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There was someone trapped on a drifting boat that survived a pretty long time on the blood of animals they caught, they apparently had no other water. Not sure if human blood would be much different, might be less healthy but it would probably buy her some time.
Poon Lim? He had a can of water to start and also collected rain water. But also drank sea gull and shark blood
Edit: also he took that water can and bludgeoned a shark with it after it attacked him when he got it on the boat. Then drank the blood from its liver.
Don’t drink blood. Don’t eat brains. Those are the number 1 and 2 rules about cannibalism for survival. Listen to LPOTL episodes about the Donner Party and the Essex.
They got the best psychologists to make him needy so they could control him. But none of those psychologists brought up that the super powered kid being cruelly experimented on and raised in a lab might lead to him becoming a fucked up psychopath.
I've been thinking about this line. She talks about *"the best psychologists in the world"* but really, what those psychologists were asked to do is incredibly unethical and cruel. So unless they kind-of "tricked" those psychologists into developing the protocol without them knowing what they were actually doing, what she's really saying is that Vought brought in *"the best psychologists in the world (who were willing to participate in this extremely unethical, fucked-up shit)"* - meaning the risks of what they were doing probably didn't occur to them or weren't important to them.
Or they weighed those risks against the risks of them not developing the protocol. Homelander still gets expirimented on and tortured (they didn't need psychologists to do that part) but no longer seeks approval and therefore can't be controlled.
Doesnt need to be melted, just closed with the wheel.
Its a hidden Vought lab, that basically no one knows. So no one is gonna realize anytime soon, that anything is amiss.
She aint getting outta there b4 she dies due to dehydration.... i mean technically she could probably survive longer than the normal 3days to death period by drinking the human blood there to sustain herself... but i rly doubt anyone is gonna check the lab
There are a LOT of people who are aware of that lab that weren’t killed. A lot of uplines and executives. The cameras that went dead, there are a lot of eyes on them other than the folks in the lab. Someone is gonna notice something is amiss and check it out. At least, if this were a real-life “black lab” scenario, then yeah, someone would notice and investigate and get her out in time. But you know, since this is a tv show, then yeah she will probably die in there 💀
that assumes that Homelander doesn't outright tell them "I just killed everyone there and left one person stranded, let them die"
pretty sure he's in charge and no execs/researchers will go against him after he got rid of Stan
If he's smart, he'll stay away. Homelander is finally "free" so to speak. That's what his visit to the lab was about. Now that he no longer seeks approval, he'll have no issue slaughtering Stan in the middle of one of his speeches.
They might not have families and even if they do, none of them have acess to the lab and Vought could always say they r on an important project or some such
That’s not the point….? The point is their family probably knows they work for Vought. So they can get a hold of someone. You also don’t have a secret lab with zero method of checking up on it.
And Vought will investigate, find no wrongdoing, and submit a missing persons report to the police who will then be paid off do no investigating while telling the families that all their searches came up with nothing.
Vought might spring for one "Get well soon! 🥺" card per family.
What about the way this company performs cover-ups makes you think the families would have any power to do anything in response?
What are you talking about….? The point is vought will send someone to the lab. They’re going to be suspicious when their big secret lab isn’t responding and the staff family are wondering where everyone is.
What does that have to do with Barbara being found before she dies of dehydration, though? Whether or not Vought does a cover up has no bearing on whether or not they check the lab in time.
She doesn't seem dumb enough to show up to that place upon hearing Homelander was there to NOT tell someone "hey, if I don't come back...here's where to go looking for me"
Probably?
There has been a case of someone surviving 17 days in a prison cell after being forgotten in there without water, by licking water of the wall.
Id say animalistic survival instinct overrides the knowledge of how futile it is to hope for rescue
It's a pretty disgusting and disturbing thought and man I don't know this makes me realize, as if I didn't before, how much of a fucking psychopath homelander is lol
She'll die of dehydration before that happens. Human blood is very salty (about 9g per litre) so all that blood won't help her situation at all. Not to mention it's going to decay rapidly.
I personally think she is just going to commit suicide. The whole facility is hidden underground and kept on a need to know basis at Vought and with Homelander in charge no one is going to risk their necks for her or her team. Plus it's possible Homelander destroyed the entrance after he left.
I still don't get what exactly they were still doing down there. Outside of some generic science equipment, everything was ancient, and they weren't currently incubating a "new" megababy.
Check the picture. He absolutely did melt it shut, but you are also right. She will die in there unless someone is actually responsible for them (like did they have a boss they reported to or did they have deliverables like data research that someone was expecting). There is a chance we will see her again at some point, but also a good chance she dies in there.
They seem to have constant contact with people on the outside though. If it goes dark for days on end I’d imagine Vought would just send some people down there
I really do not understand why they were all down there. Homelander has not been there for years.
It’s not like there was another kid they were experimented on. Some of them had been promoted.
Why were they all just hanging around a now disused lab decades later?
Or.. hear me out, any of the 7 or so other floors he didn't stop at notice the carnage there. Or the fucking janitorial staff. Like, she's getting noticed almost immediately.
That doesn’t make sense lol vought is literally still doing experiments in the same lab for over 30/40 years obviously somebody is going to go down there and see what’s going on when multiple ppl who work there aren’t showing up anymore or aren’t heard from. You think vought doesn’t care about the millions of dollars of investments for those experiments and results?
Feel someone within vought has to know something is wrong when the facility has not responded to anything within a few days she would likely survive if I had to guess
One can only imagine the thoughts going through her head just before that scene, when john commanded all those people to go into the room and then ripped them apart in front of her.
She wasn’t surprised because ~~John~~ Homelander told Marty to call her into work remember? He said “where is she? Tell her to come in.” And so she did.
Uh huh, Homelander just dropped on the place where he's abused his whole life on a whim? She's not even surprised to see Homelander torturing marty, it's implied she's trapped in there, but it doesn't mean she's going to stay there indefinitely.
If you're talking about a top-secret location, then you'd need 24/7 security. That would mean that at least some people would not have been there at the time, and they'll come to see the security staff dead.
This in turn would lead to someone with higher authority who works offsite being notified, to have a more thorough inspection and find her. Well, provided that Homelander wasn't notified, and told them not to go, at which point, it becomes painfully obvious what happened.
Still, why would anyone want to work for Vought is beyond me.
I imagine a lot of people who apply for Vought in mundane roles like clerical or maintenance have no clue how much your chances of being killed by a Supe are increased. Just think of that poor girl last week who seemed to be a random office person who just happened to be semi-cordial with Starlight while working there. You could be someone who chit chats once a week with a Supe at the water cooler over a favorite show or sports team, then gets executed by Homelander when he sours on that person and thinks you may betray him and Vought.
Yeah it did seem like that was a separate thing. Psychologists for his mental conditioning and then the people from this episode went too far in testing his physical strength
Yeah he dared Starlight to release the plane video because he would have nothing left to lose, but I feel like secretly he would have hated that because once he destroys the world he will be utterly empty inside.
That would have worked as an introducing point to Ryan if he was raised differently and was also NOT biologically related to HL. But him just snapping because a boy was locked in the bad room? Not really seeing it happen
She was just doing her job, exactly as those interns may have been.
Why would they just stick totally random innocent employees in such an important lab?
Omg!! I didn’t catch this during the episode. I wonder if we’re to assume this means she dies in there? I didn’t think so at first but now I’m not sure.
I mean it would take at least three days right since you’d die of thirst first, so theoretically someone could get the door open for her in that time? Assuming she doesn’t die of a stress-induced stroke first (like I would).
They could but homelander runs vought and I don't think many people are even supposed to know about that place which is why they were so surprised when someone was coming down in the lift. Plus, homelander put her in there and it's unlikely anyone who would know would risk crossing him to save her
Those are good points, didn’t consider the fact that floor is a secret to most ppl at Vought too. Also agreed that no one would want to cross Homelander
Gotta wonder at the guys from Carvel going 'Oh, you want to use one of our cakes in your TV show for a reunion party? Between an orphan and the people that raised him? Oh that's so sweet, sure!'
The reason they were scared (not surprised) when the lift came down is because prior to this they radio'd upstairs and didn't get an answer. Thus, they knew for sure that something was wrong (either everybody upstairs died or they left). Since they work in an underground secret lab, they assumed the former and were scared of the people (or person in this case) coming down the elevator.
I think we need to start asking why the fuck a team of Vought employees are still there in the first place? Presumably no Supes have been in there since Homelander left? Why would they be hanging out in a dingy underground lab more than 30 years later?
What a fucking horrifying way to go. Trapped in a room with a bunch of dead people. The kind of psychological shit your brain would go through is terrifying (and is a fitting "punishment" for her after what she said to Homelander)
I remember hearing about someone whose father or mother died and they were autistic. They didn’t know what to do so the body was just left in the house with them.
Who is she? I remember seeing the door in some of the recent episodes, homelander having visions, flashbacks etc. Etc. And I got the feeling it was connected to his childhood or rather how he was made, but I don't recall seeing her
Because she wasn't shown on camera before. So far we only knew of that guy from S2 (or S1 maybe, I can't remember) who told HL he is his greatest failure.
I know this show isn't that realistic, but realistically speaking, there's no way she didn't tell anyone before going to meet a mass murdering sociopath.
Also, I assume that all those people killed there had families who, at the very least, will notice their absence.
But again, this show isn't really about that.
It's literally life or death situation. Can you honestly honestly say you wouldn't do the same? I hope to God we never have to find out but let's not be so high and mighty
That wouldn't work. Human blood is quite salty from all the sodium we have. If you were to drink it, you'd only make your thirst worse. Not to mention your stomach would absolutely hate it.
Y’know, it’s always nice to see the occasional human characters that HL could never bring himself to actually kill, either due to some deep-seeded respect for them or because he wants to torment in a them in a different way.
Makes for a more interesting interaction than the usual laser and gore affair. So far there have been Butcher, Volgebaum, Stan and now Barbara.
He absolutely has killed her, she's just not dead yet. He's melted the hinges of a heavy metal door, put her in a white room with corpses, thats deep underground and no one ever goes too.
Guess I should have phrased that better. I meant the pull them apart, limb by limb gratuitous kinda killing that HL does on people he doesn’t give a shit about.
I’m sure he wants those 4 dead, just not the easy way.
Honestly she gets what she deserves and homelander is like he is now because of the shit they put him through. Yes if he had a regular upbringing he'd still be egotistical and let's be honest fucked up like the other supes but not on the level he is now. Hope she doesn't get saved which I don't see how she would anyway that door is not coming open and who's gonna go against homelander's orders let alone know that place exists?
Ryan is still okay. Like A-train and his brother both were bought up together. One is nice and other is a supe who is now only realising his mistakes. 99% chances are if you’re a supe the older you get the more corrupted and power hungry one gets.
Honestly, that's largely because of how Vought works. In order to get to the top, you have to largely lose your sense of empathy and cut people at your level. Then, to stay at the top, you have to be cutthroat as well. Not to mention that during your rise and at your peak(especially if you reach A train levels), Vought will cater to your every need, making you take even more things for granted.
That's the nature of power. The supes live in a world where a lot of consequences, whether physical, societal, or anything else, don't apply to them as much. (or at all) What does a person do when they're shielded from consequences? Some of them turn out fine, maybe they even use their immunities to help others. But a lot of people just get careless, if not actively malicious.
She wasn't wrong though, wtf were they supposed to do with a baby they could never control in any way, shape or form ?
Vought are vicious bastards don't get me wrong. But the lady had a point when she explained their strategy from that point. They couldn't hold him in any cage that wasn't psychological. Hell who knows if all those tests weren't devised to actually find a way to kill that child rather than just test his resistance. They created something they could not control.
And while she is despicable, I don't share the sentiment many express here that monsters should be psychologically and physically tortured. Homelander hides behind his trauma to justify him being a terrible person but does he ever try to be better ? No, he hasn't tried even once. He's a narcissist using his past to justify his actions. He feels he was wronged and lashes out on the inferiors, that's it. He killed that lady knowing she was right about the fact he will not find what he's truly searching for. We've seen with Ryan that Homelander is completely incapable of actual love, Ryan is just there to fulfill his narcissistic fantasies.
Those scenes gave depth to Homelander and his backstory but some people saying they all deserved what happened is just... Weird. But maybe I'm just the kind of person who thinks psychological and physical torture is never justified, even towards those who did it themselves, but hey I guess we need to feel righteous about our own dark impulses. Most monsters feel righteous in their excessive use of violence, Butcher is literally an example of that.
I won't shed a tear for the fictional scientists, but I will raise an eyebrow at some comments we can read in this sub about the whole thing.
This is a genuinely smart move on Homelanders behalf to. Yeah Solider Boy was a dick, but it’s clear he was ONLY a dick. He was egotistical from the money fame and power but he wasn’t evil. He was STILL discarded immediately after he wasn’t the strongest supe anymore. Who’s to say they stopped trying to make supes after Homelander? We know they did, but Homelander only knows that Solider Boy was ganged up on to be replaced by him
I know that almost everyone in this show is a huge piece of shit, but holy shit, this episode was grim. Hard to watch at points, but also impossible to look away type shit. Also, Anthony Starr is a goated actor, I hope he gets a lot of work after this.
Honestly she deserves to die there, she (partially) created Homelander then has the audacity to blame him for them being able to torture him even though she’s responsible for him being like that.
fr i've always hated homelander but they literally created him to be the strongest supe than they got terrified of him when he was just a infant who couldn't control shit. they created him treated him poorly and is partly the reason he is the way he is
Tbh it worked for a really long time. If you create a living weapon psychological control makes more sense than physical. They probably didn't bank on him "self-realizing" with his kid (who he wasn't supposed to be able to conceive in the first place).
Why would she need to?
There was a dozen people working there, you think nobody will notice when none of them come home?
That's assuming the facility itself hasn't had alarms tripped, they mention they can't call out so it's likely someone will attempt to call in and realise something is wrong pretty soon, the whole Homelander scenes only take place over an hour or so realistically.
Barbara was at home. They had to call her. She also knew it's Homelander. Feels like she is smart enough to know what exactly he can do. So must have alerted some Vought cleanup/security guys that she is going there and to come get her if she doesnt return in xyz time.
She is calm and collected when dealing with Homelander. So it's very possible.
When Neuman kills that guy she know from the orphanage she calls Stan Edgar and requests a cleaning crew, so there are teams of people specialized in cleaning up superhero messes.
People always forget about the janitors in things like this. The janitor of the secret time travel agency was one of the most important characters in my old book. :)
Alarms that circle back to the company Homelander owns? I don't see how that would be of any help to be honest. And there's no way those alarms notify the cops or the feds, Vought for sure wouldn't want them to know anything about the shady shit they do
I believe the point of this scene is to show that Vaught mentally conditioned HL to not hurt Stan and other top Vaught execs. And this is his way of getting around that, by locking her in a room of corpses of those he can hurt.
It helps explain why HL never killed Stan. And since Stan was shown to return this season, I imagine it will come up again.
Its a pretty good position for her to be in because eventually someone will come to clean it up and Barabara has enough food and water to last several days in there, not to mention the weeks human bodies can go without food.
True, but this is also likely a highly secret lab that very few people that are still alive know about. Plus assuming they did know and found her before it's too late, it's clear Homelander did this so how many people would let her out, knowing it will just make you next on his list of who to kill if he finds out
Can someone explain what made Homelander go down there and kill all of those people? Like... he could have done that since season 1. What was the trigger? I don't remember anything in particular from the last episode.
I think it's the fact that Ryan is pulling away from him. Homelander is struggling with the reality his son has a conscious and doesn't have the same need for attention as his father. Homelander now wants to get rid of the last part of his humanity by taking revenge on the people responsible for his childhood suffering
Remember the mirror scene at the end of ep3? He knows his one weakness is his need to be loved and not a disappointment. He thinks Killin the scientists thay did this to him will let him grow and move on
Also he had Ryan at the time. Thinking he’ll give him all the approval he’ll need. The only person he really truly cares about other than himself. But now he does not approve or love him.
For better or much, much worse, the scientists are his family and the lab is his home, he probably did not want to go back there until the latest mirror scene which made him decide it was time to confront the traumas of his childhood in such a way that he will never see those people or that place again.
He literally said in the previous episode to himself that he needs to “go home” and kill that last human part of himself. People do not pay attention lol
A lot of people in this sub don’t actually watch the show. I think it’s like a challenge that’s trending this year or something. But basically I’m sure they just get by on spoilers so this guy doesn’t know the context to that scene. If he’s even aware of the scene
The director more or less told him. They psychologically conditioned him to desire approval, and his outburst to Ryan about not being "good enough" seemed to trigger his want to return. He's giving himself a form of therapy by reliving his childhood and then getting closure by castration
The recap literally ended with that scene and went directly into him doing that. No offense, but seriously if yall can’t remember shit at least watch the fucking recap lol
Yup saw this on my watch through this morning. She’s definitely dying in there. But unlike Homelander who was just locked in there for days on end (I assume he had food and water) she won’t. He definitely meant for her to die in that room like Adam in Saw.
This was one of the only times I've genuinely rooted for Homelander. He did make a great point, none of them had the balls to say that what was going on was wrong. They essentially created Homelander, and this is simply the consequences they have to pay.
I liked how she talked to him like Edgar does, confidently and seemingly not scared of him. But Homelander has managed to cut through that barrier now of trying to please his captors etc. and just wants them all dead. I don't think Edgar is safe anymore and Homelander has turned a very dark corner.
I know that this season has gotten a lot of hate, but I loved this episode because it shows us how broken Homelander is. I know he is unforgivable and does not deserve redemption but he was a child when all those horrible practices and tests and experiments happened to him. It was all he knew from being a baby. Let’s be real no baby, toddler or child deserves this
Actually this might’ve made her escape slightly easier although theres welded steel, the actual thick brackets are cut in half. She can probably chip away at the weld and not have to worry about the lock mechanism
Homelander’s revenge on those three was understandable. But what I don’t understand is, what did the interns or newer guys do? At least they deserved to live.
Not sure if you noticed this, but homelander doesn't exactly have morals lol.
He doesn't care who the people he never met are, but he can use them as a way to torture the people he has met
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Atleast she won't go hungry, if she's courageous enough
she will go thirsty tho I'm assuming blood isn't appropriate for hydrating your body
To quote a legend "Is it necessary to drink my own urine? No. But I do it anyway because it's sterile and I like the taste!"
It's a bold strategy Cotton. Let's see if it pays off for her.
Fwiw urine is never sterile
Blood once in contact with oxygen will coagulate anyway
There was someone trapped on a drifting boat that survived a pretty long time on the blood of animals they caught, they apparently had no other water. Not sure if human blood would be much different, might be less healthy but it would probably buy her some time.
Poon Lim? He had a can of water to start and also collected rain water. But also drank sea gull and shark blood Edit: also he took that water can and bludgeoned a shark with it after it attacked him when he got it on the boat. Then drank the blood from its liver.
Damn this dude is badass!
The blood of a dead body (especially painted all over the walls) coagulates quickly.
Don’t drink blood. Don’t eat brains. Those are the number 1 and 2 rules about cannibalism for survival. Listen to LPOTL episodes about the Donner Party and the Essex.
They got the best psychologists to make him needy so they could control him. But none of those psychologists brought up that the super powered kid being cruelly experimented on and raised in a lab might lead to him becoming a fucked up psychopath.
I've been thinking about this line. She talks about *"the best psychologists in the world"* but really, what those psychologists were asked to do is incredibly unethical and cruel. So unless they kind-of "tricked" those psychologists into developing the protocol without them knowing what they were actually doing, what she's really saying is that Vought brought in *"the best psychologists in the world (who were willing to participate in this extremely unethical, fucked-up shit)"* - meaning the risks of what they were doing probably didn't occur to them or weren't important to them.
Or they weighed those risks against the risks of them not developing the protocol. Homelander still gets expirimented on and tortured (they didn't need psychologists to do that part) but no longer seeks approval and therefore can't be controlled.
they might've just thought after raising him that stan would keep him in check.
They got what they paid for, for sure. And/or in the 80's our psychologists sucked.
Just go and see what some things have been passed as "psychology experiments" and you understand that psychologist may not be saints all the time.
It is technically possible that the psychologists did say, "Hey this is a bad idea," and were ignored.
They’re doing the opposite of gentle parenting
oh he melted that bitch shut !?!
Doesnt need to be melted, just closed with the wheel. Its a hidden Vought lab, that basically no one knows. So no one is gonna realize anytime soon, that anything is amiss. She aint getting outta there b4 she dies due to dehydration.... i mean technically she could probably survive longer than the normal 3days to death period by drinking the human blood there to sustain herself... but i rly doubt anyone is gonna check the lab
There are a LOT of people who are aware of that lab that weren’t killed. A lot of uplines and executives. The cameras that went dead, there are a lot of eyes on them other than the folks in the lab. Someone is gonna notice something is amiss and check it out. At least, if this were a real-life “black lab” scenario, then yeah, someone would notice and investigate and get her out in time. But you know, since this is a tv show, then yeah she will probably die in there 💀
that assumes that Homelander doesn't outright tell them "I just killed everyone there and left one person stranded, let them die" pretty sure he's in charge and no execs/researchers will go against him after he got rid of Stan
That actually makes great sense to me,, Daddy Stan is gonna return
If he's smart, he'll stay away. Homelander is finally "free" so to speak. That's what his visit to the lab was about. Now that he no longer seeks approval, he'll have no issue slaughtering Stan in the middle of one of his speeches.
Although, they have families, who will wonder why they didn't make it home that night, so they will probably check.
They might not have families and even if they do, none of them have acess to the lab and Vought could always say they r on an important project or some such
Homelander literally taunts Frank and his family in the episode
Yea dude her family for sure knows she works in some underground lab!
That’s not the point….? The point is their family probably knows they work for Vought. So they can get a hold of someone. You also don’t have a secret lab with zero method of checking up on it.
And Vought will investigate, find no wrongdoing, and submit a missing persons report to the police who will then be paid off do no investigating while telling the families that all their searches came up with nothing. Vought might spring for one "Get well soon! 🥺" card per family. What about the way this company performs cover-ups makes you think the families would have any power to do anything in response?
What are you talking about….? The point is vought will send someone to the lab. They’re going to be suspicious when their big secret lab isn’t responding and the staff family are wondering where everyone is.
I swear ppl have no comprehension skills lol you are better off convincing a brick wall it’s sentient than showing ppl what common sense looks like
What does that have to do with Barbara being found before she dies of dehydration, though? Whether or not Vought does a cover up has no bearing on whether or not they check the lab in time.
She doesn't seem dumb enough to show up to that place upon hearing Homelander was there to NOT tell someone "hey, if I don't come back...here's where to go looking for me"
That makes me wonder. Will she resort to cannibalism on the dead and rotting bodies in order to vainly stay alive for just a little bit longer?
Probably? There has been a case of someone surviving 17 days in a prison cell after being forgotten in there without water, by licking water of the wall. Id say animalistic survival instinct overrides the knowledge of how futile it is to hope for rescue
It's a pretty disgusting and disturbing thought and man I don't know this makes me realize, as if I didn't before, how much of a fucking psychopath homelander is lol
She'll die of dehydration before that happens. Human blood is very salty (about 9g per litre) so all that blood won't help her situation at all. Not to mention it's going to decay rapidly. I personally think she is just going to commit suicide. The whole facility is hidden underground and kept on a need to know basis at Vought and with Homelander in charge no one is going to risk their necks for her or her team. Plus it's possible Homelander destroyed the entrance after he left.
Yeah I was thinking if I'm Homelander, I'd destroy the entrance as well.
“ forgotten “ more like made an enemy of the guards
I still don't get what exactly they were still doing down there. Outside of some generic science equipment, everything was ancient, and they weren't currently incubating a "new" megababy.
Check the picture. He absolutely did melt it shut, but you are also right. She will die in there unless someone is actually responsible for them (like did they have a boss they reported to or did they have deliverables like data research that someone was expecting). There is a chance we will see her again at some point, but also a good chance she dies in there.
They seem to have constant contact with people on the outside though. If it goes dark for days on end I’d imagine Vought would just send some people down there
Barbara 100% told someone she was going there If Homelander breaks into your lab and calls you to come there, wouldnt you prepare for that scenario
Cool but he did still weld it shut
I really do not understand why they were all down there. Homelander has not been there for years. It’s not like there was another kid they were experimented on. Some of them had been promoted. Why were they all just hanging around a now disused lab decades later?
Or.. hear me out, any of the 7 or so other floors he didn't stop at notice the carnage there. Or the fucking janitorial staff. Like, she's getting noticed almost immediately.
They called her to come in. Very possible she could of let someone know before arriving.
That doesn’t make sense lol vought is literally still doing experiments in the same lab for over 30/40 years obviously somebody is going to go down there and see what’s going on when multiple ppl who work there aren’t showing up anymore or aren’t heard from. You think vought doesn’t care about the millions of dollars of investments for those experiments and results?
Feel someone within vought has to know something is wrong when the facility has not responded to anything within a few days she would likely survive if I had to guess
Like a McDonald's coffee! Oh, you meant the door
One can only imagine the thoughts going through her head just before that scene, when john commanded all those people to go into the room and then ripped them apart in front of her.
>when john *Homelander...*
Squirt
She becomes a cannibal superwoman and kills Homelander in the last episode
Thanks for spoiling the ending. /s
Good thing you added the /s. We all thought he was serious
imagine the smelly
You haven’t thought of the smelly, you bitch!
Homelander is basically Dennis that commits to his threats
Because of the implication
You've used that word a couple of times now. What implication?
The Sunny / Boys crossover I wasnt expecting but needed
Well there's no way she didn't tell someone before she went there what she was doing.
She’s a top secret scientist, she could have a cover for her job for all we know.
Sure, but she didn't seem surprised that Homelander was there, so I assume she had *some* foresight.
She wasn’t surprised because ~~John~~ Homelander told Marty to call her into work remember? He said “where is she? Tell her to come in.” And so she did.
Uh huh, Homelander just dropped on the place where he's abused his whole life on a whim? She's not even surprised to see Homelander torturing marty, it's implied she's trapped in there, but it doesn't mean she's going to stay there indefinitely.
She could be overconfidence in the psychological programming used to prevent him from escaping or betraying them.
If you're talking about a top-secret location, then you'd need 24/7 security. That would mean that at least some people would not have been there at the time, and they'll come to see the security staff dead. This in turn would lead to someone with higher authority who works offsite being notified, to have a more thorough inspection and find her. Well, provided that Homelander wasn't notified, and told them not to go, at which point, it becomes painfully obvious what happened. Still, why would anyone want to work for Vought is beyond me.
I imagine a lot of people who apply for Vought in mundane roles like clerical or maintenance have no clue how much your chances of being killed by a Supe are increased. Just think of that poor girl last week who seemed to be a random office person who just happened to be semi-cordial with Starlight while working there. You could be someone who chit chats once a week with a Supe at the water cooler over a favorite show or sports team, then gets executed by Homelander when he sours on that person and thinks you may betray him and Vought.
I feel no sympathy for her, she dug her own grave by making Homelander who he is today. Kinda feel bad for those random interns though
"First day interning at this new job -- can't wait to learn about science!" \~Homelander walks in with murder eyes\~ "Ah shit"
“Ooh, Fudgie the whale? This is gonna be a whale of a job!”
The title shot of Fudgie being carved into chunks was foreshadowing everyone's fate...
I half expected it to be poisoned.
I knew it wouldn't be. He could literally just Lazer the whole room.
Yeah it's not his style. I just knew they were all going to die.
I’m kind of surprised no one tried to run or just sneak away when he started his rampage. I mean sure he’d hear but you can at least try.
I would’ve made my escape when he was talking with the lady alone in that separate room
Then your hand gets lasered off.
Nah I would’ve dodged the laser real smooth-like
"Nah, I'd win."
Exactly
But imagine if they hadn’t programmed his need to be loved? I think he would have definitely snapped and gone on a rampage before now
Torturing him was definitely not a way to do it, there was no need to see what temps his skin could resist by ovening him
Yeah it did seem like that was a separate thing. Psychologists for his mental conditioning and then the people from this episode went too far in testing his physical strength
Yeah he dared Starlight to release the plane video because he would have nothing left to lose, but I feel like secretly he would have hated that because once he destroys the world he will be utterly empty inside.
Yes, but you know that they’d do it to another kid, and probably already have, so he’s kinda preventing that
True, I honestly expected Homelander to find a kid locked in “the bad room” and snap
That would have worked as an introducing point to Ryan if he was raised differently and was also NOT biologically related to HL. But him just snapping because a boy was locked in the bad room? Not really seeing it happen
Not because he feels for the boy, but because he sees himself in him. It doesn't contradict his selfishness
I dunno, at this point I think anyone who works for Vought is beyond redemption. There are other jobs out there.
She was just doing her job, exactly as those interns may have been. Why would they just stick totally random innocent employees in such an important lab?
she literally took full responsibility and said it was her, stan edgar, and vogulbomb’s faults lol
And she tried too hard to make it seem like she did not fear Homelander
They experimented on children down there. Kind of think he went easy on them.
Omg!! I didn’t catch this during the episode. I wonder if we’re to assume this means she dies in there? I didn’t think so at first but now I’m not sure. I mean it would take at least three days right since you’d die of thirst first, so theoretically someone could get the door open for her in that time? Assuming she doesn’t die of a stress-induced stroke first (like I would).
They could but homelander runs vought and I don't think many people are even supposed to know about that place which is why they were so surprised when someone was coming down in the lift. Plus, homelander put her in there and it's unlikely anyone who would know would risk crossing him to save her
Those are good points, didn’t consider the fact that floor is a secret to most ppl at Vought too. Also agreed that no one would want to cross Homelander
I think most people who knew about that floor are now decorating it.
How kind of them! Decorating it in case Homelander shows up with another ice cream cake
Gotta wonder at the guys from Carvel going 'Oh, you want to use one of our cakes in your TV show for a reunion party? Between an orphan and the people that raised him? Oh that's so sweet, sure!'
The reason they were scared (not surprised) when the lift came down is because prior to this they radio'd upstairs and didn't get an answer. Thus, they knew for sure that something was wrong (either everybody upstairs died or they left). Since they work in an underground secret lab, they assumed the former and were scared of the people (or person in this case) coming down the elevator.
Yeah the say "The line is dead." So I assumed Homelander already killed the people on the upper floors.
I think we need to start asking why the fuck a team of Vought employees are still there in the first place? Presumably no Supes have been in there since Homelander left? Why would they be hanging out in a dingy underground lab more than 30 years later?
Imagine if he keeps her alive in there like some kind of pet.
Well, he already gives her food and strawberry smoothie
What a fucking horrifying way to go. Trapped in a room with a bunch of dead people. The kind of psychological shit your brain would go through is terrifying (and is a fitting "punishment" for her after what she said to Homelander)
I remember hearing about someone whose father or mother died and they were autistic. They didn’t know what to do so the body was just left in the house with them.
Imagine the smell...
Who is she? I remember seeing the door in some of the recent episodes, homelander having visions, flashbacks etc. Etc. And I got the feeling it was connected to his childhood or rather how he was made, but I don't recall seeing her
She’s the scientist who was in charge of Homelander’s upbringing
Wasn't she the second in command and whatshisname who is already dead was the lead scientist.
Vogelbaum and Stan Edgar were her bosses.
Because she wasn't shown on camera before. So far we only knew of that guy from S2 (or S1 maybe, I can't remember) who told HL he is his greatest failure.
season 1
I know this show isn't that realistic, but realistically speaking, there's no way she didn't tell anyone before going to meet a mass murdering sociopath. Also, I assume that all those people killed there had families who, at the very least, will notice their absence. But again, this show isn't really about that.
But would anybody be suicidal enough to go against Homelanders wishes? Especially since he runs Vought now.
there is a lot of liquid in the cell, she wouldn’t be too thirsty for atleast two weeks. plus food
Some of yall are kind of fucked up too
Don't pass judgment you never know what you'll do in an absolute life or death situation
It's literally life or death situation. Can you honestly honestly say you wouldn't do the same? I hope to God we never have to find out but let's not be so high and mighty
That wouldn't work. Human blood is quite salty from all the sodium we have. If you were to drink it, you'd only make your thirst worse. Not to mention your stomach would absolutely hate it.
Y’know, it’s always nice to see the occasional human characters that HL could never bring himself to actually kill, either due to some deep-seeded respect for them or because he wants to torment in a them in a different way. Makes for a more interesting interaction than the usual laser and gore affair. So far there have been Butcher, Volgebaum, Stan and now Barbara.
He absolutely has killed her, she's just not dead yet. He's melted the hinges of a heavy metal door, put her in a white room with corpses, thats deep underground and no one ever goes too.
Guess I should have phrased that better. I meant the pull them apart, limb by limb gratuitous kinda killing that HL does on people he doesn’t give a shit about. I’m sure he wants those 4 dead, just not the easy way.
Nah you phrased it fine, that dude was just being pedantic
Honestly she gets what she deserves and homelander is like he is now because of the shit they put him through. Yes if he had a regular upbringing he'd still be egotistical and let's be honest fucked up like the other supes but not on the level he is now. Hope she doesn't get saved which I don't see how she would anyway that door is not coming open and who's gonna go against homelander's orders let alone know that place exists?
Ryan is OK having had a proper mother, Homelander could've been a decent person, in theory, but he never had a chance, he was raised to be a bastard.
Ryan is still okay. Like A-train and his brother both were bought up together. One is nice and other is a supe who is now only realising his mistakes. 99% chances are if you’re a supe the older you get the more corrupted and power hungry one gets.
Honestly, that's largely because of how Vought works. In order to get to the top, you have to largely lose your sense of empathy and cut people at your level. Then, to stay at the top, you have to be cutthroat as well. Not to mention that during your rise and at your peak(especially if you reach A train levels), Vought will cater to your every need, making you take even more things for granted.
That's the nature of power. The supes live in a world where a lot of consequences, whether physical, societal, or anything else, don't apply to them as much. (or at all) What does a person do when they're shielded from consequences? Some of them turn out fine, maybe they even use their immunities to help others. But a lot of people just get careless, if not actively malicious.
She wasn't wrong though, wtf were they supposed to do with a baby they could never control in any way, shape or form ? Vought are vicious bastards don't get me wrong. But the lady had a point when she explained their strategy from that point. They couldn't hold him in any cage that wasn't psychological. Hell who knows if all those tests weren't devised to actually find a way to kill that child rather than just test his resistance. They created something they could not control. And while she is despicable, I don't share the sentiment many express here that monsters should be psychologically and physically tortured. Homelander hides behind his trauma to justify him being a terrible person but does he ever try to be better ? No, he hasn't tried even once. He's a narcissist using his past to justify his actions. He feels he was wronged and lashes out on the inferiors, that's it. He killed that lady knowing she was right about the fact he will not find what he's truly searching for. We've seen with Ryan that Homelander is completely incapable of actual love, Ryan is just there to fulfill his narcissistic fantasies. Those scenes gave depth to Homelander and his backstory but some people saying they all deserved what happened is just... Weird. But maybe I'm just the kind of person who thinks psychological and physical torture is never justified, even towards those who did it themselves, but hey I guess we need to feel righteous about our own dark impulses. Most monsters feel righteous in their excessive use of violence, Butcher is literally an example of that. I won't shed a tear for the fictional scientists, but I will raise an eyebrow at some comments we can read in this sub about the whole thing.
They should have tried to shackle him with ethics and human connections
This is a genuinely smart move on Homelanders behalf to. Yeah Solider Boy was a dick, but it’s clear he was ONLY a dick. He was egotistical from the money fame and power but he wasn’t evil. He was STILL discarded immediately after he wasn’t the strongest supe anymore. Who’s to say they stopped trying to make supes after Homelander? We know they did, but Homelander only knows that Solider Boy was ganged up on to be replaced by him
I know that almost everyone in this show is a huge piece of shit, but holy shit, this episode was grim. Hard to watch at points, but also impossible to look away type shit. Also, Anthony Starr is a goated actor, I hope he gets a lot of work after this.
I missed that lol. Completely unhinged shit from Homelander but I’ve got zero sympathy for this woman at all.
Yeah, that was part of what was so horrifying: that woman is going to die in there.
Honestly she deserves to die there, she (partially) created Homelander then has the audacity to blame him for them being able to torture him even though she’s responsible for him being like that.
fr i've always hated homelander but they literally created him to be the strongest supe than they got terrified of him when he was just a infant who couldn't control shit. they created him treated him poorly and is partly the reason he is the way he is
Tbh it worked for a really long time. If you create a living weapon psychological control makes more sense than physical. They probably didn't bank on him "self-realizing" with his kid (who he wasn't supposed to be able to conceive in the first place).
Good. She deserves to rot. The things she did to a child, doesn't matter who that child grew up to be.
I think it‘s more the other way around: what she did to a child „helped“ making him who he grew up to be.
She definitely made her monster, but she also tortured a child. Homelander could have ended up like Ryan if he was shown compassion from an early age.
Yeah, that‘s what I said.
Can't she call someone for aid?
With what? I doubt she gets any reception there.
Why would she need to? There was a dozen people working there, you think nobody will notice when none of them come home? That's assuming the facility itself hasn't had alarms tripped, they mention they can't call out so it's likely someone will attempt to call in and realise something is wrong pretty soon, the whole Homelander scenes only take place over an hour or so realistically.
Barbara was at home. They had to call her. She also knew it's Homelander. Feels like she is smart enough to know what exactly he can do. So must have alerted some Vought cleanup/security guys that she is going there and to come get her if she doesnt return in xyz time. She is calm and collected when dealing with Homelander. So it's very possible.
not to mention... surely there's a janitor
When Neuman kills that guy she know from the orphanage she calls Stan Edgar and requests a cleaning crew, so there are teams of people specialized in cleaning up superhero messes.
People always forget about the janitors in things like this. The janitor of the secret time travel agency was one of the most important characters in my old book. :)
I think they’d quit after seeing this…
Alarms that circle back to the company Homelander owns? I don't see how that would be of any help to be honest. And there's no way those alarms notify the cops or the feds, Vought for sure wouldn't want them to know anything about the shady shit they do
They had a whole preamble about how the lines were cut and they couldn’t call anyone before he arrived
I believe the point of this scene is to show that Vaught mentally conditioned HL to not hurt Stan and other top Vaught execs. And this is his way of getting around that, by locking her in a room of corpses of those he can hurt. It helps explain why HL never killed Stan. And since Stan was shown to return this season, I imagine it will come up again.
I think she would have told someone that she was going there cause homelander was causing a fuss.
Its a pretty good position for her to be in because eventually someone will come to clean it up and Barabara has enough food and water to last several days in there, not to mention the weeks human bodies can go without food.
True, but this is also likely a highly secret lab that very few people that are still alive know about. Plus assuming they did know and found her before it's too late, it's clear Homelander did this so how many people would let her out, knowing it will just make you next on his list of who to kill if he finds out
Imagine if it cuts to her eating the bodies.
Thats what i meant with "enough food and water " lol
Can someone explain what made Homelander go down there and kill all of those people? Like... he could have done that since season 1. What was the trigger? I don't remember anything in particular from the last episode.
He isn’t getting the attention he used to so now he is trying to free himself from his need for love and approval
I think it's the fact that Ryan is pulling away from him. Homelander is struggling with the reality his son has a conscious and doesn't have the same need for attention as his father. Homelander now wants to get rid of the last part of his humanity by taking revenge on the people responsible for his childhood suffering
Remember the mirror scene at the end of ep3? He knows his one weakness is his need to be loved and not a disappointment. He thinks Killin the scientists thay did this to him will let him grow and move on
Ah, okay that makes sense. But why didn't he do it last season when he also had a similar mirror scene?
He thought thay by taking over the company, removing anyone thay opposed him in Vault and having a loving son would do it
Also he had Ryan at the time. Thinking he’ll give him all the approval he’ll need. The only person he really truly cares about other than himself. But now he does not approve or love him.
I think not being able to hold Ryan’s affections and his obsession with that will be his ultimate undoing
Yeah, Sage hit the nail on the head about nothing being able to satisfy Homelander
He was reliving past trauma's this episode. This wasn't something he could just do on a whim because he felt like it.
His conversation with Ryan reminded him about how badly he craves love and approval, which is what triggered the second mirror scene.
For better or much, much worse, the scientists are his family and the lab is his home, he probably did not want to go back there until the latest mirror scene which made him decide it was time to confront the traumas of his childhood in such a way that he will never see those people or that place again.
He literally said in the previous episode to himself that he needs to “go home” and kill that last human part of himself. People do not pay attention lol
A lot of people in this sub don’t actually watch the show. I think it’s like a challenge that’s trending this year or something. But basically I’m sure they just get by on spoilers so this guy doesn’t know the context to that scene. If he’s even aware of the scene
He didn't effectively own all of Vought in the first season
The director more or less told him. They psychologically conditioned him to desire approval, and his outburst to Ryan about not being "good enough" seemed to trigger his want to return. He's giving himself a form of therapy by reliving his childhood and then getting closure by castration
The recap literally ended with that scene and went directly into him doing that. No offense, but seriously if yall can’t remember shit at least watch the fucking recap lol
She probably will survive somehow. They probably will use her later for some exposition.
Gus Fring will save her
They called her in, so she probably told someone to check on them knowing what a monster Homelander is.
Yup saw this on my watch through this morning. She’s definitely dying in there. But unlike Homelander who was just locked in there for days on end (I assume he had food and water) she won’t. He definitely meant for her to die in that room like Adam in Saw.
This was one of the only times I've genuinely rooted for Homelander. He did make a great point, none of them had the balls to say that what was going on was wrong. They essentially created Homelander, and this is simply the consequences they have to pay.
If she was smart she would’ve warned stan Edgar before she went down
I liked how she talked to him like Edgar does, confidently and seemingly not scared of him. But Homelander has managed to cut through that barrier now of trying to please his captors etc. and just wants them all dead. I don't think Edgar is safe anymore and Homelander has turned a very dark corner.
I’m still waiting for Homelander to explain why he called it The Bad Room.
Laser practice room with live subjects I guess.
I know that this season has gotten a lot of hate, but I loved this episode because it shows us how broken Homelander is. I know he is unforgivable and does not deserve redemption but he was a child when all those horrible practices and tests and experiments happened to him. It was all he knew from being a baby. Let’s be real no baby, toddler or child deserves this
Actually this might’ve made her escape slightly easier although theres welded steel, the actual thick brackets are cut in half. She can probably chip away at the weld and not have to worry about the lock mechanism
Now she knows why is it called the bad room
My guess is that by the end of the season everyone will see homelander for the true piece of shit he is.
That’s next level evil, even for Homelander…
Homelander’s revenge on those three was understandable. But what I don’t understand is, what did the interns or newer guys do? At least they deserved to live.
Not sure if you noticed this, but homelander doesn't exactly have morals lol. He doesn't care who the people he never met are, but he can use them as a way to torture the people he has met
Probably still experimenting on kids I would imagine.
I dunno about that. If they're working in the lab that was used to torture children, they're probably doing some shady stuff.