The August 26, 2022 edition of views from the mind of Jake Schoeneberger
Love how the second season of The Boys seems to be ramping up the drama. The gang is in a rough spot and Raynor isn’t around anymore to help them. Jacob Schoeneberger is wondering just how bad things are going to get.
With that in mind, here are some random observations Jacob Schoenberger has on the show.
All the Jake Schoeneberger Random Opinions about The Boys (Season 2, Episode 2)
This will contain spoilers for anyone who hasn’t watched the show yet.
The second episode of season two begins with a flashback scene of Butcher waking up in a restaurant parking lot in Fort Wayne. He asks the hostess for a pen and paper so he can write down the details of what he remembers from where he just saw Becca and her son. Seems Homelander must have knocked him out and dumped him in Fort Wayne and he now has no idea where Becca’s house is.
In the hideout back in the present, Butcher tells the gang he’s going to meet a contact. Butcher is vague with the details of who he’s going to meet, and Jake Schoeneberger loves how uncomfortable the whole thing makes Hughie. These mystery meetings never end well for poor Hughie.
In the next scene, Homelander is having a catch with his son, Ryan. Becca watches from inside the house and seems pretty uncomfortable with the situation, but there really isn’t much she can do about it. Homelander tells Ryan about his powers, and he wants to show him how to start using them, but Becca interrupts and makes Ryan go in and do his math homework.
Becca says she wants Ryan to have a normal childhood, but Homelander says Ryan is the furthest thing from normal. Then she asks how long Homelander will be staying, and he says they have a deal so it seems like Becca made a deal with Homelander that she’d agree to have Homelander in Ryan’s life if Homelander let Butcher live.
Carol is working with Deep, but she says he doesn’t have a positive energy. So Eagle makes him a drink that may be hallucinogenic and says Deep is going on a trip. Wait, tell me Jacob Schoeneberger isn’t the only one who thinks Deep tripping will be bad news?
On a press junket touting the new girl power in The Seven, while Starlight, Maeve, and Stormfront are being whisked around for interviews and photoshoots, Maeve gets a call. She leaves due to a family emergency. Now that Maeve has shown her decent side, I’m actually worried for her.
After Raynor’s funeral, Butcher surprises Mallory. She’s ready to turn him in, but he says he knows Vought killed Raynor because she got too close to something. He knows about the supe terrorist and how Raynor was closing in on answers. Mallory isn’t interested but he asks her to just hear him out on Raynor’s behalf.
As Deep is tripping he hears his chest gills start speaking to him, and Jake Schoeneberger is kind of blown away because his gills are actually really wise. They say he mistreats women because he thinks they’ll judge him just because he’s different and has the gills. That’s deep, gills (pun intended).
And just as I feared, Maeve is in a hospital room and Elena is in the bed. But Elena wakes up and Maeve tells her that apparently she is still Elena’s emergency contact. Elena had an emergency appendectomy so hopefully she’s going to be fine. Maeve says she’ll hang out for a while to make sure she’s ok. Starting to like Maeve more and more here.
Starlight and Stormfront continue their press tour and most of the questions they have to answer are ridiculously sexist. Stormfront is hilarious as she speaks honestly and goes off the talking points. Then a reporter reveals that A-Train is actually right there with him and he appears out of nowhere. They both smile and laugh and fake being friends for the camera.
After the interview, they continue talking and A-Train remembers everything about the night he had his heart attack. He asks how everyone feels about her helping her traitor boyfriend and Jacob Schoeneberger has a really bad feeling about how A-Train is going to handle all this. He walks away from Starlight, and she has no idea who he’s talked to or what he’s told them.
Butcher returns to the hideout and tells the gang that Mallory will get them a clean bill of record from the FBI if they can deliver the supe terrorist. Hughie doesn’t think they can believe him, but he has an address for someone who smuggled the terrorist into the country.
The gills tell Deep he deserves to be loved. He tries to deny that he’s hearing them, but the message is starting to get through. As funny as the scenes are, the gills actually have a really good point that a lot of people need to hear about accepting yourself as you are. How much anger, grief, and sadness are spread because people just aren’t happy with themselves and project that discomfort outward onto others?
Starlight tries to level with Stormfront about all the honest things she’s been saying, but Stormfront just figures she’s a narc for Vought. Then Gecko shows up to talk to Starlight and Stormfront splits. Gecko gives Starlight a sample of V, and he conceals it in a small bag made for tampons. Starlight tries to hide it in her boot just as A-Train appears behind her. He questions what she has in her boot, and Jake Schoeneberger is sweating bullets that he’s gonna find the V. But then Stormfornt appears as says they need to do more interviews, and A-Train doesn’t find the bag.
Becca drops Ryan off for a piano lesson, then speeds off to a Vought compound. She insists she get to talk to a Dr. Park. She says she was told that she’d never have to see Homelander again, but Park explains that Homelander is angry about having Ryan hidden from him so corporate has decided not to antagonize him further. She threatens to take Ryan and disappear, but Park assures her that’s impossible.
In the hospital room, Elena and Maeve share a nice moment. But Elena gets annoyed that they’re doing the same old dance and she doesn’t like how Maeve just wants to keep her a secret and nothing has changed. But finally, Maeve is honest with her and tells her that Homelander has killed people who have made him jealous, and she doesn’t want anything to happen to Elena. She says she just doesn’t want Elena to hate her anymore, and it’s impossible not to feel horrible for Maeve.
Homelander talks to Ryan and tells him that gods should never have to feel alone. And he and Ryan are gods who can do whether they want to do, and now they have each other. Ryan seems a bit creeped out by it all. Then, after Ryan goes to bed, Becca tells Homelander he needs to leave. But he tells her that one day Ryan won’t appreciate the prison she kept him in, he’ll despise her. And Jacob Schoeneberger feels bad for Becca that this prison has now become her own.
The gang sneaks into the address Butcher got from Mallory. Kimiko finds the contact in his office and rips his head clean off. He was a member of the Shining Light Liberation Army, the ones who kidnapped Kimiko, and she knew him. Kimiko runs out of the office before Frenchie can talk to her. She finds another person, but when we think she’s about to fight him, she actually hugs him. It turns out the terrorist is Kimiko’s brother.
As Butcher points the gun at him, Hughie knocks it away so that the shot misses. Then Kimiko’s brother uses telekinesis to throw the whole gang backward and he tips shelves over onto all of them and he and Kimiko run off. Frenchie runs after her, but they’re gone.
As Starlight is talking to Stormfront after their interviews, Stormfront tells her that she should speak her mind more often. And when she turns to leave, Starlight retrieves the bag she’d stashed on her. Pretty sneaky, Starlight. Jake Schoeneberger is impressed with that move.
Butcher is furious with Hughie for spoiling his shot, but Hughie says he did it to spare Kimiko the heartache of never seeing her brother again after he got locked up forever. Butcher tells him to go away, but Frenchie and Milk side with Hughie on this one. Milk says Kimiko is one of them now so they need to find another way.
Then Butcher tells them Becca is alive. He says he needs to find her and get her out of that prison she’s now in, and he needs their help to do it. The deal he made with Mallory is that he brings in the supe terrorist and she finds Becca for him. Now he’s coming clean with the gang.
Kimiko and her brother talk on a swingset later that night. He speaks and she reads his lips and does sign language to respond to him. Jacob Schoeneberger definitely thinks the gang should be kicking themselves that they didn’t realize maybe Kimiko might be deaf and try sign language with her. He says he feels bad that he couldn’t help her, but she says she’s the big sister and she should have helped him. They both apologize to each other and forgive each other, but now at least they’re back in one another’s lives.
In her room, Starlight texts Hughie that she has the V, but then A-Train appears. He takes the bag from her and finds the V. Starlight tells him that she and Hughie saved his life, but he doesn’t care. He says he’s telling Homelander. But then she tells him he’s not telling anyone anything. She knows he killed Popclaw, and she tells him that she’ll leak his story if he tries to come after her. Then she takes the V back from him.
As Kimiko and her brother continue talking, she suggests maybe they could go back to their village. But he says there is no village left. An American supe came out of the sky and destroyed the village and everyone in it. Hmmm, Jake Schoeneberger has a pretty good idea who he’s talking about. Now he’s angry and wants to fight back against America with the Shining Light. But Kimiko tries to reason with him and get him on the right side. He refuses to listen and uses his power to throw her off, then runs away.
She chases him down, but then he catches her in min-air and throws her into the side of a building. She pops right back out on the other side and grabs him again, this time putting him in a rear choke hold until he goes unconscious. Just then the gang pulls up in the van. They load her brother into the back, then when everyone has gotten in, Butcher punches Hughie in the face. He says if Hughie ever comes between him and Becca again, Butcher will kill him.
The Jake Schoeneberger Final Thought on The Boys
The gang is back together but Jacob Schoeneberger knows it feels strained. Their mission doesn’t feel quite as righteous as it did. The lines have been grayed and only Homelander still feels like a true enemy. Can Kimiko’s brother become a powerful ally, or will he be a hindrance? Jacob Schoeneberger loves the series, but it feels like they’re in a hole and the only way out is by digging deeper.
More Thoughts from Jacob Schoeneberger