Recaps

Leo tried to access Vought's classified files about Soldier Boy and was caught by Motoko Kusanagi and Rorschach. The chapter then showed how Vought employees revered CEO Lynn Morris, leaving Emily inspired to continue her work.

• Leo used a back door to reach an omega-level file about Soldier Boy, but Motoko Kusanagi appeared on his screen and exposed his activity.
• Rorschach confronted Leo, said the truth was not for people like him, and dragged him out of the office as his coworkers watched.
• Vought erased Leo's accounts and access, and HR prepared to remove his belongings.
• Emily saw the light on in Lynn Morris's office and recalled the stories that fueled employees' reverence for him.
• Emily left energized, believing she was contributing to Lynn Morris's plans, and went home to work on a hero's promotional tagline.

Victoria Hand and Dr. Hannibal Lecter celebrated the clean assassinations of two targets, while Hans Landa turned Quake Fist’s staged death into a lucrative heroic legacy. The chapter ended with Vought’s funeral scheme boosting Quake Fist’s brand and charity donations.

• Victoria Hand reviewed news reports confirming General Joseph Kalombe and Ivan Petrov had died in staged accidents, then discussed the cleanup with Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
• Hannibal praised Victoria’s work and gave her an ornate edible eyeball as a gift.
• Hans Landa delivered a eulogy at Quake Fist’s grand funeral, presenting Mark Hansen as a hero who died saving Detroit.
• The chapter revealed that Vought had staged the chemical plant crisis and used it to eliminate Quake Fist.
• Quake Fist’s death sparked public attention, sold-out merchandise, and more than ten million dollars in donations to his purported widow’s foundation.
• Miranda Priestly reported the surge in Quake Fist’s brand value, and Hans and Hannibal exchanged praise for their successful scheme.

Yon-Rogg woke restrained in Dr. Horton's laboratory, where Horton extracted his bone marrow and revealed plans to use his genes to create a loyal army. As Yon-Rogg broke down, Horton ordered Sinclair to cut out his vocal cords and instructed his staff to experiment on the captured Kree Starforce as well.

• Yon-Rogg awoke restrained in Dr. Horton's laboratory, his injuries repaired and his body unable to move.
• Dr. Horton told Yon-Rogg that Talos had revealed Kree secrets and that the scientists wanted to study Yon-Rogg's genes.
• Dr. Horton extracted Yon-Rogg's bone marrow while Sinclair monitored his vital signs.
• Dr. Horton explained his plan to combine Yon-Rogg's genes, Compound V, and a stable energy source to create an obedient army modeled on Carol Danvers.
• Yon-Rogg broke down laughing as Dr. Horton ordered Sinclair to cut out his vocal cords and directed the staff to experiment on the captured Kree Starforce.

Dr. Phineas Horton discovered that Skrull transformations were controlled by a unique mental frequency and built a machine to detect and disrupt it. He told Lynn Morris that the device could identify Skrulls and kill them by making their cells collapse.

• Dr. Phineas Horton overclocked the telepathic probes studying the Skrull corpse and detected a faint, stable quantum frequency.
• Dr. Phineas Horton concluded that a mental frequency guided Skrull transformations and directed the lab to build a detector.
• Dr. Phineas Horton and the researchers completed the Eye of Truth prototype, which identified living Skrull tissue by its frequency.
• Dr. Phineas Horton tested a slightly altered frequency on the tissue, causing it to lose its biological structure and die.
• Dr. Phineas Horton called Lynn Morris and reported that the device could identify Skrulls and kill them with a wrong frequency.

Vought used the Eye of Truth and worldwide panic to pressure Talos into revealing that the surviving Skrulls were aboard a cloaked ship in low Earth orbit. After extracting the ship’s approximate location from Carol Danvers’s memories, Lynn ordered Gin to lead Operation Eden and capture every Skrull alive.

• Vought’s Eye of Truth devices identified Skrulls as humans were driven into a worldwide hunt for aliens.
• Amin showed Talos the spreading panic and offered Vought’s Eden as protection in exchange for cooperation.
• Talos revealed that the surviving Skrulls were aboard a cloaked ship in low Earth orbit, though he did not know its coordinates.
• A psychologist extracted information from Carol Danvers, allowing Vought to estimate the laboratory’s location and plan to find the ship.
• Amanda Waller told Lynn Morris that Vi and Carol Danvers were in a relationship, but Lynn dismissed it and summoned Gin.
• Lynn ordered Gin to lead Operation Eden, capture all Skrulls aboard the ship alive, and operate with an elite tactical squad and Clock Tower intelligence support.

Gin’s team captured Talos’s Skrull people and the Tesseract, while Amin revealed that Kepler-186f was a lie and that the Skrulls would be used as a gene pool. Lynn then learned that Carol Danvers had reached her Binary form after an energy explosion during a romantic encounter with Vi.

• Gin led a Vought squad onto the hidden Skrull ship, where sonic weapons incapacitated its inhabitants and the team captured 175 Skrulls and the Tesseract.
• Talos confronted Amin Arnold about the promised home, and Amin admitted that Kepler-186f was a lie and that the Skrulls were experimental materials for a gene pool.
• Lynn Morris reviewed the Eden project report as Selina Kyle informed him that Carol Danvers and Vi had blown up a villa in an energy resonance.
• Selina reported that Carol and Vi were unharmed but that the incident had fully activated Carol’s Binary form.
• Lynn studied a photograph of Carol surrounded by golden flames and wondered how romance had awakened her god-tier power.

Carol left Earth to explore the universe and settle scores with the Kree, promising to return home. By 2000, Vought was exploiting rising fear of Metahumans and preparing the genetically engineered New Guardians as manufactured celebrity heroes.

• Carol told Vi she would return to Earth, then flew into space toward Hala.
• By 2000, Metahumans and crime had spread, and Vought used public fear to strengthen its influence.
• Hans Landa and Miranda Priestly planned an advertising campaign and a staged crisis to introduce Vought's New Guardians.
• Dr. Phineas Horton explained that the Chimera Project had created powerful heroes using Kree genes, Skrull gene fragments, and Compound V, but their minds were blank and loyal to Vought.
• Lynn Morris told Horton he wanted marketable stars rather than expendable soldiers, and Horton offered to give the New Guardians customized personalities.

Hannibal Lecter ordered a plan to destroy Phantom’s reputation rather than kill him, and Vought staged a break-in using a Skrull impersonator. The chapter ended with the real Leo Cohen seeing the fabricated accusation on the news and realizing he had been framed.

• Hannibal Lecter rejected killing Phantom and ordered Victoria Hand to ruin his public image with a staged crime.
• Ada Wong oversaw Skrulls No. 07 impersonating Leo Cohen and teleporting into a girl’s bedroom as part of the Violet contingency plan.
• When the girl’s parents arrived, the impersonator escaped and left a replica of Leo’s glove behind as planted evidence.
• Nina Williams and Vought security secured the scene while Vought News prepared a story accusing Phantom of trying to molest a girl.
• Leo Cohen watched the breaking news report accuse him and dropped his beer in shock.

Hans Landa and Vought turned public opinion against Leo Cohen by framing Phantom as a criminal and psychopath, then introduced the New Guardians as his pursuers. Exhausted and trapped in the sewers, Leo questioned everything he had believed as something began to change inside Phantom.

• Hans Landa watched panic and hatred for Phantom rise as Vought's trolls flooded the internet with fabricated evidence and turned the public against him.
• A homeless man Leo had helped defended Phantom, but angry citizens accused him of being the hero's accomplice and crushed the food he had been given.
• Leo fled through familiar hideouts, but Vought's teams had laid traps at each one, forcing him to escape into the sewers.
• Hans ordered VNN to air a fake expert's diagnosis portraying Phantom as a controlling psychopath, and the New Guardians announced they would hunt him down.
• In the sewer, Leo examined the Vought supplement he had intended to give to the homeless and struggled to understand the injustice as something began to go wrong inside Phantom.

Nick Fury investigated Vought International and discovered that most of its executives had no traceable past, then ordered Maria Hill to find Leo Cohen. Hiding in a New York sewer, Leo realized Vought had used him as a scapegoat and began considering how to make the world remember him.

• Fury asked Barbara Minerva to bring him every file on Vought International.
• Fury reviewed Vought’s records and found that most of its core executives, including Hans Landa, Ada Wong, and Hannibal Lecter, had no verifiable histories.
• Maria Hill reported to Fury, who ordered her to find the real Leo Cohen and bring him in as a witness against Vought.
• Leo watched a news interview in which the New Guardians and a Vought charity were praised for bringing justice to the family he had supposedly attacked.
• Leo concluded that Vought had made him a stepping stone for the New Guardians and wondered how he could make everyone remember him.

Vought staged a sham trial that condemned Leo Cohen, prompting Nick Fury to classify the corporation as a top threat. Lynn Morris learned S.H.I.E.L.D. had found the Blood Orchid in the Amazon and sent Soldier Boy and others to retrieve it, where they might face S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.

• The New Guardians captured Leo Cohen, and Vought broadcast a rigged trial that convicted him of fabricated crimes and sentenced him to 300 years in prison.
• Nick Fury and Maria Hill learned that Vought had arranged Leo Cohen’s arrest and trial within hours, and Fury recognized the corporation’s growing power over public opinion and the justice system.
• Lynn Morris received Barbara Minerva’s report that S.H.I.E.L.D. had located the Blood Orchid’s range in the Amazon.
• Lynn ordered Motoko Kusanagi to send Soldier Boy and the others to the Amazon to retrieve Blood Orchid samples.
• Motoko briefed Soldier Boy on the mission, which permitted lethal force against hostile S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, and he welcomed the chance to fight.

After his defeat in the Phantom incident, Nick Fury recruited four Metahumans to form a covert team targeting Vought. As Fury believed the Wild Dog Project could undermine Vought, Lynn Morris learned that David Chen was secretly a Vought operative and the team’s formation had been reported.

• Nick Fury recruited Iris Jones, whose touch rusted metal, to his team.
• Fury approached Marco, who controlled shadows, and invited him to steal from Vought.
• Fury recruited mechanic David Chen, unaware that David secretly sent Vought a message identifying himself as Artisan.
• Fury persuaded former soldier Sarah Miller, who healed rapidly, to join his covert team.
• Fury assembled Iris, Marco, David, and Sarah on an abandoned subway platform and named their operation the Wild Dog Project.
• Lynn Morris reviewed Tali Zola’s report revealing that Vought had infiltrated David and knew about Fury’s team.

Marco Crono, a Hydra agent turned devotee of Lynn Morris, sabotaged the Wild Dogs’ first mission against Mole Man to make them look incompetent and the New Guardians look heroic. After the failed operation, Fury comforted the squad, unaware that Marco’s undercover work had only begun.

• Marco recalled how Professor Pyg’s course and Lynn Morris had converted him, and how a fabricated backstory helped him pass Fury’s screening.
• Fury briefed the Wild Dogs on their mission to stop Mole Man from attacking Diamond Arm’s home, and Marco secretly prepared to undermine the squad.
• During the fight in Queens, Marco deliberately shot Sarah, while David froze and the team’s defenses collapsed as Mole Man’s monsters threatened the house.
• Marco and the Wild Dogs appeared to fail in front of a VNN News helicopter, then the New Guardians arrived and defeated Mole Man and his monsters for the cameras.
• Back at the subway station, Fury reassured the battered squad, while Marco concealed his satisfaction and continued his undercover mission.

Barbara Minerva helped Soldier Boy, the Human Torch, and Yasuo ambush a S.H.I.E.L.D. team searching for Blood Orchids in the Amazon, then posed as the lone survivor and blamed the massacre on Hydra and the Winter Soldier. Fury believed her account enough to launch security measures and prepare a plan against Hydra, unaware that the supposed enemies were part of the same operation.

• Barbara Minerva led Jackson and his S.H.I.E.L.D. team to a hidden basin of Blood Orchids, where an enormous python attacked them.
• The Human Torch, Soldier Boy, and Yasuo ambushed the team, killed the agents, defeated the python, and collected the Blood Orchids.
• Barbara injured and dirtied herself to look like the sole survivor, then returned to S.H.I.E.L.D. and told Fury that the attackers included the Winter Soldier.
• Hill questioned whether Barbara had betrayed the team, but Fury trusted Director Carter's judgment and ordered the Amazon operation concealed.
• Fury raised S.H.I.E.L.D.'s security level, suspended Blood Orchid research, ordered a review of the Winter Soldier files, and activated the Wild Dog Project contingency plan.

Hans Landa rejected Yasuo’s lucrative endorsement offers and partnered with Chanel to create a perfume built around Yasuo’s image and ideals. As they left Paris, Hans told Miranda that Yasuo’s symbol alone was worth a billion dollars.

• Miranda Priestly told Hans Landa that Yasuo’s film had earned one billion dollars worldwide and that endorsement offers exceeded five hundred million.
• Hans Landa shredded the endorsement list, rejected the offers, and told Miranda to announce that Yasuo would continue his journey of cultivation.
• Hans Landa flew to Paris with Miranda and impressed Chanel designer Calvin by discussing Yasuo’s philosophical significance and the modern longing for solitude.
• Hans Landa and Calvin named the perfume Unfettered Blade, and Calvin ordered a high-priority partnership contract.
• On the private jet, Hans Landa told Miranda that Yasuo’s symbol was worth a billion dollars even without his personal involvement.

Hannibal Lecter coached screenwriters on designing elegant murders while condemning a rookie’s crude killing of Senator John Miller. At S.H.I.E.L.D., Maria Hill witnessed the damage caused by the Hydra purge and faced John Garrett’s furious protest over his detention.

• Hannibal Lecter criticized the screenwriters’ serial killer and suggested more subtle methods of murder.
• Victoria Hand told Hannibal that Senator John Miller had died from a peanut butter allergy after a rookie’s operation, and Hannibal ordered the rookie reassigned.
• Hannibal told the screenwriters to rewrite their script with murder framed as a convincing story.
• Maria Hill saw S.H.I.E.L.D. security escort veteran agent Jeremy Stone out of the archives, while frightened staff avoided one another.
• John Garrett angrily confronted Hill about his detention over a past meeting with a Hydra-linked informant, and Hill could not refute his accusations.

Nick Fury’s purge of S.H.I.E.L.D. intensified as Alexander Pierce secretly used it to protect his allies and place his candidates in key roles. Hill watched loyal agents suffer while Fury, exhausted and increasingly isolated, kept ordering investigations and arrests.

• Fury ordered Agent Garrett suspended indefinitely despite the lack of substantive evidence, then accepted Pierce’s help handling disputed cases.
• Pierce removed Robert King from the elimination list while quietly saving his own allies and filling vacant positions with candidates he recommended.
• Hill left Garrett’s interrogation determined to confront Fury, but heard Pierce promising to stabilize the situation inside Fury’s office.
• Pierce told Baron Strucker that Fury’s purge was weakening S.H.I.E.L.D. and ordered Hydra agents to sacrifice minor operatives to help their people rise in the organization.
• Hill watched Agent Davis being tortured over a suspicious account and heard Fury dismiss her concerns before he left.
• Ward presented Fury with evidence against Klein, and Fury granted Ward greater authority as he continued the purge despite his doubts and exhaustion.

Ada Wong infiltrated a Monaco gala, stole information about NATO’s planned European anti-superpowered force, and proposed turning it into a Vought security subcontractor. Lynn Morris approved the plan and suggested offering NATO discounted New Guardians bulletproof vests.

• Ada Wong used her knowledge of General Klaus von Steiner’s family badge and his love of Strauss to win his trust at the gala.
• Ada Wong danced with General Klaus von Steiner and secretly copied the contents of his phone.
• Ada Wong revealed that she knew about NATO’s top-secret Shield of Prometheus plan, then sent Lynn Morris her findings and recommendation.
• Lynn Morris approved Ada Wong’s proposal and told her to ask NATO about buying discounted New Guardians collaboration bulletproof vests.

Lynn arranged for information about the Winter Soldier to reach Maria Hill, hoping to intensify Nick Fury’s struggle against Hydra. Hill discovered that the assassin was Bucky Barnes and rushed to tell Fury.

• Lynn showed Tifa the Winter Soldier file and ordered her to let Maria Hill believe she had uncovered its contents herself.
• Tifa passed along the information while Lynn predicted that Fury would trust those closest to him rather than suspect Pierce.
• Maria Hill searched evidence seized from arrested S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and opened a video file documenting the Winter Soldier’s killings.
• Hill read the Winter Soldier Program file and learned that the assassin was James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes, Captain America’s presumed-dead friend.
• Hill printed the file, hid the hard drive inside her clothes, and hurried to find Fury.

Maria Hill showed Nick Fury a Winter Soldier file that revealed Bucky Barnes had been turned into a Hydra weapon and Alexander Pierce ran Hydra operations in the Americas. Fury decided to keep the purges going as a cover while secretly building a team to trap Pierce and find the Winter Soldier’s cryogenic chamber.

• Maria Hill brought Fury a file documenting the Winter Soldier’s assassinations, including the deaths of Howard Stark and Maria Stark.
• Fury learned that the Winter Soldier was Bucky Barnes and that Alexander Pierce oversaw Hydra operations in the Americas.
• Fury ordered Hill to continue the purges, send him and Pierce separate reports, and assemble a secret team outside S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Fury asked Hill to locate the Winter Soldier’s cryogenic chamber and wondered whether Vought or another force had arranged for the file to surface.
• Pierce brought Fury coffee and praised the purges while suggesting that Fury slow them down; Fury pretended to agree.

Lynn rejected Adrien Veidt’s plan to create a static utopia through thought-pattern restructuring and redirected Vought toward maintaining an ongoing balance of conflict and order. He ordered the academy to train clear-eyed elites and prepared to escalate the Hydra–S.H.I.E.L.D. conflict by revealing the Winter Soldier’s cryogenic chamber to Fury.

• Veidt told Lynn that Vought should use thought-pattern restructuring and a celebrated role model to lead humanity toward a perfect society.
• Lynn argued that perfection would cause stagnation and said Vought should preserve an eternal balance of contradictions, making its people skilled players in an ongoing game.
• Lynn directed Veidt to end experiments that erased human weaknesses and instead train students to live with their flaws; Veidt agreed to revise the academy’s plans.
• Lynn told Tifa to notify Motoko and have Cheetah prepare to leak the Winter Soldier’s cryogenic chamber location to Fury, pushing Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D. toward a climax.

Lynn summoned Homelander to a secret training facility and had Soldier Boy confront him to show that the supposedly invincible hero could be beaten. Homelander rose into the air and prepared to use his Heat Vision, while Soldier Boy faced him without fear.

• Lynn brought Goose and Tifa to Vought's island and ordered Soldier Boy, Jim Hammond, and Yasuo to the underground training room.
• Lynn summoned Homelander after learning that Yasuo had become a world-class superstar and planned to tame Homelander before bringing him into Vought.
• Soldier Boy charged Homelander by surprise and struck him hard enough to injure him.
• Soldier Boy and Homelander fought hand to hand as Lynn watched and Jim Hammond asked whether they should intervene.
• Homelander forced Soldier Boy back, took to the air, and prepared to burn him with Heat Vision.

Lynn had Soldier Boy and Jim Hammond brutally beat Homelander to break his arrogance and make him obedient rather than kill him. After Soldier Boy stopped, Lynn welcomed the battered Homelander to the new Vought and declared his first lesson over.

• Soldier Boy grabbed Homelander by his cape, slammed him into the ground, and beat him while taunting him.
• Homelander fought back, but Soldier Boy withstood his attacks until Human Torch Jim struck him with fire.
• Homelander unleashed Heat Vision, which Soldier Boy endured while Jim Hammond blocked it with a fire dragon.
• Soldier Boy knocked Homelander down again and continued beating him as Yasuo questioned Lynn's plan.
• Lynn explained that he wanted to humiliate Homelander into obedience, then ordered Soldier Boy to stop.
• Lynn approached the battered Homelander and welcomed him to the new Vought, calling the beating his first lesson.

Lynn defeated Homelander and established that Vought would control his powers and behavior. He then allowed Yasuo to travel and seek worthy opponents, subject to Vought’s orders and publicity needs.

• Homelander attacked Lynn, who shattered his hand and shin and declared that he was a Vought asset who had to obey.
• Lynn ordered Tifa to treat Homelander and arrange genetic and ability assessments, then assigned Soldier Boy and Jim Hammond new Vought duties.
• Tifa told Homelander that Vought controlled his emotions and powers and warned him to obey.
• Yasuo asked Lynn for permission to travel and find challenges for his sword.
• Lynn allowed Yasuo to travel on the conditions that he remain reachable and make his actions promote Vought.
• Yasuo accepted the conditions and departed to seek his storm.

Hans Landa’s campaign turned Soldier Boy into the reassuring face of Vought’s new Hero Behavior Correction Center, drawing government interest while weakening S.H.I.E.L.D.’s position. Lynn Morris’s team planted a clue that led Maria Hill to a cryogenic facility in Siberia, and she rushed to tell Fury they had found it.

• Hans Landa launched Soldier Boy’s promotional video and announced Vought’s Hero Behavior Correction Center, prompting governments to seek cooperation.
• Nick Fury, furious at Vought’s growing influence and unable to locate the Winter Soldier, ordered Maria Hill to make Alexander Pierce believe S.H.I.E.L.D. had found the assassin so Pierce would act.
• Alexander Pierce welcomed Vought’s rise, seeing it as cover for Hydra’s plans and a potential partner in his envisioned new world order.
• Lynn Morris told Tifa that Cheetah was in position and ordered Motoko Kusanagi to begin the Breadcrumb plan.
• Barbara Minerva marked an encrypted Hydra data packet so Maria Hill’s keyword-scanning system would flag it, then sent it to the destruction queue.
• Maria Hill recovered the packet, decrypted coordinates to an uninhabited area in Siberia, and found an incomplete reference to a cryogenic facility before rushing to Fury.