The incredibly brutal superhero parody “The Boys” returns for a second season. The corrupt and arguably psychotic version of the Justice League known as The Seven are still living the high-life, and Hughie and his small and desperate band are doing everything they can to bring them down. The next segment of the ugly story continues with “The Big Ride.”

They waste no time, continuing the story from last season about making “supes” as powered people are called in this world, a part of the military. As suits from Vought International hammer out details about this arrangement, Black Noir, this world’s version of a powered and hyper-violent Batman, completes a secret mission. The boss at Vought, replacing the late Madelyn Stillwell, is Sam Edgar, played by the always impressive Giancarlo Esposito, and he clearly has everything fully under control. Madelyn was killed last season by Homelander, who managed to frame Hughie and company for it.

Later, there’s a memorial for Translucent, also killed last season. Oddly, while Vought used their resources to frame Hughie’s resistance for Madelyn’s death, they did in fact kill Translucent, whose death has been reframed to further Vought’s agenda. The ceremony is a big PR stunt, which seems to be a lot of what Vought does, but we do learn that Starlight, the one decent member of The Seven, has a notable talent that has nothing to do with her powers. While The Deep (think a very nasty Aquaman) freaks out about the coverage of Translucent’s death from his place in exile, there’s more PR after the ceremony, which makes Hughie unhappy. He’s watching this on his phone from his spot in hiding.

In a nicely put together scene, we get the contrast of Starlight changing back to Annie, the woman she really is away from the cameras, while Hughie is taking steps to further disguise himself. In further contrast, Annie visits a sick friend (well, work friend, anyway), while Hughie moves through some considerably less pleasant surroundings and we see where he and the others are hiding. When you’re on the Most Wanted List from both every law enforcement agency out there and a mega-powerful and influential company with superhuman operatives, you need to go deep.

Butcher is on the front page of the paper as a wanted killer (ok, that part is true), although we haven’t seen him with the others. This paper is a prop we see on the subway car where Annie and Hughie meet up. These two are probably the closest to “good guys” in the series, and they’re working against everyone, even both of their respective allies, to try and both keep their relationship going and find a way to reveal the truth about Vought and The Seven. Even their relationship has some bumps and issues, as we see while they plot their next step.

The Deep continues his descent to rock bottom as he has a very public episode, gets arrested, and then bailed out by Eagle, a specialized archer ala Green Arrow or Hawkeye. Eagle, it seems, has some ulterior motives for his help. The news covers Madelyn’s death with the many puzzles surrounding it (not helped by Vought’s lies) and we see a celebrity cameo who is developing a property related to The Seven. Hughie and company are also mentioned, although interestingly one of them doesn’t have a real name to go with their aliases. Hughie is trying to continue their crusade, and that’s not sitting well with all the others.

Homelander has a moment that mixes him actually showing some human emotion with one of his more disturbing habits. It’s a nicely done scene, showing some good directing, staging, and acting by Anthony Starr, who is really playing the amazingly creepy powerhouse well. Homelander meets up with Ashley, another exec at Vought we got to know last season, and there’s clearly tension here, too. This leads to a scene with another parody hero, this time a Marvel property, who Homelander vents his displeasure on. On the heels of some ugly violence, Homelander makes sure Ashley understands who has the power in their relationship. Annie takes a cab, which they use to show the extent of Vought’s influence in society, on her way to meet someone who is engaged in some really disturbing black market activities. If there’s any possible dark side to superpowers, the creators behind this property have found it.

Mother’s Milk is working on an unexpected hobby, which gets interrupted by a loud argument in their hideout. Milk’s special skills are needed for an unusual situation, which leads the gang to do some investigating on their own. They find evidence that, whatever the incident was, there was clearly a supe involved. Their follow up shows that the company they are forced to keep is a lot worse than they realized, and they already knew their temporary allies of necessity were committing a lot of serious crimes. At Vought, a focus group is meeting about the right term to use for the new breed of powered criminal. Homelander has his own thoughts, and pushes for one regardless of what the execs, including Ashley, think.

The Deep wakes up in new surroundings, clearly confused. Eagle introduces him to someone else, and there are some serious cult vibes here. I haven’t read the comics, so I don’t know how important this is, but a new organization is introduced which I can’t imagine is going to make anything simpler or better. Not in this world. The news shows The Deep’s most recent public embarrassment as Hughie and company try and puzzle out what they’re dealing with. Kimiko has something she is trying to communicate, but her assorted disabilities combine to make this remarkably frustrating for everyone involved. This leads to another major disagreement about what they should do next, and Milk really isn’t kind with Hughie. Then again, almost no one is, which is part of how Hughie ended up in his current circumstances. This leads to some entertaining pop culture references, and Hughie playing an angle that had eluded Milk and makes him start considering things.

Annie meets up with the really questionable guy we saw earlier, and makes a dangerous demand of him. She is forced to play hardball with him, and it clearly doesn’t sit well with either of them. Homelander and Queen Maeve are involved in more PR (imagine what a difference they could make in the world if they put anywhere near as much effort into making things better) with their new army connections when they get some surprising news. Ashley, terrified of Homelander’s displeasure (understandably), babbles that she had nothing to do with this turn of events, and Homelander finally gets some answers.

Team Hughie (they really need a name) is on the way to an important meeting and Milk is still trying to get Hughie to change his mind about something. Their meeting starts off going well but comes to a messy and unexpected end, sending them back to square one as they scramble for cover. Back at Vought, Homelander storms into Mr. Edgar’s office to fume about recent developments. Instead, Homelander finds that Edgar has a firm grasp of supe history, is not at all intimidated by the most powerful man on the planet, and Homelander has been thoroughly outmaneuvered. Apparently to make himself feel better, Homelander then pays an unexpected visit after the meeting.

To end the episode, the team, shaken by their meeting, goes back into hiding. Hughie, being who he is, feels bad about what happened, and Mother’s Milk sort of changes his tune from most of the episode to reassure him. Hughie gets a call which sets off another argument among the team, but that gets interrupted. Some poor extra, probably a stunt man, falls down the stairs to where they’re talking, and someone makes a big entrance. There are several different reactions to this development to close us out.

What I Liked: While I generally prefer my heroes to be, ya know, heroic, this is a well done production. The world they have built is believable, especially if you take into account the whole “absolute power corrupts absolutely” saying. They set up for some interesting things here. Giancarlo Esposito has a small role in this so far, but he gives a great performance.

What I Didn’t: The scene with Homelander taking out the new hero seemed over the top, even for this show and that character.

It was a good start to the season. I’m really looking forward to seeing where all this goes. I’ll give this a low 4 out of 5. Let the chaos continue!