01x08 - Inside 'Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker'

[bunniefuu]

- 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 f*cking epic.

Holy sh*t.

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,

"f*ck 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 cr*pple 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

sl*ve"

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 sh*t 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 f*ck 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?

f*ck.

- 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 sh**t?

- What was amazing is that early

on in the sh**t 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.

f*ck, yeah.

- Oh, wow.

- Oh!

- [laughing]

- [laughing]

That's amazing.

- I love it.

- Greco-Roman! L'chaim!

- Gets him in the end.

- I know!

- Wow! d*ck 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 sh*t.

- [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.