I had the same thought. Tease a Noir/Soldier Boy face-off until Homelander steps in and kills him. Works as both Homelander being pissed about not knowing he had a father as well as a last ditch effort to impress Soldier Boy.
I guess they kinda needed it to scare the piss out of the remaining Seven and Ashley, but they were already terrified anyway (except A-Train, who was honestly my favorite part of this season).
I understand that was why they wanted to have Homelander kill Black Noir, to kind of show that he was in charge and wasn't taking any kind of shit, but honestly why would any of them think that at all? We're down to Deep, Ashley, and A-Train. They're all sufficiently afraid of Homelander and always have been. Black Noir didn't need to die like that to make that statement. I just really don't get how they thought it would be a satisfying death at all for a character who, if you didn't really care about him before (even though I understand he was always popular) then you absolutely did after the past few episodes.
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