| "The Female of the Species" | |
|---|---|
| The Boys episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 4 |
| Directed by | Fred Troye |
| Written by | Craig Rosenberg |
| Produced by | Hartley Gorenstein |
| Featured music |
|
| Cinematography by | Evans Brown |
| Editing by | Cedric Nairn-Smith |
| Original release date | July 26, 2019 |
| Running time | 56 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 finding something to prevent the Supes from joining the military. This eventually leads the team to find a Japanese woman known as "The Female" and pursue her across the city's subway. Meanwhile, Homelander and Queen Maeve are tasked with 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.
Billy watches footage from her wife, Becca, dating from 2011. He approaches Reynor with images of A-Train and Popclaw using Compound-V, proving its evidence but remaining lacking. They inform Popclaw A-Train that they didn't purchase further Compound-V from the local noodle shop, and their blackmail remains active. However, they find doubtous exchanges from the shop and decide to investigate.
In the basement, the boys find a captive woman used as a subject for Compound V. They release her as the assaillants return, leaving a carnage. Nicknamed the Female, she attempts to attack the boys but fails and escapes. Hughie receives a message from Annie, and Billy persuades him to bug her phone. Meanwhile, Homelander and Queen Maeve save a plane from terrorists, but broken controls force the duo to leave the passengers to death, to Maeve's shame. The Deep begins therapy about his insecurites, and Stillwell assigns him to a dolphim rescue, but a car chase ensues and the dolphin ends up rolled over.
As the boys search for the femaile, A-Train finds the crime scene and accuses Popclaw of revealing the location. Popclaw uses their private relationship as a rescue, and A-Train brings her out of town for safety. The female kills a nail shop owner, and the boys find a subway schedule. Frenchie finds her and sympathizes with her about her abusive childhood, but she ends up scared and runs away. Hughie, during a date with Annie, experiences visions of Robin, and learns Transluscent was a father. He manages to hack Annie's phone.
Frenchie and M.M. have another fight about Mallory's grandchildren, but Butcher calms them. They find the female attacked by A-Train, but the Frenchies cause a public rally to rescue her. When she hits Frenchie, Billy puts them to sleep. Homelander and Maeve assist in the plane's crash, where Homelander fakes his anger towards the government as an opportunity to join the army, to Stillwell's amusement.
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]
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] 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]
The episode 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.[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
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 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]
The episode features the songs "Strike Blues" by John Lee Hooker and "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls.[21]
"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]
"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]
