Here’s our recap for the first three episodes of “The Boys” season 3 as Homeland comes completely unhinged, Hughie discovers the truth and Butcher goes to extreme lengths to get what he wants…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Wow, “The Boys” season 3 got off to a fast start and didn’t slow down until the third episode ended with a bang. Well technically it ended with a kiss but it felt like a nuclear explosion.
Picking up one year after the end of “The Boys” season 2, Hughie Campbell has settled into a new role as Victoria Neuman’s right hand man at the Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs where he actually employs Billy Butcher and his team consistent of Frenchie and Kimiko as they dig up dirt on various Supes that eventually lead to prosecution rather than execution.
Mother’s Milk has left the business entirely so he can focus on being a dad to his daughter Jasmine.
Meanwhile, Homelander is watching his polling numbers plummet daily after his girlfriend was revealed as a 100 year old Nazi who used to dine with Hitler.
That leaves Starlight in a precarious position as she now has Hughie on her arm as a public boyfriend but she’s very much alone in The Seven where she’s actually becoming more popular than Homelander. That obviously doesn’t sit well with the man wearing red, white and blue, which means that’s also very bad for Starlight.
There’s plenty to dig into with these three episodes so let’s recap “The Boys” season 3 debut for “Payback,” “The Only Man in the Sky” and “Barbary Coast”…
Payback — Episode 1
When “The Boys” season 3 kicks off, a year has passed since Stormfront was revealed as a Nazi, Butcher’s wife Becca died and he ended up taking her son with Homelander to a secret location where he’ll be raised far away from his psychopathic father.
It’s premiere night for “Dawn of the Seven,” which includes some reshot scenes where Homelander confronts the former love of his life in Stormfront — and there’s Charlize Theron in the starring role.
Talk about an all-time great cameo!
The red carpet is buzzing afterwards with Homelander being hit with questions about how he managed to fall in love with Stormfront yet he was completely unaware that she was a white supremacist. Starlight joins him on the red carpet with Hughie on her arm and it’s a strange position for him, especially after he bumps into Homelander and then gets stuck taking photos with A-Train.
The night isn’t a total loss after Hughie goes to the bathroom where he runs into his old pal Billy Butcher, who has received some intel about a Supe behaving badly. It seems these days, Butcher is running an operation under the government where he seeks out Supes committing criminal acts and thanks to the new Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs, these people can be punished for the first time ever.
This time around, Butcher has information about a Supe named Termite, who can shrink and expand much like Ant-Man.
In a total reversal of power, it’s now Hughie who has to give Butcher the OK on his operations while reminding him that there’s no torture or murder allowed now that he’s working as a government sanctioned operative. Butcher concedes to the rules before unleashing Frenchie and Kimiko to get the dirt on Termite.
At a nearby party, Frenchie and Kimiko get an eyeful as they find Termite shrunk down to a small size where he’s fucking a Barbie doll for the enjoyment of all the guests. When he finishes, Termite returns to full size where he kisses his boyfriend and they retire to a back bedroom for a celebration between them.
There, Termite starts snorting coke while his boyfriend assumes the position.
It seems Termite likes to shrink down and literally climb up inside his penis to give some very personal pleasure — it’s by far one of the most disturbing visuals in the history of the series and that’s REALLY saying something for this show. Once he’s inside, Termite starts exploring his boyfriend’s pleasure regions but then the cocaine tickles his nose and he sneezes.
That causes Termite to expand in size again and he explodes from the inside out, tearing his boyfriend to shreds in a really disgusting instance.
When Frenchie enters the room to take some snapshots for proof, Termite shrinks down again and plans to do the same thing to Frenchie that he just did to his boyfriend. Thankfully, Kimiko shows up to lend a helping hand but even she struggles against the miniscule superpowered coke fiend.
That’s when Butcher shows up, captured Termite in a back of cocaine and shakes him up until the littlest hero in the world is knocked unconscious from all the drugs he managed to absorb.
The next morning, Hughie wakes up in bed with Annie and they seem happier than ever together. Hughie’s got his own place and Annie stays over quite frequently and by all accounts, this is just about the best things have been in quite some time.
When he heads off to work, Hughie arrives at the Federal Bureau for Superhuman Affairs and he’s greeted like a rock star with some staff members marveling at home he serves as Congresswoman Victoria Neuman’s right hand while also being Starlight’s boyfriend as well.
In fact, Hughie spends every afternoon sharing lunch with his boss, who is now one of the most powerful politicians in the United States because she heads up the entire superhuman watchdog operation.
Of course not everything can stay perfect, especially not after Hughie encounters a strange man sitting in the waiting room with hopes to speak to Congresswoman Neuman except he calls her “Nadia.” The stranger tells Hughie his name is Tony and he should tell “Nadia” about his visit before he’s ushered out of the building.
Before he can deal with that, he goes to visit Butcher to inform him that Termite won’t be prosecuted — it seems Vought CEO Stan Edgar offered up three different Supes for various criminal charges in exchange for the incredible shrinking man to get off without an arrest. Congresswoman Neuman accepted the trade while reminding Hughie that superhero collateral is down dramatically since they started serving as oversight and this should still be viewed as a win.
Needless to say, Butcher doesn’t see it that way and he isn’t much happier to see Hughie turned into a government bureaucrat but he’s trying to stifle his disgust. These days, Butcher isn’t rattling the cage more than he’s allowed while spending most of his free time visiting Ryan at an undisclosed location where Grace Mallory has him hidden.
The little boy is overjoyed every time Butcher comes to visit and they even manage to play games together, which is a far cry from the relationship the Boys’ leader has with most people.
As for Homelander — he’s still dealing with the fallout from his relationship with Stormfront with the majority of the country somehow unable to get past the fact that the world’s greatest hero was dating a Nazi. Funny how that works, huh?
In fact, Homelander ends up with second billing on a talk show behind his old pal The Deep, who is promoting his new book “Deeper,” which details how he broke away from the Church of the Collective. People are calling him the next Leah Rimini thanks to his bravery after escaping that cult.
Of course, Homelander can’t even fathom how he could end up second to Deep in anything much less an after the commercial break guest on a talk show.
Things only go from bad to worse after Homelander returns to Vought Tower for a meeting with Stan Edgar, who has also called on Starlight as well. It seems she’s polling at incredibly high numbers so Stan decides that Starlight should serve as the new co-captain of The Seven alongside Homelander.
While Starlight does her best to turn down the job offer — primarily because she can see Homelander ready to tear her in half with his laser vision — Stan reminds her that real power doesn’t come from the Compound-V coursing through her veins but rather the control she would hold as one of the leaders of The Seven.
As co-captain, Starlight could help choose the missions the team goes on, the charitable endeavors benefitting from the superhero team and she can even select the new members for The Seven who will complete the lineup after Stormfront got the boot.
None of this sits well with Homelander, who is clearly about ready to erupt but he also can’t risk his poll numbers slipping any further so he’s forced to concede to this new arrangement. After having his leadership stolen away, Homelander returns to the one person who will always be there to boost his ego.
Yes, Stormfront is still alive, although she’s not in great shape.
She’s barely hanging on by a thread but Stormfront is still strong enough to spout Aryan garbage while also giving Homelander a handjob to soothe his bruised ego.
All of this is happening while Stan Edgar starts to put together his next power move for Vought while meeting with Secretary of Defense Robert Singer, who is now running for President of the United States. It seems Vought’s latest invention is called V24 — it’s an altered dose of Compound-V that gives a user powers for 24 hours but then slowly fades away.
Each dose costs $2 million, which means a regular mission for the military would probably require around $600 million worth of V24 but it’s a pittance compared to the adoration Singer will receive for supporting our troops and snuffing out America’s enemies while refusing to create any new full time heroes because the dose only lasts for a day.
It doesn’t take long for Butcher to find out about V24 as well but that information comes from Maeve, who it turns out has been feeding him intel on Supes for months. Maeve is trying to take down Vought from the inside so she’s been sending him criminally connected Supes so he can then land them in jail or worse since he works for the government.
Maeve actually hands over several doses of V24 to Billy as she seeks to level the playing field a bit between him and the Supes he’s seeking to destroy.
But perhaps even more important is the next piece of Supe info she gives to Butcher.
It’s a file about the death of Soldier Boy — the first superhero with powers nearly comparable to Homelander but he was supposedly killed while stopping a nuclear meltdown in Ohio back in the 1980s. Maeve was able to find information that it was all a cover up and it was actually a weapon of some kind that killed Soldier Boy.
If there’s a weapon out there powerful enough that it killed Soldier Boy, it might be able to do the same thing to Homelander as Maeve astutely points out.
“Maybe we can use it to blow Homelander’s fucking brains out.”
~ Maeve
Butcher has some valuable information that will require him to track down Soldier Boy’s former team — a group called Payback that was the most popular bunch of superheroes until The Seven came along.
That night, Butcher is starting to investigate the Payback members who are still alive but he’s also ready to pour that V24 toxin down the drain but he hears a nearby swoosh and a quick look outside reveals that Homelander is standing on his deck.
Homelander comes inside for a visit with Butcher eyeing the cookie jar where he’s hidden the V24 because that might be the only way he survives this encounter.
Despite the random appearance, Homelander pretends to have a purpose by asking about Ryan’s location but really he just wants to commiserate with a like-minded soul. It seems Homelander misses when things were much more chaotic like when he and Butcher were constantly trying to kill each other.
He much prefers that kind of relationship than the neutered version both of them are living right now.
For the first time, maybe ever, Butcher actually agrees with Homelander and they agree that this peace, love and understanding shit needs to end really soon. A fight is coming and these two won’t stop until one of them is dead.
Meanwhile, Hughie spends his afternoon on the set of “American Hero” — a new reality show that will help select the new members of The Seven. Starlight serves as host and she’s been locked in a storyline all season long with her first ever boyfriend — a speedster and former boy band member named Supersonic, who is still very close to his ex, even as they film this show together.
Of course, Hughie sees the chemistry between them and a whole bunch of jealousy starts seeping up through his skin. Back in Starlight’s trailer, she asks him about becoming co-captain with Homelander and Hughie is definitely against the idea, especially given how unstable the star-spangled monster gets these days.
He also manages to make an off-handed remark about her “boyfriend” Supersonic and that lands Hughie in the dog house where he’s going to return to his apartment without his girlfriend sharing the same bed that night.
Instead, Hughie goes back to the office to finish up some work before leaving with Congresswoman Neuman. Just as he’s about to cross the street, he hears that strange man shouting at her and calling her “Nadia” again.
This time, Hughie decides to investigate and he tracks them down to a back alley where Congresswoman Neuman tells Tony that she no longer goes by Nadia. He’s almost manic as he asks her to never forget about what happened at Red River and now that she has a platform, the truth about that place needs to be revealed.
She eventually relents and agrees to get the information out there but Tony soon realizes that she’s using her powers on him. Remember, Victoria Neuman was the person exploding peoples’ heads last season — including the Congress massacre that led to the Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs being created in the first place.
Victoria eventually fights her way free before exploding Tony at the neck, which essentially cuts off the bottom part of his face as well. Hughie is horrified for any number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that he’s just discovered his boss is actually a Supe and she’s the one who committed those atrocities in Congress just one year ago.
Hughie sits in a panicked silence while hiding behind a dumpster while overhearing Victoria Neuman call a Vought number and asking for support because she’s in trouble. He’s nearly hyperventilating when she finally leaves as Hughie realizes that everything he’s been fighting for the past year is nothing but utter bullshit because the person pulling the strings is actually just another bad guy.
The Only Man in the Sky — Episode 2
Before we start the recap for episode 2, we’d first like to tell you all to get ready for the most emotional film of the summer as The Deep tells his harrowing story about escaping a cult in the highly anticipated new movie titled “Not Without My Dolphin” — available on all Vought streaming platforms!
Also set to air soon is Homelander’s birthday celebration, which is the time of year when the most powerful person on Earth has everyone telling him just how great he truly is, which is exactly the kind of emotional support he needs right now. With his Nazi girlfriend on the verge of going comatose, unable to even blink when attempting to communicate with him, Homelander is starting to run out of people to chat with as he teeters closer and closer to the brink of pure insanity.
As for Hughie, he comes clean to Annie about what he discovered regarding Congresswoman Victoria Neuman being the head-popper but with Homelander’s celebration scheduled that night, she’s being called into rehearsals. Annie tells Hughie to wait for her to return before they start investigating this situation further but after he ends up smashing a jar just trying to get a lid open, he decides that it’s time to actually take care of something himself.
That leads Hughie to Red River — an adoption center for wayward children with powers.
It seems these children with abilities have been given up by their parents and now this facility, which operates under Vought’s banner, cares for them while attempting to find the kids a new home. Hughie plays it off that he and Starlight are seeking to adopt a child because he’s shooting blanks and he can’t get his girlfriend pregnant.
The attendant starts showing Hughie some slides of potential children to adopt while he secretly copies the hard drive. After leaving the facility, Hughie plugs in the hard drive to find the files on “Nadia” and that’s where he learns that she was popping heads way back when she was a child.
Even more disturbing, however, is the discovery that “Nadia” was eventually adopted by none other than Stan Edger, the CEO of Vought International. Stan obviously saw a talent in this young girl and he raised her in his image.
In fact, Stan even still acts as a father to her when Victoria is concerned about the mess she made while killing her former friend Tony. Stan promises that a clean up crew got everything mopped up within 15 minutes so nobody was the wiser about what happened.
Stan comforts Victoria after reading her daughter a bedtime story, which is the same exact one he read to her for so many years when she was growing up.
Meanwhile back at the rehearsal for the celebration, Homelander is gearing up for quite a bash including his plans to have Starlight personally sing him happy birthday while a group of scantily clad women dance behind her. Starlight refuses to be demeaned like this but just as Homelander prepares to lobby a rather violent threat towards her, he hears a voice booming in from the control room.
It’s Stan Edgar telling Homelander that if Starlight doesn’t want to sing, she isn’t going to sing.
Things just keep going against Homelander today.
Later he prepares to engage in his “birthday save” — an annual tradition where he helps some poor unfortunate soul, which then turns into a news story to celebrate him even further on his special day. Except for one problem — in the middle of Homelander attempting to talk a woman back from the ledge as she prepares to kill herself, he learns that the person he actually loved has gone through with it.
Stormfront has committed suicide by chewing off her own tongue and swallowing it.
That bit of information puts Homelander on a downward spiral to the point where he no longer cares if the jumper really wants to fall off the side of this building. In fact, Homelander encourages the woman to kill herself and when she refuses, he promises to push her off the ledge so she’s going to die today either way.
The woman eventually concedes and falls to her death while Ashley — the famously stressed out Vought public relations lady — watches in horror while commanding all of the cameras to shut down because this footage will never see the light of day.
As for Butcher’s plans to seek out information on Soldier Boy’s death, he decides to find Gunpowder — the Supe who was hired as a kid to serve as Soldier Boy’s sidekick — while sending Frenchie and Kimiko to VoughtLand to try and get an audience with Crimson Countess, who was Soldier Boy’s girlfriend back in the day.
At the amusement park, Kimiko is haunted of visions of the childhood she and her brother never got to share because they were raised with powers. All she really wants is to ride the rollercoasters and eat some cotton candy but they’ve got work to do.
They eventually end up at a theater where Soldier Boy’s life story is told before Crimson Countess appears to sing a song about the fallen love of her life. Backstage, Frenchie and Kimiko pay for the extra package to get some one on one time with Crimson Countess, who decides to show off some of the new music she’s been recording — including a song about how chimps can’t cry.
The friendly meeting soon turns sour after Kimiko grabs Crimson Countess and keeps her hands subdued, which prevents her from using her power to create powerful balls of energy that explode on contact. Frenchie asks his questions but she claims Soldier Boy’s death happened just like it’s been reported.
When a mother and a daughter come into the room for a similar meeting, Crimson Countess uses the distraction to break free while Frenchie and Kimiko give chase. She eventually escapes after launching one of her energy rockets — it misses Frenchie and Kimiko but explodes the poor schmuck wearing the Homelander costume for the day.
The explosion sends blood and guts flying with the kids watching in the park absolutely horrified while Kimiko sees something all to familiar for her because this is what she witnessed almost everyday growing up in violence.
Butcher tries his hand by attending a firearms convention and he sits down for a speech being given by Gunpowder, who apparently graduated with honors from the Tucker Carlson school of saying stupid shit to get people riled up. After finishing, Butcher follows Gunpowder into the bathroom where he attempts to ask him questions about Soldier Boy — along with the allegations that the hero used to abuse his former sidekick.
Gunpowder won’t give up any information and things go from bad to worse when he attacks Butcher in the parking garage. Several bullets nearly kill Butcher but he’s able to make his escape with only a single shot going through his leg before getting out of there.
At home, Butcher is trying to reconcile with everything that’s happened including news that Frenchie and Kimiko came up short in their efforts as well. He ends up watching a video Ryan made for him that includes a voicemail left for him by his mother Becca and it hits right there in the feels.
Not too long after, Butcher gets a call from Hughie where he finally concedes that perhaps he needs to stay within his limits when fighting back against the Supes.
That’s when Hughie hits him with the awful truth — Congresswoman Victoria Neuman is a Supe, she’s responsible for all the exploding heads and the entire system is rigged against them. Hughie’s finally reached his own breaking point after realizing that he’s pretty much useless in this fight, especially after failing to realize that he was working directly under a woman he trusted who is actually an acolyte of Stan Edgar and Vought.
He laments to Annie about his struggles but even she can’t manage to comfort him while feeling so down about his inability to actually fight back against the Supes.
Hughie then tells Butcher that he was right all along — the only way to stop the Supes is to take them down by any means necessary. Butcher barely responds before dropping the phone and preparing for another stab at Gunpowder.
When Butcher confronts Gunpowder this time, he doesn’t attempt to duck or dodge the bullets. Instead, the shots bounce right off his chest because Butcher injected himself with the V24.
He then proceeds to beat the shit out of Gunpowder until he finally confesses that Soldier Boy didn’t die in a nuclear meltdown as reported. Instead, Payback was called into Nicaragua as part of President Reagan’s secret operation against the Russians.
It was there where Soldier Boy lost his life but Gunpowder doesn’t know exactly what happened to him — he says Butcher is probably better off asking their CIA handler for that operation — Grace Mallory.
Butcher is stunned with that bit of information but he’s not going to let Gunpowder escape so he continues to beat him to a bloody pulp before revealing his own laser blasts from the eyes that cut through the former superhero along with the car behind him.
Finally, Homelander is enjoying his birthday celebration but nearly as much now after Stormfront offed herself and he’s not even getting the sexy singalong from Starlight that he wanted. Instead, Starlight announces that her co-captain will be donating $10 million to her foundation to help at risks youths while also attempting to deflect some of the criticism he’s taken for dating Stormfront.
At that moment, Homelander has seen enough.
He stops Starlight from announcing his charitable contribution and instead takes the microphone where he erupts about the way he’s been forced to smile and shake hands with people for so long yet in reality everybody should be bowing and scraping before him. Homelander is the most powerful person on Earth and it’s time he’s fucking treated like it.
“I’m done. I’m dong apologizing. I am done being persecuted for my strength. You people should be thanking Christ that I am who and what I am because you need me! You need me to save you! You do! I am the only one who possibly can. You’re not the real heroes. I’m the real hero.”
~ Homelander
A hushed silence falls over the crowd, Stan Edgar looks ready to draw blood and Ashley pulls out a new handful of hair because Homelander just gave her a shit ton of damage control to handle.
Barbary Coast — Episode 3
The episode begins with a look back at the days when Starlight was forced to go through children’s pageants because that’s what her mother wanted. She danced and sang Britney Spears songs all while gritting her teeth and balling up a fist so tight that her fingernails drew blood.
That’s a precursor to how this particular installment ends as well.
Starlight is currently dealing with her role as host for “American Hero” where the competition is coming to an end with the producers aka Vought trying to help her decide on the people who will make up the final two heroes to eventually join The Seven.
Supersonic appears to be a clear choice, particularly because of his past relationship with Starlight, which creates drama considering she already has a boyfriend. Starlight prefers Silver Kincaid — who would be the first Muslim woman drafted into The Seven — but that’s met with a whole lot of derision.
The choice gets even more complicated after Homelander ends up being involved because his unhinged speech didn’t make him the most hated man on the planet. In fact, just the opposite.
Ashley reports back to the very nude Supe that his ratings and popularity have skyrocketed, particularly among white males in the rust belt. They love his brutal honesty and the fact that he won’t let anybody cancel him for standing up as a proud man!
That’s music to Homelander’s ears because after he reports to “American Hero,” he rolls out his plan to induct The Deep back into The Seven much to Starlight’s chagrin.
Don’t forget back in season 1, Deep sexually assaulted Starlight when she first joined the team and he eventually got bounced for his actions. Now Homelander wants him back because he knows he can control The Deep and there’s no chance the man who talks to fish will ever even attempt to betray him.
Starlight nearly vomits at the idea before telling Deep to get the fuck out as she confronts Homelander about usurping her control over the show. Part of her new contract gives her complete freedom to pick whatever two members she wants from the show but Homelander has some leverage of his own now that he’s rebounded in popularity with the American audience.
When Starlight then attempts to blackmail him back into submission by reminding him about the video she possesses, which features Homelander allowing a plane full of people to fall to their deaths, he dares her to do it.
“I mean sure, I’ll lose everything but then I’ll have nothing to lose. First, I’ll take out the nerve centers. The White House and Pentagon and then any domestic defense capabilities and then critical infrastructure, like cellular, internet, that kind of thing. Then, I think then I’ll just wipe New York off the fucking map for fun. I’ll even throw in Des Moines and that little cousin fucker hick town that Maeve’s from cause why not? See, Starlight I’d prefer to be loved. I would but if you take that away from me, being feared is A-1 okey, doke by me. So go ahead, partner, do it. No? You don’t want to do it? Well then I would have to say you have no fucking leverage because I am the Homelander and I really can do whatever the fuck I want.”
~ Homelander
The terrifying threat is enough to make Starlight back down, especially knowing that Homelander would absolutely wipe out the world if given the chance.
Later that day, Homelander has dinner with his nearest and dearest before filming for “American Hero” can begin and that’s where he breaks the news to Deep that he’s back in The Seven officially. But first they need to break bread together and Homelander ordered a giant seafood tower for the celebration.
Deep is nearly in tears watching everybody suck down oysters and tear through lobsters but he hasn’t even seen the main course yet. Homelander wheels that out and puts a covered dish in front of Deep.
When the lid gets lifted, Deep is horrified to see a very life octopus wiggling on a plate that Homelander expects him to eat. Deep explains that this is his friend Timothy — he has kids and he’s begging for his life — but that’s exactly why Homelander has presented him with this particular test of loyalty.
“Hey Deep, eat fucking Timothy.”
~ Homelander
As for Hughie and the Boys, he returns to join them after realizing that his entire job at the Federal Bureau of Superman Affairs is nothing but a joke. Butcher gives him a mountain of shit for pretending that his job really mattered but Hughie’s not the only one back in the fold.
Mother’s Milk has also returned to the team after struggling to maintain a home life after his wife divorced him and got together with a new man. He’s also starting to lash out randomly, which jeopardizes his relationship with his daughter Jasmine.
To make matters worse, Mother’s Milk is tortured even further after hearing about Butcher’s mission to track down information on Soldier Boy. It seems back in the 1980s, Soldier Boy led the war on drugs and that usually meant targeting urban neighborhoods, which eventually led to the death of M.M’s entire family at his hands.
Mother’s Milk has been looking for closure ever since and perhaps a return to his old team will finally allow for that.
As for the mission that day, Butcher wants to visit Grace Mallory but Frenchie decides to bow out after he receives an emergency text message that requires his attention. Hughie volunteers to go in his place but only after Kimiko breaks his arm because if he’s going to be out of work for a week, Congresswoman Neuman has to know what happened to him was real.
Kimiko does her job by snapping Hughie’s forearm in half as he screams out in pain but that will give him the cover he needs to be away from the office for a few days.
When Butcher and the team arrives at Grace Mallory’s hidden location, Ryan is yet again all too happy to see the man he’s almost come to adopt as a surrogate father, which surpises all the rest of the Boys for obvious reasons.
First things first, Butcher informs Mallory about Congresswoman Neuman’s status as the head-popping Supe but that’s second on his agenda of things they need to talk about. He wants to know about Mallory’s involvement with Payback in the 1980s but more particularly about Soldier Boy’s death.
Mallory comes clean about the operation she was running, which was part of the American agenda with selling arms in the whole Iran-contra debacle, but she was also facilitating the sale of drugs back in America under orders that the products would only be sold in urban neighborhoods targeting Black communities. As fucked up as that was, Mallory then goes onto to tell the team about Payback arriving under orders from the government in a first attempt to have Supes working on the front lines of a war.
A young Stan Edgar was overseeing the placement of his team, which included Soldier Boy, Gunpowder, Crimson Countess, the TNT twins, Swatto and even Black Noir — who back then was a young buck with the desire to fight while showing his face because he didn’t want to hide behind a mask.
From the day they arrived, the team was a mess, constantly drawing attention to themselves while always flirting with disaster by potentially alerting the enemy about their location.
Before long, the rebel forces actually did discover Mallory’s team and an assault was launched with the heroes scattering to the wind. Swatto got blown out of the sky by a missile, the TNT twins got obliterated and a bomb exploded near Black Noir that nearly ripped off his entire face thanks to his insistence that he didn’t want to wear that damn mask.
That likely explains why Black Noir no longer speaks much less goes anywhere without that mask.
When Grace Mallory finally wakes up from the carnage, her soldiers are dead and the Russians have taken Soldier Boy’s body after killing him with some kind of unseen weapon. Mallory can’t believe it but that’s what she was told by a crying Crimson Countess who apparently watched him die.
Needless to say, Butcher is none too happy to know that Mallory could have told him this information years ago, especially after she first recruited him after his wife Becca went missing. At the time, she guaranteed him Homelander’s head on a silver platter and it’s possible this weapon could have delivered that or at least gave him a fighting chance.
Instead, Mallory withheld vital information.
Butcher is irate, especially when it comes to what eventually happened to Becca, which then leads to him lashing out at Ryan on his way out of the compound. Ryan asks when he’ll see Butcher again but this time there’s no sweet goodbyes.
Instead, Butcher tells the boy that he’ll never see him again but when Ryan refuses to let go of his arm, he shouts at the kid and blames him for Becca’s death. That finally hurts Ryan enough that he releases Butcher and allows him to leave while Mallory is disgusted by what she just witnessed.
Then there’s Frenchie, who was missing in action for all of this because he got called away on a secret rendezvous.
His former partner/girlfriend Cherie started selling drugs again but now she’s crossed Little Nina — the Russian crime syndicate leader — after a shipment of heroin was stolen. Cherie has to return the drugs to Little Nina or she’ll be dead within a matter of hours.
Frenchie decides to speak to Little Nina on her behalf, which then involves him being kidnapped and taken to an undisclosed location where he meets with his former boss.
It seems Frenchie worked for Little Nina as well not to mention the weird kinky sex they used to have together but these days she’s only interested in the criminal empire she’s built and exacting revenge on those who do her wrong. In fact, Little Nina offers to pay Frenchie to carry out the hit on Cherie because she can make it worth his while.
Frenchie scoffs at killing his ex under her orders and he threatens Little Nina by name dropping the CIA, who act as his employers these days. She doesn’t seem all that frightened but instead tells Frenchie to think about her offer because Cherie is going to die one way or another.
When Frenchie returns to meet with the rest of the Boys, he’s distant and angry even as Kimiko greets him. She’s still struggling with her own place in the world while admitting when talking to Ryan earlier in the day that she wishes she didn’t have her powers any longer because those abilities have essentially ruined her life.
Frenchie finally comes clean about his interaction with Little Nina and her past hold over him but that gives Butcher a brilliant idea. Rather than reject her offer, Butcher tells Frenchie that they’re going to work with Little Nina because she will give them the perfect introduction needed to gain entrance to Russia where they can hopefully find the weapon that killed Soldier Boy.
Before the day ends, Butcher commiserates outside feeling guilty about what happened with Ryan and he doesn’t expect anyone to understand what he did. For once, it’s Hughie who sympathizes with Butcher because the reality is this war is going to come with a lot of casualties and pushing Ryan away while seemingly cruel and unusual may have also saved his life.
Butcher then pukes all over Hughie — continued after effects of the V24, which also almost saw him explode out of his eyes back at Mallory’s house — and that essentially puts an end to that conversation.
Last but not least, the finale of “American Hero” gets underway with Starlight preparing to pick the winners.
As much as she wanted Supersonic to turn down the opportunity, he ultimately decides to take the spot being offered to him because he says he didn’t want to leave her alone to fend for herself. Starlight had already tried to escape earlier in the day while explaining to Hughie that Homelander had gone full sociopath on her but he’s less than a sympathetic ear.
Instead, Hughie tells her that sacrifices have to be made if they’re going to stop Vought and this is what she needs to do to help them.
Between Hughie’s insensitivity and dismissiveness, he’s all but pushing Starlight to have a very real reunion with her first boyfriend, especially now that Supersonic is a member of The Seven. The love triangle the PR team wanted is nearly complete except for one major problem.
During the rehearsal and production for the last episode of “American Hero,” Starlight names Supersonic as the new member of the team before Homelander then introduces The Deep, who will be returning to take the last spot in the revamped Seven.
The other two contestants leave dejected after the Deep just took on of their promised spots.
As for Homelander, he closes the episode with a major announcement — he reveals that he’s fallen in love with Starlight and they’re going to be the power couple that leads The Seven. Hashtag Homelight.
Starlight looks mortified by the announcement until cameras stop rolling and she gets a second take — this time she not only accepts Homelander’s invitation to be in a relationship together but she begrudgingly kisses him to the applause of Ashley and the rest of the team from Vought.
Behind her back, Starlight is clutching her fist closed and cutting deep into her hand again much like those pageant days when she was a kid because now she’s not only trapped by Homelander but they’re supposed to be a loving couple.
“The Boys” will return with a brand new episode next Friday on Amazon Prime Video.
