The Boys

[PACOX]

TV streaming apps tend to suck in general because of the manufacturer. Roku TVs tend to have better apps because streaming is Roku's thing.

[Mteq]

get an x-box or PlayStation and use that as a media hub. so much better then all these smart TV apps.

more on subject; i actually like these weekly releases - these discussions and speculations make it a lot more fun.

[Thekri]

The show is actually pretty good, but I really enjoy the irony of all these shows about extremely powerful evil corporations that crush the rights of the common man... made and produced by Amazon.

I prefer my evil corporate overlords to be slightly less self aware.

[Kithelle]

Spotify and Amazon Prime have to be the worst written apps for TV. They lag and are so unresponsive (LG B9).

Maybe I've just had good luck but so far the worst one I've dealt with was all access....years later and they still can't fix the sound problems or anything.

[Koriani]

Not fully caught up to the released episodes yet (got one or two left I believe right now) so been skimming some of this trying to avoid spoilers. Was interested to see from the thread that the comic's version of "The Boys" are also V-product-babies. I do like that the show decided to go a different way (at least for these seasons), but wouldn't be surprised if at least MM may end up with powers (as you guys have noted the story about his father was the same, even if he didn't give the 'why' of what Vaught did to his family).

Started thinking about more practical reasons "why" they decided to go such a different route with the main "Boys" characters (heroes/antiheroes whatever you call them) and wondered if the COST of having bigger-destructive fights between two "supes" everytime the Boys clashed with V-Supes may have been factored into this decision. When you think about it - its certainly cheaper on the special effects (CGI or otherwise) to have Supes fighting Humans rather than Supes Fighting Supes every single time. They weren't trying to go for Avenger/Justice League CGI costs per episode, after all.

Pure speculation and certainly may have had nothing to do with it - but I gotta wonder if that was some of the push also.

But esp. after hearing the "Eyes of the Dragon" show that was previously approved (don't remember if it was Netflix or Amazon or CBS All Access or which Streamer it was) ended up getting canned most probably *because* the price tag for the show ended up being enormous because of the CGI/effects budget (as they were going for GoT level of production, per the article I read). I have to wonder if that factored into this thought process too. Or at least motivated them to come up with an alternative to the cost of the comic book storylines.

[Uproot]

SNIP

Honestly, I don't think the decision to depower The Boys was financial (I could be very wrong). In the comics NO SPOILERS there really are only a handful of big spectacle fights. Honestly the biggest flashiest one was done off-panel.

[Sarethion]

Holy f... hell... That ending.

I'm going to call it right now - it's that main Church of the Collective guy who does the exploding heads thing, because:
- He was connected to the whole Liberty business, so when that CIA lady started digging into that, he had a reason to off her.
- He was meeting with Edgar before the hearing and he was confident that the Deep and A-Train are getting back on the Seven.
- One of the people that got head-exploded was that other speedster, who took A-Train's place on the Seven.

It's subtle, but I think it all adds up, especially if you consider the last point or more specifically, how clearly it was shown and that whoever wanted to stop the hearing didn't really have a reason to off the speedster, but the church guy did.

[Lothaeryn]

Holy f... hell... That ending.

I'm going to call it right now - it's that main Church of the Collective guy who does the exploding heads thing, because:
- He was connected to the whole Liberty business, so when that CIA lady started digging into that, he had a reason to off her.
- He was meeting with Edgar before the hearing and he was confident that the Deep and A-Train are getting back on the Seven.
- One of the people that got head-exploded was that other speedster, who took A-Train's place on the Seven.

It's subtle, but I think it all adds up, especially if you consider the last point or more specifically, how clearly it was shown and that whoever wanted to stop the hearing didn't really have a reason to off the speedster, but the church guy did.

Makes sense, not a bad speculation.

[Wikko]

Holy f... hell... That ending.

I'm going to call it right now - it's that main Church of the Collective guy who does the exploding heads thing, because:
- He was connected to the whole Liberty business, so when that CIA lady started digging into that, he had a reason to off her.
- He was meeting with Edgar before the hearing and he was confident that the Deep and A-Train are getting back on the Seven.
- One of the people that got head-exploded was that other speedster, who took A-Train's place on the Seven.

It's subtle, but I think it all adds up, especially if you consider the last point or more specifically, how clearly it was shown and that whoever wanted to stop the hearing didn't really have a reason to off the speedster, but the church guy did.

Could be, but I rather think it's stormfront and the supe from Sage Grove who can explode people. No point in showing her "escape" there if nothing comes off it. That chaos just adds to their agenda of having more supes to fight against superterrorists.

[Sorshen]

Could be, but I rather think it's stormfront and the supe from Sage Grove who can explode people. No point in showing her "escape" there if nothing comes off it. That chaos just adds to their agenda of having more supes to fight against superterrorists.

It's 100% Cindy, she's Silver Kincaid from the comics, and that's her signature move.

[exochaft]

Honestly, I don't think the decision to depower The Boys was financial (I could be very wrong). In the comics NO SPOILERS there really are only a handful of big spectacle fights. Honestly the biggest flashiest one was done off-panel.

Based on some of the episodes and the direction I've noticed compared to the comics, the creators are making drama for drama's sake out of moments that were just background information. The first season's finale (or maybe the episode before, can't recall off the top of my head) made the dramatic reveal of information concerning Compound V and the supes that you find out really early in the comics almost in passing. I have the feeling that The Boys getting an upgrade will be handled in a similar fashion, just to add more drama. Because honestly, a lot of the scenarios The Boys have found themselves in during this series wouldn't be as much of an issue if they were at the same state as referenced in the comics near the start.

I can understand not wanting to do a shot-for-shot remake of the comics, as it wouldn't translate well to live action. However, I think quite a bit of it has to do with the comic's content probably hitting some nerves that the creators probably wouldn't want to delve into, replacing some scenes and themes with their own personal liking. The show tends to take subjects that it's touchy about and make it a corporate issue instead of a social one. Especially obvious with how the latest episode, S2E7, was handled and depicted at the start. That opening sequence was an obvious wet dream of the creators, as it was laced with viewpoints that didn't line up with the reality it's trying to mock. Unless it's going really meta and mocking the show itself within the show, or just proving Goebbel's theories.

[Stormcall]

Started thinking about more practical reasons "why" they decided to go such a different route with the main "Boys" characters (heroes/antiheroes whatever you call them) and wondered if the COST of having bigger-destructive fights between two "supes" everytime the Boys clashed with V-Supes may have been factored into this decision. When you think about it - its certainly cheaper on the special effects (CGI or otherwise) to have Supes fighting Humans rather than Supes Fighting Supes every single time. They weren't trying to go for Avenger/Justice League CGI costs per episode, after all.

Most of the fights in the comics were just hand to hand though, not big power spectacles. The entire team of the Boys had no powers beyond super strength and durability, so their fights basically just involved them(particularly the Female) beating the shit out of people and most of the supes they fought with weren't the high powered kind, they deliberately tried to avoid outright battles with supes on the level of the Seven.

[Beazy]

Black Noir kryptonite scene was pretty fucking funny IMO.

[rayvio]

it was, and we got a brief look at part of his face, look pretty burnt up or something

whether it was Stormy, Escapee, Churchy or someone else it's pretty clear that the multiple exploding heads wasn't [I]just[/I] to stop the hearing

[tehealadin]

Holy f... hell... That ending.

I'm going to call it right now - it's that main Church of the Collective guy who does the exploding heads thing, because:
- He was connected to the whole Liberty business, so when that CIA lady started digging into that, he had a reason to off her.
- He was meeting with Edgar before the hearing and he was confident that the Deep and A-Train are getting back on the Seven.
- One of the people that got head-exploded was that other speedster, who took A-Train's place on the Seven.

It's subtle, but I think it all adds up, especially if you consider the last point or more specifically, how clearly it was shown and that whoever wanted to stop the hearing didn't really have a reason to off the speedster, but the church guy did.

Good shout mate, I expect you will be fairly spot on with this. Reminds me of the ABC Murders- when is a murder not a murder? When it is part of a series.

[Very Tired]

Yeah pretty sure Cindy is just the red herring to the head explodey powers. She was locked up in that facticity and really had no way of knowing anything about the CIA lady or would have really had a reason to kill her.

Was going through this episode thinking it might have a low body count for once, but nah.

- - - Updated - - -

Also I don't know if A-Train is bullet proof strong like the others, but the fact that it worked on Shockwave might mean this power has some huge potential for supe killing.

[EyelessCrow]

Yeah pretty sure Cindy is just the red herring to the head explodey powers. She was locked up in that facticity and really had no way of knowing anything about the CIA lady or would have really had a reason to kill her.

She is a weapon, they could have "easily" pointed her at a target. Locked up and not knowing about her are irrelevant. That said she seems pretty hard to control. I don't understand why she would kill those particular people either.

[MrLachyG]

She is a weapon, they could have "easily" pointed her at a target. Locked up and not knowing about her are irrelevant. That said she seems pretty hard to control. I don't understand why she would kill those particular people either.

her powers are different though. at least the powers we've seen her use

[fwc577]

Yeah pretty sure Cindy is just the red herring to the head explodey powers. She was locked up in that facticity and really had no way of knowing anything about the CIA lady or would have really had a reason to kill her.

Was going through this episode thinking it might have a low body count for once, but nah.

- - - Updated - - -

Also I don't know if A-Train is bullet proof strong like the others, but the fact that it worked on Shockwave might mean this power has some huge potential for supe killing.

Think it's kind of implied they're all bulletproof strong. Also, A-train did run through a person and you need to be durable to handle that, especially when you accidentally swallow a tooth on your way through.

- - - Updated - - -

Cindy is 100% a red herring. We saw her use her powers last episode (or episode before) and she needs line of sight. Whoever is exploding heads doesn't need as good of line of sight as Cindy does considering the courtroom massacre was either done through the windows (which Shockwave exploded all over, somewhat blocking line of sight) or through the cameras.

I think, as mentioned earlier in this thread and on Reddit pretty heavily theorized that, the church of the collective is somehow responsible.

This also seemed more of a targeted hit on some of the people rather than a mass-shooting type of event.

Being that they kept Senator Nueman and Mallory alive while also leaving core members / staff of The 7 alive, whoever the person doing this knows exactly what is going on and is playing the two sides against each other.

Cindy appears to be a wild card that wouldn't pit the two side together.

Also, with 1 more episode, the Church has to do something because they've spent too many episodes building up these people if they're only going to use them in the plot next season.

[MrLachyG]

Holy f... hell... That ending.

I'm going to call it right now - it's that main Church of the Collective guy who does the exploding heads thing, because:
- He was connected to the whole Liberty business, so when that CIA lady started digging into that, he had a reason to off her.
- He was meeting with Edgar before the hearing and he was confident that the Deep and A-Train are getting back on the Seven.
- One of the people that got head-exploded was that other speedster, who took A-Train's place on the Seven.

It's subtle, but I think it all adds up, especially if you consider the last point or more specifically, how clearly it was shown and that whoever wanted to stop the hearing didn't really have a reason to off the speedster, but the church guy did.

I also just had a thought.... so if the Church guy was responsible for this and his reasons are as you described why not wipe out Homelander, Stormfront and Maeve. They were all right there; if his goal is to get members on the Seven then why stop at 2? why not eliminate the others as well? Maybe he has plans for them.... or is already working with Stormfront maybe? Also that scene was totally The Boys version of the Red Wedding - penultimate episode, unexpected massacre