Recaps

John saved money from his work at the Manor to buy Lynn a cashmere scarf, then traveled to Manhattan and purchased it as a gift. He left the boutique carrying the scarf and said it was for his dad.

• Lynn made Reggie, Tommy, and John combine their Manor jobs with difficult superpower and combat training.
• Lynn paid John for sweeping the hill and avoiding Black Noir’s attacks, and John added the money to his savings jar.
• John counted $182.50 and realized he had saved enough to buy the $180 scarf he wanted to give Lynn.
• John asked Lynn to go to Manhattan, and Lynn gave him a commuter card and reminded him to stay safe and hide his powers.
• John traveled by train to a Manhattan mall and paid for the scarf with his saved bills and coins.
• John accepted the scarf in a paper bag, told the sales assistant it was a gift for his dad, and left the boutique.

John gave Lynn a cashmere scarf he had bought with money earned from days of work, and Lynn warmly accepted it. The next day, Stan Edgar visited Stormfront and asked her to help with Vought’s secret New Vanguard Camps for children injected with Compound V.

• John returned to the Long Island Estate and gave Lynn a dark gray cashmere scarf he had bought with his saved wages.
• Lynn put on the scarf, praised its color, and told John he liked it.
• The next day, Stan Edgar went to Stormfront’s secluded estate and endured her insults about him and his position at Vought.
• Edgar told Stormfront that Vought had established secret New Vanguard Camps for children injected with Compound V, and that Lynn had surpassed the company’s expectations by controlling them through family and affection.
• Edgar admitted that his decision had been a mistake and said he needed Stormfront.

Edgar put Stormfront in charge of training Vought International’s young superpowered recruits, and she began by murdering the children she considered racially inferior. She left the surviving white recruits terrified and ordered them taken to the gravity chamber for further training.

• Edgar hired Stormfront to train the recruits, giving her freedom to use any methods as long as she produced loyal weapons for Vought International.
• Stormfront arrived at the fortieth basement level and condemned the diverse group of children as unsuitable recruits.
• Stormfront killed seven or eight Black, Latina, and Asian children with purple lightning while the researchers and surviving recruits watched in terror.
• Stormfront told the surviving white children to feel fortunate and ordered the supervisor to take them to the gravity chamber at two that afternoon.

After Stormfront slaughtered seven children at the New Vanguard Camp, Lynn watched footage of their bodies being removed and recognized the threat she posed to the Long Island Estate. He stayed calm around his lively household but vowed to protect everyone behind its gates, then doubled the children’s training.

• Madelyn reported that Stormfront had killed seven children at the New Vanguard Camp, and Stan Edgar ordered the bodies cleared and the costs deducted from Stormfront’s budget.
• At the Long Island Estate, Lynn made pumpkin porridge while John showed quiet delight at Lynn wearing his scarf, and Buddy begged for food.
• Reggie showed off his secondhand sunglasses, Tommy displayed his new game console, and the others shared their purchases and enjoyed breakfast preparations.
• Black Noir showed Lynn surveillance footage of workers removing the children’s charred bodies from the basement.
• Lynn recognized Stormfront as a future threat to his household, resolved to protect everyone at the estate, and ordered Reggie to double his training after breakfast.

During a snowy training session at the Long Island estate, Reggie, Tommy, Annie, Kevin, and John demonstrated how much they had improved. John earned praise from Lynn after matching Black Noir in pure combat technique, and the children gathered warmly together as winter continued.

• Reggie used Bullet Time to walk among suspended snowflakes and retrieve a broken branch, then showed off his speed to Tommy.
• Tommy held a large telekinetic shield over the pool while Annie kept the water warm with her light energy.
• Kevin commanded Charlie, a huge deep-sea monster, to roll over before the creature shrank back into a goldfish.
• John fought Black Noir without using superpowers and reached a draw with him through pure combat technique.
• Lynn brought hot chocolate and praised John's footwork and counter, then watched the children gather together in the snow.

Lynn set rules for a snowball fight, and John overcame his fear of hurting his friends to join in and laugh with them. The doorbell rang as the fight continued.

• Reggie proposed a snowball fight, and Lynn banned the children from using their powers or breaking windows.
• Reggie hit Tommy with the first snowball, and the yard erupted into a chaotic fight that Buddy joined.
• A snowball struck John, and he threw one back at Reggie before joining the game with laughter.
• Reggie called on Tommy and Kevin to focus their snowballs on John, while Black Noir secretly hit Buddy with a snowball.
• The doorbell rang while everyone was still playing.

A Vought assistant delivered luxury gifts to Long Island Estate to test the children’s loyalty, but they rejected the offerings and sent him away. After the snowball fight resumed, Lynn watched over the children as the snow grew heavier.

• A Vought assistant arrived with gifts from Stan Edgar, offering the children a Ferrari, an arcade cabinet, designer clothes, and a marine cultivation system.
• Reggie rejected the Ferrari because he valued earning his own money, and Tommy dismissed the arcade cabinet in favor of his hard-earned game saves.
• John blocked the assistant and told him to take the gifts away, so the assistant hurried back to the SUVs with everything.
• John restarted the snowball fight by hitting Reggie, and Lynn watched the children play as the snowfall grew heavier.

Stormfront brutalized mutant children in Vought’s gravity training room while Edgar assessed the failure of his attempt to lure the Long Island children away from Lynn. Edgar warned Stormfront not to attack the estate until Vought could mass-produce weapons and find a weakness in John.

• Stormfront used triple gravity and electric shocks to force Colin and the other mutant children to stand during their training.
• Edgar’s assistant reported that Reggie and Tommy had refused Vought’s gifts and that Homelander had driven the representatives away from the Long Island Estate.
• Edgar watched footage of Lynn and the children and concluded that Lynn had bound them together by giving them a family and dignity.
• Stormfront proposed taking the trained mutants to Long Island to kill Lynn and assert Vought’s control over John.
• Edgar forbade an attack, warning Stormfront that John could destroy the mutants and that Vought needed to mature its mass-production plan and find John’s weakness.
• Stormfront backed down but stared at John’s image with disgust and malice.

Stormfront arrived at the Manor with the New Vanguard Camp and destroyed its gate, then insulted Reggie and Buddy while demanding to see Lynn and John. John rejected her offer and calmly told Lynn she had broken their gate, leaving Lynn to face Stormfront.

• Stormfront blasted the Manor's iron gate apart and entered with the frightened children of the New Vanguard Camp, including Marge.
• Stormfront insulted Reggie and Buddy, and Reggie called for Lynn.
• Stormfront demanded that Lynn and John come out and threatened the Manor's residents.
• John came outside, ignored Stormfront's offer to take him away, and told Lynn that she had broken their gate.

John quickly overpowered Stormfront after she attacked Lynn’s home, ignoring her lightning and pinning her in the snow. He began carrying out Lynn’s order to break her legs, leaving Stormfront’s right knee shattered.

• Lynn told John to break both of Stormfront’s legs, throw her out, and avoid frightening the children.
• Stormfront assumed John would join her, but John vanished and slammed her into the frozen ground.
• Stormfront blasted John with purple lightning, but it did not harm him, and he pinned her by the throat.
• John warned Stormfront that she had broken their door and insulted his family, while the children watched in shock.
• John released Stormfront and stomped on her right knee, breaking it.

John crippled Stormfront while Lynn calmly tended to the children at the estate, showing the New Vanguard Camp children a life of warmth and care they had never known. Vought’s security took Stormfront and the children away, leaving Marge looking back at the brightly lit home with resentment and jealousy.

• John crushed Stormfront’s left knee after breaking her right one, then returned to his glass of hot milk.
• Lynn told John to warm the milk, sent the children inside to escape the cold, and asked Reggie to fill in the mud pit.
• The New Vanguard Camp children watched the family’s ordinary warmth and began to resent the suffering they had been taught to accept.
• Lynn gestured for Vought’s security personnel to collect Stormfront and escort the children back to their SUVs.
• Marge looked back at the warmly lit estate before the SUVs carried her and the others away.

At Vought Tower, Edgar saw how Stormfront’s defeat had shaken the New Vanguard Camp children and ordered their punishment training suspended. At the Long Island Estate, John reflected on his happy life with Lynn and promised to protect it, as the household gathered for apple pie.

• Stormfront endured surgery without anesthetic, and the chief medical officer told Edgar that her shattered legs would leave her unable to fight for at least a month.
• Edgar noticed that Marge and the other children had begun to question Stormfront’s control after seeing the warmth and safety at Lynn’s estate, so he ordered clean clothes, larger dinners, psychological assessments, and an end to corporal punishment training.
• At the Long Island Estate, Reggie filled in Stormfront’s crater while Lynn baked apple pie and John sat with a glass of warm milk.
• John told Lynn that his life was better than anyone else’s, and Lynn told him to protect it while warning that Black Noir would punish him if he lost focus during training.
• Lynn brought out the finished pie as Reggie, Tommy, Annie, and the others gathered noisily inside, while Buddy begged for a share.

Marge led the New Vanguard Camp children in a cafeteria uprising after their visit to the Long Island Estate made them long for freedom and family. As the children were overwhelmed, Stan Edgar ordered the guards to put away lethal weapons and headed toward the conflict, leaving Marge on the brink of being crushed.

• Marge refused to eat and demanded freedom, then resisted her collar’s electric shock and overturned a table into the lead guard.
• The New Vanguard children joined Marge’s revolt, using their powers to fight the guards and adult Supes.
• Stan Edgar watched the uprising and ordered the guards to put away lethal weapons while continuing to pressure the children until they were hopeless.
• Marge shielded younger children until she was badly wounded and exhausted, while the invisible boy lost consciousness.
• As a gravity-controlling Supe prepared to stomp on Marge, the isolation door opened and measured footsteps approached.

Edgar stopped the guards from abusing the children in Vought’s underground facility and promised them a better life in exchange for obedience. At Long Island Estate, John and the others shared Lynn’s homemade apple pie, leaving the chapter on a peaceful family meal.

• Edgar ordered the guards to leave the cafeteria and crouched before Marge, offering her a handkerchief and blaming Stormfront for the children’s mistreatment.
• Edgar’s assistant brought hot food, and the hungry children crowded around the table to eat.
• Edgar promised Marge that the fortieth underground floor would become the children’s home, with clean beds, a sunroom, and regular meals, if they followed their parent’s instructions; Marge agreed.
• At Long Island Estate, Lynn served apple pie and made Reggie wash his hands before eating.
• John secretly gave Buddy a piece of pie while Reggie praised Lynn’s baking and the family ate together.

Vought conditioned the children in the New Vanguard Camp to treat the basement as their home, while Lynn’s household prepared for a blizzard at the Long Island Estate. After John wondered whether the captive children would receive allowances, Lynn told him Vought would deny them the freedom they wanted, leaving John troubled by whether to rescue them.

• Edgar watched a psychologist comfort Marge and learned that the children were becoming loyal to Vought and protective of their false home.
• Lynn warned Reggie not to use super speed while clearing the roof, while Tommy used telekinesis to remove icicles and teased him.
• John cleared snow from the roof without using his powers, then accepted money from Lynn for the work.
• John asked Lynn whether the children taken by Vought would receive allowances, and Lynn told him the company would not give them freedom.
• John thought about how easily he could break into Vought Tower and rescue the children, but wondered what would happen afterward.

John rejected the idea of rescuing Vought’s children because he would not risk the peaceful family life he had built with Lynn. As a blizzard battered Long Island, the family stayed warm inside the villa and gathered for dinner.

• John decided that protecting Lynn and the family mattered more to him than acting as a hero and provoking Vought International.
• Lynn reassured John that she would dock Reggie's allowance, and Reggie hurried inside after climbing out of a snowdrift.
• A powerful blizzard struck Long Island, while the villa’s thick windows and fireplace kept the family safe and warm.
• Reggie huddled beside Annie as she warmed him with a controlled energy ball, while he and Tommy bickered.
• Lynn called everyone to wash their hands for dinner, and Reggie rushed to the sink while Tommy put down his game controller.

A blizzard knocked out power at Lynn’s villa, but Annie, Lynn, and John helped everyone stay warm and comfortable. The group settled together by the fireplace for an indoor campout while John quietly enjoyed the cozy scene.

• The power failed during dinner, and Lynn guessed the blizzard had brought down the neighborhood’s main power line.
• Annie conjured a ball of light, and Lynn went to fetch candles while John carried a huge load of firewood in from the shed.
• Lynn lit candles around the villa, and everyone brought blankets and mattresses downstairs to sleep in the living room.
• Reggie and Tommy playfully fought over places by the fireplace while Buddy claimed a rug, and Lynn read by candlelight.
• John made a bed near Lynn’s feet and reflected that the noisy, candlelit house felt more beautiful than anything he had seen in nine years.

Lynn and the others endured the freezing, snowbound estate by relighting the fire, making oatmeal, and clearing the heavy snow. John watched the blocked road and briefly thought of Edgar, Stormfront, and the children trapped underground before stirring up Reggie and Tommy's snowball fight.

• Lynn found John relighting the fireplace and told him to fetch the pot and oats so they could make breakfast.
• Lynn served oatmeal and ordered everyone to shovel snow after the meal.
• The group went outside and found Black Noir had already cleared a path through the deep snow.
• Annie and Reggie started a snowball fight while John cleared icicles from the balcony.
• John looked toward the blocked road, thought of Edgar, Stormfront, and the children underground, then taunted Reggie by claiming Tommy had called him slow.

Stan Edgar observed the New Vanguard children thriving under Vought’s care and recognized how their new bonds could make them loyal weapons. Recovering from her injuries, Stormfront became fixated on John and decided that killing Lynn could unleash him.

• Stan Edgar watched the children in the underground recreation area and concluded that Vought’s care had made them fiercely loyal.
• Stan Edgar visited Stormfront in intensive care as her shattered legs healed under compound V.
• Stormfront recalled John defeating her and came to regard him as a god of perfect power.
• Stormfront grew to despise Lynn for keeping John emotionally anchored and restrained.
• Stormfront decided that Lynn’s death could drive John into madness and free him to unleash his power.

Edgar warned Stormfront that Lynn possessed a dangerous mental power and that an attack on him would provoke John to destroy Vought International. He refused her plan at first, but then offered to lure Lynn to Vought Tower if Stormfront agreed to fulfill one request.

• Stormfront urged Edgar to lure Lynn to Vought Tower so she could kill him and free John from his restraint.
• Edgar explained that Lynn could devastate people's minds without touching them and warned Stormfront that John would retaliate against her and Vought.
• Stormfront proposed using the New Vanguard Camp children to bring Lynn to the basement alone, accepting that she might die in the attempt.
• Edgar rejected her plan as a threat to Vought, then offered to lure Lynn to the tower if Stormfront carried out one request of his.

Lynn decided Stormfront remained a threat to his family and left for Manhattan with Black Noir to kill her while she was vulnerable. John realized where they had gone but chose to trust Lynn and stay behind.

• Lynn told Black Noir that sparing Stormfront in the yard had protected the children from witnessing violence, but that she still needed to be eliminated.
• Lynn explained that Stormfront’s fanaticism made her a danger to his family and said she was vulnerable in the medical wing beneath Vought Tower.
• Lynn changed into a coat and left the villa with Black Noir for Manhattan.
• John heard the back door and car, guessed their destination, and considered following them before deciding to trust Lynn and Black Noir.
• Reggie asked John for his unfinished apple, and John teased him about getting oatmeal instead.

Stormfront delivered Grace Mallory to Edgar, who questioned her about Soldier Boy and revealed a plan to use his relationship with Homelander to provoke a deadly clash. Mallory learned that Soldier Boy was Homelander’s biological father and was left confronting Edgar’s willingness to sacrifice Lynn and others for Vought’s plans.

• Stormfront brought the captive Grace Mallory to Edgar and demanded he keep his promise to arrange her meeting with Lynn.
• Edgar asked Mallory where Soldier Boy was being held, but she claimed he was dead and refused to cooperate.
• Edgar warned that Homelander could become a global threat if Lynn were no longer there to restrain him, while Mallory insisted Lynn was a good person who kept the boy well-behaved.
• Edgar suggested Mallory would want Homelander eliminated and revealed that Soldier Boy was Homelander’s biological father.
• Edgar explained that he hoped Soldier Boy, Homelander, and Lynn would clash and kill or cripple one another, clearing the way for Vought’s new business plan.

Mallory revealed that the captive Supe was being held at a secret Soviet base in Siberia, and Edgar had Duke kill her. Edgar praised Duke and strengthened the boy’s loyalty to him, leaving the cleaners to remove Mallory’s body.

• Mallory told Edgar that the captive was imprisoned at the Black Mountain Underground Military Base in Siberia, in a cryogenic chamber on its lowest level.
• Edgar gave a signal, and Duke appeared behind Mallory and snapped her neck.
• Edgar praised Duke, draped his jacket over him, and told him he had protected their home.
• Duke vowed to do whatever Edgar said to protect the New Vanguard Camp.
• Edgar gestured for cleaners to enter and dispose of Mallory’s corpse.

Edgar delivered the bound Lynn to Stormfront, who reveled in having him at her mercy. At the Long Island Estate, John sensed that Lynn was in danger and flew toward Manhattan at full speed.

• Edgar told Stormfront he had captured Lynn and had him dragged into her hospital room.
• Stormfront saw Lynn bound and kneeling before her, then laughed with excitement at the chance to kill him.
• At the Long Island Estate, John suddenly felt intense unease while playing in the snow with Reggie, Tommy, Annie, Kevin, and Buddy.
• John told the others to stay inside the gate and launched himself toward Manhattan.

Edgar persuaded Stormfront to take Lynn into the sky and kill him in front of John, hoping the loss would push John to reject his human ties. John arrived and pleaded for Lynn’s life, but Stormfront broke Lynn’s neck as John watched.

• Edgar urged Stormfront to use Lynn’s death as a catalyst for John’s transformation.
• Stormfront seized Lynn and smashed her way through Vought Tower, carrying him into the sky above Manhattan.
• John arrived after hearing Stormfront’s sonic boom and found Lynn dangling from her grip.
• John lowered his hands and offered to obey Stormfront if she would release Lynn.
• Stormfront tightened her grip and broke Lynn’s neck while John watched.