The Boys - Season 4 Eps 1-3 Review - Department of Dirty Tricks, Life Among the Septics, We'll Keep the Red Flag Flying Here

[00:00:00] This summer, we enter a new era of Star Wars. You mean the Dawn of the Star Wars Canon Timeline podcast? Yeah, yeah, sure, that too. But I was obviously talking about the Accolade. We've got to cover that on The Lorehounds.

[00:00:18] Oh, but the Star Wars Canon Timeline podcast is exactly at that point in the timeline, the end of the High Republic 100 years before the prequel trilogy. We've got to cover it there. Why not both? OK, deal. It's the first live action Star Wars outside the Skywalker saga.

[00:00:37] Nobody can miss this. Listeners, kick off your hot lore summer weekends with seem-by-seem breakdowns of the Accolite, found in both the Star Wars Canon Timeline podcast and The Lorehounds mother feed and the Lorehounds Star Wars feed.

[00:00:51] Wherever you like to listen, a couple of days after each new episode is released. Welcome to the radioactive ramblings podcast, your guides to the dangerous endeavor of fighting Vought. I'm Aaron. I'm Chase, one of your hosts and guides to the season of the boys.

[00:01:35] And I'm your other host, Richard. Today, we're actually joined by a special guest, John, from our parent podcast, The Lorehounds. Welcome, John. Oh, thank you, thank you. If you check the chat, I've linked a zip drive with all of the evidence from Red River.

[00:01:51] A nice little Gen V reference to get us started off here. Oh, I was, I was referring to events in this episode actually. Oh, yeah. That's right. That's right. Yeah. They, they really, they were holding back nothing in these first three episodes.

[00:02:10] Oh my God, it was fucking insane. Yeah. Chase, what are we going to be covering today? Today, we're going to be covering episodes one through three of the boys season four. This season is already packed with gore, wild superpowers and everything else we've come

[00:02:28] to expect from this show. So fair warning if you haven't finished the first three episodes of season four, we're going to have some hot takes, some spoiler free stuff, and then we will get into the episodes themselves. This is not the only show coming out this summer.

[00:02:45] John, it's hot lore summer. What is, what are the lore hounds up to? What are some coverage that you guys have got going on? It sure is hot lore summer. We are recording this on Father's Day where the masochists or satis, are they, no, they're masochists at HBO.

[00:03:03] They have named the first episode of House of the Dragon for Father's Day a son for a son and we're going to have a great time covering that. That's going to be me and David. Alicia is going to be covering the acolyte with me already is.

[00:03:19] And yeah, we're having a great time. I mean, I know you guys are going to be doing the boys. I'm excited to hear more of your takes on that and thank you for taking that off our plate because we are busy. Yeah, of course.

[00:03:29] We're, we were all going to be watching this show and we're, we're super excited to talk about it. We appreciate you being here with us today. And this summer is actually so packed. We're going to need all of your help in the form of feedback about all

[00:03:41] the wonderful content gracing our screens this summer. Send some emails to radioactive at the lorehounds.com. Head over to the Lorehounds website and use the contact form or leave us a voicemail if you want to be a part of the conversation. We do also have a discord.

[00:03:55] We have a channel actually set up for boys, the acolyte and pretty much every other show coming out this summer in the discord as well as the channel for radioactive ramblings. So just join us, have some conversations with us, you know, whatever, let us know what you think.

[00:04:07] Links for the discord and all of our affiliate podcasts are in the show notes for this episode. All right. How's everyone doing today? Episodes one through three of the boys are out. House of the Dragon is about to come out.

[00:04:18] Is everyone feeling the pain and the pressure of hot lore summer? Dude, yeah, there's so much stuff coming out. Yeah, I'm feeling it. I had, I had to recap the last season of the boys. So I watched the last couple episodes again just to make sure

[00:04:36] everything was fresh in the noodle. So I finished the last episode of this season while I was in the gym today. Yeah, so let's just say everything is tight up in there. I know, I know everything, every little detail of these last three episodes.

[00:04:53] Talk about doing your homework right at 11.59. Hey, hey, if it's on time, it's on time. If it's on time, it's on time. All right, let's get into a quick synopsis to start us off. As Homelander stands on trial for murder, his supporters are tirelessly supporting his cause.

[00:05:12] His control over Vaught and newfound relationship with his son puts an unstable man in an emotional and dangerous position. MM is the new leader of the boys who are officially operating now within the CIA,

[00:05:24] puts your struggles with his mortality and tries to do the right thing by his ex-wife Becca by saving her son from Homelander. On the political side of things, the inevitable election of Robert Singer

[00:05:34] and his VP, Victoria Newman, puts the presidency one heartbeat away from being held by a soup. All right. And this is the fourth season of the boys. These first three episodes all have a different director.

[00:05:47] And we just got the news that the fifth and final season of the boys has been renewed. So once this next season is over, so not this one, but the one coming after, we are going to be done with the main series of the boys.

[00:06:00] I think that if anyone thinks that Amazon is done with this franchise, they probably are about as sorry, I'll say to this, is your brain being fucked by stupid? That's that's a crew. A classic line, classic line from the boys. They're not they're not done. They're not done.

[00:06:17] I'm excited to see like Jen V carry the torch for sure. Let's get into some production details before we get into our hot takes. Got the episodes one through three titles. We have the Department of Dirty Tricks Life Among the Septics,

[00:06:29] which is a fun little play on words. And then we have Wheel, Keep the Red Flag Flying Here. All three of these episodes were written by Eric Kripke, Garth Ennis. Episode one was also written by David Reed, episode two, Jessica Chu and episode three, Ali Monahan.

[00:06:45] First episode was directed by Philip Skrika. I hope I'm pronouncing that right. Karen Gaviola and episode three by Frederick E.O. Toy. All of these are starring, of course, Carl Urban, Jack Quaid and Anthony Starr. The budgets were $11.2 million per episode, which is crazy.

[00:07:03] And as far as ratings and reviews are going, 95% critic score on Rotten Tomato. 56% audience score. There's been some pretty significant review bombing from folks who are unhappy with the way that the show is. We've seen that quite a bit with television lately where folks are review bombing

[00:07:19] because they don't agree with the messaging in the series, which is very unfortunate, because I think this season is very good so far. Oh yeah, for sure. I think it's a lot more on the political side that people care.

[00:07:29] Like, I think outside of the political content, everyone can agree that they're doing an amazing job like regardless of your thoughts on the political stuff. I don't know. Did people not watch the show before now? Like, I just... It's just media literacy.

[00:07:43] No, I definitely feel like it's maybe a bit more blunt now. I mean, they were beating up a Nazi in season two. But in the season two finale, it was literally like,

[00:07:52] we're going to have powerful female superheroes beat up a Nazi who is aligning herself with the white supremacists of today and using Homeland. There is a vehicle for that. I think this show has always had something political to say and has always been this anti-corporate kind of message.

[00:08:13] I think perhaps the scope of that has expanded because in season one, it's more like, hey, it's us, this ragtag team of anti-soup people versus this soup corporation. But now it's about like, OK, well, the soups are kind of taking over the country.

[00:08:31] So what do we do now? Yeah, it's definitely... They're being more explicit with the politics in this season. But like you said, it's always been a very political show. The messages were always there. And like Chase said, I think it's more of an issue of media literacy

[00:08:47] of people just not really getting it. And now that they're really spelling it out for us, the people who weren't really getting it before are finally catching on and they aren't happy about it.

[00:08:57] So yeah, I mean, just to go back to John's point a little bit about the beating up Nazi. I mean, like with the introduction of Stormfront, I don't even understand how people can't understand what this show is like.

[00:09:13] And let's get into some of our personal histories with this franchise. John, do you want to start us off with your personal history with the boys? Oh, boy. That's funny. Oh, boy. Oh, boys, I guess. I did not watch the boys until season three.

[00:09:31] I was part of the Bald Move Network at the time with David. We were doing our podcast under that network and they were about to be covering it. So I said, hey, maybe I should check this out.

[00:09:42] I was so enamored with the first few episodes that I just binged seasons one and two by like the time we were halfway through season three. And that was a good decision because I really enjoyed season three. I know there were some criticisms of the way it ended.

[00:09:58] A lot of people felt it was anticlimactic. I didn't. It was I was fine with what they did. I do think that this show needs a conclusion soon, sooner than later because the main premise is starting to get stretched a little bit.

[00:10:12] And they're doing interesting things this season. I think that ending it after another season is probably the right decision, though. You need you need an ending. Yeah, too many shows are just getting dragged out and it's it's always tiresome

[00:10:28] to see something that you love and that has done such a good job of telling a story. Just get dragged into something that is no longer making sense. And it just feels old and stable. Richard, how about you? What's your history with the boys?

[00:10:41] I hadn't heard of it until you. I think it was you, maybe a couple other people who told me to watch it. And I think you and I watched seasons one through three in like what, a week, maybe two weeks. Yeah.

[00:10:54] And since then, like it's definitely one of my favorite shows. I love the character dynamics. The character developments also great. The funny parts are also great because like I can't just watch all the extremely violent scenes like that obviously would be a bit much. So that's good.

[00:11:09] And then a couple of weeks ago, I watched Gen V in like three days because it was just amazing and I like I like what we're getting more of. We're getting more fun content, I guess with it. Absolutely.

[00:11:19] And to your point about the like comedy always being fun and stuff like that, if you if anyone has seen Succession, it's a like kind of a similar vibe where everything is very dark and serious.

[00:11:30] And then you have those moments of levity that come out of the like dark and horrible, horrible circumstances that all of these people are in. Yeah, the boys has this added thing to it, though, where it has this level

[00:11:43] of absurdity that I don't think that Succession got to most of the time. And I and the boys, I was talking about, you know, when we covered Shogun on the Lorhounds, I was talking about how I felt like Shogun was more violent

[00:11:56] in the first episode than the boys. And the reason I said that was that the violence of the boys is used often to set up absurdity. Yeah, yeah. And and because of that, it allows you to

[00:12:10] it allows you to look deeper at the real issues because you're like, oh, wait, this like corporatism, this racism, this us versus them mentality. Those are really the the issues, you know, this this. You know, we live in a world where things get rated

[00:12:30] not based on ideas or the value of them, but based on whether they contain violence or sex. And in fact, our rating system is set up so that violence is valued less than sex in terms of how inappropriate it is. It is right?

[00:12:45] Like you can have a lot more violence than sexual content in a PG 13 movie. Yeah, which is always crazy to me that that's the way we see things. You could watch someone die on screen and have it be rated a PG 13 movie. Right.

[00:12:59] Or you could watch someone have sex on screen and it's rated R. And yeah, it's it's a very strange, moral hierarchy. It's probably because of Western ties to Christianity and such. But that's not really that important. Well, my point is basically I think that the boy says, OK,

[00:13:17] rip off the band aid, nothing is off limits. Let's just talk about the issues. Yeah, I I definitely prefer to like rip off the band aid type stuff. That's actually Aaron knows what I'm well might know what I'm about to say.

[00:13:29] That's why I like about this book I've been reading or the series called Red Rising. Very similar. However, in that series, I just finished Lightbringer yesterday or two days ago and I'm I'm sad. Sorry. And last but certainly not least chase,

[00:13:45] what's your personal history with the boys franchise? OK, so I'm like a superhero nerd. So of course, I've read the comics, the comics in comparison to the show, in all honesty. I don't know if this is hot take.

[00:13:59] It's it's probably a lukewarm take, because I think most of the people agree with me here is they're kind of shit compared to the show. Like the show has taken the essence of the comics and actually made it like a really good story and enjoyable.

[00:14:13] But the comic, it started out strong and they just lost whatever they were doing. And it's just it's just a shit show. So yeah, but I've been I've watched the boys TV show like the day it aired

[00:14:24] because I was like super excited to see like just a more like dark, realistic take on superheroes. Because we always see like the goody two shoes, superheroes. It's all about justice and not abusing your power. What if actual real people had powers? So yeah, I love the boys.

[00:14:41] Absolutely. Putting all that power into a person, you wouldn't expect them to to do good things with it most of the time like you see in other superhero properties. That brings us to some initial hot takes for this season.

[00:14:56] John, do you want to get us started off with your hot takes on this season? Yeah, I think it's great so far. I think that they had a strong start. It is as ridiculous as I remember it.

[00:15:07] It I think that the new soups are interesting and bring something new to the table. I can't go into spoilers yet, right? Not yet. OK, OK. So I'm just going to say, I think that we are seeing

[00:15:24] tropes that have not yet been explored and the boys explored now, particularly with the types of villains we're going to see. I also think that they have just kind of come out the gate swinging

[00:15:36] things that were seeming to be easy, like easy, like, oh, this is going to happen this season, confrontations between certain characters are like getting out of the way immediately. And I think that that's great because it's it's letting the show go into interesting directions that I didn't expect.

[00:15:53] I didn't expect a lot of what's going on with Huey's plot line. He's doing something that I am really interested in where it's going. And I feel like his character development is going to be much different than we've seen before, particularly after last season, where he was really

[00:16:11] really angry and really just hot to use violence against the soups. I think he's going to have a more reflective personality this season. And, you know, amazing performances from Anthony Star, as always, and from Keith Urban. Irbane. Yeah. I think the Billy Butcher Billy Butcher. Yes, amazing personalities.

[00:16:39] I'm also loving having having the Kessler actor in I cannot remember his name, but Supernatural. I used to watch that all the time. He was great on that. We also got a couple of Supernatural people. Yeah, they have a bunch. They I mean, Rob Benedict was in there.

[00:16:55] He played Chuck on that and I have a note on that later. I like seeing I like Soldier Boy last season. He was great. A lot of Supernatural alums in this year. Yeah, because it's the same. Team showrunner. Yeah. Showrunner for Supernatural. Yeah. Yeah. OK, that makes sense.

[00:17:12] Yeah. John, any other hot takes for this or for these first three episodes? Not not spoiler free. I think that this is just a really excellent show and I'm glad it's back. It it's such a different tone than anything else on TV.

[00:17:27] And they maintain that tone this season. There are things that will make your jaw drop in how violent and ridiculous they are. But and even sexual things that you're like, oh, I didn't think that was going to happen. And sometimes I look at the show and I'm like,

[00:17:44] how did they get an actor to do this? Because I don't know if I would do that on screen. Yeah, I thought that the Ant-Man scene from last season was a lot. Dude, that open was something else. That still might be the top one.

[00:18:01] That I think that's the top one. But the one that I think you're referring to does come pretty close in terms of like this role reaction to what's going on. The sauna. We're talking we're talking the truth, Khan. The sauna. Yeah, OK.

[00:18:16] OK, we don't want to spoil this. But yeah, so I guess I can say a little bit about my hot takes. I think I just add one more thing before we move on. This is a universe between Gen V and the boys

[00:18:29] that we've already had two penises explode. Yeah, we have. We have. Why? And we had love sausage. Because penis explosion is awesome. That's why. All right. All right, that's a hot take for the ages. Now I'm done. Now I'm done. I promise. Yeah. All right.

[00:18:51] So I think that this season is really turning the real life comparisons up to eleven. It feels like the writers are really trying to spell out the message, which we talked a little bit about this before,

[00:19:00] especially for the audience who seemed to believe that Homelander was the hero, which was a lot of people online, surprisingly. And one of my hot takes is that maybe I think they're being a little bit too blatant and explicit with the messaging.

[00:19:14] I think they could possibly, I don't know, maybe maybe tone it back just a little bit. But then again, some folks aren't really getting it. So maybe they felt the need to. Once again, Jack Wade is killing it as Huey. I won't spoil it here,

[00:19:29] but he's got some really emotional scenes early on this season that are fantastic. It feels like I'm watching a real person go through something and not just this fictional character having a rough time. Homelander feels more dangerous, but slightly more hinged,

[00:19:45] not as unhinged as he was last season, which I don't know if that's something anyone would agree with me on. I'm on the other side of that. I think he became more unhinged. I see. All right. Well, we can we can do.

[00:19:57] I don't know. I just wanted to say one thing. I just I think he feels like same home. I think he honestly, now that I think about it a little bit more, I might be with Richard here. He he's he's he's going a little nut.

[00:20:11] So yeah, I'll go on to my reasons like later. Obviously, once we get to the spoiler section, but that's that's all I can say right now. Yeah. And my final hot take. I hate M.M. Shaden. I can't I can't look at him without thinking

[00:20:29] that something is missing from from M.M. Without the beard. It's really throwing me off every time I look at that character and he doesn't have the beard. And he lost a lot of weight, too. Yes, that's that's very true.

[00:20:42] Richard, do you want to get into some of your hot takes? Yeah, I think like you said earlier, the real life comparisons are insane. And I just don't get how people see Homelander as a hero. He he literally murdered a guy last season in broad daylight

[00:20:56] for throwing an empty bottle, an empty plastic bottle, so not even a glass bottle, like no, not no danger. Just laser to guy's face. Yeah, that was insane. Well, that was self defense. Oh, that was self defense. Shut the fuck up.

[00:21:11] No. And the message again, like you said, I'm kind of disagreeing with most of your points except for the Homelander thing. I do think it's definitely more blunt with how they like portray the message. And I think that they're pivoting

[00:21:25] so that people can kind of understand it better. You know, some of the the fans who didn't understand that Homelander's bad and stuff like that, like I feel like they're just trying to make it easier to digest for people with less media literacy skills.

[00:21:40] Starlight, I will say, I'm not as big of a fan this this this time around. I liked her in the last starlighter. I am not this season, although I think based on that like mid episode three, I think I'm starting to like her more now again.

[00:21:57] But again, can't go into that. And my last hot take is, yeah, fuck and I'm shaving, give him his back. Take away that man's razor. Exactly. OK, I wasn't going to start with this hot take, but I have to I have to defend my man, M.M.

[00:22:14] I think he looks better with the beard, but I think the no beard makes sense for his new role in the group this season. I can I can I can understand that. Yeah, since he's kind of taking over

[00:22:31] and being the point person and the leadership for the girl, that he's got to have important meetings. He's got to be clean shaven. My guy works for the CIA now. That's a good point. It's a good point that is.

[00:22:43] And you can look that good too with Manscape. No, I'm. I wonder when are we getting a man's scape sponsor? Yeah. Don't worry, I've been sending 12 emails a day. I was I agree that the show is being quite over the top and in your face with the references.

[00:23:01] But I mean, that's kind of what the boys is, though, being over the top. That's what makes the boys the boys. But like at the same time, I think like if you actually go and like watch the people and the things they're referencing in real life,

[00:23:18] you kind of realize it's their references are fairly on point. Like people do just act like that in real life. So I do understand where you guys are coming from. Like it does sometimes like feel like it's taking away from the immersion

[00:23:35] of the episode, but I do think like they're kind of being on point with it. I think they're doing a good job, actually. Yeah, I don't hate what they're doing at all. I mean, obviously, I don't think that any of us here disagree

[00:23:49] with any of the messages that they're trying to send in this in this season. But yeah, my I think my only complaint was that it was a little bit heavy hand, a little bit more heavy handed than the boys typically does it,

[00:24:01] which maybe that's just something that we need to get used to in this season. But it also is a more politically charged time in the real world, which I don't want to I don't want to belabor any points

[00:24:11] about real world politics because that gets very messy very fast. But yeah, they just might be the tone that this season is trying to set. The Comlander could shoot a guy in the middle of Fifth Avenue and nothing would happen. Yeah, that's a fire reference.

[00:24:29] I mean, as we're. All right. And before we get into our spoiler section, we are going to take a quick break. So anyone who is not caught up with these first three episodes now would be the time to step out. If you're caught up, stick with us.

[00:24:47] And if you're not and you don't care about spoilers, stick with us. And we will be back shortly. All right. That's a good time for me to head out. Thanks for thanks for having me, guys. This was fun. Thank you for joining us today.

[00:24:59] It was nice getting to chat with you about the boys. And we are back from the break. Let's get into our spoiler discussion of episodes one through three of The Boys. Let's start off with a quick plot story summary of these first three episodes in episode one.

[00:25:21] After Butcher misses the opportunity to kill Homelander and what Victoria Newman has now become, he's trying to get Ryan back on his side, correct these mistakes. And it's just a real nasty time for everyone within The Boys.

[00:25:36] Everyone who's been a part of The Boys are all really going through it. And episode two. I got this one directly from the IMDb page and I didn't feel the need to change it because I thought it was hilarious. I think it's perfect.

[00:25:49] Did you know that globalists put chemicals in our food that make us gay? Dakota Bob is a demon from hell and the moon isn't real. Find out what they want to keep from us at hashtag truthcon. I'll actually have a booth running myself. We'll see about that.

[00:26:02] And yeah, I had no notes on that on that episode description. Episode three at the rally, Homelander brings out the remaining members of the seven. A train, Black New R2 and the deep as well as its official two new members, Sister Sage and Firecracker.

[00:26:17] But the seven are still six. They're missing one slot, which Homelander kind of alludes to that he's saving that for his son Ryan when he becomes an adult. Yeah. Did you did you see that one post that they that Vaught made

[00:26:30] where they were talking about like how Homelander is like Lebron? Yes. And he compares himself to God and he's like, yeah, God sent Jesus, but he didn't step down. I did in fact see that one and it is absolutely crazy.

[00:26:43] The the marketing team for The Boys goes crazy. It really does. They've really gone above and beyond. I yesterday, my fire stick was fucking up. So I was watching episode three on my iPad and I accidentally clicked

[00:26:56] like a link in the episode description and actually took me to a Vaught website. Like that's cool that they actually have stuff like that, you know? That's crazy. And do we want to talk a little bit about some of these characters

[00:27:07] and where they're at in this in the series so far? Yeah, we can start off with with Homelander. Richard, do you want to tell us what you think is up with Homelander this season?

[00:27:15] I just he, you know, he's trying to train Ryan, of course, to become the new him while still not even wanting to not be in the spotlight, it seems. We also see he's kind of having a midlife crisis. He's pulling gray hairs.

[00:27:32] He actually collects them in a little little mason jar in this trunk that we saw. And I think it was episode two and outside of him trying to build a relationship actually not build force a relationship with Ryan.

[00:27:45] He he's kind of losing it like he's going way more on hand in my opinion. He really has realized that he can just toy with his fellow members of the seven as we saw with the the blow a train scene.

[00:28:01] He also has an image of like a Nazi in his trunk, too. The as in Swastika behind him. Yeah, it's a stormlight, right? Is it Stormfront? I don't think it's like an old picture of her from, you know, back in back.

[00:28:19] And I'm sure she would consider her glory days. Homelander, it seems like he's really trying to force a relationship with Ryan. And Ryan is sort of like buying into it a little bit. But you can tell he's kind of disgusted with the things his dad is doing

[00:28:36] and the things that he's being made to do. I don't think that Homelander gives a single shit about Ryan, aside from the fact that having a son who's the first natural born superhero makes Homelander feel like he's special, like he has special genetics or something. I don't know.

[00:28:56] I really don't believe that if Ryan were to die, that Homelander Homelander would be upset because he's lost his son. I think that he would be more upset about the fact that he no longer has that status. I don't know.

[00:29:11] Yeah, and I back to what you said about Ryan kind of going along with the relationship. I'll I definitely think that after, you know, he actually killed that guy. I definitely think, you know, with the scene we get where

[00:29:22] Homelander brings him a milkshake and then takes it away because Homelander is being a terrible parent. I definitely think that Ryan sort of stops buying into it as much. Exactly. He's starting to see Homelander for who he is.

[00:29:36] OK, this might be a hot take, but I think Homelander actually does care for Ryan. But like in the way that like a shitty abusive parent does, like obviously not like he's not a good father by any means. But like.

[00:29:52] I mean, like I think he does like care for him. I just don't think like he's good at caring for him. Right. I mean, I'm sure that there are some desires to be a good parent there on

[00:30:07] Homelander's part, considering he grew up in a lab and has a lot of resentful feelings about that. I think that he's at least making some sort of effort to see that his son has a good life.

[00:30:18] But his idea of what a good life for his son is is so far off from what every normal person would think a good life is. You know, he's he's trying to convince his son that regular humans

[00:30:31] without superpowers are toys to be played with and you can kill and hurt them. And there shouldn't be any consequences. And Ryan isn't really fucking with that idea because he has morals and emotions. And Homelander is really trying to push that on his son.

[00:30:47] Well, yeah, Homelander is just a piece of shit. But I do think we did get like that one moment with him where he's kind of teaching his son a good lesson, actually. Whereas like it were Ryan is like he's like blaming himself

[00:31:00] for killing his mom because like he doesn't know how to control his powers. And Homelander is like that was an accident and like you shouldn't like you did that's not your fault. Like you didn't know what to do.

[00:31:12] And I think like that was like kind of an insight into like Homelander is like actual humanity or what's left of it. And the fact that like he truly does care about Ryan because you like kind of see.

[00:31:24] I think Anthony Starr does a great or Anthony, I don't know. Does a great like job acting here. Like you see like he feels hurt almost when Ryan says that because he can relate to that so much. I think so.

[00:31:37] It's such a weird dynamic that is going on there. I think it's only going to get weirder as the season goes on and they interact a little bit more.

[00:31:45] Butcher this season, I think that my theory for this season is that he's going to be backed into a corner. And I think he's going to be taking permanent fee to become a soup

[00:31:55] and that that will in some way stop the illness that he's got six months to live with. Other than that, I he's very interested in trying to get Ryan safe and to a place where he feels like, you know, like he's done something good in the world.

[00:32:11] He he's having that sort of trope last minute before you die. I want to do one good thing in my life moment. And for that it's saving his ex-wife son from a certain death

[00:32:23] pretty much if he stays with Homelander, either death or a life of being in extreme danger and horrible situations all his life. I have a different theory. I think that Butcher might become a villain in this story almost like the final villain of the story.

[00:32:41] This might probably won't happen this season. But I think maybe like season five, he becomes a villain because. OK, this is a spoiler for the comics. So anyone who's listening just like for like the next like minute or so, just like to now.

[00:33:00] That's actually what I do to you normally. I just tune you out. Yeah, silence, peon. In the comics, Butcher, like I remember like the rest of the boys basically band together to stop him from doing a plan that was going to kill all the soups in the world.

[00:33:20] So like, I think it's like 200,000 people or something like that. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I don't I hope they don't go down that route with like that as a thing. But I mean, like to see Butcher become the villain honestly would would be interesting.

[00:33:36] I mean, like I feel like when I was watching season one, I kind of got that like inkling from him. He would end up being on the opposite side of Huey at one point. I don't know.

[00:33:46] Yeah, I mean, especially now that they've got everything set up for that to be the case and the ending that you're talking about where Butcher wants to take out every suit. They've set up the whole virus thing that's being cooked up at Godulkin from Gen V

[00:33:59] and Butcher knows about it. He wants his hands on it. So I think that that's a very plausible direction that this next season could go in. Obviously with Ryan, he's not going to do that. I mean, we see he stops fucking Super. What is his name?

[00:34:15] Soldier boy from literally his complete end goal of anything. He just wants to kill Homelander like that's his that's he would give up anything for that until we realize that Ryan. Yeah, exactly. It's that for Ryan and we're like, we're seeing I mean, Ryan's a suit.

[00:34:31] So I actually obviously I don't think he's going to release that virus on the populace. Yeah, I kind of not forgot about the virus, but it was kind of just in the back of my mind.

[00:34:41] I think even if he did release the virus, who's to say that Ryan being, you know, the first natural born soup, who's to say that's not going to make him immune or at least more resistant to the effects of the virus? Maybe he wouldn't die from it.

[00:34:57] I mean, I mean, I have no clue. But at the same time, I would assume it's kind of. Just going to like it would work on him just because like, I mean, we see that we've learned that Homelander he's not natural born, right?

[00:35:18] But like he's as close as you can get, like made with an egg and a sperm, like in a test tube. I mean, we have people real life this like right now living like who are born that way. So like, I mean, like.

[00:35:35] Unless they're going to do some crazy like, oh, his his like overly human genetics are like able to fight it off or some crap. Yeah, I mean, like I would have to assume that it would just kill him.

[00:35:48] Yeah, I was thinking more in terms of like since he never technically got a dose of compound V, like maybe maybe it's a chemical that his body produces naturally somehow, but that again, I don't know. I'm not smart enough to even figure that out. That's interesting.

[00:36:05] I don't know how the compound V actually works because I always theorized it was like a vaccine so like it's in your body and then it like permanently altered or not permanently. I mean, vaccines somewhat permanently. They alters you permanently. Let's just say that. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:36:24] And like it's it's not like I guess yeah, like it's out of your system after that, but like, I guess not right? Considering that if if soldier boys like power is to like fucking eviscerate V from people and then it literally takes their powers away, I guess it's

[00:36:40] circulating through you at all times. Right. Yeah. I think that a interesting thing that they could do with this that I I personally hope that they go a different direction. But if Ryan were somehow to die, I think that would really send Butcher over

[00:37:03] the over the edge into villain mode, which might be where we end. I can see that. Yeah. Ryan's death would definitely turn Butcher completely apeshit villain mode. I mean, yeah. Yeah, definitely villain mode because then you just be like all soups.

[00:37:19] He's going to go back to all soups need to die. Yeah. I don't see that happening though, just because it doesn't seem like that's the shape his arc is taking. Me personally, like I think that he's I guess maybe though, I don't know, I might just be having.

[00:37:37] I don't know. I would not be surprised if we see Butcher like arcing into like a more like gentle person and then Ryan tries to save Butcher from Homelander and Homelander basically just accidentally kills Ryan or something like that. And then Butcher goes apeshit, but I don't know.

[00:37:56] Yeah, I can totally see that. And speaking of Butcher, he only has one ally left in the world right now, it seems, and that would be Huey. Huey's trying to get him back on the boys and he is really pushing for him. Yeah.

[00:38:14] I mean, no one else really wants him there at the beginning of this season, except for Huey. And you can understand why, you know, they've had this history. They were kind of the inaugural two members of the current boys team.

[00:38:29] I know that they were a thing back with Frenchy, MMM and Butcher like a while before we see the start of the show. But Huey and Butcher are the ones who kind of revived it together. So you can understand why he would want him there. Yeah.

[00:38:42] And not just that like Huey not only revived it, but also like was the he was like a catalyst for it being revived. So it wasn't just happened to Butcher get translucent. Yeah, he basically saved Butcher from resolution. I think he did kill translucent, right?

[00:39:01] He was the one that set off the bomb. Yeah, he did. He had the detonator. Remember, because, you know, it's been it's been a while. Yeah, that's I was doing a rewatch recently and it was him who who set off the detonator. Yeah. Yeah, but he was.

[00:39:18] Yeah, yeah, the butthole loves. And, you know, Huey's personal relationship, not only with Butcher, but with Newman is going to be causing a lot of strain for him. I really don't know if he's going to have it in him to take out Newman with how close they were.

[00:39:35] I don't know. I mean, he literally threw a bottle of acid on her that he thought would work. So true. Yeah, I think that he thought it would incapacitate her. I don't know that he believed it would kill her. That's possible. Is was that the implication?

[00:39:50] I don't know. I mean, I feel like throwing a bottle of acid on anyone is pretty with the intent to kill or not, even if it's not with intent to kill. I think it's pretty like explanatory that you're willing to do great harm

[00:40:05] to them. But, you know, I think we got to this trace next time I see just get ready. All right. Homelander just always has the most efficient way of making everyone in the room uncomfortable. No, but it, you know, it fits because, you know,

[00:40:18] he was raised in a lab. You didn't know how to act in front of people until I mean, yeah, obviously, it fits with Homelander. Does it mean I like it? No, of course not. Yeah. No.

[00:40:28] I think if you like Homelander, I think it's fair to say that you're psychotic, at least if you if you like and agree with him, if you like how well he's written as a character, that's a different story.

[00:40:39] Right. Do you guys have any other thoughts about Huey in these first three episodes? I do, of course. Yeah. What do you what do you think about the situation with his mom? Oh, I have a theory and I think I did send this to you.

[00:40:53] I also have a theory about that. Erin, I know I sent this one to you is that so we don't see anyone else fully went on one interact with Huey's mother. We don't see any hallucination. I know. Yes, that's the theory that I was like with butchers hallucinations.

[00:41:09] Yes. And I actually I would have added this into butcher, but I kind of forgot about it until just now. Another thing that I saw on TikTok that someone else came up with same theory that I saw with the Huey's mom thing is that they think

[00:41:24] that Kessler who's played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan could also be a hallucination. Granted, he wouldn't have been able to give butcher the drug. So there is that whole. So maybe it's not, but it's a possibility, I guess.

[00:41:41] Yeah, I mean, Butcher's brain is quite literally rotting into a soup that's coming out of his ear. So I think that the I think it's very possible that he could have gone and gotten the medicine or the drugs himself and just like created

[00:41:58] a new memory for himself afterwards. Definitely, unless invested in that part of the theory, because like I don't I don't know, like, yes, that's possible, but it's less likely, I guess. But the thing with Huey's mom is likely, I feel like maybe.

[00:42:17] Yeah, I mean, you know, though, because he goes to like the lawyer or whatever. And he's like, wait, why does she have like the legal right or whatever? True. So maybe she actually is just real. I think that's that could be possible.

[00:42:35] But at the same time, like I thought about that. My other thing, though, that couldn't validate that is that he never like he and the lawyer never discussed like, oh, my mom's back like or anything like that. The lawyer just I don't know.

[00:42:50] I guess that I'm not picking at that point. So yeah. Yeah, I mean, only time can tell. I think that Butcher's brain is obviously really far gone. Well, OK. How many guitar things have you said? OK, be quiet. Let's go to the. Yeah, yeah, sorry. Yeah. All right.

[00:43:13] So I think that Starlight in this season so far has been like she's kind of been pushed into the background, which I wasn't expecting. Maybe she'll come into the forefront a little bit more. I hope so.

[00:43:27] But she's kind of been a little bit more of a background character this season. I want to see more of her. She's kind of the face of the public anti-vault movement with the Starlighters.

[00:43:39] It seems like she really needs to be more of a core part of the team. And it doesn't feel like she's there right now. Yeah, that's what I was saying. We see her staffers kind of like are not staffers, but.

[00:43:53] Oh, like, I guess the people who are in charge of the movement besides her like being like. Like we know you hate your identity as Starlight, but like we need you to appear as Starlight for us if we're going to like receive any funding and support.

[00:44:07] And I kind of agree with them. Like I understand she like doesn't like what Starlight stands for. But like I think she just needs. She doesn't need a fully rebrand, right? Like she can rebrand what Starlight is. I mean, that's kind of what they've done already

[00:44:22] with the Starlighters, like. And like I feel like she's kind of almost absent from her movement. It's a yeah. Yeah, I mean, she doesn't need to put on the costume to be Starlight. She can still be this figurehead for her movement.

[00:44:42] Be present and not have to like dress up in the in the superhero costume and not have to take on that fake public persona of like fake superhero saves and everything, which speaking of fake superhero saves, the whole like a train with his nephews.

[00:45:01] That was that was such a crushing scene because you know that he really does care about his family and the fact that he is estranged from them so much because of his own actions is really killing him. Yeah. So the whole like Starlight as a childhood bully.

[00:45:18] Yeah, I didn't quite enjoy that. I was like, this doesn't make sense with I was going to say, I feel like we're introduced to her character and she's too like when we meet her, she's already like two goody two shoes,

[00:45:30] like to be to ever have been like like that. I feel like I mean, I guess people change, but like. Yeah, I just I feel like it doesn't feel right with her character. But I mean, I guess it's going to be interesting to see how that plays out.

[00:45:48] Yeah, I don't think that they're going to bring her being a bull, like a childhood bully as a major plot point. I think they just needed a reason for firecracker to hate her. And that was easy. I don't know.

[00:46:02] It feels a little bit lazy, it does feel for sure. Yeah. Anyone have any last thoughts on Starlight before we move on a little bit? I mean, I really just wanted to feel more present.

[00:46:17] I, as I said earlier in our spoiler free part, like I liked the Starlight that we were getting in the last three seasons. I of course would like her to be as present, if not more than she has been. But I don't know.

[00:46:29] I'm all I also think that like someone else, I guess, could take the spotlight and that could fill the role that she was in within the boys team, at least not on the public side, obviously.

[00:46:47] I mean, I think we're going to get a train kind of being the inside guy instead of Starlight now. Yeah, that'd be cool. Because I think that's what they're going for. Yeah, I really do like a train's development in the show.

[00:47:01] Like him, you know, you got in season one, he gave that like weak ass apology about killing Robin. And then you get, you know, he really stood up to him at hero gas and was like, you never apologized for Robin. Like what the fuck?

[00:47:16] And a train actually gives a pretty heartfelt apology and Huey, who was like looking ready to beat the shit out of him. Like he was really pissed, just kind of just kind of backs down after that.

[00:47:28] I mean, we see his immediate veto of M.M.'s idea, but I think he'll come around. Another thing is that I do greatly love the contrast between a train and the deep, where they both start out as really shitty people

[00:47:46] and characters when we meet them and they try and have their redemption arcs. But we see the deep is like such a surface level redemption. Like he's he's doing it, but like he's putting zero effort in. He doesn't actually care about redeeming himself.

[00:48:02] He just wants to look good. And then we see a train where he's truly realizing the weight of his mistakes and what he's done and trying to better it. And I think we kind of see that when when he meets with M.M.

[00:48:18] When M.M. steals his brother's phone and beats him out. And he's like, yeah, that's what you get for being good. You get you get killed and then M.M.'s like, but you're still here.

[00:48:31] So I think we see that like a train is really he's on the path to. I wouldn't say redemption because you can't really fully redeem yourself from what all he's done, but I think trying to make a change.

[00:48:48] Yeah. And another thing about that, about the deep and a train comparison, it's really bringing it back to the whole like superheroes in this universe are like the celebrities of our world where the deeps thing was wholly self-centered and his redemption was revolved around his PR team.

[00:49:12] And like he just wants his public image to be good. Just like any celebrity who goes out and is like doing all this charity work because they did an awful thing and they want to try and redeem themselves in the public eye.

[00:49:24] And then you have a train who's just kind of doing it quietly, trying to make amends for things that he's done. Without it being a big media circus. And that's where the real distinction comes in for me,

[00:49:34] that a train is trying to be a good person and the deep doesn't give a fuck. Yeah, a train is like actually doing it for him. And the deep is doing it for the masses. And another thing about this season with these characters,

[00:49:50] I think that we talked a lot about Ryan already. But I mean, the way that they're setting him up to be this close to flipping over to the side of the boys this early on in the season,

[00:50:02] it kind of makes me think that either he won't or he's going to die. Like we kind of talked about earlier. I just don't see him coming over to the good side and being an asset for them this early on.

[00:50:12] Yeah, I think it's definitely going to be a drawn out process for sure. But I do. I mean, we see Ryan as a good person. Like yeah, he's obviously being manipulated. And I mean, you can't blame him. He's a kid who's never had a normal life.

[00:50:29] He grew up in a facility and his mom tried to make it as normal as possible, but you can only go so far being watched over by Homelander. Like. So yeah, we I think Ryan is definitely going to come over to the side of justice and righteousness. But.

[00:50:50] I mean, we kind of already see he's like he's so on the edge about Homelander already in like the third episode, I want to say, when he's at Butcher's house. Yeah, I actually have a theory about this that I think that we will see Ryan flip this season.

[00:51:10] But then Kessler is going to swoop in and fuck it all up. And then Ryan's going to flip back, not flip back necessarily, I guess, but. Not be with the boys. Yeah, I mean, we already have some conflict with Ryan starting to turn

[00:51:27] because Homelander knows that he's gone to see Butcher. He's like, I can smell fucking William Butcher on you. Why? Why are you going there? So it's going to make things a lot harder for Ryan to flip

[00:51:39] when he when his father knows that he's actively going and meeting with Butcher. Yeah, I mean, but I feel like that kind of also serves to make him want to flip more too. Because I mean, like. He he hasn't he obviously has a connection with Butcher.

[00:51:56] I mean, he didn't he live with Butcher for a while or not? Or not live with him. But when he was with Grace, like obviously and before then to he was with Butcher for a while. So like, yeah, I mean, like and Butcher is like the closest person

[00:52:13] to his mother, basically like he like when he the only person he can go to to basically remember his mom and talk about his mom is Butcher. So I feel like that's like another thing that might push Ryan over the edges.

[00:52:30] Homelander, like being so controlling of him and being like, you can't like see that man, even though that man is like as much of a father to him as a homelander is in my opinion. Yeah. Yeah. I would say he's a bit more maybe because like

[00:52:50] they did have that bonding moment after playing foosball that like. I don't know. We haven't said it not to like or not, Homelander, but you're decided not to drug him with cookies. Well, yeah, that part. Cookies are awful anyways. But you know what I mean?

[00:53:05] Like they we haven't had really an actual strong emotional moment between Homelander and Ryan that actually like cements their relationship or furthers it or anything. We because Homelander is kind of incapable of that, it seems. Yeah. Unless I'm missing something from season three and I could.

[00:53:26] No, I think you're pretty spot on with that analysis. I know season three really put like a button on Frenchy and Camico. Not like that the fact that they're not going to work out. But I still was holding out hope.

[00:53:40] But it seems like they're very much shutting that down now. Like it's it's just not going to be a much of a thing anymore. I honestly am kind of glad I feel like it wasn't right. Like I feel like Frenchy was.

[00:53:51] I don't want to say predatory towards Camico, but like I mean, she obviously possessive. Yeah, I was she obviously wasn't interested in him in him for a while. Like Frenchy was like really working at it.

[00:54:07] And she was like she just wanted to like figure her life out, you know. And I mean, obviously she cares for him, but like like an older brother. Like. And I think that's a better relationship for them in all honesty. Yeah, especially working so closely together,

[00:54:28] having to rely on each other, you don't the last thing you want in a situation where you're having to take down some of the most powerful beings on the planet is having your relationship drama, getting the way of of getting the job done. Imaginating a co-worker that's crazy.

[00:54:45] Mr. Guilty over here talking about. But yeah, I don't care. I wanted Frenchy and Kimco to work out. Fuck you guys. Love they literally she literally says to that I love you and you love me too. But it's not going to work out like that is crushing awful.

[00:55:04] And while I like the plot line of Frenchy dating dude that whose family he murdered or helped murder, it's so fucked up. I like the plot line in terms of what it can do. But I hate that just that's awful.

[00:55:21] OK, unironically, I feel like they're like murdering his family bit is like kind of boring to me. Because like I feel like was it last season where he dealt with all the lamp lighters, shit like it feels like the same kind of story just repackaged to me.

[00:55:40] Like he I thought you already got over his guilt thing and realized that like like what happened happened and it actually wasn't his fault. But like now we're are we really just going to have like another Frenchy being like, oh, I killed these people and like

[00:55:58] like that's going to make it some out of it every single time I do a mission. And then like, I mean, I don't understand. I don't know. I just feel like if this definitely felt lazy to me, like every time he like started tweaking and being like

[00:56:13] seeing the people that he killed, I was just like, are we really doing this again? Like if they really wanted to do this, I think they should have just included it with the lamp lighter stuff. I don't know. Yeah, I I can't disagree with you too much.

[00:56:29] That it does feel a bit like a rehash. The whole having him back on drugs and having him, you know, be dealing with all of this this stuff, all of this guilt over killing a family. It feels like Frenchy's back at square one.

[00:56:43] Yeah, it was almost character assassination at this point because he worked so hard to become who he was at the end of season three. And I think I really enjoyed that character arc from him. Frenchy became one of my favorite characters for sure in the boys

[00:57:05] that season. And this just like, I feel like we're at square one again. And I get that's kind of like that's like very reminiscent of like real life addicts. But at the same time, like, I don't know. We only have one more season after this.

[00:57:21] And I don't I just feel like it feels kind of like wasted time for us. Yeah, exactly. I feel they could have done so much more with him, I feel. Yeah, yeah, they could have kept the plotline this season of

[00:57:35] Frenchy dating someone else, dating Colin and not had it be a thing of him being guilty over murdering the family. They could have just had it be some conflict where he still has feelings for Kimiko, but he needs to move on.

[00:57:49] And that would be so much so much more interesting is him dating Colin and Colin's family is actually just alive. But yeah, but he feels guilty dating him because he also feels that he's not over Kimiko.

[00:58:05] Like that would be so much more interesting than like track for his character. Better than instead of them just rerunning his last character arc. They're like, oh, this shit was fire. Let's do it again.

[00:58:19] This fire took him three seasons to get over it, like fully get over it. It was fire because he killed the lamp lighters family. So Kimiko. Kimiko, this season, I'm really happy that we're starting to see some personal developments and some like glimpses into her past

[00:58:41] because that's been a pretty big mystery for her character for the past few seasons of her just kind of having that trauma and not having dealt with it. But now we're kind of seeing her deal with that a little bit more.

[00:58:53] And I'm I'm excited to see where it goes. Yeah, I think Kimiko is a really fun side character. She has so much to explore still. And every time we get like a little bit about her, I think it's really well placed and very interesting to watch.

[00:59:08] So I enjoy Kimiko's scenes very much. I think the therapist scene was very fun for me. But I think, yeah, no complaints here. I have a complaint. I want them to get together. Shut up. Sister Sage. Sister Sage. Yes.

[00:59:30] Yeah, Chase, what do you think about Sister Sage this season? I actually really enjoy her character. I love seeing her get annoyed at Homelander after like she tries to explain like what the plan is and like what we should be doing.

[00:59:43] And then like him just being like, yeah, I'm smart too, actually. I'm actually really fucking smart. And then him like fucking it up. And it's just like, oh, my fucking god, this is this is actually such a perfect representation of how Blander like.

[00:59:58] I was going to say the whole like hiring intelligent people to make a plan for you and then being like, I'm really intelligent too, actually. So we're going to do my thing. It's very a very not so subtle allusion to Homelander's real life inspiration in modern politics.

[01:00:16] It was so funny when they were interrogating that lady and she's asking her the questions as she's in the middle of answering. Homelander just laser eyes her and it's like, yeah. Like you're not. How the fuck down, bro?

[01:00:30] And then Sister Sage is like, you don't think that the next word out of her mouth would have been fucking important. Like you need to tell. She's already so sick of him. No, and I like that she is standing up to him because obviously we see,

[01:00:42] you know, deep a train, no R2 Ashley, no one stands up to him, except for Sister Sage. I think the funny thing is, though, is like, Homelander's like, yeah, none of you fucking losers stand up to me. Like all of you. No, no, I'm getting there.

[01:01:01] He's like, sorry. He's like, yeah, none of you idiots are going to stand. Like I don't need any. It's like you around me. It's like, dude, you're the one who's made it so they can't stand up to you. You literally like you murdered Noir.

[01:01:16] Like they all thought Noir was like your best bud and you fucking murdered. Like, of course, they're not going to say shit to you. Bro. Yeah. Speaking of Noir, the whole Noir two thing where every actor playing him. Oh, yeah. It is it gets me every time.

[01:01:35] It is so fucking funny. Every time he's talking like I'm getting no direction here. And they're like, oh, my God, shut the fuck up. The one thing you can't do is talk and you're doing it. My favorite scene with him is actually not one of those.

[01:01:49] But it's, you know, Homelander gives them all the bats and he says to kill them. And he he's the first one to do anything. He fucking just goes right for it, swings the bat, kills whoever instantly. Right. And then after it happens, he's like, that was fucked up.

[01:02:05] Like my guy, you, you were the one to do it. You started. Yeah, you participated. Not participated led the way for a train in deep. I mean, yeah, getting back on on track to our main characters. No, you're good.

[01:02:21] I think that Sister Sage is a really good counterbalance to Homelander's just emotional like lack of rational thinking. Having some brains behind Vaught and some brains behind the seven makes it feel a lot more dangerous.

[01:02:37] That was one of the things I really liked about Stan Edgar in the first or not the first season. Was he second or third season? I think he was second. He was in the first, I think. Yeah, but he was like that's the prominent character. Gosh, yeah.

[01:02:52] That was what I one of the things I really enjoyed about Vaught in that season is that they felt dangerous still. It felt like they had a plan. Season three was just like Homelander doing whatever the fuck he wants,

[01:03:04] which is still pretty scary, but it's more scary when there's some direction behind the corporation. One thing I had about Sage and I texted Aaron about this. I think I meant to text in the chat, but that's that's my bad is,

[01:03:18] you know, we see her sitting watching the real housewives of fucking Vaught I don't know, whatever. And we see that she she the bottomized herself. I'm pretty sure at least because like that's what the the gear on the table was. Right. See that that's your theory.

[01:03:33] I don't know that she's giving herself lobotomies. I thought my thought was that she killed someone with that, like the spike, not that she is giving herself a lobotomy. But I could see that happening. I could see the show going in that direction.

[01:03:51] It would be yeah, with her being like the smartest fucking person ever. Right. Like she can figure out any twist, any whatever. And like, yes, while it's in my opinion, I'm not going to shit on me. I'm also opinion while like a real housewives type show for me

[01:04:08] wouldn't be that entertaining. Maybe it would be for someone who just lobotomized themselves that they don't have to instantly come to every conclusion all the time. Like it's her getting high. OK, Mr. Megamind. I am honestly bored by the firecracker character so far this season.

[01:04:26] I mean, she doesn't really have enough screen time for for me to make any real conclusions on her, I feel like. I like the conspiracy theory, like really outlandish ones that like she was spewing in that was going on at Truth Con

[01:04:41] just because like I love seeing outlandish conspiracy stuff, Aaron, you know. That convention like Chase was saying earlier, it's so true to life, the things that people are willing to. All right, like it's just that I don't know.

[01:04:57] I was watching it and I was like, holy crap, this is like not that far off. Like if you go and like see like QAnon conventions and stuff like that, like people those people are real. Like they just they literally snapshot in that convention from real life.

[01:05:14] Bro. Yeah. If someone had taken a camera and been like, oh, they filmed this episode of the boys at a real QAnon conspiracy theory convention, I would have been like, yeah, that makes sense. That tracks. Yeah. So any other like character comments or anything before we move on

[01:05:33] to some of the other things in these three episodes and anything to say about character development, anything like that? I have two for like background or like not background because Ashley's not but like the clone guy.

[01:05:47] What the what the fuck was going on in the song scene? Come on. But you wouldn't do that if you could clean your. No. Especially when when one of them looks over and he has to wipe his face. It's OK. And that that was the guy who played.

[01:06:05] He was in Supernatural for like, you know, like a couple episodes each season. So like I just got that was awful. All right, then I think we can move on to some cinematography, special effects.

[01:06:16] My thoughts on the season somehow the blood and gore are even more like nasty looking this season. I feel like every single season, they just turn up the dial even more. You think that they can't go anymore and then they surprise you with with how much they do.

[01:06:32] I am with you. I think the jump from season two to three was the biggest though, especially with the opening of season three being the termite penis thing. Crazy that there was a practical. Yeah. Before we got to that episode,

[01:06:46] I had seen posts on Instagram of like the giant, the giant dick room that they built. And I was just so confused and I wish I'd stayed confused. We should make one of those. Oh, should we? You know, take a nap inside nice and dark. OK, good God.

[01:07:04] We haven't seen a whole lot of the superpower stuff yet this season, but everything we've seen looks just as good as the past few seasons, in my opinion. Chase, any thoughts on the special effects, any of the camera work, anything like that?

[01:07:15] I mean, I feel like this might be a hot take to. But I feel like the boys is one of the only shows that does super powers, like realistically, like all those like CW shows and stuff. I swear they look like dog shit.

[01:07:30] Dude, as you're saying that, you know what's in my head is just the fucking flash. Yeah. The flash when I see home landers like laser eyes and his eyes like glow before. Like I think they do a great job. I don't have any complaints with it.

[01:07:45] I mean, I do agree with Aaron. There hasn't been too much of it, but I mean, we're also only three episodes in. So no, it just just to be clear, that wasn't a complaint about these first three episodes.

[01:07:57] I'm just saying that we we haven't like seen enough of it for for me to make too much of a judgment about the special effects in that department. So good with it. I feel like I just can't imagine them doing a bit.

[01:08:08] I mean, even with like the the guy was like the super long cock. Oh, yeah. That was probably like in my opinion, like the worst thing that they did with the CGI. Like it didn't look that great, but it was still fine.

[01:08:24] It reminded me of that of that one Hodor scene. Oh my God, stop. You did not need to put that in my head again. Holy crap. I had I had cleansed my mind of that until you brought it back for four. What am I missing?

[01:08:40] What do you got? Oh, that's going to it's going to haunt my mind for like the next three hours. God damn you. I guess I don't want to know. All right. Given given that Chase is haunted now,

[01:08:55] I think we should move on to some of the themes and ideas that have been happening in this season. You know, obviously modern US politics are a huge inspiration for this season of the boys. I don't think that we need to talk about this too much.

[01:09:08] If you are watching the show, you you get the message. We don't need to like hammer it in too much. But yeah, the the comparisons between real life politicians and a homelander is it's a very clear connection.

[01:09:27] And I think that maybe if this show had released a little or a few months ago, the Homelander trial stuff would have been a little bit more I don't want to say relevant, but it would have hit a little bit harder, I think,

[01:09:41] if the show would come out a few months earlier. Really? I don't know. I feel like it's almost exactly on time. Maybe. It depends on your perspective. And then obviously you've got corruption in the government with Victoria Newman and the whole thing where

[01:09:56] overreaching mega corporations are pulling the strings. Vaught really has a subsidiary or like child company for fucking everything. Yeah, they've got Vodify. They've got that's all I got actually online. You had Huey's mom selling Votality like essential oils. I thought that was pretty funny, the Votality essential oils.

[01:10:20] And we had the Vaught Hotel even that Butcher and all of them were at. Yeah, and then the truth con was hosted at like a Vaught place too. Yeah. Unless that's what you is that what you're talking about.

[01:10:31] And I'm yeah, that's what I was talking about was that that was the hotel where where they had the convention. Maybe it wasn't a hotel. Maybe it was just like a convention space, whatever it was, it was owned by Vaught.

[01:10:43] I just knew that they had like the Queen Maves something and like the deep blue sea lounge, like all the all the convention rooms were themed after the seven. Yeah. OK. Before we move on, what do we think is going on with Maeve this season?

[01:11:00] Like is she just kind of going to like disappear? I think I thought in season three, they kind of like tied up on her character. I feel like when I was on this. Yeah. OK, well, I'm I'm OK with that, honestly.

[01:11:12] I think that they did give her a nice ending. But I struggle with characters leaving. The radical conspiracy theorists, obviously it's these people at Truth Con are meant to be QAnon all that. I mean, it's it's very on the nose.

[01:11:31] But in a way, I like Chase was saying that it's this is real shit that happens. This is not far off from our real world. It's not an overly dramatic version of the events. There are real people out here who are doing this shit.

[01:11:47] And we are going to take a quick break and we will be back shortly. And we are back from the break. Do you guys want to get into a little bit of what worked and what didn't work for for all of us? We can start off, Richard.

[01:12:04] You want to tell us something that worked for you with the season or a few? Sure, I I thought that Ryan and Butcher like starting to build a better relationship, you know, getting closer. That was really well done.

[01:12:17] You know, for me, actually, personally, I used to play foosball in my basement with my brother. And like that was always a fun experience for me so that it might literally just be the fact that they were playing foosball that like made it better for me.

[01:12:30] I don't know, but what do you guys thoughts on that? I I enjoy the fact that they're building a relationship. I like that Butcher is apologizing and trying to build some trust with Ryan because I think that Ryan obviously knows that

[01:12:44] where Butcher was coming from or not necessarily where he was coming from. But Ryan's has a similar soft spot for Butcher that Butcher has for him, despite everything that's been said between the two of them

[01:12:56] and seeing Butcher put in the effort to try and repair that a little bit instead of just drugging Ryan. I appreciate that a lot more than Butcher taking the easy route with with the whole situation. Richard, what didn't work for you?

[01:13:09] For me, really, just the one thing of and I said, I know I said this earlier, so I'll try to make it quick. So I'm not a broken record. But I again, I wish Annie Starlight.

[01:13:19] No, Annie, I'm going to go with that because that's more her identity now. But I just wish she was more present. And I'm hoping with, you know, we get that scene of her kind of stepping up to a group of starlighters to kind of start

[01:13:34] meeting them a bit more like I'm hoping that I can I could put this out of the didn't work category and put it in the worked category. I she's one of my favorite characters personally. So maybe that's just me.

[01:13:47] I mean, she's I would argue that in the past three seasons, she I would put her among the like main cast or stars of the show, along with Carl Urban, Jack Quaid and Anthony Starr.

[01:13:59] And it feels more like she's in a supporting role this season than a starring role. But I mean, that could change as the season goes on. Chase, what worked for you? What didn't work? Tell us a little bit of your thoughts there.

[01:14:10] For me, I really agree with the Butcher and Ryan stuff as what worked. I also think that a trains arc that is happening so far works. I really enjoy that. What didn't work and I did kind of rant about this earlier is the Frenchy thing.

[01:14:28] I am really disliking what they're doing with this character right now. And unless they do some major changes to or something changes coming up, I'm going to be very disappointed with Frenchy's care. Yeah, I would have liked for them to wrap it up kind of like maybe

[01:14:46] don't make it a season long arc if it was just like if it got resolved by the end of the third episode, I would say it not. I wouldn't say it worked, I guess, or that I liked it.

[01:14:54] But I would say at least it's short and sweet and he can actually have some more meaningful character development that we haven't already seen. Oh, another thing also that I I don't think we talked about a lot is kind of M.M.'s character arc.

[01:15:07] We see he's trying to overcome or live with his OCD in a more manageable way. He's admitting that like I think when he talked to Atron, he's admitting that like, yeah, he didn't like his daughter's stepfather or his ex-wife's new partner, but at the same time,

[01:15:25] like he didn't deserve what happened to him. And I think we're seeing M.M. becoming I mean, he was already, I would say, the most mature member of the boys. But I think we're seeing him like grow into more of that leader father figure character.

[01:15:42] Yeah, especially after Todd gets beaten to death and he's talking to his ex-wife Monique and he's like, I'm sorry. Even though I didn't like him, he was really good to my daughter. Like he cared about my daughter. He was a good stepfather.

[01:15:56] So he he's recognizing that that and he's trying to do his best as now like an official CIA person. He's now a full on government agent. So one of the things that worked for me in these first three episodes, I already talked about it a lot.

[01:16:15] Sister Sage being the brains behind the seven, I'm really appreciating that and having someone to tell Homeland or No, or give Homeland an honest opinion because he is pretending to handle it well. But every time Sister Sage says something to him that he doesn't agree with,

[01:16:31] you can tell he's just seething on the inside. And I find that really entertaining. One thing that didn't work for me, I'm not a big fan of the plotline between Singer and Newman, where there's this whole like, I know your secret.

[01:16:46] You like I know that you know and you're still going to show up to all of our cabinet meetings and we're going to have this whole back and forth where I know you're trying to get me and I'm trying to get you.

[01:16:59] But we can't say anything in public. I just I don't I can't bring myself to really care about it that much, to be honest. Yeah, I was going to say in Gen V, I really liked Newman's character.

[01:17:09] And I feel like she just took an almost a dive this season. I mean, I wouldn't say the acting is bad or her character is bad. I just feel like they they're almost floundering with what to do with her right now.

[01:17:23] It kind of it feels like that with a few of the characters with Frenchy, with Victoria Newman. It does feel a little bit like they have these characters that are a part of the universe, a part of the core cast,

[01:17:34] but they're not quite sure what to do with them. But they don't want to make them a background character. They want them to have a plot. Well, I think it's clearly they're going to have important things

[01:17:43] that they need to do later on in the season and the series, of course. But I mean, like, I feel like it would have been fine to just leave them out of these episodes in honesty. Like if French, if they literally just didn't put Frenchy

[01:18:00] in these first three episodes or like they had him, but like they didn't explore the like him like tweaking out stuff, like I would be so exponentially more happier. Like if he was just a flat character right now, one of the things

[01:18:13] that is really sad about the discourse around the show right now is that people are hating on Frenchy's character right now because he's in a relationship with a man. Yeah, that's stupid because he's been by the whole time. Exactly.

[01:18:27] He has been a part of his character the whole time. Once again, no media literacy. People aren't paying attention in a poly relationship with a man and a woman in the first season. He was. Yeah. So I'm not saying wonderful.

[01:18:38] So I mean, when there's things in this season that with Frenchy's character, like there are genuine complaints that you can make and people are instead deciding to scream at the wall or scream into their phones, whatever. Like. Yeah. You just have to sit back and be like,

[01:18:58] are we watching the same thing? Like what's going on in your head? Anyways, let's move on to some most least favorite moments as if Frenchy's ever been a hyper masculine character. Anyways, though, like no, yeah, it's it's I swear some people have been watching a different show.

[01:19:16] Did Amazon like put another show out and not tell us like I don't know. All right, so I'll get into my most in least because Richard requested that he doesn't speak first this time. My one of my favorite moments was Butcher and M.M.

[01:19:29] coming to an understanding after beefing for the first two episodes. I really like when Butcher saves M.M. And I was Kimiko and Frenchy with I think that it was the four of them together and Butcher saves saves them. And that's when you're talking about when they're fighting

[01:19:47] all the time. Yeah, that's when they're fighting the naked clones at Truthcon and I really appreciated that M.M. was like, OK, I can understand now that you have a little bit left to give this world.

[01:19:58] You're not you don't need to be relegated to the corner until you die. You've got something to contribute. Yeah. And I'm going to put my least once again at M.M. having and not having facial hair. I don't think it's that bad. I think everyone is reacting.

[01:20:15] Yeah, I don't think they're overreacting with Aaron. I mean, that's not my least favorite part. I'll know it's definitely not my least favorite part, but I've already talked about a lot of other issues that I've had with the season. So I'm not going to rehash it too much.

[01:20:29] Chase, what's your most in your least? OK, most favorite. Oh, this is tough because I do really enjoy a lot of the things happening right now, but. I guess just watching Sister Sage and Homewinter interact with each other is really entertaining.

[01:20:49] I think it's just so funny to me. Like, I don't I just keep thinking about the scenery is like, I'm actually really smart, too. It's just no smart person in the universe has ever said that shit. But it's like the fucking it's like the

[01:21:08] and this is a really, really specific reference. And I know, Chase, you'll get it at least. It's like the fucking cricket or grasshopper or whatever in JJK. You know, where he's like, I'm clever. I'm clever. And then you do pizza. That is the least favorite.

[01:21:24] Going to have to go over the Frenchy thing again, not because he's bisexual, but because they literally just rehashes arc in a worse format. Yeah. Yeah. And. Um, yeah, I mean, I know that's that's kind of repetitive,

[01:21:41] but I feel like that was the only thing that I genuinely disliked about these ever everything else was quite enjoyable, quite well done. I mean, I really feel like the boys are dead man. Amazon is fucking killing it. The boys is doing. I know.

[01:22:00] Boys show is just like so up there in recent like television. Like, yeah, I mean, yeah. Season three is in like the top 10 seasons of I'm trying to think of your actions are competing with that.

[01:22:15] Like it's it's like House of the Dragon, which is also an amazing show. Like being compared those like being compared to one another, that's not a bad thing. Like you want to be up there.

[01:22:27] And then I mean, like I think fallout is good, but I don't know if I would put it on that tier. I think I think we need more time with it. Exactly. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. Yeah. Richard, how about you?

[01:22:41] What are your your highs and lows, your mosts and your least for my most? Like this isn't really my most stuff. I've already talked about stuff that like I would consider to be some of the best parts of the season so far.

[01:22:54] So I'm really just kind of going for something else. I like I thought the whole Vod on ice, just like the idea of it was just it was funny. It was goofy. It was it was a little bit of like comic relief right before all the stars died.

[01:23:07] Yeah. And, you know, it was it was just a little fun, you know? And it adds to like that whole mega corporation got its hands in everything like we'll do whatever it can to make money.

[01:23:20] It reminds me of not Captain America in Hawkeye when they had the musical of the event. Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I I've forgotten most of the plot points of Hawkeye. But yeah, that was that was funny. I watched one episode so I can't.

[01:23:35] I enjoyed it quite a bit. But yeah, I mean, can I say something about Vod on ice real quick? I think it's really funny that they decided to do like all of the all of the Vod on ice stuff as this hyper like

[01:23:50] not conspiracy theory, but like hyper political like Christian. Yeah, yeah. The whole lander is basically saying he's like chosen by I think he says chosen by God. I also think it's really funny that they have Maeve,

[01:24:07] like the actress doing Maeve on ice singing a lot about it because just a few seasons ago they had Maeve doing like a pride campaign and now she's like on Vod on ice. The actor is singing conservative songs as Maeve. I thought that was. I had a conservative.

[01:24:24] Yeah. I like that. I yeah, it was just fun. It was carefree and then and then murder. But yeah, so that's my it's my most, you know, outside of other things that we already talked about.

[01:24:37] And then my least I actually am going to be repetitive on this one. I mean, yeah, Frenchy, that is my legit least favorite. But the sauna scene. Come on. Come on, bro. I didn't I didn't mean to see that. I really did. Yeah.

[01:24:54] The human centipede was that was a lot. Not a great label. That's all I could think to when I saw it was fucking a human centipede. I mean, why did you say that out loud? Well, no, no, he's right. I'm right. It basically is the human centipede.

[01:25:13] But yeah, I mean, so that I agree, that one that one was a lot not nearly as bad as the Dick explosion from last season. And Chase, to quote, loves penis explosions. Yeah, yeah, just like Maximus. Yeah. Exactly.

[01:25:33] Before we get into feedback, let's do some quick tropes, connections, comparisons, things like that. Did either of you notice any tropes or connections in these first three episodes? You know, I noticed, of course, they had the chosen one.

[01:25:50] Or at least they were going to push the chosen one trope to the public with the with Ryan being the first natural born soup. And they were going to kind of have him be I mean, I guess that's

[01:26:01] not a trope that they did with the writing of each character, but a right but within the universe. No, yeah, I mean, I don't know. I think anything can count as even if it's like an in universe thing. OK. Yeah.

[01:26:13] So like, of course, there was that and like I I kind of like chosen one like arcs and tropes, like they're fun. However, the other one that I, of course, noticed was butcher is sort of heading towards a redemption arc towards the end of his life.

[01:26:29] And redemption arcs are my favorite. It's my favorite arc that a character can take. That's really all I got. Yeah. I mean, one of the things that I got kind of illusions to in in these episodes with the whole chosen one arc.

[01:26:48] I think it reminded me a lot of Dune, the way that you have this chosen one character, but it's it's not like they were chosen by fate. It's this very carefully architected narrative. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:27:02] So that was kind of where my mind went with with the chosen one arc in the show. Yeah, that's actually a good connection. I just rewatched Dune two last night, actually, since they got on fire movie. It really is so good.

[01:27:16] Yeah. And then obviously you've got that trope of butcher wanting to do one last good thing before he dies, try and redeem himself, which comes in the form of him wanting to save Ryan. And then there's a ton of connections to Gen V.

[01:27:29] I don't think that we need to go over too much of them because, you know, if you've seen Gen V, you recognize those connections. And if you haven't, I don't think that the show is presenting them in a way where it's going to be confusing.

[01:27:43] I think that it's just sort of in universe things where if you know, you know orange drink, but if you don't know. OK, OK, J.Lo. You know, you know. Ham and cheese on a fucking roll. Yeah, shut up. Yeah. While we're talking about Gen V, though. Yeah.

[01:28:06] I've heard there's so many people online like complaining. They're like, why the heck do I have to watch Gen V before watching the new season? It's like if you genuinely like the boys, you're going to like Gen V. Gen V is very enjoyable.

[01:28:22] Also, also you didn't you didn't have to watch Gen V to watch. They they explain. They look like the virus. Well, they allude to it. But like I feel like you could from context clues alone, you piece it together.

[01:28:36] It's not like a it's not like a oh, I didn't watch Gen V. So nothing in this season makes sense. Like yeah, it's not like Marvel where you have to watch every single property for what you're watching to make sense.

[01:28:49] Yeah. But unlike Marvel, I would recommend watching every single property because Gen V is actually flames. Yeah, Gen V was really good. It was so amazing. Well, with all of that being said, I think it's time to move into feedback. We got an email from listener Pelle.

[01:29:07] And they sent us a very, very detailed. I think it's Pelle. It says hi there. Name is pronounced Pelle. Oh, I'm so sorry, Pelle. My bad. Honestly, you should send an email. Wait, I feel bad because I would always blame you guys for not reading

[01:29:27] the outline and then now I'm the idiot. Yeah, not reading the outline. Now you really should. So we got a very nice email from Pelle with a lot of in depth thoughts. We appreciate you guys writing in whenever you do and giving us your thoughts,

[01:29:41] especially when they're so well thought out. So no further ado without further ado. Let's get into it. Pelle says I've been enjoying the new episodes immensely, a strong start to the season and the news that the show runners will be able

[01:29:56] to complete their vision of the show at large with a fifth season in the final is a breath of fresh air. Homelander is always terrifying or Homelander is as terrifying as always, but it feels like he's losing control of it.

[01:30:09] Him having gray hairs and butcher actively dying on screen is a great parallel, as well as how they both are no longer the leaders of their respective teams. It feels like both a train and Ryan will flip by the end of it.

[01:30:20] And we already we've already seen some of that. It's inevitable that Sage will discover his leaking the security footage if she doesn't already know and are planning to use on him somehow, plant some false information on him to get the boys in a trap.

[01:30:34] The only thing that's speaking against it is the fact that it's already been done and repeating it would be bad from a storytelling perspective. Ultimately, I would be surprised if he survives the season. There's no getting around the Trump comparisons with Homelander

[01:30:48] and like what they're doing, it feels almost a bit too much like art imitates life. That's about the only issues I have so far. And even then, it's not because I disagree with the message they're sending. Very happy to see Frenchy being on screen bisexual.

[01:31:01] It's been obvious for a long time, but actually getting it out there is a good thing. He's not being used as a joke. It's not his entire personality. He's just a regular dude that happens to want some D from time to time.

[01:31:13] Regrettably, it's another instance of an LGBTQ person being a criminal, but it's forgiven because every other named character except for Huey's father is a criminal, Elimeo. That's about it. I'm looking forward to the episode. Pelle, thank you for writing in. We really appreciate your feedback.

[01:31:33] Yeah, I mean, to go off of one of your earlier points, I think that Sister Sage probably already knows that A-Train leaked that footage and is going to like use it to blackmail him. What do you guys think about that? I think yeah, blackmail.

[01:31:47] I would prefer using its blackmail him over catching him. You don't think she already knows, Chase? I don't know if she already knows. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if she like next episode. She's like, oh, yeah, I found out already.

[01:32:01] But like at the same time, I don't know if she does. I do agree with the point that she definitely will find out. Oh, like, yeah. Yeah, sure. But yeah. Yeah. And the thing about, you know, the Trump comparisons,

[01:32:18] it being a little too much like, you know, art imitates life. Yeah, we talked about this earlier that maybe some of a few of us think it's a little heavy handed and yeah, but it kind of depends on what.

[01:32:34] I'm trying to think of a way to say this. It depends on how they're doing it, because if they're really digging into the satire like I think they are, then I think I'll like it by the end of the season.

[01:32:44] It's just going to be like a tone adjustment for me. I think though, they definitely are being really, really blunt with it because they just again, I think it's just because they saw people who didn't get the point of the show.

[01:32:58] The people who are like, Homelander is actually right. Homelander is the hero. He's a nice guy. He's great. Yeah, those people. Homelander is bad, like objectively. She's gone from really all that bad. Oh, OK. I'm glad I haven't seen anyone like that on the TikTok, whatever.

[01:33:16] I mean, if people are out here defending Homelander, I don't think that those people are too far off from wanting to do. If they're defending Homelander in public, they're probably defending Stormfront in their minds. Yeah. Yeah, I get that. It's just to me, it seems like

[01:33:35] like I can not understand how people defend Homelander, but like I can. What the fuck am I trying to say? Yeah, I don't know either. I don't know. I. It's they make it not easy, but like it's easier to defend

[01:33:50] Homelander than it is to deny to defend someone who is a literal in name and everything, Nazi, like yes, Homelander is pretty much a Nazi. I understand that. I mean, I feel like willingly being a partner of a Nazi makes you a Nazi. Yeah, true.

[01:34:04] But like she was doing it at the time. I lost. I lost myself. I'm yeah. I mean, I I sort of get what you're saying that like Homelander is less blatantly all I know I can't even say that. Never mind. I don't agree.

[01:34:18] No, I'm going to disagree with you, Richard. He fully. I don't know how to say what the fuck I was trying to say. And that has painted me in a very awful. Homelander. Dad, thank God. Stormlanded Stormlander. Bad. They're both bad. They're both bad. So that counts.

[01:34:36] Stormlander their ship name. Probably by the Nazi. I remember Richard love that ship. Yeah. Yeah. Did you remember me loving that? Did we even know each other two years ago? No, but I knew you. Oh, you knew you knew Captain Ginger. OK. As a Stormlander captain by.

[01:34:57] Captain by Captain Jimi Richard. USS because. OK, silence. Let's go. The next point. So the positive representation of Frenchy, you know, on screen, he's in a relationship with a man. I think that it's very I'm enjoying that plotline in the sense that I'm enjoying the representation.

[01:35:16] We've already been through this though that it feels like it's a very good I'm enjoying the representation. We've already been through this though that it feels like the whole him having murdered his partner's family is just rehashing old things.

[01:35:33] Other than that, I think there's really no way for them to get around that being a point of conflict, but I really wish that they would just pretend like that's not happening going forward. I also I do like what you said, Pelle. I'm saying that right.

[01:35:50] Pelle about how like it's not everything in his personality, because I feel like that's what a lot of shows and movies do. Yeah, writers in Hollywood. I was confident that this show wouldn't make that mistake just because

[01:36:04] they made fun of people who do that when they had the whole like Maeve pride thing. Exactly. So I was already confident that they would handle. You know, the issue of LGBTQ plus characters in a good way, because they've done it so far. Yeah, I agree.

[01:36:23] I yeah, it's another instance of a gay man being either a criminal or a drug addict, but it fits within the context of the show that like you said, every named character except for Huey's father isn't a God awful person at heart. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:36:41] So yeah, thank you so much for writing in Pelle. I we really appreciate your feedback. We hope to hear from you more some more this season. And with that being said, I think that that about wraps it up.

[01:36:54] Does do either of you have any final closing thoughts before we decide to end things? I'm excited for next week. That's all I mean, yeah, me too. Before I let you guys go, I just want to inform everyone about

[01:37:07] some affiliate programming because we are proud affiliates of the Barovian podcasting network and our parent podcast, The Lorhounds, they're going to be covering House of the Dragon. They're going to be doing a one shot for the bear. They've got a ton of awesome stuff coming up.

[01:37:21] So if you are not subscribed there, go subscribe as well. Consider subscribing to rings and rituals that are going through and analyzing the season one of the rings of power through the lens of ritual. Alicia is currently doing Walsh of Dust covering Beacon 23 season two.

[01:37:35] She's also doing the Star Wars Canon timeline podcast where her and John who joined us earlier on the episode talk a little bit about Acolyte and in the actual timeline portion, her and her full time co-host Bob

[01:37:48] are doing all of the games and the comic books, all of that for Star Wars. Harper Lee Howard movie review is wrapping up its latest season. They rates movies on a scale of better or worse than a Ron Howard film. It is a it's a very funny podcast.

[01:38:01] I would highly recommend it. And with all of that, I just want to thank you guys so much for listening. Send us feedback. All of that information about how to get ahold of us and our affiliate podcasts are going to be in the show notes.

[01:38:13] So thank you guys so much for listening and we will see you in the next episode. This summer, we enter a new era of Star Wars. You mean the dawn of the Star Wars Canon timeline podcast? Yeah, yeah, sure that too.

[01:38:48] But I was obviously talking about the Acolyte. We've got to cover that on the Lorehounds. Oh, but the Star Wars Canon timeline podcast is exactly at that point in the timeline, the end of the High Republic 100 years before the prequel trilogy. We've got to cover it there.

[01:39:03] Why not both? OK, deal. It's the first live action Star War outside the Skywalker saga. Nobody can miss this. Listeners, kick off your hot lore summer weekends with seem by seam breakdowns of the Acolyte found in both the Star Wars Canon timeline podcast

[01:39:21] and the Lorehounds mother feed and the Lorehounds Star Wars feed. Wherever you like to listen a couple of days after each new episode is released.