"Cherry"
The Boys episode
Episode no.Season 1
Episode 2
Directed byMatt Shakman
Written byEric Kripke
Produced byHartley Gorenstein
Featured music
Cinematography byEvans Brown
Editing byNona Khodai
Original release dateJuly 26, 2019 (2019-07-26)
Running time59 minutes
Guest appearances

"Cherry" is the second episode of the first season of the American superhero television series The Boys, based on the comic book series of the same name by Garth Ennis. It is set in a universe where most of the superpowered individuals are portrayed as corrupt individuals instead of being the heroes that the general public believe they are. The episode was written by the series showrunner Eric Kripke and directed by Matt Shakman.

The episode follows Billy Butcher and Hughie Campbell reuniting with the former's old partner Frenchie in order to find a way to kill Translucent before Vought can find him, much to the shock of Hughie who continues to struggle with the death of his girlfriend Robin. Meanwhile, the Seven's leader Homelander starts an investigation of his own to find Translucent after Vought's vice president Madelyn Stillwell dismisses the latter's disappearance.

"Cherry" was released on the streaming service Amazon Prime Video on July 26, 2019. The episode received positive reviews from critics with praise for the visual style, direction, performances, black humor, its faithfulness to the comics, and Frenchie's introduction, but criticism for its writing which felt to be repetitive and overwritten.

Plot

After their fight with Translucent, Billy Butcher and Hughie Campbell hide the former's body in the trunk of Butcher's car and manage to escape before the police arrives. Translucent is soon revealed to have survived the fight when he begins to bang the trunk much to Hughie relief who wants to free him. However Butcher manages to convince him to not do so by pointing out that the Seven would kill them regardless. The two approach Butcher's former partner Frenchie to aid them in finding a way to kill Translucent, much to Hughie's shock. Initially, Frenchie refuses to cooperate, but Butcher forces him to help them after he makes him an accomplice when Translucent sees him with the other two. Due to Translucent having an impenetrable diamond hard-skin that makes him incredibly hard to kill, the three take the supe to the basement of an abandoned restaurant and lock him in an electrified cage in order to prevent him from escaping and ensure that Vought's does not find the Supe through his tracker, while they find a way to kill him.

Meanwhile, at the Seven's tower, Madelyn Stillwell and her assistant Ashley Barrett start worrying about Translucent's disappearance after A-Train replaces the former's place in a visit to a kid with cancer in a hospital which goes awry. The Seven's leader Homelander starts to question Stilwell about finding Translucent and offers to find him, but the latter refuses. Stilwell also tells Homelander that the Deep found evidence that incriminates him in the plane crash that killed the Mayor of Baltimore.[lower-alpha 1] Even though Homelander tells her that he did it because he heard him blackmailing her, she tells him to be quiet and to not interfere in her business. Subsequently, Homelander reunites with the Deep and threatens him to not approach Stillwell the next time a similar incident occurs, to which the latter fearfully agrees.

Frenchie creates a bullet made with the same material from Translucent's skin, hoping that the bullet would go through his skin and kill him once and for all. Butcher shoots Translucent but the plan backfires as the bullet bounces back - much to Translucent's amusement, who then warns them that the Seven will find them. However, the three are unaware that the bullet destroyed the foil that was shielding the basement's ceiling. This allows Vought to finally track down the exact location where the Supe is being held, prompting Stillwell to dispatch a security team to find him. Butcher approaches his former lover, CIA deputy director Susan Reynor, to ask her for Translucent's files with the hopes of finding a way to kill him. However, Reynor reveals that the files are buried and admits that she would not give him the files anyway.

Annie January struggles to settle in to her new job as the newest member of the Seven. For her first assignment, Stillwell's assistant Ashley assigns her to patrol the streets, according to a crime itinerary, alongside The Deep - much to Annie's dismay. While patrolling the docks and investigating a smuggling drugs case, Annie rebuffs The Deep for what he did to her and warns him that she will kill him if he ever touches her again. After foiling the operation and capturing the thugs, several of Vought's journalists appear in order to use the recent events for publicity reasons, much to Annie's shock and anger. Later that night, while taking a walk, Annie saves a woman from two boys who were about to rape her, unaware that she was being watched by a drone - exposing her secret identity in the process, much to Ashley's dismay.

The same night, during a Vought fundraiser, Stilwell approaches Senator Calhoun with the intention of convincing him to recruit the Supes for national defense, but the latter refuses stating that no one wants to outsource the country's weapons and admits that he is afraid of getting Homelander being on the front line. As a result, he is tricked into having sex with a shapeshifter named Doppelganger who takes the form of a female bartender in order to take intimate photos. The next day Stillwell uses the photos to blackmail the Senator into cooperating, but the latter assures that no one will accept the Supes into the army even if he removes the bill.

Hughie approaches Translucent in order to find out what A-Train was actually doing when he obliterated Robin.[lower-alpha 1] Armed with the knowledge of who Hughie is, Translucent then attempts to manipulate Hughie into giving up his futile attempt at avenging Robin. After the conversation, the Frenchman finally finds a way to kill Translucent, after realizing that while his skin is indestructible however, his insides are the same as those of a normal human. He proceeds to insert a C-4 explosive into Translucent's insides - via his rectum. Translucent, in fear for his life, begs for his life, and reveals that A-Train was on his way to visit his girlfriend, Popclaw, when he killed Robin.

Homelander decides to find Translucent on his own, as it had been 24 hours since Translucent went AWOL - and coerces a Crime Analytics employee to tell him his exact location. He arrives at the restaurant, prompting Butcher and Frenchie to leave Hughie alone in the basement with the detonator, to buy some time - much to Translucent's delight. Frenchie, acting like an innocent bystander, distracts Homelander just long enough for Butcher to detonate a nearby building, diverting Homelander's attention.

Meanwhile, Translucent escapes the electric cage by using a bottle of his own pee to destroy the cage's battery. Hughie notices this, and threatens Translucent with the detonator. Translucent tries to convince Hughie to not use the detonator, telling Hughie that the rest of The Seven would track down Hughie and avenge him for doing it - but saying Hughie will be the hero if he lets him go. Hughie hesitates out of shock, and Translucent walks away, down the hallway - but his rage shortly takes over. He detonates the C4, showering him in Translucent's viscera.

Production

Development

An adaptation of the comic book series The Boys was initially developed as a feature-length film in 2008. However, after several failed attempts to produce the film causing it to be in development hell for several years, the plans for a film were scrapped in favor of a television series.[1] On 2016, it was announced that the show would be developed by Cinemax, with Erick Kripke being hired to serve as the series showrunner and head writer, alongside Evan Goldberg, and Seth Rogen who would serve as the executive producers of the series.[2] In November 2017, Amazon acquired the rights to develop the show, announcing that they would be producing over eight episodes for the first season,[3] while confirming that the previously announced creative team would still be attached to the series.[4][5] The episode which is titled "Cherry" was written by Kripke and directed by Matt Shakman.[6][7] The episode is titled with the name of the issues #3–6 of the comic book series of the same name.[8]

Writing

Kripke considered that the character Jack from Jupiter's alien-looking design was too fantastic for the world that he and his crew were creating in the series and that would mess with the mythology of the human characters being born with powers. Intending to keep the realism of the TV series, Kripke decided to replace it with a more human like character created exclusively for the TV series known as Translucent, though he remains the same powers of having an indestructible skin.[9] For the character's death by being blowing up from the inside, Kripke admitted that this wouldn't be probable to do in the real life due to the strength of the skin that would have contained the blast and accepted it was a conscious decision he took and commented "Yes, you're absolutely right, the skin should have contained the blast, but then we'd have missed out on that amazing bloody explosion of 'blood and meat. Keep Your Rules in Mind but Never Logic Yourself Out Of Entertainment."[10]

The episode also made a pivotal and major change from the comics where Hughie kills for the first time. While the part where Hughie murders a Supe remains the same, the way the character did it is changed, as in the comics he accidentally killed a supe under the name of Blarney Cock in self-defense as the latter attacked him. In the TV series however, Hughie decides to kill him on purpose after initially intending to let him go by blowing up the bomb that was inside Translucent. This major change was released by Kripke, as he and the production crew intended to increase the level violence and gore instead of keeping the same one from the original comic book series and without any intention of toning it down.[11][12]

Casting

The episode main cast includes Karl Urban as Billy Butcher, Jack Quaid as Hughie Campell, Anthony Starr as Homelander, Erin Moriarty as Annie January, Dominique McElligott as Queen Maeve, Jessie T. Usher as A-Train, Chance Crawford as The Deep, Tomer Capone as Frenchie, Nathan Mitchell as Black Noir, and Elisabeth Shue as Madelyn Stillwell.[13] Also starring are Simon Pegg as Hugh Campbell Sr., Alex Hasell as Transucent, Jennifer Esposito as Susan Reynor, David Andrews as Senator Calhoun, Shaun Benson as Ezekiel, Colby Minifie as Ahsley Barrett, Ana Sani as Anika, and Jordana Lajoie as Cherie.[14][15]: 57:29–57:56  Laz Alonso and Karen Fukuhara are credited for their respective characters as Mother's Milk and the Female, though none of them make an appearance at the episode.[15] Mike Massaro makes a cameo appearance as an ESPN interviewer for the episode.[16]

Filming

The filming of the first season of the series took place at the city of Toronto, while using several locations across the city in order to seek to capture the New York City where the series took place.[17] In order to recreate the exterior of the Vought International company headquarters known as the Seven Tower, the filming took place at the exterior of the Roy Thomson Hall while the tower being created digitally. For the interior of the tower which include some of the rooms and the modern lobby where the company makes the fundraiser event in the episode, the filming for such scenes would take place inside the Roy Thomson Hall. The scenes that took place at the fictional in-universe Tony Cicero's restaurant where The Boys kept Translucent imprisoned, the crew actually filmed in a real restaurant at the district of Etobicoke in the province of Ontario.[18][19]

Visual effects

Visual effects for the episode were created by DNEG TV, Framestore, Folks VFX, Mavericks VFX, Method Studios, Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies VFX, Mr. X, Pixomondo, Rocket Science VFX, Rodeo FX, and Soho VFX.[20][15]: 58:36–58:42  It was announced that visual effects supervisor Stephan Fleet would be in charge of overseeing the development for the visual effects.[21] A scene where Translucent is dumped into the back of a car, Fleet decided to keep the actor in a grey suit that he used for the fight scene in the previous episode in order to keep him invisible, as he considered that it was important to maintain the character's human weight.[22] For the creation of the series one of the most violent and gory scenes where Translucent explodes, the visual effects team decided to make the scene entirely practical without using CGI in order to capture the realism of the scene.[23]

Music

The episode features the following songs which are "Dans Ma Ruche" by Guizmo, "Neat Neat Neat" by The Damned, "La Foule" by Youssoupha, and "Cherry Bomb" by The Runaways.[24]

Release

"Cherry" premiered on Amazon Prime Video in the United States on July 26, 2019.[25] It was released alongside all the episodes from the season which were released the same date the episode was released.[26] The episode, along with the rest of The Boys' first season, was released on Blu-ray on May 31, 2022.[27]

Reception

"Cherry" received positive reviews from critics. Brian Tallerico from Vulture rated the episode with 3 stars out of 5, praising it for the episode design and performances but stated that the episode suffers from the talky superhero-philosophy dialogue which sometimes feels overwritten and repetitive and also criticizing the episode's story which he deemed that he didn't add nothing new to the series plot. However, despite the episode flaws he still considered that there is still enough hope for the television series to continue.[28] Greg Wheeler from The Review Geek rated the episode with 4 stars out of 5 by stating that "With the facade of the Seven chipping away, it'll be interesting to see what direction the show takes from here but for now, The Boys delivers another progressive and well written episode."[29] Darryl Jasper from ScienceFiction.com gave a positive review to the episode and commented that the episode continues expanding the world and considered that the character's Billy Butcher past would be something interesting to follow and explore in the upcoming episodes for the series.[30]

While writing a review from Tilt Magazine, Randy Dankievitch stated that the episode takes a deft turn for The Boys with an interesting deconstruction of the classic "villain captures hero" trope. There's also a lot of intriguing other ideas brought into play, be it the power hierarchy inside the Seven, or Madelyn's larger goals of getting some of that good American defense spending money injected into Vought International.[31] Martin Carr from the Flickering Myth gave the episode a positive response to the episode to which he commented "In many respects The Boys is still getting warmed up, stretching its collective legs and establishing tone. Some have come for the guns, gore and censorship baiting excess, while most will stay for the depth, breadth and social commentary."[32]

Notes

  1. 1 2 As depicted in the previous episode, "The Name of the Game".

References

  1. ↑ Kit, Borys (February 10, 2012). "Columbia Pictures Drops Comic Book Adaptation 'The Boys' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on February 15, 2012. Retrieved May 3, 2022.
  2. ↑ Andreeva, Nellie (2016-04-06). "'The Boys' Drama Based On Comic Book Set At Cinemax With Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Eric Kripke, Original Film & Sony". Deadline. Retrieved 2023-06-26.
  3. ↑ Andreeva, Nellie (2017-11-08). "Amazon Orders 'The Boys' Superhero Drama Series Based On Comic From Eric Kripke, Evan Goldberg & Seth Rogen". Deadline. Retrieved 2023-06-26.
  4. ↑ Barsanti, Sam (2017-11-08). "Amazon picks up The Boys comic adaptation from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2023-06-26.
  5. ↑ Turchiano, Danielle (2017-11-08). "Amazon Greenlights Eric Kripke's Superhero Drama 'The Boys'". Variety. Retrieved 2023-06-26.
  6. ↑ "The Boys (2019-2023)". Writers Guild of America West. Archived from the original on July 28, 2019. Retrieved June 28, 2023.
  7. ↑ Hubbard, Christian (2019-08-21). "'The Boys' Director Matt Shakman In Talks To Direct Marvel Studios Series For Disney+". Full Circle Cinema. Retrieved 2023-07-22.
  8. ↑ Perry, Spencer (2019-07-26). "The Boys TV Series: Every Easter Egg and Reference in the Comic Adaptation". ComingSoon.net. Retrieved 2023-07-22.
  9. ↑ McGuire, Liam (2020-09-22). "The Boys Version Of Martian Manhunter Was Too Unbelievable For The Show". Screen Rant. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  10. ↑ Averdon, Jon (2019-07-31). "The Boys Producer Explains Why [SPOILER]'s Explosive Death Defied Logic". CBR. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  11. ↑ Elvy, Craig (2019-08-05). "The Boys Season 1 Makes A Major Comic Death Even More Disgusting". Screen Rant. Retrieved 2023-07-25.
  12. ↑ Tejada, Andrew. "The Boys: 10 Biggest Differences From The Comics". WatchMojo. Retrieved 2023-07-25.
  13. ↑ Darwish, Meaghan (2019-07-25). "'The Boys' Cast and Showrunner Tease R-Rated Characters, Action & More (VIDEO)". TV Insider. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  14. ↑ Marnell, Blair (2018-08-31). "Jennifer Esposito Joins the Cast of Amazon's The Boys". ComingSoon.net. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  15. 1 2 3 Kripke, Eric (July 26, 2019). "Cherry". The Boys. Season 1. Episode 2. Amazon Prime Video. End credits begin at 57:06.
  16. ↑ "The Boys Showrunner Shares the Story Behind Season 3's Major Cameo". MovieWeb. 2022-06-04. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  17. ↑ Watson, Fay (2019-07-26). "The Boys on Amazon location: Where is The Boys filmed?". Daily Express. Retrieved 2023-07-01.
  18. ↑ "Where was The Boys Filmed? Guide to ALL the Filming Locations". Atlas of Wonders. Retrieved 2023-07-01.
  19. ↑ "The Boys filming locations in Canada". Filipinosincanada.com. Archived from the original on October 28, 2020. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
  20. ↑ Frei, Vincent (July 24, 2019). "THE BOYS". Art of VFX. Retrieved April 25, 2022.
  21. ↑ Frei, Vincent (2019-08-27). "THE BOYS: Stephan Fleet - Overall VFX Supervisor". The Art of VFX. Retrieved 2023-07-02.
  22. ↑ Failes, Ian (2019-08-22). "Four of the most batshit crazy VFX moments in 'The Boys'". Befores & Afters. Retrieved 2023-07-28.
  23. ↑ Frei, Vincent (2019-08-27). "THE BOYS: Stephan Fleet - Overall VFX Supervisor". The Art of VFX (in French). Retrieved 2023-07-28.
  24. ↑ Elvy, Craig (2019-07-26). "The Boys Season 1: Every Song On The Soundtrack". Screen Rant. Retrieved 2023-07-02.
  25. ↑ Gartenberg, Chaim (2019-04-17). "Amazon's The Boys gets a new, NSFW trailer and a July 26th release date". The Verge. Retrieved 2023-07-02.
  26. ↑ "'The Boys' Season 1 release date, trailer, cast, plot, renewal, and more". Inverse. 2021-05-09. Retrieved 2023-07-02.
  27. ↑ Zogbi, Emily (2022-04-05). "The Boys Seasons 1 and 2 Get Blu-ray Release With Deleted and Extended Scenes". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved 2023-12-31.
  28. ↑ Tallerico, Brian (2019-07-26). "The Boys Recap: Damage Control". Vulture. Archived from the original on June 16, 2021. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  29. ↑ Wheeler, Greg (July 26, 2019). "The Boys – Season 1 Episode 2 "Cherry" Recap & Review". The Review Geek. Retrieved July 29, 2023.
  30. ↑ Jasper, Darryl (2019-07-29). "'The Boys' Episode 2 Review: "Cherry"". ScienceFiction.com. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  31. ↑ Dankievitch, Randy (2019-07-26). "The Boys Season One Episode 2: "Cherry" Is a Toxic Affair". Tilt Magazine. Retrieved 2023-07-30.
  32. ↑ Carr, Martin (2019-07-27). "The Boys Season 1 Episode 2 Review - 'Cherry'". Flickering Myth. Retrieved 2023-07-30.
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