Kendrick Lamar’s Juneteenth Pop Out concert proved to be a uniting moment for Los Angeles’ rap scene (and some of its local NBA stars) as swarms of local rappers including Kendrick’s own Black Hippy crew joined him onstage to perform some of their most iconic hits. Unfortunately, two of the city’s biggest pillars weren’t in attendance; Kendrick took time during his set to talk about the absence of rap mainstay Nipsey Hussle and NBA legend Kobe Bryant.
“This sh*t making me emotional,” he admitted. “We been f*cked up since Nipsey died. We been f*cked up since Kobe died… This is unity at its finest. We done lost a lot of homies to this music sh*t, to this street sh*t. For all of us to be together on stage, that sh*t is special.”
“This shit making me emotional… we been fucked up since Nipsey died… we been fucked up since Kobe died.”
The slew of LA stars who appeared throughout the evening included rising stars like 310babii, AzChike, Bino Rideaux, BlueBucksClan, Kalan.FrFr, Rucci, OhGeesy, Ray Vaughn, Remble, Wallie The Sensei, and Zoe Osama, as well as veterans such as Blxst, Dom Kennedy, Jason Martin, RJMrLA, Roddy Ricch, Steve Lacy, Tyler The Creator, Westside Boogie, and YG. Dr. Dre, whose co-sign initially boosted Kendrick to superstardom, also appeared, while Kendrick and the assembled rappers teamed up to perform the Drake diss anthem “Not Like Us” five times in a row.
You can watch The Pop Out on Amazon Music Prime Video now.
Michelle released their Glow EP earlier this year and are basking in the afterglow by announcing Songs About You Specifically, the New York-bred collective’s forthcoming album due out on September 27.
According to a press release, Michelle members Sofia D’Angelo, Julian Kaufman, Charlie Kilgore, Layla Ku, Emma Lee, and Jamee Lockard “decided to rent out a house in Ojai, California” to write Songs About You Specifically.
“Surrounded by lizards, the smell of ripe cactus fruit, and endless expanses of sand, they experienced a sense of solitude and closeness they hadn’t before,” the press release continued. “It shifted the tone of their work. While their earlier music channeled the churning restlessness of the city, these news songs meander and expand into starry shoegaze reveries, slick funk riffs, and lilting ’80s synth pop.”
That is apparent on “Oontz,” Michelle’s bubbly, groovy single released on Thursday, June 20, simultaneous with the album announcement.
Listen to “Oontz” above, and find more information about Michelle’s Songs About You Specifically below.
Michelle’s Songs About You Specifically Album Cover Artwork
Raphael Gaultier
Michelle’s Songs About You Specifically Tracklist
1. “Mentos And Coke”
2. “Blissing”
3. “Akira”
4. “Cathy”
5. “Dropout”
6. “Noah”
7. “Missing On One”
8. “I’m Not Trying”
9. “Oontz”
10. “Painkiller”
11. “Trackstar”
Michelle’s Upcoming 2024 Tour Dates
10/30 — San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
11/01 — Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
11/02 — Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Cabaret
11/03 — Seattle, WA @ Barboza
11/06 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
11/08 — Denver, CO @ Lost Lake Lounge
11/10 — Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar
11/13 — San Diego, CA @ Voodoo Room at House of Blues San Diego
11/14 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Roxy Theatre
Songs About You Specifically is out 9/27 via Atlantic Records/Transgressive. Find more information here.
As ODESZA begins saying goodbye to their fans, the prolific electronic duo is going out with a bang by taking things back to where they started.
To close out their final tour for the foreseeable future, ODESZA has teamed up with SETUP and Snapdragon to create a monumental immersive visual installation for the last three shows of The Last Goodbye Tour.
“The Echoes” installation will come to life at a venue near and dear to their hearts in their home state: the Gorge Amphitheater.
“The Echoes” activation is set to be one of ODESZA’s most technically ambitious projects to date, paying homage to the duo’s groundbreaking career, the community they’ve built, and showcasing their unrelenting commitment to technology and jaw-dropping visuals.
To tell the story of this epic endeavor in real time, Uproxx Studios is teaming with ODESZA, SETUP, and Snapdragon to release a four-part series. The first video (above) shows the duo working out how their recursive design and themes in their music influenced their title for the structure and the start of how these ideas are going to come to life, powered by the groundbreaking speed and efficiency of Snapdragon.
The best advice isn’t always obvious, or else we would have thought of it ourselves. It often comes out of left field and can be counterintuitive. When it comes to marriage, the best advice tends to be centered around keeping a focus on the long game.
One of the best pieces of marriage advice I ever received was, “Buy her a bottle of shampoo from time to time without her asking.” Now, that doesn’t mean to get shampoo specifically, but just pick up something here and there to show you care and are thinking about her.
Marriage, if done right, is forever, so that often means taking a loss in the short-term to enjoy the long-term benefits of a happy life with someone. This is great as a concept but in practice can be pretty darn hard, day in and day out.
Reddit user thecountnotthesaint put out a call to the AskMen forum for some of the best marriage advice that “sounded absurd” but was actually helpful.
The question was inspired by some advice the Reddit user had received from their father, who claimed that a king-sized bed is the key to a happy marriage. “I’ll be damned if that wasn’t one of the best decisions we made aside from getting married and having kids,” they wrote.
A lot of the advice was about being careful not to escalate small disagreements into larger arguments that could turn personal and ugly. A lot of people think that to have a successful marriage means being able to compromise and to let things go quickly.
Here are some of the best responses to the question, “What random marriage advice sounded absurd but was actually spot on helpful?”
1.
“Dad said ‘Be kind even if you’re not feeling it. Maybe especially if you’re not feeling it.’” — semantician
2.
“At my wedding, my wife’s Grandmother offered so funny, weird, solid advice. She said, ‘If you get angry with each other, go to bed naked and see if you can resolve it before you go to sleep.’ So far, so good. Anniversary on Monday!” — drizzyjdracco
3.
“The advice I’ve given people is this: if you can go grocery shopping with your person and have the best time ever, you have yourself a keeper. It’s all about making the best of the mundane things, because after years of being together, life becomes predictable. You’ll need to keep the spice going, regardless of what you’re doing. Source: married 15 years.” — LemonFizzy0000
4.
“My grandfather told me ‘Never go to bed with dirty dishes in the sink.’ What I learned is that he would always help my grandma and that is when they did their most talking.” — t480
5.
“When our kid was about to be born, someone told me to change the first diaper. If you can handle the first one, the others will be easy.’ So I did. I didn’t know what I was doing, so I asked the nurse at the hospital to teach me, and I changed the first several few diapers while my wife recovered from a difficult labor. The advice was correct, no other diaper was as disgusting as the first one. It got very easy and I never minded doing it, and my wife was really really grateful. And I loved that I could take on some of the parenting chores, since there was so much that she was the only one… equipped to provide.” — wordserious
6.
“Focus on tackling the problem, not each other.” — bobbobbobbobbob123
7.
“Don’t have too high of expectations. My dad told us that, but we found most of our early fights were when one or the other had unspoken expectations of the other or marriage. It is positively life changing to be married, and an amazing experience, but still life goes on.”— nopants_ranchdance
8.
“Marry him for who he is. Not his potential.” — There-is-No-beyond
9.
“My stepmom just passed away, and dad said something that has profoundly changed my attitude: ‘The little things that annoyed me are the things I now miss.’ So, like, yea for some reason she squeezes a massive glob of toothpaste which mostly falls into the sink basin and she doesn’t wash away the toothpaste spit. If/when she’s gone, that little constant annoyance that reminds me she’s there will be gone too. Don’t nag on the little things, rather, embrace them. (still, let her know she has made progress on other things I’ve pointed out, as I try to adapt to her wishes).” — drewkungfu
10.
“Say thank you for day to day things, even taking out the trash, sweeping the floor, or folding laundry. Audibly hearing thank you reinforces the feeling of being appreciated.” — BVolatte
11.
“Randomly give your partner a cold beverage on a hot day. It’s the little things that show you care.” — Purple12Inchruler
12.
“You don’t just marry her, you marry her whole damn family.” — crazypersn
13.
“One of my colonels told me: ‘Just buy two damn pizzas, instead of arguing over the toppings.'”— MgoBlue702
14.
“Be honest. Don’t lie to your partner.” — Mikeydeeluxe
15.
“Don’t marry a woman whose dad calls her ‘princess,’ because she probably believes it. Much to his regret, my brother ignored this advice from our dad.” — Toadie9622
16.
“My fiance always says that ‘just because’ flowers are the best kind of flowers.” — agaribay1010
17.
“My Gramps who was married for over 50 yrs said: ‘tell her you love her every single day.’ Kind of obvious, but I definitely took it to heart.” — sorellk
18.
“Love isn’t about having ‘nice feelings for each other.’ It’s about acting for the betterment of someone else, even if you don’t feel like it. Emotions will change. Your willingness to treat your spouse a certain way doesn’t have to.” — sirplaind
19.
“Bill Maher said “The three most important words in a relationship aren’t ‘I love you’, they’re ‘let it go.’ Oddly, this has proven to be some of the best relationship advice I’ve ever heard.” — KrssCom
When we’re kids, fun comes so easily. You have coloring books and team sports and daily recess … so many opportunities to laugh, play and explore. As we get older, these activities get replaced by routine and responsibility (and yes, at times, survival). Adulthood, yuck.
Many of us want to have more fun, but making time for it still doesn’t come as easily as it did when we were kids—whether that’s because of guilt, a long list of other priorities or because we don’t feel it’s an age-appropriate thing to long for.
Luckily, we’ve come to realize that fun isn’t just a luxury of childhood, but really a vital aspect of living well—like reducing stress, balancing hormone levels and even improving relationships.
You might be wanting to instill a little more childlike wonder into your own life, and not sure where to start. Never fear, the internet is here. Reddit user SetsunaSaigami asked people, “What always remains fun no matter how old you get?” People’s (surprisingly profound) answers were great reminders that no matter how complex our lives become, simple joy will always be important.
Here are 14 timeless pleasures to make you feel like a kid again:
Playing video games at home is cool, but there’s a special thrill in seeing an arcade absolutely buzzing with different game sounds, colored lights and other people enjoying themselves.
Halloween costumes can go from a fun form of playful expression in our younger years to a source of self-image issues in our teens and beyond (as so many things in life do). Hopefully though, dressing up for the spooky season can be a highlight on the calendar.
We no longer have to hide our passion for toys under the serious moniker of “collecting.” Playing with dolls is a fun practice in storytelling and has even shown a very specific set of therapeutic benefits. Permission, granted!
Whether you are a traditionalist or prefer to go crazy and twist yourself up for some epic spins, a swing set is a perfect place to let your inner child out.
“Love” is one of the most powerful words in the English language, yet it’s also one of the most broadly defined. We use the word “love” for so many things that are neither the same nor equal—our families, our friends, our romantic partners, our hobbies—even our favorite foods.
When we think of a “love story,” we almost exclusively imagine a tale of romance, but that’s not the only kind of love story there is. Sometimes the strongest, most meaningful loves of our lives aren’t romantic at all.
David Shane creates videos in which he approaches couples in public and asks them to share three things they love about each other, resulting in some major #couplegoals moments. But one “couple” he approached had a surprising answer to that question, one that moved both them and the people watching the video afterward to tears.
Blane approached a man and woman sitting on a bench at a mall and asked his signature question—”Excuse me, could you give me three things you love about each other?” The woman responded, “Well, this is my brother,” and proceeded to share that she loved that they were related and that they care about each other—typical family stuff. But as she started elaborating, the beautiful bond they share became more and more apparent.
People were understandably moved seeing this brother and sister express their love for one another through serious life challenges.
“This is what love looks like. 🥹 What a truly beautiful sibling relationship, 😭🫶🏽” wrote one commenter.
“I gotta stop watching these right after I do my makeup,” wrote another.
“Gosh, I love questions like this that remind us to SEE two people sitting in a mall as the true, precious humans they are,” shared another. “We walk past people every day, all day long and never get to know their story. There must be so many stories we miss. This is the beauty of social media. I wish both of these sweet souls the very best. So glad they have each other.”
Many of us have people with whom we share a deep connection but may not always share our feelings freely. This video is a good reminder to let our loved ones know what they mean to us and to treasure all the love stories in our lives, whether romantic, platonic or familial.
Jordan came to “AGT: The Champions” in 2020 as the winner of Norway’s Got Talent, which she won in 2014 at the mere age of 7 with her impressive ability to seemingly channel Billie Holiday. For the 2020 audition, she sang Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” but a version that no one had ever heard before.
With just her Amy Winehouse-ish voice, a guitar and a piano, Jordan brought the fan-favorite Queen anthem down to a smooth, melancholy ballad that’s simply riveting to listen to.
Especially considering that Jordan was only 13 years old when she did this.
Watch:
What this video doesn’t show is Heidi Klum hitting the Golden Buzzer faster than you can say, “Nothing really matters to me.” The judges were blown away by Jordan’s performance, as were the people in the comments.
“That’s a ONE in A BILLION voice right there. Just amazing,” wrote one commenter.
“I am typically not a fan of songs being redone particular to such a magnitude,” shared another. “They almost always fall short of the original. But to completely rearrange a song in the manner that she has, from a legend, and then make you forget about how the original even sounded because her rendition is so good is utterly amazing.”
“As Freddie once said, ‘Do whatever you want with my music as long as you don’t make it boring.’ I think he’d really like this,” shared another.
Though Queen’s lead vocalist Freddie Mercury is no longer with us, the band did offer words of praise for Jordan’s performance, retweeting her audition video with the comment, “Wow! What a rendition of #BohemianRhapsody.”
“Bohemian Rhapsody” is such an iconic song, it’s hard for anyone to do a cover of it justice. But 13-year-old Angelina Jordan managed it masterfully.
Jordan would move on to the Top 10 in “AGT: The Champions,” and though she didn’t take home the top prize, she did impress the audience with another classic rock tune, Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.” You can enjoy that performance below, and you can follow Angelina Jordan—who is now 17 and still singing her heart out—on YouTube and TikTok.
When Arnold Ford went to work on his birthday in February of 2024, he knew he was in for a treat. One of his students, a girl named Cali, has the same birthday as he does, and Ford was ready.
As soon as he saw Cali come bounding down the hallway with her arms spread wide, the assistant principal tossed his backpack aside, swooped the girl up and spun her around in joyful celebration. Then the two raced down the hallway, arm in arm, so Cali could give him a balloon and a cupcake she had saved for him.
All of this was captured on the security cameras at west Philadelphia’s Mastery Charter School, Mann Elementary, and the footage has people cheering for amazing educators.
“I’m so grateful to God for allowing me to see another year,” Ford wrote when he shared the video on his Instagram page. “I’m even more grateful that LOVE continues to be the centerpiece of my entire life.”
“And… as you can see… I’m also grateful that I get to share a birthday with one of my favorite students,” he continued. “And yes… she brought me a balloon and a cupcake, and in exchange, I told her she could dress down today. Fair trade if you ask me!
People are gushing over the exchange in the comments.
“Do y’all teach 25th grade!? I need an elementary school experience do-over!” wrote one person.
“Bro my own parents never been that happy to see me 😭,” wrote another.
“Can you imagine marinating in that love on a daily basis? What a gift this man is!” shared another.
Several people pointed out that no one else in the video so much as blinked, which is a testament to the fact that this wasn’t out of the ordinary. Clearly, Mr. Ford brings this energy to work every day.
“I think it’s important for us to celebrate WITH our students and families,” Ford tells Upworthy. “[Cali’s] birthday is a big deal to her, and so is mine. We talk about it ALL year. So when that day came, what you saw was just a natural, genuine reaction that we both had. She was excited to be celebrating me, and I was excited to be celebrating her.”
Educators like Ford can make such an enormous difference in children’s lives, transforming a school into a place filled with positive interactions where kids know people genuinely care about and enjoy being around them. That’s what Ford loves about his job as well.
“It really is the reciprocal nature of the work,” he tells Upworthy. “We get so much more than we ever put out. Love. Joy. Laughter. The more we sow those things, we see them return exponentially in this work. That’s why when I often say ‘Love is the curriculum,’ it’s because I recognize how blessed I am to be able to put positivity and joy at the center of my experience with them. It’s humbling.”
“In other words, I love that I don’t have to wait until Fridays to get paid.” he adds.
Here’s to Mr. Ford and all of the dedicated, incredible educators out there who pour their love into helping children learn and grow and thrive. They really do deserve all the balloons and cupcakes—and all the pay raises as well.
The broad national focus on most drafts across the sports is at the top, and the 2024 NBA Draft is no exception. After a 2023 draft fueled by Victor Wembanyama’s generational status and a genuine debate between Scoot Henderson and Brandon Miller at No. 2 overall, the 2024 class is a bit of a letdown in terms of star power. In fact, the consensus points to the top of the 2024 group being as weak as any since 2013, and there is legitimate uncertainty as to which prospect will come off the board at No. 1 overall when the league begins its two-day draft on June 26.
There is, of course, a reason that the top of the draft generates the most attention, as the No. 1 spot is, by far, the most likely to produce a superstar when looking at historical drafts. To that end, the 2024 draft is often assigned the “bad draft” label a bit too flippantly. The top is certainly weak, but by the time the mid-to-late lottery arrives, the 2024 class isn’t all that different than a “normal” draft class in terms of talent and depth.
That means that there will inevitably be picks outside the top ten that could produce long-time quality supporting pieces and, with 2013 as a reminder around Giannis Antetokounmpo and Rudy Gobert, stars can also emerge from unexpected places. In this space, we’ll highlight five 2024 prospects that could help return plenty of value from a lower placement on the board, but first, a brief look at a duo of players that fly off the board too high to qualify.
Devin Carter and Zach Edey
If this piece ran a month or two ago, Carter would have been the poster child. With that said, he is now popping up in the lottery on a bevy of mock drafts, and the consensus is building. Quite honestly, it is easy to see why. Carter is already a terrific defender with a near 6’9 wingspan, and his underlying defensive numbers are quite encouraging. He is also a tremendous competitor by all accounts, and Carter’s shooting development (38 percent from three this season) was eye-opening. He’s a favorite of mine.
Edey has always been highly polarizing. For one, he was clearly a generational college basketball player, carrying Purdue to the national title game, deservedly winning a pair of National Player of the Year awards, and generally dominating the competition. On the other hand, many question Edey’s translation to the modern NBA, particularly when it comes to defending in space. Still, it only takes one team to fall in love to take Edey off the board and, quite frankly, he is the most famous player in this class outside of maybe Bronny James. He’ll get plenty of attention.
Isaiah Collier
It’s tempting to include Collier alongside Carter and Edey, but instead, we’ll lead with him in the five-pack of prospects not currently projected for top-10 landing spots. Admittedly, Collier has major fans, particularly in “Draft Twitter” spaces, but the more mainstream boards and team intel point to skepticism from NBA teams. To be honest, I don’t quite understand why.
Collier is a clear lottery pick in the 2024 class in my view, and it is easy to forget that he was once pegged as a potential No. 1 overall pick. Granted, that doesn’t ensure anything, as high school phenoms sometimes burn brightly and then completely fade away. But Collier actually showed plenty at USC if you look closely.
One reason Collier is slipping in some circles is that, well, USC was brutal this season. There was plenty of talent on the roster, but the pieces never fit together and no one benefitted. Collier was at least part of the challenge in the middle of the season, but Collier closed quite well, showing off his potential as a lead ball-handler and creator.
Collier might be the best player in the class at breaking the paint from the perimeter, and he has enough feel to play a lead guard role in the NBA. He’ll need to shoot it better than the 33.8 percent from three-point range and 67.3 percent from the free throw line in 2023-24, but there isn’t anything broken with the mechanics. In a class that struggles badly with star upside, Collier actually has some.
DaRon Holmes
DaRon Holmes is just good at basketball. He was the best player on a very good Dayton team the last two years, and Holmes was an All-American selection as a junior. The numbers are very strong, including 20.4 points and 8.5 rebounds per game with 54.4 percent shooting and 38.6 percent from three-point range. He also blocked 2.1 shots per game on defense and led the A-10 in free throw attempts in back-to-back seasons. Oh, and it isn’t just the numbers.
Holmes is actually the rare “dribble, pass, shoot” player who is also capable of doing the traditional big man stuff. He can make short roll reads. He’s a good passer in other situations. He rebounds. He protects the rim. He can at least kind of move on the perimeter. He even has a 7’1 wingspan that isn’t overwhelming, but it’s fine.
Holmes still may fall too far because he’s only 6’9 without shoes and almost 22 years old. I do understand the drawbacks and wouldn’t advocate for a top-10 grade on Holmes. But there is a lot to like and he can help a team more quickly than most draft prospects can.
Tristan da Silva
Tristan da Silva is old by NBA prospect standards. After a four-year college career at Colorado, he’s already 23, and that sends shivers down the spine of at least some evaluators. That is a reason he is widely projected to fall out of the lottery but, if he was 20, he probably wouldn’t. He just finished an outstanding senior season in Boulder, producing 49/39/84 shooting splits, scoring efficiently, playing unselfishly, and showing the “dribble, pass, shoot” game that entices NBA teams.
While da Silva is not the most explosive athlete in the world, he isn’t a total non-athlete either, and at more than 6’8 without shoes, he doesn’t have to be. He has finishing craft near the rim. He makes the right reads with the ball. He also doesn’t need the ball to operate. It isn’t terribly sexy, but da Silva makes logical sense as an NBA role player.
Kyle Filipowski
Do you think Kyle Filipowski can hold up on defense? The answer to that question likely goes a long way in determining how you feel about the former Duke big man at the NBA level. Filipowski has center height (about 6’11 without shoes) but actually has a negative wingspan and isn’t the most exciting athlete from an NBA perspective. Unquestionably, he is limited when it comes to projecting as a game-changing defender at the next level. With that said, Filipowski operates well within the team concept and has played enough on the perimeter where he isn’t a fish out of water. There is enough to get by if he’s in the right system and with the right people around him.
On the other end, it is much easier to see the appeal. Filipowski was a consensus All-American after putting up 16.4 points and 8.3 rebounds per game, and he showed real potency as an interior scorer at times this season. The biggest thing, though, is that Filipowski can step out and shoot, make reads as a passer, and even put the ball on the floor when he needs to. That isn’t to say that he’s an absolute knock-down three-point shooter right now, because he isn’t, but Filipowski can return value as a big who can play the 4 and the 5 without taking too much off the table. It also helps to have elite pedigree dating back to high school, and he does.
Ryan Dunn
At minimum, Ryan Dunn is one of the two best defensive players in the 2024 class, along with Donovan Clingan. Why, then, is Dunn projected to slip into the late 20’s or even out of the first round by mainstream outlets? Well, he is a complete mess on offense.
He averaged 8.1 points per game at Virginia and, even with the caveat of the glacial pace deployed by Tony Bennett’s team, that isn’t what you would expect from a potential first round wing. Dunn did shoot 54.8 percent from the field, including 61.8 percent inside the arc, but he finished a two-year college career attempting only 51 three-pointers (yikes) and making only 12 of them (double yikes). Dunn’s mechanics need a major overhaul, and he was also a career 52.5 percent free throw shooter at the college level, albeit in a tiny sample.
While I will admit to a great affection for Dunn’s game, it is possible that he just won’t be guarded, and that makes life difficult, especially when it comes to playoff basketball. With that said, Dunn is a total game-wrecker on defense, and that alone should get him a real landing spot in this class.
He finished his college career with a 10.4 percent block rate, and led the ACC in block rate, total blocks, and blocks per game in 2023-24. As a reminder, Dunn is a 6’8 wing, not a primary rim protector. He also averaged 3.1 steals per 100 possessions as a sophomore, and Dunn measured with a wingspan north of 7’1 at the combine. The tape doesn’t lie either, as Dunn truly terrorizes opponents on a regular basis. He also has the NBA-level athleticism needed to carry that to the league.
Is he Andre Roberson? Maybe. But if he can find a niche on offense, either as a corner three-point shooter or potentially as a short roll threat, Dunn can be awesome.
(Warning: Loads of The Boys spoilers will be found below.)
The Boys returned for its fourth and penultimate season last week, and I promised that there would be better-than-ever writing alongside the show’s customary depravity in this fourth season. This week’s episode, “Life Among The Septics,” is a leading example of that dichotomy working in tandem together. As always, there was almost too much happening to comment upon everything in an even remotely adequate matter, but let’s give this a shot.
Homelander’s visit “home” happens to be the centerpiece of this week’s mayhem (next week takes a completely different detour into other characters’ current horror), so congrats on the huge episode for “John.” Sorry, I meant “Homelander.” (Please do not laser me, Homie, like you did to this guy after making him unsuccessfully pleasure himself in front of an entire room of fellow scientists while you mercilessly cackled.)
Prime Video/Amazon
Where to start? Let’s recall how odd it was when far-right types melted down over realizing (during the third season) that Homelander has been a villain for the entirety of The Boys. He remains the worst Supe, and what transpires in this episode tracks with the rest of his most horrific misdeeds of the series:
– Sending a plane full of passengers to crash to their deaths while flying away;
– Making Deep eat his friend, Timothy the octopus, while the poor critter was still alive. (See also pretending to make Deep service A-Train while Ashley approvingly looked on);
– Rewriting the entire narrative of the Gen V finale’s most climactic scene and lasering the heck out of Marie while framing the so-called “Godolkin Four” as the perpetrators of the campus bloodbath;
– Jerking off atop a skyscraper and letting his little Homelanders fall where they may, causing god only knows how much collateral damage on civilians;
– And I could never omit Homie killing a civilian in broad daylight.
During this week’s The Boys episode, we receive some Homelander backstory when he goes back to visit the lab where he spent his childhood after being born as Soldier Boy’s biological son. Of course, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen earlier Homelander days. The Diabolical animated spin off showed us the disastrous first outings of Homelander as a “hero,” but this is the most graphically rendered scenario in which we’ve caught a glimpse of his upbringing, when he was considered too dangerous (from the moment that he was born) to leave the lab and stayed locked up as a Vought prisoner.
Now, the most evil Supe has returned home to wreak vengeance upon those who treated him so callously. None of what we see excuses what Homelander has done after leaving the lab, but at least we understand more about how he became this monster. And after he incinerated a scientist alive, lasered the aforementioned guy’s dong off, and then slaughtered the rest of the group off camera (leaving a pseudo-maternal figure alive but trapped inside the room with the carnage), this face emerges:
Prime Video/Amazon
Dude can hold a grudge. Nothing will ever fill the void in his soul, however, and, there’s no justifying anything that the guy does even if The Boys gives us occasional moments where it makes more sense. Oh, and Antony Starr previously detailed to UPROXX why Homelander is beyond redemption:
“I think the damage is done! I wanna say yes, but two things: (1) I think it’s impossible because this guy is so deeply screwed-up from what’s happened to him and the environment he was raised in and going from that to basically becoming a corporate product. I think he’s so messed up that there’s only glimpses and maybe a little bit of hope here and there that’s never gonna be realized; and (2) I don’t think you ever wanna see him redeemed. At least I don’t. I like the idea of the bad guy just being the bad guy. That doesn’t mean that we don’t wanna understand what makes the guy tick, and every now and then, have conflicted feelings about him, but with redemption as a broader sort of ideal, I don’t wanna see Homelander turn into some good guy.”
Looking back at these words from Starr, the homecoming scenes rolled out precisely as they should have according to the bylaws of this series. Yes, The Boys did so in an unpredictable way and highlighted every aspect of Homelander’s cruelty, but the outcome was inevitable. What we saw was hellish but spawned from an incredible performance from Antony Starr. (And the Academy won’t be able to stomach it come Emmys time — their loss.)
Some additional notes:
– Sister Sage is clearly evil on some level, yet I cannot help but enjoy how she’s the only entity who isn’t afraid of Homelander. Also, she nearly steals the episode from him — an act that would have been unknown even to herself — by instructing Deep to give her a lobotomy so that she won’t find him too “repulsive” to have sex.
– Kimiko’s major gross-out moment did get overshadowed, but you may have noticed that the part where she pieces her face back together is reminiscent of a certain Beetlejuice moment. Notice also that even though Kimiko doesn’t speak, she knows how to use an eggplant in a text message. Good for her.
– How is Butcher hanging onto life at this point? Compound V does some crazy stuff to humans, and the episode’s final moments suggest that we’ll get to see the effects on Hughie’s dad next week. This episode also makes a point of showing us a worm-like object inside of Butcher’s back before he passes out in the shower. And yup, no explanation there, so we gotta wait for it.
– Hughie is not doing so great, again. As I hinted in this season’s review, his stressful times have only begun. Hugs for Hughie.
– Annie January/Starlight is gaining dimensions as a character, which coincides with her becoming a full-fledged vigilante. The abortion revelation serves this arc well, and that might seem like a tacked-on, last-minute idea from the writer’s room, but the element of surprise is also important in how she reacts, and how the public sees her react.
– Yup, there’s Tek Knight with his true-crime show discussing Marie and the other Godolkin Four, who have “seemingly vanished.” Seeing Chance Perdomo back on the screen (after his recent passing) does hit hard.
– MM remains the voice of reason, always. Yes, he’s mad at Butcher (and justifiably so), but he knows that only as a team do they have a chance at nailing Vought, so he cooled Annie down, and Butcher joined the group again. They’re in business from here on out, and we’ll soon see how that goes.
Prime Video/Amazon’s ‘The Boys’ streams new episodes on Thursdays.
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