No review of this episode is complete without mentioning the elephant in the room: Homelander. The episode picks up the threads left dangling from The Boys Season 4, where Homelander has taken a vested interest in these "promising" students. His presence is felt in every scene, acting as a cosmic horror that the students are trying to outrun. The realization that they are being groomed not just for stardom, but for complicity in a fascist regime, raises the stakes significantly.