The Big Ride

"**The Big Ride**" is the season premiere of the second season of *The Boys.* It was released on September 4, 2020 on Amazon Prime Video. It is the ninth episode overall.

## Summary

With Butcher still missing, Hughie, Mother's Milk, Frenchie, and Kimiko are now fugitives, and Homelander and Vought are more powerful than ever. But just as the Boys are about to leave the country, they are pulled back into the fray.

## Plot

In a meeting, Stan Edgar, CEO of Vought, discusses the incorporation of the Supes into the military. He talks logistics and explains that they are prepared for a 34% casualty rate, in a worst-case scenario.

Black Noir goes on a secret mission to kill the super terrorist known as Naqib. Meanwhile at home, Homelander holds the funeral for Translucent, along with Translucent’s family and his son Maverick. Homelander lies to the nation that Translucent was killed by a Supe Terrorist named El Diablo and that he will kill them to avenge his death. Starlight sings a song at his funeral.

Meanwhile, A-Train is hooked up to tubes at a hospital and appears to be in a coma, unable to talk or move.

In Sandusky, the Deep watches the funeral from a T.V. and tears up. He gets enraged when he sees that they cut him from a photo of him with Translucent. He is later arrested at a water park for terrorizing kids in a drunken stupor. He is bailed out by Eagle the Archer.

The Boys have gone into hiding with "associates" of Frenchie's, the Clarkson Avenue Haitian Kings. Frenchie and Cherie deal with the gang business, MM works as a medic to treat wounds, and Hughie as a supply man. Hughie leaves lying that he's going on a supply run, and instead secretly goes to meet Starlight, who is back in her normal clothes and trying to be under the radar since Hughie is a wanted criminal. Hughie hands Annie a paper with a photo of a Supe named Gecko on it, hinting that he is the target for a secret mission and Annie needs to track him down. She recognizes him from her time at Capes for Christ, but she takes the paper and agrees to find him.

The Boys watch the news and see their faces still splashed across the media as “wanted”. They brainstorm what to do - run, find Compound V and tell the media, or stay and hide. Butcher is missing and is being blamed for Madelyn Stillwell’s murder, leaving Mother's Milk as the defacto leader for the time being.

Homelander walks around Madelyn’s empty office and chugs a bottle of her breast milk. Ashley walks in on him awkwardly and thanks him for helping her get Madelyn’s old job. She says she’ll fill her shoes as best as she can. She says that they found them a new hero to replace Translucent. She introduces him to Blindspot, a blind superhero, and explains that he fits a specific demographic that will really serve the Seven’s image.

Homelander greets him and tells him he’s a hero moments before bashing his ears in and asking Ashley why on earth he would allow a cripple to be a part of the Seven. He threatens Ashley to tell him every single thing that happens in her job and explains that he is the boss, not her.

Starlight tracks down Gecko. She records him in a hotel room letting someone hack his arm off in exchange for money. His arm regenerates instantly, demonstrating his Supe power.

One of Frenchie’s friends comes into their hideout, bloody and in pain. Frenchie finds out that he and a few others were not only smuggling drugs but also humans, including a Supe terrorist, who ended up attacking him before running away. Frenchie, Hughie, and Mother’s Milk debate over who to tell about the Supe terrorist, but it’s difficult since they’re wanted. Hughie suggests Annie and admits he’s been seeing her secretly.

The Deep wakes up at Eagle the Archer’s home where he tells the Deep, “We’ve all been there…rock bottom.” A “friend”, aka therapist, named Carol is there, but she says she’s more like this teacher than a therapist. They corner him into a therapy session and give him a religious book from the Church of the Collective.

Annie finds Gecko at a diner and chats him up as if it’s a casual run in. She asks him for a favor - to go into the labs on 67th to steal her a sample of Compound V. He pretends not to know what that is, at first. He tells her it’s impossible to get but she threatens him and says he has to or if not, she’ll reveal that he is an S&M hooker.

Queen Maeve and Homelander shoot a commercial for their “Save America” campaign about defeating the Supe Villains. Stormfront comes to the set and introduces herself as the newest member of the Seven, shocking Ashley, Homelander, and Maeve. Stormfront explains the the guys on “82”, aka Stan Edgar, made it happen. Stormfront livestreams the whole meeting to her fans and Homelander fakes excitement but walks away in a huff.

The Boys meet with Susan Raynor who asks them if they know where Butcher is and they say no. She updates them on their families. They give her a description of the Supe Terrorist. Raynor thinks that Vought International is behind everything - that it’s a “fucking coup from the inside”. All of a sudden, her head explodes and the boys, covered in blood, scream and run into their van. They theorize that Vought actually killed her because she knew too much.

Homelander pays a visit to Stan Edgar, where he asks to be consulted on the new additions to the Seven. Homelander threatens Stan that he might move on when his contract is up. Stan asks him what he knows about Frederick Vought, the founder of Vought. Stan explains that Homelander is under the impression that they are a superhero company when in fact they are a pharmaceutical company and Homelander is not their most valuable asset, but Compound V is. He accuses him of distributing Compound V around the world to terrorists and says that Homelander is not as significant as he thinks he is. Frustrated, Homelander flies to Becca’s house to see his son.

Starlight calls Hughie, excited to “burn those fuckers down”, and says that Gecko is getting her the Compound V and that they should decide which news outlet to reach out to.

Butcher enters the Boys hideout, admitting that Frenchie called him. He turns to Hughie and says, “Don’t you worry, Daddy’s home.” Hughie looks confused and upset.

## 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
* Colby Minifie as Ashley Barrett
* Aya Cash as Stormfront

Guest Starring* Jennifer Esposito as Susan Raynor
* Shantel VanSanten as Becca Butcher
* Langston Kerman as Eagle the Archer
* Jessica Hecht as Carol Mannheim
* Abraham Lim as Skinny Man
* Jordana Lajoie as Cherie
* David Thompson as Gecko
* Claudia Doumit as Victoria Neuman
* Jim Beaver as Robert Singer

Special Appearance By* Chris Hansen as Himself

### Co-Starring

* Philip Savas as Bawling Fan
* Chris Mark as Blindspot
* Isiah Adam as Dan
* Connie Wang as Deanna
* Bruce Novakowski as Doug Friedman
* Ada H. Chan as EMT
* Kym Wyatt McKenzie as Fake Butcher
* Birgitte Solem as Fake Stillwell
* Jesse Buck as Greasy Dude
* Luke Robinson as Jean Paul

* Ashley Comeau as Margaret
* Charles Altow as Maverick
* Courtenay Stevens as Megachurch Salesman
* Samer Salem as Naqib
* Neema Nazeri as Rafiq
* Stephanie Jung as Samantha
* Pierre Drivas as Syrian Boy
* Chris Robinson as Smart Ass Cop
* Jeff Sinasac as Ted
* David Pinard as VNN Interviewer

## Appearances

### Locations

* New York City, New York
	+ Vought Tower
	+ Gold Galore
	+ Super Buck Store
	+ Club Franco Fashion
	+ George Street Diner
* Al-Zabadani, Syria
	+ Naqib's Hideout
* Sandusky, Ohio
	+ Paddy O'Shamrock's
	+ Splash Zone Sandusky
* Cleveland, Ohio
	+ Eagle the Arrow's Apartment
* Bay Terrace Inn
* China (mentioned)
* Mariana's Trench (mentioned)
* Vermont (mentioned)
* Seattle, Washington (mentioned)
* Portland, Oregon (mentioned)
* Taiwan (mentioned)
* India (mentioned)
* Munich, Germany (mentioned)
* Dachau Concentration Camp (mentioned)

### Items

* Compound V (mentioned)
* Purell
* *Terminal Beauty 3* (poster)
* Autumn Breeze (advertisement)
* *Citizen Starlight*
* *Destinations: The New Science of Self Renewal*
* Instagram
* Fresca
* *Translucent: Invisible Force 2* (poster)
* *A Closer Look with Chris Hansen*
* Kalashnikov Rifles (mentioned)
* TEC-9 (mentioned)
* *Vought Summertime Clubhouse* (mentioned)
* *Dawn of the Seven* (mentioned)
* *Tek-Knight Lives* (mentioned)

### Organizations

* Vought International
	+ The Seven
	+ Vought News Network
	+ Samaritan's Embrace
	+ Vought Feminine Products (advertisement)
	+ Vought Comics
	+ Vought-Con (mentioned)
	+ Voughtify (mentioned)
* United States Armed Forces
* TMZ (mentioned)
* Clarkson Avenue Haitian Kings
* The Boys
* *New York Post*
* Church of the Collective
* Capes for Christ (mentioned)
* LOL TV
* *New York Times* (mentioned)
* DeWalt
* Spieth America
* DivaCup (mentioned)
* Cinemax (advertisement)
* New York Knicks (T-Shirt)
* Kroger (mentioned)
* NNC
* Nazi Party (mentioned)
* CIA
* CNN (mentioned)
* MSNBC (mentioned)

### Mentioned

* Translucent (Picture)
* El Diablo
* Soldier Boy (Cardboard Standee, Mentioned)
* Liberty (Poster)
* Popclaw (Poster)
* Billy Zane (Poster)
* Shockwave (Newspaper)
* Madelyn Stillwell
* Donna January (Text Message)
* Tek Knight
* Robin Ward
* Hugh Campbell
* Big Game
* Ezekiel
* Frederick Vought
* Homelander's Son
* Andrew Raynor
* Aaron Raynor
* Grace Raynor
* Wu-Tang Clan (T-Shirt)
* Jesus
* Teen Choice Awards
* Ansel Elgort
* Alden Ehrenreich
* *The A-Team*
	+ Hannibal Smith
* *The Dirty Dozen*
* Lee Marvin
* The Beatles
* Brian Epstein
* James Taylor (T-Shirt)
* Harry Potter
* John Connor
* *The Hunger Games*
	+ Katniss Everdeen
* Pontius Pilate
* Mary
* *Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders*
	+ "The Devil's Breath"
* John Cusack
* *Say Anything...* (indirectly mentioned)
* Adolf Hitler
* J. Robert Oppenheimer
* Franklin Roosevelt
* Walt Disney
* Thomas Edison
* People’s Free Food Program (T-Shirt)

## Trivia

* The title of this episode, "The Big Ride" is the title of Volume 9, Issues #48-51 of the comic series.
* At over 36,000 feet deep, the Mariana's Trench in the Pacific Ocean is the deepest trench in the world. The Deep has a point - it is a dark and lonely place to go swim.
* In the world of the show, Mother's Milk was trained as a combat field medic when he was in the Marine Corps. This is one of the differences between M.M. in the comics and in the show: in the comics, he was in the Army.
* The shout out to Katniss Everdeen, the protagonist of *The Hunger Games* series, is very meta given that Jack Quaid portrayed Marvel in the first movie.
* Mother's Milk references the film *Say Anything...* starring John Cusack. Incidentally, John's sister Ann, portrays Starlight's mother, Donna January.

## Quotes

―Stan Edgar

―Homelander to Ashley

―Hughie to Mother’s Milk

―Stan Edgar to Homelander

―Susan Raynor to Mother's Milk

―Susan Raynor to Mother's Milk

## Media

### Videos

The Boys Season 2 - Exclusive Clip Amazon Prime VideoHomelander Meets A Potential New Recruit for The Seven - The Boys Prime Video