The Ringer-Verse - ‘The Boys’ Season 4 Finale Instant Reactions | The Midnight Boys

Episode Date: July 18, 2024

We’re back and juiced up from Compound V, ready to break down the season finale of ‘The Boys’ (12:16). Along the way, the Midnight Boys debate the overall success of the season and give their Midnight Meter ratings. Hosts: Van Lathan, Charles Holmes, and Jomi Adeniran Producers: Aleya Zenieris and Jonathan Kermah Additional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Tramphia offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start. Tramphia is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks, followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks. If your doctor decides that you can self-inject trumphia, proper training is required. Tramphia is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis. Serious allergic reactions, increased risk of infections or lower ability to fight them, and liver

problems may occur. Before treatment, get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tramphia today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit Trimfairadio.com. This episode is brought to you by WeatherTech. Everyone knows winter is the MVP and making a mess. You don't need WeatherTech floor liners in the summer unless you hit the beach or go camping. Then you'd want a cargo liner or a road trip goes sideways, ketchup goes rogue, ice cream drips. Yeah, you'd be pretty happy about those weather tech seat protectors.

So just to be clear as the mud, you're inevitably going to step into the summer. You don't need WeatherTech unless you plan on doing summer. Visit weathertech.com today. Welcome into the Ringiverse. This is, of course, the Ringers' Nexus podcast, B, for all things fandom. We are Steve, the architect, Alman, the builder and tinker of things. We are. Jomi, the explainer, dinner, dinner, don't.

You've got questions. He's got answers. We are. Oman Van, he of the receding resurgent hairline. We are Coke. A-be-be-a-ch-ach. The 24-carry-closer, aka of the brunch hotie. And we are also joined by the Midnight Collective, Alley of the Mods, Zanaris.

That nickname's going to stick right there. And by the way, everybody out there who's fans of Alea, you guys could be called the Mod Squad. The Mod Squad. There we go. Oh, y'all, you little Mod Squaders. We have the chocolate chip himself, aka Lushuscious Black. Oh, you like Luscious Black? Luscious Black is kind of hard.

Mr. Luscious Black. A.K.A. Jimmy Obsidian, man. I like that even better. That's also not bad. That's not bad. That's not bad. Jonathan Kerma and the Watcher himself, Arjuna Romga Pau.

They make up the Midnight Collective. We are the Midnight Boys. We also got somebody else in the house. Come over here, brother. Only if you want to. Only if you want to. Grab a mic and introduce yourself to the people. My name is Kyle Lou.

I'm from Chicago. Here in L.A. for a couple days. Yeah. Give it up. Kyle. Kyle's been hanging around. We were talking about King Vaughn yesterday down there. And Kyle was throwing up G.D. like crazy.

Don't get my man to trouble, man. Come on. He's got to go home. He's got to go back. He's got to go back. Kyle was throwing up G. I was like, ah, man, I don't know. I got one rule in my life.

Frisk them. Anyway. Follows on socials. Instit Twitter, Facebook, TikTok for now. Save Jomi's job. Jomi? A lot of the stuff is going well, man. They love your Targaryen video.

They're popping off. My favorite part of this entire thing is people arguing in the comments, right? Somebody will make a statement. And then, especially if like a house of the dragon, it's bad. Like, so for example, Mal and Jace or Mal and Joe were like, yo, man, Chase was killing it. He secured the veil. And they're in the comments like,

What did you chase? Jason ain't do shit. It's like guys. Let's like, let's relax. You know what I mean? What's up? Okay.

So, it's Jomey's birthday. So we gotta give it up for Jomey. It's his birthday. Happy, Happy birthday. What's wrong? What are on deck?

I notice something here. Yeah. Jomey has glitter on his face. What? Jomi. Do I? Yeah, you do. You freak bastard.

Where did you go after the last? Where the guy. Look, look, look, look. I'm not even bullshit. Look, come see. You guys think I'm joking. Oh my. Jomey ass, Joe me has gone on this place. And I tell you. And I'll tell you exactly where I got it from. Okay. Okay. Don, no, like what? I'll tell you exactly where I got it from. Okay. Was the stripper? Was the stripper? What's her name? Charity? Dawn. Destiny. Cream. Mercedes. Strawberry. It was, it was from my mother. Because.

All right, Damon's target. Because. Because. That's crazy. That would be crazy. Son, it's your birthday. Because as it is my birthday, it's also her and my father's wedding anniversary. It's the same day.

This is getting real freaky, bro. It's the same day. It's getting real freaky. So she put the glitter on because it's the anniversary. Joey, you need to finish the story faster before they get out of a chance. I wish my mom. She came in a hugged you real quick. Faster, Jomey.

Faster. And she had glitter on her face. That's really... Was there glitter leading to your parents' That's really... I bet there was. So, Mapooka, look up, my puka. You guys can be weird?

It's really just... Also, can I just say this to finish what you were already bringing up? Hey, guys, fuck off. Game of Thrones. We're having fun. I need y'all to chill. Lawfogers is they act... Like, guys, there's real stuff happening.

They like the Cisco stuff. That was funny. Are they mad about us? They're mad. Every time. Every time. What did we do? What happened now?

Every time. Every time we have in any opinion, it's wrong. Should we have a hate check-in? What? Where are y'all seeing this at? Who was upset? You ever open a comment section ever in your life? Comment section, where, though?

On anything, anywhere. Instagram, TikTok? Give them specifics. What do they want? So, like, for example, on the, again, the Malin-Joe video was like, yo, they're like, yo, Jay secured the veil. It's like, well, Jay's kind of didn't secure the veil, you know, even though, like, he went there and he got the deal to send the dragons up there, right?

Most people would say he did that. when he went to the north, right, and got Cregan and them to sit down the men. They're like, well, they're already, you know, aligned with Renera and this and that. It's like, guys. Can you question? Too much minutia.

I won't let people know something real quick. I watched, I'll talk about it again, I watched an 11-hour history of the Targaryen dynasty video from video books, 11 hours and 38 minutes. Actually, I'm not finished with it. I'm only, what is that, like six hours through it. I got some more times. Wait, whoa, whoa.

You're six hours into this. How many nights has this been? It's been a lot. So look, let me tell you something. I'm the world's foremost expert on the Targaryian dynasty. Right. Only for six hours and then you got another six. I feel like George R. Martin might have you beat.

Actually, no, he doesn't have me beat. Honestly, at this point, I don't even know. He's like, so he's like, so he'll be finishing win to win. Anybody can fly a dragon. Like, who knows? So what I'm trying to tell you is, I don't do a fuck what y'all gotta say. The buck stops here.

I haven't seen what you guys have been saying, I'm not concerned with it, okay? We're having fun doing podcasts. We're now on YouTube. You can watch every midnight boys, House of R and Talk to Thrones episodes on YouTube. dot combs slash at Ringaverse, like, comment and subscribe.

Charles, how you feel about being on video? You're on video now. You're a video star. Oh, man. Video killed the audio star. Sexy. You know, light skins, I feel like, next year is our year.

And I'm just kind of planting the seeds. It's always next year. There's always next year. What, what, uh, you feel like this wasn't the year because of Drake? Because of not like us? Drake, Jake Cole, Jason Tatum. It's just. Jason Tatum won.

No, he didn't win finals of a Pito. Oh, he sold out. Oh, a black man got it. That's right. A dark man. I apologize to Jason Taylor. He is black. That's, that's messed up.

I shouldn't say, see, we got to get unified. Was that the important thing? That's how people really feel? Yeah. You catch a word. That really was messed up. We got to be unified, man. I shouldn't have said that, man.

I apologize to you, Jason Tainan. Way to go. But... Did believe that? Didn't believe that. Didn't believe that at all. That's not on. I'm sorry.

I don't believe that. I'm sad. I let myself down. I let my mind there, baby. Every Tuesday, House of Arr will dive deep into the House of the Dragon. This Thursday, House of War will give you their deep dive into the season finale of the action. I want to hear what they have to say. We taught them.

We did it live. Live. Thanks for everybody who tuned into the live show. Hell yeah. Thanks, guys. A lot of people who tuned into the live show. Also, thanks to the collective because it went off seamlessly. Kerm, you weren't here.

That's great. Oh, man, Isaiah was here. His back was bothering him. What, why weren't you here for the live show? I was doing something else. Oh, you want to know, oh, Kerm? What's up?

You want to know where I caught Kerm? Kerm was not here yesterday. Why? We have the same barber. Saw Kerm walking out fresh. You know what I'm saying? Saw a couple shoddies like, yeah, like Kerm, Kerm, get in the car.

We got places to be. We talked about the shot. I'm back on. It's right. We talked about it. What do you want? All right. I'm not going to.

I would rather you say bitches at the time. I would not. I would not. Like, because that shoddy shit, we talked about it, Chuck. Come on, bro. I want, all right. The female. That's, that's the worst one.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. So our new slang name for women on the show is going to be human beings. Because we can't be. All right. So anytime we say human beings. We're hanging out with the human beings with some fat asses. There we go. Because we can't be trusted.

We can't just call it. We can't just call it with it? We can't just call it weird? Like, what's wrong with that? Women is good, but I feel like human beings is safer. Please telling your story. No, I'm just saying, Kerm, do you want, why weren't you here during the live show helping us versus running the streets of L.A. with the human beings. First of all, human beings is crazy.

That's crazy. There was no women that picked me up. I got my haircut. You know, I'm trying to look fresh. Where'd you go after? I went back to the crib. Last night, I was at a poetry open mic. That's where I was at.

Oh, you did poetry? I do go to poetry. Do you do poetry? I do. Okay. Come on. All right, Kerm. I'm going to see.

It's not. It's been a bars for us. Kerm? Kerm. It's not ready. It's not the environment. It's not good. Steve!

We're doing the poetry. It's like three minutes long. Just give us a little T's. Come on. Everybody. You know, let you.

Y'all ready? You got to come here. You got to come here. I got to actually. Get up. Yeah. That's crazy. Come on.

Come on, Carl. Wow. Everybody give it up for Kerm out there, you guys. What's your poetry name? Kerm? Okay. Which Mike? Okay.

Where's my camera layer? Right. Right there. All right? You all ready? Give them some poetry, Kern. I'm a walking contradiction. Bell hooks on my bookshelf.

Future on my playlist. I'm a walk in contradiction. Love my mama, but hate it when she calls. Hate my daddy, but we love it if he called. Fuck, n' name. I'm a free thinker, but my mind feels like a prison. I'm a big dreamer. He's, I see him sleep.

Oh, my God. You know how I can tell he's been doing this a while than me? He's like, I'm a free thinker. I'm like, oh, right. Yeah, y'all, y'all don't understand. Like, I'm gonna go see that shit. Like, I'm Kerm daddy. Now, hey, go Kerm.

That's great, really great, bro. See, see. See, see. Sit D.R. Kerm. Kerm be getting, I know why you be doing it too. I've been to those poor treaties. Hey, I got a girlfriend.

Don't do this. Don't do this. I'm trying not to get caught up. This Friday, we're dropping a special audio feature on Deadpool and Wolverine from Daniel Chin. Hell yeah. D.C. Shout out, D.C. Love D.C.

Every Monday, the Midnight Boys will give you their reactions to Hot D. Steve, what's your opinion on where we're at right now with House of the Drag? We're doing great. Cooking with Greece, right? Yeah, yeah. He's been a great season. Every Sunday, Talk to Thrones will be up right after the latest episode of Haddi ends. But today, guys, it's all about the boys.

All about the boys. Season finale of the boys. Did they land the plane? That's the question. Steve, spoiler warning as we get into it. This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business. Fast, reliable internet means everything for your business. And even this podcast, that's why I trust Spectrum Business.

It keep companies of all sizes, connected with internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, mobile services, plus 24-7 U.S.-based support, millions of business owners already trust Spectrum business. So visit Spectrum.com slash business to learn more. Restrictions apply. Services not available in all areas. This episode is brought to by Borris Head. What if we told you the taste of deep-fried turkey is now available at your local deli? Well, Boris Head just did that. Bursting with flavor, perfectly seasoned, with that indulgent taste that usually means pointing your whole day around it, presenting the Friars Turkey Breast only from Boar's Head.

The backyard tradition now available behind the counter. Visit your local deli today. Discover the craftsmanship behind every bite. Boershead committed to craft since 1905. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories,

and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice. Off campus, L, every year after, the love hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. We're getting ready to talk about the boys. You're listening to a reaction podcast.

The spoilers are all right. coming. Okay. Before we get into the reaction, we have to put you in the no. The only way to do that is the Midnight Manifest. The only person who can do that is Chuck Wagon. All right. Here's your Midnight Manifest for the season four finale of the boys assassination run directed by Eric Kripke, written by Jessica Chow and David Reed. Shapeshifter Annie proposes to Huey to distract him from the boys' plan to stop the president's assassination. Homelander freaks out when he sees Ryan hiding a photo of his mother and butcher, which leads Ryan. to run to Butcher, who is dying in the hospital. The reunion between Ryan and Butcher is going swimmingly until Grace reveals that they want to hide Ryan away so he can be the one to stop Homelander. Ryan kills Grace, runs away and Butcher breaks bad.

Meanwhile, the boys are floundering as they hide the president, but it's not before long until Shapeshifter Annie tries to assassinate him. But real Annie arrives just in time to save the president. On Firecracker's new talk show, Homelander reveals to the world that Newman has powers. Push into a corner, Newman cuts a deal with Huey, a butcher, along with his superpower tumor, murders are on the spot.

Sister Sage arrives and reveals to Homelander that this is all going according to plan, and the new president declares the martial law and gives Homelander an army of superheroes that are tasked with hunting down descendants. The boys are captured by this superhero militia, leaving Butcher, Kimiko, and Starlight to pick up the pieces. That's been your midnight manifest for the season four finale of the boys. Yeah. It's in the books.

Season four of the boys is in the books. Fellas, what we're thinking? I like this episode of TV. I really like this episode, actually. It's one of my favorites of the season. And I think it does the thing that you want from the boys, which is, you know, it has action. Kind of shocks you a little bit.

It gives you some of that adrenaline. But at the same time, it stayed away from all the stuff that we didn't love with the season. Like, there's not a ton of the, you know, political overtones. You know what I mean? Like, it's got the whole president, you know, election being certified. They have, like, it's January 6th, but it's not like the meat of the episode. It's really just. They got to do what they have to do, rescue the president, cut a deal, all that stuff.

It's what we came to the boys for. And I thought this season finale was really good. I'm really excited to see what happens next. I'd say that this season of the boys is very, very well bookended. It started great, ended great. We kind of meandered in the middle, but I think the thing that actually counts is where we're left off at the end of this season. Because the story that they told for where everything left is often tease up for a final season, I think very exciting.

I think it's an interesting sort of like epilogue the way that this final episode ended with this like Nirvana montage of like where everybody's gonna lead off and it like it's this little like mini snippets of like where everybody is for the beginning of a season five.

I really like that a lot and this is gonna be really, really interesting. Chuck. You know, really, really loved where we ended off. I just think that, you know, the boys always really, really strong superhero story.

telling and it was just great to see, you know, them really just get some of the momentum back and just where every, where all of the characters were left. I'm really excited for the last season, the boys. What can I say? I'm playing Stopping Cap right now. Yep. What?

Did you not like that, the finale? I just told you. I love the finale. It ranks among some of the best superhero content I've ever watched. Fantastic. We'll play that again. No, we're going to leave it right there. He said that.

He meant it. So it, I loved it. I thought it was one of the best episodes. of the boys ever. Okay. Okay. Okay. Same. Yeah, I thought it was one of the best episodes of boys ever.

I loved it. I, so look, it, honestly, this one was directed by Eric Kripke. Yes. Honestly, when we were talking about the tone of the season and how we wanted the season to take itself a little bit more seriously and not be sort of a parody of all the things that we're seeing, I thought this episode kind of was exemplary of that.

You had real choices, real state. Ryan had to make a real choice. He, we don't know where he's at. It seemed as if he was definitely in the butcher camp after everything. Then he ends up catching his first body, or is it his second body? I guess the second body. Technically second body, yeah. Because you threw catching his second body.

You have the Star-Ly's situation, which, by the way, anytime in any show that someone looks exactly like somebody else. Same thing without explaining. that the other person goes, how could you have fallen? I hate it. At least this one wasn't, I mean, it was, at first I was worried because she does do the whole, like, I can't believe he didn't know it was me. And I'm like, yo, if that ruins their relationship, I'm going to be, I'm going to be hot.

Right. That's kind of silly. To be fair, Hughie was standing up for himself being like, I thought she was you, which and she looked exactly like you. I don't know what she's figured out. Right. But for her to be like, to hold that against him, I would have been like, yo, that's kind of nuts. But eventually she was like, ask, you know what I'm saying?

Like, would that make you? Like, would that make me feel upset? Of course. Sure. She came back to her. It's not, it wasn't too bad. But at first I was, I was really scared she was going to hold that against him for a while. And it is wild that it was like more or less an echo of what we just saw in X-Men 97 with the Gene Gray, Madeline prior situation.

And the death of Newman was actually unexpected to me. No, I didn't expect that. I did not expect the character to die, especially with Butcher, his powers manifesting, him being able to control the powers, all of that. the reveal of Victoria Newman's superpowered abilities on television. After that happened, did you know she was going to die? Her days were at least numbered. I didn't know it would be that quickly.

The quickness at which she turns and wants to offer up basically a plea deal with the boys to be like, all right, I'm out. This is too much. Like, we're done here. I think that was kind of well resolved. I think more so that her death and quick exit from the show was surprising and shocking.

And I think that was effectively done. The Starlight is taken over by a shape-shifting soup dynamic. What if they'd have done that, like, episode four? If we know that Starlight is, like, a fake. And it's gone on under their noses for, like, several episodes. Think about the Ackleit, right? Like, we talked about the Ackleite and the fact that the Akelyte wasn't really... it got to some things too late

and didn't do some things well enough. I feel like Starlight's character would have been a lot more interesting this season because I really liked the way the Starlight doppelganger was played. It was interesting. It made the character really interesting. Had they done that, gone to that a little bit earlier,

not even messing around with the whole firecracker abortion angle. Some of that stuff didn't work, but the Starlight stuff at the end really did. I feel like that's kind of a, I feel what you, I like what that solution could be, but I feel like that could be like a late in the season band-aid for a slightly weaker Starlight story that we've just had all season to be like, oh, my powers don't work and I haven't really been doing much because I've secretly been a doppelganger this whole time and the real Starlight is chained up somewhere. And we have it like, I feel like that's like a lesser excuse for a poor story to just like sideline somebody effectively for an entire season. Like it's a neat thing to do. do at the finale to know that like we're going to be messing with somebody for a while but like you kind of have to play that a bit smarter if you want to do that for a whole season also i think it like to your point it does work at the finale uh and it makes sense because this show if anything is is super

subtle about what it does very a lot of nuance a lot of nuance right very you know satirical but no like this was a literally like a mirror conversation right looking herself in the face after doubting herself am I Starlight? Am I Annie? Like, who am I supposed to be? And she has to face herself and be like, oh, I have to figure out who I am

before I make the next step. So, again, kind of obvious, but that was her journey throughout the entire season. Yeah, I'm just saying that like throughout so much of it, like her powers activate and she flies away with some,

like she flies like Superman. It was cool. It was cool. It was very cool to watch. Her power was activated. And you kind of don't know why it happened at that point. Yeah, we don't. We don't.

But, you know, it was cool. You enjoyed it. Did this season finale, for, you know, all four of us who liked it, did this season finale redeem the season or answer any questions in any way? Did the season end on a strong note, strong point? Oh, it absolutely ended on a strong note. And I think, I mean, we talked about this on the Ackleight episode where, you know, we didn't, the finale doesn't, like,

we didn't think it was going to be the deciding episode. But there was a chance, like, if the finale slaps and if it does, everything needs to do and it's awesome, you could walk away with the, you know, like, oh, that was cool. You're talking about for the acolyte? For the acolyte. Or the acolyte was already cooked by the time of finale came. I mean, but, I mean, it wasn't cooked.

Let's not rewrite this. No, it was. No, no, it was cooked. But y'all were like, no, they could. That's not what we said. That's not what we said. We said the episode before. I gave the acolytete a two make-of-a-break episode run.

You did. And it broke both times. Yes. Like, so, so. I don't know, episode six was cool. Episode six, it was fine. It just never, the huge episodes, it never got to where it was trying to go. The acolyte finale was good.

I liked it more than I didn't like it, but it wasn't enough to make the, to round the show off into something that was amazing. Yeah, but I think the boys was, right? I think the boys did do enough to round out the entire season. Again, Steve, like the good, the book ends, right? When you get to the end, you're like, okay, I understand where we are. we got here and where we're going forward. Think, you know, from a storytelling perspective, that works. And they did what they had to do so that when season five is about to come out, we're like,

yo, I remember these characters are. I can't wait to see where they go next. Yeah. Anything you would like to ask. Whenever you want to talk. You want to tap in, man. Because here's the thing, I'm not taking up space. It's just like they're, I'm not taking up space.

Notices. Remember when I think it was either 06 or 07? Kobe didn't want to shoot? Yeah. That's what this is. It's just, guys. guys, we can't keep falling into cliche. Like, well, the bookends were great.

Did it? All right. Well, say what we really mean. We had an okay season opener. We had a pretty good finale. And then we had a bunch of stuff in the middle that at best was inconsequential. At worst was a waste of time. And for, honestly, if we're being real, for the big fundamental things that happened in the season finale,

the show just kind of drops them. Like, Kimiko and Frenchie finally kissing or whatever, I was just like, everything about this season, about Kimiko not being able to talk, everything with her history, everything with Frenchie, dating the guy that he murdered the family. That was the two storylines that you wanted to go down towards to get to this moment of these two characters

finally kind of consummating their relationship. didn't make any sense. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's a level of them, like... That was something that was kind of just shoehorned in. The show is better than that. And I do think, if I'm being real, if I'm being 100% real,

I do think that this season finale is probably the best, the best of this entire season. I think Kripke directing it, it had that momentum. It had a lot of the things that I've been asking for. But, dog, a lot of this shit was rushed at the end. I thought the Newman, I knew Newman was going to get got,

but I was like, God damn, we just rushed into this. shit. I don't see how you could say that Newman getting killed was rushed into. Like how? No. Her, the snap decision between like, oh, you're just going to be a puppet to her calling Huey walking in and then just getting killed. I'm like, well, what I'm saying, well, this is the only pushback I'm giving you to that is that one of the most consistent push pools throughout the entire season was the Newman thing. Was like he makes a play to her. They have the truth at first. She says she'll kill everyone. Um, the president.

president elect is taken out of the story like early on and the question then becomes what's going to happen with Newman, what's going to happen with Newman. This episode became in my opinion sort of an inflection point for her character to where she was out of as a soup and so because of that she no longer felt safe playing the game that she was playing before. So she finally made a decision. Everything else she was kind of just being easing into. She finally made a decision. And her decision was to join the boys and

actually take Huey up on what he had said like an episode before. But by the time she made it, it was too late. No, I get, like, I get that that's where we were leading. But even when Homelander is, he's on Firecracker's show, and he kind of, like,

breaks and he's like, oh, she's a super hero or whatever. I'm like, it fell flat. Like, that should be a reveal where we're just like, oh, her entire world is crumbling and it just kind of felt like shoe horned in there. Oh, I don't know. They had to just keep going. I can't imagine.

I don't know where you got that from. Like when that happened, I was like, whoa. Like literally, like when that happened, I was like, shit. He sold her crazy. Yeah. Yeah, but it's like just why at that moment? Like, I was just like, I'm like, why is Homelander doing this at this moment? Because he's a piece of shit.

And because of Ryan, like, he had had enough of it. Like, he was at this point, I think. think a lot of this episode, and by the way, this is Charles's opinion and we're just meeting the opinions in the middle here, but a lot of this episode was about people in the boys being sick of pretending. Yes. Like, he was sick of pretending. She wasn't. He was sick of pretending. Butcher was definitely, like, definitely sick of pretending. He tried. He tried. He tried. Like, and so all of of the walls and the facades kind of came down

at the same time. And, like, he got it out of there. Ashley, even Ashley, Ashley, who's like the comic relief for the show sometimes, and the show that has a lot of comedy, the desperation of her situation when they're like, like, she knows more than anyone, we got to kill her,

and she runs and she takes the V. I was like, oh, my God. Like, a lot of these scenes were high-leveraged scenes to me. I mean, and I have not, I've agreed with you for the most part about the season, but I felt like there were a lot of high-leveraged scenes. It just seemed like things to me, like once again, I do think that this was one of the better, if not the best episode of the season. But a lot of the stuff that kept happening in it just felt like moving pieces. Like this is what we need to happen.

Even like the list of like Homelander being like, all right, we need a list of all the people who know too much shit. And then they just kind of start going around Vot killing people. I'm like, what? Like, what? Because here's the thing. If I'm, if I'm going to be real. Okay. So Homelander, at the end of the.

the episode gets all of these superheroes to round up the boys and take them in alive. The boys know more than anyone. They let Kimiko escape. They let Starlight escape. Butcher is out here. So I'm just like, so you're more worried about

some pencil pushers at Vaught that you kill like this. And the boys, you're like, we got to take them in alive. I'm like, those are the type of things. Well, he might not know. There's a lot of moving parts there. Number one, he might need the virus. He might need to know where the virus is, he might, like, for example...

That is a massive amount of their leverage. Yeah, like, so he might, there's, there's stuff out there that he might need information for them for. Yeah. And so there might be a reason why he's decided, like, the whole time I was wondering why the changeling shapeshift a person didn't just kill Starlight. Sure. But then we found out that she needed Starlight to re-up on the changeling stuff and to continue

to take her memories. So the people that bought that know too much, their knowledge can only hurt Homelander's cause. I think the boys might have some knowledge, at least the way I'm reading it, that could help Homelanders cause. So I'll take, I'll give you guys this. All right, if he's keeping them alive for the virus,

it doesn't make sense. Like I get story-wise where it's like you kind of have to suspend your disbelief to be like, all right, well, they're going to let Starlight. fly away. But I'm just like, they're not going to take Kimiko. Like, it's... They did, though. The guy, the dude from Gen B, you didn't watch JV. He's got super strength. He's holding her. Oh, did... She wasn't arrested, though.

Kimiko? Was she arrested? Yeah. They made, like, the girl from J.V. Gait whispered him into the... The van. Yeah, whispered Frenchie into the van. Which, to be fair, if you haven't seen Gen B, not telegraphed well, of like, okay... No, I knew that those motherfuckers were from Gen V, but that was also when I was just like, Damn, this is some MCU shit. He didn't watch the show because you-

I mean, after this season of the boys, I'm just like, I'm glad I didn't watch the book. Genevie was amazing. I mean, but it's also, I do think that some of the stuff that I had brought up earlier in the season kind of about, like, the boys becoming the thing that it was lampooning. There were moments in this even when,

when Mother's Milk was captured by the guy with the dick, where I was just like, this is like a funny, like, callback to I think it was season one. But I was like, Oh, the boys used to make fun of that type of cameo, where it was just like, really, the dick guy is going to be the one that captures Mother's Milk? It was just kind of this cameo that just didn't really do much for me, similarly to the sister sage shit.

I'm going to be honest. I think the sister sage shit was funny, but like ultimately, again, I'm kind of, I'm not kind of thing. Just, just all those, like, you don't think that the dick guy cameo, you don't think you're over-analyzing it. No, it's not that I'm, no, it's like, it's, Fine. It didn't.

What was it supposed to do? No, it's just like, it's the same thing with the Yoda shit. And the accolade. I'm like, all right, cool, fine. We're just doing like dumb little callbacks. Yoda. Okay.

All right. But what my, confirm, Dick Guy is the Yoda of the boys. The guy is the Yoda of the boys. How could it be? Like, it's like, the Yoda thing is meant to telegraph an entire future and set the stakes for the world.

Now, oh my gosh, it's talking to the Yoda. The dick guy thing doesn't even mean anything. It's just a funny thing that happened in this. in the season prior. No, my issue, though, and it's like, it's the same thing

with Sister Sage walking in and doing the super villainship. It was like, that was my plan all along. The boys used to be the show that was making fun of all of these very cliche happenings

that used to happen in like just superhero storytelling. And now they're falling into the same cliches where I'm just like, oh, okay, you guys are just another superhero show. Well, this is kind of my thing, though. So let's get back to the reality of it.

when James Bond is captured, you're not really watching to see whether or not James Bond dies. When Ethan Hunt is captured, you're not really watching to see whether or not Ethan Hunt is going to die. You know they're not going to die. In order for Ethan Hunt to die

in the Mission Impossible movie, the movie would have to be called Mission Impossible 10, the death of Ethan Hunt. Right. Or Mission possible. Mission possible. Mission possible. You're watching the show to see how they're going to escape.

That's why you're watching. You're not watching because the Avengers are going to get all killed. You're watching to see how they win. At the moment that you're not watching to see how they win anymore, you don't fuck with the show anymore. You don't fuck with the Avengers anymore. The moment that you are looking at the guy who's holding the, the gun who's and you say okay well this time

Ethan Hunt has to die like if Ethan Hunt doesn't die then this movie doesn't make any sense and he's lived and he's lived and he's lived they need to kill him he's got him right there they make fun of this in Austin Powers they got him yeah they got him right there they got to kill him the moment that you feel that would just skip the next movie because it's oh the boys they're not going to kill all the boys they're not going to kill the boys at the end of the show no I'm not asking for any of the boys to

like I've said this the whole season it's not that I need any of the boys to die or get mortally wounded or any of this shit. I just do need some of this just storytelling wise to either make sense or make me feel like to care. They were all captured and we don't know what their future is. And it's like how the boys are going to get out of this one. Yeah, they were all captured individually. You all were worried about the boys getting captured?

Oh, I mean, I mean, by Homelander, yeah. I mean, look, to me. If it feels substantial, because the rest of the season has more or less been like, okay, wacky adventure on a farm, figuring out what Tech Knight is up to in his, you know, in his pleasure 10, Zendaya, like all that stuff. Like, this actually felt of consequence, whether or not you felt it was dramatically effective can vary. So Ryan and Butcher, Ryan killing his basically his caretaker in front of Butcher, Ryan's turn. How did that work for you?

oh, I knew she was getting got the moment. Yeah, the moment she wasn't, the moment she wouldn't gobb. She felt that entire interaction, though. Yeah. I was like, why she here? And I was like, oh, he about to kill. Here's my thing with Ryan, too. I'm going to be honest.

The baby's bad vibes? I mean, yeah. You could just look in the kids' eyes and be like, damn. But how many more times can I be surprised when Butcher fucks over the boys? How many other times can, like, how many more times can I get surprised or even care when Homelander is like, fuck the seven. I'm killing a bunch of y'all. I'm getting new people.

And once again, now we have mini-Holander in Butcher where I'm like, how many times can I be surprised when Ryan is like, you guys don't love me, you want to use me for my powers? And just like fucking does some fucked up shit. When does that happen?

I guess at the end of season two? Maybe. What are we talking about now? Like Homelander or baby Homelander being like, you guys want to use me for my powers? Was that season two? I think this was done. Most of this season.

I think this was, done in a different way. I think if people that are saying the push-pull with Ryan is getting a little monotonous, I could definitely understand that, right? But what I will say is here, there are a couple of things to sit out to me about this one. Number one, he killed someone he knew. Yeah.

And someone that he had a lot of love for. A lot of love for him. Number two, I think losing Ryan in that situation sort of activated butcher. Butcher was trying to give Ryan the autonomy that Homelander never got. And she didn't trust that. Yeah. She was like she had too much mental structure to trust and just loving the kid enough to make,

to let him make his own decision. And to know, she didn't know him well enough to know that if they would have just let him leave, he would have come back to them. Exactly. Right. And so parenting and adolescent is very difficult

but it's never as high leverage as it will be with one who can destroy the whole planet so the question is like how do you do it is he too far gone now like can he be brought back into the fold? The boys

like in the other show the question eventually has to become can they win? Will they win? We don't know if the boys will win. Like the show is the show is set up for there to not be a winner, right? We don't know if the boys will win.

We're not sure if they will win or if they won't win. This question might not be whether or not the boys win. It might be because we've watched them lose, right? The question is, are they put, I've said the question it's like three times, have they been put into a situation where their opposition looks formidable enough for us to be interested? I vote, yes.

I vote that it was the job of this finale in the Empire Strikes Back way that it tells its story to put us in a situation where we're like, damn, the boys took an L. Right. And I think that that ended up being the case. And I thought it was all done in a while. I had a bunch of different wild moments

in this episode. A lot of stuff around Newman, the scene with Ryan had me transfixed, a lot of the stuff that was going on. The chaos worked for me. I like your point about if the boys will win or if the show. To me, it feels like whether or not the show is either cynical or mean-spirited enough to come out with any sort of positive outlook for the boys or our heroes, quote-unquote,

at the end of the day. Because there have been a lot of downs and ups and a lot of downs from the outlook of the world, especially from the season of like a lot of the political satire or jokes or jabs that it takes nowadays have kind of worn thin on us only because of the fact that like this is bleeding more and more into real life

obviously that's not the show's fault but I don't know really where this show lies where as far as its outlook on the world that it seems to be commenting on anymore I think that's a big problem that I would have for the show coming into a final season I don't even know what the boys at this

point really has to say and I think that that's where maybe a little bit of like Because you really felt like it had a lot to say in those first three seasons And this is the season where I'm just like what and I think this is the trap of just not It's not just a boys thing. I think this is a lot

of art. I think the acolyte we kind of brought up similar problems like wait what does the acolyte have to say about police brutality or have to say about like corruption and all of this stuff and I'm like what does the boys have to say about the rise of the far right and tyrants and this time in America.

Like, I don't, the more intimate questions that, like, even Huey brings up to me are more interesting of, like, can we, like, forgive? Can we just, violence is not. The very good line in here was, like, in order to beat monsters, we have to start acting like humans. And I was like, this is, okay, like, there's a lot, there's a lot of nuance and That's what the show has to say. I know. And I'm like, I know.

You don't know. You're not doing good this season. That was very, very muddled to me. Yeah. Because the season, 90% of the season

was very much about like the satire and the politics and the rise of Trump and all of this shit. And I was just like, it took until the end of the season to be like, all right, Huey saying like,

all right, we need to learn how to forgive. We need to learn, start acting like humans. We can't become the monsters were hunting. Yes and no, right? I do agree that, like, a lot of the political stuff was overdone. It was, like, way too much dip on the chip.

But we see Huey, like, episode to episode, forgive his mom, forgive A-Train, just, like, become, like, I don't say a better person, but, like, learn to be like, yo, I got to let things go. So at the end there, when he makes that statement, it's not just, oh, I just had an idea one day. It was like, right? No, it didn't come out of nowhere. No, it didn't come out of nowhere, but it definitely, to what I'm saying is that's a,

stronger hook for me in terms of just like emotionally that I'm just like I would have liked to see Matt handled better over the entire season versus kind of just being like all right we're going to throw to another Fox News joke where I'm like all right well this is this what I would say so when you that that's the underlying narrative of the entire show right um this season it crystallized because what we're really trying to figure

route is not what's worth fighting for because essentially they're wrestling overpower, but how you do it. The stakes are high. Like, Butcher can win. He can win by releasing the virus. But the victory would be Pyrrhic. And it would be Pyrrhic because you're going to have to lose Kimiko. You're going to have to lose Starlight.

You're going to lose A-Train. You're going to lose Ryan. He could win. He could win, right? A lot of how you win a fight is in the way you fight. And America at large has lost sense of that. Like if conflict is different than community, you have to win a conflict. You have to de-escalate a conflict. In communities, you have conversations.

Not that you don't have opposition, but you have conversations. The boys throughout this entire season, they seem to be operating under the notion that the gnarlier they get, the better it is for them. The gnar, the more gnar they get because Homelandic keeps raising the stakes. And at the end, Huey goes, no. That's not what's going to win.

I don't think that that's how we're going to do that. And if I bring that back to the situation that we're in in the country now, I think that's the question that we're asking. Each side of it and these sides that seem to be diametrically opposed are saying, do I have to get gnarlier with the other side? Do I have to go more to the mattresses? Or do I need to see them, embrace them, understand their fears and concerns,

and then start a conversation with them that might be hard for me to say and tough for them to hear but perhaps we can lay the groundwork to get to a better place. Now, I'm not so sure in a situation where you have a homelander

if that's even possible, if you could even talk to him, but they give you enough frailty from that character that it does seem like if one person could get through to him because he's so insecure, he's so love deprived,

he's so deprived, of humanity. It feels like if one person could get through to him, maybe things could be different. I don't know if the boy's love train works for next season or what it means for them to actually fight like human beings or act like human beings. But I think they realize that they don't have the capability

to get as gnarly as the other side will. It's not going to work for that. So can I ask you this? And this is just me. This is just what attracts me to stories. I hate this. that convention, because it's become cliche now, where it's just like when you have a very politically charged show,

where it's just like, man, if the two sides just get together and have a conversation, that could solve everything. I'm like, I don't think that's how the show is going to resolve. No, no, that's not what I'm saying. I don't, but I do think that's a lot of just like when shows are trying to say something about Trump or say something about the far right

or say something about modern America. It's always like, well, the two sides just need to get together and hash it out. Think of Homeland or Huey went into a room and had a conversation and they would figure it out? I mean, I don't, but I'm not talking even about the show anymore.

I'm more so talking about, is that even something that is like smart or interesting to even say in a show at this point? Because I'm just like, we've spent decades litigating this. Would it feel like a cop out at that point? That argument never feels like it holds any weight. The show does it.

The show ends with Homelander's head on a stick, ultimately. You think so? I mean, unless he, unless, I mean, so the episode ends, they start credits, and then, you know, the guys, they show Soldier Boy in the tank, and he's, you know, looking at his dad or whatever. And we know Soldier Boy's power has power to take away power from soups. Yeah. Right.

And so maybe you could depower him, but it's either that or he dies. I mean, if you, if they depower a Homelander, that would be, honestly the most curious way for the show to end the most interesting way. He'd been having to live as a regular person because even a depowered homelander might still have a tremendous amount of political power. Then the question would become,

is he more dangerous as a soup who can kill anyone? Or is he more dangerous as a martyr who can influence anyone? That would be interesting. But that's an interesting thing to a greater point that you're bringing up. And I think as much as I pulled an old man card. This is the oldest man card that I will pull.

Inside of your community, it's always a conversation. Always. It's always a conversation. America, whether we like it or not, is a community. It is. The only way to fight is to fight. So everything else is a conversation. When I say the only way of the fight is to fight is I'm saying if the one time that people say, the point that people get to in this country where they say, okay, there's no more talking.

Well, then you got to go to your guns. That's not going to be done at the ballot box. That's not going to be done on the picket line. That's not going to be done anywhere else. The moment that a couple of weeks ago, that guy said, we're in the midst of a Second American Revolution, the gentleman from the Heritage Foundation, which will be bloodless if the left allows it.

The moment that we can't talk no more, you got to start killing people. That's the way that it works. And when that happens, it doesn't matter what happens on the other side of it. it's the end of your society. So we're trying to have enough conversations in this country and on this show to maintain the fabric of who we are,

not because we're any better or any worse than any other place, is because the alternative is oblivion. Like, once it gets to that point, your neighbor's playing this music loud, right? You knock on the door, you go over there, yo, could you turn the music down? Hey, man, just let you know, this is my fucking house.

I play the music as I was, hey, but we all got to live here. Let's try to agree on the times that you play the music and how loud. You have that conversation a couple of times. It's not going anywhere. Your neighbor continues to do it. You continue to do it.

When you walk over there with a knife or a gun, it's over. It's done. No more music, but now that situation you can't walk back from. The moment you can't talk about it, it's over. So in our contemporary being, our contemporary situation, even if we don't use the right words,

we got to find a way to talk about it. We got to find a way to have a conversation because the alternative to having a conversation is the elimination and subjugation of the other side, and that always comes with blood. No, but I think the why I was even bringing this up,

because I do agree with you in a vacuum, but I think the reason why a lot of times when you see this play out in movies and TV, it can, it's not the most compelling thing, the reality is so much more nuance where it's like, oh, I do agree with you. We need to have more conversations. But America is built on people in power. And this is generally like powerful white men being like, well, no, this is how you have to have the conversation.

They're talking to each other. Yeah. So it's like when when college kids are just like, hey, free Palestine, I'm protesting. I'm going to be doing what is my, my rights here in this country. You have a bunch of people being like, oh, no, we're arresting y'all. We don't want you to communicate like that. Well, that's them trying to force their way into the conversation. Yeah. Right? That's them trying to make people pay attention

to themselves enough. Like, the entire experiment of America is who can be a part of that conversation, right? Because at first they say, all men are created equal. What is a man? Steve. Right? And so then after that, and they're like, well, no. Well, women

1920, well, we're a part of that conversation. Black Americans are a part of that conversation. Our gay, queer, trans folks are part of that conversation. It's all about who is going to get an opportunity to have a discussion about what this country should look like. And there are people out there who will die before they broaden that conversation to a point that everybody can participate in it. And with the kids that you're talking about right now, the only way, because if there was captured by the mainstream news media, or if there were directives being held, being sent, out by worldwide about what you can talk about and not talk about, the only way those kids can join that conversation

is the protest. So that's them being in it. And the people that are saying we don't want to talk to them, well, they don't have a choice. And so when you look at this episode to bring it back to the boys so we can stop doing higher learning. We're just doing what the show's doing. Right. You know, just talking about politics, you know, my superheroes. No, no, because I Everything that you're saying, I'm just like, oh, this is why I think I'm tripping up on this season because even the conversation we're having, I'm like, that's almost too complicated to have within an hour long episode of the boys or a season long just because the boys has to do so many other things. There's like the overarching butcher and homelander story. There's a story of Vaught and everything that that's saying and the boys.

And it's just like, oh, trying to have even a conversation of like, who gets to talk in this country? Like, can you even find a common ground between someone who thinks that you're less than a human and people who are fighting for their rights? Those are all things where I was just like, I don't know if the boys is the type of show that can land that plane. And that's nothing against the creators. It's just it's a superhero show that needs to be entertaining. What y'all think? I liked your point about, um, you know, the guy going to the house for music

and like, because we talked about a lot about like, why don't some criticisms or, you know, some things people say about the show is, well, why doesn't Newman just blow everybody says, why don't everybody just kill everybody? And it's like, yeah, once you open that can of worms, which you like push the toothpaste out of the bottle, it's cooked and now you're all,

it's all out war. It's interesting because it's not, the way I think about it, it's not about Homelander versus the Boys anymore. It's about the boys and butcher, right? Butcher shows up to the warehouse. Huey's like, that's Huey's mans, right? Everybody else, especially Annie,

and Mother's Milk team at some extent, it's kind of like, yo, this guy's kind of, you know, he's not there no more. Right, but he sees, Huey sees him. He's like, yo, we got some going. It's cool. And then he rips their leverage in half. Yeah.

You know what I mean? And so they're still alive, but next season they have to reckon with, like, yo, he's out there. he's got the vibes called soups can we can we talk to butcher or is now we have to go in

Glenn's blazing I mean because he's got the nuclear option yeah I don't think there's any more chatting he's had the nuclear option in other seasons though that's why it's just like in what sense I mean that motherfucker was running around

with soldier boy like I'm trying to get Homelander out of here like that's and that's what I mean by like all TV shows and the greatest this is why I think the boys does have the bones of such a great show are cyclical in nature, but it's hard for me to be scared of

Butcher or even for the, what we're talking about, like that theme of like, can we have a conversation with Butcher and did it? I'm like, motherfuckers have been trying to have a conversation with Butcher for, since the beginning of the show. And the show will find ways to stall that conversation.

Yeah. Yes. And I mean, he didn't, he didn't do it at the end of season three because he's like, yo, my, my dead wife, boy. Took my bloody son. He was like, this is what. this isn't what she's want.

Right. And this season, like, at least at the beginning of the finale, he's like, I'm ready to die. I believe in Ryan, I can do this. Not until Grace sells him. And he's like, now finally, he's finally reached that point where it's like, I'm going to die. If I die, he's going to go be Homeland of Son.

If he's Homeland of Son, they're out there ruling the world. Nobody else will do it except for me, Kessler, take over. Right? This is the moment where he's, like, he's always had the keys to the football. this the first time he's open it and he's clicked the switches and pressed the button. This is the...

This is the... Yes. Show me. Within this season of television, within this season of television, I have seen Butcher be like, oi, I'm good now. Actually, I'm backstabbing the boys,

but I'm good now. Actually, I'm backstabbing the boys. Yeah, but how many times does he walk back into Boy's headquarters and been like, oh, butcher's back. And like, you don't think in next season, Butcher's not going to walk in.

He's like, oy, I don't know. Oi, my bad. I think for me, like, this is the moment of no return. Like, this actually, what's the last season of the show? Right, but that's the only thing that we know that it's the point of no return. He does bad things all the time. I know, I feel like Huey.

He does bad things all the time, but at the end of the day, like, the rest of the team's like, well, Mother's Milk, or two episodes ago. We need them. We have to have them. And I think that this is why I, like, bump against, like, the confidence that I would have with our main characters or heroes because, like, this, like, broken family of misfits that we've had since the beginning of this show, there have been very few, if any, like,

large extensions of trust between this team. And outside of them being, like, an actual, like, family or, like, toxic, like, feedback loop of trust and leverage, I don't know exactly where to stand with all of them because they're only bumping up against each other and they seem to be getting in

their own way more often than not. Well, they don't know what they need to do. I know. And that gets really frustrating when we've had so many opportunities of like just getting up to the batters box only to be pulled back from it. Let me ask you a question. If they would have killed Homelander season three, would their problems be over? No. So do you know what really has to, do you know what really has to happen for them to win?

It's not the death of Homelander. it's the decapitation of Vought. Sure. That's what really has to happen. That's a very long process. And even if they do kill Boucher, I can see the fall of Vought happening in a montage

in the last episode of this season. It's maybe an impossible thing, right? It might not be achievable. The question for the boys in the next season might be what wins can they extract that make them

feel comfortable enough to move on with their lives. Yeah. Right? Man, once again, all of this stuff, like, you know, you're in your 20s, you're in your 30s, I'm going to change the world. We've talked about this before. I'm going to change the world. I'm going to go out there and I'll be the voice.

I'm going to change the world. Everybody's going to remember me. And then you get to 44 and you go, I'm going to save one kid. You go, I'm going to take eight boys from some place and I'm going to mentor them. And out of that eight, out of that eight, because, Some of them going to be scammers. Some of them going to become rappers. Jesus Christ.

I've mentored for years. You just can't get them all. You try your best. You're not wrong. This is the most depressing. Just be honest with you. You can't get them all. Do what good you can.

It's a job that like really, really, I don't even like, it almost makes me emotional. Now I'm thinking about it. Like you get attached, you get attached, you get attached. And then you have to learn to let go. Because you can't. This is why I can't watch that season of the wire. I'm like, you, you, you, I'm like, You can't get them all, right?

And you just like, man, if I'm a Bronny James, if I go one for eight. If I'm a brawny James, if I go one for eight, that's a win. And so the question for them next season moving forward might be, how do they just make this entire superhero vaught, whatever situation, just a little bit better than it was before they got there? Or how do they get the piece back into their lives? Because one thing that we never talk about is the boy's obsession with this fight

just, like, subjects them to an inordinate amount of trauma. They are, like, there are other people, right, who are living their lives just sort of under the thumb of the soups. And if I'm one of the boys, sometimes I wonder if I'm better off being one of those people that just goes to work and comes home. And I see this in real organizers and activists and fighters all the time.

Sometimes they go, is this worth it? You know what I mean? I got to have the police outside my door to guard me from these crazes on the internet and I don't even trust the police.

So when I'm watching them, I'm wondering in a macro way and a micro way, what will be the win for the boys? What will be the, is the win for Starlight and Huey they're happily ever after? Because it doesn't seem like

that's possible right now with the way they're living their lives. Is there a version of this show where Starlight and Huey get married and go off and decide to have a peaceful life and that's the win. Because killing Homelander is one thing. Vought, a corporation like Vought,

what's the last time one of those fell? I mean, I think the whole thing is just like what the show seems to be setting up is either you just have a superhero pandemic and you kill them all, but that's, because I don't even think winning is even the right word. because I'm like, even if you got rid of all

the superheroes in Votphel, you don't think there's another company that's going to try to cook up another superhero? Certainly. We got a whole end in our basement right now. Yeah. And then the harder thing is the thing that like is the call back to reality, which is like,

can we coexist? Can superheroes and regular people can coexist? Can Rice's co-exist, different religions? And that's the harder thing. Like, that's the thing the boys, and I think more so Huey is trying to preach, is like, is there a world where superheroes can exist without subjugating people without powers.

Is there a world where superheroes... Or power can exist without subjugating people. Yeah. I mean, that's... If superheroes even save people in this world because that's a lot of what this season was interrogating where it's like bought superheroes, like A train saves his first person.

He's in his 30s this season. Ryan is just like, I'm not saving people. This is all staged. But do you see that right there, though? that's very powerful narratively. Because that tells you that there is a world where someone likes to do the right thing. Like A-Train hasn't been, there's been no,

there's really been no imperative for him, no motivation for him to do that. But he saved someone and he saw what it was like to make a difference. Ryan wants to save someone. So there's a world where they're actually superhuman. heroes who want to use their power for good. The question is, are there enough of them out there who are not corporatized to feel that way?

And for the other ones, how do you get them there? Because that happens to, even Maeve, when they were on the plane, Maeve was like, hey, we're going to save as many people off of this plane. Homelander is like, Maeve, it's not going to work. It's like, it's not going to work. Let it go. And she's looking at what she could do. She's like, what am I supposed to do?

Like, he didn't even care. So, I mean, to your point, I think the show, to be honest with you, deals with all of these themes pretty well. I think when it gets heavy-handed with some of the other stuff that we're talking about, is when it dilutes a lot of these conversations. Do you think it's more, because I agree, like, when the show, when all of this stuff was the subtext, and it to your point, like, was not in your face.

I think it was a lot more fun to be like, oh, what's it saying? What's it saying? And I think this season was just like, no, this is what we're saying now. This is bad. And that's, I also think is why, you know, when there was the whole big backlash, we were like, you guys have gotten too woke. It's, I think if I'm Eric Kripke, if I'm giving the writers and the creators

any kind of leeway, I do think it kind of sucks. I do think it sucks when you're writing a show that is trying to tell your audience, hey, this stuff is bad, the rise of the far right, the way that we talk about each other in this country, the way that we subjectate people, this is all wrong when you create a show with the best intentions. And then the worst type of people latch onto it. I do think it's a natural human thing to be like, I want to write an entire season really doubling down on kicking their ass. kicking their ass. But I do think that the harder thing to do,

that's where, yeah. I think the harder thing to do is like, what was it about what we were doing in those other seasons that hit our intentions? Or what were the things that we did in the other seasons that potentially were not maybe

the greatest ways to go about it? And that doesn't mean you're like, fuck Eric Kripke, no, it's like, it's art. Sometimes you're just like, you can't bat, you know? No, I think I see what happened. I think so,

we talk about the boys as satire, right? I think initially it was a superhero satire. It was about, you know, the heroes, they're not gods. Like, they're viewed as gods, but they're actually terrible people. They're not all Captain America type stuff, right? And then as Homelander became like more of the focus and people started latching on to him and it was like, oh, actually, he's the bad guy. We have to show people that he's the bad guy.

We have to like really double down, triple down that he's the bad guy. And as it moved from there with the political overtones, you kind of have what we have with season forward. It's like, oh, yeah, they're just there letting us know. There's no mistaking it anymore what this is. Like, we knew what it was. If you had eyes, he had a brain, you could put it together. But this season, you have to know what it is that he stands for

and who he is as a person. I think to your point, maybe next season you kind of like, you know, hey, we did a good job. You know, we tried it. You know, we used. The TV shows don't, I will say this. Lean off it, you know. They don't got to save the world.

I also think we got to be a little bit more. Uh-uh. You won't get to say that. You don't get to say that. Fuck. You for a show don't get to say that. What? No, no, no.

No, no. No, no. Noges, can I finish what I was about to say, please? TV shows I got to say the world. No. No. No. No.

No. Man, man, I wouldn't watch Star Wars, man. Give that $180 million. Save the kids. That's different. No. That's different. That's different.

No. No, this shit got to be fucking the masterpiece theater of the greatest. No. No. I don't accept that from you. You don't get to say that. I don't need the boys to be my history lesson. I don't need the boys to be like, oh, word, this is how y'all got to move through the world.

I don't need that. See how you switched up? How did I switch up? How did I switch up? Bro, you said that the scene with the guy with the giant dick tapping mother's milk didn't move you emotionally. It had to meet something. No, I said that. That means something.

I definitely did. I said that shit was some fucking shit. It was the same as the fucking Yoda shit. It's just like, it's definitely not. It's not. It's just like, why are we doing?

That's not so referential. But also, but also, but also, it's just like Easter egg bullshit. Who cares? But also, also,

you're not consistent because the, the Death Star thing and the endor is the same thing. Nope. Because either thing. The fact that Andor was creating the one thing that was going to destroy him,

not only makes sense. Fucking story. Why? I was just like, oh shit, goddamn. They had choreographed it. We already could tell. We already knew. There was no reason that there was no.

Those are two. There was no reason to show the death start in. To me, it was the wackest part of the whole show. There was no reason. After the credits. There was no reason to show the death starred in other than to say, remember the death star? Then why show Yoda?

The thing that kills Cassie and Andor? Yeah, so what? He are. It's not, showing Yoda at, the end of fucking acolyte is jangling fucking keys being like, hey guys,

remember this shit? It's the, hey, it's remember the death star? Yeah, we all know that the death star kills Cassie and Andor, we don't need a reminder. He was building everything. It's the same. You guys, it's thematically not the same. It's the same. It's thematically no.

It's not. There's a way to do it where it's just like, oh, that's satisfying. You're not jingling keys. in my fucking face. But here's the deal. She goes at the end of the show, the situation has gotten so dire is literally the same thing. The situation has gotten so dire

that now she's been trying to hide it from the Jedi High Council. She can't hide it anymore. It's in the Senate. She goes to bring it to Yoda. Yoda is the Jedi Grand Master. Either shit on the Yoda pot or get off. Yoda is the Jedi Grand Master. To bring it back to the boys. And to bring it back to the boys, it's the same thing.

But it's literally the same thing is, it's just a guy with the big dick, like, we're not like, oh my gosh. He doesn't matter in the show. So, what difference is in? If they cut to them, building the guy with the big dick. That joke was whack. That's not what you said, though.

If you didn't, if you didn't laugh. No, what did I? I literally remember me saying that the boys is now doing the same thing. You said it used to make fun of other fucking shows for. Where it's doing the superhero shit where it's like, here guys, here's a little

fucking Easter egg for you little babies. I don't, that's why you guys have a fucking dumb-ass fan base. So then I have a question then because he's like yo, we are militarizing all soups. Yes.

Okay? So we're going to have soups, apprehend folks. Who was supposed to apprehend people we never seen before? Like some jokes It's really not that big of a deal. It's not that big as you.

Guys, you are taking one thing where I was just like, yo, the boys is now doing the same shit. Because it's a bit of being mad about. It is a little bit. I'm not mad about it. In the everything in the show,

I was just like, here's the thing, if there's one little white, thing and one little whack thing and one little whack thing. When you finish the show, you just got a whole basket of fucking whack shit. And I'm just like, I'm just Easterag, I'm just like, this was a little whack, it's fine.

Yeah. All I'm like, to me, it, your opinion, obviously entitled, entitled, entitled, entitled, entitled. But all I'm saying is that it didn't even really matter. It was like a, you sent the- nigga wasn't on the screen for 20 seconds. So why can't I just be like, yo,

this is fucking whack. You can't, but you made it into a bigger deal. I use multiple examples. You made it into... Let's go to the sister stage example. Was that not why? No, not to me. I liked it.

Yeah, it wasn't whack to me. But it's okay. It's okay if it's whack to you. You don't like it. Well, I liked it because it's... Again, episode three, she understands, you tell us do some,

he's going to mess it up. That's his entire... That's his entire ethos. You're like, hey, hey, train some more. Newman's this, Newman's that. He's going to out. He's going to sell you at every opportunity. You have to cover.

Carpenter mentalize the thing for it to work. Ultimately, a lot of bumps, a lot of roads because you can't trust that dude, but we got there. Right? And being the genius, the smartest person in that world, yeah, at all, hey, we did it. It's all about what you don't tell them as well as what you do. But what, which, by the way,

that right there is an indictment on faulty leadership. Like, that right there about the secrets that you keep from the most powerful people in the country being as important as the information that you give them is an indictment on that type of leadership. The question is when you have a president who you have to handle or when you have a governor that you have to handle

so they don't do as much damage as they possibly could, like what does that mean? And in a democracy or in a situation, we're making that decision every single day about what these people which parts of the information they can actually deal with, not just about what they need to be told. You would want to be able to tell them everything

and have them make the right decisions, but about what they're not told. And he got saved for results. And she delivered. Once again, the smartest person in the world, she's watching everything that happened with Newman live, and she's like, oh, I'm dealing with a superhero, the strongest superhero in the world who can't control his emotions,

and just kills people whenever he feels like it and just got done killing everybody in bought that has damaging evidence or anything having to do with him. And you're like, you know what I want to do? I want to cozy back up with him. Once again, it's just like, if you're going to make the smartest fucking character

in your universe, he's only as smart as the writers. And I'm just like, there's some dumb-ass shit to fucking do. Why is it dumb? I just want your opinion. In your opinion, why is it dumb? So if I'm the smartest person in the world,

and I'm dealing with a superhero who cannot control his emotions. And at every turn, snaps and starts just killing people, I'm like, this motherfucker just let me walk away. And I'm coming back into a situation where he's going to kill me at. How arrogant is Sage? I mean, the show wants us to believe that she's very, very arrogant. So very.

Okay. But that to me is like, I still can't really do anything with that because I still am just like, well, she's still a dumbass thing. The show, again, shows how you, I mean, you said it, Homelander, why would she cozy up to the guy who could like kill her, like, with just like, all right, I'm going to go fucking kill Sage. Why wouldn't she be like, actually, maybe I do want to be on that guy's good side so he doesn't go and kill me.

But if the show wants me to like, to make that scene make sense, I do think it is, they did not do a good job of like, oh, we're getting rid of Sister Sage in the previous episode. She's not in the entire season finale. And then she pops up and she's like, all according to plan. And then I'm like, that's a very cliche, evil genius thing to do where I'm like, you guys are better than this. Do you know what the most important thing? What was the most important line that Sage uttered the entire season in you guys' opinion?

I mean, outside of the very funny, lobotomized head nod that she gave. I like that. It was very funny. I like that. What was the most? I can't remember. I like what she said. She called him a pendulum.

She called him a pendulum. She called him a pendulum. The most important line that Sage uttered the entire season. I could just cure cancer. I could just cure it. I'm smart enough to cure cancer. I'm smart enough to fix world hunger. I don't want to do that.

This is what I want to do. From that moment on, Sage's motivations are completely inward. It's about not actually being a light to the world or a fix to the world, she's so smart, she's bored. Yeah. She's bored.

She's bored with how smart she is. Bortem is often a side effect of high-level genius if you're not like, you know, obsessed with one thing. She's bored. She could literally, when we're talking about why Sage does stuff, she literally could go cure cancer.

She literally could create some kind of algorithm and defeat world hunger. She could defeat homelessness. She could be doing all of that stuff. She's bored. She wanted a challenge that was outside of her. She's doing this because it's fun. For the love it again. Love it again.

That's the thing. Maybe this is next season, no. And so for her to come back into the fold of Homelander or to be near Homelander, the part of it where he might kill him. her and she has to use her mental acuity to navigate around that, that's what she likes. That's what she likes. Because the moment that you lobotomize her, she starts liking a whole bunch of regular, stupid, silly shit that the rest of us likes.

That's the part of it that she likes. Is it stupid to be around somebody that could fuck you over for the thrill of it? Yeah, but people have flaws, man, she flaws. Why don't you let Homeland it? Why don't you let Sister Sage? I want more for Sister Sage. Honestly, I do. Like, it's like, you're the smartest.

I'm just like, damn, after he kicked you out, I'll be like, yo, the boys. Like, hey, I know you got this virus. I'm the smartest person in the world. We can get. They said she was the smartest person in the world, not the best. Mm-hmm. So she's the smartest. By the way, all of these things are legitimate criticisms about the show.

Everything that we're talking about. Like, when I think of smart, if I was, the smartest person in the world, I wouldn't be nowhere near Homeland. He right. Like, I'm not saying he, but he, he right. What would you be doing? Oh, dog. Smartest person in the world type shit? Smartest person in the world type shit.

That would be, first of all, I would cure your cancer. That would be great. But I feel like I would be a worst person after I cured it. What do you mean? I'm not like the rest of these people. I couldn't do something that important. I walk around, I'll be like, I'll be walking into

like the um 7-11 and somebody would be by me and I'd be like you're gonna get the door and they're like what the fuck is you who am I nigga I cure cancer oh my gosh

open the door I literally would I would literally go to the 711 I would literally go to the 711 I would get some chips I throw the chips on a thing hey this motherfucker here I'm going to pay for my chips what buy the chips

you don't have to go get screed dreamed because of me. So you didn't solve world hunger here? No, I could solve world hunger as well. I'm not solving that. I'm following David Blaine around and shit like that. And I'm just like ruining everybody's day. He's just like doing a magic trip.

Like, yo, watch that motherfucker. Why wouldn't you do a better magic trip? That's not going to, you ever met him before? I ever tell you a story? Yeah, you met David Blaine's. That's not going to ruin his day. But I'm smarter than him. Oh.

So I can figure out all of his tricks. That's not going to ruin his day. That's going to drive him. I've never seen a nigger who loves magic more than David Blaine. I never told you how David Blaine. Blaine's story? I've heard the David Blaine's. I feel like I've heard it before. Like, all you're going to do, if you did that?

He goes back in the lab for a year. Do you want to tell the audience to David Blaine's story? I'm almost sure I've told it on the podcast before. Have I not? We got a new audience on YouTube. Okay, cool. David Blaine's story, quick. So years and years ago, shout out to Donnell Rawlins, right? Me and Kalika go to the Day Chappelle show

at the Palladium. Right. We go to the Dave Chappelle show at the Palladium. I know I've told this story on here before. Whatever, I'll tell again. We go to the Dave Chappelle show at the Palladium. We're walking away. Donnell Rawlins hits me. He goes, hey, do you want to come meet Dave?

I'm like, hell yeah. Like, Donnell had us all hooked up. We was up in the VIP. Tiger was there. Kylie Jenner was there. Yikes. Yikes. Dave was making jokes about her mom.

Oh, yeah, making jokes about somebody's mom. Did it get awkward? It didn't get awkward. People were laughing. But it was. It was bad, it was bad, but whatever. So we go back there, we're backstage, and man, backstage is crazy. Eddie Murphy backstage.

Like, you know, David Blaine is backstage. John Legend and Chrissy Teigen are backstage. Wow. Like, everybody's backstage and everyone's, like, talking to Dave. And I see David Blaine, and everywhere David Blaine goes, he's like looking at people, hey, well, he'll do a magic trick. And he was like, what? He's like, you do a magic trick?

No, this is the best shit ever. Do a magic trick? And I look at David Blaine. I'm like, I'm talking to the Gleka. I'm like, hey, man, this nigga David Blaine had done like nine tricks. He got the card. He's doing all kinds of different shit, right? And so I go over there, I'm like, fuck.

And I'm about to watch one of these David Blaine magic tricks. I'm about to look at one because I want to see how he does this thing. He's doing a magic trick for Chris Spencer. Shout out Chris Spencer. Comedy legend, Chris Spencer. And he's doing a card trick. with Chris Spencer. I'm looking at the card trick.

And anyway, he does the whole thing. Chris Spencer picks the card. And he goes, that's the wrong card. And David Blaine goes, what? And Chris Spencer goes, yeah, that's actually, that's not my card. That's not my card at all. And David Blaine goes, huh,

I don't know where your card would win. And he looks at me and he goes, you. I'm like, what? and he goes, you. I'm like, hey, don't touch me. I'm not into the witchcraft, my niggins. And he goes, come here. And I look down, and I'm like, no fucking way.

The card is under my watch. Do you remember at all? I don't. Him putting the card under your watch. Bruh. Had you met, like, were you close to him? Did he say you had another? No doubt.

No, bro. Bro, I don't remember it at all. I don't remember. He must have, right? Did you tap him up at any point? No. He was around the room doing different tricks for people. I think there might have been a point to where there might have been a point to where I was talking to someone else.

And he put the card under my watch. That might have been like whatever. And so for the rest of the time, like, because I was actually scared because I'm country. Like, I was scared. I look. and then it caused an argument with me and Kalika because Kalika was like, you were in on that trick. And I'm like, I wasn't.

She was like, don't lie. And she was like, you mean to tell me, you did not, nothing. I'm like, I'm telling you, this nigger, he put the watch, he planted the card on me, and I didn't feel it. And she's like, I don't believe it. I don't believe it.

I think you, us going backstage, and the whole thing was a setup. For you guys to do this. David Blaine was texting you like, hey, man, we're going to get him with this one. Come back, like, hey, man, like, hey, bro, it's time. It's time to do the car trick.

Come back to the room. So the whole thing. But after that, I actually was like, now I'm on your hip. Now I'm on your hip. Now I'm trying to see how you do these car trips. Did you figure out any of them? No, I didn't.

I didn't. But I'm telling you. If I was the smartest, if I was the smartest person in the world, I'd follow him around. But you would drive him crazy because all he would do was try to think about ways

that he could get over on. He would love that. He would take you on the road with him. Like, because he loves to do magic to people, right? It's so nuts. He did magic, magic, magic, magic. Our's unit. Can we get tickets to a David Blay Show? He might have been canceled. Oh, really?

Yeah, he put the mic down. He said. He was. He was. He was canceled. Did they cancel him? He might have been canceled. Damn. Steve, what would you do if you were the smartest person in the world? Avoid getting canceled. That's what I'd do.

Oh. Be hard. I just, I would, I would like, oh, oh. Oh, I didn't know, guys, I didn't know. Yeah, no, we might not involve him. All right. All right. So we not want to involve herself a David Blaine. What's Chris Angel up to? Mind freak.

I'm almost sure you got cancer. I'm almost, I'm almost, I'm almost, I'm almost sure. Why do you go from him to? I'm concerned. A lot of magicians. A lot of magicians have been, some fans get freaking. Freaky. I don't think they got canceled.

A lot of magicians have been canceled. I think they canceled. I think he got canceled on some Epstein shit. I think, um, we don't need to say why. I'm just being for real. Like, Chris Angel, you could look at him. He definitely a fan. He definitely a fan.

You can't name your show my freak and be like, yeah. He definitely a fan. Chris Angel was up there doing magic with nipple clamps on and all kinds of seats. Yo, what show? He had that show. Yeah. Mind free? I was locked down.

Wait, did he have the show where they put him in the fucking water and shit and, and, like, tank and you had to get out? Yeah, yeah. I think so. Damn. I didn't know this, guys. I'm not up on my canceled magicians, but I am now. It's probably a lot of them.

You gotta be a freaky-ass nigga to devote your life to magic, bro. Yeah. All the time. Just tricking people? You've got to be a fan. Wait, I have to push back, Steve. If I'm a magician at that level, I think you do get a pass if you go to a party and be like, you want to see a trick.

Because I'm like, if a magician's really good, I'm always like, my knight is so much better now. Yeah, but yes, that's true. But unless I'm hired for that, I'm like, it feels weird to just make my only, social cachet. Hey, do you want to see this? Because I can't actually talk to you about what's going on. No, but that's regular magicians. If you want a level where it's like you're doing some shit like hiding cards and like that's a different level.

But also with these magicians, they get asked to do tricks a lot too. We had this dude at TMZ, Chris, who was a member of the magic circle. And we asked him to do a trick one time. And I literally still don't know how he did this. Wow. He put a card inside of a can of Coke. Unopened the can of Coke and the car was inside of the can of Coke and it was wet. I don't know how he did it.

Did he ever pick up a human being doing any of these tricks? I never fuck with him the same after he did this trick down. Never asked him to do it again. I never fucked with him with the same. I'm social distance. Yeah, I'll be honest with you. Like, I'm one of them black people that believes in the dark arts.

So I think that at least 3% of magicians actually have true magical powers. You think that's real? That it's that they got some of Dr. Strange going on. This has been one of the longest. If I was the richest person in the world, I would just be the GM of the Lakers. We win the championship every year.

If you're the smartest person in the world, I would just be the GM, yeah. If you were smart person in the world, if it was me, if it was me, I would get, I actually know what I would do. I'd do some Jerry Jones type beef. You know what I'm saying? I would, like, get some stocks.

I wouldn't be at a racist rally when I was 14. That'd be crazy. But I would get some stocks, make a billion dollars, buy the Lakers, and then just run the team. And we just, we want to. Yeah. I mean, I would, like I said, I would be, I would cure a lot of stuff and get rid of a lot of problems.

But everyone would hate me. They don't have to, though. Hey, man, here come the nigger that cured cancer, bro. He about to remind us. Like, I'm at the fucking black. You never hear the end of it if Van did it. Just have a number. Never. Never. Never.

Midnight meter. Uh, truck. Oh, the midnight meter. One to ten. One being terrible. Ten being very, very good. But the thing that makes the midnight meter different from all the other rankings is we reserve 11 and 12 for utter game changers.

On last, uh, last night's episode, we gave the accolite. What did we give the accolite? What did we give the acclite? I gave it a four. six six six oh five or six six six all right so today let's start mint boys first steve we're not need her for the boys season four this is a longer season than I thought I think this is a seven for me okay uh it comes to a very good again book ended very well occasionally like very much sag's in the middle but occasionally pretty good um not reaching the heights

of season three for the boys but interested to see where it goes. Yeah, I think I was higher than most probably given eight. I liked a lot of the stuff that went down this season. I liked a lot of the character journeys. I think the political stuff was a little bit heavy-handed and that took away from a lot of good stuff that happened this season. So I'm going to give an eight.

I'm going to be giving an eight to. I said that if the season was uneven, it was still great stuff. If it landed the plane, I would give it an eight. so I'm going to give it an eight. Let's go, Charles. Let's go. Okay, so we, I mean, so the accolite was a four and this was a four. Yeah.

Cool. Cool. Consistency. What? What? Y'all are all like, like, why can't I give it a four? I'll let you all give your score. I mean, whatever is.

You all talk shit now. Yeah, no. I'm not. Seven. Right. Seven, eight. Seven. Four.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mid-I meet a four. Back to back fours. Yeah. Yeah. What's the big deal?

me why can't he give it a zero if you wanted to no but you you feel a certain type of way about me giving it a four you can give it a four i mean i is it i don't know i feel like this was a better season television the acolyte maybe because we've like seen these characters before and like we don't have to like there's not a whole bunch of like who was osha who's may who's this who's that which and which you know but uh i would argue this was a bit this was like slightly better than uh so this was a more even season of television than the accolite maybe but i would take the lightsaber fights in the accolite over anything

that I would take in the boys. That's why it evens out. Sure, man. If that works for you, then it works for me, man. They showed me, here's the thing. The acolyte showed me something that I've never seen in Star Wars or anything, and the boys didn't show me anything. Right at the same. Right at the same. It all evens out.

What do you guys think? What do you guys think about the future of the boys? I think it'll find a stride in season five. I think that what they've got planned can be something really. I mean, we're going to get Gen V probably in between Gen V's season 2 and between

season 4, season 5. And I'm sure they're, you know, they're reading the comments too. So they'll be like, all right, cool, you know, maybe cut some stuff up, lines this stuff together. And we might have a banger finale of a show, man.

Just do the series finale. Just do a season of TV. I've been hearing rumors, different people being like, we should do last season and then a movie. No, we're not doing that demon slayer shit.

Just finish the season. Like, just, did it ends like Demon Slayer. So you're off on the, boys now. You're down on the boys. Off in terms of if I was not doing this show, I would not be watching the boys anymore. I wouldn't have even finished this. And that's not, that's not a, oh, it's unwatchable thing. I just don't think that the series just does it for me in. What shows on television right now do you like?

Right now on TV? Well, most of the stuff that we've been watching has been ending. House of the Dragon, I've been liking. Way better than season one. dragons been good. Even though the bear was wobbly, still overall, thought the bear was a really, really good season. Now, what's the difference between just for us, because we covered the bear, you guys can go look at that on prestige. What's the difference do you feel like between this season of the boys and the season of the bear? The bear started really well, ended really well, had some wobblers in the middle, and some real mistakes in the middle. and some real mistakes in the middle, if you ask me. One standout really fucking fantastic episode,

which I guess might be the difference. What's, like, why are you higher on, and you guys can listen to our coverage of the bear on Prestige. Why are you higher on the next season of the bear than you honor the next season of the boys? Because I think it's a couple things. I think when I watched, I would put the bear in this,

I put the Shogun in this, but if we stick with the bear, uneven season of television. But that first episode that we saw, I'm like, oh, this is the creators reaching for something. They're trying to do something that I really haven't seen done in TV before.

So it was the same thing when I was talking about the Ackle, I'm like, if you risk it and you try to show me something that I've never seen or push the envelope in a way, I'm going to be on board more. I think also just emotionally

where the characters are, I'm invested in Tina after this season. I'm invested in a lot of these characters when they get messed up or things happen to them. I feel it in my gut and I'm just like, oh my God,

not Carmen, not Sid. And I just didn't feel that this season. And I think a lot of things happen. Like we barely talked about everything Huey went through this season and I just didn't really feel.

I was like, okay. If just shit keeps happening in the characters, but I'm not feeling it. I do sometimes think that that's like a failure of the show. And I think the boys is a good example of, Richie, I felt for Richie and all that

motherfucker was doing was like, should I go to this wedding or not? But when he's having that conversation with the guy in front of the house being like, oh, this is the guy that my ex-wife is marrying and he's a good guy and he's nice to my daughter. I'm like, I felt that. No one had to die. And I'm just like, that's some of the emotional stuff that I think was missing in the season of the boys

where I really did not, it didn't ring true. Didn't feel. Yeah. Feel it. I was going to open the cupcakes and share with you guys, but apparently they're childproof and made by freaking people like Otama Bay you can't open these motherbuthers. Yeah, look.

Like, it's like really Well, also it's going to sound horrible on Mike, but I just had to see that. You didn't see that one. I didn't see that one. You're not that. Damn.

You're an idiot. I'm an idiot. Yeah. No. Maybe next year, gentlemen. No, I sold. That's all me. You're a man child.

I got to eat that one. No, that's on me. That's my fault. I was trying to be, I was like, you know what I'm saying? You were trying to open it up. Yeah, and I looked at it.

You were two. Watch this. Watch this. No, no, no. That was not the problem. That's not the issue. It was a plastic was on it. Yeah, and I was like.

So you were trying to open it without the plastic? Well, I was, we'll see. I seen the plastic. I don't believe you. No, no, no. I've seen the plastic and I was like, it was not only going to make too much noise, but it just like seemed impossible with just my fingers. Well, there's part of the plastic that's perforated.

You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? It wasn't until it literally wasn't until you turned it like this. I got you. And I was like, ah. All right. You know what I'm saying? There you go.

So, you know, hey, I love you guys. Yeah. Hey. Everybody got, oh, look, everybody got to take a bite. Well, you got to take a bite. We can, yeah. My finger hit this one, so I'm going to keep that one. I'll just take the, I want this ring.

Look at. That, there you go. Dino ring. There you go, Steve. Happy birthday, Jome. Thank you. Thank you. If you're listening on audio, I'm so sorry.

But. All right. That's got a lot of sugar. I don't know what you expected from a cupcake. Can we, can you take us? That's very sweet. Let's get out of here. I'm old as fuck, man.

That shit just hit me like a ton of bricks. God damn. Man is old. This dig a, took a bite at you. That shit. That shit is sweet, bro. Yeah, that shit just hit me. I'm, um.

a wrap. Every Tuesday House of Mar will deep dive into the House of the Dragon. This Thursday, the House of Var will give a deep dive into the season finale. This Friday, we have a special audio feature dropping on Deadpool and Wolverine from Daniel Chin, D.C. Every Monday, the Midnight Boys will give you their reaction to Hot D. Every Sunday, Talk to Thrones will be up right after the last latest episode. Hot D. ends. Our producers are Steve, architect, almond. Jonathan

Mr. Obsidian Chaco Taco Taco LA chocolate chip the poet himself Poet Black Like I got a little black Alia the Maude Zanaris Jomi the explainer or dinner on

on social hashtag birthday boy Jome Happy birthday to join Happy birthday Jomey Thank you guys I'm glad I was there Additional production from Arjuna The Wacha

Ramcapao Charles takes us out The cupcakes are childproof the midnight boys are in their zone. And I want to send a special happy birthday to our man, Mr. Greybeard, Jones. Woo! No, I would not even, if you could be like,

you could go back to being like 21, 22, 23. I don't know. If you told me go back to maybe like 38 just to where, because I could use those six years to get ahead. But like, you guys, you don't, You guys are wasting your youth. You can't even see it.

Like, you're wasting it. Wasting it. What should I be doing? You're wasting it being approved. You're wasting it sucking up to people. And you're wasting it on negative energy. You guys are wasting your youth. I'm only negative on here.

Yeah. You're the one of the most negative people. Charles Holmes, there's a painting of Charles somewhere in an attic that gets older while he looks the same. That's the hateer energy that comes in. You're wasting your age. I'm one of the most positive people out here. By the way, and everybody waste their youth.

That's the fun. One thing about being young, you waste it. When you get older, you stop wasting.