Review: The Boys, "Every One Of You Sons of Bitches" | Season 5, Episode 3

The Boys has always been a show where the hits just keep on coming. No sentimental moment tends to arrive without a horrifying disaster to succeed it; no victory is so definitive that it can't turn pyrrhic almost immediately. From the earliest moments of season one, where Hughie nearly dies repeatedly in the early days of his quest for vengeance against supes, the show's tonal balancing act has always been one that pivots hard and often between highs and lows in a manner that would create whiplash in most other series. Ironically, it's the gonzo tone and subject matter that allow it to get away with rapid-fire shifts that would feel too implausible elsewhere. But here? Once you've watched super-powered malevolent sheep fly through the air as they rip apart other barnyard animals, allowing for a split-second switch from inspirational drama to stomach-churning nihilism feels like par for the course.

Which is a helpful baseline to have established when an episode like "Every One One Of You Sons of Bitches" comes along, and asks us to go with whipsaw character shifts that would normally take several episodes (or at least, you know, the entirety of an episode) to build to. To wit: Butcher reestablishes a tenuous peace with Ryan, only to torpedo it instantly in a manner that he knows will not only sever their relationship again, but do it in the most hurtful manner possible to the teen. Yes, we know Butcher is a flighty prick, prone to spontaneous changes of mind and attitude that have a large personal cost, but he's always tried to stay ahead of that tendency when it comes to his dead wife's son. If this is another way of announcing that the creature inside him is steering the ship more and more, that's fine, but it does make for a tough pill to swallow, character-wise.

Or take Annie's behavior here. After rebuilding a baseline relationship with Hughie, one that admittedly sidelined some of their issues while nonetheless getting them back to the never-exactly-normal but at least affectionate romantic pairing that has driven them both throughout much of the series, Hughie gives Annie a renewed sense of purpose. "How many more people are we gonna kill and then their kids come after us?" he asks her during the debate about what to do, and it pulls her up short, realizing his argument about trying to break the eternal cycle of violence and retribution is 100% correct. "It's just—it's been a long time since I'm been around someone who's actually trying to make things better," she sadly notes, "...instead of stopping them from getting worse." It's a classic remind-ourselves-why-we're-here moment for both our heroes and the audience.

And then Annie witnesses him explode.