Proper Preparation and Planning

"**Proper Preparation and Planning**" is the second episode of the second season of *The Boys.* It was released on September 4, 2020 on Amazon Prime Video. It is the tenth episode overall.

## Summary

Butcher is back with the Boys, but tensions flare with Hughie. Homelander spends quality time with his new "family." Starlight and Stormfront bond at a press junket and the Boys hunt down a supe terrorist, with a startling identity.

## Plot

Butcher looks at a list of notes, “yellow ranch”, “big pines”, which are recollections of Becca’s house so he can find his way back there. In a flashback, Billy wakes up in a parking lot after seeing his missing wife at her house.

In present day, The Boys are in their hideout. Kimiko Miyashiro is desperately writing the word “Boy” but Frenchie doesn’t understand what she’s trying to say. Hughie is furious because Butcher abandoned all of them.

Homelander plays ball with his son, Ryan. Becca calls for him to go inside and do his homework. He leaves and Homelander argues with Becca because he thinks he should learn how to use his powers better but Becca just wants him to be normal.

Carol works with The Deep in therapy, helping him but is having difficulty reaching him. Eagle gives The Deep a special drink made from shrooms, telling him this is “his journey” to take.

Ashley leads the female heroes in a press day, where they introduce Stormfront to the world. Maeve has to leave all of a sudden, explaining “family emergency.”

Grace Mallory attends Susan Raynor’s funeral. After leaving, she goes to her car and sees Butcher sitting in the backseat. She tells him that she’s going to turn him into the feds but he stops her by telling her he knows how to find out who killed Raynor. He says if they find the Supe Terrorist, they’ll be one step closer to finding out.

On shrooms, The Deep has a “heart to heart” with his gills. He admits his embarrassment about his own body. The gills tell him he violates and humiliates women as a defense mechanism for his own insecurity. The Deep screams and tries to escape the room but Eagle and Carol don’t open the door.

Maeve goes to visit her ex-girlfriend, Elena at the hospital after her appendix burst.

Starlight and Stormfront give a series of interviews, getting a repeat of questions about if female heroes make better heroes than men. Stormfront says that the job shouldn’t matter if a guy or a girl does it. She’s very blunt with the interviewer, to everyone’s surprise. Starlight gets asked about A-Train’s secret mission, and she says she prays for him every night. Then, she gets a surprise when A-Train pops out and says that he’s back. Starlight is nervous and shocked, knowing that he could blow her cover at any moment.

In private, Starlight reminds A-Train that she saved him with CPR, hoping that he won’t tell anyone about her helping Hughie escape. She asks if he’s told anyone and he just walks away.

Butcher comes back and says that Mallory told them that if they get the super terrorist, she’ll tell the FBI to wipe their records clean. The Boys have doubts that he’s telling the truth, Hughie in particular.

On drugs, The Deep talks more with his gills who tell him that he deserves to be loved. They ask him to take a real look. He does and then he apologizes to them, claiming that he is the ugly one. His gills sing “You Are So Beautiful to Me” to him. The Deep joins in on the song.

Starlight goes up to Stormfront to tell her that she supports everything she says and Stormfront calls her out, telling her she seems like a secret Vought Barbie spy.

Gecko tracks down Starlight and gives her a sample of Compound V. She shoves it into a backpack pocket and A-Train runs over, questioning what she is hiding.

Becca drops off Ryan for his piano lesson and races off to try and escape a gated community that she is in. She calls Dr. Park and demands answers- she was promised that Homelander would never know about Ryan and that she would never have to see him again. Dr. Park explains that Corporate doesn’t want to agitate him any more.

Elena confronts Maeve and asks her why she’s playing this game if nothing has changed. Maeve explains that a man flirted with her once and the day after his body was found with his head cut off. Homelander did it out of jealousy and Maeve is worried that if he finds out about Elena that he will do the same.

Homelander gives Ryan a phone and tells him he can call him anytime he wants. He admits to Ryan that he never had a real mom or dad. He tells them that they are gods and can do whatever they want in life. He leaves and says he loves him. Becca confronts him and demands him to leave. Homelander tells her that he’s not going to get bored and move on.

The Boys go to a costume shop in an attempt to track down the Super Terrorist. Kimiko sees one of the members of the Shining Light Liberation Army, the terrorist group who kidnapped her. She rips his head off. Then she goes and sees a man and hugs and embraces him. Frenchie realizes that “Boy” meant her brother. Her brother is the Supe Terrorist. Butcher ignores Frenchie's realization and attempts to shoot Kimiko's brother, however Hughie intervenes and tackles Butcher. Kimiko's brother, Kenji, notices The Boys and uses his powers to neutralize them. Kimiko then joins him as the two run away from the store.

Starlight confronts Stormfront and tells her that she is more than what she thinks. Stormfront tells her to drop the mask once in a while.

The Boys, except for Butcher, agree to let Kimiko be with her brother even though he is a terrorist. Butcher reveals that Becca is alive and was with a little boy, who is a spitting image of Homelander. He tells them that he needs their help to find her and to get her out of there. He admits that the deal with Mallory is that if he finds the Super Terrorist for her, she’ll find Becca for him..

Kimiko has a heart to heart with her brother. She explains what happened to her and that they made her into a monster. Her brother explains that they did the same to him that they did to her.

Starlight texts Hughie that she got the Compound V and A-Train shows up and finds her with it. A-Train threatens to tell Homelander everything and she tells him that he’s not going to do anything because he killed Popclaw. She has proof to show that it wasn’t suicide. They have a standoff and A-Train leaves.

Kimiko’s brother tells her that the Shining Light Liberation Army stands up for injustice. That the Americans killed their entire village and they’re the bad ones. Kimiko begs him to stay and run with her but he refuses and they get into a fight. Kenji attempts to run, but Kimiko puts him in a chokehold and he passes out. The Boys arrive in a van and put Kenji into the back of the van. Butcher punches Hughie and tells him if he comes between him and his Mrs. again, he will kill him.

## Cast

* Jack Quaid as Hughie Campbell
* Antony Starr as Homelander
* Erin Moriarty as Starlight
* Dominique McElligott as Queen Maeve
* Jessie T. Usher as A-Train
* Laz Alonso as Mother's Milk
* Chace Crawford as The Deep
* Tomer Capone as Frenchie
* Karen Fukuhara as Kimiko Miyashiro
* Nathan Mitchell as Black Noir (credit only)
* Colby Minifie as Ashley Barrett
* Aya Cash as Stormfront

* Langston Kerman as Eagle the Archer
* Jessica Hecht as Carol Mannheim
* Abraham Lim as Kenji Miyashiro
* Nicola Correia-Damude as Elena
* Cameron Crovetti as Ryan Butcher
* David Thompson as Gecko
* Adrian Holmes as Dr. Park
* Laila Robins as Grace Mallory

### Co-Starring

* Keana Lyn Bastidas as Hostess
* Heather Tod Mitchell as Mrs. Crowder
* Wyatt Lamoureux as Minister
* Tanner Zipchen as Entertainment Reporter
* Nneka Elliott as News Anchor
* Tim Gammon as Susan Rayner's Husband
* Ethan Tavares as Susan Rayner's Son

* Caroline Lesley as Reporter
* Darrin Maharaj as Reporter
* John Moore as Reporter
* Julie Nolke as Reporter
* Preeti Torul as Reporter
* Vanessa Burns as Reporter

## Appearances

### Locations

* New York City, New York
	+ Vought Tower
	+ Gold Galore
	+ Super Buck Store
	+ Club Franco Fashion
* Fort Wayne, Indiana
* Cleveland, Ohio
	+ Eagle the Arrow's Apartment
* Newark, New Jersey
	+ Amazing Party Store
* Oberlin College (mentioned)
* Cleveland, Ohio (mentioned)
* Portland, Oregon (mentioned)
* Seattle, Washington (mentioned)
* Milwaukee, Wisconsin (mentioned)
* Kandahar, Afghanistan (mentioned)
* Japan (mentioned)

### Items

* Fresca
* Shrooms
* *Botched*
* *Crimson* (Poster)
* Vphone
* Compound V

### Organizations

* Clarkson Avenue Haitian Kings (logo)
* The Boys
* Church of the Collective
* Vought International
	+ The Seven
	+ GalGear (Product)
* WDCS (mentioned)
* WFAK (mentioned)
* KMFT (mentioned)
* New York Yankees (Hat)
* CIA (mentioned)
* Capes for Christ (mentioned)
* Burger King (mentioned)
* Shining Light Liberation Army (tattoo)
* Disney (mentioned)
* *Sports Illustrated* (mentioned)

### Mentioned

* Madelyn Stillwell
* Teddy Stillwell
* Susan Raynor
* Melissa Dabrowski
* Elena's Mother
* Crimson Countess (Poster)
* Groundhawk (Poster)
* Ms. Bird
* Popclaw
* Kimiko Miyashiro's Parents
* Kimiko Miyashiro's Grandparents
* Black Noir (Poster)
* VH1 Educator Awards
* Boogie Down Productions (T-Shirt)
* Don Larsen
* Goo Goo Dolls
* Book of Revelations
* Jesus Christ
* Prince
	+ *Purple Rain*
* Oscars
* *12 Years a Slave*
* Pippi Longstocking

## Quotes

―Stormfront

―Homelander to Ryan

―Stormfront, talking about Ashley

―Carol to The Deep in therapy