SPOILER WARNING: The following story contains heavy spoilers for The Boys, Season 2 Episode 7. Do not read if you haven’t seen or do not want to be spoiled.
There is…so much to talk about after Season 2, Episode 7 of The Boys, titled “Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker.” And surely those conversations will be had. But we need to first just talk about the end. Yes, you know the end. We’re going to come right out and say it: one of the best cliffhanger endings in modern TV history. We just saw an ending of a season’s penultimate episode (yes, sadly there is only one more) where a bunch of people’s heads fucking explode.
And somehow, we should have seen it coming. Earlier in the season, viewers were completely shocked when someone else’s head exploded out of nowhere: Susan Raynor, deputy director of the CIA and an ally of The Boys. Clearly, she was targeted by someone, for some reason, but we never got any answers. At the beginning of Season 2, Episode 7, in the recap of events to remember, we saw Raynor’s head explode once again. And still, there was no way to see the episode’s truly shocking end come.
Let’s do our best to recap what was happening. The hearing was just about to get underway; Victoria Neuman (a character cleverly modeled on New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) had a star witness, Dr. Jonah Vogelbaum. Voglebaum, the former Chief Science Officer for Vaught was confronted by Homelander in Season 1, and the next time we heard of him/saw him, he was confined to a wheelchair. Earlier in this episode, he was visited by both Mallory and Marvin, and Butcher, and clearly they got through to him.
He was about to spill the beans—and then the chairman of the Compound V’s head fucking exploded. And then Vogelbaum’s own head fucking exploded. People’s heads were exploding left and right. Most of our key, named characters made it to the end of the episode, but Shockwave, who lost his big race against A-Train last season, also saw his head fucking explode. Mallory and Neuman were OK for the time being, as they scampered out of frame. Ashley’s head was still intact. Maeve seemed OK. Homelander and Stormfront too, had their heads on, looking around at the chaos unfolding. The Deep, watching on TV from very far away with a Fresca, was touching his own head, clearly worried about whatever the hell was going on.
Why were heads exploding in The Boys?
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We can’t claim to know what exactly is happening here—because we just don’t. But it kind of has to have something to do with Stormfront, right? Remember, when Raynor was looking into Liberty’s history—Liberty being Stormfront’s past identity—was right when her head fucking exploded. Bad things were about to happen in the congressional hearing, and guess who was in attendance? America’s newest white nationalist sweetheart, Ms. Stormfront herself.
It’s a little tricky to recall with so much going on—but think back to the last episode at the Sage Grove Center. There, we saw Stormfront overseeing all the Compound V experiments on all the different patients. One in particular? A Supe whose only name we learn as “Cindy” who specifically has the telekinetic power of…making somebody fucking explode.
There are a couple possibilities if this is indeed Cindy’s power at play:
- Stormfront is utilizing her power as a weapon, and already has done it for Raynor (and possibly others?).
- Cindy is rogue and causing anarchy on the system that led her to be imprisoned and tested on.
- Stan Edgar is orchestrating it somehow; he was mysteriously absent from the hearings.
It’s also possible that someone—Ashley?—has powers that we didn’t know. Or maybe it could be a bigger twist, and someone not only has powers that we aren’t aware of, but also has an ulterior motive that we’ve been missing all along. Maybe Neuman is actually bad? It wouldn’t really make sense with what we know, but we just cannot rule anything out. Tin foil hat fully on, people. If we’re gonna try to figure this one out, we’re gonna have to leave no stone unturned.
Another possibility? Alastair Adana, the leader of the Church of the Collective—remember, he told The Deep and A-Train that he would be meeting with Stan Edgar, and seemed pretty damn confident that he would be able to get them both back into The Seven. And which fairly minor—but named, and recognizable—character did we see a clear demise? A-Train’s rival and likely replacement, Shockwave. We also know that Stormfront has some sort of history with the Church of the Collective too; she said that she used to be part of it back in the day. Not sure how she would fit into this angle, but the string on our crazy wall board is up and ready to be connected. Hmm. Hmmm indeed.
This also means that whatever charges were being brought against Vought are now at a complete crossroads. With Vogelbaum’s head fucking exploded, and Lamplighter burning himself to death, there’s very few people from the inside who are willing to spill the beans on all the bad stuff (Maeve, we’re kinda counting on you at this point). That being said, though, the proceedings were on live, national TV. Everyone was just watching a bunch of people’s heads fucking explode. Something’s gotta give.
As the episode came to an end, Hughie had the final line, a very important question: “What the fuck do we do now?” Butcher looked like he had a plan. With only one episode left until we’re on to Season 3, clearly, he’s going to need one.
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