen to a lot of people if they go with someone with so little ethical baseline and that's what happens everyone becomes dispensable yeah exactly

[01:18:19] thanks so much for the feedback Ken Log yeah thanks Ken Log over on Facebook Mindy Megan says bless the boys official account for exploding people humping things the boys business finally we had our team free will reunion it felt like the movie this is the end with all the funny guys playing themselves and meeting gory untimely deaths I love the change in format and very glad we didn't lose good old terror absolutely didn't expect the end it's been said several times but both of the shows we're watching together weekly have eerie real life parallels

[01:18:49] and this week had big deaths I didn't see coming overall what a super fun truly bonkers episode they did release a scene where Jensen Jared and Misha are playing at superheroes and Jared and Misha make costumes out of tinfoil which was very funny and also I like the nod to the boys

[01:19:19] official account and their message the Invincible official account also put out a message to say that don't worry Seth Rogan recorded all his lines for Invincible season five before this week's episode of the boys which I thought was very good yeah absolutely great stuff thanks Mindy also on Facebook Heather Wallace says as soon as the ad for Homelander's crazed church mentioned a Remington I knew this would be a reunion for Supernatural's Winchester boys both names are gun types one of

[01:19:49] Mr. Marathon's movie posters even had the tagline Supernatural Speedster when Sage mentioned all the overseas suits being recorded I thought she wanted to expose them to the virus to take them down and maybe she was secretly trying to save the

[01:20:21] wonder wonder man an actor hiding their superpowers love that the play was about the bee cheese but very disappointed no one was attempting the gibbs british australian accent john noble could have given them some dodgy accent lessons and as for firecracker as soon as she said even gods need love I started covering my eyes I knew she was a goner actually I covered my eyes a lot in that episode not least at terror's disturbing

[01:20:51] dreams great stuff Heather yeah I am totally with you on the covering of eyes and not so much for terror's disturbing dreams there's something quite tight I guess about tomelander's buns but yes indeed the whole sense of tension impending just awfulness coming from firecracker's

[01:21:20] interaction with homelander in the penthouse of fort tower certainly was almost a bit too much to bear but I think this is a really good way for me I the scene I don't want to see it makes me want to turn away it becomes so foreboding and that it becomes unbearable and that's great great

[01:21:50] TV so yeah thanks so much Heather for your thoughts absolutely thanks Heather and we also got some feedback in from Anthony Star was filming those terror day dream scenes they really rolled out the carpet with the cameos here for that poker game I was fun scene overall I'm sure they had a lot of fun shooting it as well firecracker it was a journey I'm glad they let her expand her range

[01:22:20] before her untimely death she good hilarious fun stuff throughout this episode as you say and can't wait for episode six as well because yeah it'd be an interesting one to follow certainly with

[01:22:49] all the fallout from the case of a former Vort soup having been killed firecracker the mouthpiece for the organisation as well as lots of maybe sort of backhanded plans that have been erred or maybe seethed through the mask of black noir as well so yeah should be interesting thanks David and we have some last

[01:23:19] second feedback in an email from Meryl Smith well done Meryl getting in just in time she says welcome back fellow Homelander loyalists and idgits we've officially made it to the supernatural reunion episode and it did not disappoint honestly it was spectacular to explore through this of the one-shots especially when you really realise that we don't necessarily focus on the seven side of things there's usually a decent enough balance between equally showing the boys the seven and everyone else in between since it's the last time we're seeing her let's keep the phrase

[01:23:49] going in her honour or IP firecracker heavens to Betsy Valerie Currie has been one of the most uniquely entertaining additions to the series and it would be sadder without her her character was a terrible person who did terrible things and in the end got what was coming to her but she was very entertaining at that job I think two of my favourite scenes of the episode were during her show when she was to denounce her church and pastor and the single tear fell from her eye the other one being her final scene with Homelander where she tells him how dedicated and loyal she is to him you can even see

[01:24:19] through Anthony Starr's performance that it is touching Homelander but it makes Homelander feel something and if he feels something he can't do what's necessary to reach his ascension it's quite depressing because you see what Homelander as an actor to perfectly capture that performance as Noir unfortunately Adam had to get Eel such a nasty way to go let's hope when the

[01:24:49] character's time to die comes up it has things it probably not the whole plan that she revealed to the Ashleys the rule is if the plan is revealed on screen it's going to go off the rails at

[01:25:19] some point and it won't happen exactly as planned lastly Soldier Boy and his wonderful reunion it was so nice to see Jensen reunited with Jared and Misha on screen after six years since the ending of Supernatural these guys barely skipped to beat and it feels just like the good old days I also love the low-key meta moment when Homelander is knocked out and Marathon and Malchemical try to persuade Soldier Boy to take out Homelander and that they can be awesome but Soldier Boy rejects the offer and refuses to do another supernatural project with them I mean help kill his son

[01:25:48] RIP to the this is the end cast the other celebrities and to really extenuate this show is over let's take out the producer Seth Rogan for good measure part of me thinks that maybe he hasn't really actually sided with Homelander but

[01:26:22] perfect position to take him out and possibly even himself because he also has to go too I think the next episode will probably be when we get to check in with our resident gen V crew let's hope for a happy ending but expect a bad one for everyone involved for toilet eels in the anus milk sponsorship via church donations celebrity blood sausage parties and mashed marathons out of five excellent

[01:26:52] fall at the hands of black noire rather than the other way round but equally I think you're right it could be either way it depends just how they want to write it

[01:27:22] amazing if we're all together at the same time I don't even need to be in the seven but we could be amazing yeah I know it was really really good thanks so much for that Meryl I actually always expected that the deep would die at the hands of starlight because of the callback really

[01:27:52] firecracker heavens to Betsy indeed yeah Valerie Curry superb with what she's done here and yeah I mean the final scene with her in Homelander I think is just so so telling loyal to him but not enough still despite everything she has sacrificed or dedicated to him it is never enough and so she goes yeah exactly

[01:28:22] exactly thanks so much Meryl for your feedback yeah thanks Meryl and finally on Facebook we have Jamie Lawson who says I loved this episode not only the reunion of the Supernatural Boys but also some Hollywood luminaries playing themselves love the way soldier boy took care of it all yeah absolutely why why did he do it could have been the way out for the whole world could have been and he could have been in charge of the seven but if anyone's going to mess with his

[01:29:07] TV podcast industries three more episodes to go the boys one more episode of daredevil to go and then an episode of the punisher the punisher one last kill to go it's gonna be a big month yeah before going into the next spider-man movie yeah yeah it's gonna be fun yeah absolutely but of course we will be back next time fellow boys and girls with our chat all about the boys season five episode six though the heavens fall and of course we will be there with our

[01:29:37] next question question six in the boys pub quiz absolutely yes yes looking forward to the sixth episode I absolutely thanks as always fellow boys and girls for joining us until we're back for episode six keep watching keep listening and of course keep doing the

[01:30:53] telling that when his chocolate soup didn't work he threw it in the bin and almost killed teller pen he threw it in the bin and almost killed terror you know you have soldier boy after another round with fire cracker let's try that again after another round of fire crackers yeah I think the reunion of the supernatural

[01:31:22] boys with Jensen Ackles Jared Padalecki and Mishka Collins Padalecki Misha Collins with Jared Padalecki and Mika Collins Misha that's what he said and Misha Collins just really nicely played here in terms of bringing them together three

[01:31:52] more episodes to go with the boys one more episode of Daredevil to go and then an episode of Punisher the Punisher one last kill to go yeah it's going to be a big month yeah before into the Spider-Man Jesus yeah before going into the next Spider-Man movie yeah it's going to be fun way way you