"The Female of the Species"
The Boys episode
Episode no.Season 1
Episode 4
Directed byFred Troye
Written byCraig Rosenberg
Produced byHartley Gorenstein
Featured music
Cinematography byEvans Brown
Editing byCedric Nairn-Smith
Original release dateJuly 26, 2019 (2019-07-26)
Running time56 minutes
Guest appearances

"The Female of the Species" is the fourth 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 Craig Rosenberg and directed by Fred Troye.

The episode follows the Boys, now consisting of Billy Butcher, Hughie Campbell, Mother's Milk and Frenchie, investigating a clue from Popclaw about Compound-V in the hopes of getting more information about it and find something to prevent the Supes from joining the military. This eventually leads the team to find a Japanese woman known as "The Female" and pursuing her across the city's subway. Meanwhile, Homelander and Queen Maeve are tasked into saving a plane with full of passengers, but when their mission fails, the former uses it as an advantage in order to gain supporters and convince the government to allow Supes to join the military.

"The Female of the Species" was released on the streaming service Amazon Prime Video on July 26, 2019. The episode received critical acclaim from critics with praise for Karen Fukuhara's performance, as well as the introduction of her character of the Female, the episode's plane sequence, and Homelander's speech in the ending scene.

Plot

The episode starts with a flashback that takes place years before the events of the series, with Billy Butcher relieving a happy memory with his wife Becca and their dog Terror.

In the present, Butcher meets Susan Reynor to give her images of A-Train and Popclaw injecting themselves with Compound-V as evidence of the existence of the Compound-V. However, she dismisses it as the images are not enough proof and asks Butcher to bring her a real sample of the Compound-V so she can take action against Vought. Butcher calls Popclaw to tell her that they have been watching the noodle shop where the Compound-V comes for weeks and still have found nothing, however, she assures that the drug must come from there as A-Train always returns high from the shop. Butcher reminds her that if they don't find anything strange, her video with the landlord will be published.[lower-alpha 1]

Outside the noodle shop the Boys finally catch a worker picking up a package dropped on the floor. When they enter the shop, they find a Triad holding a Japanese woman captive which they call "the Female". Against Mother's Milk and Hughie Campbell wishes, Frenchie releases her and the Female proceeds to kill all the captors, save for the owner who commits suicide. She attempts to attack the Boys, but they lock themselves in a cell twice where she was held captive and the Female then leaves the store. Butcher arrives later, while MM finds out that A-Train was giving the Compound-V to the assailants as the Female was a test subject having dosed her with the drug. When Hughie receives a message from Annie January, he is questioned initially by Butcher but he convinces him to go out with her and hack her phone due to her current allegiance with the Seven.

Meanwhile, at Vought Tower while discussing the cover-up for Translucent's death,[lower-alpha 1] Stillwell receives a call about terrorists hijacking Transoceanic Flight 37 and sends Homelander and Queen Maeve to rescue the hostages with the hopes of finally allowing Supes to join the military. When Homelander and Queen Maeve arrive, they manage to kill all the terrorists but Homelander accidentally destroys the plane controls. With neither of them knowing how to fly a plane, Maeve suggests Homelander to try to control the plane but he assures her that the plane would be cut in half and when she tells him to take every passenger one by one he tells her that it would take too long. Homelander decides to abandon the plane and leave their passengers to die. Maeve attempts to convince him to rescue a few, but Homelander refuses. In the end, Homelander convinces Maeve to go with him and the two abandon the plane, leaving the passengers to die.

The Deep goes to a therapist due to suffering from multiple insecurities, as he is mistreated and not valued or respected by the group. The therapist suggests he refuse that he's a nobody and embrace what he is. This motivates the Deep into convincing Stillwell into follow a mission he wants to rescue dolphins from Oceanland. He ends ups rescuing one, but during the escape he is road-blocked by the police, causing his truck to stop abruptly and eject the dolphin into the street. The dolphin later is crushed by an oncoming truck to the Deep's horror.

In order to capture the Female, Frenchie goes with his old friend Cherie in order to get the necessary weapons to use them against the former. She also gives him Holophane which will be powerful enough to make the Female sleep. A-Train soon arrives at the warehouse only to see the crime scene of what happened and seeing his the lifeless bodies of his associates being taken away. Realizing that he has been compromised, he arrives at Popclaw's apartment and confronts her about how else she told him about the Compound-V as she was the only one who knew about it. She refuses and soon escalates into an argument with Popclaw reprimanding him for telling he was single.[lower-alpha 1] A-Train soon decides to take her out of the city in order to ensure her safety.

The Female soon arrives at a nail salon and kills the owner as she was associated to her captors. The Boys soon arrives at the crime scene with A-Train already waiting there. The Boys are worried that A-Train would find her first with her speed. After finding the evidence of a subway schedule, Frenchie deduces that she is trying to leave the city and trying to go home. They follow her at the Penn Station. Frenchie finds her hiding in an electronics store watching TV. Feeling sympathy for her, he tries to convince her to allow him to help her and tells him about his troubled past with his abusive father and all his failed attempt to run away from home. Before the Female agrees, she is scared by a television which causes her to run away.

During their date, Hughie starts to feel guilty about killing Translucent leading him to ask Annie about him. Surprised, she reveals that he's a creep but that he has a son which makes Hughie's guilt even worse. Despite that, the two get to know about each other about their moments in high school and previous dates. Hughie, still traumatized by everything he has experienced, starts to see visions of his late girlfriend Robin. When Annie goes to the bathroom, Hughie uses this opportunity to hack her phone.

While looking for the Female, MM accuses Frenchie of not following orders and how this eventually killed Mallory's grandchildren leading to an argument between the two of them. It is revealed that Mallory was the Boys' original founder and previous leader, who recruited the three at some point to bring down the Supes. However, the group disbanded after Frenchie didn't follow orders to watch the Seven's former member Lamplighter, which led him to burn Mallory's grandchildren to death. However, Butcher calms them down and tells them about that working together will be more successful than each one on their own. They find the Female but A-Train captures her and fights her. Before he can kill her, Frenchie alerts the crowd and distracts A-Train. The Boys surround the Female though Frenchie tries to calm her down. However, when the latter is attacked Billy uses the Holophane that render both Frenchie and the Female unconscious.

On the beach, the remains of the Transoceanic Flight 37 are found and it is confirmed that there are no survivors. While Queen Maeve feels guilty and remorseful about not doing anything, Homelander uses this opportunity to lie to the public and blame the apparent government's authorization and the military's chain of command which made them lose too much time and making them arrive too late. He promises that if the government allows Supes to join the military, none of these tragedies would ever happen again, leading Homelander to gain massive support from the public. Stillwell proudly watches knowing that Homelander's speech will increase the support of allowing Supes to join the military.

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 direct the pilot episode.[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 "The Female of the Species" was written by Craig Rosenberg and directed by Fred Troye.[6] The episode is titled with the name of one the main characters of the series and the only female member of the Boys.[7]

Writing

The episode introduces the last and only female member of the Boys, better known as the "Female". However, unlike in the comics where she is already a member of the group, she is not part of the group when she is introduced but instead is an imprisoned woman who was experimented with Compound-V. Another major change from the comics is the way the titular Boys are portrayed in the series. While in the comics the Boys have been operating for some time under the supervision of the CIA, the group operates independently without any agency supervision, due to having reformed in previous episodes as they disbanded some time before the events of the series.[8] Also a major change is that unlike in the comics where every member of the Boys have superpowers to fight fairly with the supposed heroes, the Female is the only one that has superpowers while the rest are depowered. This was decided by the writers in the hope of creating tension between the titular group and the Seven in order to portray the latter group as a big threat.[9]

One of the biggest changes from the comics for the television adaptation is when the Supes failed to save a plane from crashing. In the comics, the plane crash was related to the September 11 attacks, as the plane was taken by terrorists seeking to crash it in the Twin Towers. However, the mission failed due to the Supes accidentally sabotaging the mission and dooming the lives of the passengers including another member of the Seven.[10] Rosenberg and the writers decided to change this in order to show a deeper exploration between Homelander and Queen Maeve and also due to the television series taking place in the present day as they recognized that adapting it like it happens in the comics wouldn't have fitted for the television adaptation.[11]

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, Laz Alonzo as Mother's Milk, Chance Crawford as The Deep, Tomer Capone as Frenchie, Karen Fukuhara as the Female, Nathan Mitchell as Black Noir, and Elisabeth Shue as Madelyn Stillwell.[12] Also starring are Jennifer Esposito as Susan Raynor, Shantel Vansanten as Becca Butcher, Malcolm Barrett as Seth Reed, Wallace Langham as Dr. Damien Hodgman, Shaun Benson as Ezekiel, Jordana Lajoie as Cherie, David Reale as Evan Lambert, and Brittany Allen as Charlotte / Popclaw.[13]: 54:56–55:23 

Filming

The filming of the first season of the series took place at the city of Toronto, using several locations across the city to stand in for New York City, where the series takes place.[14] The scene from the neighborhood where the Boys search for the source of the Compound-V the crew filmed at Baldwin Street, while the scene which takes place inside a Chinese supermarket. The scene where the Female kills the owner of a nail salon and MM interviews the Filipino beauticians takes place at a real nail salon named the Aroma Spa & Nail Salon. The crew also filmed at Central Parkway Mall in Mississauga.[15][16]

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.[17][13]: 56:06–56:10  It was announced that visual effects supervisor Stephan Fleet would be in charge of overseeing the development for the visual effects.[18] For the dolphin scene, it was originally intended to use a fake green dolphin and to recreate the scene with a real truck in order to capture the realism, however at the last moment it was decided that the entire scene would be done with CGI.[19] It was revealed that the creation of the scene took over six to eight hours to be made.[20]

Music

The episode features the songs "Strike Blues" by John Lee Hooker and "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls.[21]

Release

"The Female of the Species" premiered on Amazon Prime Video in the United States on July 26, 2019,[22] alongside the rest of the first season of the show.[23] The episode, along with the rest of The Boys' first season, was released on Blu-ray on May 31, 2022.[24]

Reception

"The Female of the Species" received critical acclaim. Brian Tallerico from Vulture gave the episode 3 stars out of 5. He considered the episode works perfectly as an origin story for the remaining member of the Boys being the Female of the Species, which he considers the killing machine of the group. He also complimented the flight scene, calling it to be the most disturbing scene of the episode as it successfully manages to transmit the discomfort of the desperation of the passengers to the audience.[25] Darryl Jasper who wrote a review from ScienceFiction.com praised the episode for offering a more profound take into the world and giving more depth the Boys and the Seven, as well as Homelander's speech in the ending episode. He also considered that despite their different point of views, Butcher and Homelander are more alike than anyone thought.[26] While writing a review for Tilt Magazine, Randy Dankievitch praised the episode for its characters, as well as the idea has formed during the first half of the season. He considered that the show manages to successfully deconstruct the superhero ideals that have been promoted for other projects related to the topic by commenting "The Boys ultimately wants to embrace the superficial excess of the stories it is satirizing and deconstructing, or become a thoughtful critique of heroism."[27]

Greg Wheeler from The Review Geek gave the episode 4.5 stars out of 5 and considered the episode to be the best and strongest episode, praising it for the plane crash scene and the introduction of the Female character. In the review he wrote "A strong episode this one, The Boys continues to impress with its latest slice of superhero action."[28] For the review at Flickering Myth, Martin Carr praised the episode's portrayal of human trafficking and politics in the episode. During the review, he wrote the following "The Boys is asking more questions and digging deeper than some might be comfortable with, but breaking down walls requires a sledgehammer sometimes. Just packing the base with explosives and retreating to a safe distance is not enough. Sometimes you get your hands dirty."[29]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 As depicted in the previous episode, "Get Some".

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. ↑ "Female of the Species (Character)". Comic Vine. Retrieved 2023-11-19.
  8. ↑ Greer, Elijah (2022-05-22). "The Boys: 10 Things The Series Changed From The Comics". Game Rant. Retrieved 2023-11-21.
  9. ↑ McMullen, Chris (2023-02-28). "All Differences Between Amazon's The Boys Series & the Comic". The Escapist. Retrieved 2023-11-22.
  10. ↑ "The Boys: Top Differences And Hidden Details Between The Show And The Comics". WorldTravelling. 2022-07-26. Retrieved 2023-11-23.
  11. ↑ McGuire, Liam (2020-09-16). "The Boys' Darkest Scene Was Even More Shocking in Comics". ScreenRant. Retrieved 2023-11-23.
  12. ↑ Darwish, Meaghan (2019-07-25). "'The Boys' Cast and Showrunner Tease R-Rated Characters, Action & More (VIDEO)". TV Insider. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  13. 1 2 Rosenberg, Craig (July 26, 2019). "The Female of the Species". The Boys. Season 1. Episode 4. Amazon Prime Video. End credits begin at 54:34.
  14. ↑ Watson, Fay (2019-07-26). "The Boys on Amazon location: Where is The Boys filmed?". Daily Express. Retrieved 2023-07-01.
  15. ↑ "Where was The Boys Filmed? Guide to ALL the Filming Locations". Atlas of Wonders. Retrieved 2023-07-01.
  16. ↑ "The Boys filming locations in Canada". Filipinosincanada.com. Archived from the original on October 28, 2020. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
  17. ↑ Frei, Vincent (July 24, 2019). "THE BOYS". Art of VFX. Retrieved April 25, 2022.
  18. ↑ Frei, Vincent (2019-08-27). "THE BOYS: Stephan Fleet - Overall VFX Supervisor". The Art of VFX. Retrieved 2023-07-02.
  19. ↑ Failes, Ian (2019-08-22). "Four of the most batshit crazy VFX moments in 'The Boys'". Befores & Afters. Retrieved 2023-11-27.
  20. ↑ Romano, Nick. "A whale of a good time: 'The Boys' season 2 team dissect the gutting water face-off". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2023-11-27.
  21. ↑ Elvy, Craig (2019-07-26). "The Boys Season 1: Every Song On The Soundtrack". Screen Rant. Retrieved 2023-07-02.
  22. ↑ 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.
  23. ↑ "'The Boys' Season 1 release date, trailer, cast, plot, renewal, and more". Inverse. 2021-05-09. Retrieved 2023-07-02.
  24. ↑ 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.
  25. ↑ Tallerico, Brian (2019-07-27). "The Boys Recap: Danger Girl". Vulture. Archived from the original on July 28, 2019. Retrieved 2023-11-27.
  26. ↑ Jasper, Darryl (2019-07-31). "'The Boys' Episode 4 Review: "The Female Of The Species"". ScienceFiction.com. Retrieved 2023-11-27.
  27. ↑ Dankievitch, Randy (2019-07-27). "The Boys Season One Episode 4: "The Female of the Species" Begins to Find A Voice". Tilt Magazine. Retrieved 2023-11-27.
  28. ↑ Wheeler, Greg (July 26, 2019). "The Boys – Season 1 Episode 4 "Female of the Species" Recap & Review". The Review Geek. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
  29. ↑ Carr, Martin (2019-07-29). "The Boys Season 1 Episode 4 Review - 'The Female of the Species'". Flickering Myth. Retrieved 2023-11-27.
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