Kimiko speaking for the first time under that traumatic condition was pretty heart wrenching. Though on the other hand it felt a little cheap that Kimiko could be manhandled like that. I'd have to imagine that her detainors were supes.
Grace had to either understand the plan with Ryan wasn't going to work or just knock him out as soon as he walked into the room. I get the idea that you need Ryan pliable to convince him to take on Homelander but she went and f***ed that up.
What Butcher did was somewhat understandable. With Vought essentially taking over the US Government, Neuman's status as an informant wasn't going to be very useful. Not to say he was right to do it, but still. It does more or less leave the Boys as neutered as they've ever been. Basically, you've got an army of supes vs. a recharged Annie, a pissed off Kimiko, a lone wolf Butcher, maybe Ashley depending on what her powers are (who has plenty of reason to want to strike back at Vought), maybe A-Train, and maybe Ryan if he can find his own moral fiber again, maybe Soldier Boy gets let out but I don't really know why he'd be opposed to a world run by Supes enough to help.
If the show's final season was going to go a plausible route to get humanity out of this mess, then it would follow the comics and Hughie, MM, and Frenchie would somehow get V into their systems to fight back. But that also contradicts the show's core message so I don't know.
I don't think the find my iPhone explanation really explains how Starlight got
into the underground bunker to save everyone and it feels like a plot contrivance they just couldn't solve. Also Annie giving Hughie shit for having sex with the shapeshifter? I know she let it go but come on. That was unnecessary drama for the sake of it. Like Hughie was essentially raped. Though Hughie's "f*** yeah, Hughie" line was pretty great so I give it a pass.
I do think it's funny that the Frenchie/Kimiko shippers dooming and being homophobic did all that bitching and moaning for nothing. I liked that the two finally came together and their respective journeys to get there this season was kind of annoying to watch but I was satisfied with the justification.
I felt for Neuman ultimately. Like yeah she was ready to shake hands with the devil to get what she wants but she was an interesting character piece on how supes can end up in a childhood development situation more or less like Homelander's. Homelander was psychologically programmed to need approval from a "lesser species" and cracked when he realized how fragile that species is. Neuman developed an ambition to seek power to protect herself and, eventually, her daughter, but she couldn't and didn't really seem to want to sacrifice her morals and humanity to do it. I understand Butcher not wanting to give her that chance but it still sucked to see.
Like
@Hasbro said, a really bleak ending, but interestingly the "attack on Washington" from the comics has more or less been consummated by Homelander and Vought with a lot less violence and sheer oppression of humans involved. That's not to say that's not coming but Homelander still seemed interested in the power of human public opinion with that list of potential Vought employees who can damage the company image so the takeover wasn't as brutal as it could've been but we'll see what Sage's "phase 2" looks like.
All in all a pretty worthy finale that sets up a lot for the finale season
![S. Muller / C. Tillmann [GER] vs T. Graudina / A. Samoilova [LAT]](https://hfboards-data.community.forum/assets/xa_sb_cat_images/ILmCYDiU-2RINe08i.png){kind=icon}