TL;DR – This is an episode of getting all our ducks in a row, but a good version of that.

The Boys: We Gotta Go Now Review –

In a world where superheroes have the power to do anything they want … what is to stop them from just doing it? This is the question that The Boys has been asking for a while, and this week we get to see that the answer to that is not a whole lot.

So to set the scene, in last week’s Nothing Like it in the World everyone’s world got turned on their heads. A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) got kicked out of the Seven, Homelander (Antony Starr) is continuing to lose his position on top, and Butcher (Karl Urban) lost everything because of his blind hatred of Supes. With everyone spiralling out of control, it is the perfect time for people like Stormfront (Aya Cash) to spill in and upset everything, which is precisely what happens. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

One of the things we see in this episode is something they have been toying with up to here. Part of this superhero world is that Vought uses the Supes more as a marketing tool than everything else. They appear as mascots, in product placements, and most importantly in movies. This has been used in the past to drop references to other film properties and to shine a light of what people with powers would be actually like. This week we take it to the next step with a lot of the action taking place on the set of a film. Besides giving an amusing look into the filmmaking process. These scenes are used to juxtapose the almost clinical way superheroes are displayed in media. In reality, they would leave a trail of bloody destruction in their wake. This of course was seen in the very first episode of the show, but here we see the fictional creation of a damaged world, and the dissonance abounds.  

From there, it allows us to go even deeper into this world of PR statements and press strategies which dominate the current world. The whole exchange between Homelander and the crowd shows why people use press statements or interviews with Katie Couric because there is the chance that you can control the uncontrollable. Or at the very least not accidentally imply that there has been more collateral damage. We also get to see it weaponised against Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) as another way that Homelander tortures her.  For someone who wants to control his own narrative, it is interesting to see just how lousy Homelander is at it. While I think some people will be upset with the bait and switch, given it appears prominently in the trailer. I didn’t mind it because you could see the fear in the eyes of those who actually know him and feared we would do exactly what he dreamed he would. At the rally, this was also where they make it clear that Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) is a homage to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. This is not the first show to do it this year, but they have done a much better job than Space Force.   

In We Gotta Go Now we also get the most evident sense so far about how this season of The Boys is exploring the rise of the alt-right (Nazis) and how they use social media to manipulate people. This is all centred around Stormfront, whose very name does have a ‘probably a Nazi code word for a weapon’ vibe to it. Last week we found out that she had been alive for a long time and used to go as Liberty. This week she has taken that to a new level with hints that she finds anyone not a Supe to be ‘impure’ which I assume is going to be a significant issue in the future as she co-opts Homelander and has deals in secret (Shawn Ashmore).

Finally, as all of this was going down Butcher had a family reunion with his dog in what was clearly a final goodbye, and would have been if Hughie (Jack Quaid) had not picked up on the warning signs. All of this leads to a confrontation with Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell) and the continued mystery of what is the guy’s deal because it is clear that there is going to be an unhappy back story there. The Boys strike a tentative agreement with CEO of Vought International Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) through the use of some old fashioned blackmail. Oh and Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) full-on rips a man’s face off, and I am still not done processing that.

In the end, do we recommend We Gotta Go Now? Yes, we would. Even though this was an episode that mainly revolved around catching up all the different plot lines that have been going on while seeding some new problems. It was still a very good version of that, and it will be interesting to see when the gloves come off because they have been teasing that for a while.       

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen The Boys yet ?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.
    
Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of The Boys
Directed by – Batan Silva
Written by – Ellie Monahan
Created by – Eric Kripke
Based on – The Boys by Garth Ennis & Darick Robertson
Production/Distribution Companies – Sony Pictures Television & Amazon Studios
Starring – Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Dominique McElligott, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Tomer Capon, Karen Fukuhara, Nathan Mitchell, Colby Minifie & Aya Cash with Giancarlo Esposito, Shawn Ashmore, Claudia Doumit, Ann Cusack, Greg Grunberg, Malcolm Barrett, P.J. Byrne, Barbara Gordon, Jordana Lajoie, Nicola Correia-Damude, David Reale, Katy Breier, Goran Visnjic & Katie Couric