THE BOYS (S1E4) “The Female of the Species”: She Ain’t No Spice Girl

Coming off the heels of an episode that re-shaped The Boys‘ narrative for the better, “The Female of the Species” is another strong hour of television that’s equal parts bloody and heartfelt. We get the introduction of a new character, surprising new depths to existing ones and a whole lot of, erm… Spice Girls references? But before any of that, we go back in time…

The Butcher’s Morning Routine

We open on a flashback of Billy and his ex (?) wife Becca Butcher, a happier time when the idyllic sunlight lit up their bedroom. We see a softer side to the usually gruff mercenary, before sirens give him a harsh awakening in his now dimly-lit apartment, where the sun barely shines anymore. He sits down in front of the TV, switching to CCTV footage of Becca, dated January 2012.

In the previous episode, Mother’s Milk suggested that Becca is the reason Billy’s doing all this, and strongly implied that whatever happened to her had something to do with Homelander. What exactly happened to her, and why is this footage significant to Billy? These questions remained unanswered for the time being.

He crashes in on CIA contact Susan Raynor, who’s not best pleased to see him again, this time with a serious proposal. He can stop Supes getting into the military, so long as he can get his hands on some Compound V. Raynor needs proof though, which is where we come to…

A Woman, Several Guns and a Noodle Shop

While Billy’s off pestering old flames, the rest of the team are staking out a noodle shop frequented by A-Train, which Popclaw believes is the source of Compound V. They follow its owner to the back of a store, where heavily armed guards preside over a woman in a cage (Karen Fukuhara). After sneaking past the guards Frenchie, in a rare moment of tenderness, lets her out.

“I had a feeling about her,” he says, but Mother’s Milk chastises him for not following the plan. But before Frenchie knows what he’s unleashed, the woman (dubbed The Female) brutalizes the guards—gauging their eyes out and snapping their necks with ease. In one particularly gruesome moment, a guard blows his brains out to avoid meeting the same fate. As is often the case with Preacher, the dark/edgy humor can be a mixed bag (see: the kid with cancer joke in episode two), but the timing and sheer absurdity of this gag did get me.

They discover that she’s some kind of lab rat for the V, with possible connections to Vought, but she’s long gone by the time Billy arrives. Leaving the Boys on a mission to find her before Vought does, and get some answers while they’re at it.

A Night at the Bowling Alley

Before they head out though, Hughie gets a call from Annie. Naturally, Billy sees this as an opportunity, urging him to ask her out and bug her phone. Hughie’s not so keen, assuring him she’s a good person who probably doesn’t deserve this. “She’s a Supe, just like the f*cking rest of them,” Billy barks back, convincing him just enough to go along with it.

The Billy/Hughie relationship has slowly become one of the most fascinating aspects of this show—Butcher is using Hughie’s pain for his own ends, and thanks to Karl Urban‘s unique charisma, we’re almost being strung along with him. But there appears to be a part of him that does want to look out for the directionless Hughie, despite also exploiting him and forcing his prejudices on an impressionable mind. Where this is going is anyone’s guess, but it’s likely nowhere good for Hughie.

Until then, he meets Annie for some bowling, where he’s set off by the sound of pins falling, triggering flashbacks of his gruesome act of bloody murder. Things only get worse when she tells him Translucent has a son (!), which you have to imagine will come back to haunt Hughie. During their game, Annie reveals that she’d been holding back, not wanting her superpowers to show him up.

Their conversation after is especially effective, where she tells Hughie how she’s grown accustomed to guys feeling threatened by her powers. It’s a scene that demonstrates the superhero/alter ego dynamic from a perspective rarely heard from, even in this golden age of comic book movies and TV. We’ve seen how being a hero weighs on the lives of Bruce Wayne and Peter Parker ten times over, but this bit of dialogue felt genuinely refreshing in a sea of uniformity. Having started the show with Annie/Starlight as a punching bag, it’s good to see The Boys reflect on how being a superhero would likely affect a young woman.

Of course, Hughie doesn’t feel threatened and even admires her powers, but he goes through with bugging her phone all the same. Regardless of how conflicted he feels, it’s hard to imagine this ending well for either of them, which I suppose is the consequence of following revenge-driven maniac like Billy Butcher. Will it all be worth it, or will Hughie’s quest for revenge drive him down the same path as his unstable mentor?

The Hunt For the Female

The Boys track the Female to a nearby salon, where they find that A-Train is as much on the case as they are. They leave unseen, and Mother’s Milk laments Billy’s carelessness—he might have nothing to lose, but Mother’s Milk has a family to think about, and A-Train has already seen his face. It becomes a mad dash to find her before the speedster, but thanks to Frenchie’s intuitiveness, they get there first. It’s here that the emotional core of the episode is laid out, and we get a wonderful scene between Fukuhara and Tomer Capon.

Frenchie had previously referred to a traumatic childhood, but here he opens up completely to get the Female to come with him. He puts their custom made weapon down and tells her how his father took him away as a child, physically abusing him and stopping every attempt he made to run away. Even after the people she’s killed, he understands that she’s just like him—scared, broken, and wanting to go home.

But just as he’s winning her over, a loud noise startles her and she flees. Mother’s Milk goes at him for again going against the plan, and this time he snaps. With the group on the verge of disbanding, Billy wins them back with a hilariously labored Spice Girls metaphor about how they’re stronger together. They track down the Female in the sewers, this time not hesitating to knock her out with a gas grenade. “She ain’t no Spice Girl,” Billy says as he throws it over.

This storyline, along with Annie’s, genuinely surprised me with its compassion, showing a side to The Boys that I genuinely didn’t think it had in it. It makes for a nice counterpart to the provocative humor, showing that heartfelt emotions can stand alongside outbursts of bloody gore. It also makes the character of Frenchie a far more compelling one, highlighting that there’s something to him beyond the rough exterior. The same can also be said of Billy, at least in the flashback, but that part of him seems to have long withered away at this point.

The Deep Goes Soul Searching

Elsewhere, we see the Deep open up to a therapist about his insecurities. He speaks to his perceived uselessness, and how the rest of the team constantly makes fun of him, in a knowing nod to people’s perceptions of Aquaman. He tries to stand out by “rescuing” a dolphin from Oceanworld, which goes horribly wrong when he crashes his getaway van. The poor dolphin goes flying through the windscreen and is splattered onto the tracks by a speeding train.

Deep comes off as a perpetual screw-up, someone who constantly has to prove himself yet fumbles every opportunity to do so. This may go some way to explaining his treatment of Starlight in the first episode, which I’d have mixed feelings on, but there’s the potential to say something interesting about this kind of small man who acts out to be noticed, often in horrible ways.

Crashing This Plane… With No Survivors

If Frenchie’s storyline caught me off guard with its surprising emotional resonance, Homelander’s displayed a shocking insight into an already fascinating character. The set up is simple enough—Stillwell tasks Homelander and Queen Maeve with rescuing a hijacked plane, in the hopes that this will be the push congress needs to allow Supes in the military.

They board the plane and make quick work of the terrorists, but it quickly becomes apparent that preventing a crash is not possible. The pilot is dead and, in an amusing nod to Superman’s penchant for saving planes, neither of these heroes possess the power to land this thing.

Homelander realizes that the only option is to abandon ship, leaving everyone to die and denying they were ever there. Maeve, along with numerous passengers, is horrified by this, but she’s forced to go along with it. Anthony Starr impresses yet again in a terrifying display of his powers, where he goes all laser eyes and warns the passengers to stay back and let him leave.

Later, a news broadcaster on the scene reveals that all the passengers are believed to be dead (which may well come back to haunt our heroes). Homelander and Maeve arrive on the scene and decide to use the opportunity to push Stillwell’s agenda on live TV. Homelander starts shouting about protecting American interests, saying this will never happen again so long as Supes are in the military.

The fascist undertones are clear to see here, as Homelander uses this tragedy (of his own making) to not only push corporate interests but to assert himself as a strong man of the people. While a very effective scene, there’s a slight flaw in that it’s hard to really get a read on how Maeve views all this. As with Homelander’s actions in “Get Some,” she’s uncomfortable with it, but we still don’t know her enough to get a sense of how she feels. This could all lead somewhere interesting, but for now, her lack of development keeps her at a distance, when we really should be in her head.

Homelander riles up the crowd, and we cut to credits on a chilling note—the people cheering his name, as he looks on feeling very pleased with himself.

How are you feeling about The Boys at the halfway point? And can it maintain this winning streak?

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