Prime Rewind: Inside The Boys (2020) s01e08 Episode Script

- Stormfront is building up
a legion of Internet racists,
Homelander's son
is an indoor kid,
and, holy crap, C-SPAN was
much more exciting than usual.
I'm Aisha Tyler,
and we are going all in
on the seventh episode
of "The Boys" season two tonight
on "prime rewind:
Inside The Boys."
♪[theme]
We are going to bite into
this head-popping episode
like it's a deadly Almond Joy,
y'all.
An epic episode deserves
an epic panel of guests.
So joining me tonight fresh
from cell 42-D,
our girl Starlight,
Erin Moriarty.
- Hi!
- Hello!
- Hi, lady. Welcome back.
Good to see you.
- Thank you. You too.
And the man who understands
that daytime porn
is a problem,
Hughie himself, Jack Quaid.
-Hello!
-Oh, hi!
- Good to see you.
- It's a problem, kids.
- It's a problem, kids.
Look in the mirror.
Also, I love t-shirt,
so great.
And the mastermind of
the takedown of the Seven
the incomparable Grace Mallory,
Laila Robins.
- Hi, Laila.
- Hello. Hi.
Now, this is the penultimate
episode of the season,
but it easily could have
been the season finale.
There were so many huge moments,
big turns for everybody.
What were some
of your favorite moments?
- Let's start with Erin.
- Okay, um, oh, man.
You know,
I feel kind of conceited,
because the first thing
that came to mind was
my fight with Black Noir.
But I feel like I'm projecting,
because that day was such
an insane day of filming,
and I'm just very happy
it turned out well.
But honestly, like,
not to reduce it down
to one singular scene,
but all of Butcher's storyline
with his father,
I found fascinating.
So I would say
those two components.
- Erin, you're not
projecting at all.
That fight with Black Noir
was fucking epic.
Holy shit.
No, I agree.
Like, Butcher's stuff
with his dad.
I just loved him sipping
that tea with Vogelbaum.
Obviously, the end,
me cutting off
Lamplighter's hands,
was a day and a half.
I think it might have been
the same day you shot
that fight scene, Erin.
- It was, yeah.
- Yeah.
- It was chocked full
of crazy stuff.
- Never a dull moment.
- No, never.
- Chopping off lamplighter's
hand was just practical.
You were just doing the work.
- Yeah, I'm just doing the work.
It's like yard work, basically.
- Exactly. Just using
the tools available to you.
How about you, Laila?
What was your favorite
moment of this episode?
- Oh, my God!
I worry about these kids.
I mean, they're getting
beat up right and left.
I saw that fight with Erin
and I was like, "Oh, my God.
did she actually survive that?
Or we're gonna have
to recast or something."
- The jury's still out.
- And I love the scene--
And actually everybody's
in love with Vogelbaum
I enjoyed my scene with him,
because he's an actor,
John Doman, that I've really
admired for a really long time.
And it was wonderful to have
that tête-à-tête with him in
that scene.
- Yeah, absolutely.
So, Jack, Hughie, once again,
barely escapes with his life.
- Yes.
- Skin of the teeth.
Is he just operating
on a constant low-level
state of shock?
How is he coping?
- He's getting used
to everything incrementally.
He's somewhat used
to people exploding.
But when it happens
all of a sudden with
seemingly no reason,
he's gonna freak out,
like, quite a lot.
But it still doesn't have
the emotional weight of, say,
Robin, you know, evaporating.
But with this,
it's like, you know,
lamplighter, he is--
He sets himself on fire
and kills himself in front
of him, which is shocking.
However, Hughie doesn't
particularly like this guy.
I try to pepper in things like,
you know,
when he's walking away after
having severed his hand,
he throws a little, like,
"Fuck you, dude."
You know what I mean?
Like, you're still--
Yes, this was shocking, but it's
also an inconvenience to me.
It's not just gonna cripple me.
I still have a mission. Yeah.
- Hughie's really
come a long way.
- Yeah.
Do you guys think that
anything could have been done
to help Lamplighter?
Or was it over for him
the minute that he started
consuming porn
during daylight hours.
- I think it was over
for him long before that
to be honest.
He made some rough choices.
I think his downfall started
long before this.
This is his rock bottom, right?
We're walking in on rock bottom,
you think?
- I feel like he's been
in rock bottom for a long time.
- I could not agree more.
We wanna truly honor
Lamplighter's passing, guys,
so let's take a moment
to highlight his true passion.
-Supeporn.
-Mm-hmm.
From "Queen Maeve Pleasure
Slave"
to "The Deep Does It in the
Blowhole,"
Lamplighter was a connoisseur
of supe-inspired smut.
And, boy, did he like it smutty.
So let's take a look
at Lamplighter's
top-ten most watched videos
on supeporn.com.
Number ten
- Oh.
- Number nine
- Oh!
- Number eight
Number seven
- [laughs]
- That was great
narrative, honestly.
Number six
He likes some niche stuff, yeah.
Number five
[laughter]
That's one of my favorites.
Four
I figured this would be
his top three.
That doesn't seem like
a good time, guys.
That doesn't seem like
my favorite film.
Number two
That is very popular area
of porn.
And number one
- Oh, my God! That's amazing!
- [overlapping chatter]
- That was the closest this show
has gotten to a David Letterman
bit,
and I'm all for it,
that was amazing.
- Thank you for your support.
- That was so great.
Number one was one
of those new super high-end
big-budget porn movies--
- Yeah.
- Good narrative, real sex.
We just wanna respect
the artists, guys.
- Production value.
- Production value's
very important.
So this was a culminating
episode, right?
Like, so much big,
big stuff happened.
including a version
of a reconciliation
between Maeve and Starlight.
Why do you think
that Maeve finally came
to Starlight's aid, Erin?
- You know, I kind of don't
think she ever
really left Starlight's aid.
I feel like that,
especially in the end
of season one,
when we see the way
that Maeve, kind of,
steps forward
and warns Starlight
about the path that
she could be pursuing
and the choices she has.
Something happens
in that moment.
But I do think at the end
of the day they are
the female--
the females of the Seven,
and they are allies.
I feel like when Maeve
and Starlight first
encounter each other,
what you're hearing
from Maeve is,
"Look, I made a lot
of sacrifices to be here.
"I sucked it up. I took
all the shit from these guys.
I'm not gonna make it
easy on you."
You can see that where someone's
been hazed into a situation,
and they feel like they made
certain sacrifices,
or they let their own
morality go to be here.
And now they're like, "You're
gonna have to go through the
same thing that I do."
And I think finally Maeve
realizes,
no, what happened
to me was wrong,
and I need to prevent this
from happening going forward,
- rather than, you know--
- Yeah.
You have a lot of sympathy
for Maeve.
She has enough self-awareness
to realize that
perhaps she didn't take
the road that,
in an ideal world,
she would have.
- Yeah, absolutely.
Laila, what is in this fight
for Grace,
who has been fighting
to not be in this fight
for quite a bit of time.
She's retired, and she could
just be at home writing,
you know,
a very substantial expose
of a memoir
that she could refuse to testify
about in front of Congress so
she could increase book sales.
So why is she doing this?
Does she just need to win?
Or is she truly in this
for the good fight?
- What do you think?
- I think there's both.
I'm very reticent
to get pulled back into it,
which Butcher successfully
does in season one.
And then also she feels
responsible
because of Becca and the fact
that Butcher thought she was
dead,
then we find out that she's not.
And I think there's a certain
amount of guilt there,
and I feel responsible
for the situation in some ways,
so it's kind of trying
to make things right again.
You weaponized these guys,
and maybe at the time you really
didn't think of them as weapons,
and then you realize
that what you did
did a lot of emotional damage,
a lot of substantial,
meaningful damage.
And so you're kind of revising
how you perceive them
and realizing that you did
more damage than you expected.
- Yeah, can you imagine?
Somebody in leadership
actually taking responsibility?
- I haven't seen it so far
in my time on this planet.
- Haven't seen it lately.
- Exactly.
- Acknowledging mistakes?
Interesting.
- Admitting fallibility
in light of new information?
Hmm. Hmm.
Doesn't sound realistic, guys.
- What a fantasy!
- Yeah, exactly.
All right, guys,
parents just don't understand
how much damage they do
when they impart
their deep emotional issues
to their impressionable
children.
And this episode was a parade
of parents and children
colliding
with their deep-seeded
mommy and daddy issues
that made them the people
that they are.
So let's get messy here,
all right?
We all watched Stormfront
ham-fistedly try to replace
Becca as Ryan's mother.
Does Homelander realize that
he's creating the same exact
issues
that he has in his son?
- I don't think he realizes
that he can, essentially,
do the same amount of damage
they did to him,
with him being
an attentive parent,
because him
as an attentive parent
is batshit crazy
and would fuck anybody up.
So, no, I don't think
he realizes it.
- We have the same issues
with Butcher.
His mom tricked him
into seeing his dad.
His dad was bragging about
all of the emotional abuse
that he inflicted on his son.
So per the last conversation,
can anyone ever truly move past
the terrible parenting
that Butcher's gone through?
- Perhaps with a shitload
of therapy
you can maybe get to the point
where you're functional.
But to be honest, it's hard.
It's funny, because here you
have Butcher and Homelander
who are total enemies.
But there is, ironically,
this strong similarity
between the two.
I think if you'd have taken
both these guys
and put them in a supportive
environment,
they'd be better off.
But I think you just lean into
the darkness of who you are,
and hopefully you can have it
make you a more interesting
empathetic person.
But Homelander and Butcher
are not examples of people
who had that support.
It's always gonna manifest
in dysfunctional ways.
So, yeah, it's interesting now,
them being total enemies
but being opposite sides
of the same coin.
- Right. And also being guys
who don't want to admit
any vulnerability.
- which is kind of the first
step towards, like,
- Totally.
getting help is being, like,
I've got a problem,
and I want to try to solve it.
- Can we start a new hashtag
for this show
which is #traumabond?
- [overlapping chatter]
- That was awesome.
- Yeah.
- This episode is definitely
#traumabond. That was Excellent.
All right, guys, let's talk
about the Butcher family.
Have you noticed that
they have a slight accent?
These people are so British
its actually hard to understand
what the fook they're saying.
So I'm gonna put you guys
to the test
and give you a phrase
spelled out phonetically
in a language
that I'm calling Supe-British.
I'm calling this game
"Fook It with the Butchers."
Laila, you are gonna go first.
And we're gonna throw
this up there.
What do you think
that could be saying?
- Is this something
about drinking?
That's typically my answer
to everything.
Like, he goes up to the bar
and he says, "What, no ug?"
- This is my favorite game
we've ever played on the show.
Let's supe the translation.
- [overlapping chatter]
- I should have known that.
- All right, Erin, you're next.
- Oh, God, okay.
- Here we go.
- Oh, you're thinking
you're on to something."
Oh, you think you're
Homelander or something.
Yes, I do.
- Wait. Is
[makes phonetic sounds]
- Oh, yeah.
- Homelander or something.
I can't.
- Okay, Jack, you have
the toughest one.
I apologize.
- Let me channel
my inner Butcher.
Here we are. Yeah.
- Aisha: Okay.
- Oh, my God.
- [laughing]
- [overlapping chatter]
- You remember the 83 welcome?
Fuck.
- You're so close.
- If you remember--
- I know!
- What is it?
- You remember
the '83 World Cup?
- Yes! That's what it was!
- The World Cup!
- There you go!
- I had to make up
for the first one.
- That's it.
We were at that game.
- That was really great.
- Watch the footy.
- That was awesome.
That's the old footy.
Oh! oh boy.
Laser Baby's going off,
and you guys know
what that means.
We've got one more surprise
up our sleeve.
She's been in the background
all season long
fighting the good fight,
it's Congresswoman Neuman
herself, Claudia Doumit.
- Claudia! Welcome!
- Yay!
- It's good to have you.
- Thank you.
Claudia, Congresswoman Neuman
has ben on a relentless quest
to regulate the Seven.
What drives her?
What do you think
she's all about?
- I think at the core of Neuman,
she sees an imbalance of power,
basically.
She something that's wrong.
And in a nutshell,
she wants to correct that
and make it right.
There's too much power
residing in this one area,
this one group of people.
Yeah, and I think she sees that
that needs to be distributed
equally and fairly.
And she sees that
that isn't happening.
I love it because there's--
there are beats
that are played for comedy,
and there's this,
kind of, like,
this obvious battle
that she's fighting against
Vought and the Seven.
But there's some genuine
congressional victories for her.
I mean, she's really smart.
- It's not me at all,
but I love that I get
to play this character.
- I'm a genius.
- [laughing]
Do you think--
She's been very much a purist,
uh, when we first meet her.
Do you think her crusade
for justice is compromised now,
that she's working the the Boys,
who, I mean,
they are heroes,
but they're not necessarily
empirically heroes per se.
How far do you think
she would go to bend the law
to help the Boys?
- I think Neuman operates
on a cost-benefit analysis.
- Right.
- So if the benefit
outweighs the cost,
then why are we still
talking about it?
- Right. She's a pragmatist.
- Yeah. If it gets the job done,
it gets the job done.
And I think she's very aware
of the fact that, you know,
Vought is a corporation
that has fought dirty.
I think she sees that it's hard
to win a fight like that
completely clean.
- Aisha: Right. Well put.
All right, guys.
You know we're not gonna leave
this episode
without getting into the most
shocking, intense,
brain-splattering scene
of the season,
the attack at the Vought
Congressional hearing.
Now, Laila and Claudia,
you were on set that day.
What was that scene like
to shoot?
- What was amazing is that early
on in the shoot that day,
I was included
in a lot of the shots.
But as the day continued,
uh, I was not in the particular
angle of the camera.
So I would be in my trailer.
And I came back, and literally,
all of the background
supernumeraries
were covered in blood
and brain matter.
And they're all kind of chatting
with each other at the craft
table.
you know, eating Cheetos,
and they're completely drenched
in human remains.
- Oh, my God.
- And I couldn't believe
that they were all just
taking it in stride.
I guess they must have known
that they weren't sensitive
to blood and guts
when they signed up, right?
Horrifying!
- The first four hours
of the day.
You were like,
"This is a regular scene
This is normal.
There's no blood whatsoever."
And then you came back from
lunch, and you were like--
It was like the floor is lava
but, like, it's blood.
And you were just like,
"Blood, blood, blood, blood."
There was just, like,
blood everywhere.
- For people that don't know,
the stuff that they use
for onset blood
is the stickiest--
There is nothing--
I mean, it's like--
It's Superglue.
It gets in everything.
It sticks to everything.
And it looks really fun,
but it's disgusting.
You are washing it out of your
hair for weeks afterwards.
Okay, now "The Boys"
is a cutting-edge show
about our modern world,
but did you know it's actually
a remake of a television show
from the '60s?
We got some amazing footage
from the original version
of the Black Noir-Starlight
fight scene.
Check it out.
- Yes.
Yes. Old-school Batman.
Fuck, yeah.
- Oh, wow.
- Oh!
- [laughing]
- [laughing]
That's amazing.
- I love it.
- Greco-Roman! L'chaim!
- Gets him in the end.
- I know!
- Wow! Dick move!
That's probably my favorite
sequence that we've had
on the show.
- Yes.
- Okay, guys, now,
"The Boys" has some of
the best fans on the planet,
and they love to discuss
the show online.
You guys are actors
and you're recognizable.
I think that there's a parallel
between that kind of power
and just being a celebrity
and the idea that
you get really used to--
All of us get into it
for the art,
but people also get really
used to the idea that
they can get free stuff
and they can get
into a restaurant
when no one can get in.
It can be very addictive.
The idea of being isolated
as special, right?
Given special treatment
can be very addictive
for any human being no matter
what your field of work is.
And we've seen it with
A-Train and with The Deep,
them pursuing fame,
not because
they wanna help people,
but because they're just
terrified of the loss
of being singled out
as special.
Also I think your environment
starts to shift around you
in the way that the rules
that you followed in your
previous environment
- start to shift.
- Mm-hmm.
- And so I think then
your reality starts to shift.
So the rules that
you're abiding by now
exist in this new reality
of power.
And that can get
to an unhealthy place.
So I think if you don't have
a strong sense of self,
- you become a victim
of that, and then--
- Aisha: Right.
We've seen a lot
of personalities
who really just don't have
any sense of who they are
outside of the gaze
of other people, right?
And social media really feeds
that too, right?
It's an incredibly seductive way
of moving through the world.
- I think the show
captures that so well,
especially with the character
of The Deep,
because I feel like his entire--
speaking to what Claudia
was saying earlier
in terms of a sense of self--
his whole sense of self was
wrapped in the fact that
I am a famous person.
He doesn't know who he is
outside of
fame coming towards him.
And that, I think, is probably
the most insidious,
the most dangerous part of it,
is that you start to lose
who you were before entirely.
- Yeah, exactly.
And you don't know how
to reform a personality.
- Yeah.
- All right,
so much has happened
in this episode, I can't
even imagine how they're
gonna top it in the finale.
but I am confident
that they will.
Before we go, I'd really love
for each of you guys
to take a second
and send some thoughts
and prayers to another character
in the show as your character.
Claudia,
we're gonna start with you.
- I send my deepest
thoughts and prayers
to Homelander,
because when I'm done with you,
the only flag
that you'll be wearing
is a white one in surrender.
- Ooh, that was very elegant.
I really like that. Oh, yes.
Well put, Congresswoman.
How about you, Erin?
- I just wanted to send my
sincerest thoughts and prayers
to The Deep.
I know that you were
the only member of the Seven
who demanded that he be
in his own porno.
And I also know that
you couldn't keep it up.
So I'm terribly sorry
about that.
- About the fact that
he couldn't keep it up?
- About your impotence,
fish guy.
- [laughing]
Pointed and passionate.
Laila, who would you like to
send thoughts and prayers to?
- I've got two of them.
My first thoughts and prayers go
to the custodians
who had to clean up that
bloodbath of a courtroom
after we shot that day.
I can't even imagine.
And my second thoughts
and prayers go to Butcher
because with that accent
he's never going to understand
what his father
is trying to tell him.
- [laughter]
- Ever.
They could have reconciled
a long time ago
if only he had a translator.
- Exactly. Yes.
- Jack, how about you?
- My thoughts and prayers
go out to Lamplighter.
Sorry they took away
your statue, man,
but much like what's happening
in this country right now,
we don't really statues
of big ol' pieces of shit.
- [cheering]
- Oh, you win! Buddy!
Damn! Damn!
- That's my favorite thoughts
and prayers ever sent out
on this show.
- Ooh!
- Me too.
- It was salty.
- Little snaps.
- Oh.
- Well, it is season
finale time, friends,
and we've got just enough
of a first look here
to keep you going
until next week.
Here's our sneak preview.
- The secretary needs you now.
- Woman: He said he lives
under a pawn shop--
- Hey, let her in.
- They took him.
They have Ryan.
- Whoa!
- Ooh!
- Next week's show, you guys,
is going to be massive.
It's gonna so incredible.
I can't wait for you to see it.
We're gonna break down
the season finale here
and analyze everything
we learned in season two
of "The Boys."
We're gonna have show insiders,
predictions,
and enough brain-popping
insights to make you actually
enjoy Ryan's little Lego movies.
- Oh.
- Now, when you get
a big enough fan base, guys,
the members give themselves
a name, right?
The Beehive, the Squad,
the Tyler Troop.
We're workshopping our own.
But Stormfront fans
are called Stormchasers.
So what do you think the other
supefandoms will be called?
Shout out your very best
guesses at
Oh, I really like all those,
actually.
- Those are great.
- Thanks so much to Erin,
Jack, Laila, and Claudia
for being here.
This was so much fun, guys.
Thank you for hanging out
with me.
I had a blast.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
- And I wanna thank
all the fans at home
for taking a Prime rewind
to go inside "The Boys"
fist first
but only with consent.
It's season finale time, guys.
Get excited,
and go watch "The Boys."
I can't wait to see you
back here next week.
Thanks for watching.
Good night.
♪♪
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
- Thanks for being here.
- Thank you, guys.
- Thank you.