FULL SPOILERS for The Boys S2E7 follow.
Before we get deep into the blood-bath seventh episode of The Boys Season 2, we need to recap a few things, because last week came with a lot of shocking revelations. Sage Grove is a facility filled with caged Compound V patients and Lamplighter (Shawn Ashmore) was working there as a caretaker/executioner. Stormfront (Aya Cash) not only knows about the facility but is seemingly in charge of it and building an army to “save” America in a very Nazi way.
With that in mind, things actually look like they’re going The Boys’ way as this week’s episode opens. In the early moments of “Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker”, Lamplighter is ready to testify against Vought. Of course, by the time we reach the explosive, head-popping final moments, nothing has gone to plan.
Everyone quickly gets separated. Butcher (Karl Urban) gets a call that his dad has died and goes to see his mum. Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) and Grace Mallory (Laila Robins) try to flip Vought’s former CEO Jonah Vogelbaum (John Doman). Hughie (Jack Quaid) is supposed to babysit Lamplighter, who is mostly interested in watching The Seven porn parodies.
Annie/Starlight (Erin Moriarty) is grabbed by Vought after meeting her mum (Ann Cusack) at a coffee shop. Hughie and Lamplighter head to Vought Tower to break her out. Somehow Lamplighter’s biometrics still work, but after they get inside he sets himself on fire in The Seven’s conference room. Hughie manages to free Annie with unexpected help from Maeve (Dominique McElligott), who reveals Black Noir’s (Nathan Mitchell) very human weakness: a nut allergy. Go figure.
Butcher’s trip home is a ruse — his mum tricked him into seeing his dad. A terrific guest turn from John Noble frames Butcher’s father as a domineering monster who can still go toe-to-toe with him. It’s the clearest window yet into why Butcher became the blunt instrument he is.
That history echoes as Butcher decides to persuade Vogelbaum personally. Vogelbaum outlines the brutal “parenting” inflicted on Homelander (Antony Starr) and insists he was forced to mould him into a weapon. Butcher doesn’t forgive; he leverages. In Karl Urban’s best scene of the season, Butcher threatens to murder Vogelbaum’s entire family if he won’t testify. It’s chilling — and convincing. Soon enough, Vogelbaum heads into court.
We don’t get much of Homelander and Stormfront, but their visit to Becca (Shantel VanSanten) and Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) is pivotal. After Stormfront reminisces about motherhood, Homelander decides it’s time to claim his son and present Stormfront as Ryan’s new “mum.” They take Ryan with them — a move Vought’s suits were surely dreading. Becca will have to seek out Butcher next week, but getting Ryan back will have a cost.
The episode ends in the courtroom. Everyone gathers to watch the hearing… and then heads start popping, left, right, and centre. It reads like Cindy (Ess Hödlmoser) from Sage Grove, but the motive is murky — rogue vengeance, or a false-flag ordered by Stormfront to justify a crackdown?
With one episode left, there are still big questions. Becca recruiting Butcher is a given, but beyond that it’s anyone’s guess. If Stormfront is behind the massacre, it’s the perfect setup to blame “super-terrorists” and push her fractured-America agenda — exactly what she’s been angling for.
And yes, that cold open. The Boys often drifts in and out of explicit politics, but this week’s radicalisation vignette — a white American poisoned by feeds, podcasts, and algorithmic paranoia — is unmissable, and uncomfortably real.
