This episode opens with Coleman and The Deep at the new V52 Expo, and many things are not right in this supe universe. Firecracker previews a new show on Vought News Network aimed to demean and publicly judge Starlight for practicing her right to choose. A-Train is also in attendance and has a very cool “Blind Side” esque movie guest-starring Will Ferral in this episode. The film is supposed to retell A-Train’s story and journey to becoming a super. This, along with a host of racially pointed jokes, signifies that The Seven are still incredibly farsighted. In this moment, we sense Sister Sage is on A-Train’s trail for leaking the footage that exonerated the two Starlighters. There is a hint that A-Train could be found out soon as the season wraps. A-train tries to leverage this information and asks Ashley to get Sage off his tail.
Homelander and Ryan are currently prepping for their newest production, “Super School”, but Ryan is not excited about it. Homelander tells Ryan he doesn’t have to do the show if he doesn’t want to. Ryan declines to do the series despite the director, Adam, pleading for him to stay because of production logistics. This is a poignant and almost maniacal scene as Homelander is proud of Ryan. The two are bonding. Later, Homelander goes further when Ryan tells him he wants to help people. Homelander suggests he help a female assistant, Bonnie, who Adam has been harassing. Ryan tells Adam to apologize to Bonnie, multiple times. Thinking he isn’t sincere, Ryan orders Adam to kneel as Bonnie slaps him until he has gained the proper punishment for his misdeeds. Homelander is proud that his son is announcing his autonomy.
In this episode, it is revealed that Daphnie was the one who decided to give Hugie’s father the Temp V. Hugie is now worried that something could go wrong because of this. Daphnie offers that there was no other choice, and it was worth trying to save Hughies dad for him.
We then see Hughie’s entire family together in the hospital, and Hughie can’t help but enjoy this time seeing his parents enjoying each other’s company. Daphnie takes this heartfelt family moment to give Hughie her wedding ring, for when he proposes to Annie.” After leaving the room, Hughie returns to find his dad missing. Daphnie and Hughie find Hughie Sr. has reacted extremely poorly to the Temp V. In addition to terrible memory lapses, he can phase through objects — and humans — becoming a killing machine. Hughie and his mother are trying their best to stop his father from hurting more people, yet he does not know who or where he is. Finally, to protect his mother and others, Hughie decides that it is best to put his dad down peacefully with a drug cocktail. He slowly passes away with Hughie and Daphnie by his side.
Butcher and Joe Kessler are then seen sitting on a bench, as Kessler encourages him to complete the mission of getting rid of supes. Butcher confronts Starlight and the others at their headquarters, warning them about a virus he has discovered that kills supes. It is harmless to humans but latches to supe’s DNA, making it viral. Butcher and Mothers Milk then meet Stan Edgar who is currently in prison and the former CEO of Vought. He is the only person that can help retrieve the virus from Neuman’s hands. The Butcher and Mothers Milk cut him a deal to trade his freedom for help taking down Victoria. Later they uncover the lab where they find many experiments of Temp V on animals. Victoria appears at the lab and is upset that Stan betrayed her to The Boys. He throws in her face that she betrayed him first, sending him to jail. She immediately asks for Sameer, the father of her daughter, and Stan. Both of them are missing and Victoria makes The Boy’s promise to find them for the sake of the virus.
Starlight also opens up to Frenchie about how hard it is to stay true to the heart when she is asked if she has a religion. Frenchie replies, that some of his sins deserve “total condemnation”. He talks about how scared he is that people will perceive him differently after what he has done, or afraid that they won’t, which could be worse. We cut to Frenchie who is seen turning himself in to the police for wrongdoings and killing innocent people.
At the lab, the team finds Dr. Sameer Shaw and discovers that the Temp V was accidentally poured into the groundwater. The animals drank the contaminated water, becoming killing machines that can only be defeated by the virus. Shaw only has one vial left. The team decides to inject a corpse with the dose and use him as bait. Luckily, it works as killer sheep finally die around them. Everyone is safe, but Dr. Shaw is missing
The final scene is of course of Joe Kesler and Butcher who are holding a scientist hostage and cutting his legs for them to make him more and more of the virus. Joe tells him personally that he is merely telling Butcher what he wants to do. However, so far he has led him into plenty of paranoid situations. Will the team try their hand at a supe wipeout this season? This episode took a backseat to the usual harsh note of politics that is usually displayed and instead emphasized a lot of the mental illness that is filling up each of these supes characters. Also opening the door to quiet rivalry between Firecracker and Sister Sage. Will they get on the same page, or will this be where The Seven falls apart? Despite this episode being serious with emotional arcs it is hard not to judge the comedy that was very prevalent in this episode with the hilariously vicious farm animals on Temp V, this emotional dichotomy was incredibly felt but also very enjoyable and well-written, true to The Boy’s absurdity.
Rating: 9/10