Yahoo News Questions The Boys season 2 needs to answer
Effectively Watchmen on Viagra, Amazon's The Boys wasted no time making a name for itself in the already-crowded genre of superhero TV shows. In a world where superheroes are marketable commodities and faceless corporations rule the roost, The Boys is unlike any comic book series that's come before it.
Related: Major storylines we could see in The Boys season two
Starring Dredd and Star Trek favourite Karl Urban, the titular Boys are a bloodthirsty band of mercenaries who want supes to atone for their actions. Season one has already wrapped its all-too-short run of episodes, leaving viewers with a cliffhanger ending and agonising wait until 2020.
From (fatal) laser eye surgery to sleeping with the fishes, the finale was just as explosive as fans might expect. Showrunner Eric Kripke has left more questions than answers, and with this in mind, here are eight questions The Boys season two needs to answer.
What's next for Vought?
It was a short but sweet ride for Elisabeth Shue's Madelyn Stillwell before The Boys offed her in style. The cataclysmic events of the finale saw Homelander discover he'd been duped by Vought International. Having been lied to by Madelyn for the last time, he promptly burned a hole through the head of his boss/mother-figure/lover and became the show's big bad – if he wasn't already.
With a power vacuum at the top, Vought is guaranteed to want to keep a tight leash on The Seven following Homelander's insurrection. It just so happens season one might have found the man for the job. Despite his fleeting cameo, Breaking Bad's Giancarlo Esposito could go full Gus Fring as the mysterious Stan Edgar.
Who is left of The Seven?
The Boys got off to a bloody start as Translucent got a unique cure for constipation at the hands of Hughie, Frenchie and Billy. This brought the ranks of the all-powerful team down to just six but by the finale there are only three supes still certified for action.
Homelander, Black Noir and Queen Maeve can all clearly handle themselves, but rebranding as The Three isn’t going to do much for Vought International's stocks. A-Train's life is hanging in the balance, Starlight has questioned her loyalties and The Deep has gone off the deep end.
With four slots potentially left to fill, it's time to do a dive into the comics and bring some fresh meat to The Seven. Fans have already called for Jack from Jupiter to take his place from the comics – speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Kripke teased a very different way to use Jack.
Is A-Train dead?
By the time the credits rolled, karma had well and truly caught up with the Flash rip-off after he accidentally killed Hughie's girlfriend. Exposed to too much Compound V, A-Train had a heart attack and was fighting for his life.
After taking on and besting Starlight, the snarky speedster fell to the floor. It's here that Hughie's better nature kicked in and he tried CPR to resurrect his nemesis. As the boys made their escape and things looked a little grim for A-Train, Starlight stayed behind with her hated teammate. If A-Train does pull through, he knows that Starlight betrayed The Seven. So that'll be an awkward conversation.
What's going on with Black Noir?
Harder to track down than Translucent in his invisible state, there's still one member of those sly supes that viewers have barely glimpsed. As The Seven's stoic ninja, Black Noir has kept themselves to themselves. As you will notice from our pronouns, we don't even know their gender.
Even though there's a pretty major twist in the comics for anyone who wants to spoil the surprise, the show is presumably a long way off revealing what he (or she) is up to behind that stealth suit.
It's that tried-and-tested comic book formula that anyone wearing a mask and concealing their voice is probably someone we've already met. The question is, who is lurking in the shadows of The Seven's sidelines and when do fans get to see them?
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Is the Deep ready for a reboot?
While The Boys cleverly drew comparisons to the #MeToo movement, there was someone else who gave Homelander a run for his money as the team's biggest jerk. Chase Crawford excelled as the show's fish-fiddling version of Aquaman, but just like DC's hero, he was the butt of the team's jokes.
The Deep ended season one as a humbled hero, given a taste of his own sexual-harassment medicine and having shaved his head during an apparent mental breakdown. Sure to return to the fold to help boost numbers in season two, The Deep could be set for a gritty Christopher Nolan-inspired reboot to go with his brooding persona.
Where is Butcher's dog?
Anyone who's read Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s comic series will know there's a four-legged friend MIA in season one of The Boys. Apart from a flashback to his once-perfect life with Becca by his side and Terror the dog at the foot of his bed, there wasn't much of Butcher's backstory.
In the comics, Terror is Butcher’s loyal and fearsome companion. Writing in a Reddit AMA, Kripke said Terror was sidelined because "shooting with dogs is JUST TOO F*****G HARD". That being said, he promised Terror will have a starring role in season two. It still leaves a question mark over his whereabouts. Is everyone just supposed to assume Terror's been off busting superheroes on his own?
Butcher's baby problem
The finale went completely off-piste and moved away from the source material in a big way.
After the incident at Stillwell's home, Butcher woke up on a suburban lawn and was confronted by a smug Homelander. Revealing that Becca was alive AND has been raising Homelander's son, it threw Butcher's whole arc into disarray.
There are plenty of questions surrounding whether Becca's relationship with Homelander was consensual or whether she was forced to sleep with him. Either way, The Boys went full Jurassic Park with the secondary reveal that supes can produce on their own.
Despite being told Compound V made them sterile, it turns out The Seven's romps between the sheets come with consequences. Is that the pitter-patter of tiny capes we hear?
What's the deal with the flies?
There's one final issue that’s been likely 'buzzing' around people's heads. Who noticed the strange appearance of flies in The Boys' freshman season?
In both episode four and five, the characters are met with an annoying insect flapping in front of their faces. Crossing paths with both The Boys and The Seven, it could be someone working for either side.
In the comics, there's a character that can change size, à la Ant-Man, who goes by the name of Swatto. Considering Swatto is only able to communicate in a series of buzzing noises, the appearance of season 1's pest problem could be an indication of what's to come. But then Kripke insisted on the Reddit AMA that the flies were just flies: "Here's the lowdown: in several takes over a couple episodes, flies would buzz into the shots, because it's summer in Toronto. Whenever I saw it, I wanted to use it in dailies, because that's something that happens ALL THE FUCKING TIME in reality, but you never see it in TV or movies.
"Just felt a little messy and real to me. The more I thought about it, the more it also came to represent the corruption of the world all these characters are struggling through. But was just a happy accident."
The Boys season one is now available on Amazon Prime Video. Season two is expected to arrive in 2020.
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