Top 20 WTF Moments From The Boys
#20: Kimiko’s “Death”
“Good for the Soul” The great thing about “The Boys” is that it always manages to keep us on our toes, especially when it comes to revealing power sets. One character who’s always been more or less a mystery is Kimiko, but we learned of a crucial aspect of her skillset in this scene. After Frenchie mercifully releases Kimiko - at that point nameless - in order to save her life, he’s confronted by Black Noir in an alleyway. Frenchie virtually defenseless against the supe, Kimiko returns the favor by intervening. The fight doesn’t last too long, however, as Noir completely eviscerates Kimiko. We were already shocked thinking we’d lose a character we hardly knew, but were shocked even further when she began to self-heal.
#19: The Deep “Rescues” a Dolphin
The Boys: A Deep Dive
“The Female of the Species” Like his fellow so-called superheroes, the Deep causes more problems than he solves. Even when doing what he considers a noble deed, this aquatic supe manages to botch things up. Breaking a dolphin out of Oceanland, the Deep promises to show the sea creature some blowhole action. Believe it or not, seeing a human flirt with a dolphin isn’t even the craziest part of this scene. When the getaway van is cut off by the cops, the Deep slams on the brakes. He unfortunately didn’t do the best job at securing the dolphin, as it’s sent flying through the windshield and onto the street where it’s run over by a truck. The inclusion of “Wannabe” by the Spice Girls only adds to the madness.
#18: Lamplighter’s Tastes
“Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker” We’ve gotten plenty of satirical takes on the superhero genre, but few that are as willing to address the more adult implications of supes inhabiting the real world as “The Boys.” Actually, “adult” is the perfect word to use when describing this scene, as Lamplighter’s unabashed sexual proclivities make for some hilariously awkward humor. When Hughie is assigned to keep an eye on Lamplighter, he’s unwittingly forced to keep an eye on Lamplighter’s viewing material as well, namely his collection of the Seven-themed adult film parodies. We’re not in the least surprised the world has taken to the Seven so, but watching them watching it definitely makes us cringe. Though maybe not as much as Hughie.
#17: Ramming the Whale
“Over the Hill with the Swords of a Thousand Men” Honestly, the Deep’s lack of foresight when it comes to the well being of aquatic creatures will never not be funny. And gross, apparently. After a run-in with a police helicopter, the Boys find themselves fleeing in a speedboat from a school of angry sharks. Naturally, the Deep isn’t far behind, and surfaces gloriously riding a whale. He parks the massive mammal along the shoreline, thinking it’ll prevent the Boys from beaching. He clearly underestimates the tenacity of Billy Butcher, however, who instead accelerates and sends the vessel straight through. Just when you think “The Boys” can’t get any gnarlier, they end up on the inside of a punctured whale.
#16: A-Train Kills Popclaw
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“Good for the Soul” Of all the deeply troubled supes on the show - and there are a lot - few get done quite as dirty as Popclaw. She wants to take public her relationship with A-Train, but he remains reticent to get Vought’s permission, more worried about his image. As toxic as their relationship was, even we didn’t think it would end like this. After the Boys blackmail Popclaw into revealing secrets of Compound V, A-Train tricks her into revealing their identities. Thinking they can finally be out in the open once she does, Popclaw is horrified to see A-Train swiftly inject her with an overdose of heroin. This is the ultimate betrayal by the person she loves most, and it hurts every time we watch it.
#15: The Deep’s Hookup
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“The Self-Preservation Society” Following Starlight’s televised confession, it isn’t long until everyone learns of the Deep’s sexual indiscretions. Starlight wasn’t the first either, requiring the Deep to take a sabbatical from the Seven. Bringing a woman back to his Ohio apartment, the Deep is given an idea of how horrible he made Starlight feel. The Deep’s hookup is less interested in his sex organs and more eager to see his respiratory organs. Although he’s insecure about taking his shirt off, the Deep complies and reveals his gills. Giggling, the woman treats him like a circus freak, but that doesn’t mean she’s not still interested. On the contrary, she enjoys herself a little too much, leaving us feeling deeply disturbed.
#14: Black Noir’s Weakness
Supervillain Origins The Boys Black Noir
“Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker” Almost every supe has a weakness, be it external or internal. But even we never imagined one would be as hilariously mundane as this. After escaping from her holding cell, Starlight too finds herself confronted by Black Noir. At first it seems like the master ninja is going to make quick work of her, throwing her around the conference room. Yet she’s saved at the last minute by Queen Maeve. Though we would’ve loved to have seen an all-out fight between these members of the Seven, Maeve ends things immediately by popping an Almond Joy into Noir’s mouth. Yeah, an Almond Joy. This sends Noir into an anaphylactic shock, as something so minute proves to be such an intimidating character’s kryptonite.
#13: Lamplighter’s Death
“Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker” Sudden death is nothing scarce on “The Boys,” and yet the show still manages to get us every time. Season 2 introduced a lot of memorable characters, but perhaps none so much as former member of the Seven, Lamplighter. Played to perfection by Shawn Ashmore, Lamplighter unfortunately has a short lifespan on the show, as he meets his end by his own lamp, so to speak. On a mission with Hughie to rescue Starlight from Vought headquarters, Lamplighter reveals he has an alternate motive all his own. After being disappointed they removed his statue, Lamplighter sets himself ablaze, much to both our and Hughie’s shock. This inadvertently sets Starlight free, as Lamplighter then posthumously gives Hughie another hand, literally.
#12: Popclaw Kills Her Landlord
“Get Some” If you’re going to get kinky with a supe, you might want to consider bringing protection… as in the kind that could save your life. Heartbroken over A-Train and super-charged on Compound V, Popclaw seduces her landlord to get out of paying rent. The fantasy gets too real, however, as Popclaw loses control. She goes from suffocating the man to accidentally cracking his head wide open. Popclaw is so caught up in the heat of the moment that it takes a second for her to even notice what she’s done. This has got to be the most gruesome endorsement for safe sex we’ve ever seen.
#11: Transluscent’s Death
“Cherry” How do you restrain an invisible man who’s virtually invincible? Well, shoving some C-4 up his colon will likely keep him in check. When Butcher and Frenchie step out, Translucent seizes his opportunity to escape with only the timid Hughie standing in his way. Hughie isn’t sure if he’s ready to make the leap from kidnapping to murder, which Translucent uses to his advantage. While he nearly talks him into stepping aside, Hughie decides that he’s done keeping his hands clean and presses the detonator. Translucent may be invisible, but his insides are on full display as they splash onto Hughie. Since he’s one of the more stable characters on the show, seeing him get his blood on his hands was shocking in more ways than one.
#10: “Dawn of the Seven”
“We Gotta Go Now” Though the first two seasons of “The Boys” only came out in a pair of back-to-back years, the show’s managed to stay shrewdly relevant with the climate of real-life superhero movies. We always knew we’d never get to see the entirety of “Dawn of the Seven” - the title being a play on a very particular DC film - but the snippets we did get in Season 2 are flabbergastingly hilarious. Vought’s cinematic attempts to spin Maeve off as an inspirational lesbian - even though that’s not entirely accurate - hilariously criticizes some of the corporate decisions that go into these movies as she’s still denied an onscreen kiss. Then, A-Train’s contrived “retirement” from the Seven exemplifies the puppetry that’s happening behind the scenes.
#9: Mommy Issues
“Good for the Soul” Homelander commands every room he enters, but Madelyn Stillwell is the one person who can make him weak in the knees. When Homelander isn’t trying to win his boss’s approval, he’s watching her pump breast milk through a wall. Although their relationship isn’t exactly Platonic, Stillwell treats her star superhero like a devious little boy who needs to be kept in line. She thus serves as both a lover and a maternal figure for Homelander, which is all kinds of gross. Homelander’s Oedipus complex reaches the pinnacle of creepy even after she’s dead when he uses Doppelganger to restore his fantasies.
#8: Laser Baby
“Good for the Soul” We all know where babies come from, but Butcher and Milk are both shocked to learn where super babies come from while infiltrating a Vought facility. When the guards catch them trespassing, Butcher decides that they need to upgrade from a puny handgun to a baby blaster. This baby is packing more than a dirty diaper, as Butcher uses the newborn’s laser vision to blow the guards away. The image of a baby discharging lethal beams of light from his eyes is both hilarious and alarming. What’s especially jarring is just how quickly the situation escalates, with one guard losing his head entirely. Man, and we thought Jack-Jack from “The Incredibles” was a destructive little tike.
#7: Superhero Bar
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“The Name of the Game” The first episode made sure to really set the tone for what the rest of the show had in store for us. Our greatest peek behind the curtain comes when Billy Butcher recruits Hughie to the cause. With Hughie full of indignation towards supes and A-Train in particular - for reasons we’ll get to very shortly - Butcher takes him to an underground supe bar to retrieve some damning footage of A-Train in an effort to incentivize him. But our big takeaway from the scene is seeing the sexual shenanigans the various supes partake in when not under media scrutiny. From some levitating sex to a tiny supe, um… “exploring,” the writers show exactly how supes might pervert their powers.
#6: Talking Gills
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“Proper Preparation and Planning” Just when you think “The Boys” can’t get any weirder, a couple scenes like these come along. The Deep is definitely reeling following his forced sabbatical from the Seven, and his emotions find a very bizarre outlet when he gets high on psychedelics. Though his conscious mind doesn't want to hear it, his gills, voiced by Patton Oswalt, remind him of his bodily insecurities and how it leads him to mistreat women. It’s honestly profound stuff, and a lesson the Deep would be wise to let sink in - no pun intended - but even he finds himself put off by the experience. Again, just when things can’t get weirder, he finds some catharsis as the two break out into a duet of “You Are So Beautiful.”
#5: Robin’s Death
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“The Name of the Game” If “The Boys” demonstrates anything, it’s that freak accidents would be a lot more common in a world of super-powered people. Shortly after being introduced to Hughie and Robin, the latter is suddenly run over by speedster A-Train. Although it happens in a blink of an eye, the action is slowed down for us to see Robin’s awful fate. This is only a minor inconvenience for A-Train, who just keeps running as if he stepped in mud. From this moment on, it becomes clear that “The Boys” isn’t going to be your dad’s superhero show.
#4: Homelander Kills Madelyn
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“You Found Me” Believing Homelander is responsible for his wife’s death, Billy Butcher dedicates his life to revenge. It appears Butcher may finally get even when he takes Stillwell hostage and threatens to blow her up in front of Homelander. As it turns out, though, Homelander is tired of Stillwell’s deception and burns two holes through her head. Of course, this doesn’t stop Butcher from hitting the switch anyway. We go from one WTF moment to another as Butcher survives the blast. Homelander has taken him to a suburban neighborhood where Butcher learns that his wife is still alive. Not only that, but her affair with Homelander years ago resulted in a pregnancy. Vought’s been hiding Becca and her super-powered son from Homelander, but now daddy’s home.
#3: Stormfront’s Identity Revealed
“The Bloody Doors Off” Viewers went on quite the rollercoaster with incoming character Stormfront in Season 2, going from admiring her straightforward attitude, to cringing at her freaky fling with Homelander, to hating her for being a literal Nazi. In a shocking reveal, Stormfront reveals to Homelander that she’s a whopping 101 years old, with super longevity being another of her abilities. Not only that, but she was the wife of Vought founder and creator of Compound V, Frederick Vought; she was the first patient to successfully absorb the compound. As if this information isn’t shocking enough, her and Frederick’s past ideologies come to the surface as Stormfront chillingly recruits Homelander in the worst war imaginable.
#2: Congress Loses Their Heads
“Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker” There are some terrifying supes operating in the world of “The Boys,” but one that can make someone’s head explode is especially so. Director Raynor’s sudden demise definitely had us shaken, but even we couldn’t have been prepared for what came later on. After Butcher’s able to threaten former Vought scientist Jonah Vogelbaum into testifying against them before Congress, it looks like the Boys are finally going to get a win. But before Vogelbaum can, his head and those of several others start popping like balloons. Even in the moment we didn’t know what to make of it, but the reveal in the season finale that it was the work of secret supe, congresswoman Neuman, had us dying for Season 3.
#1: Homelander Lets the Plane Crash
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“The Female of the Species” When the Mayor of Baltimore tries to blackmail Stillwell, Homelander blows up his plane, giving us our first glimpse of just how corrupt America’s golden boy is. Although the mayor’s son and other innocents are onboard, they’re collateral damage in Homelander’s eyes. Homelander shows even less regard for human life when another plane is hijacked. Maeve and Homerlander stop the terrorists, but the pilot is killed and the plane is left beyond repair. Although Maeve lists off several ways they could potentially save at least a few passengers, Homelander nonchalantly writes off the mission as a lost cause. He won’t even fly the children to safety and threatens those who beg for his help. While Maeve grieves, Homelander merely acts like an anthill got squashed.
