The Boys: The Only Man in the Sky

 "A hamburger with a donut for a bun? There really is no God here."

This is a brilliant episode, and one f the reasonds it's brilliant is the sheer complexity of all the stuff that's going on, yet with such perfect character beats, aided by extraordinary performances from the likes of Karl Urban and Antony Starr.

We know that Homelander is a monster, but it gets truly scary when things don't go his way. The scene where he's trying to stop a girl from jumping off a building, then they both change their minds and he makes her jump even though she's changed her mind... yeah, that's dark. As it the fact that his first thought after Stormfront's suicide is that she has to do it on his birthday. But his horribly self-centred monologue at the end is a huge moment. There's so much dramatic tension in wondering what he's going to do.

Meanwhile we get more backstory on Soldier Boy, who seems pretty much the Comedian from Watchmen. All the research done by the gang is fascinating, with Laurie Holden guest-starring as the Crimson Countess, while Gunpowder is a dark, dark character, sexually abused as Soldier Boy's boy wonder as a kid and now grown up into a far-right MAGA gun nut. He dies, of course, but at the hands of a Billy Butcher who has temporary supe powers, the one thing you'd think he'd never do.

The psychology and motivations of Hughie, Billy, MM and Homelander are dwelt upon at length here. This is deep, thoughtful yet deliciously irreverent stuff.