#The Boys Season 2 Episode 5 Review: We Gotta Go Now

So, the word is that many of you are a bunch of babies tanking the rating of The Boys Season 2 because you don’t like that it’s airing weekly.

Boo hoo. Get your heads out of your collective asses and enjoy great entertainment when you get it. Stop being gluttons. 

When you watch an entire series in one sitting, the excitement is gone in a flash. It’s like your ice cream melting before you even get to the cone.

The Boys Season 2 Episode 5 packs so much into one hour that it should satisfy you for a week. Do you whine when the latest Star Wars movie ends even though you know another is on the way?

Or what about the Marvel series of films everyone loves? The Boys is airing movie-quality content, and to purposefully trash it says a lot more about the fragile egos of those who watch than the show itself. If you’re one of those, people you should be ashamed. 

Homelander is watching, and if you watched “We Gotta Go Now,” you know what goes through his mind when his people are displeased. He doesn’t care, but if he could, he’d flatten each and every one of you without a second thought.

Except that Homelander does care about his reputation, as we well know. And the pain he feels when he’s up against the wall makes him do stupid things.

Ohhh. Oh. Huh. Pffft. So, what? They’re all starving, but one of them has a cell phone?


Homelander

So turning to Stormfront, the meme queen, to get him out of his jam makes a lot of sense. It makes even more sense if you have been paying attention to Homelander at all because the dude is in a lot of pain.

Hopefully, we’ll get a glimpse into his backstory at some point to show us why he’s so needy and trapped in a childlike phase of his life. Yes, we heard about his dad not being around, but that’s the deal for a lot of people, and they don’t turn out like Homelander.

As it stands now, it seems like Homelander and Stormfront are a match made in hell. 

He’s not nearly as decisively mean or aggressive as she is, though. Homelander gets mean when he’s hurt. He lashes out because he doesn’t know how to process rage.

Stormfront, on the other hand, plots her actions and knows very well what she’s doing. Her interaction with A-Train, who wins no awards in the kindness or compassion departments, proved she’s never going to let go of her past.

A-Train was a teammate, and she went out of her way to make sure he knew she thought he was garbage. Oh, sure, she did it with a smile on her face, but A-Train isn’t an idiot. Even in his position, he’s likely suffered at the hands of people like Stormfront all his life.

Homelander likely knows that Stormfront is bad news. But he needs the assist and the attention more than he needs to keep his nose clean. 

It was only a matter of time before they got down and dirty, but man, oh man, did those scenes deliver!

Antony Starr is hilarious as a horned out Homelander, and it’s easy to imagine that filming those scenes together was a lot of fun.

When Stormfront taunted Homelander to do his best to harm her, he, of course, took the bait. Watching his reaction to her accepting his laserbeam foreplay made me realize how hard it has to be for any Supe to be with a normal person.

Their basic instincts are to turn on and power up when aroused, but that would ensure they have nobody left to play with very quickly, not to mention the blowback from the intense scrutiny under which they live.

When Stormfront moaned with pleasure that “it hurt,” there was an unexpected look on Homelander’s face. He didn’t want to hurt her, and it threw him. 

So when they get really into the lovemaking, tossing each other around the room, and eventually hovering midair, they seemed perfectly sated and perfectly matched.

Homelander even, dare I say, looked tender in turn when not tossing his lady love across the room and into a wall.

They are going to be a whole lot of fun to watch as the season progresses, especially since Butcher made a promise to Mr. Edgar that he wouldn’t air Homelander’s dirty laundry about Becca and Ryan in return for Edgar calling off Black Noir.

Black Noir is a tough nut to crack. Does he speak? Does he just do what he’s told? Does he have no life? How the heck did he become one of The Seven without a single personable feature about him?

He is deadly, though. He’ll run through the Boys until they’re dead until he’s called off. Hughie and Mother’s Milk wanted their friend back, tracking him down to Aunt Judy’s house. They had no idea Noir was on the premises.

Even with three Boys on hand, They were no match for Noir by either physicality (duh) or intelligence. They tried to match his wits, but even that failed.

But once Terror was introduced, we knew there was no way anyone was getting hurt. A man and his dog have a sacred bond, and the way Butcher was with Terror was so squishy!!

Well, here we are. I’m sorry. I almost threw in the towel like a bleedin’ twat. We’re harder ‘n ‘at, ain’t we? I’ll get your mum back. I swear to God I’ll get your mum back. It’ll just take a little bit longer. You hang in there, alright? You be a good boy for Judy. Yeah. That’s a good lad. Oh. I almost forgot. I got you something. Terror, fuck it! That’s my boy.
Butcher

It makes you think that, if given a little time, he would grow attached to Ryan. No, Ryan isn’t a pet, but Butcher has a huge heart, and if he could get past how Ryan came into the world and the powers he possesses, he’d accept the boy.

If Butcher wants to get Becca back, he’ll need to find a way to love Ryan. Becca is all Butcher is thinking about right now, and he made a promise to Terror that he’d get his mum back. 

We also discovered that Butcher had a younger brother named Lenny. Aunt Judy was a wealth of information and also a dealer in hot pharmaceuticals. But just before we got to learn what happened to Lenny, the moment was interrupted.

Judy and MM have made Butcher realize what Hughie means to him, so he’ll likely remain a part of the team even as he tries desperately to win back Becca and terminate her troubles with Homelander.

There wasn’t anything on the table between Hughie and Annie this time around, but that doesn’t mean Starlight was missing in action. Now that she knows Stormfront’s identity, she will work to stop her, it seems.

It’s not going to be easy. Filming Dawn of The Seven is another indication of the intense scrutiny they’re under at all times. It seems like hell being a superhero.

Just walking through a store, there was a Maeve standee, and Butcher was holding a bag of Homelander peas to his bruised eye. Homelander’s faceplant with social media was another rung on that ladder, as was the hell he was putting Maeve through with Elena.

Every single move they make is broadcast everywhere either by them or someone else. There are anti-Supe rallies gaining momentum. It’s only going to get worse for the Supes, but you have to think that the Boys will be able to turn around their position in light of everything.

And if Starlight is already on team Boys, Maeve cannot be far behind. She flat out told Elena that they’re going to take down Homelander, and who better to partner with than the Boys? 

All of the gay stuff was terrible, though, right? As in it makes you cringe and laugh at the same time that some people are so dense. Homelander slanders her left and right, but I think he’s doing it from a place of insolance and not hatred like it would come from Stormfront.

Dude: Pew Research shows that two feminine relationship sends a problematic message.

Dude 2: Yeah, this isn’t penthouse forum.

Dude: Americans are more accepting of gays when they’re in a clear-cut gender relationship like Ellen and Portia.

Still, Hashtag Brave Maeve was hilarious, as was the suggestion that two feminine women don’t play as well to the public because one butch woman would seem more acceptable as a gender norm. WHAT??

You can’t make that stuff up, and I can only imagine that’s how some people feel. God help ’em.

The Deep is busy forging a comeback trail to get back on The Seven with the help of The Church of the Collective. Am I the only one getting some kind of Scientology vibe here? It’s certainly cult-like, but I’ll give ’em props for expelling the likes of Stormfront with their more accepting ways.

It’s a strange role for Goran Visnjic. He’s good at the part, no doubt, but it’s still very underdeveloped. I always want more from him when he’s on screen.

The Deep feeding the souls of the homeless with his book rather than actual food was a hoot. Talk about unfettered ego at play. His commercial was good stuff, too.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to get too involved with The Deep’s plight, or Maeve’s situation or even Kimiko and Frenchie when the majority of each episode is dedicated to the larger storylines. I’m sure the other stories are going somewhere, but it’s fleeting.

In that respect, I can understand the displeasure of watching weekly. When you only get one or two minor scenes with characters you enjoy, it’s not as easy to follow along.

Frenchie has been trying to get to know Kimiko for 13 episodes now, and he’s gotten nowhere. That’s how it feels with him and Kimiko from my viewpoint, too.

I get that Kimiko is hurting. It makes sense. When we met her, she was covering her wounds. Seeing her brother again only to lose him so horrifically sent her into a tailspin.

She’s downright savage. It was actually difficult to watch her tear the face off of that man. I want to root for her, but moves like that put her more firmly in Seven territory when what I want is for her to connect with Frenchie and become a more intergral member of the Boys.

What did you think of this episode?

Are you watching weekly, or are you planning to wait until the show is over and the discussion dies down to take a peek? 

And if you don’t like the weekly format, can I ask if you watch broadcast or cable shows anymore or have you cut all ties to it?

Sound off below.

Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a staff writer and critic for TV Fanatic. She’s a member of the Critic’s Choice Association, enjoys mentoring writers, cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of television and film. Follow her on Twitter and email her here at TV Fanatic.