Warning: SPOILERS ahead for The Boys season 2, episode 7.
Things took a shocking turn on the latest episode of The Boys when Queen Maeve was forced to step in and take down Black Noir — but her method for murder was actually foreshadowed by Hughie's joke earlier in the season. Maeve has been a staple member of The Seven since the first episode. The Boys season 2 has seen the character embark on a path toward getting her life more together. To that end, she reconnected with her former love, Elena. Maeve also sought to finally break free of Homelander's tyranny and potentially bring him down using the footage from the failed plane rescue in The Boys season 1.
After discovering the footage last week, Elena opted to leave Maeve in The Boys season 2, episode 7, "Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker". Despondent, Maeve turned to drugs and casual sex with an unnamed man. However, she was soon presented with another chance for atonement, when Starlight was outed as a mole and captured by Vought. Starlight eventually managed to break free of her imprisonment thanks to the interference of Hughie and a much more humanized Lamplighter. As she navigated the corridors, however, she was confronted by Black Noir — who rapidly managed to get the best of her. As Starlight started to drift into unconsciousness, Maeve appeared and locked Black Noir in a chokehold. At the same time, she ripped up his mask and forced an Almond Joy chocolate bar into his mouth. With it revealed that Black Noir had a tree-nut allergy, he seemingly succumbed to anaphylaxis as Maeve kicked his EpiPen out of reach.
As shocking as the turn of events were, however, they were teased in The Boys season 2, episode 4, "Nothing Like It in the World". When Starlight joined Hughie and M.M on a trip to investigate Liberty (revealed to be a past incarnation of Stormfront), she stated that Almond Joy was one of her favorite candy bars. Hughie quipped that Jeffrey Dahmer was also a fan of them. He would later take the joke a step further when gifting Starlight another bar. "You know, John Wayne Gacy used to give those out to kids when he was a birthday clown?" he asked. As such, Hughie seeded the idea of Almond Joy being intrinsically linked with murder.
Obviously, Maeve is far removed from the two aforementioned men and nowhere near a serial killer. Still, her intent was clearly to kill the now partially-revealed Black Noir in order to save Starlight's life. Therefore, her actions more than put her in line with the context at the root of Hughie's joke. Equally, when Hughie and Starlight parted ways after their trip, he said to let her know if she ever needed another Almond Joy. Though he obviously meant it as a euphemism, a more literal Almond Joy turned out to be exactly what she needed when attacked. It was just delivered by Maeve rather than Hughie.
Of course, it remains to be seen whether Black Noir's apparent death will actually stick. Though he was last seen collapsing out of reach of his medicine, neither Maeve nor Starlight stuck around to check that he fully succumbed. As a result, Maeve could have more than just Homelander to worry about going forward. Whatever the case, Black Noir's weakness has been exposed. Also, the event marked yet example of shrewd plotting by Eric Kripke and his team of writers. Several pivotal events in The Boys season 1 were subtly foreshadowed by seemingly unconnected jokes. One, in particular, was even Kripke's favorite joke that went long undetected. As such, the odds are strong that Hughie's comments were designed as such a tease. And with only one episode of The Boys season 2 remaining, the payoffs to several more (dramatic and comedic) seeds planted throughout the recent episodes will no doubt become clear.
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