The Boys

Credit: Prime Video

Homelander has finally seen the light. His come-to-Jesus moment takes place during what can only be described as a total nervous breakdown. Images of his father, Soldier Boy, and his son, Ryan, and of A-Train and all the other people in his life who have mocked and scorned him flash across his vision. His breathing becomes quick and shallow. A full-blown panic attack overtakes him as words like “disappointment” and “pathetic” ring in his head. Spoilers through Season 5, Episode 3 of The Boys follow.

Then she appears. Madelyn Stillwell, glowing and angelic. “Millions of people hate me,” he tells her, and she tells him to purge the non-believers. It’s Moses and the Burning Bush, only in Homelander’s vision, Madelyn rips open her shirt, offers up Homelander’s favorite delicacy, bright heavenly light obscuring any indecency. The hallucination disappears and we see Homelander kneeling, arms spread, mouth open in ecstacy. From this point on, a strange calm descends over America’s super-powered dictator. The calm of purpose. Even Soldier Boy’s ribbing can’t phase him.

When Ryan shows up and confronts him about raping his mother, Becca, Homelander denies it, pleads with his son, says that he’s a blessing. But Ryan won’t listen. He tries to laser-eye Homelander. They fight, but it’s really no fight at all. Homelander slams the boy – now very much a teenager – into the ground and proceeds to beat him ruthlessly, one blow after another to the child’s face. It’s a gruesome, horrific scene (that reminds me more than a little bit of Omni-Man beating his son, Mark, in Prime Video’s other superhero series, Invincible).

Butcher shows up not long after and finds Ryan who, thankfully, is still alive, though certainly Homelander left him for dead.

This is the second episode in a row that pulled an “almost dead” moment. Soldier Boy was only mostly dead at the end of Episode 2, and I’m a little surprised that this episode opened to him being publicly added to the roster of The Seven. I guess I’d assumed that him popping up in the body bag alive would lead to something a bit more exciting, like Soldier Boy going rogue. Instead, he goes back to Vought and goes through the motions of being welcomed back into polite society. It was the “mainstream media” who tarnished his name, Firecracker tells her Vought News viewership. Starlight framed him and was the true terrorist behind that building he blew up. They sleep together and she reveals that she never slept with Homelander. Soldier Boy is a little disappointed. He was only doing it to get some petty revenge.

Elsewhere, the Boys head to Stan Edgar’s bunker to get his help locating the original V1 before Homelander can get his hands on it, now that everyone realizes that only V1 supes are immune to the supe-virus. This all proves to be something of a waste of time. When Zeo Neuman finds her father, Sameer, they destroy the rest of the virus on their way out the door. Does this mean that the virus plot is just . . . over? Or will the Boys recover some – or simply pretend like they have it to try to keep Homelander on the defensive?

The Deep, Cindy, Dogknott and Black Noir II track the Boys to the bunker and a fight ensues. Transluscent’s son, Maverick (also an invisible man) learns that Hughie and Butcher killed his father and switches sides, very nearly killing Hughie before Cindy explodes him. Starlight kills Cindy and then, rather inexplicably, decides that the best way to protect Hughie is to abandon him. Mother’s Milk realizes that Edgar is only fighting Vought and Homelander in order to take over, and tells him that if that happens he’ll put a bullet in his head. Edgar is unfazed.

This was a pretty good episode, though not quite as fun as the first two episodes of the season. I really enjoyed Soldier Boy talking crap to Homelander, and the hallucination bit was hilarious.

I find Butcher incredibly frustrating. He never says the right thing. Every scene with Ryan, when he has a chance to be somewhat encouraging or just a little bit reassuring or kind, he says the absolute worst possible thing to the boy. It’s infuriating, and leads directly to Ryan very nearly dying. I get that Butcher is a difficult person to get along with and all that, but you’d think he might have learned from his dozens of other mistakes with Ryan by this point and soften up just a tiny bit.

I also cracked up at The Deep driving a cyber-truck listening to Limp Bizkit. Too perfect. That he got the upper hand on Noir and Stan Edgar was much more surprising, but also pretty funny. I’m still curious about Black Noir II, though. Why is he suddenly silent like OG Noir?

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The Madelyn / Homelander-is-God scene was also insanely timely given the current state of affairs in this country and Trump’s recent (now-deleted) post with him as a Christ-like figure, and even more recent post of him and Jesus cuddling. I’m sure everyone who was a part of this show was laughing hysterically when that went down just a week or so before this episode dropped. Stranger than fiction and all that jazz.

In any case, I’m really enjoying this season, which has plenty of laughs but enough serious drama to keep things tense and a little dread-inducing. I’m rooting for Ryan at this point. I hope he can clean the slate. What did you think of Episode 3? Let me know on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.