Let’s Talk About THAT Patton Oswalt Cameo on The Boys

WARNING. MAJOR SPOILER FOR EPISODE TWO OF THE BOYS, AND TW: MENTIONS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT.

There is so much to talk about now that the first three episodes of The Boys’ second season have dropped on Amazon Prime. We can talk about the fake corporate feminism, the way the show deals with suicidal ideation, Karen Fukuhara’s out of this world acting and fighting (all done without speaking!), and we’ve got lots of interviews coming your way. But first … we have to talk about the cameo by Patton Oswalt that made me scream with horror and glee.

We’ve known since last September that Oswalt would be joining the cast of The Boys in a secret role, but no one knew what it was. Oswalt did just recently describe his appearance as having been done in “the most disturbing, career-killing way possible,” however. How absolutely bonkers could it be? Well, on a show where it’s been implied that one hero might have gotten it on with a dolphin … that’s a loaded question.

Funnily enough, that same hero, The Deep (human name Kevin) as played by Chace Crawford, was also involved in Oswalt’s scene. Because it involved the Deep taking some trippy drugs from the Supe version of Scientology in order to better know himself and confront his reprehensible past actions. Kevin had a big fall in season one: after sexually assaulting Starlight, he was banished from the Seven and we learned that a lot of his deep-seated issues come from sensitivity about his gills. The organs that allow him to breathe underwater are also not something Kevin likes people to see.

We saw them later in season one, and it was an extremely uncomfortable scene to watch a woman violate Kevin’s gills, essentially assaulting him the same way he’d violated so many other women. And so he’s still got a lot of issues about those organs he needs to talk out … with his gills. Which is where Oswalt showed up (sorta). As the gentle, comforting voice of The Deep’s Gills.

Let’s just sit with that a moment and cherish it.

Eat your heart out Ratatouille, Oswalt has a new best piece of voice work.

The extended scene between Kevin and his Gills as voices by Oswalt is so incredibly weird … but it’s also incredibly good. The Gills directly call Kevin out on his bullshit, and how his shame over his own body to leads him to hurt women before they can hurt him. “That’s what you do! You imagine women will laugh at us,” The Gills say “so you humiliate them first.” It’s a big moment of introspection for Kevin … and it only gets weirder and better from there.

And please, don’t forget that this all happens with The Gills literally speaking, moving like six floppy, fringed mouths framing Chance Crawford’s abs.

The Gills tell Kevin he deserves to be loved … forcing him to confront himself until he’s looking in the mirror and his Gills are singing “You Are So Beautiful” to him. The scene culminates in a duet so weird, so bizarre and so wrong that it could only happen on The Boys. The fact that this is all in Patton Oswalt’s warm, hopeful voice is what makes it work.

It’s just one of the many bloody brilliant parts of season two of The Boys, which began streaming on Amazon Prime Video today.

(image: Amazon Prime Video)

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Jessica Mason

Jessica Mason (she/her) is a writer based in Portland, Oregon with a focus on fandom, queer representation, and amazing women in film and television. She's a trained lawyer and opera singer as well as a mom and author.

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