The Boysseason 3, episode 1, “Payback”, has a lot of work to do as the season premiere, which occurs a few months after the explosive events of the previous season.The Boysseason 3 entersa new phase of the show, where it’s no longer just The Boys vs. The Seven. The government is drawn in, Vought begins thinking of a pivot, heroes from the past are introduced, and loyalties are ever-changing. The world is both a little more fearful of superheroes and also a little more enamored and the premiere feels like the calm before the storm.
InThe Boysseason 2 finale, the victory over Stormfront (Aya Cash) is marred by the tragedy of Butcher (Karl Urban) losing his wife, Becca (Shantel VanSanten), but most everyone else in the show claims victory. Starlight’s (Erin Moriarty) name is cleared, and she’s reinstated into The Seven; Butcher follows his promise to take care of Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) by putting him in Mallory’s (Laila Robins) care; and Hughie (Jack Quaid) gets to work with Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) to fight supes legally and non-violently. Season 3 starts with everyone in good places, meaning things can only go in one direction.
The Boys Are Now Working With The Bureau Of Superhuman Affairs And Victoria Neuman
Hughie Realizes The BSA Is Not Much Better Than Vought
At the start ofThe Boysseason 3,Victoria Neuman’s Bureau of Superhuman Affairs is up and running, and contracting out The Boys to help find and “non-violently” apprehend rogue supes. Hughie acts as a liaison, finally having the chance to go after superheroes in a way that he believes is within the bounds of the law and decency. What’s more, he’s getting to be in charge for once, though under Neuman of course. Butcher actually has to get approval from Hughie before he goes after a rogue hero called “The Termite”.
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The Termite (Brett Geddes) is a herowith Ant-Man-like superpowers, capable of shrinking while still maintaining his mass. After a lengthy fight that involves an inside view of a man’s nether regions, Butcher is able to throw The Termite into a bag of cocaine, knocking him out. It’s non-lethal but still very Butcher-appropriate. While Hughie is happy with the capture, he soon learns something unsavory. The Termite has a big endorsement deal, soVought will send him to rehab and hand over a much less powerful supe to appease Neuman’s commission, and Neuman is happy to approve.
Hughie has developed a real friendship with Neuman and the scenes of the pair working across from one another on a desk are charming and fun. But now, Hughie’s realizing he may have just replaced one useless bureaucracy with another, because while he and Neuman are ostensibly capturing bad superheroes,it seems that they are allowing the worst of them to go free, resulting in a facade of accountability that’s hiding more sinister dealings beneath.
Homelander Is Dealing With The Fallout From Stormfront
Starlight Is Asked To Co-Captain The Seven
Homelander (Anthony Starr) is having a rough couple of months after Stormfront’s defeat and mutilation. Now that it’s come out she was a Nazi, Homelander has been on an interview tour, having to apologize for dating a Nazi and admitting he did not know that she was one. It’s non-stop bowing and asking for forgiveness from humans, Homelander’s worst nightmare. He was even forced to be part of an MCU-style movie that features him admitting he was wrong and that he never loved Stormfront.
Charlize Theron cameos as Stormfront inDawn of the Seven, a parody ofAvengers-style team-up movies.
That may be true, but it doesn’t stop him from visiting the charred, amputated, powerless Stormfront in the hospital, who still can’t stop talking about a master race. To top things off, Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) has decided that Homelander is a bit too volatile to be the sole leader of The Seven at the moment and selects Starlight to be the co-captain, much to his rage. Ever happy to get under Homelander’s skin and seeing the value in being high up in the Vought hierarchy, Starlight accepts, ignoring any worries Hughie might have.
Maeve Tells Butcher About A Weapon That Could Kill Homelander
Soldier Boy Was The Original Homelander
Maeve (Dominique McElligott) remains in a precarious spot after the events of season 2, but because Stormfront turned out to be a Nazi, Homelander and Vought can’t take issue with her “betrayal”. However, she is not naive enough to think that Homelander will forget that she sided with Butcher. When she sees Homelander nearly choke A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) to death over a huffy comment, Maeve decides she needs to take even more drastic steps.
She meets up with Butcher in secret and tells him about “Payback”, a superhero team from the 1980s who were led by Soldier Boy, a supe supposedly more powerful than Homelander.
She meets up with Butcher in secret and tells him about “Payback”, a superhero team from the 1980s who were led by Soldier Boy, a supe supposedly more powerful than Homelander. Maeve tells Butcher that Payback developed a weapon powerful enough to defeat Soldier Boy. If The Boys can find that weapon, maybe it can destroy Homelander too. To help him in his search, Maeve also provides Butcher with some vials of temporary Compound V. She warns him about overuse, but if Butcher is known for anything, it certainly isn’t restraint.
Butcher And Homelander Have A Talk About Ryan
Both Men Have Been Hamstrung By Their Respective Bosses
Butcher and Homelander are both feeling disregarded and caged in inThe Boysseason 3, episode 1, “Payback”, so it makes sense that the old foes would find some time to meet and chat. Homelander flies to Butchers and demands to know where he put Ryan. Butcher just smirks and tells him he’s actually enjoyed getting to be close to Becca and Homelander’s son, and he’s not interested in breaking off that connection anytime soon.
After sizing one another up, the pair have a surprisingly honest heart-to-heart. Homelander is frustrated with Edgar and threatened by Starlight, while Butcher feels reigned in by Neuman’s new department. Both men have never had a love for authority and their current predicaments form a strange sort of bond. They both agree that when the time comes, neither one is going to hold back, and they’ll go scorched Earth on the other. It’s the only real way they know how to fight. They part after this strangely warming conversation.
Hughie Learns That Neuman Is A Superhero
Neuman Kills An Old Friend After He Mentions “Red River”
All episode long, a mysterious man has been calling to Victoria Neuman whenever she appears in public, except he calls her “Nadia”. Hughie assumes it’s just a confused fan, butthe more persistent the man becomes, the more suspicious Hughie gets. Late one night after work, he overhears the man calling for “Nadia” again, and, surprisingly, Nueman responds, explaining she doesn’t go by that name any longer. She reveals the man’s name as Tony (Kyle Mac), who seems delighted that his old friend remembers him. All the while, Hughie listens from behind a dumpster.
He excitedly tells Neuman that now that she has a platform she can tell everyone aboutsomething called “Red River”. Neuman pretends to want to help and instead puts her head-popping skills to grisly use, also showing some limitations to her powers. Hughie is here to see it all and as he realizes the huge mess he’s found himself in, blood rains from the sky all over him after Neuman explodes the remains of her victim.The Boysseason 3, episode 1, “Payback”, may have only a few deaths, but the ending kill signals a lot more violence to fall.
