The Boys: The Bloody Doors Off review S2 E6
The Bloody Doors Off took The Boys in a darker direction than normal for the series and reveals Stormfront’s horrifying origin.
First, a flashback to detail Frenchie’s hatred of Lamplighter. This has been mentioned before yet it still seemed to signal we’re about to see Lamplighter you guys. Frenchie had a three-person crew with Cherie and his best friend, Jay. His innovative methods for taking out supes caught the attention of Grace aka The Colonel, who offered him a Suicide Squad deal to work with her in order to keep Cheri and Jay out of prison.
The Colonel and the Boys managed to blackmail Lamplighter (Shawn Ashmore) into serving as their informant to report on the inner workings of The Seven. Casting Ashmore for Lamplighter was a fun choice due to his previous superhero gig as Iceman in the first X-Men trilogy and Days of Future Past. Naturally Lamplighter didn’t take kindly to being blackmailed and tried to kill Grace, but instead killed a bunch of kids. This seems like an odd mistake to make.
In present day, Hughie brings Starlight to The Boys’ HQ. From digging through Stormfront’s computer she’s seen a lot of emails with Stan and Stormfront discussing an asylum. Time for a road trip! Frenchie, Mother’s Milk and Kimiko go undercover as orderlies and discover the asylum’s secret — it’s a testing ground for Compound V — run by Stormfront and Lamplighter.
Frenchie and Lamplighter get into a confrontation, which unleashes Cindy (Ess Hodlmoser), one of the more dangerous supes that can explode people with a flick of her wrist. While trapped from the escaping supes, Lamplighter and Frenchie strike a truce over their roles of that fateful night. Again, this scene felt somewhat dodgy with a lack of key information like how Lamplighter managed to sneak out of a club attempt to assassinate Grace, but kill a bunch of kids instead in the time it took for Frenchie to deal with an overdosing Jay.
More importantly, the crew learns Vought is trying to stabilize Compound V so adults can have a solid super power. If someone gets out of line or starts resenting “volunteering” for the trials, Lamplighter has to burn the evidence.
One of the escaping supes uses a sonic wave on Billy and Starlight. Hughie got the worst of it as he was still in the van and got caught with some shrapnel. Billy has to put aside his reluctance in working with Starlight to help save him and in the process, Starlight kills a guy as they try to borrow his car. Starlight has definitely fallen from grace and she’s fitting in way more with the rouges of The Boys now. Not that The Seven are some starling beacon of all that’s right in the world either.
Stormfront arrives to clean up the asylum mess, but Lamplighter doesn’t rat out The Boys. He’s ready to atone for his sins and help Grace and The Boys bring Vought down.
MORE:
- Batman: Death in the Family movie review
- Monster Force Zero review
- Welcome to Sudden Death movie review
- DC Comics reviews 10/13/20 – Dark Nights Death Metal #4, Rorschach #1
Homelander has it bad for Stormfront, someone who’s just as psychotic as him…and maybe more so in actuality. They stop a thief and Homelander smashes his head in the wall before smashing Stormfront in the alley. So romantic. But Homelander always gets a little weird in his relationships and starts over thinking getting Stormfront roses before burning his trailer in an act of defiance over his lovesick emotions.
A-Train is trending on The Deep territory as in his subplots are getting less essential to the overall story. Maybe not surprisingly that’s why he’s paired up with Deep this episode who offers a listening ear…and a Fresca. And a meeting with the Church of the Collective’s leader Alastair Adana (Goran Visnjic). Alastair knows all about A-Train’s debt and heart condition, but what can he offer him besides a great lunch?
Deep was useful on another front as he retrieved a cell phone from the plane crash incident where a passenger recorded Homelander and Maeve abandoning them. Elena stumbling on this video seemed “a bit” convenient, but it looks to put a major wedge between them although it’s clear Maeve was trying to convince Homelander to save some of the passengers.
Stormfront’s big confession to Homelander was shocking largely because I’d only been half joking, but she really is a Nazi! She’s all blah blah master race blah blah master race and the smitten Homelander, who’s always considered himself the master of The Seven and is basically a poster child for Aryan pride anyway, is all in.
The bigger question is why Stan is going along with Stormfront, who can’t seem to hide her disdain for minorities at all. This also cast a different light on the asylum trials as this is in some way a modern concentration camp. If Stormfront was in charge it seems like she’d favor bringing in more minorities to test before the Compound V is perfected so she can empower her preferred heroes, right?
In an ominous final scene, Cindy hitches a ride. With a power like Cindy’s, this is a supe who’s actions are going to need to be closely monitored.
There’s two episodes left this season and things are getting crazier than ever with Stormfront’s reveal and The Boys still operating on a small scale while The Seven’s power couple plan a major move.
Rating: 9 out of 10
Photo Credit: Amazon Studios