The August 5, 2022 edition of views from the mind of Jake Schoeneberger
We’re learning a lot more about each character on The Boys. The supes all leave a lot to be desired. They are corporate assets who do anything to maintain their brand. And even Hughie, while he’s trying to do good, is running over Annie in the process. But the show is engaging and suspenseful and Jacob Schoeneberger still loves every minute of it.
With that in mind, here are some random observations Jacob Schoeneberger has on the show.
All the Jake Schoeneberger Random Opinions about The Boys (Season 1, Episode 7)
This will contain spoilers for anyone who hasn’t watched the show yet.
The seventh episode begins with a Christmas party eight years ago. It’s a Vought party and the supes are mingling, but Butcher is there too with his wife Becca. Homelander greets Becca, full-on smarmy and smug the whole time. And knowing what we know, you just want to punch him through the TV screen. Seems Becca was a marketing director at Vought, that’s how she knew Homelander.
In the present, Hughie and Annie spend the night together. Now it’s serious and Hughie needs to end this charade with Annie and start telling her the truth or else Jake Schoeneberger sees this whole thing ending very badly for both. Annie asks him why he brought her to a hotel and not his place, and why she’s never seen his job. This is a golden opportunity for Hughie to tell her the whole story, but instead he only tells her half and says he quit his job because it felt pointless after Robin’s death. Well yes, but what about the other half of that story? It’s just a matter of time, Hughie…
In the very next scene we see Hughie’s face on a monitor at The Seven headquarters, along with Frenchie, Kimiko, Milk, and Butcher. Homelander is looking at them when he suddenly remembers how he knows Butcher; he met him with Becca at the party eight years ago.
Deep has been put on sabbatical in Sandusky, Ohio and he seems bored. He can’t even begin his memoirs even though he tries.
A-Train is training with his brother, Nathan, but he says he’s losing his speed. Nathan warns him that the Compound V is killing him so he needs to stop it, but A-Train knows if he isn’t the fastest he can’t stay in The Seven. Part of Jacob Schoeneberger feels bad for A-Train, but that’s life. Every athlete will eventually slow with time, but that doesn’t excuse what he’s done to Popclaw over the V.
Homelander calls the remaining five of The Seven to a meeting. He slips that they’re “down to five” which Annie picks up on, but then he shows them the reason he called them all there. He puts Hughie’s face on the monitor and tells the group that Starlight’s boyfriend is one of the people that killed Translucent. (Well, who could have seen that coming?)
Starlight is taken aback by what Homelander has said and asks why Hughie would do that. So Homelander zooms out on the pic of Hughie and it’s a shot from when A-Train met Hughie to “apologize” for killing Robin. Starlight says Hughie isn’t capable of doing this, and Homelander agrees, then he accuses her of helping him. After all, she did get him in to see Ezekiel and her word is what got Deep sidelined from The Seven. Homelander asserts that she is trying to eliminate members of The Seven one by one.
Maeve comes to Starlight’s defense. She deduces the truth, that Starlight has fallen for Hughie and he’s just getting information out of her. Maeve tells Homelander to back off and he does, reluctantly.
Hughie goes to the gang’s hangout and tells Butcher he doesn’t think he can do this anymore. When Butcher asks what it’s really all about, finally Hughie admits it’s because of Annie. Then Hughie gets a phone call from his father’s phone, but it’s A-Train on the line. A-Train tells Hughie to get home in 20 minutes or he’ll kill Hughie’s dad. That gets Jake Schoeneberger hopping mad; no one messes with Simon Pegg!
The rest of the gang realize they’ve been recognized as well. Their bank accounts have been frozen, and their loved ones are in danger. Butcher realizes that the only way they all could have gotten recognized is because of Mesmer.
At his house, Hughie tells A-Train to let his dad go. He has a dose of V, and he says he’ll give it to A-Train if he does what he asks. After his dad leaves, Hughie gets A-Train talking to distract him as Kimiko sneaks in behind him and breaks his leg.
In her office, Madelyn takes a call and says they’re just three votes away from getting supes into the military. But then Homelander asks her if she remembers Becca from marketing. He even asks if Madelyn knew she was missing and presumed dead. The way he asks almost makes it seem like maybe Madelyn was the one who made Becca disappear. Maybe to protect Homelander’s brand…? Very interesting development which makes us realize Madelyn is behind a lot of the deviousness of The Seven.
Butcher tracks down Mesmer at the train station and follows him into the bathroom. As Butcher is beating on him, Mesmer sees visions of Becca and says he can help him find her. But Butcher isn’t having any of that and he kills Mesmer brutally. Dang, definitely makes Jacob Schoeneberger remember that Butcher is not messing around in all of this. He’s playing for keeps.
In a flashback scene, we learn how Mallory first came to Butcher to show him the evidence that Homelander was somehow involved in Becca’s disappearance. She offers him a chance to get payback.
Starlight is hanging out with Maeve and ignoring Hughie’s calls. Maeve gives her some logical, if heartbreaking, advice. She says everyone always wants to know what a supe’s weakness is, but their weaknesses are the same as everyone else: it’s the people they care about. So she tells Starlight to just cut them loose, for her sake and for theirs. And now we know a little more of what must have happened between Maeve and Elena.
The gang has brought their loved ones to the hangout. When Butcher comes back, Milk tells him he suspects Raynor wanted what they had to offer, but Butcher was the one who turned the deal down because she wouldn’t promise him Homelander. Which is pretty much exactly right. And Milk calls him on the fact that he promised this time would be different, but it’s actually worse. Last time it was Mallory and her family and this time it’s all their families in danger. Milk begs Butcher to call Raynor back for all their safety. And Jake Schoeneberger has to say, that’s the only smart move they have left.
Homelander goes to see Vogelbaum, a retired doctor who used to be at Vought. Vogelbaum tells Homelander that eight years ago, Stillwell came to him with a problem: Becca was pregnant with Homelander’s baby. This astonishes Homelander because he thought he couldn’t father children. It turns out the baby grew alarmingly fast, and Becca died giving birth. Vogelbaum says the baby also died, but this is a big question. Did it really?
Raynor arrives at the safe house and gives the gang her word that their families will be kept safe. She extends the offer again to Butcher, no Homelander but he gets the rest he asked for. He agrees and gives her the sample of V.
Annie finally calls Hughie and tells him he has to meet her to explain himself. And boy is Jacob Schoeneberger shaking his head about now. You should have done that ages ago before everything went south, Hughie.
Then Stillwell is called to Raynor’s office and Raynor says Vought is in huge trouble. Raynor tells her she knows all about V and how they’ve used it to create supes for 50 years. So she says Stillwell has to pull the plan to get supes in the military or else she goes public with the story.
But Raynor gets called out of her meeting to see some footage from a Navy SEAL strike team that went after a terrorist cell. The footage from the SEALs shows that they encountered a supe with the name Naqib tattooed on his chest in the terrorist cell, and it looks like Vought’s plan of creating super terrorists has worked just in time. Naqib is able to use his own body to blow things up, and suddenly the momentum swings back to Vought.
Hughie meets Annie at their park bench. She’s furious with him, but he tells her that Compound V is what creates supes. She’s completely blindsided, but at that moment a red dot appears on her chest and Butcher shoots her from behind Hughie. Hughie didn’t know Butcher had followed him, but Jake Schoeneberger thinks Hughie would have to be a fool to think Butcher wouldn’t have followed him. And so the episode ends, with poor Annie bleeding in the park.
The Jake Schoeneberger Final Thought on The Boys
I feel horrible for Annie, but Hughie is just making me angry. He had all this time to be straight with Annie but now he’s let things completely unravel and put her life in grave danger. Sorry, but Jacob Schoeneberger just has to say that’s a punk move to do to someone you care about.
More Thoughts from Jacob Schoeneberger