Spoiler warning: this article discusses multiple plot points from Season 2 episode 8 of The Boys.
Season 2 of The Boys recently concluded, and somewhat unexpectedly, the last episode gave the show's second season a happy ending. Sure, there was some tragedy along the way, but Stormfront got her Nazi ass thoroughly kicked (before Ryan put her in even worse shape), the Boys (except Butcher) were shown to be enjoying life, and the world was made just a bit safer. There was even talk of making the team official. This happy ending may seem at odds with the grimy tone which has defined the series, but it's a crucial part of the show.
In season 2, episode 3, Hughie reaches his lowest point. He's constantly talked down to by Butcher, the group's leader, he doesn't feel like he is adding anything to the team, and nothing ever seems to go their (The Boys') way. So when he ends up deep in the belly of a dead whale, it's just the final nail in the coffin for him. He's done. Refusing to move, he tells Butcher that he's waiting for "[his] second wind". There's only so much he can take, and he needs a sign that something, anything is going to get better if he is going to keep moving; a sign which he does receive at the end of the episode, when Butcher and Kanji save his life.
The Boys has always been a show that celebrates its darkness. It's not just that someone usually dies (although someone does usually die), it's the world the characters live in. The reveal that all supers get their powers from a drug called Compound-V doesn't make them any less marketable, they are still making their movies. Vought isn't suffering from their misdeeds being public, they are using it as leverage for increased share prices, and greater military access. Even the "super heroics" are tainted. Just look at the plane crash from season one. In a more conventional superhero setting, everyone on board would have been saved. But in the world of The Boys the "heroes" who are meant to save the day make the problem worse, and leave the innocent bystanders to their fate (though Queen Maeve at least, is shown trying to do more).
What is all this darkness for, though? It's certainly an approach that has set The Boys apart from other superhero shows, but are the levels of pain and tragedy the show deals in from episode to episode sustainable? Could it have kept marching on in grim fashion week after week? Probably not. Much like Hughie in the whale, without something to counter balance the nihilism on display, The Boys as a show could have wound up stuck in place, unable to move forward.
The tone set by the season 2 finale seems to offer a direct response to this conundrum. Everything building up between the characters to that point finally boils over, and at first it goes about as well as you'd expect. Stormfront is easily able to hold her own against Starlight and Kimiko, even going as far as breaking the latter's neck. But then, something amazing happens. Not only does Kimiko fix her own neck and get back up to fight again, but Queen Maeve also arrives to help, and suddenly the fight changes. Stormfront isn't holding her own anymore, the other three women in the fight are working together to beat the Nazi down and keep her down. After spending season 2 watching Stormfront reveling in white supremacy, using a media campaign to spread her bigotry, watching her get what's coming to her is very satisfying. It's a sight made even sweeter by the fact that all three of the women delivering the ass kicking have been put into positions of powerlessness at one point or another. Finally they are able to fight back against someone who embodies the very system that has been screwing over their lives.
The season's happy ending isn't all about seeing one character getting their comeuppance though. Perhaps the best moments in the finale were the most tender, whether it be Hughie and Starlight bonding, Marvin returning to his family, or Frenchie and Kimiko going off to dance. These are small moments in the grand scheme of things, but they show the audience that The Boys has something to offer besides shock and gore. The bad guys can be defeated, public opinion can be used to make a company as vile as Vought change course for the better, and most importantly the heroes (again, apart from Butcher), can go back home and have happy lives.
The Boys' season 2 finale is exactly what the show needed. The sense of optimism and relief it brings to its cast of characters are the perfect counterbalance to the despair that had been building since the first episode and it gives that despair meaning. Gore, and a sense of hopelessness may be what has made Amazon's hit show so popular, and there's nothing inherently wrong with that, but they need to lead to something. If the characters are just bouncing from one crisis to the next without any end goal in sight, or victories along the way it would just falter into a rut, like a joke without a punchline. The season 2 finale is breathing room for character and audience alike. It offers a chance for everyone to recharge their batteries, appreciate everything that has been achieved up to that point, and get ready for what comes next. After all, season 2 ending on a happy note doesn't mean that the protagonists are out of the woods yet.