Meanwhile, Homelander starts to feel his position and power as the Seven's leader threatened when Vought's CEO Stan Edgar recruits a mysterious superhero to the team named Stormfront without his approval.
Annie January has been secretly aiding Hughie Campbell, who is currently a wanted fugitive along with the rest of the Boys, in his spying efforts.
serving as the interim leader, they are hiding in the basement of a store owned by Frenchie's associates, while Billy Butcher—who was framed for Madelyn Stillwell's murder[b]—is nowhere to be found.
Annie records him and, after meeting with him at a diner, uses the video to blackmail him, threatening to release the footage and expose him unless he retrieves a sample of Compound-V for her.
Homelander deafens Blindspot by bashing his ears and threatens Ashley, telling her that he will be the one who chooses who joins the Seven; however, during the filming of a commercial, a new Supe known as Stormfront announces herself as the newest member of the Seven.
Raynor believes that Vought International is behind the creation of Supe terrorists and suggests the possibility of a coup from the inside; however, before she can reveal more information, her head explodes.
[9] Kripke revealed that he changed Stormfront's gender as a way to hurt the Seven's leader Homelander by becoming his worst nightmare: someone who could threaten his position and steal his spotlight as a strong woman who is not afraid of him in a way to make the latter's even more insecure of himself, something that the male version of the former's would not be able to accomplish enough.
[10] Another reason why Kripke made the change was to encapsulate how people like her manage to spread messages through social media by appearing to be attractive, disrupters or free-thinkers who attract a younger generation and slowly start to spread their ideas while the audience may not realize this immediately, thus also making Stormfront an expert concerning handle social media thus making her a modern villain.
[13][14] The episode main cast includes Karl Urban as Billy Butcher, Jack Quaid as Hughie Campbell, Antony Starr as John Gillman / Homelander, Erin Moriarty as Annie January / Starlight, Dominique McElligott as Maggie Shaw / Queen Maeve, Jessie T. Usher as Reggie Franklin / A-Train, Laz Alonso as Marvin T. Milk / Mother's Milk (M.M.
), Chace Crawford as Kevin Moskowitz / The Deep, Tomer Capone as Serge / Frenchie, Karen Fukuhara as Kimiko Miyashiro / The Female, Nathan Mitchell as Earving / Black Noir, Colby Minifie as Ashley Barrett, and Aya Cash as Klara Risinger / Stormfront.
[15][16] Also starring are Giancarlo Esposito as Stan Edgar, Jennifer Esposito as Susan Raynor, Shantel VanSanten as Becca Butcher, Langston Kerman as Eagle the Archer, Jessica Hecht as Carol Manheim, Abraham Lim as Skinny Man, Jordana Lajoie as Cherie, David W. Thompson as Gecko, Claudia Doumit as Victoria Neuman, Jim Beaver as Robert Singer, and Chris Hansen as Himself.
The scenes where the Deep was at the fictional Splash Zone Sandusky Park, and the Supe terrorist arrived at the city were filmed at the Wet 'n' Wild Toronto Waterpark and the Don River area near the Keating channel.
Club, Roxana Hadadi stated that the episode manages to define the skepticism and distrust of the series source material with corporate, military, and bureaucratic interests that increased by merging to entertain, distract, and subdue the audience with superheroes.
She considered that the series themes, such as the capitalist and religious ones, embody much of the current time, such as Ennis's original comics representing the immediate-post-9/11 era.
[31] While writing a recap for Entertainment Weekly, Nick Schager described that the superheroes of the show "are fame-seeking fascists, murderers, junkies, and deviants with more psychosexual hang-ups than you can count on both hands, and they're back for further world-takeover mayhem for the second season of the Amazon hit series".