As Stormfront campaigns to fight against super-terrorists, Homelander tries to win back control of The Seven. The Deep searches for a wife, and Butcher reunites with the missus. A road-trip to North Carolina reunites Hughie and Starlight, deepens our understanding of MM, and leaves us asking: Who exactly is Liberty?
For a recap of Episode 3 before you read on, check out FlickLuster’s review for Episode 3.
It’s hard to know where to begin. Homelander is not having a good time right now. He’s acting like a bratty man-child, (Stan Edgar’s very own words), seeking to take back his rightful place as the leading superhero of the Seven. To perfectly summarize his angst, a meme declaring Stormfront the real leader of the Seven pretty much sums up the mounting rivalry between them.
But while he’s not throwing his toys out of the pram, he’s taking his green-eyed monster stress out on the others within the Seven. He publicly reveals Maeve’s lesbian romance on a talk show, pushes A-Train out of the Seven due to his heart condition, and enjoys some downtime with Madelyn Stillwell, (albeit the doppelgänger supe from Season 1).
So as Stormfront rallies the troops, others are beginning to learn about her past. A superhero from the 1970s by the name of Liberty who vanished in 1979, is back. She’s pretty brutal, committing a racially-motivated murder that leads Hughie, Starlight, and MM to learn that this supe is actually Stormfront. Given the thirty-plus age gap, Stormfront’s looking rather good for someone in her late seventies.
Meanwhile, on the lighter side of things, The Deep is looking for a wife. He interviews a number of women as part of an arranged marriage with the Church of the Collective. So good for him.
Speaking of marriages, Butcher is at last reunited with Becca in some rather tender moments. They meet in secret and conspire to escape the Vought compound. One problem: Ryan. His desire for revenge leads Becca to abandon her plan to escape, as she feels Butcher will never accept the mini-Homelander as his own, and will eventually find a way to get rid of him. He just wants his girl back.
Then there’s Black Noir, (perhaps my favorite member of the Seven), who learns that Butcher has accessed the secret compound. I mean, he does look at the camera and raise a middle finger. Ever heard of stealth Billy?
Nah. Suppose not. So Becca leaves Butcher to stay with Ryan, leaving his rescue mission rather kaput. In a similar vein, Hughie and Starlight’s relationship is renewed for a short time before they go their separate ways, as a result of the growing threat of danger all around them, (primarily Antony Starr’s Homelander).
In a rather final scene, the doppelganger becomes Homelander. This moment is a testament to Homelander’s self-deprecation, describing his doppelganger form as pathetic, before then killing his other-self.
“Nothing Like It in the World” takes a slight breather from the violence and chaos seen in Episode 3, but as the credits roll, there’s a palpable sense of dread and uncertainty as Amazon Prime’s second season to The Boys rolls into the back-half.
