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After introducing its setup in the first season, The Boys season 2 recap showed that not everything was solid with The Seven, and The Boys had more to fear than they ever believed. The second season also went a long way into slamming home why people who considered Homelander a hero were cheering for the wrong person. This was done when Homelander welcomed a new member into The Seven, a Nazi fascist known as Stormfront, and the leader of the superhero team showed his true colors.
The season saw a lot happen that changed the course of the storyline. Billy Butcher learned his wife was still alive and raising Homelander’s son. Starlight became a double agent within The Seven while Queen Maeve wanted to find a way out completely. A-Train and The Deep were relegated to the background while a United States congresswoman turned out to be pure evil. Finally, Billy Butcher and Homelander had another one-on-one confrontation, but things didn’t turn out well for either man in The Boys season 2 finale.
Billy Butcher’s Wife Is Still Alive & Raising Homelander’s Son
Ryan Has Superpowers Like Homelander
The big reveal at the end of The Boys season 1 was that Billy Butcher’s wife was alive and was raising Homelander’s child. That became one of the most important storylines of The Boys season 2. Billy knew that Homelander had sexually assaulted Becca, and he thought that led to his wife’s death. However, when he learned that she had ended up pregnant after the assault and was now raising Homelander’s son, Ryan, Billy set out to find her and figure out how to save her from Homelander.
However, when Billy found Becca and Ryan, she refused to let him rescue her because she knew he wasn’t willing to save Ryan, thanks to his hatred for Supes. Meanwhile, Homelander has forced his way into Becca and Ryan’s lives and has been trying to act as a father figure to Ryan, urging him to use his powers. This doesn’t work out well for anyone involved by the end of the season.
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This is one of the most important storylines in future seasons, as Ryan does have powers that might even rival Homelander’s. Of course, Billy eventually steps up and tries to help the boy, which creates an interesting dynamic as Butcher and Homelander battle for favoritism with Ryan. At the same time, the two men continue to try to one-up them every step of the way. Ryan leaves with Billy at the end of season 2, but he ends up back with Homelander in later seasons, testing his allegiance along the way.
Annie Becomes A Double Agent & Queen Maeve Turns On Homelander
Both Seven Members Turn On Their Leader
In the first season of The Boys, The Seven introduced Annie as their latest member, Starlight. However, things quickly went off the rails when The Deep sexually assaulted her and The Seven covered it up and threatened Annie to keep quiet or else. It proved that she was a member of the team, but her life was always in danger around her new teammates. Annie, in her private life, was also entering a relationship with Hughie, which put her in the middle of The Seven’s feud with The Boys. Of her season 2 storyline, Annie actress Erin Moriarty said (via Brief Take)
“The circumstances for each character are going to be extremely different than season 1. Everyone’s going to go through a major change or revelation or reckoning. Some of us are going to adjust and respond well while others are really going to drown in those changes. A lot goes down.”
In the second season, Annie finally decided to do something about it and became a double agent. She was feeding The Boys information about The Seven while playing a good teammate to the Supes. However, she ended up in danger again when she leaked the news that Compound V had given the Supes their powers, and The Seven found out the truth. While Queen Maeve saved Annie from Homelander’s wrath, and Starlight ended up back in the team by the end of the season, they knew they couldn’t trust her again in the future.
As for Queen Maeve, she also broke away from Homelander, who had been making threats to her as well ever since the plane crash, where he refused to save any passengers and ensured she, too, left them to die. This all turned around on Homelander when Maeve revealed there was footage of the incident and blackmailed him to save Annie and protect her well-being as well. This put Maeve on a crash course against Homelander in season 3 when they finally fought each other.
Congresswoman Victoria Neuman Is The Secret Assassin
Victoria Neuman Is A Supe And A Mass Murderer
Throughout most of the second season, The Boys believed they had an ally in Victoria Neuman. When Starlight leaked the news about Compound V’s link to Supes, it was Neuman who scheduled a congressional hearing against Vought. Hughie ends up joining forces with Neuman toward the end of season 2, believing she could do more damage to The Seven than The Boys were doing. While she was working with Grace Mallory and others to bring down the Supes, she had a secret agenda.
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During a congressional hearing, right after Billy Butcher convinces former Vought scientist Jonah Vogelbaum to speak before Congress, Vogelbaum’s head explodes, as does the judge’s head and that of several other people in the room. It turns out that Neuman is a Supe, and she committed these murders, as well as blowing up the head of Alastair Adama, the Church of the Collective leader.
Hughie had no idea of her powers or role in the deaths when he joined her, setting up a challenging dynamic for future seasons. The best thing about this is that Victoria Neuman actress Claudia Doumit didn’t even know she was going to be a Supe when she signed on for The Boys, saying, “I didn’t know. I was really in the dark and I absolutely loved it.”
The Deep & A-Train End Up Trapped In A Cult
Both Supes Were Fired From The Seven
The Seven faced numerous problems in The Boys season 2. Starlight was a double agent, and Maeve was actively working against Homelander. The team also banished The Deep after Starlight revealed he sexually assaulted her and A-Train ended up in a coma thanks to the amount of Compound V he was taking. The Deep ended up joining the Church of the Collective, which lured people in by using the drink, Fresca. Of course, “drinking the Kool-Aid” was the clear comparison here, and The Deep ended up sucked into a cult. Of this storyline, The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke commented (via CinemaBlend):
“It just seemed like something they drink, and so we just started putting it in more and more. You’ll see once you see the whole season, we keep that joke rolling all season long. [Laughs.] That Fresca joke does not stop. It is right up until the very, very end of the show, we had Church of the Collective members drinking Fresca.”
After drugging him, the cult moved him into an arranged marriage, and The Deep ended up as their spokesperson. This plays into his shallow and often naive personality, as he has no idea what they are doing to him. He even invited A-Train to join him after his former teammate woke up from the coma and Homelander fired him for being a “failure.” Of course, A-Train is not stupid and sees right through the cult, but The Deep remained clueless, which is why A-Train ended up back in The Seven by the end of the season, and The Deep didn’t.
Stormfront Joins The Boys & Reveals Their Fascist Nature
Stormfront Was A Nazi In World War II
The biggest thing that happened in The Boys season 2 was the arrival of Stormfront as the newest member of The Seven. When Aya Cash arrived as Stormfront, she seemed like a new hero who could bring positivity to The Seven. It wasn’t until Starlight, Hughie, and M.M. finally realized that Stormfront was the former hero known as Liberty that everything fell apart. She is one of the oldest Supes, and while she posed as a “classic hero,” it turned out she was a disgraced hero from the past.
In 1971, Liberty had beaten a Black man to death and said that killing Black people made her a hero. However, Vought covered that up, and people remembered Liberty as a hero even as Vought forced her into retirement. Now, she is back and has started getting people on her side on social media, with her ideals as racist as ever. She then showed up with an infatuation with Homelander, who she considered a “perfect male” that fit what she believed was the perfect race, according to her Nazi ideals. Eric Kripke told us in an interview,
“We were really interested in exploring the idea of authority figures getting the public really riled up with xenophobia and racism, but ultimately the most dangerous people are the white dudes standing next to you. We wanted to reflect that story. So, the supervillains are, in a way, a misdirect.
She has a very hateful ideology, but we were really interested in modernizing it and how it’s sort of often expressed today. It’s wrapped in a very savvy social media package, and a lot of these people come on as like disruptors.”
This is when her backstory was revealed, as she and her husband were loyal Nazi Party members during World War II. She was the first person ever tested with Compound V. The drug made her one of the most powerful Supes in history and also made her immortal, which is why she still looks young at over 100 years old. Homelander backed her, which backfired on him when the public learned about Stormfront’s Nazi past. While many people still supported her, the majority turned on her.
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This also contributed to a significant problem that many people have with The Boys. There are people in the world who consider Homelander a “hero” in the story, despite his murders and allowing people to die under his watch. Kripke has always had a strong feeling about what Homelander was, and Stormfront was a nice start to parallel with Homelander’s eventual story arc (via Salon):
“It’s the natural end of a character like Homelander. If you give him truly unfettered power with all his insecurities and traumas, this is a version of what he would do. But so goes many fascists who are weak and thin-skinned and ultimately driven by ego, despite how much they front as heroes.”
While Homelander made it out of the season 2 controversy intact, the fate of Stormfront didn’t go so well. In a massive fight for Becca’s safety, Homelander, Billy Butcher, and Stormfront were all battling. When Stormfront decided to kill Becca and end her interference once and for all, Ryan came to his mom’s defense and used his powers for the first time, using his eye beams to disfigure Stormfront, but accidentally killing his mother in the process. This ended Stormfront’s threat, but created new problems.
The Boys Season 2 Ends With The Seven Fractured & The Boys Splitting Up
It Sets Up Future Battles In The Process
The end of The Boys season 2 saw everyone fractured. The Seven dropped to four active members, with Homelander still at the lead. However, Queen Maeve blackmailed him and ensured Homelander no longer had his thumb on her. Starlight was let back in for the same reason. A-Train was also back as a loyal member, although with how Homelander fired him, he wasn’t likely to care too much about being pushed around anymore. With three open spots and the black eye Stormfront gave the team, The Seven were rocked.
The Boys also split up, at least temporarily, at the end of the second season. Mallory got them all cleared of the criminal charges against them; Billy, Hughie, Frenchie, Kimiko, and M.M. were no longer wanted by law enforcement agencies. Frenchie and Kimiko leave the Boys’ base and head off on their own. M.M. chooses to return to his family and stop fighting. Billy has Mallory take Ryan to care for him after his mom’s death, and Hughie agrees to work for Victoria Neuman, unaware of her dark secret.
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This all led The Boys in an interesting direction in season 3. Hughie still hadn’t learned about Neuman’s powers and the threat she poses. Queen Maeve might be safe for now, but Homelander wouldn’t let her threat go, and Starlight continued to walk a tightrope between The Seven and Hughie. Stormfront also saw her story end early in season 3, while Soldier Boy still needed to make his debut. In the end, the second season changed the playing field and gave the Amazon Prime Video series a fresh look.
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