Recap: Allegiances Are Strained in ‘The Boys’ Season 2, Episode 2 “Proper Preparation and Planning”
In the previous episode of The Boys, Butcher made his return and took back his place as the rightful leader of the ragtag crew of wayward vigilantes — who were in the process of cleaning themselves up after Susan Raynor’s shocking death. Meanwhile, Annie planted the seeds for her and Hughie’s mission to obtain a sample of Compound V, and The Seven gained their newest recruit — Stormfront (much to Homelander’s dismay). Keep reading to find out what happened in episode 2, “Proper Preparation and Planning.”
WARNING: The Boys contains mature subject matter, potentially triggering events, vulgar language, violence, and gore. Those themes may appear in the following recap.
The episode opens with Butcher in the hideout, looking down at a piece of paper with various notes written on it. Then, we flashback to him waking up in the parking lot of a Tony Cicero’s restaurant, seemingly having been left there by Homelander after the impromptu visit to see his suddenly-not-dead wife. He stumbles inside of the restaurant, grabs a piece of paper and a crayon, and writes down everything he can remember about Becca’s house. Meanwhile, a news alert plays on the television in the lobby, informing the public that he — William Butcher — is wanted for the murder of Madelyn Stillwell. Oops. He looks at the hostess and takes off.
Back in the present day, Kimiko is still trying to get Frenchie to understand whatever it is that she’s been trying to tell him since they went to inspect the boat wreckage … to no avail. Butcher announces that he’s leaving to go meet up with a contact, but he ends up in an argument with Hughie, who’s furious that everyone’s acting like nothing happened even though Butcher basically left them for dead. We also learn that Butcher hasn’t told the Boys what really happened at Stillwell’s house, as they all seem to think he’s the one that killed her.
Back at Becca’s house, Homelander is playing catch with Ryan and he begins to ask his son about his powers and if he uses them. Ryan is confused, and Becca interrupts their father-son ‘bonding’ time to send Ryan inside to do homework. She rounds on Homelander and explains that she’s trying to give her son a normal, ordinary childhood — sans powers — though he very much disagrees with her plans. Because, you know, he’d rather have a homicidal raging mini Homelander out and about.
At Eagle the Archer’s apartment, Carol is in the middle of conducting some sort of evaluation on The Deep, showing him a picture that he’s drawn of himself and noting how he’s ashamed of his gills. Eagle comes home with some Fresca (seriously what’s up with this goddamn soda?), and then proceeds to make The Deep a steaming hot cup of magic mushroom tea to give him a little nudge to … get back in touch with himself.
At Vought, Starlight is filming a tiring onslaught of news segments, and then she’s joined by Queen Maeve and Stormfront for photos for a press event. Ashley is later briefing them on the rest of their day when Maeve receives a phone call and leaves, citing a family emergency.
Meanwhile, CIA Deputy Director Susan Raynor’s funeral is taking place, and former Deputy Director Grace Mallory is in attendance. When Grace leaves, she finds Butcher hiding in the back of her car in the parking garage, and she’s not at all happy to see him, going as far as to threaten to turn him in for the murder of Stillwell. (Can he please just tell someone it technically wasn’t him?) Butcher gets her attention though, as he tells her about his lead on Raynor’s killer — he believes that Vought did it because she got too close to something involving a Supe Terrorist.
Back at Eagle’s lair, The Deep is coasting along on his shroom journey, blasting The Goo Goo Dolls (nice), when his gills suddenly begin talking to him. I went into this season thinking that nothing could surprise me on this show anymore, but clearly I was wrong.
Maeve’s ‘family emergency’ is revealed, as she arrives at the hospital and we see her ex-girlfriend Elena lying in a hospital bed; her appendix had almost burst.
At Vought Tower, Starlight and Stormfront are participating in press junkets, one female Supe short since Queen Maeve still hasn’t returned. We pan through various cut scenes, in which the interviewers proceed to ask the ladies increasingly annoying, tiring, and downright ridiculous questions. Stormfront hands it right back to them with enough sarcasm and sass for her and Starlight both. In a shocking turn of events, a very alive and well A-Train shows up, and Starlight is quite literally shaking in her boots. Yikes.
A-Train’s “welcome back” party is taking place elsewhere in the building, and Starlight confronts him to feel him out and see if he’s told anyone that she helped Hughie escape at the end of last season. Unfortunately for her, he leaves without answering, happy to let her squirm.
Butcher returns to the hideout the and he tells the Boys that if they deliver the Supe Terrorist from the security footage, the CIA will scrub their records clean so they can get back to their normal lives. Butcher rattles off an address that Grace gave him, which is linked to the blind bank account that smuggled the Supe stateside in the first place.
At Eagle the Archer’s humble abode, The Deep’s journey to shroomtown has somehow gotten even wilder. His gills have begun to sing the song “You Are So Beautiful” to him, and The Deep eventually joins in, the trio belting out the song together. You can’t make this stuff up.
At Vought Tower, Starlight chats with Stormfront to feel out how the newest member of The Seven actually feels about the company that they work for. Stormfront’s hackles immediately go up at the question, and she accuses Starlight of being a “Vought spy Barbie.” Gecko interrupts their conversation, as he’s arrived with Starlight’s requested Compound V delivery at literally the worst time — she doesn’t have any pockets. He gives it to her in an inconspicuous tampon case, and because nothing can ever be simple, A-Train shows up just as she’s about to tuck the package into her boots. Full of suspicion, he pats her down to see what she’s hiding, but the camera pans out and we see that she slipped the case into Stormfront’s backpack at the last second.
Meanwhile, Becca drops Ryan off at a house for lessons. She quickly peels out, clearly on a mission. Back at her house, Homelander is busy making himself at home looking through her things. Becca arrives at a monstrous, looming gate, and demands that the guard let her talk to Dr. Park. Furious, she launches into a tirade about how she was told she would never have to see Homelander again, and that he would never know about Ryan or her. Dr. Park, to her disappointment, informs her that they have made a decision not to “antagonize” Homelander any further. They can’t protect her anymore now that the secret is out.
At the hospital, Maeve finally lets her guard down and explains to Elena that the secrecy in their relationship was because of how dangerously jealous Homelander is. She was afraid that he would hurt Elena if he found out about her.
At Becca’s, Homelander tucks Ryan into bed, opting to continue working his manipulation angle rather than going for a classic bedtime story. Dad of the year, I’m tellin’ ya. As he leaves the room, Becca confronts him and tells him that he needs to leave. We learn that Becca has been lying to Ryan; she’s had to keep him in the house and away from a normal life in order to keep him safe. Homelander assures her that he’s not going anywhere.
The Boys show up at the address that they were given, which happens to be a party store jam packed with some great knockoff Halloween costumes of The Seven. They take out a guard, one that Kimiko happens to recognize because he’s with the Shining Light Liberation Army. Shortly after, it’s revealed that the Supe Terrorist is none other than Kimiko’s long-lost brother. How’s that for a plot twist? The two embrace, in an emotional moment, and she signs the word “mouse” to him (which explains the origami bit and what she was trying to tell Frenchie!) Unfortunately, Butcher … being Butcher … tries to shoot him, but Hughie intervenes. Kimiko’s brother sends them blasting backward with his powers, drops a monstrous pile of debris on them, and then takes off with Kimiko hot on his heels.
Meanwhile, Starlight confronts Stormfront and tells her that she’s not a sell out, managing to distract her enough with the conversation that she’s able to slip the case of Compound V out of her backpack as she goes to leave.
The Boys climb out of the wreckage inside of the store and Butcher immediately rounds on Hughie. He wants nothing to do with him after what he just pulled, and he urges M.M. and Frenchie to get a move on, but the two stand their ground for the sake of Kimiko. Butcher, exasperated, finally explains that Becca is alive, she has a son with Homelander, Vought is holding her captive somewhere, and Grace Mallory made a deal with him to find Becca’s house for him again if he brings her the Supe Terrorist.
We cut to Kimiko, who is swinging beside her brother on a swing set. They discuss what Shining Light did to both of them and what they went through.
Starlight heads back to her personal quarters at Vought, and she texts Hughie to tell him that she managed to get ahold of the V. A very uninvited A-Train shows up in her room and swipes the case of Compound V out of her boot. However, after A-Train spews out his threats, Starlight turns the tables on him and threatens to go public with the knowledge that he’s the one that killed Popclaw. She takes back the V and he leaves.
Kimiko and her brother are walking down the street, and she’s crestfallen as her brother tells her that he believes Shining Light was right all along, they fight injustice and stand up for people without a voice. The two end up in a brawl, as Kimiko doesn’t agree with the path he’s headed down, and she manages to render him unconscious. The Boys show up, and they load her brother into the back of the van. Before they take off, Butcher punches Hughie in the face.
“You come between me and my missus again, I’ll fucking kill you.”
Episodes 1-3 of season 2 of The Boys are now available on Amazon Prime Video. And don’t forget to watch Prime Rewind: Inside The Boys, the official after-show.
Stay tuned for our recap of episode 3! Episode 4 will premiere on Friday, September 11. Check out all of our recaps for this season here.