TV Recap: ‘The Boys’ Season 2 Episode 7 – ‘Butcher, Baker, the Candlestick Maker’

With only one episode now left in season two, The Boys took the time in “Butcher, Baker, the Candlestick Maker” to lay down even more seeds of dissent, layers of viciousness, and outright gore to make you wonder just what the hell they could have in store for the viewer next. However, before we get there, episode seven gave us some nastiness that only added to how far some characters will go to protect what they believe.

Butcher (Karl Urban) takes a little trip down memory lane, butting heads with his father (the always wonderful John Noble) and letting the viewer know just how he became the man he is today. It is a powerful scene, which Butcher follows up with some ugly bit of threats of violence and blackmail to get what he wants. Suffice to say this man, while having a streak of goodness buried deep inside him, will do whatever is necessary to get the job done.

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If that bit of information sounds familiar, that’s because it is, which brings us to Butcher’s mirror image in many ways, Homelander (Antony Starr). With the help of the equally racist and psychotic Stormfront (Aya Cash), Homelander continues to fan the flames of discontent with very familiar rhetoric that hits home on many fronts. His ego and narcissism, as always, know no bounds and this is shown off in very bright lights with the visit to see his son. Homelander is literally the last person on planet Earth that should be any kind of father figure, yet he continues to believe he is working in the child’s best interest. I’m pretty sure this is not going to turn out the way he thinks it is.

Lamplighter (Shawn Ashmore) and Hughie (Jack Quaid) spend some quality time together that involves bizarre porn, which quickly morphs into a mission that forces the two of them to work together. The rest of the gang tries to rustle up some warm bodies to try and help in terms of testifying at the upcoming Vought trial and the whole Compound V mess. Needless to say, things don’t work out and in fact, go horribly wrong, and the final scene leaves both good and bad guys and gals wondering what just happened.

There are some really nasty scenes this week, with Butcher, and with Stormfront and Homelander, but none really hit home like the opening scene. The inflamed racial tensions are wound up and unleashed in the form of a normal everyday man and what he thinks he sees, as he had become so brainwashed by the rhetoric Stormfront and company have bombarded the public with. It is powerful and disturbing, but also a welcome bit of reality amongst the violence, gore, and bashing of superheroes and corporations.

I can’t even begin to predict what will happen in the season finale. But this week, The Boys paved the road there with enough vicious, nasty and violent content that whatever the outcome, it won’t be pretty.

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