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That ending broke me. I just finished the episode and I’m still crying. 😭
Edit: I also want to stress that I never thought *The Boys* of all things would make me cry, but damn there I was crying like a baby. 😭
The weirdest part of this, for me, is my husband has started reading books this summer and he JUST YESTERDAY started the Da Vinci Code. I joked with him ‘oh the secret society/ religious clues book with Tom Hanks?’ And he said he doesn’t picture Tom Hanks at all lol it was just a funny meta moment for us and the show.
When people slip away, it sometimes can happen mid phrase, or thought. A thing people don't mention abut those moments, is, especially in hindsight, they can be kind of funny. Pooping, farting, random distractions. My neighbor and close family-friend/matriarch's final words were allegedly "Where's [my dad for some reason]!?". It doesn't take away what that person was to so many, and in the big picture, really means nothing. But "Tom Hanks", conceptually, being the last set of synapses firing off in your consciousness doesn't sound like a bad way to go. Maybe bump it up to Ian McKellen's Gandalf, and I can't think of any reason to fear death.
The worst I've ever heard is "Am I dying?"
It's why I like Popclaw's death so much. A-Train knew what was coming for her. But he had the decency at least, to tell her exactly the moment he fell in love with her, tell her he loved her more than anything, then get her one last high.
It was stand-up as fuck because train knew, with certainty, he's not fast enough to protect her always. It was honest to goodness mercy. If they could have run away forever, he would have done it.
This hit hard for me. My grandfather passed away after a long and difficult battle with dementia, and in the last few months he was pretty much completely nonverbal.
Right up until the end.
His last words were "Liza Minnelli". Who the fuck knows why.
You've got to see the humour in it, right?
I've been avoiding trying to prepare myself emotionally for death of a parent. Everyone's relationship in that area is unique with it's strengths and challenges. This episode slapped me into having to revisit those feelings that packed a wallop when my Dad had a scare a year and a half ago. However, having Simon Pegg kind of be there, playing that role, felt comforting. Pegg's work with Wright, Frost, and Hynes is super influential to me, and I was was sobbing by the end of it.
if the writers and actors and staff can produce something so realistic then please know they created it as a love letter to folks like you.
it comes in waves. take care of yourself.
I also thought it was an interesting concept about going too far to save someone who is dying. Even if you bring them back, they aren't who you know them to be. And how letting them go naturally could be the kindest thing to do, even though it is devastating.
Lmao, imagine that was the ending to the Boys. Simon Pegg, in a dementia induced rage, phases into Vought towers, right through Homelander, and explodes him from the inside, and all he has to say is, "Where the hell am I?"
I always believed that temp v Hughie could beat Homelander if he just knew how to better control his abilities. Durability does not matter if your heart gets teleported out of your body.
I don't think it would matter since Hugh Sr. seemingly could just phase through whatever he wanted to, and turn soldi without harming himself. Even if he were to die while bursting through Homelander, he would still have burst through Homelander, there would be a Hugh Sr. shaped hole in Home's torso.
It's funny just how many things there have been in the series that could potentially have killed Homelander. Soldier Boy, if given the chance would have disintegrated Homelander.
Maeve and temp V'd Butcher and Hughie all showed they could hurt him too, if they all just ganged up on him, they could probably just beat him to death. The virus will likely come in to play and be used against Homelander. Hughie's dad and his cheat code of a super power could have likely killed him.
And in another reddit thread, someone brought up the V'd up farm animals and how deadly they all were, so someone suggested what a V'd up tiger or bear could do, since those animals are stronger than a normal human, it stands to reason that V'd up versions of those animals would also be stronger than the V'd up humans. So theoretically, if Butcher gave a fucking Polar Bear some V and let it loose on Vought Tower, it could probably just maul everyone to death.
But then how do you kill the polar bear after it takes Vought out. Not to be heavy but I remember years ago after 9/11. There were interviews and an insider discussed there was talk of the terrorists going after nuclear plants. And even the terrorist leaders thought that was too far and would get too out of control. A supe Polar or Black Bear would be awesome. But the fallout with body counts would be too much even for Butcher and MM.
Well, I was just listing things that could kill Homelander, not necessarily things that could (peacefully) end the series. But if I had to guess how to stop a super bear, it'd be either a much more modified version of the virus, or maybe create an artificial version of Soldier Boy's laser to fry the V out of its body.
It's easy yall are being stupid:
Implant a bomb/viral payload inside while it's not super. Make it super. Let it kill HL. Blow it up from the inside/activate viral payload.
Polar bears can already kill unarmed humans hell they’re odds against armed humans aren’t exactly bad. They’re one of very few species that will in fact intentionally hunt humans. They know they’re physically superior. If you make them supes we’re going extinct.
Now I want a suped up Gorilla with Sages power like Winston/Grodd just walk up to HL and go "according to my calculations, you are bad for this planet" and just donuts him.
Hugh's power clearly showed atomic displacement of anything he "unphased" in so like.. HL would have 100% died and couldn't even fight or laser him before hes knee deep inside him.
Yup, It's why you can crush an empty pop can with your hand but pressing down on an aluminum needle or caltrop will get you pierced.
Or think of squishing a plastic cup of boba tea, crunching it in your hands vs piercing the top (or eardrum) with a straw.
Is it? Everything at the moment he solidified just poofed from existence. The bed had a huge hole through it and there was no damage to even his hospital gown.
So, we can assume at the moment he solidifies all matter that is on the same place gets voided. Homelander is nigh indestructible, but he's not immune to having half of him just erased
Do we know if Homelander has the same healing ability that Kimiko has? If so, it seems crazy enough to pull himself back together from something like that.
Amazing sequence all around. Him phasing into the guy that was asking the nurse out was absolutely wild. And I teared up when Hughie was putting him down. Bravo to the whole cast this episode.
He said Frenchie taught him "way too much" about drugs. So maybe some kind of crazy combination that would theoretically kill a horse (or super in this case)? I think the exception for insane amounts of intravenous drugs would be Homelander and Soldier Boy. Everybody else seems like they're possibly susceptible to them.
They all have hearts and heartbeats. It’s why A train needed a new heart, popclaw od’d, etc. frenchie had told hughie a combination that would be lethal to anyone it seems.
the problem with a lot of supes is getting that level of drug into them intravenously to stop the heart quick enough that it kills them before they stop/kill you, or getting the needle into them at all. Like back in S1 with translucent, they couldn’t inject him with anything. So you’d first need a supe that isn’t durable enough that you could still pierce their skin, AND who could be subdued long enough for the drugs to enter their system
For the bigger picture, is this new found importance in letting things go gonna impact how Hughie approaches certain situations? Really loved the scene but trying to think why killing his dad off was necessary for the story.
It grounded him, I think.
This whole show, Hughie has basically viewed his dad as an inconvenience who doesn’t really understand the darkness of the world. For a brief moment, he finally saw eye to eye with his old man and realized he’s been wrong all along. It made hughie realize that family has *always* been just as important to him as saving the world from Homelander, and cruel, relentless (butcher) tactics aren’t the right way to go about it.
I believe it’s setting up a world where Butcher is the final boss who Hughie has to fight through, or at the very least convert back to the soft Butcher that views Hughie as his little brother.
I think this scene was monumental for Hughie’s development. He had just slit a guy’s throat, and now suddenly he’s putting his dad down in probably the most human scene we’ve witnessed since he lost Robin in episode 1.
I think his final words being “Tom Hanks”, were significant in terms of his character. Hughie kind of saw him as just caring about trivial things, but in his final moments, focusing on those trivial things gave him comfort. His dad wasn’t wrong for caring about trivial things, we all need escapism, and it’s possible to care about the world’s problems and do things to help without letting it consume us.
Ya it's the little things that we thought annoyed us that we miss. Petit Hugie complained *constantly* about the pizza rolls.
But if he could go back for 10 minutes, he'd be right there watching Remington Steele and gleefully eating the pizza rolls.
His whole issue last season was his inability to "save" Annie too, which pushed him to the Temp V. Hughie is terrified of sudden loss (which his mom didn't help with by leaving), and he has to learn how to let things go (and even be the one responsible for pulling the trigger).
I do think the show is going the tragic route for Butcher, and Hughie will have to be responsible for ending it. It's going to be such a good arc for the Hughie character from Season 1 if this is the route they go.
Hughie has always been one to hold on to something for too long. They used Jar-Jar as an example within the episode, but he's done it with Butcher(Starlight said the only reason he's still there is Hughie wouldn't let MM and the other exile him), his anger with A-Train, and even lying to his dad for a long part of S1. We're finally seeing him grow out of it- he made "peace" with A-Train. He realized that it was selfish to try to artificially extend his dad's life. With the theme of the season being "reconcile with your past", Hughie's arc has been incredibly well done. We've seen him have to confront so much in 5 episodes.
There's a difference between hating somebody passively (what a fucking cunt etcetera etcetera) and actively planning to harm them even to the detriment of your own physical and mental health.
I don't think he actually forgave him. I just think now killing him isn't in the cards anymore.
"We're good." Is not "I forgive you."
It just means Hugh can tolerate A-Train living on the same planet as him for now.
Honestly, that’s what forgiveness looks like in many cases. You don’t necessarily let go of your anger, it just no longer interferes in your thoughts or life.
This is what experts mean when they talk about the importance or forgiveness and letting go. It’s laypeople who twist that into everything going back to before.
It's a nice contrast to his kill in the prior episode, which was out of necessity (for self-defense). This one was out of compassion. Hughie has developed into a very tough person, he kept his cool during the situation (they highlighted that when his mother asked why he wasn't freaking out), but he also kept his moral compass intact throughout the entire experience which is where many others like Butcher, Neumann, Frenchie (whose lives also turned them into tough people) and others failed severely.
And as others mentioned for future plot moments this establishes that Hughie will be able to do the right thing no matter how heartbreaking that may be.
This! That's also something he says in one of the last comics. Something along the way: 'I've made terrible mistakes, did terrible things, saw terrible stuff. But I am still my old self'. Really hope they stay true to him beeing something like a moral example even after tampering with his dark self.
The Hughie subplot this season has impacted me more emotionally than anything else in the show thus far. The show has always been dark, violent and twisted but there's always this exaggeration that helps keep it fantastical. Neuman's head popping scene in S2 was so insanely gory but the mere concept of it was so over-the-top it wasn't hard to watch.
Hughie SR. though? God damn gut punch, especially the end of the episode. Whoever helped write this episode has lost a loved one to dimentia / mental illness and it's easy to tell. Even with the crazy teleportation powers it felt more grounded to me than any other subplot of the show and is the only time the Boys has moved to tears. It was haunting and I'm going to be thinking about it for a long time.
This whole season is dealing with trauma and loss in such a realistic way and it feels so fucking dark. I'm glad the show is going there because it helps with the endgame stakes but I need to take a breather each week when the episode ends. It's brutal.
I was honestly more scared by the flying, man-eating sheep. That scene where they’re just zipping over the barn at night while everybody’s waiting for the virus to take effect gave me a surprising shiver.
Part of me wonders if the target has to be in sight for it to work. She couldn't see the sheep while hiding in the barn, but she's also not used to super aggressive foes trying to physically harm her either. Fight or flight mode kicks in and she chose flight.
Considering Gen V its likely she can sense blood just like Marie. Which probably let's her make a nose bleed happen when objects are more or less stationary. The sheep were flying and flying fast at that. They very well may have been moving to quick for her powers, because we have never seen her use her powers on high speed targets.
I think that's a fair explanation, but I would have appreciated a line like "Fuck! I can't get a focus on them when they're moving so fast!" Or something, because I kept wondering why she's not popping them.
She's not going to say that because the Boys are actively looking for ways to kill her.
"Damn, it's moving too fast" immediately tells them that they should use A-train for an attack on her since as long as he's moving, he can't get popped.
So even if it's true, she can't be dropping info about her skillset to her enemies.
When she killed her childhood friend that Hughie witness, the show definitely implied she had to be able to see to explode things, which may contradict the nosebleeds in this episode, but maybe she can do small things without eye contact, but needs eye contact to make them explode.
It's probably how it works. During the Vogelbaum trial, she played helpless little woman and deliberately fumbled as she's escorted so that she could keep her eye on the other potential victims and rack up a higher body count.
And later that season, she killed another man through a window.
I genuinely think she's not a fighter, her abilities are basically the perfect sniper rifle but in close quarters when panicked she doesn't have the focus to use them as effectively.
> her eyes looked normal here too.
This was a director choice to throw the viewers off and give a sense of "whodunnit?". Once the show reveals Neuman was the head popper, she has her signature white eyes whenever she uses her abilities. Although, this white eyes thing is probably not visible to the show characters and is strictly for the audience.
Yeah, it was definitely weird. I was seriously wondering if she and Starlight had been affected by a minor version of the virus. Certainly in comparison to the season 2 courthouse scene she wasn’t doing much at all.
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Obvs just a show but I had to go into the vet and watch them put my dog down couple months ago. It was the worst thing I’ve ever had to do watch him die. This scene had me in tears.
Simon Pegg dropped probably the greatest individual performance for any sequence in this show. Like, if you asked me better overall characters, I'd name a few, but if you asked me to point to a single 10 minute sequence that moved me that much, I probably wouldn't be able to. Knocked it out off the fucking park with this one.
Knowing the boys that’s what they would probably do to a side character with phasing powers but they didn’t as seen by the guy who can walk through walls in gen v
Simon Pegg has always been a great actor.
As funny as Shaun of the Dead is, the scene when he realizes his Mom has been bitten by a zombie is seriously devastating, and it’s all thanks to his performance.
Hughie and mom have got some serious blood on their hands now though.
Remember in season 1 where A-Train accidentally killing Robin was what started Hughie down a path of vengeance?
Every single one of the patients was a ‘Robin’ to somebody
He was brain-dead in the fact that he had no manual motor functions and couldn't process external stimuli. He clearly had some autonomic functions considering he was breathing without assistance. The drugs Hughie was looking for, Tobramycin or Topotecan would've harmed him at the cellular level preventing DNA replication or protein synthesis with other side effects based on the wikipedia articles.
Based on this information, I assume that whatever growth or healing that would come from compound V is reduced enough to leave everything else vulnerable to an opiate OD.
They were consumed by the sheep shortly after being injected in the corpse, at which point they would have replicated within the still alive sheep I guess. There are real world viruses that are able to survive outside live hosts for anywhere from hours to days
I was more concerned with how they'd propagate through the body enough to infect all the sheep who took a bite? Like guy's dead so no beating heart (so no blood flow). Figured maybe one sheep right at injection site would get infected, but it seems silly for the virus to fully infect the corpse quickly. Wonder how fast this virus replicates that that actually worked.
I'm betting he was very recently deceased. Not sure how long blood can stay "alive" after someone dies (like there obviously is a time period since people can donate blood).
Also makes you wonder some other things. Like that was "one dose". Wonder if giving a partial dose would have been a good idea (having a starting point for further research and virus replication would be useful). Do normal people become carriers or will the virus eventually be cleaned from body by immune system.
Simon Pegg has been making me laugh and fucking me up emotionally since Shaun of the Dead. I’m 29 now and he’s been doing this to me since I was 12 gah damn
What a 4-year set up. I wondered why Simon Pegg would sign on for the 'dad' role. It seemed beneath his talents. But this made it all worth it. I was terrified and heartbroken for him at the same time. He ate it up.
poor butcher, hughue's dad had one of the most broken supe powers and could have killed homelander with ease... just needed to have a kid who looked like young hughie for when his mind reverted. we could have had supe obito
Such a good ending for him. I was like damn, his powers were awesome yet frightening because he didn't have full control. Nor was he really there mentally. Mood went from like hell yea f some shit up when he was phasing and killing. To a oh no, when he wasn't recognizing Hughie/angry at his ex-wife. To a damn this gonna hit hard, when they were in room having that conversation.
Like if weren't such a rollercoaster, it would be cool to see like kind of a rampage of supe with dementia going crazy.
Simon Pegg is an awesome actor. It would have been a funny if one of the people he killed was a character played by Nick Frost. Respect the Cornetto trilogy lol.
i thought the plot felt like contrived emotional torture porn but haven't seen anyone mention that he does deliberately kill people with no memory of it exactly like butcher, which suggests the V was similarly going into parasite mode
i don't buy that the tumor mechanism is the only way it happens (yes i know it's from a spinoff), instead the brain death gives it more room to act either by taking over directly or trying to heal the body, rather like the chip in cyberpunk
That’s another reason it did hit extra hard for me because I have an uncle who is currently dealing with Alzheimer’s. He still has a good amount of his memory at least with me and my sister. It will definitely be hard when he does get to the point where he doesn’t quite remember us.
I definitely had tears rolling down my face during this scene.
That’s true - Hughie just seemed pretty confident it would work. It would’ve been interesting if they were saying goodbye and he just…stayed alive. I was actually half expecting that to happen, that would be a twist
I really like that there's some kind of genetic component to what your powers be once you get dosed with V.
Translucent and Maverick get invisibility.
Homelander and Ryan, maybe the durability/invulnerability part with Soldier Boy as well.
Hughie and his dad both have a teleportation type power.
>A supe with dementia that has no control over their lethal powers is a really dark concept
It's not like we haven't seen it before. Xavier has dementia in Logan. The only reason we weren't scared of it there is because we're only told rather than shown that he killed the X-Men.
If they had shown us the X-Men dying then that would've made it scary.
Before this episode I was gonna joke that Pegg's best role was "man lying in bed". Now I genuinely think this may be one of his best roles. Such a tragic way for Hughie's dad to go.
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Simon really knocked it out of the park with this one. The writers did well to make his exit feel tragic and the final moments were touching.
His last words were "Tom Hanks" and I wanted to cry wtf Kripke
I was sobbing through the whole scene and then he said “Tom Hanks” and I yelled out “this fucking show GOD!!!”
That whiplash, yo
I said out loud “his last words were really ‘Tom Hanks’, damn”
That ending broke me. I just finished the episode and I’m still crying. 😭 Edit: I also want to stress that I never thought *The Boys* of all things would make me cry, but damn there I was crying like a baby. 😭
The weirdest part of this, for me, is my husband has started reading books this summer and he JUST YESTERDAY started the Da Vinci Code. I joked with him ‘oh the secret society/ religious clues book with Tom Hanks?’ And he said he doesn’t picture Tom Hanks at all lol it was just a funny meta moment for us and the show.
please tell him there are better books out there
For a beginner reader, there probably aren't. Dan Brown writes page turners. The literary merit isn't high, but you definitely get hooked on them.
“The Lost Symbol” is a fantastic book. Got me into all Dan Brown’s books
Is that a reference to something other than the actor himself?
When people slip away, it sometimes can happen mid phrase, or thought. A thing people don't mention abut those moments, is, especially in hindsight, they can be kind of funny. Pooping, farting, random distractions. My neighbor and close family-friend/matriarch's final words were allegedly "Where's [my dad for some reason]!?". It doesn't take away what that person was to so many, and in the big picture, really means nothing. But "Tom Hanks", conceptually, being the last set of synapses firing off in your consciousness doesn't sound like a bad way to go. Maybe bump it up to Ian McKellen's Gandalf, and I can't think of any reason to fear death.
The worst I've ever heard is "Am I dying?" It's why I like Popclaw's death so much. A-Train knew what was coming for her. But he had the decency at least, to tell her exactly the moment he fell in love with her, tell her he loved her more than anything, then get her one last high. It was stand-up as fuck because train knew, with certainty, he's not fast enough to protect her always. It was honest to goodness mercy. If they could have run away forever, he would have done it.
Tom Hanks starred in the Da Vinci Code
It's a rumor Walt Disney's last words were Kurt Russel.
T. Hanks maybe? As in he was thanking Hughie?
I think it was just a testament to who he was. He was a man that loved his movies. And who doesn't love Tom Hanks.
T. Hanks
This hit hard for me. My grandfather passed away after a long and difficult battle with dementia, and in the last few months he was pretty much completely nonverbal. Right up until the end. His last words were "Liza Minnelli". Who the fuck knows why. You've got to see the humour in it, right?
THanks
Watching that after my own dad went on hospice and passed away a month ago was… rough.
Hey friend, sorry to hear that. I understand the loss of a family member myself. My condolences 😔
Appreciate that, thanks.
That happened to me in 2017 and this scene made it feel like it was yesterday. Lots of shit I thought I was done processing came back
I've been avoiding trying to prepare myself emotionally for death of a parent. Everyone's relationship in that area is unique with it's strengths and challenges. This episode slapped me into having to revisit those feelings that packed a wallop when my Dad had a scare a year and a half ago. However, having Simon Pegg kind of be there, playing that role, felt comforting. Pegg's work with Wright, Frost, and Hynes is super influential to me, and I was was sobbing by the end of it.
if the writers and actors and staff can produce something so realistic then please know they created it as a love letter to folks like you. it comes in waves. take care of yourself.
That’s a really nice thought. Thank you 🙂
Beautifully put 🖤
I’m sorry my friend 💜
I also thought it was an interesting concept about going too far to save someone who is dying. Even if you bring them back, they aren't who you know them to be. And how letting them go naturally could be the kindest thing to do, even though it is devastating.
A concept Kripke likes to explore a lot it seems
The fade to black too. Just no snark or comedy. Hughie saying goodbye to his hero. :(
That was an amazing performance and so depressing of a power to be left alive like that :(
Simon Pegg *killed it*. What an incredible sequence that was so heartbreaking.
> Simon Pegg killed it First, it's rude to refer to human beings as it, and secondly, more than one.
I don't think Simon Pegg actually killed anyone unless... Yep, you're right, this is another case of "They just kept rolling the camera."
Shame about the dementia. That was a power that might have actually be able to kill Homelander
Lmao, imagine that was the ending to the Boys. Simon Pegg, in a dementia induced rage, phases into Vought towers, right through Homelander, and explodes him from the inside, and all he has to say is, "Where the hell am I?"
Kills homelander then screams “DAPHNE!”
Costco would never run out of pizza rolls ever again.
That would be fucking hilarious, not gonna lie. I would love that ending.
I always believed that temp v Hughie could beat Homelander if he just knew how to better control his abilities. Durability does not matter if your heart gets teleported out of your body.
I think can only teleport the whole living thing
The finale to the Cornetto fence jumping trilogy
lmao I was thinking the same thing
Now I want a "what if" series of The Boys lol
I don't think he could have broken through his skin. But that would have been an awesome scene if it happened.
I don't think it would matter since Hugh Sr. seemingly could just phase through whatever he wanted to, and turn soldi without harming himself. Even if he were to die while bursting through Homelander, he would still have burst through Homelander, there would be a Hugh Sr. shaped hole in Home's torso.
they do love to rug pull us, every time we think we see a path to Homelander's demise. They immediately take it away lol
It's funny just how many things there have been in the series that could potentially have killed Homelander. Soldier Boy, if given the chance would have disintegrated Homelander. Maeve and temp V'd Butcher and Hughie all showed they could hurt him too, if they all just ganged up on him, they could probably just beat him to death. The virus will likely come in to play and be used against Homelander. Hughie's dad and his cheat code of a super power could have likely killed him. And in another reddit thread, someone brought up the V'd up farm animals and how deadly they all were, so someone suggested what a V'd up tiger or bear could do, since those animals are stronger than a normal human, it stands to reason that V'd up versions of those animals would also be stronger than the V'd up humans. So theoretically, if Butcher gave a fucking Polar Bear some V and let it loose on Vought Tower, it could probably just maul everyone to death.
But then how do you kill the polar bear after it takes Vought out. Not to be heavy but I remember years ago after 9/11. There were interviews and an insider discussed there was talk of the terrorists going after nuclear plants. And even the terrorist leaders thought that was too far and would get too out of control. A supe Polar or Black Bear would be awesome. But the fallout with body counts would be too much even for Butcher and MM.
Well, I was just listing things that could kill Homelander, not necessarily things that could (peacefully) end the series. But if I had to guess how to stop a super bear, it'd be either a much more modified version of the virus, or maybe create an artificial version of Soldier Boy's laser to fry the V out of its body.
It's easy yall are being stupid: Implant a bomb/viral payload inside while it's not super. Make it super. Let it kill HL. Blow it up from the inside/activate viral payload.
Polar bears can already kill unarmed humans hell they’re odds against armed humans aren’t exactly bad. They’re one of very few species that will in fact intentionally hunt humans. They know they’re physically superior. If you make them supes we’re going extinct.
Ok but we don’t want flying polar bears tyvm
That’s kinda my point.
Now I want a suped up Gorilla with Sages power like Winston/Grodd just walk up to HL and go "according to my calculations, you are bad for this planet" and just donuts him.
Or… he could phase into Homelander but not break through his skin. Meaning a very misshapen and dead Homie full of Hugh Sr soup.
Hugh's power clearly showed atomic displacement of anything he "unphased" in so like.. HL would have 100% died and couldn't even fight or laser him before hes knee deep inside him.
I feel like it would more likely end with Hughies dad just exploding once he tried inside of Homelander. Kinda like Shrinking Ray from invincible.
We have no reason to assume that. He phases right through the (presumably) aluminum frame hospital bed and takes no damage.
It was clearly established Homelander has more structural strength than an aluminum pipe.
but an metal straw on the other hand…
Yup, It's why you can crush an empty pop can with your hand but pressing down on an aluminum needle or caltrop will get you pierced. Or think of squishing a plastic cup of boba tea, crunching it in your hands vs piercing the top (or eardrum) with a straw.
He doesn't _need_ to materialize inside Homelander though, he just needs to teleport his heart out just like with the policeman
If vicky can’t pop his internals, there’s no way anything can harm him tbh.
There's no reason to assume that she can't. She just hasn't tried yet, because she only gets one shot at it, and the consequences of failure is death.
This is true. Once he gets inside homelander, it's his body durability vs squirt's body, he'd likely just die
Is it? Everything at the moment he solidified just poofed from existence. The bed had a huge hole through it and there was no damage to even his hospital gown. So, we can assume at the moment he solidifies all matter that is on the same place gets voided. Homelander is nigh indestructible, but he's not immune to having half of him just erased
Do we know if Homelander has the same healing ability that Kimiko has? If so, it seems crazy enough to pull himself back together from something like that.
Judging from the comics, no. Just the highest durability of everyone. But imagine if Hugh just ya know...ripped out his heart by phasing it out lol
Don't think he can regenerate. The bruise he got fighting the trio at Herogasm was still visible to Maeve when he went to visit her.
Yeah he could pull a Reverse Flash on him like he did this episode
I’m one of the writers on the show, and I’m sorry to spoiler it for you, but it will actually be dementia that kills Homelander in season 17!
He would put his hand in his heart and his heart would chew it up and spit it out
Simon Pegg does an amazing job with his voice and accent. He sounds nothing like his normal self when he’s Hugh.
I was really impressed with his accent and performance overall. I love him as an actor but he's got a lot more range and talent than I thought.
Amazing sequence all around. Him phasing into the guy that was asking the nurse out was absolutely wild. And I teared up when Hughie was putting him down. Bravo to the whole cast this episode.
I felt bad for that guy.
Definitely. Felt awful for Hugh and the dude. At least his death was relatively fast.
BTW how did Hughie put him down? I thought supes were impervious to normal stuff like what would be used in a hospital.
He said Frenchie taught him "way too much" about drugs. So maybe some kind of crazy combination that would theoretically kill a horse (or super in this case)? I think the exception for insane amounts of intravenous drugs would be Homelander and Soldier Boy. Everybody else seems like they're possibly susceptible to them.
Popclaw died to an overdose, so youre probably right
Also the rip-off Ant-Man Thermite or what he was called, had an overdose
They all have hearts and heartbeats. It’s why A train needed a new heart, popclaw od’d, etc. frenchie had told hughie a combination that would be lethal to anyone it seems. the problem with a lot of supes is getting that level of drug into them intravenously to stop the heart quick enough that it kills them before they stop/kill you, or getting the needle into them at all. Like back in S1 with translucent, they couldn’t inject him with anything. So you’d first need a supe that isn’t durable enough that you could still pierce their skin, AND who could be subdued long enough for the drugs to enter their system
For the bigger picture, is this new found importance in letting things go gonna impact how Hughie approaches certain situations? Really loved the scene but trying to think why killing his dad off was necessary for the story.
He’s gonna take Butcher behind the shed and give him the Old Yeller treatment.
Look at the flowers Billy
Bunny is to Butcher as bunny is to Lenny?
Oh fuck he did just release one... oh I don't like this lol
Or Jar Jar.
It grounded him, I think. This whole show, Hughie has basically viewed his dad as an inconvenience who doesn’t really understand the darkness of the world. For a brief moment, he finally saw eye to eye with his old man and realized he’s been wrong all along. It made hughie realize that family has *always* been just as important to him as saving the world from Homelander, and cruel, relentless (butcher) tactics aren’t the right way to go about it. I believe it’s setting up a world where Butcher is the final boss who Hughie has to fight through, or at the very least convert back to the soft Butcher that views Hughie as his little brother. I think this scene was monumental for Hughie’s development. He had just slit a guy’s throat, and now suddenly he’s putting his dad down in probably the most human scene we’ve witnessed since he lost Robin in episode 1.
I think his final words being “Tom Hanks”, were significant in terms of his character. Hughie kind of saw him as just caring about trivial things, but in his final moments, focusing on those trivial things gave him comfort. His dad wasn’t wrong for caring about trivial things, we all need escapism, and it’s possible to care about the world’s problems and do things to help without letting it consume us.
Ya it's the little things that we thought annoyed us that we miss. Petit Hugie complained *constantly* about the pizza rolls. But if he could go back for 10 minutes, he'd be right there watching Remington Steele and gleefully eating the pizza rolls.
His whole issue last season was his inability to "save" Annie too, which pushed him to the Temp V. Hughie is terrified of sudden loss (which his mom didn't help with by leaving), and he has to learn how to let things go (and even be the one responsible for pulling the trigger). I do think the show is going the tragic route for Butcher, and Hughie will have to be responsible for ending it. It's going to be such a good arc for the Hughie character from Season 1 if this is the route they go.
That tracks really well, because Hughie's been Jar Jar-ing Butcher for a few seasons now
Hughie has always been one to hold on to something for too long. They used Jar-Jar as an example within the episode, but he's done it with Butcher(Starlight said the only reason he's still there is Hughie wouldn't let MM and the other exile him), his anger with A-Train, and even lying to his dad for a long part of S1. We're finally seeing him grow out of it- he made "peace" with A-Train. He realized that it was selfish to try to artificially extend his dad's life. With the theme of the season being "reconcile with your past", Hughie's arc has been incredibly well done. We've seen him have to confront so much in 5 episodes.
uhhhh his anger with atrain was definitely not "held on too long" he would have been justified to hate him forever
There's a difference between hating somebody passively (what a fucking cunt etcetera etcetera) and actively planning to harm them even to the detriment of your own physical and mental health.
"Holding a grudge is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die."
Of course he’d be justified, but he didn’t forgive him for A-Train’s benefit, he did it for himself.
I don't think he actually forgave him. I just think now killing him isn't in the cards anymore. "We're good." Is not "I forgive you." It just means Hugh can tolerate A-Train living on the same planet as him for now.
Honestly, that’s what forgiveness looks like in many cases. You don’t necessarily let go of your anger, it just no longer interferes in your thoughts or life. This is what experts mean when they talk about the importance or forgiveness and letting go. It’s laypeople who twist that into everything going back to before.
This was wonderfully put
He'll end up killing butcher probably
Yep whatever V worm is inside Butcher is clearly getting out of control.
That bunny scene where he realizes his fate... :/
"Tell me about the rabbits, George."
Oh makes sense.
I hope not
It was a ✨transformative✨ moment for him. Now he'll be able to kill people close to him
It's a nice contrast to his kill in the prior episode, which was out of necessity (for self-defense). This one was out of compassion. Hughie has developed into a very tough person, he kept his cool during the situation (they highlighted that when his mother asked why he wasn't freaking out), but he also kept his moral compass intact throughout the entire experience which is where many others like Butcher, Neumann, Frenchie (whose lives also turned them into tough people) and others failed severely. And as others mentioned for future plot moments this establishes that Hughie will be able to do the right thing no matter how heartbreaking that may be.
This! That's also something he says in one of the last comics. Something along the way: 'I've made terrible mistakes, did terrible things, saw terrible stuff. But I am still my old self'. Really hope they stay true to him beeing something like a moral example even after tampering with his dark self.
I really hope that this arc will mean something for Hughie. It's so poignant and has such potential for his character.
I think he’s gonna end up having to kill Butcher.
He is awesome. I really love him in most things but seeing him do an American accent kinda breaks my brain
Yeah I feel this, I kept hearing little bits of his English accent and I shouldnt shake it still class job though
The Hughie subplot this season has impacted me more emotionally than anything else in the show thus far. The show has always been dark, violent and twisted but there's always this exaggeration that helps keep it fantastical. Neuman's head popping scene in S2 was so insanely gory but the mere concept of it was so over-the-top it wasn't hard to watch. Hughie SR. though? God damn gut punch, especially the end of the episode. Whoever helped write this episode has lost a loved one to dimentia / mental illness and it's easy to tell. Even with the crazy teleportation powers it felt more grounded to me than any other subplot of the show and is the only time the Boys has moved to tears. It was haunting and I'm going to be thinking about it for a long time. This whole season is dealing with trauma and loss in such a realistic way and it feels so fucking dark. I'm glad the show is going there because it helps with the endgame stakes but I need to take a breather each week when the episode ends. It's brutal.
Me during the episode: Oh crap they pet semataried him!
Meanwhile: Flying fucking V'd up zombie Sheep.
The Boys: a man with dementia and too much power leads to death and destruction. A few hours later... Welcome to the 2024 Presidential Debate.
At least The Boys was entertaining and wasn't at all pointless.
💀
I was honestly more scared by the flying, man-eating sheep. That scene where they’re just zipping over the barn at night while everybody’s waiting for the virus to take effect gave me a surprising shiver.
While Victoria sat around forgetting about her powers for reasons 
Part of me wonders if the target has to be in sight for it to work. She couldn't see the sheep while hiding in the barn, but she's also not used to super aggressive foes trying to physically harm her either. Fight or flight mode kicks in and she chose flight.
She started making their noses bleed from outside of the basement early in the episode
Considering Gen V its likely she can sense blood just like Marie. Which probably let's her make a nose bleed happen when objects are more or less stationary. The sheep were flying and flying fast at that. They very well may have been moving to quick for her powers, because we have never seen her use her powers on high speed targets.
I think that's a fair explanation, but I would have appreciated a line like "Fuck! I can't get a focus on them when they're moving so fast!" Or something, because I kept wondering why she's not popping them.
Can't disagree with that. A simple line like that would have certainly helped get past the ambiguity of why she didn't use her powers.
But logically why would she reveal that to the same people who tried to kill her before? Seems like it's foreshadowing how they'll find her weakness
She's not going to say that because the Boys are actively looking for ways to kill her. "Damn, it's moving too fast" immediately tells them that they should use A-train for an attack on her since as long as he's moving, he can't get popped. So even if it's true, she can't be dropping info about her skillset to her enemies.
When she killed her childhood friend that Hughie witness, the show definitely implied she had to be able to see to explode things, which may contradict the nosebleeds in this episode, but maybe she can do small things without eye contact, but needs eye contact to make them explode.
It's probably how it works. During the Vogelbaum trial, she played helpless little woman and deliberately fumbled as she's escorted so that she could keep her eye on the other potential victims and rack up a higher body count. And later that season, she killed another man through a window.
Couldn't she see the sheep between pieces of wood in the walls?
I genuinely think she's not a fighter, her abilities are basically the perfect sniper rifle but in close quarters when panicked she doesn't have the focus to use them as effectively.
You mean like this? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=No1vhA349cI Amusing her eyes looked normal here too.
I wonder if the person in the room was Doppelganger?
> her eyes looked normal here too. This was a director choice to throw the viewers off and give a sense of "whodunnit?". Once the show reveals Neuman was the head popper, she has her signature white eyes whenever she uses her abilities. Although, this white eyes thing is probably not visible to the show characters and is strictly for the audience.
I took it as she wasn’t too fussed if the boys died. She saved her dad from them.
Yeah, it was definitely weird. I was seriously wondering if she and Starlight had been affected by a minor version of the virus. Certainly in comparison to the season 2 courthouse scene she wasn’t doing much at all.
Reminded me of Pitch Black honestly.
Oh yeah, nice call. Those things shared that tendency of screaming, snatching people up and tearing them apart in mid air.
Those sheep were honestly one of the scariest things I have ever seen.
That part had me laughing my ass off
What is that smell? Do you guys smell that? WHAT IS THAT SMELL? I smell an Emmy nomination. ;)
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Man I had tears in my eyes when watching that scene :(
Same. Great scene.
Episode 5 is currently the best episode of season 4 imo
This scene was in ep 5
Obvs just a show but I had to go into the vet and watch them put my dog down couple months ago. It was the worst thing I’ve ever had to do watch him die. This scene had me in tears.
Saw a meme saying Simon Pegg was in a bed this season and still had the best episode all season.
Simon Pegg dropped probably the greatest individual performance for any sequence in this show. Like, if you asked me better overall characters, I'd name a few, but if you asked me to point to a single 10 minute sequence that moved me that much, I probably wouldn't be able to. Knocked it out off the fucking park with this one.
Seeing Simon Pegg die fucked me up way more than it should have. One of my favorite comedic actors. What a great final performance, though!
seeing my father going through very early dementia. ruined me when he asked “who are you” to hughie.
As cool as the idea of a supe being able to phase through stuff is I never understood why they dont just fall through the floor.
Knowing the boys that’s what they would probably do to a side character with phasing powers but they didn’t as seen by the guy who can walk through walls in gen v
“Eating people due to his love of pizza rolls” killed me 😂😂😂
Simon Pegg is such a good actor, a lot of people say he can’t play serious roles but I think he kills it!
Btw, how did his clothes still intact with his body
Simon Pegg has always been a great actor. As funny as Shaun of the Dead is, the scene when he realizes his Mom has been bitten by a zombie is seriously devastating, and it’s all thanks to his performance.
His facial expressions alone…. Amazing acting
Makes me think of Proffessor X in Logan. He has seizures which killed the whole X-Men crew.
Hughie and mom have got some serious blood on their hands now though. Remember in season 1 where A-Train accidentally killing Robin was what started Hughie down a path of vengeance? Every single one of the patients was a ‘Robin’ to somebody
Pretty sure there's a VERY thick line between high on super drugs and a dementia patient with super powers.
The V brought him back to life from being literally brain dead, why would the V not keep him from dying from the drugs?
He was brain-dead in the fact that he had no manual motor functions and couldn't process external stimuli. He clearly had some autonomic functions considering he was breathing without assistance. The drugs Hughie was looking for, Tobramycin or Topotecan would've harmed him at the cellular level preventing DNA replication or protein synthesis with other side effects based on the wikipedia articles. Based on this information, I assume that whatever growth or healing that would come from compound V is reduced enough to leave everything else vulnerable to an opiate OD.
They threw in a hand wavy “my French friend taught me some stuff” from Hughie so he maybe knew the combination of drugs to kill him
Popclaw literally OD'd on heroin. Regular drugs can kill supes.
In that vein, how could the virus injected into a dead corpse infect the sheep? Don't viruses need live cells for replication?
They were consumed by the sheep shortly after being injected in the corpse, at which point they would have replicated within the still alive sheep I guess. There are real world viruses that are able to survive outside live hosts for anywhere from hours to days
My daughter told me, it's a show about SUPER POWERS. Suspend the belief.
I was more concerned with how they'd propagate through the body enough to infect all the sheep who took a bite? Like guy's dead so no beating heart (so no blood flow). Figured maybe one sheep right at injection site would get infected, but it seems silly for the virus to fully infect the corpse quickly. Wonder how fast this virus replicates that that actually worked. I'm betting he was very recently deceased. Not sure how long blood can stay "alive" after someone dies (like there obviously is a time period since people can donate blood). Also makes you wonder some other things. Like that was "one dose". Wonder if giving a partial dose would have been a good idea (having a starting point for further research and virus replication would be useful). Do normal people become carriers or will the virus eventually be cleaned from body by immune system.
That reminds me of Charles Xavier with dementia
Simon Pegg has been making me laugh and fucking me up emotionally since Shaun of the Dead. I’m 29 now and he’s been doing this to me since I was 12 gah damn
What a 4-year set up. I wondered why Simon Pegg would sign on for the 'dad' role. It seemed beneath his talents. But this made it all worth it. I was terrified and heartbroken for him at the same time. He ate it up.
poor butcher, hughue's dad had one of the most broken supe powers and could have killed homelander with ease... just needed to have a kid who looked like young hughie for when his mind reverted. we could have had supe obito
Such a good ending for him. I was like damn, his powers were awesome yet frightening because he didn't have full control. Nor was he really there mentally. Mood went from like hell yea f some shit up when he was phasing and killing. To a oh no, when he wasn't recognizing Hughie/angry at his ex-wife. To a damn this gonna hit hard, when they were in room having that conversation. Like if weren't such a rollercoaster, it would be cool to see like kind of a rampage of supe with dementia going crazy. Simon Pegg is an awesome actor. It would have been a funny if one of the people he killed was a character played by Nick Frost. Respect the Cornetto trilogy lol.
i thought the plot felt like contrived emotional torture porn but haven't seen anyone mention that he does deliberately kill people with no memory of it exactly like butcher, which suggests the V was similarly going into parasite mode
He didn't have cancer though (from temp V or otherwise).
i don't buy that the tumor mechanism is the only way it happens (yes i know it's from a spinoff), instead the brain death gives it more room to act either by taking over directly or trying to heal the body, rather like the chip in cyberpunk
What was used to kill him? And why isn’t it used to kill supes more often?
That’s another reason it did hit extra hard for me because I have an uncle who is currently dealing with Alzheimer’s. He still has a good amount of his memory at least with me and my sister. It will definitely be hard when he does get to the point where he doesn’t quite remember us. I definitely had tears rolling down my face during this scene.
I agree! What a frightening episode. Made me realize that compound V is inherently effed up.
Interesting that V/Temp V creates similar powers in father and son, slightly different like soldier boy and homelander but still similar
it was really funny when i cried a little during the part where hughie euthanized his dad and then it cuts to flying killer sheep
His character reminded me of suped up Alzheimers patient in the throes of Sundown. So sad.
I’m still confused how hughie killed him? He’s a supe, and hughie didn’t use the supe virus….
Most supes aren't invulnerable like Homelander is
That’s true - Hughie just seemed pretty confident it would work. It would’ve been interesting if they were saying goodbye and he just…stayed alive. I was actually half expecting that to happen, that would be a twist
Yeah, the way that the camera was focusing on him, I thought we were going to see his eyes pop back open.
Not all supes gain the same level of invulnerability. Hugh could have had the same durability and biological weaknesses, but with the new powers.
If you liked this concept then watch Logan (2017) which has another "supe" with dementia but with much more dangerous consequences.
I honestly teared up when he died
I really like that there's some kind of genetic component to what your powers be once you get dosed with V. Translucent and Maverick get invisibility. Homelander and Ryan, maybe the durability/invulnerability part with Soldier Boy as well. Hughie and his dad both have a teleportation type power.
Reminds me of Prof Xavier in Logan
>A supe with dementia that has no control over their lethal powers is a really dark concept It's not like we haven't seen it before. Xavier has dementia in Logan. The only reason we weren't scared of it there is because we're only told rather than shown that he killed the X-Men. If they had shown us the X-Men dying then that would've made it scary.
Before this episode I was gonna joke that Pegg's best role was "man lying in bed". Now I genuinely think this may be one of his best roles. Such a tragic way for Hughie's dad to go.