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I get what they're doing with Marco / Filip, the emotionally abusive parent who thinks the child is just an extension of himself. Add that Marco is leading a murderous cult (I keep thinking of that group that set off sarin bombs in the Tokyo subways), and it could be an interesting story. Unfortunately, the acting is sub-par and it's just gone on WAY too long. I am glad we got to hear why Naomi abandoned Filip -- she really didn't, which is much more in keeping with her character. Marco reacted to the destruction of the Zmeya like they really lost the protomolecule, so I'm guessing that threat is gone. At least I hope it is; protomolecule = doomsday weapon has been used enough on this show.

That had to have been a deliberate visual reference, right?

I saw this on Twitter so I can't verify because I don't speak German: “Do you remember the day Frederick, Chloe put her hands out of the car window. we found the perfect place at the river, in the shadow of an apple tree. it was the first time that Chloe ate fresh apples.” So, flashing back to when she and Fred Vought went for a drive with their daughter.

Also, where did she keep her phone? In a previous episode Stormfront complained that Vought didn't let them have pockets in their costumes, and her costume has twice as much material as Maeve's.

Up until the denouement, the entire episode took place in one day. Hughie and Annie visited Maeve, got the info from A-train, returned to the lair and published it during the "gearing up" montage. Simultaneously, Homelander and Stormfront were taking Ryan to Planet Vought then to the cabin. While at the cabin, the shit hit the fan about Stormfront. The show itself never showed any of Stormfront's supporters expressing those views. They did show that she was immediately and universally despised. You can assume it was a lot more divided than that but the show didn't include any subtlety.

Did they bring in Benioff and Weiss to write this episode? That was just a little too pat and vaguely unsatisfying. Too many resolutions felt convenient and unearned: In a few hours, A-train stole the files, got them to Starlight, they got published, everyone on the face of the planet read them, believed, them, and turned on Stormfront. Maeve turning up out of the blue to beat up Stormfront. How did she find them? I guess she could have found out from someone at Vought, but how did she get there? She doesn't fly nor have super speed. Maeve turning up again, with perfect timing, to blackmail Homelander. At least that one was set up with the Go-Pro footage in an earlier episode. Edgar blaming everything on Stormfront, and the public immediately buying it. There were a few parts I enjoyed. I liked that the congresswoman was the head-asploder, though I'm not getting her motivation. If her goal was to get the president to create the Office of Supe Control and putting her in charge of it (separation of powers be damned), how did her attack on the hearing further that goal? It was counterproductive, and she only achieved her goal by sheer luck. When Starlight, Maeve, and Kimiko were kicking the shit out of Stormfront, I thought to myself "I get it, 'girls get it done'." Then I rolled my eyes when one of the characters actually said that because the writers didn't trust the audience to put it together on their own.. I enjoyed Homelander's story to Ryan about flying away. It gave him a nice bit of humanity. I also thought that Butcher had inadvertently turned Homelander against Edgar / Vought when H started interrogating the Vought security guys. They could still go that way but it doesn't look like it.

Agreed. Also, she might not have much choice. Becca and Ryan are living inside a well-disguised laboratory. The Vought people in charge of it can decide to limit Becca's access to the internet, computer games, and pop culture in general. She couldn't show Homelander: Origin to Ryan even if she wanted to without approval from Vought. She's as much of a prisoner of this gilded cage as Ryan is.

I got a chuckle out of Stormfront (or might have been Homelander) suggesting taking Ryan to the Vought theme park. They're like an evil version of Disney. So, Disney.

I wonder how many of these plot threads are going to be resolved next week and how many are hooks for next season. Right now I'm seeing NOTHING getting resolved. Maybe Maeve will escape but that's it. I like that they set up long-term plot lines but I wouldn't mind if they had a few short term ones also. Oh, I know: Starlight will forgive her mother. A plot line that I don't really care about.

It was really weird to hear the C word coming out of Mrs. Patmore's mouth. She's a long way from Downton Abbey. I need to insert that meme of "when someone you don't like makes a good point" here. Homelander wasn't wrong when he told Becca that they were making the same mistake with Ryan that Vogelbaum did with Homelander. Granted, Ryan has a mother, but he's still being reared in almost total isolation. Homelander and Stormfront certainly went about it the wrong way, but they weren't completely off base. Speaking of Vogelbaum, I was surprised to see him alive. I figured Homelander killed him last season after squeezing the truth about Ryan from him. "My daughter looked like that 80 years ago. It seems like yesterday." Stormfront is the queen of manipulation -- she had to already know about Ryan, so she just conned Homelander into introducing them to each other. Ryan will be one more way for her to control him. Who is making the heads asplode? I don't think it's Cindy from last week's episode. Whoever is doing it is working to keep the government off of Vaught. I'm guessing it's an undisclosed power of Stormfront's. Regardless, it's going to be damn difficult to blame this incident on foreign terrorists. Maeve attacked Black Noir -- did she kill him? It looked like she kicked his epi-pen away. If he's not dead, then he can rat her out for helping Starlight escape. I guess she just doesn't give a shit about anything any more. Starlight only blasted Noir once. I guess they were saving the VFX budget for the head game in the last scene. She should have blasted and blasted and blasted him until he was a cinder.

Agreed. Plus Elena hasn't been a part of Maeve's life for several years, so doesn't actually know just how much Homlander has abused and terrorized her. The writers have given Maeve a lot of characteristics of a domestic abuse victim. I know I shouldn't bring science into this, but none of their offspring should inherit unless this universe operates by inheritance of acquired characteristics. I think Ryan having abilities is unique (or very rare), which is why Vought built that Truman Show compound for him.

Quite silly, but my favorite bit was Kimiko polishing her brass knuckles. She got to show an emotion other than anger and sadness. I thought Shawn Ashmore did a great job. It's interesting to show one of the Supes with a conscience. In the flashback, what did Mallory have on Lamplighter? It looked like she was blackmailing him but I'm not sure what it was. Was Maeve being naive? "I'll use this recording to blackmail Homelander" without realizing that Elena would see her as just as monstrous? Don't even know what to think about A-Train drinking the Collectivologist Kool-Aid. That whole plot looks busy work. I don't know why they need that. It's not like Chase Whatshisname is some big famous actor that they have to give more scenes to than the character warrants. Comic relief I guess. (Of course, as I write that, next episode the Church will probably become pivotal).

I really hope that isn't the case. They've already done the "Butcher relative who was thought to be dead is actually alive" thing once. Going to that well again would be lazy.

So dude on the phone with Stormfront (played by Shawn Ashmore) was Lamplighter apparently who is now an orderly at an asylum? Okay. All of Stormfront's emails were addressed to Cedar Grove, which is where he works, and have titles like "latest incident" and "Phase 12 Timetable". I saw a YouTube review video that said the emails were about her meme campaigns but I don't think that's right. It sounded like Stormfront is having Lamplighter do something to a 17 year old resident of that facility. Just speculating, but maybe that's the source of her eternal youth.

Kimiko the hitman was something. I literally yelped when she TORE A GUY'S FUCKING FACE OFF. There's an image that's going to linger. So is the StormLander S&M scene. Katie Couric being involved in a fictitious broadcast was on brand I guess. I still don't get where Deep's story is headed, and he's such a buffoon that I'm losing interest. No Billy Joel song, surprisingly. Or I missed it. Butcher's aunt's accent was horrific. I thought she sounded Australian. Some of the time. When Maeve told her girlfriend that they were going to take down Homelander, I figured she was just saying that in order to mollify Elena. Then Maeve showed up at Deep's book giveaway, and I realized she is both serious and stupid. If I were looking to take down Homelander, he would be one of the last people I'd recruit, unless she's setting him up as cannon fodder. I don't know, maybe she's concocting a scheme and Deep is going to be the fall guy who takes the blame if it goes wrong, but that's not plausible since in a situation like that, the patsy can't be a complete nitwit.