The Boys season 3 episodes 1, 2 and 3 pick up after the end of season 2 which saw Homelander getting subdued and Hughie and Butcher getting jobs in the government.
Episode 1 recap: Payback
It has been one whole year since the events that occurred at the end of season 3. It seems like a time of peace where the war between The Boys and Homelander isn’t on full throttle.
Hughie is Butcher’s boss now. When the latter keeps going too far in capturing supes, it becomes a problem for Hughie. He is also openly dating Starlight now.
His boss, Victoria Neuman believes Butcher can’t be trusted during a time of peace. Hughie notices a stranger calling Victoria ‘Nadia’, but she ignores him.
Butcher has been getting closer to Becca’s son, Ryan, who is under the care of Grace Mallory now. Contrary to Victoria’s opinion, Mallory feels Butcher has turned over a new leaf.
M.M is struggling after quitting The Boys. He can’t cope with his family after his wife left him for another man named Todd.
Butcher gets made when he comes to know that the Supe he captures is being let go and regrets not killing him on the spot.
Vought CEO Stand Edgar makes Starlight co-captain of The Seven after her popularity rating increases, coinciding with a decline in ratings for Homelander due to his association with Stormfront, who is hated by the world after being outed as a Nazi.
Hughie gets insecure when Stormfront’s ex, Supersonic, becomes a participant in American Hero, a new competition to pick the new member of The Seven.
A-Train gets into an argument with Homelander, who threatens to kill him. Queen Maeve notices this and decides to get rid of him once and for all.
Stormfront is still barely alive. And despite her condition, Homelander rants about how the world has been unfair to him.
She entertains all her complaints, claiming him to be the chosen one to lead a Nazi charge, but he’s not interested in that at all and leaves in disappointment.
Maeve has a rendezvous with Butcher, where she tells him about how the former great supe of America, Soldier Boy, did not die stepping a nuclear meltdown in Ohio.
He was killed by an unknown weapon. Since Soldier Boy was almost as powerful as Homelander, there is a chance that the weapons could kill him as well.
She suggests contacting his former teammates, Crimson Countess and Gunpowder, and also gives him Compound V24 or Temp V, which gives normal people temporary supe powers. Butcher is initially against the idea.
Before he can throw it, Homelander arrives for a talk. He goads Butcher into accepting that he does not really want this peace and truly desires an all-out war with Homelander.
Victoria meets in secret with the stranger, revealed to be named Tony, who called her Nadia. She clearly remembers him, and the two start fighting, with Victoria killing him in exactly the same way members of Congress were murdered in season 2.
She has been a supe all along and was the cause of so many deaths across the series. Hughie witnesses this murder and is left shocked.
Episode 2 recap: The Only Man In The Sky
Butcher has a nightmare about ingesting the Temp V given to him by Maeve but feels better after talking to Ryan.
Hughie tells Starlight about Victoria’s true identity. She suggests contacting Butcher, but Hughie wants to handle it himself.
It’s Homelander’s birthday and he plans to get Starlight back for stealing his thunder during an episode of American Hero.
Butcher tries to recruit M.M. again, who clearly has a history with Soldier Boy, but he refuses to rejoin The Boys.
Frenchie and Kimiko go after Crimson Countess to get more information on Soldier Boy’s death. However, she escapes them and accidentally kills a regular person, causing chaos.
Homelander tries to belittle Starlight by making her sing happy birthday for him but Stan intervenes and informs him that she can now make her own decisions as co-captain.
A-Train attempts to rebrand himself as a black community supporter, but Vought doesn’t buy it at all.
Hughie infiltrates Red River Institute, the facility where Victoria aka Nadia and Tony grew up, acting as if he and starlight are looking to adopt.
The institute is filled with supe children. Hughie manages to copy the entire database into a drive and learns that Victoria was taken from the facility by Stan Edgar and was raised as his ‘child’. She has been a Vought sure all along.
Butcher confronts Gunpowder, Soldier Boy’s sidekick who was rumoured to have been abused by him in the past but is unable to get any information. Gunpowder retaliates and injures Butcher.
Homelander is getting increasingly frustrated with his helplessness. He witnesses the news of Stormfront committing suicide, pushing him over the edge, starting with forcing a woman to commit suicide.
Hughie struggles to act normal in the office in front of Victoria, and only an intervention by Starlight bails him out of a tight situation. He expresses his sadness to her on thinking of Victoria as a friend, only to be betrayed.
M.M. tells his wife that he needs to deal with Solider Boy, and she replies that he must go back to Butcher.
A sweet video sent to Butcher by Ryan almost convinces him to stop relentlessly chasing supes, but after Hughie tells him the truth about Victoria, he jumps back into action.
He ingests Temp V, gains supe powers and takes down Gunpowder. The supe reveals that Soldier Boy died in Nicaragua during a CIA mission, and the case officer was none other than Mallory.
During his birthday, Homelander goes on a rant about his frustration with being controlled by authorities and how he is better than everybody, causing panic among the Vought PR.
Episode 3 recap: Barbary Coast
In a surprising turn of events, Homelander’s speech from the last episode actually raises his rating, mostly among white males due to his ‘unapologetic’ nature.
M.M. and Hughie rejoin The Boys. Vought considers making Supersonic the new member of The Seven. Frenchie gets captured by Cherie.
Starlight attempts to convince Supersonic to say no to Vought’s offer by revealing the truth about Homelander and his murderous intentions.
Kimiko has a talk with Ryan and tells him she hates her powers and wishes she never had them. Ryan feels the same about his own powers.
Butcher blackmails Mallory into revealing the truth about Soldier Boy’s death in 1984 in Nicaragua. She was part of President Raegan’s secret project called ‘Operation Charly’.
To fund a war between Contra and Russian-backed Sandanistas, she had been in charge of smuggling cocaine to minority neighbourhoods in the US.
During an offensive mission, her higher-ups decided to send supes to the military camp. A young Stand Edgar arrived and told Mallory they were testing supes in the army; the Payback group.
Payback’s members included Crimson Countess, Mindstorm, Swatto, Black Noir, the TNT Twins and Soldier Boy. Black Noir’s face is revealed during this scene.
Billy starts facing side effects of the Temp V and Mallory’s story has to be paused.
Homelander wants Deep to return to The Seven as well. When Starlight objects and threatens to leak the video of him letting people die in a plane crash, he tells her he’ll just destroy the world if she does that.
As Butcher starts feeling better, Mallory continues narrating what happened. Swatto flying over the camp revealed their location and the Sandinistas brought Russian special forces with them.
In the ensuing war, Black Noir and the Payback members were left injured and Soldier Boy was supposedly killed and his body was abducted by the Russians.
Butcher criticises Mallory for never telling him there’s a weapon that can take out Homelander. He rushes out and even tells Ryan his mother died because of him to distance him from himself as dangerous times lie ahead.
Frenchie tells Butcher that Little Nina, a Russian, had abducted him, giving Butcher the idea to set up a meeting, as they will be travelling to Russia.
Supersonic decides to stay and help Starlight by accepting the role in The Seven. He and Deep are chosen as the new members during the American Hero finale.
In a twist, Homelander announces on the show that he and Starlight are now a couple, and she has to reluctantly put up an act accepting this.
Review
- The Boys continues doing what it knows best, painting a complex picture of superheroes and underdogs.
- The introduction of a possible weapon that can kill Homelander was a much-needed plot point as he always seemed untouchable.
- The temporary superpower concept gives an interesting twist to a battle that has always been skewed one way in terms of powers.
- Homelander and Butcher are both clearly heading towards a dark path of no return which is riveting.
- All performances in the show are top class, which helps in making the show engaging.
Rating: 4/5
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