The Boys Season Three Proves Why It’s the Best Series Currently Airing

Season four has already been greenlit.

The Boys season three just ended in magnificent fashion. Leveling up from season two and delivering its best season to date this Prime Video hit is setting the standard in the genre and nothing comes close.

Warning. The Boys season three Spoilers ahead!

The Boys Season Three

Was your guess at who else would lose their powers by season’s end correct? It’s doubtful that a high percentage of viewers chose Queen Maeve(Dominique McElligott). However, there she was falling from the sky after saving what looked like could have been hundreds of people in Vought tower.

To be fair, she should have died.

Soldier Boy exploded high in the air. That’s a long way down. If Maeve lost her powers at that point Mother’s Milk(Laz Alonso) should have been scraping her up off the pavement.

That said, it was an excellent finale and season.

Highlights

Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy is phenomenal. This character was the driving force and the inevitable doom of the season. He walked slowly but with such force of character every scene he was in felt more powerful than the last.

Homelander(Antony Starr) is one of the best characters on television. Every scene he’s in is a tense, suspense-filled affair. You don’t know what he might do and it felt like it all season long.

The Boys on Compound V. In the comics all of The Boys are on V and from the beginning. Taking the direction the show has of mostly keeping them off Compound V until now has been a unique choice that has worked well for the show. Now that it’s here, especially in the case of Butcher(Karl Urban)going back would be a bad idea. Butcher on V is incredible. He finally has the power to go with the attitude. It brings along with it all the problems that would arise with someone like him being given that kind of power.

Lowlights

Two very minor gripes.

The Deep(Chace Crawford)’s storyline seems to be at an end. It feels like it’s just circling the drain at this point. A holding pattern of him kissing Homelander’s boots. Starlight having blackmail pictures of him and his wife leaving him just doesn’t seem like reason enough to keep him around.

Hughie(Jack Quaid) and Annie(Erin Moriarty)’s relationship shouldn’t have any more issues going forward. This season’s split has been enough. Relationship problems for those two would drag down the show if it became an every-season plot point.

Characters

Soldier Boy

The reveal that Soldier Boy, The Boys’ last hope, was Homelander’s father left jaws on the floor. Their whole plan of using him as a weapon against Homelander effectively went up in smoke. Even though Butcher thought he could still talk him into killing his son. Butcher ends up right, but has nothing to do with him.

To be fair, Soldier Boy being alive was never their plan. It was a hard pivot after going to Russia for a weapon and finding that he wasn’t able to be killed. Just put on ice.

Soldier Boy is a relic. A man from a time long gone. His beliefs and the way he sees the world are stuck in the era in which he was living. Society has progressed a long way since then. Although, not all would agree.

The Boys did look to give its own commentary on the political and cultural spectrum today in the United States. Soldier Boy’s character fits right in.

How Soldier Boy and Homelander are alike but so different at the same time is perfect character building. He loves his son until he meets him. He hates that he didn’t grow up to be like him. To think like him. To act like him. Soldier Boy detests that Homelander isn’t a carbon copy of himself. Sees him as weak and emotional. Calling him a disappointment as his father did to him. Repeating the vicious cycle of abuse passed down from father to son.

The brutality of Soldier Boy’s character can’t be understated. Not just in his physical ability but in his mentality and nature. Put on ice again Soldier Boy should be back at some point in later seasons.

Homelander

One of the best characters on television Homelander faced losing his powers by the season’s end. Luckily, he didn’t.

It’s unlikely Homelander will be killed before the end of the series so losing his powers for a substantial amount of time would be a major defeat for the character.

This doesn’t happen, however. Leaving with his son and in a more powerful position than he’s ever been in before sets up Homelander to feel even more invincible next season. Meeting his father then finding out that his father hates him made for one emotional roller coaster.

Maybe this makes Homelander want to break that cycle with his son. The son who chose him over Butcher.

Homelander’s mental state lives on a knife’s edge. He’s so insecure in who he is that any challenge to his god-level status could send him into a murderous rage. The Boys may have other targets next season and may not have a way to fight Homelander but they may have to anyway.

Queen Maeve

Early in the season, it felt like Maeve was taking a back seat. Only really popping up to help here or there.

I loved her with Butcher. He hates her because she’s a Supe. Tells her basically to her face that she needs to die, but they are drawn to each other that night. Mostly because of the place both of them are in at that low point. A relationship between them could have been fun though.

Maeve’s finale is interesting.

For a long while now it has seemed like Maeve has held a one-sided grudge. This entire season especially through the finale it has seemed like Maeve has been preparing for and waging this war with Homelander and he’s not even really given her much of a thought. Only interacting with her when forced to by something she’s done to get his attention or get in his way.

If Maeve had just left Homelander alone he wouldn’t have bothered with her at all. Most likely ignoring her existence completely. However, maybe apathy would have been worse for her. As we see in the climax of the season Homelander wants to join The Boys in fighting Soldier Boy. The massive threat to them all. The one who could take their powers and/or potentially kill them. Maeve’s bloodlust and maybe death wish blind her to anything but attacking Homelander.

Everything that happens to her that night is her own fault. Losing her eye. Losing her powers, and again, she should have died from the fall.

None of that withstanding Maeve actually in the end gets what she wants. Her powers are gone and she gets to go try to live a normal life with her girlfriend. It’s stated that she has to hide in hopes that Homelander doesn’t find her but again, he probably wouldn’t care enough about her to look for her.

It’s already been established that having your powers taken away by Soldier Boy isn’t permanent. Compound V will power Queen Maeve right back up sometime before the end of next season.

A-Train

Is there something inherently good within A-Train(Jessie T. Usher)? Is he not the person his brother always knew he was? Can people change?

If you think back to season one of The Boys A-Train is the first real antagonist in the story. Before The Deep manipulated Starlight. Before Homelander became the great adversary of our protagonists. A-Train ran through Robin.

Quite a journey to reach where he ends up at the end of season three. Almost forgotten is how much Hughie hates A-Train. Their interaction at Herogasm was a far cry from their meetings in previous seasons. A-Train, whose perspective had been changed by previous events and after coming to realizations about himself genuinely apologized to Hughie.

What Ashley Barrett(Colby Minifie) said to him got to him. While wanting justice for the evil in the lives of those he cares about he’s confronted with the reality that he is the very same evil. The disregard. The apathy. Even the racism. A lot of Supes have a “higher being” complex. Not just Homelander. Feeling as though they are superior to and better than “regular” humans.

A-Train knew his version of justice would cost him his life. He did it anyway. One last run. At least he thought it would be.

To not only be saved by Ashley and Vought finding him but a heart transplant from the man you just killed. He could barely take in everything Ashley was saying when he woke up in the hospital.

What does he do now? How will all of this change him? Season four for A-Train could be very interesting.

Hughie & Starlight a.k.a Annie January

Believe it or not, Hughie is the main character of The Boys. It’s a refreshing change from the comics that he’s focused on so much less on the show. He’s possibly the least interesting character, but the most necessary character at the same time.

Is it fair to say both Hughie and Annie are wrong?

Annie feels like Hughie lied on their first date when he said he could handle being in a relationship with a woman who’s a Supe. She feels like he is acting insecure and it’s leading him to do dangerous things.

My impression is Hughie didn’t lie to Annie. He genuinely felt he wouldn’t feel emasculated by her being more physically capable and less fragile than him. To be fair the show did go a bit overboard to show him as just a weakling. The average man, which is what Hughie is, doesn’t struggle to open every jar he meets.

That said, his insecurity came not from having his masculinity threatened, but from feeling useless. He felt he had nor brought any value to their relationship. If Annie is filling every role in the relationship why is Hughie even there?

Hughie wants the same thing Kimiko(Karen Fukuhara) does. He takes the temporary V for the same reason Kimiko takes another dose of the permanent V. He wants to protect his family which in this case is Annie. He does a terrible job of explaining this to Annie. She is moved by the speech she read from Kimiko yet didn’t realize it applied to her relationship as well.

Hughie realizes there are different kinds of strength. Understanding finally what his father did for him when he was growing up.

On a different note, Annie’s back and forth with Homelander was fun. She’d play some power or social media game with him, and he’d abduct or kill someone she knows.

It’s good she’s left the Seven at this point. There’s no point in her not just being one of The Boys full time now.

Other Characters

It’s time for The Deep’s character to go. A first-episode death in season four would be a fitting end for him. He’s little more than comic relief at this point. His character won’t be redeemed. Is there anywhere interesting left for his character to go?

Frenchie and Kimiko are the couple Hughie and Annie want to be. Now realizing who they are and what they want will set them up nicely for season four. It seems there won’t be a romance between Frenchie and Kimiko so maybe he’ll rekindle his relationship with Cherie(Jordana Lajoie). She did almost die for him.

Poor Noir. By the end of season three Black Noir(Nathan Mitchell)’s story is just sad. His life was ruined by the father and ended by the son. While season four will see the return of Black Noir it will be a different character in the suit. Hopefully, he doesn’t meet the same fate.

It has to be said that all of the Boys should have a dose of permanent Compound V. Not only did Starlight go take one vial when she could have taken multiple but Frenchie and Kimiko were in the same lab and took none. It’s being pushed off further and further keeping The Boys from being Supes themselves.

Could this be a setup for something epic? A plot line where they are given the permanent Compound V against their will. While Butcher would love it Mother’s Milk would hate it.

Now obviously Butcher won’t die next season. The ticking clock will likely be solved by Butcher being given permanent Compound V.

There’s a lot to look forward to going into season four. How will this show top itself? What will Homelander do next? What new Supes will show up? We should have a shorter wait between seasons this time.

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