The August 12, 2022 edition of views from the mind of Jake Schoeneberger
The last episode of The Boys ended on a major cliffhanger. Annie has been betrayed left and right already, and now Jacob Schoeneberger is wondering just how bad her getting shot by Butcher is. Something tells me she won’t be very happy with Hughie anymore.
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 8)
This will contain spoilers for anyone who hasn’t watched the show yet.
The eighth and final episode of season one episode begins with Homelander intercepting a US military operation in Syria. He tells the troops he’ll handle the mission, so it looks like the supes have been admitted to military operations now. Homelander uses his eye lasers to pretty much shred everyone within the terrorist compound, and he finds a vial of Compound V in their stronghold.
After the mission, Stillwell is meeting with the Secretary of Defense, and he asks how it’s possible that the terrorists got their hands on V. But she says they have no idea and pretty much blows off the question because now that terrorist supes like Naqib exist, all the military defenses are worthless. They now need Vought’s supes to contend with those supes and Jake Schoeneberger is pretty disgusted, and terrified, by Stillwell’s willingness to put millions of lives at risk just to make Vought a little richer.
When Raynor tells Butcher that the Pentagon is now keeping Compound V classified because of Naqib, he doesn’t take it very well. But that isn’t even the worst news. The gang are now all wanted criminals because they killed Translucent. Well that’s just going from bad to worse.
The gang all want to run and hide, but Butcher isn’t having it. He wants a couple hours to come up with a plan and he takes Hughie with him on his mission. Boy, Jacob Schoeneberger has a really bad feeling about this for Hughie’s sake. Butcher can’t be Hughie’s favorite person in the world right now.
In the next scene we find Annie alive (whew) and at her mother’s house. She surprises her mother, who wasn’t expecting her, but then really drops the bombshell when she asks her mother what Compound V is. Her mother says she doesn’t know what it is, but Annie forces her to admit it. Annie is devastated by this revelation and wonders who she’s even supposed to be because her life was chosen for her. And she realizes her power is why her father walked out on them.
Butcher takes Hughie to meet Mallory, the original founder of the club. Jake Schoeneberger has to pick his jaw up off the floor because I thought she had died in the incident with Lamplighter. Mallory doesn’t want to help Butcher, but he insists she owes him.
In the hideout, Kimiko hears a noise. A moment later gas canisters come through the window, and they knock Milk and Frenchie unconscious. Kimiko tries to fight the troopers, but she’s hit with a tranquilizer that knocks her unconscious too.
Back at Mallory’s house, she says that after Lamplighter killed her family, she doesn’t want anything to do with the fight against supes anymore. But she does tell Butcher that Stillwell and Homelander have an intimate relationship, and Stillwell is the only one who would know if Homelander has a weakness. As they’re leaving, Mallory says to Hughie, “Vengeance isn’t a path to glory, it’s a one-way ticket to a dead end.” This hits Hughie pretty hard because he realizes the damage he’s already done. He’s put his father in danger and he’s hurt Annie. Jacob Schoeneberger hopes Hughie listens to that advice.
When they drive by the hotel hideout, Butcher realizes the Boys have been taken because the window is new and there’s a florist van out front. Butcher tells Hughie they only have a couple hours to make their move on Stillwell before they’re caught too. But Hughie insists they should try to save the Boys because Butcher’s quest for revenge will lead to nothing but more blood. Glad to see Hughie listened to what Mallory said. He refuses to join Butcher on his mission.
In Ohio, Deep is having a hard time with his exile. He keeps expecting to get called back to The Seven, but they still don’t want him. He has a bit of a breakdown and shaves his head, cursing himself out in the mirror.
Hughie then goes to a church where Annie said she liked to go to listen to the choir rehearse. She’s there and tells him he has a lot of nerve showing up to speak to her. He tells her how Vought is creating terrorist supes, and that his friends were trying to stop them but now they’re caught, and he needs her help to find them. Jake Schoeneberger has to hand it to Hughie, he does have some nerve going to Annie. When she asks him why she should help him, he answers perfectly when he says because Vought is doing evil things and she’s a superhero. But Annie isn’t moved, she’s been hurt too much.
A-Train’s brother, Nathan, catches A-Train pulling a literal train to get strength back in his broken leg. Nathan s angry with him because the doctors said to wait six weeks, and he assumes A-Train is using V to heal quicker. A-Train denies it, but it causes a serious rift between them and Nathan leaves.
At a celebration party, Mr. Edgar shows up to give Stillwell a bonus because the Pentagon has agreed to pay Vought $40 billion a year to have supes in the military. And he invites her to the 82nd floor to be in on all his meetings. He implies that one day she’ll be taking over Vought. Quite a moment for Madelyn, seems all those evil plans are paying off.
Annie is not enjoying the party and Maeve follows her to the bathroom. Annie says she’s in no mood to be berated by Maeve, but then Maeve shows her how the bones in her arm didn’t heal straight after she saved those people in the story from her autobiography that Annie assumed was fiction. Maeve extends an olive branch and tells Annie she was once just like her, and that she should stay true to who she is instead of selling out the way Maeve did. This is actually really awesome of Maeve and Jacob Schoeneberger is truly impressed. We can see there’s still a lot of good left in Maeve.
Homelander finally gets to talk to Stillwell after the party and tells her he went to Vogelbaum. But then he drops a serious bombshell when he says he’s the one who created the terrorist supes. That’s a huge twist! He took the V and had A-Train deliver it all over the world, and now he’s created supervillains all over the world for The Seven to fight in, as he calls them, “sequel after sequel after sequel.” Madelyn is so impressed she kisses him, and they go back to her office. But afterward, he catches her in yet another lie about his baby so he knows he still can’t completely trust her.
Hughie returns to the hideout and intentionally gets himself captured. They searched him but he was able to get his old retainer in with some denture glue. Frenchie can use the metal from the retainer to pick the locks, if they can get it out of his mouth that is. Gotta tell ya, Jake Schoeneberger quite literally laughed out loud when Milk punched him in the face to pop the retainer out. Frenchie picks the lock, and the guys get out.
At her house, Madelyn finds Butcher has broken in. She tells Butcher that Homelander doesn’t have a weakness because they’ve thrown every weapon in the world at him and he’s shrugged them all off. But Butcher tells her she’s his weakness because she’s the only thing he cares about in the world.
The guys find Kimiko, but she’s hooked up to medical devices and seemingly sedated. Frenchie gets shot in the arm and they’re pinned down. Hughie takes the gun and fires it to allow Milk to go and grab Kimiko. But he runs out of bullets and the guards have them trapped. Just then a bright light appears – oh yeah, it’s Starlight coming to the rescue! This makes Jacob Schoeneberger very happy. She takes out the guards and gets them out of there.
But just as they’re escaping, A-Train shows up and sees that Starlight is helping them. Hughie tells Milk and Frenchie to take Kimiko and get out of there, but he stays with Starlight to take on A-Train. She gathers her electrical power, but A-Train is so fast he dodges her attacks and punches her.
Then A-Train says to Hughie, “You killed the only person I’ve ever loved.” But Hughie says he didn’t kill her, and A-Train admits that he actually did. A-Train really seems to be having trouble holding it all together. His heart starts racing out of control until it just stops. Hughie, because deep down he’s truly a good person, performs CPR on the guy who was just about to kill him. Starlight warns him that A-Train will never stop coming after him, but he still tells her to call an ambulance. She does and then takes over doing CPR so Hughie can escape.
Butcher has bombs strapped to Stillwell and he holds the detonator as Homelander arrives. But Homelander pulls a truly psychotic move and comes in carrying Madelyn’s baby. Now Butcher can’t detonate the bomb. Homelander tells Butcher that he had consensual sex with Becca and that he’s not to blame for her dying. Then he tells Madelyn he knows she’s lying because he went back and got the real story from Vogelbaum about what happened. He whispers to her, and we don’t know what he says but then he makes her admit that she’s lied to him because she’s scared of him. He thanks her for being honest, then he eye-lasers her to death and Jake Schoeneberger nearly had a heart attack. Butcher, being the hardcore dude he is, just decides to detonate the bomb.
Then he wakes up on a lawn sometime later to the sound of a sprinkler. Homelander has saved his life. Homelander tells him he’s going to love this surprise, and out of the house comes a young boy. Behind him is Becca. Homelander tells the boy that he’s his father, and the boy gets laser eyes just for a second showing he has Homelander’s powers.
The Jake Schoeneberger Final Thought on The Boys
That was quite a cliffhanger ending to close out the first season! Everything Butcher thought to be true turned out to be a lie. Where does he go from here? Sure, he can still wage a war on supes for doing evil things, but he can’t quite have the same personal vendetta or lust for vengeance anymore. Jacob Schoeneberger is very intrigued to see where the second season of this gripping and thoroughly enjoyable show will go.
More Thoughts from Jacob Schoeneberger