Good for the Soul (The Boys episode)

"Good for the Soul" is the fifth 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 superpowered individuals, known as Supes, are portrayed as corrupt individuals instead of the heroes the general public believes they are. The episode was written by Anne Cofell Saunders and directed by Stefan Schwartz.

The episode follows the boys as they attend the Believe Expo to get more information about Compound-V and uncover its remaining secrets by blackmailing the festival's host, Ezekiel. Meanwhile, Frenchie stays behind to watch over the Female, one of the test subjects of the drug who was held captive in the previous episode. During the festival, Annie January and Hughie Campbell get to know each other more, while the former still struggles to follow Vought's rules and her mother's expectations. Meanwhile, Billy Butcher and Mother's Milk find a lead about the Compound-V that Vought had been hiding for several years, which could unravel the truth behind the creation of the Supes.

"Good for the Soul" was released on Amazon Prime Video, the streaming service, on July 26, 2019. The episode received positive reviews from critics, with praise for its religious themes and performances. Starlight's speech and confession were also subjected to strong praise, with many lauding the episode for providing more depth to the character.

Plot
A-Train arrives in Havana, Cuba, where he is hiding Popclaw for telling Billy Butcher information about the source of the compound V. A-Train tells her that Stillwell will allow their relationship to become public, but in exchange, he asks her to tell him who else knows about Compound-V. Popclaw finally gives him descriptions of the men who blackmailed her. A-Train injects her with multiple syringes of heroin, causing her to die from a overdose. A-Train confirms Popclaw's death to Homelander, revealing that the latter ordered him to kill her. Homelander suspects A-Train is addicted to Compound-V, but A-Train assures him that he is not using it and promises to find the Female.

Butcher, Mother's Milk, and Hughie Campbell attend the Believe Expo to get more information about Compound V, while Frenchie stays behind to watch over the Female. Billy tasks Hughie with using Annie January, who is also at the event under Vought orders, to meet with Ezekiel. Hughie will then blackmail Ezekiel with a video of him kissing men and demand information about Compound V. Hughie reluctantly asks Annie to give him access to Ezekiel and she agrees.

Homelander gives a speech during a memorial to the Flight 37 victims. Queen Maeve, feeling distraught for abandoning the passengers to die, leaves the memorial early, angry at Homelander's lies. She later visits her ex-girlfriend Elena in a drunken state, hoping to find some consolation. Elena, though not happy to see her again, tries to listen when Maeve admits that she can no longer deal with the guilt. Maeve tries to kiss Elena, but when Elena refuses Maeve regrets having come and leaves.

Homelander arrives at the Believe Expo and is annoyed by the script he is given. Homelander finds Stillwell, who is taking her son to the pediatrician, and complains. Stillwell tells Homelander that the speech is intended to convince the government to allow Supes to join the army, and that his speech will be seen by millions of people across the country. Though Homelander reminds her of the flight incident, she dismisses it and tells Homelander to follow the speech.

Butcher visits his wife's sister, Rachel, after learning that the family has purchased a headstone for Becca, even though they never found her body. Rachel says it's because her mother is getting old and wants a place where she can talk with her deceased daughter. She reminds Butcher that it has been eight years since Becca went missing and was never found. Rachel tells Butcher to move on and accept that Becca is gone, as the family has tried to do in spite of their grief. Butcher goes to the cemetery where the headstone is located and destroys it with a hammer.

During the Expo, Annie becomes uncomfortable after she is forced to lie about sex during a talk session. She expresses this to her mother, Donna, though she is not sure if it is because she has changed or the festival has changed. During the meeting with Ezekiel, he holds a baptism, with Homelander performing the baptismal dunking. When it is Hughie's turn, Homelander holds Hughie underwater for a long time. Hughie's phone is damaged, destroying the video he planned to use to blackmail Ezekiel. Hughie improvises, pretending to be a man who slept with Ezekiel. Ezekiel attempts to choke Hughie, but Hughie tells him about the video. After getting information from Ezekiel, Hughie calls MM to inform him about the latest shipment of Compound-V.

Homelander gives his speech but strays from the script, stating that he only follows a higher power and that next time there is a crisis, he won't wait for the approval of Congress to protect America, much to Stillwell's dismay and anger. Annie doesn't want to go on stage to give her speech but her mother forces her. Annie becomes angry during her speech, criticizing the extremist beliefs of Christianity and expressing her disillusionment over working for Vought. She also admits to having been sexually assaulted though she doesn't reveal the identity of her assaulter. Although Hughie attempts to sympathize with her, Annie expresses disgust toward him for using her to meet Ezekiel. Hughie apologizes and confesses that his girlfriend died recently, leading Annie to also feel sympathy for him, and the two embrace.

Butcher and MM locate the latest shipment of Compound V at a hospital. The duo discover that Supes are created and engineered with Compound-V, not born naturally. They also realize that the infants are being injected to give them powers and manufacture future Supes. Before Butcher can take a sample of Compound V, several guards start shooting at them. Butcher uses a baby with heat vision to kill them all, and they leave with the sample.

Distraught at Popclaw's death, A-Train watches her videos. He discovers footage of her accidentally killing her landlord. He also discovers that Butcher and Frenchie blackmailed her to give them information about Compound V. Using Frenchie's face, they find his multiple aliases and addresses. Black Noir goes to find Frenchie and take care of him. After being warned by Cherie, Butcher orders Frenchie to run and leave the Female behind. Frenchie decides to free the Female from her chains, and she runs away. Frenchie is met by Black Noir, but the Female returns to save Frenchie, allowing him to escape. The Female fights Black Noir but is overpowered. Frenchie returns to find her lying on the ground and is amazed to see her wounds immediately heal.

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, which caused it to be in development hell for several years, the plans for a film were scrapped in favor of a television series. In 2016, it was announced Cinemax would develop the show. Erick Kripke became the series showrunner and head writer, alongside Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen, who would direct the pilot episode. In November 2017, Amazon acquired the rights to develop the show, announcing that they would produce over eight episodes for the first season, while confirming that the previously announced creative team would still be attached to the series. The episode titled "Good for the Soul" was written by Anne Cofell Saunders and directed by Stefan Schwartz. The episode is titled with the name of the issues #15–18 as well as the Vol. 3 of the comic book series of the same name.

Writing
The episode explores the issue of the Christian right, with Vought being in charge of planning the Believe Expo to promote many of the heroes and make the public believe that the reason they have powers is because God chose them as part of a superhero miracle. The episode also criticizes the way Christianity spreads its idea in excess and how Vought only uses as profitable propaganda and the influence that has been scattered across the pop culture through the years. The writers consider that the myth of the superheroes being chosen by God represents the imposition of an idea scattered through the nation so Vought can appease the audience from the Supe's behavior that justifies not only being celebrities and movie stars but also their positions in the police, the military, and government. The episode is proof of how several companies impose the idea of toxic ideas that the companies impose for their benefit, which the writers considered to be adequate as Donald Trump was the president of the United States at the time.

Similarly to the previous episodes of the series, a major change was made with one of its characters being adapted differently from the comic book series for the television adaptation. The episode introduces Ezekiel, who serves as the leader of the Believe Expo and is based on the character, Oh Father, who share similar characteristics as both are leaders of the Christian Supe organization Capes for Christ and their religious hypocrisy. Their difference is that the latter sexually abused teenagers, while the former was turned down, only to become a hypocritical homophobic. The writers decided to make this change to critique the hypocrisy about homosexuality and how homophobic ideas continue to affect the community in the current time.

Casting
The episode's main cast includes Karl Urban as Billy Butcher, Jack Quaid as Hughie Campbell, Antony Starr as Homelander, Erin Moriarty as Annie January, Dominique McElligott as Queen Maeve, Jessie T. Usher as A-Train, Laz Alonso as Mother's Milk, Chace Crawford as The Deep, Tomer Capone as Frenchie, Karen Fukuhara as the Female, Nathan Mitchell as Black Noir, and Elisabeth Shue as Madelyn Stillwell. Also starring are Billy Zane as Himself, Ann Cusack as Donna January, Shaun Benson as Ezekiel, Brit Morgan as Rachel Saunders, Colby Minifie as Ashley Barret, Jess Salgueiro as Robin Ward, Jordana Lajoie as Cherie, Brittany Allen as Charlotte / Popclaw, and Nicola Correia-Damude as Elena.

Filming
The filming of the first season takes place in Toronto, while the story takes place in New York City. The scene for the funeral service that Vought held for the victims that died in the hijacked flight of the previous episode that Homelander and Queen Maeve failed to save with the former having refused to save them, the crew decided that this scene would be filmed at the scene at the zinc-clad pavilion which is part of the Sherbourne Common waterfront park.

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. It was announced Stephan Fleet would act as visual effects supervisor and oversee the development of visual effects. The elastic powers of Ezekiel were created through CGI and simultaneously used a stunt double's arm to make the scene where Ezekiel attempts to chicken Hughie. The arm was animated and edited to get Ezekiel's elasticized arm.

Music
The episode features the following songs which are "A Lo Caliche" by Sr Ortegon featuring Pana Black, "Raise It Up" by Extreme Music, and "Ain't No Sunshine" by Bill Withers.

Release
"Good for the Soul" premiered on Amazon Prime Video in the United States on July 26, 2019. It was released alongside all the episodes from the season, which were released on the same date. The episode and the rest of The Boys ' first season were released on Blu-ray on May 31, 2022.

Reception
"Good for the Soul" received positive reviews from critics. Brian Tallerico from Vulture gave the episode 3 stars out of 5, criticizing the episode for having a weaker writing, though he praised it for finally starting to take risks for the political and social commentary, and considered that Homelander represents a false hero that was being worshiped the same way they worship the modern politicians from today. For his review for The Review Geek, Greg Wheeler gave the episode four stars out of five. While he considered that the episode wasn't on the dramatic level of the previous one, he found it enjoyable. He praised the portrayal of the religion and the moral questions it can bring while also praising the character development of Starlight, to which he commented, "While not quite as dramatic as the previous episode, The Boys delivers another enjoyable episode nonetheless. The religious aspect of this whole debacle brings up some very interesting moral questions and seeing this play into the main narrative is certainly a welcome inclusion here. It helps to add some depth to Starlight's character too, especially seeing her religious upbringing and how difficult that must have been for her." Randy Dankievitch from the Tilt Magazine praised the episode for its character development and the complexity of its characters. However, it also criticized the episode for not giving anything new to the storyline, to which he replied, "The Boys doesn't really have anything to say about the events taking place on-screen. Instead, it offers placeholders for moral complexities, character motivations, and personality, even in its most carefully constructed characters, like Madelyn or Starlight."

For a review from ScienceFiction.com, Darryl Jasper praised the episode for its storyline character development and for connecting multiple storylines to the main one related to the investigation of the mysterious Compound-V. He also praised the episode for the portrayal of a guilt-ridden Queen Maeve and her development over the dark paths that she had taken, and that Starlight is about to pass in the future. Martin Carr, for the Flickering Myth, stated that the episode to be important given its take on the social commentary and trying the audience to be more conscious and aware of the real-life issues that the series treats. He wrote in his review, "Rarely has a series come crashing into the public consciousness with such confidence and no small amount of bravado. From Karl Urban down there is a sense of belief in the material which adds an authenticity to the end product. Kripke, Rogen, and Goldberg have given us a hard R-rated social conscience dramedy that refuses to scrimp on anything. Comic book tongue in cheek it may be but the character drives this hybrid and never employs a heavy hand to make the point. No wonder Amazon greenlit a second season before showing us a frame of footage."