The Ringer-Verse - 'The Boys’ Season 3, Episodes 1-3 Instant Reactions | The Midnight Boys

Episode Date: June 6, 2022

The Midnight Boys are back to share their thoughts on the opening episodes of the third season of Amazon Prime’s ‘The Boys’ (02:00). Later, Van calls Laz Alonzo to get some insight on playing the character Mother’s Milk (1:01:00). Hosts: Charles Holmes, Van Lathan, and Jomi Adeniran Guest: Laz Alonzo Social: Jomi Adeniran Producers: Jonathan Kermah and Mike Wargon Addition Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopal and Steve Ahlman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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For all things, fandom, we are. Jomi, the explainer at dinner on. You've got questions. He's got answers. We are. Old man, man, he of the receding, disappearing, disgusting, emaciated hairline. We are, go baby Chuck, the 24-carat closer.

It's got somewhere to be, so we got to get this podcast crack. We don't have the cuddly Christmas bear. A band. Steve is not with us right now. He's making waffles for his girlfriend. It's good for him. He can't join us.

But instead we have Mike Big Wagon, Wargone. Big Wagon. Explain that. Big Wagon, like, because his name was Wargone, but he's, so that's, he's wagon. So he's like a, think of a wagon, like a, what are you like a radio flyer, you know, riddles joints and you just carry stuff in it. And then that's him. That's Mike.

That's his little, Mike, Big Wagon, Wargon. Big Wagon. We need to go back to the booth on that one. Whatever. And we are the Midnight Boys. Programming reminders. On Wednesday, the Midnight Boys are going to be back to react to episode four of Obi-Wan, Canobi. Sure to bifurcate the fandom right down the middle.

People are loving the show. Some people think the show is great, which I happen to think. Other people think the show is hammered trash. I don't get it. I really am having a problem with this one watching Obi-Wan and having a And seeing the discourse. I'm not understanding it. The discourse is pretty toxic.

It's pretty toxic. It doesn't make any sense. I'm confused. I'm legitimately confused. Yeah. I'm not sure what's happening. Thursday, Charles will be joining Joanna for a look at the first episode of Miss Marvel, Chuck Wagon, which people say is.

I'm really excited. Why did you say it like that? I didn't say it anyway. The summer of no expectations. People are loving his mom. You ain't even watch it yet, Van. you already talking shit. I'm not talking,

who talked shit? You guys are being negative. What do you be negative? You heard him. Right, come on. You guys are being negative. You guys are being negative for no reason. Oh my God.

And Friday, Joanna and Mal are going to be back. They're going to return to give you their deep dive on episode four of Omuon, Kenobi. But today, today, today, today, today, we're doing the boys. Hey. The boys. First three episodes of the boys are out.

Are we the boys of the ringer? We are. We are the boys. It's just super not safe for work. Okay. So who are the, so let's let's, before we do this, let's line up the characters. Okay. So.

Don't do it. It's line up the characters. Okay. I'm nervous. I know about you. I'm really nervous. All right. So let's start with Steve.

He's not here. Who is Steve? Huey. He's got to be Huey. He's got to be Huey. Like he's a lover. He's got to be Huey. He's a lover.

He's got to be Huey. So then that would make Jomi Frenchy. Jomi's Frenchy? I can see that. Jomi's Frenchy. Think about it. He's definitely Frenchy. You can get down to the kitchen, you know?

What he's got to be here. Oh, he's definitely French. He's definitely French. You know, he's going around at the salad bar making husbands band shit. This is where it gets weird. Am I, am I butcher or mother's milk? because I can see both. No, you got to be butcher.

You think so? I don't know that I'm that toxic, bro. Definitely. No, you're definitely butcher. Well, Charles is not really Mother's Milk because Mother's Milk is too wholesome to be Charles, bro. Like,

Charles... Well, you got to think about it, right? Well, you know, Charles is always, or Mother's milk is always like, man, I don't really want to do this superhero stuff. And Charles is like, man, I really don't want to do the superhero stuff. So it's really a one-for-one.

Actually, you know what? Actually, Charles is actually probably more Kimiko. Just quiet and then all of a sudden, like, Kimiko will give you the business. Like, I don't know. Like Charles is probably all like all of that angst. You know what I mean? Built up and then just kills. Oh, my goodness.

And then, of course, Arjuna is Homeland. No. No. No, no, no, no. No, you actually want to know who Arjuna is, like, for real. He's Stan. He's the CEO of Vaugh. Like you'll come in and be like, hey,

I'll cut cut that shit out. We ain't doing that. A little bit. A little bit. That's Stan Edgar for show. Okay. Before we begin, Charles, what's your background on the boys? Tell me your familiarity with it.

Honestly, this is one of the rare comic book shows that I didn't come into through the comic books. I think the boys, I was in the comic book store like when the boys came out. I just think it was a little bit above my age. And I don't know if the comic book store owner. would actually sell it to me. So the boys is actually something that I kind of fell in love with

with the TV series. What about you? To me, because like, let's be real, then the first season came out of fucking nowhere. I don't think people were expecting it to be as good as it ended up becoming. Yeah. So I'd never heard of it.

I'd never heard of the boys prior to seen it on, on Amazon Prime. Look, I was driving down Librea. Billboard's, actually work. Because I was driving down LeBre and I saw these billboards.

The billboards like, superheroes are the villains or something that said like that. We have to stop the superheroes or some tagline that it had. And I kept seeing it. I'm like, what the hell is that? And at that particular point, remember, superhero landscape on

television outside of Netflix and what Netflix was doing there wasn't as much. It was very. It was very, was barren and also the quality level. Like, let's be real, wasn't there. So let's put it to you like this.

That's not true what I just said. The Aeroverse was on the CW. It's been great for years and years and years. I think what I meant was the streaming superhero landscape was dominated by Netflix in terms of television. You had stuff that was on the CW. You had some other stuff. But as far as what we know right now,

superhero prestige television, if you will. even though I think Superman and Lois is prestigious as hell. It wasn't there. So I watched it, besides Netflix, so I watched it. And from the first scene of the first episode,

it actually inspired me to go back and read a lot of the boys' stuff. From the first scene of the first episode, it was something like I had never seen before. It wasn't just a realistic view of it. It was a view that challenged every single archetype of superhero,

lore, mythology, and legend. And it does it in this sort of unfiltered, challenging, sometimes hard to watch way. And I fell in love with the show immediately. Sometimes hard to watch. Let's start, like, we're going to get to it. This first fucking episode, like I turned that shit on after the,

the Warriors and Celtics game. I'm like, yo, what the fuck is happening, bro? Like, dog, it's too late for this shit. Yeah, they get it off off the jump. It's not. Off the jump. Off the jump. All right.

Spoiler warning. We're getting ready to talk about the boys. You're listening to a reaction podcast. The spoilers are coming. Jomi, how did you first find the boys? Like y'all, man. I just opened up my Amazon Prime. There was like, you got to watch the boys.

I was like, all right, we'll see what it's about. and then once A-Train runs through Robin in the streets and her guts and she's just Huey with just her hands in his hands. I was like, oh, yeah, this is different. I got to see this about. The way they set it up is they gave you every indication that Robin was going to be a long, for a long time of that first scene.

Fucking A-Train, man. We'll talk about him today. We will talk about A-Train. Africa train. Instant reactions. Wait, we're not doing the Midnight Manifest. Oh, oh yeah, excuse me. I'm sorry about that.

Sorry, guys. Before we get into the instant reactions, I didn't know that we were going to do a manifest for three whole episodes, Charles. Arjuna told me, so I was up, I was up late trying to make this coherence. Three episode manifest, Chuck Wagon, take it away whatever you want.

All your need to know. In one shot, the Midnight Manifest, Charles. I'm going to take my headphones off. It's going to be fucking forever. All right. This is the Midnight Manifest for the Boys. First three episodes, Payback, the Only Man in the Sky, and Barbary Coast. Phil Segrisia directs the first two episodes while Julian Holmes directs the third.

And then the first episode Payback is written by Craig Robin Rosenberg. The next is written by David Reed. And then the third is written by Aslon Richardson and Jeff. Are you? All right, so the plot. We begin at release the Snyder Cup parody movie called Don the Seven. Huey and Starlight are officially a couple with Huey working at the Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs with Victoria. Butcher has peed that he now has to go to his protege for permission on jobs, while Mother's Milk has left the superhero hunting game behind to be with his family.

Butcher has Kimiko and French go to a house party to investigate termite, but termite blows a lover's penis straight off and a fight ensues where the boys need to capture him. Meanwhile, Homelander's popularity has taken a hit after his relationship. with Stormfront and he's furious that he's being booked on shows after the deep. At Vot, CEO, Stan has created a new version of Compound V-Cult, Compound V-24, that gives normal humans' powers for 24 hours and he's trying to get a contract from the military. Maeve sneaks three vows of V-24 to Butcher. Stan also appoints Starlight as co-captain to the Seven to combat Homelander's waning popularity, which makes Homelander furious.

Then, Homelander goes to Butcher to complain about the new status quo and how the world thinks they're obsolete and is moving beyond them. an old friend of Victoria then, and Victoria, who's leading the Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs, tries to get Victoria to reveal their past of the world, and Victoria kills him. Huey sees this murder, investigates,

and finds out that Victoria grew up in a group home owned by Vought, that her real name is Nadia, she's the head exploder from last season, and her adopted father is Stan, who is the CEO of Vod. Butcher goes to Mother's Milk for help on finding an old superhero soldier boy, who M.M. has been investigating ever since the hero, murdered his family. Butcher thinks a weapon that supposedly killed Soldier Boy is the key to taking

down Homelander, and after a talk with his former wife, a mother's milk rejoins Butcher. Flash forward to Homelander's birthday, where he's supposed to save a suicide victim from jumping off of a building publicity stunt. When Homelander sees that Stormfront, who's been alive this whole time and giving him ham jobs, committed murder, he snaps. Then Homelander threatens the woman until she falls off the building. Huey tells Butcher about Victoria and Butcher beats up Soldier Boy's former teammate Gunpowder with the aid of compound V-24 until gunpowder reveals their superhero team payback was working with the CIA and Mallory. Mallory reveals to the boys that Soldier Boy and his team payback were sent against her wishes to work with her during the Iran-Contra affair, but they fucked it up and got all her

soldiers killed. Butcher and Ryan have a falling out as Butcher slips further and further back into his old ways. Then Holander fresh off his birthday celebration that has gotten his popularity score back up, proceeds to use his power to get the deep back on this event and start a fake relationship with Starlight 2 controller. And that has been your very long Midnight Manifest for the first three episodes. Daddy. That's a good one, Charles. I tried to keep it short, guys.

There was a luck. Good man. Good man. Good man. All right, Charles. Instant reactions. First three episodes of the boys. I have to say, I was really, really surprised at how tight these first three episodes were

because I think what I didn't really appreciate about the boys until we've kind of gotten this deluge of streaming superhero shows is how much the boys does succeed as a TV show. Every single episode structure-wise is kind of perfect. There's always something that watches you into the next episode. You know what every single character wants. And they're always doing these crazy things like spoiler alert. When, all right, I was disgusted when termite shrinks down and goes into his lover's penis and then like sneezes and explodes.

But I'm like, oh, like, this is only something that the boys can do. And this is something that, like, you're not going to see in any other superhero show. So I was actually kind of, it was really, really refreshing to see a superhero TV show that was taking, that was leveraging the genre of TV. And yeah, I was, I was on board.

What about you, Van? I loved it. So let's talk about like stuff like Termit, night. Wouldn't that happen? If there were superpower beings, wouldn't they accidentally kill more people? You know, the Avengers accidentally kill some people in Africa and it's like a big deal. But wouldn't that happen more often? You know, sometimes I see guys getting fights, they'll throw a human. And I'm like, what if you throw the human too hard and they break their back, snap in half? What if you're turned up? You're having too much fun at a party and you hit somebody. Like, the boys really

gives you stakes. It's a show that makes you feel more human than any other superhero show. To be honest with you, because these other shows want you to believe, this other lore wants you to believe that there are superpower beings who

want to live as us. And they don't feel any superiority over us. Only the bad guys do. Which is not very realistic. You can, you know,

Can I be real? Really quick, Van, did you know that a termite, the termite penis thing, something similar happened in Avengers, in an Avengers comic? No, I didn't know that. You've never seen this Avengers comic.

All right. Type in Jeff Johns, Hank Pim. There was an Avengers issue where Hank, Hank Pim shrinks down and then goes into Janet's private parts in an Avengers comic. And like, I think it had to be like recalled. I remembered this as a kid.

Like, what the fuck are, like, we do it? So this is something. Why did he do that? That's not. That's what's wild. Pleasure. To love it? For love it?

Yeah, for, you know, for a good time. This happened in, I guess this was the days before Disney. This would not happen in the Disney Marvel days. It'd be like, yo, cut this shit. What about, what about a, what about a comic run or a television show called Avengers After Dark? Ooh. You know?

Oh, my God. What about Avengers after dark? You know, Cap looks, he looks at Agent Carter, and he goes, hope you know, I can do this all night. All right. That's enough of that. Next. Whoa. Skip.

Honestly, Cap, Cap going to look at it and be like, damn, you're just like your auntie. And she's like, what? What's going on? That's crazy. Sorry. We need to get back on track. The boys is going to bring it out. We're not going to be able to do this.

Okay, so we jump a year into the future, like Charles said in the manifest, Jomey. Did the year time jump word for you? At this point, Huey has become a bureaucrat. The boys are actually being run by Huey, to be honest with you. They're running them. Like, he's like a CIA guy or a guy, and they're like being handled by him. It's like a weird Kittridge, Ethan Hunt type of situation that's going on there with the boys. And on top of that, M.M.

has gone back and tried to play the family man situation. So a lot's changed in the year that we've been gone. Did it work for you? Yes, I thought it played really well because in the end of season two, we're left with so many in-answered questions. You know, we're left with what is what you're going to do about Homelander's son? What is, you know, what are Huey and the boys going to do now that Homelander is, like, very much aware of their existence?

And so, you know, for them to take on, like, actual capacities within the government makes sense. It protects them from Homelander and they're allowed to continue to do what they got to do. So yeah, it worked perfectly. MM, you know, missing out, you know, suck. Because I, you know, he's one of my favorite characters.

But, you know, eventually get him back. And MM got his wife stolen too. God damn, I felt so bad. It's tough. And you know what made me even more mad because homie, not to jump, like, forward, but homie's like a big, big, like, the seven fan.

So he's like throw. Yeah, he's a vaught free. Like, you know what I'm saying? So he's like throwing like this party for his daughter. And then when Homelanders started saying that like weird speech, did y'all see the white dude? Like, loved it. Like he was like, yeah, I'm plugged in. Like, I was like, goddamn.

Mother'svilleville to handle this shit. Yeah. So Mother's milk is out of the boys to start. We learned that his family was killed by Soldier Boy, who we don't know yet. But we're going to get to know. later on in the season, we get to know them a little bit in these episodes, and that gives Mother's Milk a North Star

to go and rejoin the boys or something to haunt him to put him back in action. Interesting thing about the show, I don't think another superhero show does a better job of giving individual characters their own goals within a collective. Everybody,

is doing what they're doing for different reasons, but for the same result. And I think more than almost any other show, right, more than almost any other show, this show makes a clear dividing line between why each of the characters are doing what they're doing and how they want to do it, but also the fact that they all kind of want to do the same thing,

you know what I mean? So what do we think about Mother's Milk and what? What do you think about the fact that, you know, our brother got his family killed by the Soldier Boy? Wait, can we just, can we be real? Is it weird that we keep saying Soldier Boy? Because every single time they said it on the screen,

I was just like, yo, Soldier Boy's in this? And then I was like, no, stop, Charles. If they were smart, if they were smart, they'd have brought Big Draco in here to let him do a sting. Big Draco and Soldier Boy would be the funniest shit. Ever. If they were smart, they would have brought him in. Big Draco was like, I invented superheroes.

I was the first one. I'm Superman now. The first. Yeah. Yeah. No, but to your point, Van, I actually think that the genius of this show is that

from the first episode, you know exactly what everyone wants. Even though it's a year later, all of them have these distinct desires and it's kind of funny seeing at least the first couple episodes

where everything is kind of thrown on its axis. We've seen Butcher be this bloodlust, like, monster who wants to hunt these superheroes, now have to live in a world where, like, things are safe. And then we have to see Homelander with his back against the wall. And I'm just like, Homelander with his back against the wall is scarier than homelander at the peak of his powers. Like, a desperate homelander is a fucking, like, chilling villain. I got to be honest with you guys

I am terrified of Homelander For real Got of it It like I've been Since the beginning of this show Obviously we've seen

And they're doing They're doing what I'm really during the pandemic What is the name Of the show about the plutonian And he snaps And why can't I remember the name this book. I read it doing

Irredeemable. They're doing Irredeemable, which is a similar story about a bad Superman archetype, which is fantastic. By Mark Wade, yeah. Yeah. And that's coming pretty soon. But this one is different, though. That guy goes completely

bonkers, and they have to team up and, you know, everybody has to go get him. But this story with Homelander, Holmander is like Superman with an evil alter ego, which is so much scarier

than just having a guy be bad. Because not only are you up against him, you're up against the throngs of worshippers who would have you not stop him. If Superman would have to go bad, the entire world goes, hey, Superman fucking sucks. We've seen this in injustice.

And there was a split in injustice, but still, most of the superheroes realized the Superman had to be stopped, right? And they're going to do that. In this situation, Homelander plays nice, and then behind is the most dangerous person, maybe in the entire universe.

It's really, really, really scary. And the things that he makes people do and the way that they're scared of him and the way they feel compelled to. When he made deep eat, the octopus was his friend

and was also masturbating, like having sex and thinking about, was I was just like, this dude never forget. He never forget this. I'd be honest with you. That was a hard scene to watch. Hard.

When he said the octopus was praying as he like chomps down and this ink is, come on, bro. That was, that was tough, but you got at least grilled a homie, you know what I'm saying? Like eating in raw stuff. He made him eat that. Also, can I say this about Homeland or what I think is actually genius? Is that you saw it in last season with Stormfront where Stormfront, obviously, a Nazi. Homelander going along for the ride, but he's like, I don't know if I believe all that.

And I think what they do in this third season, which is so genius, is that Homelander doesn't believe in anything. The only thing that Homelander believes in his power and control, that's all he cares about, even when he's, like, racist or he's, like, saying sexist things or homophobic things, I'm just like, oh, Homelander doesn't believe in any of this. He just wants power over people. He wants to control people.

He wants to get a rise out of people. And that's actually what makes him dangerous. He will do anything to get more power and more control. He's a populist. Yeah. It's just, and that I think he's actually the smartest thing. Because, like, a lot of times when, you know,

you watch, like, Fox News or you read these trolls online, I'm like, you don't even believe what you're saying. You're just trying to get a rise. You're just trying to get a reaction. We're literally trying to start a fire and cause chaos. And, like, seeing someone like that have all. all of the power in the world is so scary because you're like, oh, you don't believe in anything, so you'll do anything.

Right. So I think that history has shown us the specific danger of populism and how it almost always ends in autotocracy and how it can be like specifically dangerous to society. And I imagine if that populist who wants to be, who has designs of becoming. that autocrat is superpowered. Like he realizes what he actually cares about, right?

He realizes it in this season. To your point, Charles, like, before Homelander was going wherever he was loved, Stormfront loved him. Elizabeth's character loved him in the first season, right? He was going wherever he was loved, and he was looking for that because growing up in the vile way that he did, let's face it, he felt cut off from everyone. He felt cut off from anything, and he wanted to.

He says it in this season. He wants to be loved. He wants that. Now what he's realizing is that being what we perceive as his worst self is the way for him to get more love than ever. Like he thought that it was being his fake best self that was going to get him the most love. But now he knows it's actually being the worst public version of himself that's going to make him love. of course he's going to get worse. Of course he's going to be better

because he now has to deny no impulse that he would ever have because he's going to feel like any impulse that he does have, people will go along with it. And I think I know another guy like that. Okay. Yeah, I'm not going to say who it is. But I remember the moment with a president

who's not going to be named where for months and months and months everybody's like, no, there's no way. There's no way he can win. He's terrible. He's doing everything wrong. He's literally his worst self. There's no way anyone will vote for him.

And it's funny seeing this version of Homelander being like, no, there are thousands upon thousands of people who believe in Homelander because they want to be that. They want to be rebels without a cause. They just want to cause chaos. And it's funny seeing like Homelander, this guy being like, oh no, you actually don't really give a fuck about Stormfront. You don't give a fuck about any of that shit.

I think he cared about her, though. I do. I think he cared about her in the way that he cares about all mother figures, where it's like they're just a symbol of something. They're just a symbol of what he does not have. And, like, we think about it, it's kind of rough that she is burnt to a crisp. And all he wants from her is hand jobs.

Well, no, I don't think that, but I really don't think, I don't think that Homelander doesn't love Stormfront. I think he actually does. I really do. I think he actually does. I think she's burnt to a crisp. She offers the hand job, first of all.

But, but. Also, this is no sympathy for Stormfront. Buck Stormfront. Right, right. But it was, but it was a very funny scene when he was asking her what she should do.

And it just, it actually was a, it was almost an endearing scene for Homebender because he's talking to her and she's like, you should lead 100,000, soldiers, Uber Minch. And he's like, no, that's not what I want to do.

I don't care about your shit. Like, no one actually listens to him. It was a relatable moment for Homelander, one of the very few that have happened in the show, but there have been some. Because as powerful as he is, he's just a tool. Not only until he's a child. He's like, he acts like a child.

Yeah, he's just a tool. He's like, he's just a means to someone else's end. And I think what we saw in the episode, we'll come back to his relationship with the seven and the second. is him realizing that and him saying, no, he snapped, he said what he said, and now he's going to be the means to his own end, which is very scary.

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Made to keep up with whatever comes next. New sweetgreen wraps hit different. Order now at order.com. Congresswoman Victoria Newman, the head popper. All right, let's talk about her real quick. First of all, she's very attractive, I had to say. I'm going to say, I'm in love with it. I'm like, you can pop my head in.

First of all, she's very attractive. I was not saying. She's a good-looking lady. That's what I'll say about her. She's nuts. Jomey, like here's the thing, Jomey,

you're chilling in the cut just because your man, Steve left you, like, left you all alone. You know what I'm saying? You were supposed to, like, conquer the world as a minute addition.

And now you, like, you in the lurch. And it's fine, Jomey. Don't take that out on the midnight boys. It's, yeah. Joby. You know me, this is your, this is your opportunity to say, fuck, Steve.

I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. That's my boy. That's my boy. I'm rocking with Steve. Okay, so she came from an orphanage known as the Red River. We as the audience realized that she was the head popper from season two at the end of season two. Qie realizes it, I think, season, episode two here.

Jomi for you. How chilling of a scene was it when Huey follows her old classmate at the Red River and sees her pop his jaw? It was so tough. It was so tough because she starts up with the hand, right? Pops his hand. Well, I'm thinking like, okay, her whole thing is popping heads. Like, that's like the sum total of her power. No, she can, like, locate it.

So she pops his hand off and he's bleeding for the hand. and then she's like, you know, got her knee, she's got her, like, she's over him. And instead of just, you know, popping a man's head off like a normal person, pf, gets him right in the jaw. And you, like, can see, like, all, like, you know, no mouth, but him just, like, trying to speak without, without faculties. And it's, it's rough. It is absolutely rough.

But I think, like, the reaction to her, like, is going to inform the rest of the season. So by her being a soup, right? Huey's just like, yeah, I can't trust her. Like, you know, we're death to all soups, that of all this. But, and we'll see this later, Butcher takes some of that little compound V24 and like has soup powers for a little bit, right? So them immediately looking at Victoria saying, oh, she's a soup, we can't trust her. She's got powers.

How do they then reconcile butcher? getting his own set of powers. I think that is so interesting. I can't wait to see that storyline play out throughout the series. Butcher and let's be real. Not only is Butcher a hypocrite. I think the beauty of this season is how much they draw, a line of like, oh, no, like,

Homelander and Butcher are kind of the same person. Bush is a depowered homelander. For real. Like, if you think about, and this was when I was just like, Is the way that Homelander treats the seven that much different from the way Butcher treats the boys? No, absolutely not.

Absolutely not. Like, I think the beauty of that scene was, how sad is Homelander's life? Where the only person he can go to to metaphorically cry on their shoulder is the person in the world that hates him the most And at that point, Butcher also doesn't have anybody in the world

who really, really can understand him on a fundamental level. And what you realize in that scene is that these two men are out of time. These two men are fighting a war that has kind of, like, that kind of doesn't need to be fought. But when a homelander goes there, I think they're both kind of winking at like, this is the only thing we have left to live for.

one of our ideals will survive this. And I don't care if I have to burn the world to the ground. I will do anything to make sure my ideal comes out on top. And that's, it didn't make me feel good for Butcher. I actually left these three episodes being like, geez, Butcher is fucking evil. Like he's been evil, bro. I'm like, God damn.

It was, it was really tough, you know. And to your point, Charles, they have that conversation in Butcher's department where it's like, homelander's like at the end of day man it's going to be you or me one of us is going to be standing here and the other one's not like and this is like we say at begin this is supposed to be a time of peace this is supposed to be a time everybody's getting along kumbaya but these two guys know no matter what that the only way this ends is it one of them in the dirt that's it but also is it is it a batman and joker thing too where you know the great thing about batman and jokers both of them realize they need each other there's not one of them I don't think Batman thinks he needs the Joker. I think the Joker thinks that he needs to be it. I think Batman wishes that the Joker would stop, bro. I really do. You want to know why I disagree highly?

Why? At any given time, he could do the snap snap and just get the Joker out here. That's not the thing, though. If he snaps to Joker, the only thing that Batman's not afraid of the Joker, right? He's not afraid of the Joker at all. But he's afraid deathly of because, becoming the Joker. So he's way more afraid of becoming the Joker

than he is of being of the Joker himself. So I think the fact that Batman isn't afraid of the Joker is actually not so good for the people of God's obsceney because they're afraid. They're all like, yo, Batman, can you just finish your business? Like, come on, man. They're afraid. This is fair.

I agree with you, Ben. But the one thing that he doesn't, he doesn't, he certainly doesn't. doesn't want to become the Joker. That's his biggest fear. But I'll amend what I said. The Joker knows that they need each other. In this situation, in this situation, I mean, it's actually kind of this, in this situation,

the roles are oddly reversed. Homelander, and we've got to come back to Nadia real quick, there's one more thing I want to touch on, but Homelander is almost like Batman, and in a way, Butchers the Joker, and I'll tell you why. Homelander can kill Butcher when he wants. He can kill him whatever he wants. Like he's like, he can kill, he can kill Butcher like whenever he wants to kill him. He will not kill Butcher.

And you know what? I can make an argument that maybe Joker can kill Batman, but I don't think it's the same. I think he's tried. I think the thing with Homelander is there's two things about Butcher that, that he's enamored with. Number one, Butcher is the only person on earth. besides Stan Edgar and for a different reason who is not afraid of Homeland.

Yes. He is the only person who isn't afraid of him. And because he's not afraid of him, I think that makes Homelander feel human. I think Homelander... There's a level of respect. There's a level of respect.

Yeah. I think Homelander can feel like he's actually a part of something while he's with Butcher because Butcher doesn't give a shit. Butcher... Homelander comes to butcher's place and butcher goes,

just lays me and getting over with. I don't fucking care. Even in the first season, you tried to blow him up, I don't fucking give a shit. And so I think that for some reason that's comforting the Homelander, it makes him feel like he's a part of something.

That's number one. And number two, he was raised for combat. And part of this, Butcher, like the Joker or like Batman, however you look at it, Butcher gives Homelander purpose in a way.

And I think he doesn't feel very much purpose because he doesn't feel, he doesn't feel, any sense of gratification when he saves people. All of that's just for show. So his purpose is probably going back and forth and trying to beat him. All right, let's go back to Nadia real quick.

She's the adopted daughter of Stan Edgar. Does this make her more or less dangerous? More dangerous. Way more dangerous. It's dangerous. They're playing both sides, right? It's like, you know, Palpatine, you know, with Count Duku.

You know, when I play, I'm trying to play both sides, so no matter what, I win. You know what I mean? Like, you just create a conflict and then you try and solve it. I think ultimately what Stan Edgar wants to do is get like he talks to the presidential candidate. It's like, bro,

I'm trying to get out of super heroes, man. Like, I'm not trying to do all this. I want to be a defense and pharmaceutical company. That's where the money is. That's how we get to bread. Forget all this other nonsense. And he's trying to use Nadia or Victoria to meet

that ends by getting like you know but she's in charge of the federal superhero affair so getting all the bad guy or all the bad soups da-da like that's I think that's the angle they're trying to play here so yeah it's way worse that they're in cahoots like that that's bad news for the boys

wait can I be honest with you it does make me feel like she's under control though which I wasn't sure before oh she's definitely understands thumb I also don't know if like, we're going to be honest, if they're looking for a weapon to stop Homelander, I'm like, could Victoria slash Nadia do it?

Blow up his head? Yeah. Probably. Can you blow up the head of somebody who's bulletproof, though? Maybe you can fry from the inside or something. I don't know how that works. I mean, as a brain bulletproof, the skull might be, right? But the brain is.

I don't know if the brain is. I also will say I want to ask. Is Superman's brain bulletproof? No. I don't think so. I think if a bullet hits him, it'll hurt like a mud. Or not like a krynobloot. would hurt, you know.

I think Superman's brain is bulletproof. I'm not going to lie. I don't think Superman's brain. If you could get inside of Superman's brain, remember his eye is bulletproof from the movie, yeah. Remember they shot him in the eye and the bullet? But that's on the outside of the... I always was like, the outside of his skin is bulletproof

because he gets the solar power from the sun. It's soaking up all the batteries. I think his brain is probably more durable, but I don't know if it's like bulletproof because it's not straight solar. power from the sun. Be honest with you. This brings, I think his, I think his brain is bulletproof.

I'll be honest with you. So what you're saying is, if Superman gets shot in the mouth, then he'll die. I'd say he'll die. I think inside of him is tough, but it's not bulletproof. I think if, like, like, if termite snuck down, found his way into Superman's ear and went all the way to his brain, right? And, like, started stabbing his brain with, you know, a little knife, I think, like, that'll kind of I'm going to be honest with you.

I don't think that's going to work on Superman. Okay. I bet you somewhere there's comics canon somewhere that somebody that they've thought about this. I bet you it is. I just like on my own, I don't think that that would work on Superman. I don't think you could go inside of Superman

and then stab his brain. I think that he's made of steel. I'll be honest with you. I actually don't think that's a crazy thing to think. I don't think it's crazy at all. I think it's one of the more fascinating questions I've pondered in my 42 years of life. If that is the case, is everything like, like is his toenails?

How does he cut his toenails? Does he have to use his laser needs? Ah, yeah. He, Superman actually has to shave. Yeah, he has to shave with his head vision, right? Because the hair that grows, you never saw Superman for the Quest for Peace when they have a strand of Superman's hair. First of all, if you guys haven't seen that movie, you should see it.

just for the experience. Mike, can you play our drop for Van's age, please? Jesus Christ. Van is old. Okay. It's Superman 4. Quest for Peace. Okay, I've seen it.

Superman versus Nuclear Man, John Cryer, is in the movie as Gene Hackman's, Lex Luthor's Hinchman. Okay. But the way that they create Nuclear Man is they use Superman's DNA. they take Superman's DNA from a strand of his hair that's at the Smithsonian. They have a strand of his hair holding up like 1,600 pounds. So they have a strand of Superman's hair holding up 1,600 pounds.

Lex Luthor steals that, and then he uses that to make nuclear man. I'm telling you, I think all of Superman's body is like... You're convincing me, but I have a more important question for both you, then Joe Me. How pissed would you be if you were in the world of boys? And the superpower they give you is a head explode. Like, it's like, when am I going to use this? That's great.

That's crazy. That's dope. You can get rid of all. You can get rid of all your enemies without detection. No. Like, I'm a sick enough dude to use it. It's too traumatic for me. Like, think about it.

If you can fly, I'm like, oh, no, flying is like fun. I can show it with my friends. Like, I can't be at like a party and be like, hey, you want to see me like pop this motherfucker's head? I mean, nah, that's not your goal. Yeah. That's not your thing. You know what I'm saying?

You know, like, that's not what you do. So y'all would be fine with it. I mean, I wouldn't be fine with it. I probably would probably would never use it. I would threaten to use it, though. You know, at the cheesecake factory, I'd be there like, I'm at the cheesecake factory. I'm like, yo, could you please bring the calamari out?

And I would just use a little bit of it, just give you a headache. See that shit? Well, yeah, remember his nose was bleeding. You know what I'm saying? Before. And he knew. Homie knew. Once his nose would bleed, he was like, ah, fuck.

You got to tease him. He's done. He's a stupid bastard. Okay, Ryan and Butcher. We see Ryan again, a little scamp. What a little scamp, Ryan is. He is a scamp. He's a superpowered scamp.

Butcher actually has a soft side, and it surprises everyone. He ends up fucking up. But what do you think the relationship between Ryan and Butcher signifies about the character? I think it is very interesting. And this is why, you know, generally when they introduce a kid on a show, you're like, oh, man, you have to deal with this fucking kid now. You know what I mean? But seeing Butcher and Ryan together, you have to think of like the level of sacrifice that it takes.

Because this is the son of his enemy. This is the symbol of something that robbed him of the life that he wanted with his wife. And to see that the love that he has for him, I actually thought was beautiful because it shows, I think the reason Busher loves Ryan, I think he actually does love him, it's because Ryan is broken, just like him. Brian has, think about it,

Butcher's relationship with his father is fucked up. Everybody, like, he's, the CI handler uses against him. He's just like, you're your father now. And I think Butcher sees himself in Ryan. He's just like, oh, no, you're like me. You have a father who was like, like a capital A asshole and you don't know what to do with it

I'm going to try to be different which makes when like Bushers finally like mean to Ryan I'm like Ryan I wouldn't even hold you up if you just did a little pop pop and just like laser off maybe a finger just to show him like yeah respect game you know what I mean Ryan is scary too

Ryan's scary's fuck what he's holding him but he let go and he's like nah I'm like hey man right I mean I'm thinking to my God what what can you do if he decides he's not going to let go. It's like that kid Anthony from the Twilight Zone who can do whatever has the whole town shook. You know what I mean?

It's like, what can you do? He can do whatever he wants. I was thinking to butcher, like, why are you fucking with this little dude? Like, when you, we're doing bright burn? You ever see bright burn butcher? The kid went nuts. Killed the whole town. Like, let, man, bring Ryan some my little pony stuff.

Keep this kid docile so that maybe one day he'll be a good person. but he can smell the V-24 in Butcher's brain and he can hear that his heart is beating fast. Do we think that Ryan is as strong or going to be as strong as Homeland? Absolutely. I think if we're going to be real, I think by the end of this season,

Ryan's going to have to hop in and save Butcher from Homelander. I don't think he's got the strength right now. I think Holander's way too strong for him right now. I don't think it's that he has the strength. But I think it's that like Ryan, like Ryan can get busy. Maybe he can't beat Homelander, but I think he's at a point where he's like, he can be annoying. Oh man, the Holander loves him.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I don't think Ryan could go toe to toe with Homander clearly. But when you got like, you know, even if Homelanders off his rocker, I don't think Homelander's dude's going to like hit his son. He wants his son to love him. He wants his son to care for him. But I'll put it to you this way. does like we can't think of Ryan

like Ryan's like a kid but like you know your dad like do you get to a teenager you're like man I think I could like take my dad like if I've really really tried and then they pull out the dad strength and you're like fuck he's still stronger than me I think like Ryan might have like that teenager kind of like strength where he's just like

I could get like a few in like you're gonna mess me up but I can like get a few in you know what I mean? Be honest what you mark that Mark thought that oh man kicked his fucking ass yeah you're right You're right. Mark thought that Omni Man

kicked his ass and a lot of people die. Because Mark challenged Omneman. Omneman. Omniban was just killing random people for no reason. Homelander or Omneman. Bad day to take the train. How bad day to take the fucking train, Jomey. Homelander and Omni Man, who's scarier?

Basically the same character. Homelander is scarier. Omneman would win in a fight. Yeah. You think Omneman? Yeah, Omneman probably strongly. I think they did a video on this, the Death Battle people. And it was like, they did.

They did. And like, I mean, I read the, I read the comics. So, like, I knew, I knew what was different with Omneman. I was like, Omni Man's got this in a sweep. And, you know, not to spoil it, but Omni Man is a terrifying, like, scary human being. Or not human being. He's a Viltramite, but I would not, I would not want to smoke in a fight. How do you think the boys are going to react when they find out that Butchle used V-24?

like some bitches like that like that like that like that like that like that like what should be talking

to him motherfucker is crazy bro that's nuts that's nuts like oh

oh ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha oh like like here's the thing and here's the thing

this is what makes me mad like Frenchie is my favorite like of the boys Frenchie is my favorite. Right.

Putscher stroves up. He's like, yo, call your girl. He's like, what for? Don't fucking worry about a caller.

And I'm like, Frenchy, like, you got Kimiko right here. You could tell Kimiko fuck Butcher up. French, he's just like,

all right. Like, we are sure. Like, like, butcher be talking to them wildly. Like, Mother's milk could

fuck up, butcher if he really wanted to in a fight. Shit. And the comic books definitely because Mother's milk was a super. So,

My question is why do they let butcher talk to him? Talk to them like that. I mean, it's a, I mean, I'm sure there's deeper, you know, he's their leader. Relationships and they got connections. Ultimately, though, and I mentioned this when I was talking about, when I was talking about earlier, I think there's going to be a reckoning for Butcher. I think they're going to be like, yeah, you can't be acting like this with this, bro. You're not going to use the V24 and talk to us any which way, bro.

Like, you can't have both. Pick one, right? You know what I'm saying? Or like, we've had enough. You know what I'm saying? You saw it with Frenchie. Frenchie was like Kimiko and French.

You're trying to like have a good conversation and get out. Mother's smoke is like already got like one foot out. And here we are, you know, had another gig was chilling, was living his best life. So ultimately they're going to look around to be like, we don't need,

we don't need this, man. Had to come back. Every which way, you know. We'll see. Can I also just say really quick because you said Kim and Co. Karen, who plays Kim and.

Coe was beautiful. It's just like distractingly so. Y'all are just it's just distracting. It's distracting. I just wanted to say. It's like appreciating other human beings. Jomey,

you're the one. You're the one making it into something that's not. Jome, don't take it out on us because your boy left you. Like, come on, man. I won't say, though, she's great because, like, that actress is great.

Because not only was she in, um, suicide squad. She was, uh, you know, this is, uh, you know, the sword, the sword, the sword traps the solo.

Katana. Katana. This is Katana. Yeah. That was her. She's also, I don't know, I'm about really about to out myself. She is, she plays one of the princesses in Shira, Princesses of Power, right? And I had no idea.

She's got like a soft, lovely voice. You wouldn't know. Jomi. Jomi. You wouldn't know. You was fucking with Shira, bro? Bro. Let me tell you something.

I'll put it on the record, bro. I was watching it. I was watching it. Oh, wait, on Netflix? On Netflix. It's a good show. Don't hate. It was a good show.

Fine. Let me tell you, let me tell you, it's time for one of old man Vans' tales. Drop the fucking thing. Drop it. Drop the thing. Man told you a story. All right. So the year is 1986.

God damn. Damn. The year is 1986. Van's mother, the beautiful Crystal Lathan. is trying to get him to go to a birthday party in Dallas, Texas. We had left. There are two times in my life that things got so fucked up in Louisiana. The economy was so bad that we left Louisiana, we moved.

Once we moved to Texas when I was in the first grade, we lived in Dallas, and then the second time, we moved to California, and we stayed there two years. We came back in Louisiana, came back in the seventh grade, and stayed in Louisiana for the rest of the time. But my father was a contractor, rest of peace, dad. And so sometimes the economy in Louisiana would be so bad. that they were like, let's try Dallas, let's try California, we'll move out there, right? Anyway, so we're in Dallas.

I don't know anyone. I have, I don't know anybody, right? So my mom wants me to make friends with the kids, because I'll be honest with you, I didn't really, I didn't really take to the Texas kids as much. It was, you go to an assembly, they sing deep in the heart of Texas all the time. They had hats and their little bandanas. and Texas is a totally different culture from Louisiana. And they talk funny.

They'd say like over her, over there. And I was, I was having trouble adjusting even as like a six-year-old kid. Like, I was already that Louisiana. So my mom was like, you have to go to this party. I want you to go to this party and meet other kids. And her friends were actually the mothers that were having a party. Really what happened is she had made some friends. And because she had made some friends, she wanted to hang out with them.

and so she wanted to hang out there but she wanted me to come she didn't have child care, cool. So my mother tells me oh by the way because these are when they deal when they do birthday parties

at McDonald's, they don't do this anymore. They used to do this. You have your birthday party at a McDonald's and they actually eat like a McDonald's cake that would come out and they would have a fucking Ronald McDonald's weird guy

probably some 35 year old Vietnam vet will come out be Ronald McDonald or something like that. So like what I'm saying? What I'm saying is we don't treat our veterans right. We need to treat them better. All right.

So we get there, right? But we're on the way there. My mother says, hey, I didn't tell you something. This is going to be a he-man party. And I'm like, what? And she's like, yeah, yeah. This is a he-man party. It's going to be he-man-themed.

They got he-man, all of this stuff. And I'm like, oh, shit. I don't even know what a he-man party means. When I get there, are they going to give me, like, clothes to dress up like I'm he man? Wait, were you going to give me a sword, right? Fucking right. I had not only was, I was not just a fan of he man. I had a full staged castle gray school and Snake Mountain, Snake Mountain over here, gray skull over here, everybody set up and you couldn't touch it. I didn't even play with it. I just had them all. My dad used to be like, what is wrong with this boy?

I would have them right there and just tell people don't touch it. Snake mound over here. Grace Cole over here. We're going, right? Okay. So, we, I get to the party. There's no He-Man. It is all Shira. It's a totally Shira party. Not a, not a stitch of He-Man.

It's Shira, Shira, Shira, Shira. the party is for a little girl and she loves Shira. It's Shira themed everything. I saw maybe one member of the Horde and I was like, oh, oh, let me hold on to this. The whole thing was Shira.

And I got a whooping. Let me tell you why I got a whoop. The pictures are still out here or something like that. I got a whoopin because I refuse to participate. I'm not, I did not want a Shira party. They gave me a piece of cake. I threw it. You threw the cake?

Yeah, they gave me a piece of cake. You were a dramatic as hell, man. They gave me a piece of cake. I didn't want the cat. I was crying. Like, they gave me a piece of cake. I threw the piece of cake. My mother's like, man, what is wrong with you?

And I'm like, you say it was going to be even. And then I caught a whooping. I caught a whoopin because she made me go to a party. I didn't want to go to misled me about the theme of the party. And because a six-year-old child, a six-year-old child didn't react in the proper way. I got a who. She set me up to fail. That's why it's fuck

Shearer forever. Van, throwing the cake is wild though. Like it's wild. That's tough. I was a baby. You mean eat the cake? It's still cake. I would have been mad about it. Come on. I was mad, bro. I was like crying and blubbering. There were people that that would say, I'm not trying to be a jerk about this.

But there were people that said that were asking if I needed special care in school because I was putting up that type of situation. I'll never forget this Shira party. I can't, you guys, I can't describe to you, we have to get back to the boys. The moment of disappointment

is one of the defining moments of my life when I walked in there and I saw all these little girls acting like Shira. And I'm like, were there any boys at the party who were also like, uh, this is a he meant. There was maybe one or two other boys. And they was on the Shira shit.

They was like Jomey. And so, I honestly, I would have been one of those boys because I was a sandwich. Moon kid. I was just like Sailor Moon. There's nothing wrong with any of this, by the way. I'm not saying that they always got to be macho and like he man. What I'm saying is

I liked He-Man. I wasn't fucking with She-Rer right. I'm like that. You want to know what it is. It's like your mom saying that you're going to go like to an Iron Man party. Iron Man party. Iron Man party. And then little Jomey shows up and it's like a Captain America party. You're just like, God. No. The whole party is rescue.

You know what I mean? You would definitely deceived. You're definitely deceived, but Karen plays glimmer, and it's like, it's night and day from her performance on the boys. It's like so incredible. Y'all should watch, she were pictures of power. I'm gonna watch

it. I cried. The last episode, I cried. I'm not going to confirm my trauma. Wait, Van, Van, really quick. So we can get this train, no pun intended back on tracks. Back on tracks. You host higher learning. I wanted to talk to you, Van, as, you know, an ambassador to all of us,

you know, a leader in the black community. How does a feel that it's been a it's been a rough week for umar johnson and it's been a rough week for a train oh my god a train we got to talk about it we got to talk about it he's going out sad he got the when you said lamar johnson when you said lamar johnson i'm assuming you were talking about lamar jackson no i said umar umar johnson oh i thought you said lamar johnson it's been a rough week for dr umar got cut out because here's the thing you want to know what made it rough the photo made it rough i went to temple university I went to Cherry Hill Mall.

I'm like, dog, they cause you slipping at Cherry Hill Mall, bro. Cherry Hill Mall. Come on, bro. This fucking nasty. Here's the thing with A-Train. And now we have to talk about the rest of the seven and what they're going through. Here's the thing with A-Train. You can go so far that you can't come back.

It happened. Like, we're not, we're not, we not. Well, seriously, they could cast Omarosa in black. Panther. We're not taking their back. You chose your side. You know what I'm saying? Like, you know what I'm saying? The only way you could come back is if you're super dope. Like we would take Tiger Woods back.

If I'm telling you straight up, if Russell Wilson and Sierra get a divorce, God forbid, and the Tiger Woods like marry Sierra, he's back. He's back because he left us and he's so dope we would take him in a second. But you really got to be dope. If Tiger Woods showed up in a fucking Drake. music video. We'd be like, all right, come on. Tiger Woods, we're waiting for him to come back. A-Train

is not so dope that we have to have him. He don't run anymore. He should have thought about that. He don't run anymore. A-Train was whack when he was running. Let's be clear. Yeah. I'll also be like, let's be real. All right. This is how I knew A-Train was lost.

My man had a video game called The Middle Passage. Like, we got, come on. I have never laughed so hard. It better have been a black writer in that writer's room because they definitely came up with that shit. I was like, I was like, is that a video game

about the Atlantic slave trade? And I lost it. Rough. I lost it. Bro. Okay, so we're not going to do this. We're not going to do this. I did think about the game for a second.

Like what? Yeah. Okay. I didn't think. It was for a second, I was like, is this like a fucked up Oregon trail? Like, we can't, it's okay. Only we can make these jokes,

okay? Steve doesn't show up for one episode. Yeah, only we can make these jokes. That's not funny. Our ancestors went through a lot. Oh, my God. O'I. Ours, not Jommies.

But our ancestors are like, our ancestors went through a lot. This episode is brought to by Whole Foods, Market. Spring is here, so celebrate it with fresh, juicy, seasonal produce and some very tasty limited time flavors. New Whole Foods, Market Peach, Apricot, Rose, Italian soda. Perfect for a picnic or brunch, as is their trending mango, Yuzu chantilly cake. But if you're on the go, new 365 strawberry pretzels make a great sweet snack. That sounds delicious. Get savings with yellow sale signs storewide and everyday low prices on 365 brand items.

Enjoy the fresh flavors of spring. Save at Whole Foods Market. Hold on, guys. I got a small surprise real quick. Hold on for a second. Hello? What's going on? I just want to say something real quick.

I'm calling somebody real quick. This is a friend of mine. I have a one speaker. His name is Las Alonzo. You might know him as Mother's Milk from the Boys. Wow. Wow. Wow.

My dude, what's popping? What's popping, man? I'm not going to hold you too long. I know that you're busy, but I just wanted to call you and tell you that we're really enjoying the third season. Sometimes I'll be watching the show and I'll text last in the middle of watching the show

and be like, God damn, he'll be like, just wait. Just wait. So I only got one question for you. On a scale of 1 to 10, how crazy is this season of the boys going to get? This season is definitely a 15 to a 20. I mean, it's the first opening five minutes where they went with it. And they're holding nothing back.

Like, we literally went, we went social issues all the way down to body crevices. We held nothing back this season. Yeah, no, we went all out. I was concerned, like, from season two, I was like, ain't nowhere in the world we're going to be able to top it. We topped it a few times. Like, it's probably about, I would say, this season, we have at least three episodes that could qualify for season finale-worthy episodes.

Like, that's how big they are. Damn. Damn. And Mother's Milk is going on a whole journey this year, right? So this season is great for Mother's Milk, man, because it's his backstory. Like, we finally going to see why his name is Mother's Milk. Who named the Mother's Milk?

His whole, like, origin story is going to happen this season. And it ties in with the theme of the season and everything that's going on. I mean, you'll see very early on as the season begins, you know, Mother's Milk is in his happy place. You know, he's quit the boys. He's at home with his daughter. He's a, he's a, he's a girl dad, you know, living the dream. You know, and that was really like me and Kripke's goal was to show a black father present in his black boy's life. Like, one of the things that this show does very well is it break stereotypes. And it highlights, it highlights social commentary that needs to be. be addressed. And in Mother's Milk story, one of the social commentary that we made very, very pertinent in his active day-to-day life and story is being a black father and being present in his

daughter's life. And when he's not present, what it does to his mental health. Mental health is a huge, is a huge theme this year with Mother's Milk as well. You know, we need to have that conversation as far as black men is concerned and the stigmas that we have accepted. along with it that should not be there. And man, you know, I pulled my heart into it, man. I think you're going to like it. I know I'm going to love it, brother. I'm not going to hold you.

I asked you if I could call you. You said, yes, we are loving this show. You know how much I love it. I basically forced last to be my friend because I love the boys so much. Hey, you stuck with me now, man. So we're in. You're one of the boys, too. Oh.

Mother's milk needs some boys, man. So we're going to have to figure this thing out, man. You might need to start taking some acting lessons, bro. I might, bro. I will. The whole midnight boys might pop up on there, man. All right, brother. I'm going to go ahead and let you go.

Thank you for the, thank you for accepting the call, my brother. Of course, man. Peace. That was awesome. That was awesome. He's just like, you know. Big time. Hollywood.

Big time. Wait, can we actually talk about something that he said really quick that I actually loved about Mother Smell? Sure. He sees it. He's dad. I do think it was so powerful that, like, Mother's Most family is so supportive of him. Like, this ain't no like Tyler Perry movie.

Like, shout to Tyler Perry. Nothing wrong with him. But, like, no, like, he really does go back to his wife. And he's like, it's tough. Like, I'm going through these things. Like, I'm taking more medication. Like, I can't, like, what am I going to do? And she's like, yo, you need to go handle business.

You need to go, like, on this journey. When he, like, freaks out in front of his dad. daughter, his daughter hugs him. And I'm like, oh, like, that was so fucking heartwarming. That's a great scene. They could have gone anyway with that scene, but seeing like not only his former wife, but his daughter kind of like stand by him and understand like, oh,

he's been through so many things. We need to like embrace him and love him. I'm just like, oh, shit. Like, they're finally kind of giving mother's milk more to chew on in this season, which I love. You know what? We never really talk about it because the show is so, uh, audacious and

you know, it's so, there's so much spectacle, but this is really one of the best act that shows on television. Oh, yeah. Mother's Milk kills it in that scene,

but Homelander nails a roll, starlight nails a roll. The Deep is hysterical. You know what I mean? Which brings us to talking about the seven. Okay. Homelander threatens to end the world. Starlight

Threatens Homelander With the Flight 37 video After Homelander brings the deed back into the 7th Homelander threatens to end the world I think that's a good place To start with the examination of the 7 and who they are as they relate to Homelander They're not just afraid of what he'll do to them

Some of them including Starlight Are afraid of what he'll do to other people. He treats them like hammered shit. He makes fun of A-Train's way. A-Train went to shake-shack. Also, like, when he was making fun of A-Train, I'm like, dog, A-Train looking fine. Like, you got to relax my man. He just wants a shake-shack. A-Train with the Shake-Shack. He made the Deep eat one of his own friends. Not only one of his friends, one of his lovers. One of his lovers, right? So the only thing that really humanizes the seven or makes us feel it all bad about them is the fact that Homelanders shits on them. Other than that, they're pretty much besides Starlight, I guess, I guess A train is coming around now.

But they're all assholes. No, Starlight's the ops. Starlight's the feds, if we're going to be real. Really? Interesting, Charles. How so? I, if there's any, if there's like any type of like, I don't know, like where this character is going. because I feel like it's kind of a betrayal of the character.

It is Starlight, where at the, like, in season two, Starlight's finally getting around to, like, this is fucked up. Everything that I believed in is wrong. Oh, my, like, what am I doing? In this season, in the first three episodes, I'm like, yo, are we really putting Starlight through this again? Like, there has to be some common sense here. There has to be some common sense here. like you were out.

Like, why would you ever be next to Homelander again? You know he's like, doesn't have all of his marvels. Why would you take the co-captain job? You know for a fact this is a setup. Like, why would you keep making these decisions? Like, all of the decisions she makes, like, I feel bad for her as a character. But I was like, why did you think you could change? Like, you know what this is like?

No, I could change the police. Your homie's like, nah, I could change the police from the inside. I'm like, dog, come on. The whole barrel's bad. one good apple ain't changed you Well it's a very astute observation to be honest Yeah I first I was like what do you mean

But I kind of see what you're saying But I think there is value in having somebody In the seven like on the boys right She is like an unofficial member Name the value name the value What's she doing? What she brings up? I don't think Starlights are the boys She's not like she don't slip Huey information

Like they don't work together Oh you said the boys I thought you said the seven I would tell you why didn't she just join the boys Why didn't she just join Butcher? I think part of it is like she has Intel like her being like on on that level you know she knows things she hears things she can feed Intel to Huey Hughie he can feed it to Butcher I think I think that's how it works you know when he they all had like the CIA job But now that that's becoming a little unnerved I think part of it just like shooting it to to Huey and the boys and butcher like hey but this is what's going on over a thought may've run up more numbers in starlight she's she's slipping like compact v24.

She's like, AAA, this shit's happening. She's the one at the end of season two. She's like, yo, I got this video. Like, Starlight really ain't doing shit. She's up there, like, singing and dance. I'm like, yo, like, come on, Starlight.

And that point, I can't refute. That's a good point. I'll be honest with you. So here's a difference. Number one, I don't think Maeve's going to survive this season. No, not at all. I don't think she will. Pack watch.

No, like, packwatch for Maeve. Sure. Number two, I think Starlight is a little torn here. Starlight wants to be a hero, and she still thinks that there's a world where she can be. And she probably thinks that if Homelander is gone, that she could change Vaught, that she could change Vaught America, that she could change the entire superhero game if they just get rid of Homelander. She probably thinks that he cast such a large shadow over the entire thing that

helping to get rid of him is actually helping her to be a better hero and the hero she thought she wanted to be. Also, I think that's why Soldier Boy coming into the season is going to be very important because Soldier Boy might prove to her that the root of the tree is diseased and there's nothing that she can do to save it because he's an asshole too. I mean, I think the whole theme of this season is, you know, what happens when oppression, what happens when corruption is systematic.

We have three generations now. We have Soldier Boy, who was the prototype for Homelander. We have Homelander, and now we have Ryan. There's always going to be another person. There's always going to be another cis white man with too much power. And no matter how much you like, be like, damn, if we just get rid of Homelander, everything will be good. You're like, no, because you have Ryan here.

and Ryan has this fucked up childhood like what are the chances that he's going to end up some semblance of okay as an adult probably really really thin and Vought will keep chugging along because like

no one's going to attack Vot Vot is too large Vot the reason that they have these superheroes is because they're symbols it's way easier to attack the symbol than to attack the root cause of the problem and that's what I actually think the genius of the season is because it makes

Butcher's whole fight. I'm like, Butcher, you're an idiot. Why are you even fighting a homelander? Homelander's not even the issue at this point. There's going to be another homeowner. They will create another homelander. Like, what the fuck are you doing? What kind of shows do you think, come on, Votsol?

Did y'all catch that? I did. Yes, I did. Votsol and Vaughamundo? Vottomundo. Vottomundo. Vottomundo. Why would it be vaudeau?

Why would it be vaudeumundo? That's not what it would be. Like, why would it be, why would it be Vardomundo, like, Vaux? What kind of shows you think, come on, Votsol? You don't think A-Train could get his middle passage documentary made on Votso? I think, like, A-Train's probably had, like, flavor of A-Train where you, like, you know, everybody's like, who's going to see? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

You know what I'm saying? Do you think they got a 106 in Park on Votsol? Probably, like, a superhero hosted music show, because, you know, the superhero. I didn't know that the superheroes was. doing music. We got Supersonic and I'm not going to lie, bro. His little song. His little song

is hot, bro. I'm like, I'm like, I'm going to fuck with that song. There's a weird line in the song that says, like, if you're 16. Oh, that's where I was like, what? Did I hear that right? There's a weird line in the song. It was like, how's the song go? You can drive my car or something like that

or like, well, what's the name of the song? What's the name of supersonic song again. I thought I heard it so many times. I do not know. So you got your license to drive is the song. It's about sex, but he qualifies it if you're 16. Is this the Olivia Rodriguez of like the boys universe?

Hell no. What are you talking about? Olivia Rodriguez. Why would you say something like that? Because they're the same song. No. Driver's license and this one? Driver's license slap, bro. This song don't slap like that, bro. This song is kind of hot. I'm not going to lot.

I kind of fuck with it. Okay, so got to get to payback real quick. We've basically covered everybody that's in the seven. We've talked about the deep. He's in the situation. He's got his movie coming on. Wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Before we get to pay back, we got to be real about the deep.

Did his girl set him up? I don't think she said him up. No, I think she set him up. How? All right. So the Deep is having sex with his girl from the cult. He's like looking at the octopus in the tank. She's jealous of the octopus.

And I think she's jealous of the octopus. And I think Homelander does what he does every single time, which is like he wants to find a woman, preferably someone who's not his, and use her to his own ends. And I think she was just like, hey, yo, look, you could do me this little favor. You know what I mean?

Take this octopus out. Because here's the thing, the octopus is the side chick, which is wild. You know what I mean? File this. File this. If we come back to it, It turns out, I'm not so sure about this, but it's a good theory. Unlike the colors of magic in Marvel.

Okay. Oh, right. One thing we, I don't think we touched on, hashtag homelight. Well, we did touch on it. Yeah, we talked about the fake relationship with hashtags. No, we did. Not really in deep, not in depth, though. Like, brought it up.

Anyway, but here's the point, though. What do you guys think about it? Like, she, hashtag HomeLight is becoming a thing. To me, I actually don't understand. the move actually. Oh, it's a power move. It's to keep her like in line, keep her in control.

If they're supposed to be like dating, right, that means he's, they're always together. So decide, she can't while out. She can't be, you know, trying to do her start light thing, whether that's within the seven, trying to be her own hero

or with Huey and the boys. Like, nah, you're with me now. But why would I tag along when I do that? Why would them dating change that? He already threatened her with destroying the earth. It's because also you have to, a dick. Like, it's really what it is. But you also have to think what he did throughout these first three episodes, which I think is so smart that they release him, is that he's trying to find

every hero's weakness on the seven. For A-Train, it's his weight. It's the fact that he can't race anymore. He's saying, like, yo, when are you going to race? When are you going to race? He knows what to do to control him. Same thing with the deep. He knows, like, hey, if I want to get the deep, where I want him, I'm going to make him eat his friends and make him so traumatized that he will fall in line. And for sadly, and it's not my favorite trick that they do on the show, I was a little like, can we give Starlight something else? Because I don't like what this says about like female characters in these shows, but like for Starlight, it's putting the deep back on the team, traumatic, and then saying like, hey, we're going to be in a relationship together. You're going to literally

be in a relationship with your abuser. Like, Homelander has physically assaulted her before, threatened her before. And this is his latest, like, no, you thought, like, the deep was the problem? He is, but I'm the bigger problem, which, like, leaves me in a weird place where I'm just like, can we do something else with Starlight? That actress is so good. I'm like, it makes you feel icky. Like, I don't know about this.

I get it. I get it. I don't like, yeah, I don't like it. I don't like it either. I don't like that the thing with the deepest play so casually in the show. I thought it was an interesting move and an interesting timing when the show first came out, but I feel like it's a little nasty now. Obviously, it's supposed to be a little nasty.

I'll tell you this, though. The only pushback I give you guys on now, Starlight, is that he's already threatened Starlight. Starlight's not doing anything that she's not under Homelanders control, in my opinion, at least, because of the deep being back in the seven or because of their fake relationship. She pulled out her nuclear option on him, and he went above that. So what she's doing, the way that Homeland is controlling her

is by threatening not her or her reputation, by threatening the world. So I'm interested in the reason that he's doing it, and I'm also interested in the reason that she is playing into it, right? I'm interested in both of those to kind of figure out maybe she's trying to keep him close or to give him what he wants so she can figure out a way to get him what he's trying to do to her. He's just maybe fucking with everyone.

I think that was a very interesting development right now. Wait, let me pitch you on something real quick because you said something that I think, I'm not saying I co-sign any of this, but character-wise. We start the third episode with her basically performing this Britney Spears song. And you realize that she's performing the song for her mom.

Her mom says, like, no, pain is just blah, blah, blah, blah, all this stuff. If we take that, the beginning and the end, when she was a child, Starlight is performing for her mom. because she needs to provide for her mom. She knows being a superhero will give her a better life. She's sacrificing some part of herself for this greater good

and performing in front of these judges in front of the world. Now she's on the seven. Think about it. When Homelander threatens her, she's doing the same thing. She's joining the pageantry of this relationship because she's like, if I don't, if I don't perform, he's going to destroy the world. Like this is the same thing where it's like her mom in the past is now the world. The greater good is like if I don't play into Qie before that is like you've got to play along a little bit.

Like it's a very toxic male thing of being like expecting this woman to carry the burdens of the society that she did not create and she shouldn't have to. And that's what I think the show is trying to say. Well, that makes a lot of sense. I'm with that. All right. Lastly, payback, the Avengers of this world. The Avengers of this world, don't give them that credit. Avengers and four.

They are. The Avengers? The Payback are the Avengers of this universe. You guys, the name is Payback. No, the Avengers, they're led by Captain America. They are. No, I'm more so saying in terms of just like what they can accomplish, they, like, payback. That's not it.

It's not it. Terrible. What the fuck are you guys talking about? Like what I'm, all I'm saying is there are the Avengers. There's the fucking seven is the Justice League. And payback are the Avengers. You're being literal.

You're being literal. And I'm telling you that if you were to compare it, actually compare payback to Avengers, I got the Avengers in a sweep winning every game. The Avengers would beat the shit out of them. By 80. But that's because they're a parody of them. Come on, guys.

God damn it. God damn it. All right. So they were the seven before the seven. We now got a, we got a fucking terrible scene. We have a flashback. Back to the San Deneas.

We got Oliver North involved here. We got some deep 80s political shit. We got the Cold War involved. We got the United States and the Iran-Contra situation happening down there. Putting Coke. It's the fucking black. Guyana. They were just, I'm watching this with Kalika.

Calika's like, why are they just, why are they acting like this? Like, like, wait, can I be real? Can I be real? Gunpowder's killing up, people shooting them up. The Russia's attack, Soldier Boy is a dick. He's unhinged, maybe more unhinged in a way than Homelander. Was the, was the, the whole contra of it all. I'm like, dog, why is this snowfall?

Why am I watching snowfall? Well, no. I thought it was cool. Like to the point where they stopped, like they, you know, in the episode, Mallory is like, hey, listen, we were told to only sell exclusively to minority neighborhoods. No coke for the white folks. I was like, that's what, hey, man. I don't know.

I don't know the racial makeup. That's what Reagan was doing. I don't know the racial makeup of the room. But like, if it was a white writer, I could just imagine me like, we got them with this one. This is, this one's going to heat the black community. This is the one right here. See, see, I'm going to be honest with you. I'll be honest with you.

They'll be honest with you. You niggas is never satisfied. I'll be real with you. They talking about the shit. They got it on the show. Oh, my God. And now you're saying it bothers you. It was like, it was like, I never forget when Linda Hoff and them did watchmen.

And it was with the Tulsa thing. One of my homies called me up. It's like, man, why we got to talk about the Tulsa massacre in the superhero show? I'm like, if you don't get your dumb ass off my phone, we should talk about it on everything. And we should talk about it, talk about it, talk about it, on everything. And if, in fact, which we know, the CIA was injecting drugs into black communities in the A's on purpose to fund a war, then yes. We should discuss it as much as possible. Charles.

That's history right there, brother. I didn't say it's not. I was just like, this ain't an episode of snowfall. Can we get back to business? Damn. All right.

Black noir. We saw Black Noir without his mask. Departure from the comic book. From what I understand of Black noir in the comic book, he is a clone of Homelander. in the comics yeah. In the comics, yeah, but in this one, he is not.

No. He looks like a clone of Dampson Idris, maybe. We're talking about snowfall here. And we see how he got scarred. Just an awfully tough scene to watch. That whole scene when we meet payback, on a scale of, on the a boy scale, how tough of a watch was that?

it's under the it's under penis gate but it's right it's right up there in terms of like this third season because goddamn because you knew

what was going to go bad when homie started flying in the air and then like once like once Mallory's one of Mallory's homie comes up

it's like blah blah I was like gosh shit all right this is this is this is gonna be nuts also soldier boy

a little bit of a dick a lot of bit of a dick if we're gonna be real get them out of here He got to ask. That's actually how Captain America would be acting for being real. Oh, don't get.

Like that. Leave Steve Rogers. Leave Steve Rogers out of this. I like that agenda. I like that agenda. We're going to write that down. We're going to keep that one. That's good.

So obviously, we know Soldier Boy isn't dead. Or is there a chance that he is dead? He's not dead. He's not dead. He don't get jet in the flashbacks for that. He's, come on, man. He's a lot. Come on, he's a lot.

He's a lot. How do you think Soldier Boy's reemergence? Soldier Boy, who is the mascot for the group of people who now follow Homelander, right? The group of people who now follow a homelander, your Rust Belt, or whatever, not to diss everybody in the Rust Belt. We know what you mean, man. We know what you mean. The people that follow him, Soldier Boy is even a better example of all of that stuff. Gunpowder was at the NRA meeting.

So Soldier Boy is even a better example of that. Is there going to be something between Soldier Boy and Homeland later on in the season, you think? Gotta be. Like, that's got to be, like, one of the crucial tenets of the season, right? When Soldier Boy comes back, and if he comes back, he's like, yeah, I'm soldier boy, like, what are we trying to do here? People are like, oh, yeah, that's the OG.

Why would we rock with the fake when the OG's sitting right here? That puts a dent in Homelanders' new style. And maybe he has to come as knocking on the boys, can I get some help. You know what I'm saying? How's Mother's Smoke goes? How's Mother's Milk goes? I'm not going to feel about that.

Listen, you got to do what you got to do. If Mother's Milk really want to get the job done, and Homeland is offering your services, bro, like how deep are you willing to sacrifice, you know, to get the job done? I'm interested to see where that leads. Charles, Charles doesn't like it. We asking the black man to sacrifice. All I know of I've been sacrificed in my whole life.

I'm not a lie. We've been going. There's been a pretty black Steve leaves. And all of a sudden, we got coofies on. We got cooos on. We went nuts. We got the unc earrings. Like, we're living.

We all here. We, like, I don't know, but at some point in this podcast earlier on, I can't remember now. I might have actually acted as if I was considering a video game about the middle pack. Yeah. Yes. We remember. We do. Okay.

Last threat I'll ask about. I'll ask you guys about. We see Butcher kill gunpowder. The Butcher Gunpowder situation where gunpowder shows just what he can do with the weapons was great in the parking lot where he shoots. He was like a bullseye, yeah. He was like a bullseye type guy. Butcher gets to him.

He takes the V-24. He kills Gunpowder, slice him right in half with the heat vision. Very, very scary horror almost seen. Do we feel like Soldier Boy? Soldier is going to want revenge if he were to find out that homelander, excuse me, that butcher killed gunpowder. Is that going to be a source of some type of beef between Soldier Boy and Butcher? If, in fact, that is found out.

Drake? Butcher? I don't know, because here's the thing about Soldier Boy, like, he was giving gunpowder the business, he was like beating that little kid up. Like, here's the thing. He was beating him up as like a teenager. At a certain point, Soldier Boy seems like you don't give a fuck about no one. Yeah, that's true.

Soldier Boy doesn't feel like he is. And Soldier Boy also seems very insecure. Yes. Like he's trying to holler at Mallory. He's saying different stuff. She reads him and he does not take it well. So a guy that powerful that's that insecure, you know,

capable, though, with the shield. Like, he did look like he knew what he was doing. But also, they were saying he was a prototype to to Homeland, or I'm like, I'm not seeing it yet. Like, I'm not seeing you get busy. Like, it's going to be wrong. He's not on Homeland and levels yet, but you have to wonder, you bring in an actor like that, is this guy going to be in this show

season after season? Is he going to be a one-season situation sort of like Stormfront? You know, where does he really fit in the ecosystem of the boys? We will have to see. I'll tell you one thing, though, before we leave, this was three episodes of goddamn bang up, bang up television. It's good. It was very good.

It's very good. Hey, I'm honest. It was almost like a pallet cleanser in a way. Oh, what? Talk your shit, Van. Palat cleanser from what, van? From what? From what, man?

No, speak on it. Speak on it. Where are you running? Why are you ducking the smoke, Van? Damn, man. You ducking the smoke. You're actively ducking the smoke. Then talk.

smoke. I am the smoke. Shout to Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson. All of the smoke. Not just pallet cleanser. When I say pallet cleanser, it's not a shot at Marvel. It's not a shot at Disney. While I say pallet cleanser, it's a pallet cleanser because there are shows that we watch and we know that they're walking along, right? Let's be honest. We watch Moon Night. Not comparing the boys to Moon Night. All right.

We watch Moon Night and we know that Moon Night has to walk a line. they just have to walk a line the way it goes it's on Disney Plus it's Disney you know we're watching Obiwan and they're putting

disclaimers in front of the show because of the audience that Disney has and it's a reason why Disney Plus is you know destined to be probably the heavy weight

of the streamers but it's it's a pallet cleanser to watch a show that has no line because it's unpredictable you just don't know what's going to happen

you might be disgusted, you might be inspired, you might be scared. And that's kind of what the boys is right now. And although the spectacle is high in the show, they're not doing shit just to do it. It's all within the realm of the story. And I appreciate it. And I think it's the show.

So if you guys think that's running from the smoke, fuck you both. That is a wrap. Wednesday and Midnight Boys will be back talking about episode four of Obi-Wan Canobi. We're still loving Obi-Wan Kenobi. here at the Midnight Boys. Don't know what's up with you guys,

but the ones that don't like it, you guys just can't, I don't know what you want. Thursday, Charles is going to be joining Joanna for a look at the first episode of Miss Marvel, Chuck Wagon. Ms. Mawr, are you excited about it, Chuck? So excited. So excited.

She's coming out. Let's drop it. Friday, Joanna and Mal are going to be back to give you their deep dive into episode four of Obi-1. We'll have weekly coverage on the board, here on the Ringer feed. You guys, there's a lot of content out, and we are doing it.

We're doing our best. We're getting it out. We're having a lot of fun. We're coming to you. We're in Anaheim. We're in L.A., we're in San Francisco. We're in New York. We're all over the place.

But the one place we're always going to be is in your ears and in your heart. Because even if you've got Superman's here, you still couldn't hurt them. Producer credits. Our producer credits are Mike, Big Wagon, Wargon, Jonathan Little Spidey Kerma, and Steve Almond Joy, the cuddly lover bear. Additional production from Arjuna Manga Paul.

And of course, last billing, Jomi, the Explaner, Adirond, hashtag free Jomey on social media. The moment you've all been waiting for, Charles, take us out. It's a wrap on the first three episodes of The Boys. And we had a lot to say. But I'm warning all of y'all out there, please do not invite VIN to your Shira birthday. What's the difference between butter and butter made from real California dairy?

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