This episode is great! However, upon rewatch it can feel quite slow in comparison to the other episodes. I feel like the show really starts getting good when Butcher comes on screen, but it is still a gripping first episode of TV. The way A-Train runs through Robin is shocking as it is darkly comedic. I love the first episode, but it just feels a bit... slow is all? Again, I love the pilot, and I could watch it over an love it the same, just figured I should mention that. From the first episode it establishes each character, their motivations, and where their arcs will be headed in future. The parallel of Annie joining the Seven to Hughie joining The Boys is quite interesting to see. It definitely makes the conflict between the two characters feel that much more personal. Half the episode is pretty much mourning Robin, and how Hughie can even live with himself. There's also Annie's plot, which is finding out that joining the Seven isn't as great as it was cracked up to be. She gets assaulted on her first day, and can't even tell her own mother about it because her mother is so narcissistic and is fulfilling her own dream through her daughter. However, the highlight of this episode is the second where Butcher comes in. He is just delightful, and I mean that in every sense of the word. He's funny, and he is unusually charming. And is definitely one of my favourite characters in the show. He then recruits Hughie to do a mission for him, and then when he's done pretty much plans on never seeing him again until that changes where Translucent finds out about the bug. After an epic fight, and a call back to a scene explaining that he has carbon skin. We then are left for the next episode to see what happens next. And with the final scene, Homelander mows down a plane, showing that no one in the Seven is good. Overall, a great introduction to a great show!
8/10.
8/10.