Grace Mallory

NOTE: This article is only for the TV version of Grace Mallory. To see the article for the original version go to Greg Mallory.
Lieutenant-Colonel Grace Mallory is the overarching protagonist of the 2019 Amazon Prime adaptation, The Boys. She is the former Deputy Director of the CIA and the founder of The Boys.
She was portrayed by Laila Robins.
==History==
===Past===
====1984====
Sometime around or before 1984, Grace Mallory participated in Operation Charly, an off-the-books project by President Ronald Reagan to help the Contra rebels fight the Russian-backed Sandinistas in Nicaragua. Grace was in charge of trafficking cocaine into the US and selling the money gained to buy weapons for the Contra rebels. The unwritten policy in the operation was to sell the cocaine into minority neighborhoods to help destabilize and demoralize them, whilst keeping away from white neighborhoods.
In late 1984, Grace Mallory helped the arrangements for a final offensive into Nicaragua. While in the rebel encampment, Grace was displeased when she was forced to meet the members of Payback, a superhero team operating at the time. She asked Soldier Boy to refrain from firing an M2 Carl Gustaf rocket launcher in the direction of their munitions dump, even as Soldier Boy kept on flirting with her.
Stan Edgar then introduced himself to her. He explained that Vought-American had entered into a partnership with the US Government to help fight Communism, thus leading to Payback's involvement in the operation. Edgar further elaborated that Payback's aid for the Contra rebels would be a trial run for superheroes being involved in the military.
Grace then ordered a flying Swatto to get down, pointing out that his antics could reveal their location to the enemy. Grace further opposed their involvement, pointing out that superheroes didn't have the discipline to operate in war. Edgar had a different opinion, pointing out Soldier Boy as a fine example and showing Grace orders straight from Director Casey, authorizing the partnership.
Later, Grace observed a conversation between Stan Edgar and Black Noir who was unmasked. As she walked away, she encountered Soldier Boy who started flirting with her again, prompting a a hostile conversation with Mallory. A member of the Contra rebels approached Mallory to chat, but was then promptly gunned down by gunfire.
Grace succeded to shoot one enemy combatant before taking cover and observing Edgar's entourage move away as Black Noir covered their retreat, killing at least two enemy combatants. Swatto ran past Grace but was quickly hit by a missile after taking flight.
Apparently, Swatto had taken flight yet again, eventually inviting notice from the Sandinistas. The Sandinistas had then attacked with the aid of Russian special forces. Grace then witnessed Crimson Countess mistakenly massacre two of her own men, something which she angrily reminded Countess of.
Grace then gunned down another combatant to aid Soldier Boy, who had been engaged in hand-to-hand combat with several of them and even managed to throw one several feet off the air. Gunpowder had manned a humvee's 50 caliber attachment, indiscrimately gunning down both friendlies and enemies alike, with Grace narrowly avoiding his stream of fire. Artillery shelling followed Grace as she took cover, temporarily knocking her out.
When she came to, she observed the leftover aftermath of the massacre at the camp, forcing her to tears. Among the sights she saw was a heavily-wounded Black Noir, and the TNT Twins trying to recover. Crimson Countess then ran up to her and told her that the Russians had managed to kill Soldier Boy with some kind of special weapon. Grace was in disbelief even as she watched a Russian helicopter fly off supposedly with Soldier Boy's body.
The resulting massacre at the camp supposedly caused Grace to lose over 116 of her men, with Vought getting full immunity over the incident. As a result, Grace developed a vendetta against Vought and swore to make them pay.
====2012====
she was the one who sparked William Butcher's desire for vengeance against the superheroes, providing him with the knowledge that The Homelander had raped his wife Becca and that Vought International was involved with her disappearance. She worked with Butcher, and together they founded The Boys, who operated for an undetermined amount of time, between 2012 and 2015.
====2015====
In 2012, the original rendition of The Boys, under CIA supervision, attempted to blackmail Lamplighter with footage of him committing an unseen crime, into getting him to spy on The Seven for the CIA. Although Lamplighter appears to begrudgingly agree to the terms, Mallory is suspicious and has Frenchie tail him after the meeting. Frenchie follows him to a movie premiere, but abandons his post when his girlfriend Cherie calls him up to inform him that his best friend Jay is overdosing and will die without an adrenaline shot.
Although Frenchie returns only 30 minutes later, by this time Lamplighter had left the premiere and followed Mallory to her hotel room, burning her grandchildren to death by mistake, believing that Mallory was in the bed instead. This event led to her giving up on the path of vengeance. She retired to live in the woods to enjoy bird watching, reasoning that it was "either birdwatching or alcoholism." Although her desire for vengeance is allegedly over, Butcher still continues her legacy whether she wants him to or not.
===Broken Promises===
After their cover is blown by Mesmer, the newly reformed rendition of The Boys become fugitives and go into hiding. Billy Butcher and Hughie Campbell go to visit Mallory at her estate in a desperate attempt to get her help. Butcher asks Mallory what she has been up to since their last mission together, and she says that she has taken up bird watching to prevent herself from becoming an alcoholic. She then berates Butcher for daring to see her after long ago promising to never see her again, to which Butcher retorts that she is a hypocrite who taught him "a thing or two about broken promises".
After introducing Hughie to Mallory, Butcher demands help from her, claiming that she "owes" him. Mallory refuses to help Butcher and continues to blame him for the death of her grandchildren. Butcher berates Mallory for manipulating him and turning him into a weapon to use against the supes and Vought, only to abandon him when it didn't suit her. Mallory replies that she doesn't regret that decision. When Butcher tells her he's going to finish what she started, Mallory confides in Butcher, as long as he promises never to return, about Homelander's affair with Madelyn Stillwell, and that he possibly has a weakness in her. As the two leave, Mallory pleads to Hughie to give up on his path of vengeance, warning him that it leads to nothing but a dead end.
===Never Truly Done===
Despite Grace's attempts to avoid getting involved in the war between the The Boys and Vought, she does reluctantly come out of retirement to help Butcher when she wants to figure out who killed [./https://the-boys.fandom.com/wiki/Susan_Raynor Susan Raynor]. Eventually in Over the Hill with the Swords of a Thousand Men, she makes a deal with Butcher to give him information about Becca's whereabouts if he turns in a supe-terrorist at a rendezvous point. However, the deal goes sideways when The Boys are intercepted by The Seven, who kill the terrorist. Butcher meets Mallory at a shrine for the 59 apartment tenants who were killed by Stormfront. Despite Butcher's failure in promising to deliver the terrorist, Grace still gives Butcher the information to locate Becca. She explains she has a reoccurring dream of her on stage at Carnegie Hall, and everyone ever killed by a supe is in the audience just staring at her. So, she gives Butcher the information in an attempt to have "one less audience member staring at her" and to make amends to Butcher for stopping his search for Becca. A little before this, Mallory provides Butcher information to give to Mother's Milk with the location of a witness who claims to know the truth about Liberty, a retired super-heroine from the 70s. After M.M, Hughie and Starlight speak to the woman, Valerie Hunter, they report their findings to Mallory that Liberty is in-fact Stormfront herself, a slow aging racist supe who uses her position to commit racially motivated murders with impunity.
===Old Wounds===
After The Boys infiltrate the Sage Grove Wellness Center, they discover not only that Vought and Stormfront are using the asylum as a front to experiment on patients, but that Lamplighter works there as an orderly, used to "dispose" of inmates who are unruly or no longer of use. A fight between Lamplighter and Frenchie results in the inmates breaking out, and sees the Boys team up with a redemptive Lamplighter to escape the facility. After escaping, Lamplighter, who has long felt guilt at the children's death, turns himself over to the custody of The Boys, who arrange for a meeting with Mallory in the woods. Mallory arrives, ready to execute Lamplighter to avenge her grandchildren, but relents when Frenchie explains that she would only be ending his torment. Mallory reluctantly asks The Boys what they intend to use Lamplighter for, if they aren't going to kill him.
===Killing the King===
Grace Works with congress woman Victoria Neuman, using Lamplighter as an eye witness into Vought's shady dealings. She makes a deal with Neuman, to get her information on Vought in exchange for Victoria taking down Vought. Grace knows that Lamplighter won't be enough, so she and M.M agree to go get more information to help their case. Grace tasks Frenchie and Kimiko to watch over and protect Neuman, warning Frenchie not to abandon his position again. She then orders Hughie to stay behind and watch over Lamplighter until they come back.
Grace and M.M meet with Jonah Vogelbaum and want him to also testify against Vought for them. Grace remarks that Vogelbaum can help end the cycle of violence if he testifies. However, Vogelbaum refuses, stating he can't risk endangering the lives of his family. Grace understands that feeling and promptly leaves Vogelbaum's without any further Resistance. M.M questions Grace's choices and asks her if she is handling the situation with his family. Grace tells him that she has a plan for M.M and his family to move to Nicaragua and live in hiding. M.M says he'll take that offer after their done fighting Vought, but Grace explains the fighting will never end, so M.M should get out of it while he still has a family. Grace encourages him by expressing she wishes she had quit sooner before her grandchildren were burned.
When Mallory and M.M return to find out Lamplighter burned himself, they're both furious at Hughie for causing the situation. Mallory then calls Butcher to tell him their plan failed because their only eye witness burned himself and Vogelbaum refused to testify. However she is shocked, when Butcher tells her that he "convinced" Vogelbaum to testify for them. Grace then meets at the court hearings alongside Neuman. Everything seems to be going well until heads start exploding. Amongst the chaos, Grace escorts Neuman out of the courtroom to save her from sharing a gruesome fate unknowing that Neuman herself was the one who caused the chaos.
=== Assassination Run ===
When Butcher is nearing death due to his V24-induced tumors, within a hospital room in a CIA bunker, he is visited by Mallory, who discussed options to prevent Homelander from succeeding in his inept but effective plans for domination. Mallory insisted that Butcher can't die yet, as there is still work to be done.
When Ryan visited Butcher, she was present; she allowed them to play Connect 4 for a while, but eventually interrupted. Mallory requested that Ryan leave with her, but he appeared reluctant, as some parts of Vought seemed acceptable to him. Butcher offered that if Ryan felt genuinely safe with Homelander, then he won't stop the boy; Ryan struggled due to the complexity of his feelings. Mallory, however, insisted that he go with her, and revealed the facts that his father, Homelander, is a mass murderer and didn't have an affair with his mother, Becca, but raped her. Ryan becomes distressed and in denial; Butcher kept trying to interrupt, but he lacked the strength to do anything.
Despite the unsettling revelation, Ryan still wanted to leave. To persuade him to stay, Mallory confessed that when her grandchildren died, a large part of her died too, but meeting Ryan had helped her feel happiness again, and said that she loved him; while this was possibly a manipulation tactic, it may be earnest since whenever Mallory cited her deceased descendants, she was always sincere. When Ryan still expressed a desire to leave, he noticed that the walls were unusually thick; Mallory admitted that the facility was designed to trap supes, but claimed that she wanted to allow him the choice to go willingly.
Since Ryan continued to display a push to leave, Mallory tried to hit the lock down button, but he pushed her to prevent this action; unfortunately, he used so much force that she flew across the room and smashed into the wall, which broke her neck. Ryan appeared stunned, yet resumed his exit from the facility. Butcher sadly knelt over Mallory's dead body, which was the last push that made him relent to his dissociative identity from his tumors; Butcher acquiesced to Kessler's demand to maximum violence, and likely supe genocide. The tumor altered its state, rather than killing Butcher, it endowed him with a supe-like status, as well as the power to grow super strong fleshy tendrils.
Mallory's death revealed that despite her recruitment of Butcher and half-hearted attempts to change his course to one of least bloodshed, she was a strong factor in what kept Butcher as relatively in control as he had been. Her demise also made him forsake his promise to Becca, seeming that he abandoned hope of saving Ryan, and opting to kill him too if needed or if he was just in the way.
==Abilities==
*Leadership:
*Expert marksman: She once had nearly 100% accuracy with a pistol; her skill has decreased with age, but she still displays exceptional talent in marksmanship.
*High Intelligence: She holds comprehensive knowledge of government and corporate structures, as well as psychology and strategy. She is also swiftly perceptive, such as when she was able to psycho-analyse Soldier Boy and his previous romantic conquests just from a brief interaction with him.
*Strategy: She is able to coordinate complex plans with various moving parts. She can vet candidates to execute her plans, and despite certain incompatibilities, she is able to create a team that is effective, despite their friction. She is able to navigate geopolitical barriers without detection or scrutiny, at least when it is her alone or a more tactical squad.
*(formerly) Peak Physical Condition: In her youth and until beyond middle age, she had high physical fitness and stamina. While her older age has reduced her capacity, she still holds above average physical capabilities,especially for her age.
==Trivia==
*She is gender-swapped version of Greg Mallory from the comics.
*She is one of the few characters to appear in both The Boys and Gen V.
*She and Victoria Neuman are the two major characters that died in the season 4 finale. Incidentally, both were gender swapped versions of their source characters.
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