The Ringer-Verse - ‘The Boys’ Season 3, Episode 4 Reactions | House of Midnight

Episode Date: June 13, 2022

Van, Charles, and Jo dive into the fourth episode of Season 3 of ‘The Boys’ and give their instant reactions (02:00). They discuss Soldier Boy appearing in this episode with some new enhancements (20:00). Then, the crew focuses on Kimiko’s dildo killing spree (41:00). Later, Van, Charles, and Jo take some time to break down A-Train’s commercial inspired by Kendall Jenner’s infamous Pepsi commercial, and analyze A-Train’s motivation as a character (57:45). Hosts: Charles Holmes, Joanna Robinson, and Van Lathan Associate Producer: Jonathan Kermah Social: Jomi Adeniran Additional Productional Support: Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Ask your doctor about Tramphia today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit Tramphiator Radio.com. This episode is brought to by Paramount Plus. Beth and Rip are back in a new series Dutton Ranch. Kelly Riley and Cole has are returned, and this time they're taking on Texas. As Beth and Rip build a future together, peace will have to wait as they face corruption, danger,

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This is, of course, ringers Nexus podcast fee for all things fandom. This is a House of the Midnight collaboration as we break into episode four of the boys. Okay. Programming reminders. Okay, here we're going to. Wednesday, the Midnight Boys will be back.

We're going to react to episode five of Obi-Wan Kenobi. On Thursday, Steve and Jomey will be joining Joanna for a look at the second episode of Miss Marvel or Ms. Marvel, as she was so aptly called in our group chat by Joanna. So that's kind of like a House of Mint. Can you say that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. House of Minty fresh.

Minty fresh. Minty fresh. It's a minty fresh. House of Mint Edition. And Friday, Joe and Mal would be back together to give you their deep dive on episode five of Obi-Wan Kenobi. And let me put it to you this way. It's already been filmed.

There's nothing they can do to change it now. But they better come with it for episode five of Obi-Wan-Kanoi. They all notice. This is all I would say. It would behoove them. It would behoove the Mouse Patrol

to deliver a pretty amazing episode of Obi-Wan. We're not going to get into the Obi-Wan discourse. This is about The boys. But God damn it. Okay. On today's show, we are going to talk about episode four of the boys.

I'm not going to get into any superlatives right now, but damn. Fantastic. And we're going to spoil a lot of shit, as we always do. So even though you're listening to a reaction podcast, it was your choice to come here. We have to do it. We're getting ready to talk about the boys. boys you're listening to a reaction podcast the spoilers are coming yeah that was pretty good uh jonathan little spide kerma is on the production tap today uh it wasn't quite steve level but he he did get it in how dare

all right man we're not doing this at some point kirm got to graduate from the hazing okay oh kerm no kerm is the man let's be honest with you kirm is like kerm is the man Like, Kerm is a fantastic producer, but he's not here all the time, right? He's like, he's not here all the time, so we don't have the rhythms down. But he's the Mint Edition guy, is he not Jomey? Kermm is the mid edition full-on producer? Yes, he is. Is Kerm iced out today like he was the last time we met him?

Kerm, let's see you real quick. What's you wearing around your neck? We're chilling today. It's Monday morning. You feel me? We're just rocking the Levi's team. Oh, I feel you, Kurn. Oh, he got his chain snash.

He don't got the chain on anymore. That's when I saw Kerm was on Saturday. and he was rocking like a full-blown amazing tank top. And he's like, as soon as, because it was Saturday morning we were recording, he's like, as soon as this is done, I'm on my way of the potluck. He was wearing his like finest potlick tank top. A potluck? It was amazing.

We outside, you feel me? What the homies? We were exchanging food. Wait a minute. Drinking. Having a good time. Yo, Cur. Yes, yes.

See, every time you take a step forward dogs, you take five steps back. No, no, no. That was a supportive, Kerm. No, no, no. Whoa. A potluck? What's wrong with the potluck? What's wrong with a potluck?

You don't like sharing food? Wait, wait, wait, wait. You got a bunch of potluck potness. Y'all come together and y'all do a potluck. What the fuck is this? The church? I mean, I really, let me, I got like two friends in the friend group that are potluck friends. And then I got invited to the potluck.

Like, it wasn't like I knew everybody there. Am I tripping? Yes, yes. Kerm, how old are you? 23? You're 23 years old. And you guys are having potlucks. I'm not dissing at all.

This is amazing to me. I feel like there are two stages of potlucks. There's like I'm early 20s. I'm out of my own for the first time. Like I could cook. I can be an adult. I had a lot of like quote unquote dinner parties, potlucks in the early 20s. And then you stop giving a fuck about that.

And then later in life you return to the potluck phase of life. Do you know what I mean? But in the early 20s, you have something to prove with your new kitchen that is all yours. You know what I mean? I suppose, Charles, have you ever had a potluck before? You've ever been to a potluck? Hell fucking no. I mean, I've showed up.

I'm not cooking shit. Hell no. Charles, that was a moment to lie. Charles, prove my point. Okay. Joe, you weren't with us last week. You weren't with us last week. So before we jump into things, what's your background on the boys?

How you feel it about the show? Yeah, I love this show so much. This is a show where I watched, I got screeners for the first season before, like, you know, had been out for public consumption. And I watched it all, but I had no. I was like, this is wild. I was really into Preacher at the time, which, you know, is another Garthetis comic that Seth Rogen and his partner's also produced over on AMC. And so I was like, this is wild. But like, people couldn't hang with Preacher.

Are they going to be able to hang with this? Like, is this going to be too much for people to hang with? And then I was deeply wrong because not only was it a huge hit for them in the first season, but then it was such a hit that they brought it back in season two week to week as they're doing now, which is pretty rare for Amazon. Less rare increasingly. but at that time it was like a real move. Very controversial as well. Yeah. People got pissed. People got pissed.

But it paid off because then, you know, the boys got nominated for an Emmy. And I think the plotline last year really deserved a slower week-to-week consideration. And I love this season so far too. And after I watched the first season, I went and read the comics, the Garth Anna Derek Robertson comic. And I just find it so interesting that that comic was created in reaction to like, Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, all that sort of stuff. And like the way in which this stuff is just relevant, relevant, relevant, relevant. Like, you don't, it doesn't need to be pinned to one thing. This is constantly the things, the shit that we're dealing with.

The intersection of capitalism and authoritarianism and all that sort of stuff. And the time, you know, to the point you guys were making last week in terms of what the comic, comic TV landscape looked like when the boys came out in the first

place. You had Legion, I feel like was the only other show that was like at all

questioning superhero supremacy, doing anything around that. And then Watchman came out almost

directly after the boys dropped, Washington came on HBO. But it felt like such an interesting time

where it's like, okay, it used to be all three of us are like genre, comic book, whatever fans.

And it used to be that this was the niche. Then it becomes the dominant genre in film, in television. And that's when you get stuff poking at it. That's when you get stuff punching at it. And most importantly, with something like the boys, you're punching at it from inside the fandom. Like all the people making the boys love comic books. They're not making fun of comic books, but they're poking at some of the themes of this idea of like might is

right and all this sort of stuff that comic books can sometimes accidentally put out in the the world, you know, same with Watchmen. Like, that's coming from David Lindeloff, who's a huge comic book fan. Like, it's different from someone being like, comics are stupid from outside the club. But if you're inside the club and you're thoughtfully picking it apart from a place of knowledge, that's what I think makes this show so special. It's interesting because, like, I think back to Civil War and the argument between the movie, not too much the comic book.

the argument between Tony and and Cap. I remember Cap says and when you break it down and you get past the oh my God the infringers are going to fight it's actually a very fascinating philosophical argument right?

Cap is saying look we need to be able to do whatever we want because we're the best and we believe in ourselves and we need to be able to go out and do whatever we feel like we like it's necessary to do. And hey, we're the Avengers.

So sometimes when we do shit, shit's going to get fucked up. Right. But we know what we're doing is right. So we got to be able to do it. I remember being in the theater being like, I don't know if I agree. Yeah.

You know what I mean? Like, that should be some kind of vote. You know what I'm like? You have that like uncomfortable feeling of being on the side of Ross and you're like, does Ross that's a point? Is there like, is there a,

do they have a small point? Yeah. Like maybe some people should get together and decide whether or not they're going to do something. The safest hands are still our own.

I'm like, okay, I guess. I like you. But people in Nigeria die. So I mean, I mean, to be fair,

Cap was wrong. But the alternative wasn't that much better in terms of like. Of course, you're right. Yeah. And that's what I actually think this episode is touching upon.

Because the minute Homelander, like we were talking about it last episode, Vid, Homelander last season was kind of, like, didn't really have anything to believe in, even when Stormfront was around. Every time she would kind of, like, bring up all that Ardian brotherhood shit, he's like, ah, I don't know, but okay. And finally, his worldview is starting to coalesce in this episode, where he starts, like, referring to superheroes as like, us. And he starts talking about superheroes as if they are a party or a group that is being

robbed of their power, which is very much like the metaphor is slapping you in the face in terms of like what's going on in America and people in power generally cis white men who still have all the power being like, no, you're robbing me of it because people don't like me now and people are being mean to me on Twitter. And that's what I think was so funny about this episode. I was like, oh, he kind of sounds like cap a little bit from Civil War in this. What he's like trying to advocate that they should be able to do whatever the fuck they want. And I'm like, oh, this is making gap in that Civil War movie, not look great. You know what's interesting about what we just said about a homelander and his ability to like cultivate this certain cult of personality?

Is that so you have a billionaire sitting on high talking to the people and saying, hey, I'm just like you. Mm-hmm. what's going to happen to me is what's going to happen to you. And the people just have no fucking clue. Either that or they're blinded by their privilege and ignorance, that they are nothing like this person. And that can't be better stated here because Homelander is literally invincible. He is literally the strongest being on the planet.

And what he's really found is that in making him, himself a victim. In making himself a victim, he can sort of whip people up into a frenzy and provide some sort of toxic oneness with them. And I think we've seen that with populists, to be honest with you, since the beginning of time. Yeah. It's so creepy because you watch that that's the thing, okay, but that's a beautiful thing about genre, right? Is like, a thing that genre can do doesn't always do, but a thing that it can do is I think the boys last season with like stormfront and um all the white supremacy shit i think that was one of the most like piercing political shows of last year right or did it come out in 2020 time is a flat circle

but anyway like that that really cut like it cut right but it presents it to you with enough of a remove where you don't have to get agitated and feel like you're being like preached to or whatever or I don't really want to engage in something to, you know, that reminds me too much of what's going on. So you've got this superhero remove where wild shit happens, like penises blow up and all that sort of stuff. And so you can enjoy, you can laugh, and you can have a great fucking time with A-Train doing the Kendall Jenner Pepsi commercial, while at the same time you're being fed this really interesting, no, like, no punches held back story of authoritarianism in America. Okay. Okay, guys, what do we think of episode four? Charles? Oh, I thought episode four was fantastic. And there's so much bombastic stuff that happens. But I think what I love, I love when TV shows do this thing where every character thematically is kind of going through the same arc.

And you see it with three antagonists. I think this season has three antagonists. There's butcher. There's Homelander and there's Victoria. and all of them in this episode are dealing with fatherhood in some type of way, where they will go to increasing lengths to save themselves or save others. You have Butcher who, in the back of his mind, is trying to save his dead ex-wife's son, Homelander's son. You have Homelander who is revolting in real time against Stan. And Stan does this creepy thing where,

it's like Stan's going to have to go on leave, the CEO of Vought. And instead of seeming distraught over this, he seems kind of like a father figure who's like, oh, no, now I don't have to take care of my terrible toddler anymore. Now you're the world's problem. Fuck off.

And you have Victoria who basically to quote unquote save her daughter makes this deal with the devil. And we saw with Kimiko earlier how Kimiko and Homelander's son view their powers as a curse. So honestly, the moment where I had to put my hands

over my eyes in this episode is when Victoria gives the V compound to her daughter, that Oh my God. That shit was so chilling, but all three of those characters having to deal with parenthood or not having great parents or turning into

the parents that they cursed was fascinating. I think it's just top tier TV writing. I love this episode. Joe, how did you feel about this episode? I also loved it. I want to go back to that. I love that you were comparing some homelander stuff to CAP earlier because, you know, in the comics, I feel like the Superman Homelander is like sort of a one-to-one thing.

But I think when they created Homelander here in the show, they bled him a little bit more into a Superman Cap hybrid. Because in the comic, Soldier Boy is the Cap in America analog. But they decided to do like Winter Soldier. boy essentially, right? Like, that's what they're doing. They're not making him into a cat figure. And the reason, like, you know, Eric Kripke, who is a share runner on the boys, the reason he said he wanted to do soldier boys, that he wanted to, like, look at the root of all

of this toxicity. Where does it all come from? Toxic masculinity, certainly, but any sort of, like, generational toxicity passed down. So I think Charles are so smart to point out that, like, I feel like this is daddy issues the season. That's what this is. Or parental issues if you want to like, you know, put Victoria in there and Starlight's mom in there. Certainly there are some bad

moms out there, but like bad dad territory feels like firmly where we are. And I think Stan Edgar, which is, it's a line from the comics, but Stan Edgar calling Homelander bad product is one of the baddest

daddiest things I've ever heard ever. It was incredible. So yeah, great fucking episode. Loved it. I think it's the greatest episode of the boys ever. All right.

Let's not good. I think it's the best episode of the boys ever. Come on. Why? Why? Season three end. It's the best one

I've seen thus far. Charles, you know how we do this. This is called take. Take it. Take. Getting a takeoff. I've never seen an episode

this complete of the boys ever. This episode, to me, number one, first of all, this episode challenges almost every single thing about the show. And it shows you how, if we look at everything that's happening, right, we look at the fractures that are existing within the boys.

This show isn't about superheroes being bad. It's about people inside their own organizations, inside their own factions who don't trust each other anymore for whatever reason. It's about power struggles between people who want to be people and people who want to win. right it is probably the deepest thematic episode of the boys that we've ever had it's the most unpredictable episode of the boys we've ever had and to me it's the most consequential in a lot of ways because it completely shifts the paradigm now um stan egger seemed like he got his ass kicked i don't think he thinks he did like he he to to me in this particular episode i still

i was fascinated with his response to nydia's don't double cross. I was also fascinated that he still stands in that room and talks to Homelander who's making an obvious power grab. Like he is a boy with nothing more to offer him than like whining. And I was surprised at many different aspects of this. I was literally aghast at Supersonics death. Literally did not expect her to flip on Stan Edgar up there. Like so many different things happened in the episode that I was ahead. They were ahead of me at every single time. And until the moment it went off, I was like, like when it literally went off,

if Cleek was here, she could tell you, I went, fuck. Like, that was good television. It's the, in a show that's already good, I think this would have the most story. And I don't know what's going on with Huey. Hughie seems like, Oh, I know exactly what's going on with Hughie. I don't know what's going. I mean, I know what's going on with Huey,

but from the standpoint of the show, well, she hasn't read, she doesn't know. So it, it, there was so much going on in it that I really felt like it's the best episode of the show I ever saw. I'm allowed to say that, Charles. God damn it. All right. And you're getting the great takeoff.

You said all that and you didn't even mention the Dildo Slap Fight. So, you know. Dildo slap fight. Like, she's killing, she's killing with Dildos. Between, between, Between this, between the boys and everything everywhere all at once, you're the dodo. It's coming back. In pop culture, it's just there.

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discover the craftsmanship behind every bite, Boershead, committed to craft since 1905. All right, let's get into the Nuss and Bolt's. Soldier Boy's alive. I think we knew this. Soldier Boy tell him it's not only alive. Wow, that's a good little floor right there. But he's got the

big Draco built into his torso. I love that. Soldier Boy, he's here. And it seems as if he might just be the gun that butcher is looking for Joe, what do you think? Yeah, I mean, so what we saw at the very end of the episode, right, is that Kimiko gets a blast of it. We've already seen her healing powers earlier in the episode when she was able to, like,

push the bullet out of her, I guess, bulletproof brain, soft healing brain. And so she's not healing when the rebar goes through her at the end of this episode. So it feels like whatever he hit her with depowered her for however long we don't know. But like, that's, what they need to beat homelander is to depower him. So, yeah, soldier boy is it. Seems a little feral and uncontrollable. So I don't know if that's the weapon you want and a real dick. So, you know, I love a living weapon.

I love when the answer to a mystery is a human. So, yeah. A living weapon. Can we think of good living weapons that have been out there? Living, living weapon, what? Like living weapon content? Fifth element? living weapon?

She was a living weapon. Who else? I mean, is... When I think about, because Kimiko says this thing where she's like, I'm not your gun and Billy Bitcher's like,

that's exactly what you are, right? So Kimiko is in herself, a living weapon, right? But when I, Kimikoa makes me always think of like River Tam and Firefly. Like this sort of like, you know, born sexy yesterday,

sort of feral child weapon person. I think Kimiko is a much better version. of that than whatever was on Justin's mind. But yeah, living weapons are often women, young women. You know, that's what I don't. My thing, too,

about Soldier Boy, and I know what's happening right now, is when he said that about Kimiko and Soldier Boy pops out, I'm like, damn, what you're really going to fuck over, Mother's Milk is. Like, at this point, what you're, I could see

the gear spinning his head. He's just like, oh, yeah, Soldier Boy, like, we need that. Like, we need, because, and that's actually what I think is so great about the season. I feel like in the first two seasons, it was easy to root for the boys because Homelander and the Seven were so powerful and they seemed so unstoppable. And in this, I'm starting to wonder, are the boys the heroes of this story anymore? Because, there are no heroes. Because what we see from Kimiko seems like, she's the first one to start experiencing it when they go to the theme park or when she is in front of all of the sex workers and they're terrified of her where it's just like

the lengths that the boys are willing to go to now is starting to feel like it's no different from the seven um and i'm starting to wonder like what actually are are all of y'all fighting for anymore and chemico's the first to notice it i think frenchie is starting to notice it And the only two, it seems like, are kind of just letting their demons run wild are Huey and Hughie and Butcher. Of course. Yeah. No.

And I love what you guys were saying about the parallels between Butcher and Homelander last week. And I think, you know, the show is underlining that in. So this Temv, when you take it, it could give you any kinds of powers. We find out that Huey can sort of like, you know, pop up. Teleport without his clothes, I guess, here or there. But But Butcher gets homelander powers You know They gave him the heat vision and the bulletproof

Like he they turn him into like mega homelander Or homelander's mega butcher whatever you prefer But like I think that no no come on No No No Yeah Joe No

No Wow Not at all No Give me a pew pew phew Give me a pew pivue curve No No

Curm! No. What are you doing? Hey, bro, I just played the sounds when they asked for him, man. Joe came out on fire. That's nuts. That's real nuts, man.

You must be stopped. Absolutely. You must be stopped. Let me talk about butcher and Homelander. We got to talk about you, man. You're out of pocket. What? You're telling me I'm the butcher of this?

No, I'm not. I'm just saying that was, my face gave it away. It's like, it was so funny. I knew what she meant, but I'm like, man, Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe, one of us. Joe is Joe, one of us. Joe, Joe, Joe, we get the train back on track, please. All right.

I have an important question. This is an important question to get this straight back on track. Is it has the band ever seen Scott Pilgrom? Is that the question? Anyway, go. One of his favorite movies, actually. Michael Sarah would be, this is, tangent. Michael Serra would be great in this TV

show. I don't know who we would play. If Michael Sarah was in this, he would be great. But the boys, Joe, yeah. They seem at this point, like, I don't know how they're going to keep this team together. Even Mother's Milk and Butcher have this real heart to heart where he's like, I picked you because you're supposed to be

the backbone, the emotional backbone, the spiritual backbone. And towards the end of the episode, Mother's Milk is just like, yo, there's nothing left to save here. And it doesn't even seem like Butcher gives a fuck that Kimiko is about to die. And Hughie... Neither one of them care. Butcher doesn't care and Huey doesn't care. Huey is rolling.

Yes, he is... Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, no, no. I mean, so in terms of people that I'm rooting for in the show, the list is kind of gets shorter all the time.

Like, Kimiko and French are at the top of it and MMs right there with them. And then it's like... Dicey. Can we also say, Huey... Huey's fist me off because Huey like it seems like his journey if we're talking about like toxic masculinity this season

is like he's doing all the stuff quote to like save Starlight. He doesn't want to be in a position where he can't protect her but I'm like no actually you keep getting upset because physically she's more powerful and she's the one that tends to save you

and when he takes the temporary compound V. I'm like, you're not doing this for Starlight. You're doing this for yourself. You're doing this because

you are a laughing stock across the world and you feel powerless. By the end of the episode, I was just like, fuck Huey. Like, Huey, Starlight. I would go even further than that.

I don't know if it's even that he feels like intimidated by Starlight. I think he feels intimidated by the man in proximity to her. I think he felt intimidated by Supersonic

because he was this great square jaw-looking guy with superpowers. I had a history with her. And that made him feel a little bit. And a hit single. And a hit, oh, my God. Climb up the church. Got your high 10 and two.

And so he felt, if you're 16, I'm crazy. So he felt intimidated by him. And then he's standing right in front of Homelander. And Homelander is now the guy that ever. thinks is with his girl. And he's the most powerful being on the planet. And Huey just doesn't feel like anything. And he got,

everything that he was doing at the FBSA was a lie as well. So he has absolutely zero identity. And he feels inferior in a very direct, visceral, masculine way. So he started popping roids. Yeah. You've seen it before. Yeah.

No, I think, I think you both are really smart in terms of like, And we're talking about if Soldier Boy is a way to explore toxic masculinity, you want to explore like all flavors in the pack. And a flavor in the pack is, is nice guy toxic masculinity, which is what Huey is, right? Nice guy in toxicity. And like the amasculated, I think you're both right. I think he's emasculated by, I don't know, whatever the Russian media is doing, he's emasculated by the other men. But he's, I think he is, feels emasculated by, I think he is, feels emasculated by, I don't know,

by Starlight, because he says that thing about saving her twice in this episode. And I just think that, well, here's the question I have for you guys. How would you feel like if your partners were superpower badass as like Starlight is? How would that make you feel? I mean, I'm going to be honest. Just knowing my stats in terms of how my lack of smarts and my lack of prowess in the gym, I'm like, damn, I came up. Like, fuck, like, shit.

Right. I'm not going to ask any questions. I'm just here for the ride. I don't know what trick I pulled. Fuck out of here. Like, here's the thing too. Like, sometimes you've got to pull your boy across. Like, Van, you've probably been in this position.

Have you ever had, like, a friend or a boy who's like, starts dating a very, very attractive woman and just starts acting weird? And you're like, dog, if you can't, if, like, if you're going to be weird about it, like, you got to stop. Like, this can't be a fuck. I've told, I've told. I've told homies before, bro, just leave her, bro. Seriously, because you can't do it. You can't handle it and you're making it terrible for all of us. Like, what do you mean?

That guy's her fucking stepfather. Like, she's not trying to fuck her stepfather, bro. I mean, this is not porn hub. Like, relax. Like, you know? I just got wild so fast. I'm telling you, I swear to God, I had a homie whose girl, I'm not going to lie. Stepfather was smooth.

Imagine, you know, her mom marries like Denzel Washington, circa 2007 or something like that. Well, come over, the guy would be like waxing his corvette or something. I'm like, God damn, this is smooth as fuck. And he was, this girl was so beautiful. She was actually Miss Southern. He was dating and was like, bro, I'm telling you, bro,

they'd be flirting and stuff like that. I'm like, dog, you only feel this way because the reality is you don't think you deserve her. And guess what? You don't. We all know it. But either you can deal with it. Because she was so in love with him.

You could deal with it or you cannot. See, me, I probably wouldn't be able to deal with it at that point either. But now, the more that my girl has to do, the better. So if she became like, if she was like this big deal on the seven, and that meant she would like, you know, have hobbies and things that she could go out and do and stuff, like I would be so into that. Just tell me where to show up and I will show up. because that means I can play my video game.

Exactly. That means I can... That means I can do my... You know what I'm saying? It's like, go. I'm supportive. I'll support you, you know? To the point of, like, your friend who had this extremely hot girlfriend

who was so in love with him. And that's the thing about... So in love. And that's the thing about emasculation, right? Because, like, I don't think... Starlight's not looking at Huey at all in saying this guy's week. she's like this guy rules because he's not these toxic dicks I work with. But like he's hiding this other toxicity in him.

And like when you say emasculated, that's all interior shit. That you're the only one who can emasculate yourself. You know what I mean? And I think that's what's going on with Huey this season and introducing Temp V, which like the way that they're shooting it, like the watching Billy shoot up with the turnicid in his mouth and shit. Like, oh, fuck. I can't. I was so tough, man.

Wait, can I also just say this? If I'm being real, like, let's say I was dating Starlight. Some of the best advice my boy in college ever gave me, he's like, yo, just make sure, you know, the girl, like, if you dating a girl, like, it don't hurt if she, like, works at Foot Locker. You're going to get the discount, you know what I'm saying? If I'm dating Starlight, I'm like, all right, yo, get me some tickets to Vauntland if you can.

Oh, you go into the premiere, like, yeah, like get my boy, can me and my boys got some tickets? Like, here's the thing. I'd be like Starlight, yo, like, shit, we can go on the PJ? Hell yeah. Like, I'm going to be that type. I'm just like, what do you? Like, I'll make you a nice home-cooked dinner. You know what I'm saying?

Like, we're going to be having a great time. Because Starlight's very nice. Very nice lady. Wait, well, can we, well, it's Starlight, like, this season. Is she making some, like, weird moves in terms of just like, I'm like, Starlight. What are you doing? Like, in terms of, you mean, okay, so Mallory's on here, so it's my job to invoke Survivor. You mean, like, in terms of a, like, like, in terms of a, like, like, like,

like putting together her survival alliance, she miscalculated in, I mean, Sonic made the major miscalculation in talking to A-Train. But like, did she make a miscalculation and bringing him on the team? She made, there's so many miscalculations. I think the first miscalculation is,

they, like, they doing their plan, they're cracking their plan at the headquarters of all. I'm never saying anything where Homeland is. is close. They're not doing a good job with that, though. Great, great point. Great point. Either he's hearing everything or he's hearing nothing.

They talk so much shit. Yeah. But everybody does. Yeah. But then my second thing is I'm like, Supersonic. This man's a rookie. He's green. If you're going to bring him into the fold, you don't tell him shit.

You just be like, I'm going to tell you what you need to know when you need to know it. All I need you to know right now is like, you're my boy. When shit goes down, I need you. But you can't do that because if you do that, he's not going to come along with you. But here's the thing. You need to be transparent with him so that he understands the gravity of the situation. Well, guess what transparency got you? He goes to A-Train.

I'm like, dog. A-Train? That's on him. A-Train? Maybe she should have given him a download. You and me don't talk to A-Train or the Deep. Promise me right now. I'm not-cate.

And that's another thing that we didn't even bring up. I think the A-Train thing was a little hard to read because even for, me, I have forgotten, you know, it popped in my mind one time randomly in the show that A train ran through Robin. Like, I have forgotten. A train had been getting his ass kicked and been such a pathetic character for so long that I, you know, even like that moment last season where the deep is going through it to such a degree that you forget that he's a sexual abuser. like they actually were able to make you feel slightly sorry for the deep in a way. They do that with Homelander sometimes too.

Like you never have long to forget what a piece of shit Homelander is. But occasionally you learn stuff about his background where you were like, uh, this is just a broken monster. I mean, when Stan calls him a bad product. Like for a moment, I was like, oh, man. Damn, you know. You know?

And so for me, I think it had been so long with A-Train. I think I have forgotten that A-Train is a dead. And I think that's another thing that's so good about this episode is I wasn't expecting that. I wasn't, A-Train's out there trying to help the community. A-Train's back with his brother. It seemed like A-Train was turning the corner. I'm being for real. All right.

All right, brother-to-brother. I got to be real with you. This entire episode. Like, I, like, from the mid, like, I knew I'm like, oh, no, A-Train selling them out. Because I'm just like, you got to think, if you're willing to sell your soul for an energy drink, like, you're willing to sell your people out for an energy drink. You're willing to do anything. Like, you know what I mean?

Like, come on. Like, for the minute that shit happened in the episode, I'm like, man. Because even when, here's the thing. And you know turbo rush is foul. Like, that shit is foul. All right. On the scale of energy drinks. Yeah.

How bad do you think turbo rush is? Like, what is your guys, like... For me, the... You're asking me, like, what my top energy drink is. I haven't had an energy drink since, like, I was in my 20s because I'm a worried my heart is going to explode. But in my 20s, I was a monster person. I was a monster person.

So I think it's definitely worse than monster. Way worse than monster. I've never, I've only drank, an energy drink maybe once or twice in my life. So I've never really had, so I don't know what it makes you feel like. I've never even, I've never had. It makes you feel like you're going to die. But like, but you can accomplish what you need to accomplish. Very jittery.

Like very just kind of like, it doesn't even like wake you up as almost. It makes you like vibrate. So you can't. I've had multiple monsters on like a long. cross-country drive. I've consumed and it's just like it's bad times.

It's really bad. We do not endorse or any other energy drink. Actually, the best way I could describe before we get off of energy drink corner is, do you remember

that Eminem freestyle at the BET Hip Hop Awards? Yeah, we was going crazy. It's like that. It's spiritually it's like that.

What impact do we think, what do we think Soldier Boys are going to do in this season? We don't know. We've gotten some flashbacks of Soldier Boy. We've got, like you said, winter Soldier Boy. Is this going to be a situation?

Is there a possibility that Soldier Boy is persuaded to join the boys? What does Soldier Boy want? If I were put on ice in Russia, I would want to find out who put me there and why and how. So that would be my mission. but I you know he he doesn't know Homeland or so it's not like his mission is aligned with the boys so Butcher's going to have to do some

convincing to get him to join them but I don't know I don't know if you will or if he's just going to be like a rogue agent I mean first of all maybe we should get Jensen Eccles some clothing and a razor those first priority right and then we can see where we go from there what do you think Charles

If I had to guess, I think that he's definitely the living weapon that's designed to take down Homelander. Butcher is going to convince him to join the boys, which is going to hurt and piss off Mother's Milk and fracture the boys. And then Soldier Boy, the reason he's going to be mad at Homelander is because Homelander has replaced him. And I would not be surprised if by the end of this season, Soldier Boy damages Homeland. to such an extent that he can join the seven, and then Butcher's going to realize, fuck, instead of stopping Homelander, I've just created another one. A bigger monster?

Oh, that's so interesting. And now there's two monsters, and I wouldn't be surprised if by the end of this season or into next season, Homelander and Butcher have to kind of, like, team up. No, is Soldier Boy the only person with what Homelander's doing right now, is Soldier Boy the only person who can out Homelander, Homelander? Because remember, he has all the cred.

He fought in these wars. He was this like he was this guy. This was who he was even before Homelander had his awakening. Do you think Soldier Boy is stronger than Homelander? No, what I'm saying is Soldier Boy can say, Soldier Boy could look at Homelander and say, I fought against Nazis. You loved to them. Oh.

So like when the popular vote, the public sentiment award, the only real threat to him, he can say, hey, I'm not the one that fell in a lot. I haven't watched the head, but like, so I have no clue what's going to happen. But I'm not, I'm the only person here who's actually fought against the Nazis. This guy was fucking with him. This episode is brought to by Whole Foods Market.

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Save at Whole Foods Market. We talk about the gore in this show a lot. There were two main gore scenes, if I remember correctly. One was supersonic just being torn the shreds. That's more gore aftermath. Aftermath, yeah. But our main gore today, to me, was relatively low on the boys' gore scale. We should give every single show a one to ten gore rating.

but it would definitely be Kimiko's Dildo assault at the Russian oligarchs Fortress. I mean, any other show, this would be like 10 on the Gore scale, on the boys, five, maybe a four and a half? Six. I was going to say six. I was going to say probably five and a half.

I think there's like, I think there's like the surprise of the enormous dildo just like punching through his head and spattering the girl. And then I think, okay, you're right, Gore-wise, maybe four, but like the dildo as a weapon, as Charles said, the year of the dildo, the various, like, themed the seven dildos, like the starlight vibrator that, like, starts

to go off once it's, like, embedded in the guy's neck or, or just even, she didn't get to use it, but my favorite one was, like, was the deeps flounder-pounder, was, like, far and away, one of the funniest things I've ever heard of my entire life. So good. You know what got me? It was like, you know that the, you know that the dildos are, they're blunt. Yeah. Blunt force trauma of the head. That's what I'm saying.

But also what makes it, what makes it worse is that you see throughout Russia, what they view the seven as. And they view the seven as just like these demonic American forces. There's hatred of rightfully so there. But you go to this oligarchs house. and he says something to the effect of like this is contraband which made me assume either the seven the seven merchandise bought merchandise

is outlawed in Russia or this type. So like where is he like did he have to go on like the dark web to order his seven dildo? Did he have to like get the connect to be like all right? And did it take him a long time to collect all seven? Do you know what I mean? He couldn't get them all in one swoop. There's no way. Right. Right. Yeah. If he's sending people on dummy missions

to go retrieve dildos. You know that black noir one was like hard to find, right? Like that one, that's a, that's a very idea. That one was definitely probably the last one that he got. He's just like, it's my, like it's complete, my collection. Right. There's so many jokes to be made with that last statement that we talked about the black noir dildo, but I'll leave it alone. Oh, right.

I'm a very mature person. You are the butcher of. Frenchie and Kimiko They hate Busher Almost feels I'm gonna be honest with you Am I wrong to feel this way Joe It feels like they're in some way captive now They all like well first of all

I don't know what we don't know what's gonna happen with Kimiko Like she's in dire straits at the end of the episode But I will tell you as someone who has literally seen A film in my life The minute Frenchie and Kimiko are like One less job than we're going to Marseille And you're like just one last job.

And then it's off to the land of cheese and bread. No. Like the way in which butcher is weaponizing these very traumatic figures, like Little Nina, you mentioned this already, but like Little Nina or what we anticipate he's probably going to do with Soldier Boy and MM, like these the most traumatic figures in his teammates. lives. And he's like, it doesn't matter because the end goal is homelander. And you guys talked about Ryan a little bit last week, but like I feel like it's really important to drill home that

like butcher has always been maniacally focused on homelander because of what happens with his wife. But I feel like it's been ramped up even more now that he's had this like, to us, somewhat surprising reaction to Ryan. Because like, remember when his wife was thinking of like, was having assignations with him and stuff like that. He's like, leave that weird kid behind and run off with me. Like, he was not about Ryan in any way whatsoever. So the fact that he now feels so protective of Ryan and that when he talks about homelander being stopped, it's like, I know that he's going to find Ryan eventually, so I have

to stop beforehand. You know, again, this is like daddy issue parental shit the season. And so that's his excuse for re-traumatizing all of his. teammates, you know. But I also think the beautiful thing about that from a writing standpoint is that actually, it makes so much sense that Butcher would have such this, want to protect Ryan to such an extent because he's doing everything he can to not turn out like his own father. Like he's doing everything he can.

And in that pursuit, he's ending up just like his father in terms of like the, all of the boys in in weird ways look up to butcher as this parental figure and he's failing them all and it's like even if he's successful even if he does get rid of homelander will he be in any way somebody that Ryan should be around probably not

you know what I mean you know what's crazy is that I I think butcher we talked about this last last week I think a homelander is Butcher's life's work. And I just don't think Butcher has a reason to live if he's not trying to catch Homelander.

I think that if it was really about protecting Ryan from Homelander, then why isn't he with Ryan? Like, you could be with Ryan right now and we could get some goddamn, like, weird father, son, we're running away. but at Ryan would probably be a lot safer if Homelander was right there. Excuse me, if Butcher was right there. Killing Homelander is his life's work. And the only thing that's motivated him for such a long time right now, what he really just needs is just a different reason to kill Homelander. And like even more altruistic than like my wife was sexually assaulted.

It's like I'm protecting this small child. Right. And that also helps him. And I'm not saying that there's no. feelings there. They obviously are. It's the son of his wife's body. So there are definitely some feelings there.

But I also think that this is an easy thing to get the boys rallying around. It's a kid. And also, Butcher just has an unstoppable bloodlust for Homelander. And Homelander always makes him, he always legitimizes it because he's legitimately a terrible, terrible, terrible entity. Can I just shout out Anthony Starr, who I think is doing, like, some of the best work I've seen anyone ever do on television as Homelander? The best act on TV right now. Just, like, there's a few things that I love about Homelander.

One are the, like, the dark roots on his blonde hair. That's one of my favorite things. And then number two, there's something on Anthony Starr's mouth. Like, he has, like, a complete lack of an upper lip. And there's just, like, something just, like, mesmerizing about the way that he, like, smiles and grimaces. and when he'll just be like, I'm only, I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. Like, it's just terrifying and amazing every single thing he does on the screen.

I think, I think HomeLander's an incredible creation. But to Charles's earlier point, I think there might be at some point, and I'm not even remotely there yet, but some point where I run out of steam of like every season ends and Homelander is still on top, still like the king villain. Like, I need some modulation in that, dynamic and like whether or not it's him having to like join up with butcher for like a worse threat or something like that but like eventually i'm going to need something else

other than this like constant circling of butcher and homelander butcher and homelander do you what i mean like you didn't feel like you got that last year with stormfront a little bit you're right you're right a little bit that's fair and i think soldier boy is potentially in the mix to include that uh chaos that that that power to name. I will say I'm getting tired of Homeland or not as like a performance, but as like a big bad because it's like at a certain point, I'm just like after three seasons,

you're like either fucking kill this guy or give him something new to do. Because like there's only so many times I can watch him win before I'm like, all right, well then why? Do you know, it's interesting. I feel like he's coming into his own as a villain a little bit. I think that this is the scariest we've ever seen him because somebody was always controlling him before.

Whether it was Elizabeth Shue's character who, I miss her. I really miss her. She was so great in that role. And I just love seeing her own screen. She's been one of my longtime screen loves like Elizabeth's shoe.

I've been down with Elizabeth's shoe. Since adventures and babysitting. Since adventures and babysitting, karate kid. We go way back, man. Me and Elizabeth's shoes, so it was really good to see her. But like, I think now that he's challenged Stan Edgar, he's found his individual villainous voice, that he's almost more unhinged. And I don't think he ever killed a member of the seven in this brazen way that he did before because there were guardrails.

And I think seeing him with no guardrails is actually a little bit more terrifying right now. See him not feeling like he has to put on that nice guy, you know, that outward persona that you were talking about, the, like, the Clark Kent's Boy Scout shit. Yeah, I'm watching him on, so the Cameron Coleman hour, they're like Fox News equivalent thing that they're doing this season. Tucker Carlson guy. Watching Holander on there, like, he's fully Q and oning his way through that conversation.

He's just sort of like, there are people out there. I don't know, shadowy organizations, cabals of something. thing that are doing things. And it, and it would be, like, hilarious if it weren't so real to, like, everything that we deal with anyway. I mean, also the thing with Homelandor, that's super interesting. JFK. is coming back.

Hmm? JFK Jr. is coming back. I'll forget. I will say, though, Homelander. It's going to be fascinating trying to see him clean up his own messes. That's why I think Stan was a little bit, like, laughing on the inside, where I'm just, like, Yeah, when Homelander went off

to like have a relationship with a Nazi Vaught cleans it up. Like when he like kill, like when he killed someone, Vot comes and cleans it up. Can you imagine Homelander doing the fucking admin work? He's just like, oh, sorry, supersonic's on a building. Can somebody like do something?

Like he's not, he's not that type of thinker. So actually it I think it will be very, very funny trying to see Homelander have to keep the plates spitting, which which seems like the worst job. You mean like Homeland or doing paperwork? You know he's not going to.

It's going to be all on poor Ashley, who's going to be bald by the end of the season. Not poor Ashley. Ashley's a piece of work. That's almost what Eggers threatened him with. What Eggers said was it wasn't building you. It was covering for you, which was my real job. So really, that's almost what Edgar threatened him with.

Edgar threatened him with not so much that I'm not going to be here to build up the home, the homemaker, the homelander mythos, is that I won't be here to cover up the homelander messes. And it's just a matter of time before you fuck yourself. You know what I mean? And I think that that struck a nerve with him to you guys' point. You know what I mean? But think about it.

Madeline's not there anymore. Now Edgar's not there. Every single person who could cover for him. Mave. Mave's not helping him. What's going to happen when Soldier Boy arrives? That's actually why the thing that's looming. If, like, he does something so catastrophic, I wouldn't be surprised if Soldier Boy slides in as, like, the old American hero.

Where it's just, like, Homelander is kind of, like, getting this very populous, like, make America great again type of support. If he fucks up, Soldier Boy, his name is Soldier Boy. He is the perfect person to swoop in and be like, actually, I'm the original. It's true. The Boys is so good with the medicine, you know, like, Charlie's showing up in episode one. We got Billy Zane showing up also. And then we got a Soldier Boy on Solid Gold doing Blonies of Rapture. So great.

So good. He needs like a Star Spangled Man song to, if he comes back and becomes this sort of like PR thing. Charles, did you know, are you familiar with Solid Gold? No. Oh, my God. I got so excited. Maryland, McCoo. Solid Gold was like a, he used to come on.

And it was like, kind of like an American bandstand joint. But Marilyn McCool from the Fifth Dimension used to, she was the host. And she was, is beautiful. I remember as a kid. Wait, what show was this gold? Oh, solid gold. Solid gold. I remember as a kid being like every single.

And the solid gold dancers. And the solid gold dancers, I remember as a kid like plopping down to front of TV, my mom thought it was so funny, I would just look at Marilyn McCool, like, oh, my God. It used to come on. The thing about solid gold, and I don't even know, like, when it, I don't know how long it ran or whatever, eight seasons.

Wow. They used to put it on after, like, the Sunday morning cartoons. Like, you would watch cartoons, and then in the middle of the day, solid gold would come on. And it's like, do you want to talk about disco? And you're like, a child of the 80s. You're like, I'm confused.

What's happening here? What is this? Oh, my. I know. It's incredible. It was like Soul Train. I would say it was like Soul Train. But way cheesier and like whiter.

Was it for white people Soul Train? Charles, look. Brough, come on, man. Bro, come on, bro. Like nuts, dog. Like nut, bro, like nuts. Like Young Van was going nuts. In terms of Young Van's early crushes, where did she rank?

Her and Jane Jackson. How does she compare to Elizabeth's shoe? Elizabeth's shoe was the first time that my mom was kind of like, I don't know. She's like, my mom was like, okay, man, I just want you to remember, all right, what I'm raising here. Because then there was a weird van of white thing, too. Oh. Oh. My mom nipped that fucking shit in the butt.

She's like, not her. Wait, wait. Maybe some other white women, but not. not Vanna, who's the whitest woman. If you called up your mom, would she remember this time in your life? Oh, she definitely would. She's certainly would. The Maryland McClew thing was, it was just a funny joke she would make to everybody.

Can I take a moment to talk about one of my early loves, which is Mr. Sean Patrick Flannery, who played powder. Oh. You know about powder, right, Van? Yeah. Charles doesn't know about powder. But he, that's where they cast to play gunpowder. powder. They cast powder. You are for real?

Uh-huh. Simply. He's also, uh, yeah, Sean Patrick Flannery. He was a thing. No, I did not recognize him at all. Powder is about an albino child with weird powers. And it is like, it is such a relic of the 90s, like, because it was a thing for a, a solitary minute.

And you definitely had to be there. It has no legacy, except that's definitely why they cast him as gunpowder. This episode is brought to you. by Sweet Green. The day doesn't ask for permission. Lunch window? Gone before you saw it coming. You deserve a break that actually satisfies. Sweet Green's new wraps have got you. Real ingredients? Zero shortcuts. Everything you love in one hand. Think green goddess chicken. Garlic aoli. Crumbled bacon. Corn salsa. 40 grams of protein. Made to keep up with whatever comes next. New sweetgreen wraps hit different. Order now at order.com.

Speaking of extremely white things, can I go off topic for a second to talk about some extremely important representation that I felt for myself in this episode? Oh, absolutely. And it was, of course, when Ashley said that Black Lives Matter was her favorite hashtag

and that her Instagram account was nothing but Black Squares. Yo. No. I mean, her relationship with A-Train is hilarious. Because, like, what she's just like,

are you serious? Like, really? Here's the thing. What is A train's deal? Like, what is he trying to accomplish at this point? He seems like a man without a mission. Even when he's talking to the deep,

he's like, Homelander, great man. And I'm like, dude. He wants proximity to power. So, like, I thought it was really interesting the conversation where he's asking for permission to like, you know, call Blue Hawk out or whatever, right? And in that meeting, the Deep's wife who was just fully running comms on the deep, right?

Like, feeding him lines. She's like, this is your moment. Because like the deep, because we found out what we found out about Black Noir, like, the deep in Homeland are the only two white men on the seven, right? So she's like, here's your moment to white man it up and sidle up against Homelander and say, you've got to be a tough on crime. blah blah, right? And so A train's like that proximity to power is what I want.

I will throw anyone else under the bus in order to get back into Homelanders good graces, right? And that's what he does. Like he sacrifices supersonic. And he would have fucked over Starlight too. No, no problem. No question about it. Just to get back into like this second position behind Homelandar. And I think it's a means to an end here for him because I think now,

He believes that Homelander is going to let him go after Blue Hawk, right? So his rebrand is the hero of the blacks. And he can't do that without taking on Blue Hawk. Blue Hawk is somebody that was so minuscule. Homelander didn't even know who he was, right? He's out of Trenton. So I think by doing this, he probably is going to get his opportunity to do. So he wants proximity to power, but he also wants to matter.

He wants to be A-Train. The old A-Train is out. And if we think about it, Supersonic was a speedster, was he not? So that probably on some level was intimidating to A-Train as it was, right? So now what A-Train is probably going to get is the opportunity to go after Blue Hawk, or at least to approach Blue Hawk. Maybe he thinks that. In order to do that, you got a curry favor with Homelander.

The Deep had an end already just because they white. And in order for him to do this, he had to give Homelander something because Homelander has lost all respect. He's lost all respect for a train in any way. Wait, can we just say also, man, racism? Like, racism has levels. and I think in terms of like the level of the first time a Latin next superhero comes like

sit down with the seven, Homelander's like, here are Taco Bulls. I was just like, it hurt. Like it hurt. Like I was just like. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. That was funny though.

Like it wasn't, it wasn't, hold on, hold on. It wasn't funny because I was laughing at it. Homelander is just such an asshole, bro. He's like. And like, and like, and before, he could say anything. The Deep is like, these are mooey deletio.

I'm like, what? Chase Crawford. Who is Chase Crawford is so good. I'm like, he is shuffling it in his face. It's like, these are movie delicious. So I was like,

yo, what the fuck? This is fucking silly. And the supersonic assassins sit there and just take it. Wow. It's your, The homeowner is getting good at just fucking with people in ever so slight ways. It's like, you know, your former lover, your former lover Starlight.

Like, who talks like that? Who calls with your former lover Starlight? It's funny. I think Anthony Starr is this is the best performance I've seen in a superhero situation for a long time. He also got arrested in Rome for assaulting guys. So there might not be like tons of acting going on with Anthony Star. I have some questions. Is that true?

Yeah. or Spain. He got a fight with a guy and, like, smashed a glass in his face. And he had to pay a fine. This is just a bar fight? Yeah. Okay, I'm okay with that.

There. What? It's the smashing the glass in the face that I'm a little like. So here's a deal. So here's a deal. I have to set some levels here. If it's a bar fight, I'm okay with it.

If this was a domestic situation or a situation of somebody that he worked with or something like that, That's one thing. So I have to get more details. But I can't really be mad at him for going out. It's not going to happen with me. I'm too nice of a guy. I'm the jolly bear giant. But like for me, but if he, you know, he got in a fight with a guy, he's Homelander. So it's so it's so it happens. I tell you what. Be homelander is all.

I tell you what. Yeah. Going to Hawaii and becoming a menace and then kidnapping people, I'm not fucking in favor of it. So speaking of speasters, like going to Hawaii and kidnapping human beings, like how much rope you're going to fucking give? The, them, how much rope you're going to give them? They are a menace. I'll tell you what, if they were black, fucking would be in Tyler Perry. Why did I get married for by now? I'm saying they're a menace.

They're a menace to society. They're going to do something. I'm telling you, they're going to do something that's, I'm telling you, they're dangerous. All right. You said they're going to be in time.

I'm saying. All right. My little soapbox is over. Before we get on to, you know what, we've covered a lot of this. Hold on. I do want to come back to,

to, Homelander and his, his relationship with Stan Egger. Stan Egger has a very bad episode here. He's betrayed by his surrogate daughter. Yeah. Homelander looks like he has the one up on him. Yet Stan doesn't seem deterred.

Is he putting on or does Stan know something about the game that we don't? Have you said a head that wears the crown? Like, come on. I feel like John Carlos Spizzito is incapable of playing a character where even when he gets got, like he'll admit that he got got, you know what I mean? Like, if you think about Gus Fring or you think about his character on Vandalorian, he's just like, even when he's on the back foot,

he's like, no, I got this. Even when he definitely, when, when spoiler alert for Breaking Bad, please skip ahead if you haven't watched Breaking Bad. Even when half of his face is blown off, he just comes out and straightens his tie. Like, that's what Gus Fring does before he does, you know? So, like, that's Jen Carlo, like, through and through.

So I feel like, even whether or not has a plan he was going to act like this anyway is how I feel about him. What do you think? I will also say the biggest mistake he made in this in this episode, biggest mistake.

And it was almost like, I'm like, you're too smart for this. He's one of yada yadas. He's, his daughter being like, well, what about my daughter?

How are you going to protect her? And he's like, it is going to be okay. And I'm like, oh, you can't tell a mother to be like, hey, don't worry about it. Don't worry about it.

You know what I'm saying? Like, come on. You're smarter than this, Edgar. You're smarter than this. Yeah, he miscalculated there. Either that or Homelander was just a step ahead of him. Because he played that fucking fiddle like a harp from hell. He played the whole city.

You know what I mean? So he like, he was, and that's kind of the scary thing. But I do still feel like at the end of the episode, after he had the conversation with Homelander that he yotsied him a little bit. Like he. Oh, he got him. He rattled him. Yeah.

Yeah, he had him just a little bit. Am I wrong to think that? No, no. That's that bad dad stuff. I mean, that's why Homelander doesn't, like, laser him to death. You know what I mean? He's still scared of him because of all that bad dad shit. I also want to shout out when Homelander goes to visit Nadia, Victoria, or whatever,

and they do this absolutely full-blown Superman call out where her, like, her curtains are blowing gosily in the breeze. and you think of like Lois Lane going out to see Superman or whatever. Then he's in her bathroom, in her tampons. Like in her bathroom in her tampons. Talking about Hart from hell. Like this is Clark Ken from hell is, oh my God. He said to her, it's so funny. I don't understand how am I an asshole?

I have to be an asshole because the dinner thing was funny. And he says to her, he says, heavy flow day. Heavy flow day. That's hilarious. That's hysterical, man. It's repulsive and hilarious. What the fuck? The part of Homelander that's so interesting to me, the funniest part, is that like,

even with Stan, it's like, yo, you're a boy. Like, even the way Homelander, like, interacts with women and sex through the, the entire three seasons is like a child's understanding. Like, it's like, whether it's his obsession with milk and breast or it's like every single time he's around a woman. I'm like, why are you acting like this? You are like a grown ass man. Like why are you like carrying around a tampon like you've never seen? Like what is going

on with you? And that's actually the thing that's kind of sick about him where I'm just like, oh no, you have, you're the strongest you're the strongest person on the planet and you're making tampon jokes. This is this is fucking frightening. Yeah. It's so amazing. It's so

weird. He's so immature. Like you're just like, this is the guy who's going to save us, him? Heavy flow days a really good line. Can I shout out two of my other favorite lines that we just get a chance to talk about? One is Frenchie saying, Entourage is but for the stupid and the damned

when he's like a casual little shots fired at Entourage. Great stuff. And then when Butcher is talking to Nina, and he said, I heard you had a right old frolic under your golden shower, like talking about how she had filled. Russian oligarchs, like a real steel dossier sort of thing. I was just like, write old frolic under your golden shower.

Give the boys' writers room like a gold medal. I have to be honest with you, man. Nothing. I struggle. I struggle to think of anything, of anything that has aged worse than Autorash. It's so nuts. Like you guys have, I get to L.A. I get to L.A. in 2006.

That's what I get here, right? Early 2006, I get to L.A. By the time 2007 comes, me and my roommates are parked in front of the television every Sunday without fail. To watch entourage. Like, L.A. was so different at that time. And I didn't know.

You're taking notes. You're like, this is how I make it. It's how I'm going to make it. It was a weird thing. Everybody was into the show that was here at least. It seemed like it. And I never even, remember, I'm 26, 27. I don't catch on to any of the things that I see about entourage now. It's so, I try to watch it now.

I can't get through one. I can't get through one. I can't get through. I'm like, I'm going to do an entourage rewatch. No, you're not. You cannot get through. I think the movie was the first time that I remember I actually went to see that movie

When the movie came out, I was like Man, what these niggas talking about, bro? This is stupid as fucking dumb as fuck, bro. Do you guys ever look at the Amazon Turvia that's on the boys' episodes? All the time. Because they're really funny, right?

Because they do, there's a bunch of comic reference stuff that they do and they do like in-world stuff. Like, you can buy this now on vaught.com or whatever, right? Like they're pretending that, you know, all the products are real. But my favorite was this like entourage trivia where they're like entourage is a show that ran on HBO from blah blah blah to blah. As you can see, Frenchie is not a fan. And it's just sort of like, fuck that show for real. I actually want to ask, when do you guys think the entourage tipping point was?

Because like there was, it was in the air a little bit like while it was running like, are we sure this isn't whack? And then all of a sudden, like, entourage became the show where everybody was just like never again. That is like... I feel like the mistake was the movie. Because like if you would just let it live in people's memories, they wouldn't have had to confront like it. And then they did the movie and you're like, oh, oh, no. Yeah. And then...

And like, to be honest with you, and we can come back to the boys after this, even though we're kind of talking about the boys who are talking about entourage because they were the boys. Like, really to be honest with you. I think, so if I was going to go back and watch Entourage right now and the storylines were stupid, all of that stuff, the one thing I could say is, hey, Jeremy Piven is amazing as Ari Gold, right? Right. But when you go back and you watch Jeremy Pivin kind of knowing some of the stuff now, also kind of knowing what Ari was doing then, it's like you can't even get any, he was fantastic as Ari Gold, but it's not enjoyable. Now it's all of the stuff that was being saying. And all this stuff. Yeah.

So it's just, it's a little like. So it's just kind of like, it's just one of those things. It was for, it's time. And it was cool then, but I don't go back and look at it anymore.

I watch all episodes of New York undercover, though. Those are, or like watching, or we were watching powder, which definitely is probably super eternal and not all problematic, I'm sure.

Powder is more relevant now than it has ever been. Powder is the hero we need. All right. A train. Who's going to talk? to me, who's going to wax poetically about the A-Train, Kendall-Gennon commercial? Before we go, I just need somebody's opinion on. It's art.

I'm telling you, this is the greatest episode of the boys ever. It's absolute art, right? Like, the minute you realize what they're doing, just like, and that's what I love about the boys is, like, you know, they'll go for entourage. Okay, easy soft target entourage, right? But, like, they'll go after Kendall Jenner, which is, like, you know, that's punching up. They're like, Kettle Jenner is very, the, the

Kardashian Jenner's are very, very fucking powerful. And boys like, I don't give a fuck. You're kidding? This is ridiculous. I loved it. Charles. I loved it too. Is that, is that commercial still online? Like officially?

Fuck, no. Oh, I'm sure you can find it, though. You can find it. No, I'm wondering if Pepsi had, like, just had to stand by it. I forget if they had to scrubbed. I'll never forget that day at TMZ. I'm like, I'm sitting there. I'll never forget that day of TMZ.

I'm like, I'm literally, I come into the office and Evan goes, Van, there's something you have got to see. And then show the commercial, I'm like, yo, was this all Saturday Night Live? I'm like, they're not, they can't be for real. And everybody was getting mad at me. Like, Van, what do you want? They're trying to do something.

I'm like, yo. Wait, what? People in your office were in favor of it? Oh, my God. People in the office were like, they're trying. They're making it. attempt. I'm like, and then people were like, you'll remember the girl that put the flower in the gun at whatever? I'm like, do you understand that shit really happened? Like,

it's just totally different. Ain't no Pepsi's going to stop these motherfuckers from blowing our fucking heads off. And I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm getting triggered again. I'm like, they're dumb. You guys aren't giving me the space to feel the way I feel about this. I'm like, this is ridiculous. Some weird commerce porn about a very real moment in America. It's copaganda too. Like, oh, look, cops are just like

are just people drinking Pepsi. They're only one Pepsi away from just being like, you know what? Just be chill. We solved it. We fixed it. Honestly, I'm going to be real then. I knew the Kardashian-Gener's, you know.

They tight with TMZ. I didn't know they were that type. And be like, hey, you know, not that. I gotta get it. It's a lot. It's super tight. So you don't think that this is a step in the right direction? I'm like, fuck, no.

No. I'm like, no. I think the criticism is a step in the right direction because we need to be serious about this. But no. I will never forget that day. Shout out to Evan. Evan was my man.

Evan, like, Evan is the one who sent it to me laughing, knowing that was going to piss me off. But I felt alone. Like, and now to see that, A train is stooped to the same levels in order to trick Black America. I'm disappointed in you, A-Train. Everything is for sale in this show. Everything is for sale.

Everything is money. And, like, the fact that Ashley, the conversations they have around social justice, and the way in which Ashley immediately is, like, it's my favorite hashtag, like, we can monetize this, all that sort of shit is just so absolutely correct bang on to what is happening. I mean, I'm going to be honest, I'm not going to say what company it was, but

I bear a few companies when like, you know, unfortunately a black person gets murdered by the police. And these are like actual conversations that I like, that are had. Whether they're just like, oh yeah, we're just going to throw up this hashtag and we're going to throw up this black square on social. I'm like, I don't think that's

enough. And they're just like, what do you mean? Like, come on. Or they'll just be like, hey, you want to write something about everything that's happening in country? I'm like, no, I don't want to turn my pain into context. Yeah. Just like, no, no, no, we didn't mean that. And I'm just like, hey, guys, like, we're having a wrong conversation right now. So when like this happened with A-Train, I'm like, dog, A-Train, have a little self-respect.

Like, come on. Have a little self-respect. I mean, we're in the middle of Pride Month right now, which is like the king of like companies trying to capitalize on a social movement where they're just sort of like, rainbows. this and rainbow that. We definitely support you. Yeah, once the month is up, shit. Yeah.

They're just like, pride, what? Wait, what happened was going to? What do we? So is, so A-Train, how do we feel about him then? I know he's doing it. Is this for real? Or is A-Train or is this a part of the A-Train rebrand? You know, like what?

A-Train's obviously a fink. He's still a fink. But is he a fink for the people? No. I think he cares about his brother's opinion of him, right? And this all is also, like, he heard about this from his brother. It all sources back to that, right? So I think that, like, I don't know.

Like Homelander, I'm not sure he really believes in anything. But like Homelander, I think approval of certain people matter to him. And like, his brother approving of him, I think matters to him. I mean, I agree real. This A-Train and Starlight are. very similar in this season and that they both have this idea that like, we can change things

from the inside. You need someone on the inside. And then I just every single time like that argument is made, I'm like, come on. You think this ain't Harry Potter. You're not the chosen one. You think you're the motherfucker who's going to be inside the building. That's going to just change it. Like,

come, come on. Like, we've seen this before. And I just think that while Starlight, I think has like a line I'm not actually sure after this episode what A Train's line is or if he has one. Do you think, what do you think

that the boys even doing this plotline doing this like Blue Hawk Copaganda storyline at all? Are you into it? Are you? I think it's a little easy. Yeah.

Here's the thing. It's such a, the one thing, if I have one criticism of maybe this, episode and of the boys in general, I think sometimes the boys tries to do social commentary on everything. So the actual strong social commentary they're doing sometimes gets a little bit muddled. And like it's easy. Like I can definitely see a lot of people guzzling Mountain Dew watching the boys. You're like, ha ha, it's a cool superhero show because there's just,

they're commenting on so many things where I'm just like the A train plot isn't even the B or C plot. It's like the D or E. And I'm just like if you're going to do this, I think you're got to go a little bit harder. I'm not mad about it, but it's just there. It's sometimes it's a little bit weak. It's funny, but sometimes it can be a little weak. So I'm not, so I've enjoyed it.

It's sometimes I think things like this are like they're too typical for it's, when you say what Charles says easy, that's the way I would I agree. It's funny. It's funny. It's funny and almost

all of it I got to be honest with you, it rings true a little bit. What we essentially see, and Atlanta did this in this past fantastic season that no one watched except for me and Charles. Shout to the prestige TV podcast feed. Shout to the prestige TV podcast feed. But they're essentially lampooning the fact that a lot of the social justice work that is done in today's day and age is done in tandem with commerce. and it's asking the question if that can happen, you know, if Dr. King can be sponsored by Gucci,

if Malcolm X or Fannie Lou Hamer can have a deal with a car company, you know? So it's asking that question. And by the way, I'm not saying that you can't. Things are different now than they were then. But I think that they are kind of saying, I don't know right now, that's why I asked earlier, if A-Train knows whether or not he's fake or real. And I think there are probably a lot of people operating in those circles that don't know that either.

They think that there are one thing where they really might be something else. And I think that's happening to him and seeing him essentially get someone killed. I'll be interested to know what A-Train's thoughts are when he finds out that Supersonic was killed. Or if he knew, he had to know that was going to happen. I'm sure he did. I think the social justice, weaponizing social justice for clout or, money is so common and I've seen so many people, both people who I believe believe in the cause and people who are just capitalizing on the cause have their star power, quote unquote,

like shoot up because they hop on board of sort of a social justice movement. And A train to me strikes me as more on the opportunist side. But I do think there's a kernel of something there. Like I said, it goes back to his brother. That's what I think that there is like, it's not completely disingenuous because he's looking for acceptance anywhere he can find it because he feels so rejected and low. And I'm not, I'm not sympathetic to him.

He's like, fuck almost everyone on the show. But I think that that's like his motivation there. Can I ask you guys real quick before we wrap up? We brought up the prestige TV podcast. Who do you think is a worst person? Homelander or Barry? Homelander. Probably Homelander.

I think I'm going to go Barry. Not because I don't think Homeland. Like here's the thing. I think Homelander kind of knows deep down. He's the devil. Like he knows deep down. He's terrible. I think the scariest thing when I watch Barry is, I'm like, oh, Barry, you don't know

you're an asshole. Like, you're just like, you're just going around. You just actually don't know that you're like terrible. And that's what scares me about Barry with Homeland. I'm like, Homelander kind of knows. At this point, he's just like fuck this shit, bro. Like, I'm the most powerful human. I mean, human on the face of the wind.

I definitely think I agree with that. I don't know if it makes Barry worse. Barry definitely doesn't know. I like Barry, though. Okay. Who is more powerful? Kimiko with a dildo in her hand or Jamie the hamster

free from his cage and out for vengeance. Oh, Jamie, we even talk about Jamie. Y'all mean to tell me this is not the best episode of the boys ever. Is that the best?

It's such a good episode. Brough, think about everything that we've talked about. What is she said? Does he say like merci, jamie? Merci, Jamie. Jamie is the man. Yeah, Jamie's from the comics.

Jamie is the man. Jamie, you got Jamie in here. You got A-Train comedy. You got racial comedy. You got parents dynamics. You got surprises. This is the strongest episode ever of the show. You've got Belbiv-Biv-V-Voe.

Bell-Biv-Div-Voe. Bell-Bin-Vos needle drop. This is the best episode ever of the show. This is amazing shit that the boys is doing. I don't mean to bring up my man Bozeman. I love Bozeman to death. I've met Bozeman for the first time. He's, like, actually the kindest, the most beautiful dog.

But he could learn a little bit from Jamie. Jamie saw the feds, and Jamie's like, fuck the feds. No, Bozeman, Bozeman getting out of here, baby. You should. Bozeman did bark away somebody, though. He did. He did. He did bark away or something.

But Bozman, I ain't about that life. Bozman is a, he's a, he's a, he's a diva dog. You know, Bozeman is a different dog. That's not Bozeman's life, you know. Bozeman likes a piece. I've heard. Oh, get out of here.

Oh, wow. All right. On that note. Jamie, Hero, I hope he comes back. I hope it's much of my. Hero we need. Okay, you guys, that is a wrap.

Wednesday, the Midnight Boys return to react to episode five of Obi-Wan Canobeeby. Okay. Okay. What if you get like a Hayden flashback, though? What do you get like an Anakin flashback? It's great. Look, I've been watching so much Revenge of the Sith and so much of this stuff. Your Revenge of the Sith take was...

Group texting us on a fucking Saturday night about how Revenge of the Sith is, what, the best Star Wars movie? The second best Skywalker saga movie. Bullshit. Wow. Empire. Billshit. Whatever. Your worst take and I love you to death.

The worst actually pre-backed. Like, let's do a rock. real quick. Let's do like then episode five scale of one to ten. How good do you think it will what if Liam fucking Nason's there? Well, if Liam Neson's there? I don't have no clue because this is the summer of no expectations. So you got a little expectation. What I'm saying is it would behoove it to be really good. All right. We got two episodes left. Hopefully it's it's I think it needs to be it needs to be an eight to nine. to rebound.

Like that, like, that's... It needs to do like Bofet, like bringing in fucking Mando and Grogun or to... If like Asoka don't show up or we don't get a Clone Wars flashback, it might be tough. If Quigon Gin ain't in there, it might be tough. Yeah, I think, I think, I mean, we have to get Quigone at this point.

Another question for you, Van, I know you're... And then we'll wrap up, I'm sorry. Have you watched Miss Marvel yet? Yes. What did you think? I thought it was great. Great. Like legitimately great.

The people want to know. Legitimate, like legitimately great. If you had to rank the shows that the, that the Ringerverse is covering right now, and it's Miss Marvel, the Boys, and Obi-One, where is it going? Boys one. Yeah?

Easily. I still got to put Obi-1, too, because... We've only seen one episode of Miss Marvel. We've only seen one episode of Miss Marvel. Damn, you're a hater. Miss Marvel 3, but Miss Marvel is... It's just, it's a great show. I'll put it to you this way.

If episode two lands, if episode two and three land, yeah, we might have to pack Obi-1 up. It might be. It might be time. Maybe. All right, Thursday, Stephen Jomey, will be joining Joanna for a look at the second episode of Miss Marvel. Speaking of, Friday, Joanna, and now are back to give you their deep dive on episode five of Obi-Wan Kenobi. We're going to have weekly coverage on the boys here on the ringerverse feed. We're having so much fun with the show.

the show is ripping and roaring. And on the next boys' podcast, I might have another little surprise. Ooh. Okay. Oh, my God. Are you, okay, two ideas. Number one, you're calling Elizabeth Shoe.

Have her on the speed dial. If I had her number, there'd been some calls made already. Number two, you're coming on the Zoom in full powder cosplay. Oh, Jesus. That would be great. Can you imagine me as powder, for Halloween.

You might have just given me an idea with like a deer and a hunter. That would be great. Powder is that, hey, everybody has homework. Everyone has homework.

You guys all got to watch powder. If you haven't seen powder, watch powder this week. You have to like it, but you have to watch it. Jomi is doing it. Jomi says no. Jomey's doing it.

You guys have to watch powder. We're going to do a segment next week on this very podcast. We're going to talk about powder real quick and what everybody thought. Jomi, watch powder, Juna, Kerm, everybody got to watch powder. Real quick on powder.

Is powder, by the way, powder is fantastical fantasy shit? You guys need to watch it. Okay. Producer credits, our producer, is Jonathan, little spidey Kermen. Show me, the explainer at dinner on, you've got questions. He's got answers. Hashtag free Jomey on social media. And additional production from the always impregnable.

Arjuna Ram Kapal Charles take us out The Boys is a wrap and the Obi-Wan backlash is getting louder but sadly tonight I will not be re-watching fucking powder

yeah you'll be re-watching it because you've never seen it you're watching the first time y'all gonna like it everybody watch powder I'm looking up powder right now on the real this is so great How are you feeling Charles about what you're finding with Powder?

Wait, are you saying that people thought that this was attractive? The actor does not look like that usually. But Powder himself was like, it's sort of like Edward Scissorhands, where you're just sort of like, there's something gothy and like attractive and vulnerable about this person. So Charles, let me understand. You would have had to understand the 90s. because in the 90s, like, I'm being serious. In the 90s, like, powder was going to be,

I remember we watched it in class. It was huge. My classmates, like, they're crying. Like, we watch. It was like a, because, so, okay, let me tell you, I give you an example of powder. I give you an example of the scene from powder. So powder just had all kind of, like,

like, nondescript powers. pretty much do anything. Yeah. So there's one time in powder and this really got the girls where there's these hunters. Yes. And they shot a deer. Yes. Right?

And when they shot the deer, like powder comes along and the deer is dying. And he touches the deer and he touches the hunter. And he makes the hunter feel what the deer is going through as the deer dies. Yeah. As powder cries. Yes. And we all cry. And the deer's crying.

And the deer's crying. And the hunters cry. And the hunters all upset. In 95, bruh. Yeah. That's, you're out of here.

They almost remade the movie with John Travolta called Phenomenon where he just gets weird powers for whatever reason. Because he had like a brain aneurism. Because he has a brain aneurysm or something like that.

But like powder. And then at the end, I'm not going to ruin the end of the movie because you got to watch it because we should all do a powder rewatch. But powder just like, Powder has all of these societal issue. Powder is just, he was

the man. Was this movie reviewed well? Oh, that's a great question because I was definitely before I was reading film reviews, but I doubt it. I really doubt it. Sean Patrick Flannery is also one of the Boondock, the Boys of the Boondock Saints, right? Yeah, Sean Patrick Franklin has a great career.

And he was, he was like a heartthrow-up type of guy. Yeah, he was a guy. This has a 50% of a round. I'm wildly unsurprised. Boy, wow, wow. Very fittingly, it has a 69% on audience. Exactly. Hey, yo.

Just let you know. Flannery, Lance Henrickson, Goldblum, Mary Steenberg, and they took this movie seriously. Jeff Goldblum. Jeff Goldblum was like here for powder. Yeah, they took this movie seriously. They're like, it's not, I'm just, you know, just letting you know. Powder was the thing. You had to be there.

This is the era where I'm serious. I know. I'm going to round it up. I know. I know. Yeah. She's totally 1,000% right. Okay. Wow. That is such a delightful turn that we just took right there. I love that. I'm going to watch that shit. Tonight, no bullshit. After the game, I'm going to put that shit on. Kalika. Kalika. Baby, did you ever see powder? Do you know what she said? She said, no. I know what you're talking about. I know what you're talking about. Oh, that's fucked up. She said there used to be a guy that they went to school. She went to school with. They used to call him that.

What? It was fucked up. Wow. But he powdered it did. Potter was, though. What's the difference between butter and butter made from real California dairy? It's the real California farm families behind it. Real people.

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