‘The Boys’ Season 3 Recap: What to Remember for Season 4
“The Boys” Season 4 is officially here! But, before you get all excited and run to Prime Video, let’s make sure you’re up to date on everything that happened in Season 3.
In Season 3, the show takes place a year after Season 2 events. “The Boys” took up help from Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) in order to conquer Homelander. Homelander reached his breaking point after Soldier Boy disowned him as his son. Plus, Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid) and Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) are high off the deadly Compound V modification Temporary V — and one of them only has a few months of life left because of it.
All right, enough waiting. Here’s everything you need from Season 3 of “The Boys” to get you ready for Season 4.
Note: This post contains spoilery plot details from previous seasons of “The Boys” and “Gen V.“
Homelander has completely lost it and his supporters love it
As if Homelander couldn’t be any more unhinged, in Season 3 The Seven leader’s anger, hostility and fragile ego were let completely off the chain. There’s really no one who can level him out, except for maybe his biological son Ryan, whom he’s taken from under his care from Billy Butcher. For the first part of the season, Homelander kept a low profile, fearful of Queen Maeve’s damaging footage of him crashing a plane full of people going public, on top of people finding out that he dated neo-nazi supe Stormfront.
However, at one point, he releases himself from caring about what others think and goes on a full-on rant about how much “better” he is than any other supe, and especially regular humans.
“I don’t make mistakes. I’m not just like the rest of you — I’m stronger, I’m smarter, I’m better!” Homelander exclaims. His rant boosted his likability among audiences, helping him earn his No. 1 spot back after Starlight had toppled over him in ranking.
In Season 3 Episode 7, Homelander learned Soldier Boy is his father after The Payback leader filled him in via a phone call, during which Soldier Boy convinced Homelander to meet him so the two could talk. In reality, it was just a ploy put together to lure Homelander into The Boys’ attack. Later on, Homelander tried to talk Soldier Boy into joining forces with him and Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) to be a family, but Soldier Boy shut him down.
“It’s a shame that I’ve missed so much,” Soldier Boy says to Homelander. “I wish I could have raised you and taught you, father to son. Maybe if I’d raised you, I could have made you better, and not some weak, sniveling p—y starved for attention. But there’s no fixing that now … You’re a f—g disappointment.”
In the finale episode, Homelander’s fully sets into his villain era when he lasers off a Starlight follower’s head for throwing an object at his son Ryan. Homelander’s murderous move ended up being applauded by his fans, giving Homelander all the support he needed to carry on with his sinister behavior.
Butcher is dying
In an effort to move closer to killing Homelander, Butcher decides to get his own super strength by taking a deadly version of Compound V, Temp V (or V24), which he knows will kill him after three to five doses. Butcher has gone past his limit, having taken up to six doses, which has developed several tumors in his brain. He now only has 18 months to live.
Starlight/Annie January is now one of The Boys
Starlight (Erin Moriarty), the sweet girl from Des Moines, Iowa, who had dreams of one day joining the great superhero team The Seven, literally trashed her Starlight suit and joined the ranks of The Boys. The entire crew is happy about it despite Butcher’s skepticism.
Hughie is taking Temp V and felt threatened by Starlight’s powers
In Season 3, Hughie was going through the motions and was a bit all over the place. Insecure over the fact that his superhuman girlfriend Starlight always saves his life, he sneakily takes Temp V (ignoring Butcher’s urge against it) to build up his confidence and to prepare himself for The Boys’ takedown of Homelander.
Victoria Neuman is Stan Edgar’s adopted daughter and is now the top VP pick
In the Season 3 finale, right after Starlight ditches her Starlight suit, the group learns from a news report that Robert “Dakota Bob” (Jim Beaver) has selected undercover Supe Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) as his Vice President running mate.
“As the next vice president, I will work hard to provide a safe and secure future for all citizens on both sides of the political divide,” Victoria says.
“And that’s why I am so proud to have her on my team,” Bob chimes in.
This development puts her even closer to her goal of making it into the White House, though her true intentions haven’t quite been revealed. In “Gen V,” Neuman is head of the Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs (FBSA), which seeks to regulate Supe activity. She’s also the only person who is possession of a Supe-killing virus created by scientist Dr. Edison Cardosa (Marco Pigossi). In Season 3, fans learn Victoria is the adopted daughter of Vought International CEO, Stan Edgar, who he took in from the Vought-operated orphanage Red River Institute.
Vought International CEO Stan Edgar wants to legalize the use of Temp V
The one person Homelander can’t strike fear into is former Vought International CEO Stan Edgar. But in Season 3, Victoria Neuman pairs up with Homelander to sell her adoptive father out after years of helping him do his dirty work. Ultimately, Stan took a temporary leave from his position when his troubled background was aired out. Before getting the boot, Edgar revealed his plans to have Compound V legalized so it can be used to turn everyday humans into powerful beings for 24 hours.
Who died in “The Boys” Season 3 and how?
Moving on, let’s get into who all got murked, or just so happened to escape death, in Season 3.
Black Noir
Homelander murdered Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell) for not telling him Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) is his father. However, a different version of Black Noir makes an appearance in the Season 4 trailer. “The Boys” showrunner and executive producer Kripke said Black Noir actor Nathan Mitchell will return to the series as a “different character who wears a Black Noir suit.”
Stormfront
In Season 3 Episode 2, Homelander’s neo-Nazi boo Stormfront (Aya Cash) took her own life once she realized her goal to create a “master race” of Supes that doesn’t include POCs or members of the LGBTQIA+ community with Homelander would never happen. She killed herself on Homelander’s birthday by biting off her own tongue.
Supersonic
Homelander brutally beat and lasered Starlight’s/Annie’s ex-boyfriend Supersonic to death after A-Train filled Homelander in about Starlight and Supersonic’s plot to bring A-Train over to their side to take Homelander down. As a warning to Starlight, he called her to the top of a building where he showed her a bloodied and lifeless Supersonic.
Queen Maeve
The beloved Queen Maeve/Margaret Shaw (Dominique McElligott) didn’t die, but it was a close call. In the Season 3 finale, she put her life on the line to save New York City by taking on a deathly power blast from Soldier Boy. While Maeve kept her life, she lost and eye and her powers. Fans likely won’t see Maeve for a bit of time as left the city and strolled off into happiness with her girlfriend Elena (Nicola Correia-Damude).
How does “Gen V” play a role in what fans need to know for “The Boys” Season 4?
The Godolkin University-set spinoff “Gen V” served “The Boys” lovers with another dose of Vought goodness while also setting up show-colliding tips and future storylines for watchers to look forward to.
And that’s exactly what happened in the season finale of “Gen V.” During the middle of the credits, the show cut to a scene where Billy the Butcher is lurking through the halls of God U’s secret lab, The Woods, revealing that “The Boys” character knows about the Supe-killing virus God U dean Indira Shetty (Shelley Conn) and Dr. Edison (Marco Pigossi) developed before they died.
“The Boys” creator Eric Kripke previously told TheWrap that it was his idea to have Butcher be the connection between “The Boys” and the Supe-killing virus introduced in “Gen V.”
“We were pretty deep into the Season 4 break by the time we were around [the ‘Gen V’] finale, and we sort of knew how we were picking up the ball,” Kripke explained. “We talked about, ‘Well, we should start the first step of that story’ — it’s only a mild spoiler to say that, because it’s obvious, based on the [‘Gen V’] finale, but when Butcher is in Season 4 of ‘The Boys,’ he’s very aware of this virus, and we knew that we were writing to it. Then the question came up of like, ‘Well, how is he aware, and when did he find out about it?’ We started saying, ‘Well, let’s actually show [viewers] when it’s really happening, which is over the course of ‘Gen V.’ So it came pretty organically out of that.”
“Gen V” Supes Maddie Phillips (Cate Dunlap) and Sam (Asa Germann) will likely become Homelander’s proteges, as the end of “Gen V” showed the two’s characters have taken on a “Supes vs. everyone else” mentality that Homelander could use to his advantage.
How did the last episode of “The Boys” Season 3 end?
In “The Boys” Season 3 finale, titled “The Instant White-Hot Wild,” Homelander picked up his biological son, Ryan, to take him under his wing for good. While that was happening, tensions between Homelander’s supporters and Starlight believers steadily grew, Kimiko got her power back with an injection of Compound V and Homelander murdered Black Noir for not telling him Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) is his father. As Episode 8 began to come to a close, the crew united to take Homelander down.
After Butcher successfully lured Homelander in with the help of Soldier Boy, the father and son supes broke out into a massive brawl. Soldier Boy shared some choice words with Homelander, and more or less called him a failure.
To protect Ryan from Soldier Boy’s fatal explosion, Butcher shot Soldier Boy with a laser beam — which was against Butcher’s previous code of conduct in their plan to kill Homelander. Butcher’s move set off a fight between the two, and left Maeve to handle Homelander on her own. The Seven members’ match resulted in Maeve losing an eye. Once the showdowns concluded, Homelander took off with Ryan.
Homelander finished off the season when he flew down into a crowd of his supporters to introduce them to Ryan. But a Starlight follower interrupted his announcement by throwing a can that hit Ryan in the face. In true Homelander form, he responded with violence and laser beamed the man’s face off. To Homelander’s surprise, the crowd loved it, and so did Ryan. They both closed out the show with smirks across their faces, signifying that Ryan may be more like his father than fans think.
“The Boys” Season 4 landed on Prime Video Thursday, June 13 with three episodes. Episodes will air weekly after its debut.
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