Man, Stormfront is quite the wildcard this season isn’t she? She is just full of surprises. First, we learn that despite her aggressiveness against Vought, she’s still an utter piece of garbage. To add to that, her brutal racism stretches all the way back seventy years into the past. There’s clearly more to this puzzle to be revealed, and it’s a very intriguing mystery to solve. Stormfront is a pleasure to watch, as you just never know what twist she might offer up next.
While we still don’t know whether or not Stormfront can stand up to Homelander (I would bet that she can), she once again made some surprising moves against him. Rather than physically opposing Homelander, she instead targeted his ego. Clearly she did a fine job at it as well, as it sent Homelander spinning off of her case and straight into a free-fall into his own psyche. How disturbing was it that he had a shapeshifter role play as Madison—and even more so that it turned into a session with himself (something we all know he enjoyed). It’s no surprise that it all ended with Homelander killing Doppelgänger. The real question now though, is what will these realizations about himself lead to?
We got a refreshing change of pace this week when it came to the crew. Instead of our usual gang, we got to go on a road trip with Annie, Hughie, and Mother’s Milk. Easily the strongest part of the episode was getting to see this new dynamic play out. Witnessing Annie as a part of the group made me realize how badly I want that on a regular basis. Watching her connect with MM was a treat, as was seeing the re-blossoming of her relationship with Hughie. That is, until it was preemptively shut down. I don’t really understand Annie’s decision to leave Hughie once again. Honestly, it seems more like a choice on the writer’s end to prolong the emotional turmoil, and in turn add more conflict. It just doesn’t seem like the natural choice that would have been made by the two of them.
Another questionable character decision this episode? Becca choosing to leave Butcher. While I understand her reasoning entirely, and that Butcher can be a real piece of work, I can’t quite comprehend her choosing imprisonment with Homelander over getting out. That doesn’t seem reasonable, even if Butcher does happen to harbor some strong resentment for Supers. At the very least, it was nice to see the two of them get their long-awaited reunion. Though, I must say that Butcher got in that encampment mighty easily. It would have been even more questionable if he hadn’t been seen at all—but (at the very least) Black Noir’s coerced search partner saw him scaling the wall clear as day.
The questionable decisions made by Becca and Annie/Hughie weren’t the only flaws that showed. The whole bit with The Deep felt like a last-minute addition to the episode and didn’t really add all that much, besides simply reconfirming that this cult is indeed messed up. The same could be said for Frenchie—though at the very least that minor plot had more of a poignant emotional core to it.
Nonetheless, there was enough at play to make up for all of those faults. “Nothing Like It In The World” gave us some great disturbing character work for Homelander, a refreshing group dynamic in Annie’s road trip, and Butcher’s long-awaited reunion. The next question is, what comes next? Vought is fine after the recent leak, Stormfront may be the bigger evil threat at play, and everyone’s emotional relationships are failing. Not really a good time for any of our characters, is it?
Bonus Notes:
- Homelander never fails to disturb.
- Seeing Starlight become vulnerable with Hughie about her situation at the tower was highly impactful. Hopefully, her outing this week with Hughie will have been enough to prevent her from hitting the breaking point that Hughie has only just recovered from.
- Do we all really believe that Homelander is just going to leave Queen Maeve’s girlfriend alone? I certainly don’t–especially when I have not a single clue as to what his next actions may be.
- Also, not sure if A-Train is fully out of the Seven or not. Homelander’s comments on the talk show may indicate he has to backpedal on that decision. Or not. We all know Homelander does what he wants.
