Recap: The Secret’s Out in ‘The Boys’ Season 2, Episode 3: “Over the Hill with the Swords of a Thousand Men”

Lindsey
16 Min Read
Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video.

In the previous episode of The Boys, we learned that the “Supe Terrorist” from the docks is none other than Kimiko’s brother. This revelation shoved a difficult wedge between the Boys, as delivering Kenji to the CIA is Butcher’s ticket finding Becca again. Meanwhile, A-Train is finally awake and back on his feet, much to the dismay of Starlight. He nearly thwarted her plans for the Compound V sample, but she managed to dangle her knowledge of Popclaw’s true killer over his head. Keep reading to find out what happened in episode 3, “Over the Hill with the Swords of a Thousand Men.”

WARNING: The Boys contains mature subject matter, potentially triggering events, vulgar language, violence, and gore. Those themes may appear in the following recap.

We open with the Boys coasting in a body of water on a fancy yacht. The Billy Butcher we know and love is back in action, having ditched the dodgy tracksuit and now sporting a fabulous new trademark Aloha shirt. He seems to be attempting to make amends with Hughie in his own roundabout way, but Hughie snaps, punches him, and begins to attack him (as best as he can, anyway). M.M. is forced to intervene.

Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video.

Butcher then gets a call from Grace Mallory, and they begin to discuss the terms of turning in Kenji. She asks him if he’s ever heard of an old Supe named Liberty, and we see that she’s holding a picture of the Supe in question with an address on the back. Mallory then inquires if the fact that the target is Kimiko’s brother compromises her allegiance, and Butcher affirms that he’ll neutralize her if it comes down to it. Frenchie overhears this unfortunate conversation, and Kimiko walks down the stairs shortly after, shooting a glare at Butcher.

Kimiko heads to the room that they’re keeping her brother chained up in, and tries to offer him a drink as she tells him that she’ll take care of him. He tries to convince her to let him go, reassuring her that he won’t attack or hurt anyone.

We briefly cut to A-Train, who’s hanging out in a club. He goes to leave and as he exits the building, he begins to struggle as he’s overcome with some sort of pain in his chest.

At Vought, The Seven sans Homelander are sitting in on a discussion about their upcoming movie, Dawn of The Seven (Ashley is enamored with it. The others? Not so much.) Side note: A-Train is looking rough. Adam and Ashley begin to gush over the fact that the Lin-Manuel Miranda wants to do the voice for Translucent and proceed to geek out over Hamilton. Stormfront, unimpressed, interrupts and proceeds to quite literally rip Adam a new one as she slams him for the way that he writes women (but oh no, it’s okay, because he has two sisters!). Ashley receives a message on her phone and frantically exits the meeting.

Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video.

She runs into Mr. Edgar as she leaves and admits to him that she doesn’t know where Homelander is. We switch over to a breaking news segment — “Superheroes are not born, but made.” Annie watches from her quarters, satisfied that she has successfully leaked the Compound V secret. A-Train enters, uninvited, and tells her that he knows that she’s the one that did this. She isn’t too bothered by his threats, as she reminds him that it’s on him, too, because he knew that she had the V in the first place.

Meanwhile, at Becca’s, Homelander and Ryan are standing on top of the roof of the house. The Supe, after explaining to his nervous son that he indeed has the power to fly, unceremoniously throws him off the roof. Ryan face plants on the ground, and Becca runs outside, freaking out and admonishing Homelander. The two end up in an argument, and Homelander goes to grab Becca’s arm. This makes Ryan angry and he shoves Homelander backwards with an unexpected amount of power, his eyes glowing red. Homelander, as expected, is pleased. Ryan says that he “fucking hates him,” and also tells Homelander to leave them alone before running inside the house.

Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video.

Back on the yacht, Frenchie attempts to make peace with Kenji, bringing him snacks and a canned drink. In the process, he discovers that the Supe speaks English. Frenchie tells him that the way he communicates with his sister is no sign language that he’s ever seen and says that he wants to help her. Kenji explains that Kimiko stopped talking the night that their parents were murdered, and they came up with their own language in the camp — it saved them. Frenchie, desperate, pleads with him to teach him the language. “Fuck you,” Kenji oh so politely declines. Frenchie, defeated, leaves the drink and the snacks on the counter as he leaves the room. This was obviously a mistake, as Kenji immediately uses his powers to draw the can toward him, and then cuts himself free with the crushed metal.

Maeve is in the conference room at Vought, talking to Elena on the phone, who’s trying to convince her that they should run away together. Homelander — back from his unsanctioned parental visit — walks in and casually asks who Elena is. Maeve smoothly tries to cover up and states that she’s an old friend.

An NYPD helicopter approaches the yacht, which just so happens to be stolen. Whoops. Butcher greets the police with a pathetic attempt at maintaining the ruse, “Ahoy, gents. I am the captain of … My Big Wet Dream.” Without warning, Kimiko’s brother sends the boat’s anchor flying out of the water and decimates the helicopter. The real life irony and relevancy of Hughie dejectedly throwing the small, unhelpful life preserver in the direction of the wreckage lives in my mind rent free.

At Eagle the Archer’s, The Deep continues to spiral. Carol shows up and tells him that it’s time for him to get back into The Seven, the leader of the Collective has sent something over that will give him a chance to get out there and be a hero.

We skip to a news segment with Congresswoman Neuman (Kripke’s Timeless fans, it’s Claudia Doumit!), and then to a Vought meeting in Mr. Edgar’s office. They debate what their official statement on the Compound V leak will be — do they deny it or mea culpa?

Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video.

On the yacht, Butcher calls Mallory and asks where her people are. They were supposed to meet up with them for Kimiko’s brother. Mallory informs him that the deal has changed because the NYPD got involved, and she gives him new instructions for where they are to meet.

Mr. Edgar is speaking with The Seven, and he shows them an image of Kimiko’s brother on the yacht with the Boys. He tells the group that he wants them to go out and handle the issue, but Maeve pushes back, refusing to do damage control for Vought’s mistake. Homelander goes off on a tangent about how The Seven is his family, Vought doesn’t care about them, and who cares if the company burns to the ground. His speech manages to rouse the team into action, and they head off to take down the so-called Supervillain.

Things are getting a bit dicey on My Big Wet Dream, as they’re soon surrounded by a school of sharks that begin to attack the boat. The Boys quickly disembark as the yacht begins to take on water, hopping into a smaller boat that they had been towing on the back. The sharks continue to pursue them, and The Deep casually rolls up beside them on a whale like he’s just out for an afternoon drive. He pulls ahead of them and “parks” the whale on the beach, blocking the storm drain that they need to take to get to the CIA headquarters. Butcher, not to be deterred by something as insignificant as a whale-sized road block, punches the boat into gear and drives it directly into the poor creature. Sadly, Hughie’s epic scream from the trailer didn’t make the final cut. (Note to self: Don’t go whale watching with Butcher.)

Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video.

Butcher crawls out of the whale’s stomach, exclaiming the words we’ve all been waiting to hear, “Fucking diabolical!” Hughie remains inside the whale, seemingly checked out and having hit his limit for the amount of blood and guts that he’s been covered in in his life thus far. M.M. crawls inside the whale for a pep talk after Butcher tells him, “Pinocchio is staying put, have at it,” and manages to convince Hughie to keep going.

The Boys are traipsing through the storm drains, and Hughie is in extremely roughly shape. M.M. nudges Butcher and warns him that Hughie is like their canary — his state of mind is the warning that Butcher is pushing them all too hard, and they’re at each other’s throats. “You let your canary die, how are you going to know when you’ve gone too far?”

The Deep is blubbering (no pun intended) over the dead whale, Lucy, when The Seven show up on the scene. He makes a sad, weird attempt at an apology to Starlight, whilst Stormfront calls him out on joining the Church of the Collective (“You’re an idiot.”) Homelander makes The Deep stay behind as the rest of them head into the storm drain.

A-Train is zooming around through the tunnels and begins to have chest pains again, and it seems like he’s about to pass out as the room goes hazy. Homelander approaches him to ask if he’s okay.

Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video.

Hughie runs into Starlight, and she’s forced to blast him backward because Homelander is watching her. Homelander tells her that she needs to kill Hughie, and she tries to convince him that they should just turn him in instead. Unrelenting, Homelander threatens to kill them both if she doesn’t kill him. Starlight begins to fire up her powers, like she’s just about to do it, when Butcher reveals himself. This momentarily distracts Homelander, and Kenji takes advantage of this and brings the tunnel down on top of him. Kimiko’s brother then takes off through the hole that he made in the ceiling, and Kimiko hurriedly follows him.

Stormfront tracks the two of them down, and we finally get to a glimpse of the villainous corruption that lies within the newest member of The Seven. She chases Kimiko and her brother through an apartment building and ruthlessly kills innocent bystanders, destroying the building floor by floor in the process. The three wind up on a rooftop, and Stormfront is on the verge of killing Kimiko, but her brother saves her. Stormfront then proceeds to break off both of his hands, rendering his powers unusable. Before killing him, she says “Open your eyes, I like to see the light go out,” and then utters a disgustingly racist remark as she snaps his neck. This bitch has got to go.

Kimiko escapes as Homelander shows up and confronts Stormfront, angry that she didn’t leave the Supe for him; she wasn’t supposed to be the one to kill him, he was.

We skip over to a building where emergency resources and care are being offered to those that were displaced and affected by the destruction of the apartment building. Mr. Edgar is talking to the news, and we learn that he has decided to go forward with the lie that Vought didn’t know about Compound V. He claims that they believe it was the work of a small group of scientists led by Madelyn Stillwell. The destruction from earlier is then blamed on Kimiko’s brother, and they frame Stormfront as the hero that saved the day (*cough* deranged racist *cough*).

Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video.

At the hideout, Butcher continues to ponder over the scrap of paper with the details he could remember about Becca’s house. We close on Kimiko as she’s glaring at Stormfront on the TV screen, while Homelander also stares Stormfront menacingly from across the room that they’re both in.

Stormfront smugly smiles on.

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. Episode 4 will premiere on Friday, September 11. Check out all of our recaps for this season here.

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By Lindsey
Lindsey joined the Nerds and Beyond team in 2018. If she's not writing or out and about with her camera, she's probably watching anime, nerding out over Star Wars, reading manga, and definitely forgetting to water her plants. And waiting for the Genshin loading screen to pop up. Contact: lindsey@nerdsandbeyond.com
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