S01.E04: The Female of the Species

[paulvdb]

Quote

On a very special episode of The Boys... an hour of guts, gutterballs, airplane hijackings, madness, ghosts, and one very intriguing Female. Oh, and lots of heart -- both in the sentimental sense, and in the gory literal sense.

Premiere date: July 26, 2019

[WritinMan]

Great episode. I'm thoroughly enjoying this series, but this was the best episode so far.

[Indigo Luna]

Ya know I never thought I'd hear Karl Urban making a speech about the Spice Girls or see Chase Crawford have a serious discussion with a dolphin but...here we are. The show has won me over. 

I always remember Chase Crawford being having a signature "Nate" look when he was on Gossip Girl where he'd look blank and confused (because Nate was the human embodiment of "bless his heart") and he uses it with The Deep and its hilarious and nostalgic at the same time. 

[Miles]

I'm going to go out on a limb here: That fly during the spice girl speech wasn't a fly, No way the editors or sound mixers would have left that in. I even doubt the mics would have picked it up,

It probably was some small flying super spying on them.

[Morrigan2575]

On 7/30/2019 at 12:20 AM, Miles said:

I'm going to go out on a limb here: That fly during the spice girl speech wasn't a fly, No way the editors or sound mixers would have left that in. I even doubt the mics would have picked it up,

It probably was some small flying super spying on them.

Oh that's good. I was caught off guard by that. 

I think this was the best episode so far and I've enjoyed every episode. We're really getting into the characters. I'm especially interested in Maeve. She seems to care and be a "good one" but is still selfish and self centered. I wish we could see more of Maeve and Starlight. Was Maeve just like Starlight when she started out?

The Boys are a great team. I like the hints of the back story. I'm guessing Homelander killed Mallory's grandkids

[The Companion]

That plane scene was hard to watch. Totally heartbreaking and awful. Homelander was not wrong. There was no way to save them. But to turn it around at the end, and to turn on tears that never showed up on the plane? It was creepy and amazing.

That poor dolphin. This show is pretty messed up. 

Hughie seems pretty up for a date given that the woman he loved just died (guilt hallucinating notwithstanding). You can see the tension building with his experience with Starlight vs. the concept that the superheroes are all bad.

The Spice Girls speech cracked me up. Also Frenchie's assertion that the woman could be a Spice Girl.

Not that I am surprised Homelander is involved, but it was interesting to get confirmation that he was directly involved in the Compound V ring and that he was gonna be pissed. 

Maeve really does seem redeemable, doesn't she? At least she still has a conscience, even if she doesn't/can't stand up to Homelander. 

[Rambler]

For a moment I thought the dolphin was put in there to teach The Deep a lesson about sexual harassment, but that ended quickly (and messily heh). Just as well I guess, since the perv actually seemed to be getting into it at the end there.

[maczero]

On 7/31/2019 at 7:20 PM, Morrigan2575 said:

I think this was the best episode so far and I've enjoyed every episode. We're really getting into the characters. I'm especially interested in Maeve. She seems to care and be a "good one" but is still selfish and self centered.

This ep did show a different side of Maeve, A-Train and the Deep.  It makes me wonder if Butcher's hatred of supes is just plain old bigotry rather than the Seven being evil. 

On 8/2/2019 at 10:26 PM, Rambler said:

For a moment I thought the dolphin was put in there to teach The Deep a lesson about sexual harassment, but that ended quickly (and messily heh). Just as well I guess, since the perv actually seemed to be getting into it at the end there.

I kept thinking "please, don't have sex with the dolphin".

[ParadoxLost]

On 8/8/2019 at 12:20 AM, maczero said:

I kept thinking "please, don't have sex with the dolphin".

I was thinking "oh, that's what the Deep meant when he told the psychiatrist that he was a diversity hire."

[wrlord]

I could have done without the riff on George W. Bush at the site of the twin towers.  Way to crap all over a good man providing leadership to the American people at the moment and site of the darkest day in our nation's history.

Edited November 8, 2019 by wrlord

[Athena5217]

Wow, this was a dark episode. I feel like Homelander could have saved the passengers by slowing down the plane’s descent and pointing it towards water. But I guess the point was that he really didn’t care about saving people. He was just interested in the publicity so it was better that he didn’t try and fail to save them.

This episode did a good job of showing how important intelligence and planning are to successful missions. Homelander and Maeve never thought about a terrorist in the cockpit, and then Homelander never thought about the problems thst might occur using heat vision in a small space with electronics.

Too bad Maeve doesn’t have an invisible jet like Wonder Woman.

[Danny Franks]

So it's obvious why Butcher sees something in Hughie - they both lost their loved one at the hands of a supe.

It's nice that Annie is showing Hughie that things aren't as simple as Butcher makes them out to be. I don't imagine she's going to take it kindly when she finds out he's taking advantage of her.

It's amusing that The Deep genuinely is only interested in things related to the sea, despite his whining about everyone thinking he's only good for things related to the sea. He is a bit of a doofus, isn't he? That's was a really dumb attempt at rescuing a dolphin.

The more we learn about the Seven, the less threatening they seem - The Deep is a lunk who wants to be cool, A-Train is insecure and obsessed with how people see him, Maeve seems to not enjoy being in the Seven at all, and Translucent was apparently a good father. Homelander is the only one who gets worse, the more we see.

MS-13 still get used as the boogymen, even in a world of superheroes? That's funny. Terrorists are still able to hijack planes? That's not funny. But it does make me wonder why we haven't seen any supervillains, so far.

I don't really see how Butcher's speech convinced MM. He seems to have a life that's going fine, so I don't see how he's "shite" by himself. And Frenchie had his own thing going on with the hot sidekick/girlfriend. Butcher seems to be the only one with nothing else. 

[ketose]

On 8/8/2019 at 12:20 AM, maczero said:

This ep did show a different side of Maeve, A-Train and the Deep.  It makes me wonder if Butcher's hatred of supes is just plain old bigotry rather than the Seven being evil. 

I kept thinking "please, don't have sex with the dolphin".

The Amazon extras in the episode (I watch it on my PC) explains how dolphins are pansexual and engage in recreational sex. It seemed like the Deep was the one not interested.

Butcher definitely has a prejudice against supes of all kind. On the other hand, they are barely accountable for their actions, both by virtue of their powers making them unable to be policed and the corporate protection of Vought. Power corrupts, but it corrupts the supes to different extents.

 

On 12/1/2019 at 11:13 PM, Athena5217 said:

Wow, this was a dark episode. I feel like Homelander could have saved the passengers by slowing down the plane’s descent and pointing it towards water. But I guess the point was that he really didn’t care about saving people. He was just interested in the publicity so it was better that he didn’t try and fail to save them.

This episode did a good job of showing how important intelligence and planning are to successful missions. Homelander and Maeve never thought about a terrorist in the cockpit, and then Homelander never thought about the problems thst might occur using heat vision in a small space with electronics.

Too bad Maeve doesn’t have an invisible jet like Wonder Woman.

Homelander is probably not like Superman. Whatever allows him to fly might not let him hold up a plane. Plus, the idea that a superhero could hold onto a plane enough to push it without ripping through the hull pretty much goes against physics. Homelander knew that he was careless and saving one or two kids who would be witnesses could prove that superheroes shouldn't run military missions and hurt his boss's plans.

[maczero]

15 hours ago, ketose said:

The Amazon extras in the episode (I watch it on my PC) explains how dolphins are pansexual and engage in recreational sex. It seemed like the Deep was the one not interested.

Butcher definitely has a prejudice against supes of all kind. On the other hand, they are barely accountable for their actions, both by virtue of their powers making them unable to be policed and the corporate protection of Vought. Power corrupts, but it corrupts the supes to different extents.

 

Yeah but not every Supe is on Vought's payroll so there could be some out there who choose to live a normal life.  Although, I can imagine having a power can lead to abusing them but I'm put off by Butcher's blanket judgement that all Supes are evil.

One of the things I find fascinating about this episode is that Homelander felt the need to BS the passengers that everything was okay after he botched the rescue.  Why do that?  He could've just grabbed Maeve and flew away.  I wonder if he craves adulation so much that he couldn't stand the thought of letting these people know he failed them.  

[ketose]

On 8/27/2020 at 11:08 PM, maczero said:

Yeah but not every Supe is on Vought's payroll so there could be some out there who choose to live a normal life.  Although, I can imagine having a power can lead to abusing them but I'm put off by Butcher's blanket judgement that all Supes are evil.

One of the things I find fascinating about this episode is that Homelander felt the need to BS the passengers that everything was okay after he botched the rescue.  Why do that?  He could've just grabbed Maeve and flew away.  I wonder if he craves adulation so much that he couldn't stand the thought of letting these people know he failed them.  

Realistically, Homelander doesn't get put into situations were he fails. As he was going to the cockpit, he thought he could fix the situation. When he left, he probably didn't want to get into a fight with the passengers where he would use his laser vision and blow up the plane in mid-air that could be detected by radar or the black box. Lying is second nature to these people.

[Avabelle]

That scene with Chase Crawford and the dolphin with the spice girls in the background was hands down the funniest of the show.

[Camera One]

This show is sort of too cruel to be fully enjoyable to me, but the story is woven well, so I want to continue.  

That was pretty poor planning on the part of the Corporation not to have a contingency plan if the pilots died or the machinery failed, and pretty stupid of Homelander to fry the electronics like that.  He really doesn't seem to have any redeeming quality.

It was interesting to see the more human side of some of the others like Maeve.  Deep works as comic relief, but his sexual assault is difficult to get over.  

I like Hughie and Annie, but not looking forward to this blowing up when she finds out and gets hurt by this.

[DeeDee79]

I've been rewatching to get myself pumped for season 3 and I hit this episode tonight. The way that Homelander can go from the jovial savior to a terrifying psychopath on the drop of a dime is unreal. Antony Starr is amazing in this role.