The Boys Whipped It Out When Nobody Asked

The Boys Whipped It Out When Nobody Asked

The Boys’ second season has poked fun at Zack Snyder and Joss Whedon’s blockbuster comic book movies and has been gaming out what it might be like if the most popular superhero team in the world invited a whole arse Nazi with a suspect undercut to join its ranks. That’s all quite on-brand, but the most recent episode went entirely out of pocket by introducing a ridiculous character from the source material and putting his powers on display in the most alarming way possible.

Image: Jim Cooke
Image: Jim Cooke

One of The Boys’ major plot points this season has been the public learning that Vought International is actually responsible for the creation of the world’s supes, something the company was able to accomplish by coercing people to give their children Compound V. As Vought fights furiously to get ahold of the media narrative around its misdoings, Young Hughie and the rest of the Boys make a concerted effort to figure out just how trenchant Vought’s nefariousness actually is. The team is shocked when they learn that, unbeknownst to the public, Vought also been actively researching how to imbue adults with powers at a facility where a number of test subjects are being held captive and abused.

When the Boys and Starlight set out to infiltrate the Sage Grove medical facility in search of information, what they discover is that Vought’s actually gotten rather far along in its experiments and Stormfront (who’s initially presented as being a sort of newcomer) has been tasked by the company to monitor the test subject’s progress. When the subjects demonstrate that their powers aren’t quite up to snuff or destructive enough to be weaponised, they’re unceremoniously burned to death by Lamplighter, a disgraced former member of the Seven who has the ability to manipulate (but not generate) fire.

Though the Boys’ mission wasn’t initially meant to involve them blowing their cover or doing battle, that’s precisely what happens when Frenchie, who has a history with Lamplighter, ends up being recognised by his old foe, prompting him to use his powers. Lamplighter missing Frenchie with a blast of fire ends up being the hugest of mistakes as he blows the door off one of the holding cells. When the woman inside gets her first taste of freedom, she promptly demonstrates that her power to pop people is extremely deadly, which both the Boys and Lamplighter rightfully are terrified by and make a point of running away from.

In the strangest of ways, The Boys ends up feeling as if it’s trying to echo The New Mutants as the woman breaks a number of her fellow prisoners out and they all more or less get buck wild while trying to break free of the facility. The Boys being trapped in a hospital filled with scared, overpowered people willing to use their abilities to fight whomever they perceive as a threat is one of the show’s more alarming moments, but the terrifying energy of it all gets kicked in the shins in a moment where The Boys introduces one of the comics’ more off-kilter characters.

There’s no real way to describe “Love Sausage”’s power aside from being frank: he’s got a gigantic, prehensile penis that he can wield as a weapon.

Mother's Milk being strangled by Love Sausage's penis, which Kimiko finds extremely boring. (Gif: Amazon Studios)
Mother’s Milk being strangled by Love Sausage’s penis, which Kimiko finds extremely boring. (Gif: Amazon Studios)

Though he has a much larger role as one of the Boys’ allies in the comic, in the live-action series, he’s just a confused Russian man who uses his junk to smash through a window and damn near strangle Mother’s Milk to death. What’s truly strange about Love Sausage in this incarnation is that it seems as if taking a lot of damage directly to the dick knocks him out, as Frenchie and Kimiko come to find after narrowly saving MM’s life.

The Boys leaves Love Sausage’s story on the table as he’s not meant to be a particularly important character here, but the show gives him his moment to shine and show off his absurdly large appendage. An actual monster wang is far from the wildest thing The Boys has gotten up to this season, but it’s certainly one of the more memorable elements that reinforces just how unsettling Garth Ennis’ imagination has always been.