The Boys Presents: Diabolical – Episode 8 “One Plus One Equals Two” Recap & Review

One Plus One Equals Two

Episode 8 of The Boys Presents: Diabolical begins with Stan Edgar inviting Homelander into The Seven. We’re in flashback territory as Homelander struggles with the crowd. Eventually though Noir is brought in to soak up the limelight, given he’s the number 1 right now.

During a hostage situation, Homelander refuses to follow orders and instead jumps in himself to the thick of the action. Gunshots thwart their threat but unfortunately Homelander kills one of the hostages, courtesy of his laser eyes.

It doesn’t take long for him to snap, still torn up over the ghosts of the past. He kills everyone – hostages and crooks alike – save for one woman. With an entire bloodbath before them, Noir shows up just as Homelander believes he wants him out of The Seven.

That’s not the case though, as we know, but an explosion destroys the chemical plant completely while Homelander chases Noir around the plant.

The female hostage crawls away, straight into the grateful arms of Noir. He picks her up…and snaps her neck. Noir writes out a statement for Homelander to tell the police, and it works beautifully too, with Homelander claiming he tried to stop a bomb but it blew up before he could do anything about it.

As he heads back to Vought HQ, Homelander’s ratings are increasing while Noir sips his coffee and watches from afar.

The Episode Review

The final episode of The Boys Presents Diabolical manages to bring a slightly different side to Homelander as he first enters The Seven. Seeing his ties with Noir and how the roles were actually reversed, with Noir the big shot and Homelander just a sidekick, works well to change the balance of power.

It also works surprisingly well to dive into Homelander’s troubled past. The way the episode manages to spin all the usual tropes and ideas from The Boys into this works really well and it’s backed up by a solid standalone chapter to round out this anthology.