The aim of The Boys Season 3 was to eliminate Homelander; thus, Billy Butcher and his band of outcasts set off in search of a superweapon that may have ended Homelander’s life in order to complete the objective. They soon discovered, though, that there was no such weapon. However, while looking for the superweapon, they discovered Soldier Boy, a forgotten hero who was just as powerful as Homelander and had previously been Vought’s hero until Homelander stole the show. Soldier Boy was saved by Butcher, who later made a deal with the Supe to assist him in killing Homelander in exchange for learning which members of Soldier Boy’s Payback squad had been plotting against him.
By the time Soldier Boy learned that Homelander was his own blood by the ending of The Boys Season 3 Episode 7, he had second thoughts about killing his own son. However, Soldier Boy made a conscious choice to kill Homelander in the Season 3 finale episode because he felt that his kid never had the proper fathering, which caused him to become an attention-seeking weakling and ultimately be a huge disappointment. So, Homelander and Soldier Boy had their ultimate confrontation, but how did it turn out? Who lived and who passed away? Let’s investigate.
The Boys Season 3 Episode 8 Recap & Explained
Homelander admitted that he had imprisoned Queen Maeve in Episode 7, and Starlight had captured that moment on camera. Soon after she posted the video to her social media account, a group of protesters gathered in front of Vought Facility, and the attorney general’s office issued a search warrant to look inside the tower for Maeve. Homelander was away at this time meeting his son Ryan, whose whereabouts Victoria Neuman had revealed in the previous episode. Ashley Barrett and Deep made the decision to remove Maeve from the tower while Homelander was away. Maeve grabbed the opportunity to escape while she was being transferred.
In order to assassinate Homelander, Maeve returned to Butcher and worked with Soldier Boy. The three then made the decision to sneak inside Vought Tower. Before facing Homelander, Soldier Boy wanted to murder Black Noir. As soon as they got to the tower, Homelander told Soldier Boy that Black Noir had already been killed since he had kept the truth about his father from him, and he doesn’t like people who do that. Homelander attempted to make peace with his father by comparing his situation with that of Soldier Boy, who was also betrayed by his team. He had been longing for a family, so he brought Ryan to his grandfather, Soldier Boy, to complete his family.
Soldier Boy swiftly revealed to Homelander that he was nothing more than a disgrace to his ancestry and was not in the mood for any type of joyous family reunion. When Ryan unexpectedly stepped in to stop Soldier Boy from attacking Homelander, Soldier Boy bashed him as well. Butcher turned against Soldier Boy to prevent him from attacking Ryan because he could not bear to see Ryan get wounded. He had promised his wife, Becca, that he would not allow anything to happen to Ryan. Queen Maeve started attacking Homelander to get rid of the evil Supe who had completely destroyed her life, while Butcher dealt with Soldier Boy.
Maeve Saves The Day
Homelander crushed one of Maeve’s eyeballs during a one-on-one fight, leaving her blind in that eye. Soldier Boy lost control and launched his energy blast when they were engaged in combat, aiming it at Starlight and her allies. Maeve made the decision to give her life in order to stop Soldier Boy from killing any more people. To that end, she leaped out of the Vought Tower with Soldier Boy, who then released his energy blast halfway through the air. However, neither the attack nor the crash killed her.
It was shown that Queen Maeve was still alive at the ending of The Boys Season 3. She had, however, lost her powers due to the energy blast from Soldier Boy. Maeve was found wounded in the alley by Starlight and MM, who hurriedly carried her to their cover, where she eventually made a full recovery. Elena, who was visiting her, revealed to Starlight that they intended to disappear and spend the rest of their lives in peace on a piece of farmland away from Homelander.
Queen Maeve Retires
For the rest of the world, Queen Maeve was gone and dead, but Ashley Barrett discovered CCTV tape where she saw Maeve still alive. She swiftly removed the video from the computer, though, before Homelander or Deep could see it because she didn’t want Homelander to hunt for Maeve once more. Ashley had been thoroughly humiliated by Homelander, but she was powerless to escape his tyranny; fortunately, someone else did, so Ashley made the deliberate choice to assist the free bird in taking off far away.
Maeve has lost her superpowers, just like Kimiko did in the earlier episodes. Kimiko asked Frenchie to inject her with compound V so she could regain her powers after quickly realizing that she needed them to protect Frenchie from the dangers. If Maeve decides to regain her power in the near future, this process might also be effective for her. If Homelander discovers her and tries to harm her or her girlfriend, Elena, in The Boys Season 4, she might need her powers back. We can thus assume that she will come back if the writers feel it’s necessary.
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Soldier Boy’s Past
The Boys Season 3 finale featured a scene in which Soldier Boy revealed to Butcher that his origin story—that he was a homeless child in Philadelphia who grew up to be America’s greatest superhero—was a complete lie. In reality, he was a spoiled kid who was expelled from a boarding school, and his father actually owned half the steel factories in the state. Because his father thought he was a complete failure and unworthy of bearing his name, he used his father’s connections to enter Dr. Frederick Vought’s Compound V trials and succeeded in becoming a superhero. He thought that when he told his father that his son was the strongest man alive, he would be overjoyed, but instead, he criticized him for taking a shortcut.
Due to his toxic upbringing, Soldier Boy thought he would likely try to make things better for his own children and raise them well. However, Soldier Boy eventually began acting like his father, telling Homelander that he was a disappointment and a shame to his name. He said to Homelander that he craves attention, which is true, but Soldier Boy was the same as him. He never allowed his team to shine because that would have overshadowed his personal brand image, and instead always took all the credit.
Soldier Boy Back Into the Sleep Chamber
No matter what Soldier Boy said to Homelander, the only motive he could have for wanting to remove him from power was that there could only be one person in that position, and Soldier Boy was greedily seeking the throne for himself and not for some son who had been created in a test tube. After Soldier Boy started attacking Homelander, Ryan laser-beamed him, and out of rage, Soldier Boy made the decision to eliminate Ryan as well. Butcher, who had promised Becca that he would save Ryan from all harm, stepped in and struck Soldier Boy to stop him as soon as he turned to face Ryan. The two eventually engaged in combat together, and Starlight and others soon joined them.
– Soldier Boy
Meanwhile, Frenchie and Kimiko managed to sneak into Vought’s lab, where Frenchie prepared some Novichok, the world’s most dangerous nerve gas that could put Soldier Boy to sleep. When the chemical was prepared, Kimiko brought it to the floor of the studio where Starlight and MM were holding Soldier Boy as they put him to sleep. But before he could drift off, he turned on his energy blast, aiming it at Starlight, MM, and Kimiko, which could have slaughtered them if Queen Maeve hadn’t made the decision to save them. Soldier Boy activated his energy blast as she and he leaped off the tower, but after the intense attack, he likely fell asleep.
MM and others took Soldier Boy to Grace Mallory, who had created a specifically made container where she held Soldier Boy and put him to sleep with Novichok, just like the Russians, but it wasn’t made obvious visibly. Soldier Boy would therefore, probably be locked up until someone attempted to wake him once more like Butcher did in Season 3. But will he come back? Soldier Boy isn’t dead and may be easily brought back to the scene in case the writers urgently need a threatening danger, therefore, it depends on the writers whether they desire his involvement in The Boys Season 4.
Butcher Is Dying
Even though Starlight had told Butcher that repeated doses of the experimental Temp V could result in cancerous tumors and endanger his life, Butcher had continued to inject himself with the drug. Butcher didn’t worry about his own existence because he was determined to exact revenge on Homelander and did so even at the end of Season 3 by injecting himself with Temp V to get ready for a final confrontation. Hughie, on the other hand, made him think of his younger brother Lenny, so he didn’t want to bring him along. In order to prevent Hughie from following him on a dangerous mission, Butcher hit him in the face and locked him.
Hughie saw that despite Butcher’s weird ways of showing his affection, he wasn’t a horrible person in his core. He was incredibly grateful to have saved Hughie’s life. Because of this, when Soldier Boy was going to attack Starlight, Hughie refrained from using Temp V and instead used his intellect to brighten the studio, allowing Starlight to attack Soldier Boy by absorbing the light from her surroundings. Although Hughie did learn his lesson, Butcher was too late, and things got out of control. Butcher had a stroke and passed out on the spot as soon as Homelander carried Ryan away.
At the ending of The Boys Season 3, a hospital doctor informed Butcher that he only had a few months to live even though all of the fluid had been removed from his body. The doctor warned him to take care of his health because he wouldn’t be able to live for more than 12 to 18 months. Butcher, being Butcher, smoked a cigarette and then hurried back to the Boys HQ to go on yet another mission to eliminate the dangerous supes. This time, the target was Victoria Neuman, Hughie’s former boss, who was trying to become vice president of the United States. Finally, it is possible that Butcher is hiding the truth regarding Maeve and Soldier Boy’s death because doing so would be better for everyone.
Victoria Neuman
In Episode 7, Victoria Neuman made a transactional relationship proposal to Homelander, and in order to win his trust, she told him where Ryan was. In exchange, Homelander gave Deep the order to drown Lamar Bishop in his home’s pool because Neuman wanted to get rid of the vice-presidential nominee. After Bishop passed away, Robert A. Singer, alias Dakota Bob, who was running for president, chose Victoria Neuman as the new VP candidate to take Bishop’s place. It is likely that Neuman had always intended to advance her career in management.
Since she previously got rid of Stan Edgar, who we last saw after he resigned from his position, there won’t be anyone to stop Neuman from winning the election in Season 4 of The Boys. Because of this, Butcher and the boys made the decision to stop her because her new partnership with Homelander might be even more concerning than it already appears to be.
Homelander And Rayn
However, at the end of Season 3, Homelander, who has chosen to become an uncensored version of himself, ultimately faces the crowd. He brings Ryan along with him, and when one of the activists throws a can at Ryan, Homelander becomes enraged and loses control of himself. In full front of the people and the media, he burns away the man’s brain with his laser beam. Ryan is present to see Todd applaud Homelander in his belief that he made the correct decision.
The worst thing that can happen to Ryan as a child is for Homelander to be his father. He is a monster, and he is turning Ryan into one as well. Ryan will eventually accept killing people in public as the new reality or the new normal, and nobody can convince him otherwise. Homelander views his violent actions and irrational outbursts as mistakes or accidents, which he says frequently occur with people who have such amazing abilities. But it’s not like it only occurs occasionally. The Homelander constantly does it, never feels bad about what he does, and constantly tells Ryan the same things.
So Butcher has about a year to rescue Ryan from Homelander’s shadow; if he fails to do so, then it is obvious that another Homelander—possibly someone worse than him—is in the works. The danger that lies ahead in The Boys Season 4 is conveyed by Ryan’s smirk in the final frame. Like his father, it appears that he has started taking pleasure in murdering innocent people, and he believes that when you do so, people applaud; here is where the end begins.
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