Hughie reads it twice. Then a third time. The video is fake. It has to be. But the angle is perfect. The lighting is perfect. It’s a Vought smear campaign. But why? Supersonic is a hero. A good one. Annie’s ex-boyfriend, actually—a detail she’d shared with Hughie in a moment of vulnerability.

“It’s a little obvious, isn’t it?” she ventures. “The porpoise thing? I mean, last week we made Blue Hawk look like a racist. That was subtle. This is…”

“The reason,” Homelander says quietly, “is that I’m bored. And when I’m bored, people suffer. It’s really that simple.”

“Doing what?”

“Then why didn’t you clap when I walked in?”