The Reel Rejects - THE BOYS Season 5 Episode 4 REVIEW – WILL SOLDIER BOY KILL HOMELANDER?!

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Starting point is 00:01:07 It's a calm show. It's a calm show, and we're going to watch it right now on everyone's favorite home delivery service. We just made it to the end of the first half of the final season of the boys. If you are with us at this point, you leave a like. That'd be super. If two, you could subscribe, hit the notification bell. I'll be notified when the next boys episode comes your way. That'll be radical.

Starting point is 00:01:35 Also, if your body is lacking for a... a hot spring into summer fashion. We got a new Daredevil, Born Again inspired t-shirt at the rejectnation shop.com, which is pretty, I want to swear too hard, but it's pretty badass. All right.

Starting point is 00:01:50 So go take a look at that. You can save yourself a little discount as well. If you join up over the Patreon page, patreon.com slash the real rejects wear. On top of that, you can sync up with your own copy of the boys and watch the full-length reaction. Watch along.

Starting point is 00:02:02 It's a good time over there. Appreciate you all for being here. Gang, halfway Gregory, I'm okay with going last. Coy. You know, as a devout Christian,

Starting point is 00:02:14 this episode really offended me. Yeah, you are. With all of the blaspheming. I really, really like that this show has to escalate. You know, you're in a fifth season of a show that's been lasting

Starting point is 00:02:27 and always pushing boundaries and it's really interesting to find new things they haven't really touched on. It really is fun to see the comic bookie dynamic of having a team fight and like there's always you know a de s machina there's always like a mechanism to cause the battle and to use a villain hero in a physical way and do all that stuff to make

Starting point is 00:02:51 a territory make them fight is really fun i thought that was clever it's also a good way to keep gen v you know v1 from getting out like there's a lot of built-in rules there but i really enjoyed an episode where we got to see a bit of a comic book dynamic of frustrations and teammates getting out. It felt like the inner fighting of the gang, but heightened. I was good to see Frenchie get to lead. And that's like, you know, a plot, but it serves the greater, like, forwarding of the plot. And that's hard to do for, you know, eight hours of insanity when we've had this crazy revelation at the end of the first episode. So I keep wondering with the endings how they can pace themselves to get to the next thing. I love that we planted the seeds of the O'Father to have

Starting point is 00:03:37 some sort of power we don't fully understand that can help further this, but it also ties into the classic like rebranding and repositioning and all the details of Firecracker going against all of her beliefs because that is what she would do and what she continues to do. We've got the dynamic between the two of the most powerful soups out there being father and son and that tying into the religious element that they're setting up. But most of all, what people are willing to swallow in order to feel like they're right. The tribalism of the human brain is fascinating. Like if you devote yourself to something,

Starting point is 00:04:15 the leaps, the contortion, the bends you'll do to be like, no, no, that's what I believe. And the show's just showing the hypocrisy of that in such a beautiful way. We have a person in power that buried his wife in a golf course for tax write-offs. And people claim that's a man of faith

Starting point is 00:04:34 and follow that same. Like, it's beautiful to see a show, show hypocrisy in creative and inventive ways because it just shines a flashlight on stupidity and hypocrisy and just aggressive. Please give me something to believe because I'm too weak to have my own thoughts. And I love it.

Starting point is 00:04:56 I have a lot more to say, but holy shit, what a show. I think the irony here is that if you peppered every fourth or fifth, sentence with like a praise the Lord or hallelujah you'd have a real preacherly demeanor i had less faith in humans by having more faith in a fiction or if i had less actual soul and could profit off i would absolutely use these skills because it's like what they do and it's beautiful to see it called out like there's so much profit in dumb and the show is getting to profit off of the dumb in the dumb in a new way. Like,

Starting point is 00:05:34 there is stupidity in superhero content. There is infantilizing in having a similar structure told over time. So the show touches on that. And the show touches on brands and it touches on commercialism. But now to literally make money on a giant buy anything you can platform by going, hey, sheep, while being a platform to Shepard. Layers. steeped in irony.

Starting point is 00:06:02 Most certainly. And too, yeah, the way that people cognitively distort in order to maintain positions of power. I am very curious as to what the development could be with Firecracker, if there may be a late stage, come to Jesus moment there because faith might, I don't know, I feel like all these characters are pitiful and bankrupt enough that I don't count on their faith prevailing. but I feel like somebody in this conversation has to have a moment of faith or some kind of moment of clarity. And certainly we've set up the seeds for, you know, the tension with Homelander and the Rift with the Triangle and Soldier Boy and all that stuff. So very fun.

Starting point is 00:06:44 I'm very curious too because there are other comic book, obviously, ideas about magic and the supernatural versus the scientific. and while I don't expect any great expansion into anything truly supernatural, I think it's an interesting flavor to add and to play with in a media where, again, Superman is averse to magic. You know, like, I don't know, it's just like an interesting thing to play with. But I like this episode a lot in terms of just the balance between, like, two fetch quests and a side mission. But, you know, for the midpoint of his season, I thought it did the thematics well, came up with a good game in, yeah, this, this play. where everyone's worst sort of inclinations are coming out and you get the fun of that with Frenchie

Starting point is 00:07:29 but you also, I feel like especially in the last season you want that momentum of like anything that can grow wrong will go wrong or anything that needs to come out will out and I feel like yeah they took what could have been a wheel spinner episode and made it feel just as vital and just as

Starting point is 00:07:45 you know momentous as the show has felt thus far so I thought this was real strong and two like yeah it's nice to get a vibe shift with an obvious touchstone, but that has enough that you could go like, man, who is this guy? I want to see more. But then you'll know, you'll

Starting point is 00:08:01 get this other show that'll probably cover that. So, you know, it gives you just enough to be like neat tradition, but I'm not upset that we're not packing this or whatever. But yeah, there's just some dome thoughts. Last up. Are you ready? Are you warmed up yet? I'm just listening to you guys. No, you're good.

Starting point is 00:08:19 You're good. We can take it again. I like hearing what you guys have to say. and then I'll just say what and not repeat what you guys it's all all do there was that one line where it was the perfect summation of what is wrong

Starting point is 00:08:37 I've talked about it I feel like I've like really as the one here who grew up a very devout Catholic yes like I was an altar boy because I wanted to be an altar boy you took your own yourself to pray I was I was a born again Christian like I really was in the fucking thick of it, you know? I was really there. So I do have an empathy, you know,

Starting point is 00:09:00 something that quite doesn't have for that time. I do have it. At all. I do have a zero percent. I do have an empathy and understanding. And I'm friends with many people who are Catholic. You love you too. I am friends with Catholics and Christians.

Starting point is 00:09:11 I am. And there, I don't know if this is true. The, I heard someone say that Gandhi said this. I don't know if this is true, but there's something like, there's something along the lines of Gandhi saying,

Starting point is 00:09:31 like, I like your Jesus, but I don't like your people or your Christians, something like that. And Firecracker here, when they're trying to like figure out how to make Homeland or God and sell people on him being God, they're like, all this stuff of Jesus,

Starting point is 00:09:48 accepting foreigners, forgiveness, love. that's the old like Jesus out. And I'm like that's the ultimate irony of weaponizing Christianity and that hive mind of the dogma, you know,

Starting point is 00:10:05 of the fanaticism. It's like if you look at it, it doesn't line up with the actual values that they're saying you should have to be Christ-like. It's the complete opposite of being Christ-like. And I love,

Starting point is 00:10:21 how they just fucking said it. Set it out loud. That like get out and, because we're just like, we follow God and then we, we have these political people who have now become a certain camp's new God and they don't even realize like,

Starting point is 00:10:37 they keep saying like, thank Jesus, thank God, go to church, but it's not the same. Everything that you are championing is not the same thing as what it means to be a good Christian, you know? So that's like the strangest part of it all. And I love that this show,

Starting point is 00:10:51 really put a strong magnet and it'll fly over everyone's heads who are like oh yeah we're in it we're not gonna fucking hear it but they're commenting now i like how to i like how they actually puts a magnifying glass to it and on the flip side starlight and her dad that to me is an example of like even though you know there's the level of abandonment and everything that that did occur that is to me the forgiveness story that is the um atonement story that is being a good Christian, you know, when he is clearly still a Christian and is someone who is going to church. He's like his buddy. It's like, I go to sit next to you every Sunday at church. Yeah. We break bread together. That's, so I do feel like this show is does, because Annie and Frenchie

Starting point is 00:11:38 in the last season had a lot of talk about God as well. And so as much as this show goes out against, the reason I brought that Gandhi quote was to be very specific because this show goes against a certain group that likes to tout like, this is what Jesus and God wants. But then there's, there are good Christians out there who are like, there are people who are living the message for its intended purpose.

Starting point is 00:12:00 Yeah, exactly, exactly. So I like that this show, this keeps starlight in there. And then also, um, had that whole storyline with the dad that subverted the expectations of a father who is forgiving.

Starting point is 00:12:13 I, I kind of wish this storyline in the, um, the fungi world. Like I think, I think all the stuff, with a homelander and and a soldier boy was very nuanced and uh i love the i love the deceit and i love how affected soldier boy was at the end i do wish that when we were doing like i was surprised by

Starting point is 00:12:34 how physical damaging everyone was getting with each other i wish there was a little bit more like i like the idea when they mess with the minds and then characters were saying the repress shit but when it was all said and done it didn't feel like they said the repress shit i kind of like they were just saying being mean to each other. Yeah. They weren't actually saying stuff that would lead to like a bigger conversation or like, oh shit. Yeah, yeah, that's what I mean. And I kind of wish they did that.

Starting point is 00:13:00 So that way we had some like bigger blowout, you know? It was kind of there. Kind of. Oh, Rejects. When do you usually realize you forgot to eat? For me lately, it's like I look up. It's halfway through the day. I've been at the office.

Starting point is 00:13:11 Editing, reacting, prepping for shows and movies, talking, meeting. Business. And I just have not ate. And right now, nutrition has become very important for me again because I'm currently training to do a Spartan race, running more, trying to build my endurance up. So I need not just caffeine in vibes. I need actual nutrition. And that's where Huell has been a daily go-to for me for like well over a year now. It helped me a ton when I was cutting last year when I made a big deal by dropping all that weight.

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Starting point is 00:14:27 So Reject Nation, if you like to get on this bandwagon, a limited time offer, you can get a Heel today with my exclusive offer of 15% offline with my code Rejects at Huel.com slash rejects new customers only. Thank you to Huel for partnering and supporting Reject Nation once again. Well, and some better resolution or more cathartic resolution when everybody We don't spend a lot of time saying sorrys afterwards. Yeah. And he got shot.

Starting point is 00:14:51 We didn't even like that. He's just chilling, man. He's just fine, I guess. I was like, oh, he got shot. Then it was like, man, won't come up. Yeah. Did they say Soldier Boy's brother's name? Is it was, I was, that's where I, my memory when names is the, is the, is, I don't

Starting point is 00:15:04 remember the character name. I'm sure they said it. I was trying to, that, the guy on the wall was not his brother, right? No. Okay. Or, I don't think so. Because I'm honestly, I just want to see, I just want to see really quick if, if he says his name. Where's the name?

Starting point is 00:15:20 We're listening to stuff. Jokes, jokes, jokes. My God. We're just hearing all the bunch of sex and insults right now. This is that scene, wasn't it? It was the next scene? Must have been the next scene. I just love that they're not rotten or dead to him.

Starting point is 00:15:39 They're just ugly. If you're just listening to, we're going to hear a little bit of stuff. I guess they never say his name. And I don't think his brother's in the wall because he's like, I was just a rich boy to you. They both have, they both. Yeah. That's true. You know what I mean?

Starting point is 00:16:09 Like they can't be. Yeah. That's true. And I, you're going to stop me a long time ago. Wow. Boy. It's insane.

Starting point is 00:16:17 I wanted to see his name was because I'd like you get for being compassionate toward religious people. Yeah. I let you wait. I will not be saving you. Find your own savior. But I think the brother is going to be Derri Pedalike. I think that's such a perfect opportunity to have him in.

Starting point is 00:16:33 like a little moment, but not have it be too beholden to continuity and canon. And like, I think that's really special. Yeah. But who's Misha Collins gonna be? The summon the flag. But I also think there's a really cool inversion on, you know, a lot of people think this is just attacking the right when they've done a pretty good job attacking everyone in their hypocrisy, in my opinion. Obviously, they lean a certain direction clearly, but they have dabbled in all of the hypocrisy. But I really like the subversion of the like stereotypical nuclear family being just a, baseline good. Like the brother, obviously, ratting her out,

Starting point is 00:17:07 we expected, again, the X-Men moment and all those things, but it was really nice to subvert the show's maliciousness with that undercurrent of like, hey, this wholesome nuclear family is actually a good thing. Like, there was never, like, I was waiting for the other shoot drop and it didn't happen to scale. And it was really nice for a show that's traditionally, like,

Starting point is 00:17:26 mean to find a goodness. I do appreciate it, because in rewatching, I was actually struck that the, first couple of seasons weren't as mean as I remembered. Yeah, it's a mean show. I was like, this gets meaner and more rambunctious in terms of like, let's do insane shocking stuff.

Starting point is 00:17:43 And like I think they've tempered it nice because it doesn't feel like they've toned it down, but it feels like there is a more, I think because we're in the end game and it is desperate times and things are looking as bleak as they kind of can, that mirrors what's naturally happening in society, which is there is starting to be more, yeah, credence placed upon.

Starting point is 00:18:03 earnestness and goodness and kindness and he was all the things that like they're they're showing the hypocrisy of organized religion certainly but you know they made it really clear he was a religious man they made it really clear the stepmom was supporting her they made it really clear like all the things that are usually villainized if you're doing this kind of story also had the other side so like you mentioned like an you know the the atonement element but i even just the idea of like this you know three person family that there isn't like a ah was kind of nice to see you We don't see a lot of media go like and sometimes families are good. And they're like dinner.

Starting point is 00:18:38 Yeah. Like it was really nice to feel that especially in a show you don't expect. Like what if nice things happen to? And in that moment of humanity, like I think it is as much as, you know, it, it's a good moment of tension. But I do appreciate in this world that he is able to get through to that guy because of all of the mounting evidence. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:18:56 From our real life experience. You know, even if you don't believe this one thing because I lied to you and I didn't tell you about this huge bomb I'm sitting on. Yeah. I do think the brother stuff could have been a little stronger. Yeah, it's it. It was very, excellent. I literally have seen this thing.

Starting point is 00:19:12 It was the most straightforward. Yeah, the resolve, too. Like, on the Dunkin' Donuts one, he really seemed a little too receptive. Yeah. You know, like, like, chocolate cream does change our relationship.

Starting point is 00:19:23 I mean, I love a bunch of dunks. We just did it a little bit more. This is, this is the first episode where, like, we've been talking about the first three, it's the first two of, no three where we were like pacing's great even though it's the last season this episode i was like

Starting point is 00:19:36 there's a lot going on where they're having to wrap stuff up like this is clearly french's last big hurrah they have to wrap up kamiko and him maybe breaking up they were like plant that seed they've got to give the brother a thing like this is the first episode i was like this would have been two maybe how do you feel about this very last thing i i'm more question rather than criticize chemiko's assessment on the psychology of them both because i was like i think you're also attracted to chaos too. I think she was. They're trying to make it that she was, but I haven't seen enough of her

Starting point is 00:20:08 not. Like, her wanting kids make sense because of her orphan and those journeys we've seen. And I think they're trying to connect too much to that equal stability. Yeah. And I think we need more stability. And plenty of people want to settle into having like a stable home life that aren't yet

Starting point is 00:20:24 stable. And I feel like they're going like, she wants a family, so she's chill. Yeah. And like that feels a little too much on that one. Well, it's like, I don't feel like French has been giving. the chance to prove he doesn't want chaos. He was just in an interming camp. Yeah, you know.

Starting point is 00:20:36 Dude went through. And they were like on a mission, you know? So there's like a lot there. I'm like, I don't feel like that was really quite fair assessment. That whole like self-punishment, like isolation and prison thing. Like, I don't know. I feel like there's enough stuff. And too, on an episode where he does have to be the one to step up.

Starting point is 00:20:51 I feel like that does something to a character. So he might grow into someone that would want what they both want, which I hope happens. It's a thing where because, yeah, I feel like the weaker point of this. episode is mainly just like the coda on all the boys stuff it all feels like either a bit brief or a bit like this feels like a greater conversation to have when we're like out of the situation and reflecting not like hey before we get out of this creepy-ass building do we should maybe not ever we shouldn't be together yeah and i want them hopefully i don't think they will because each episode feels like it has to go on its own journey but next episode a little bit of ramifications for like the blow up at each other but i doubt

Starting point is 00:21:28 that because that's not generally the type of show i feel like it would be same episode yeah that's I mean, like, I think it would have just happened. And I think the mother's milk beat is the only one we're going to get. Like, between Butcher and him. Something's brewing there. I feel like the whole, when they're sitting there sharing the beer, I could almost get a sense of like, I don't know. You're still not like happy being under butcher's thought. I mean, there was a part there that I like, though, because mother's milk is constantly like, oh, you're a fucking, you know, toxic thing that I keep coming back to.

Starting point is 00:21:57 And there's something here in this episode that sort of implied that he has accepted that butcher. will be in his life. And that suit up felt very pointed to be in this episode. Yeah. Like the return of mother's milk Yeah. Was a thing before they were breathing

Starting point is 00:22:10 the anger dust. Yeah, that's why I think he was like, you know, we're good. You know, because it's like, at the end of the day, he's accepted that. This is how he's gonna come back and he's ever really gonna get rid of him

Starting point is 00:22:19 and yeah, it's his real brother. That's heartwarming. That's family. In an episode about family, in part, we are all family under the Lord. God, Homelander. What do you think, Why do you think Homelander seemed so...

Starting point is 00:22:33 Okay, my real last question. Why do you think Homelander seems... There was that beat at the very end with Soldier Boy when he... He's like... It's like, I want to say he saw his dad as looking human in that moment, but I don't know if that kind of thing would really affect Homelander? I think he hasn't seen him be anything except for the Marbler Man.

Starting point is 00:22:53 So, like, I think he's just trying to demean him. Like, he was a moment of weakness, and so he saw a moment of he could belittle him. It sort of struck me as a, as a, the kind of thing, Homelander, like, I don't know, Homelander has no respect or regard for emotions. So it felt a little bit like a, you're crying? Just like, it's sort of like, this is odd. But at the same time, it does make me wonder if you're on to something where like he can see, I don't know, he does deep down want his dad's approval somehow. And even though he's clearly trying to rile him up with all the, you know, stuff from the past he's bringing up.

Starting point is 00:23:30 I don't know. It does make me wonder about if there's any kind of glimmer from him about the humanity site. Or, yeah, some kind of, we can bond somehow or some. Homelander usually retreats to cry in private. So I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe seeing a masculine figure crying as well. I really, I do really respect the show on how, and the actors, actually, especially,

Starting point is 00:23:54 Homelander and, I go, fuck it's, Anthony Starr and your, God damn it, Jensen Ackles. Jensen Ackles. And Anthony Starr, because when they are in a dynamic together, Anthony Starr does let him have the power in the scene. Yeah, and that's crazy because the only scene he doesn't have power it, especially this season. Yeah, every scene he's moving with him. He lets him be like under him, which is like,

Starting point is 00:24:17 that's actually pretty cool for like the star of the show. And in this dynamic to understand that that would serve the story better to let him have the power in these scenes. And then at every other scene, he's like, like it's so clear a different dynamic. Yeah, so it was really cool. And that radiation chamber, pretty epic. Also, butcher

Starting point is 00:24:35 ruining Star Wars. Real upsetting there. Bill and arc. I was going to say, is there anything we missed? That was a good, sage moment. Great sage moment. I love her being back to being the master tactician. And noir confirmed just that guy. Not Homelander. Just method acting. That was a good, that was a good

Starting point is 00:24:53 twop bait and switch for the comic fans, because I definitely think they were trying to manipulate us. I was going to say and it gives it a certain amount of quirk. Yeah, and I like the Manosphere pod growing in its importance. You know, the deep will get a win someday. What did you guys think about this episode?

Starting point is 00:25:08 Leave us your thoughts, your theories, at all, and we will see you next week as we break into the second half. Four more reps to go. Be well, people. Be good. Praise the Lord.

The Reel Rejects - THE BOYS Season 5 Episode 4 REVIEW – WILL SOLDIER BOY KILL HOMELANDER?!

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