The Boys

What does peacetime look like for The Boys? A recap of 'Payback,' episode 1 of the third season of 'The Boys' on Amazon Prime Video.

But perhaps the peacetime that both Vought and Neuman are so keen to maintain isn’t peacetime at all; it’s just stasis. For all his high-and-mightiness about the work he and Neuman have been doing — and, to be fair, they have contributed to a steep drop in “suit collateral” — the rich and famous still rarely face any repercussions. Of course, Butcher refuses to pass along Becca’s son Ryan’s location to Homelander; he’s bonded a lot with the kid over the year of Ryan’s isolated stay with Boys founder Grace Mallory. For all Butcher’s fears of becoming his father, he’s becoming a surprisingly good one himself. The two men agree to commit to their own favored brand of warfare: scorched earth, with only one left standing at the end. Neuman is complicit in sweeping the first death of the episode under the rug. “Think about what that would mean to millions of girls,” she tells Hughie, momentarily forgetting the real end goal here. It’s nice to see the big secret about Hughie’s new boss come out so early on, instead of after a few episodes of wheel-spinning. Creative violence is this show’s bread and butter, especially as it intersects with sex, so you can imagine the writer’s room laughing their asses off coming up with each beat of this scene. There’s no point in putting it off, so let’s dive in (no pun intended): at his boyfriend’s request, Termite shrinks down and squeezes through his urethra, stroking the inner walls of his dick as he meanders toward the prostate. Only two people die in the episode (a low body count in this show), and neither character was featured before this episode, anyway. It’s clear from the beginning of the episode that this ceasefire is temporary (if it even exists at all). In fact, much of “Payback” feels like the calm before the storm. What has happened in the last twelve months, and can an uneasy truce be sustained based on the threat of mutually assured destruction alone?

The Boys is back for eight more blood-soaked episodes in Season 3. Billy Butcher, Homelander, Hughie, and more are back for more fun.

The Boys Season 3, like Seasons 1 and 2, will be eight episodes in total. The cursing. It's the violence. Season 3 picks up right where Season 2 left off; Billy Butcher ( Karl Urban) and Hughie Campbell ( Jack Quaid) have both gone legit in their fight against the Supes, with Butcher's crew working under the CIA umbrella and Hughie working as the right hand to Victoria Neumann (Claudia Doumit)—who may or may not be the mysterious figure who can make people's heads explode whenever the hell she feels like it. It's been a while since the last blood-soaked, gut-filled season of Amazon Prime Video's superhero send-up The Boys, but man are we glad to have it back. Not good at all!

"The Boys," Amazon Prime Video's ultra-cynical superhero hit, sets its sights on American imperialism and toxic masculinity.

Season 2 gave us airborne sex and a Scientology-like org in the publicity-hungry Church of the Collective. In Season 3, with plain old humans getting in on the Supe action, the show takes a greater interest in the sad, sordid lives of the in-betweeners: superpowered D-listers who’d never be considered The Seven material. It’s theoretically interesting to give The Boys a taste of the Supe life, so they can experience for themselves how easy it is to give into one’s worst impulses when immune from consequences; under V24, the vengeance-obsessed Butcher splits an uncooperative witness’s head in two as smoothly as he would a melon. When The Boys’ leader, Butcher (Karl Urban), is offered smuggled vials of the stuff, his distrust of the Supes is no match for the enticement of finally being as powerful as his enemies. “You need 5 million people” who are extremely angry (but in the vulgar language the show is known for). Unsurprisingly, Season 2’s explorations of hate as a politically animating force made for blistering parody during the Trump years. A best-drama Emmy nominee for its outstanding second season, “The Boys” is something of a mutant itself. Instead, the Superman-like Homelander (Antony Starr) and the Wonder Woman-esque Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) appear in movies based on their exploits and smile toothily from the sides of buses and soda cups, offering scripted romances to increase their Q ratings and anodyne political messaging that works around, rather than addresses, the prejudices of the day.

The Boys Season 3 premiere sets up the potential for an all-new, all-terrifying version of Homelander. Here's what it means for The Boys, Starlight, ...

What he might do next is a chilling thing to ponder, but, as in the real world, the scariest part is asking ourselves how the “good guys” will redirect a monster that has grown much, much bigger than any one person. Other options may include the many other unstable supes that exist in a secret government bunker, but perhaps most likely is the chance of a partnership with Soldier Boy, “the first superhero.” Referred to as “Homelander before there was Homelander,” it should be clear that his politics are dicey and he’s not exactly a team player, but his well-earned hostility toward Vought could entail him allying with The Boys. At this rate, it looks like they’re going to need all the help they can get. This is disturbingly reminiscent of his interactions with Queen Maeve in the first two seasons, and as with Maeve, he’s keeping Starlight off-balance in order to keep the upper hand. Homelander’s increasingly public revelations of his rotten core have only led to a surge in his ratings, putting the rest of The Seven and The Boys in similar positions attempting to navigate his ever-escalating bad behavior. Having already gone above and beyond to make an enemy of Queen Maeve, he’s moved on to attempting to break Starlight while continuing to bully the others. Nowhere is that more true than Homelander, whose anger at being “subdued” has encouraged bolder acts that go beyond cruelty and into outright fascism.

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — This week's new entertainment options feature some very dark characters. “Lucifer: The Complete Fifth Season”: Grade 3 /12 ...

The Seven are some of the most powerful "supes" on The Boys. But who's the most powerful of them all? We rank them here.

As the wife of Frederick Vought, she became the first known superhero, and she is by far one of the most powerful. Just a few of the powers we see from Noir, but his main ability is his high martial arts prowess. The only other supe we see with this ability is Homelander, and he is clearly impressed by this as he falls for her. The ability to turn completely invisible is his trademark power, but it's arguably his carbon skin that makes him so formidable. One of the few on this list that is a consistent member of The Seven, Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) is a great all-rounder. He is able to send a girl in the tunnel flying through the wall, and is also to send Starlight flying through the air, which is very impressive considering she's pretty strong herself. After spending years as a local hero, she is attracted by the glamour of The Seven, but quickly discovers the dark reality of being a member. Noir is definitely one of the most feared in the group and is highly reliable, but he has one unfortunate weakness that lets him down: Tree nuts. Her alliance to The Boys massively helps them in their pursuit of taking down The Seven, providing them with intelligence and working from the inside to bring them down. One of the earlier members of The Seven, Lamplighter (Shawn Ashmore) was replaced by Starlight, with not much being known about him in the first season. One of the first heroes we meet, The Deep (Chace Crawford) finds himself sinking toward the bottom of the rankings. Kicking things off, we have Shockwave (Mishka Thébaud). Although he never really made it to The Seven, he was all set to join as the replacement to A-Train after the latter's forced retirement.

The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke discusses how Jensen Ackles was cast as Soldier Boy for Season 3 — and how the Supernatural actor fought for the role.

He can be scary, he can be emotional, he can be a credible action star. So it hadn't occurred to me to think of Jensen because he plays as younger, but it wasn't until I was on the phone with him that I was like, 'Wait a minute, are you interested in this part? The hopelessly smarmy supe is played by Jensen Ackles, and the role reunites him with show creator Eric Kripke — the two worked together for a time on Supernatural when the series was first taking off on the now-CW — and let's just say that Soldier Boy is a pretty far cry from anything Dean Winchester ever was, even on his worst day.

In Episode 3 of the new season of The Boys, a suped-up Billy Butcher gets the gang back together to desperately find a way to kill Homelander, leader of the ...

Now that Season 3 is out, we get to go a bit deeper into one of the first superhero groups in the history of The Boys. The loudmouth parody of Marvel's Captain America is the leader of Payback. And he has the strength to help America win World War II—and presumably has strength comparable to Homelander. His anti-aging ability preserves not only his skin, but also the sexist norms of the 1940s, when telling a female case officer for the CIA she needs to smile was acceptable to him. Until we see Orphan Black's Ryan Blakely do more than protrude his large forehead for a pose, we'll reserve judgment on how useful Mind-Storm is in The Boys universe. So far on this season of The Boys, she's only shot a few fireballs, but in the comics, she has Homelander-style heat vision lasers and can manipulate fire on a greater level than Season 2 standout Lamplighter. We may not have seen the last of what Crimson can do. In Episode 3 of the new season of The Boys, a suped-up Billy Butcher gets the gang back together to desperately find a way to kill Homelander, leader of the more popular Avengers spin-off The Seven, once and for all. Through her recollection of that catastrophic event, we find out about one of the first groups of superheroes Vought tried to shove into military action—Payback.

Jensen Ackles is here as Soldier Boy, a superhero who wasn't particularly heroic — but what really happened to the powerful supe?

Frenchie’s pulled into a car and taken to her, and she asks him to give up Cherie. He won’t do it and leaves, but as he walks away, she tells him to think about it. and behind her back, out of the view of the cameras, she clenches her fist. Before Annie called, Grace had been telling the Boys (after a bit of threatening from Butcher) about what happened with Soldier Boy. In ’84, she was stationed in Nicaragua as part of a cocaine-trafficking operation to fund Operation Charlie. When they were gearing up for a “major offensive,” the government decided to bring in Payback. Obviously, Payback wasn’t prepared to be in a place where the enemy could fire at any second, and “Swatto,” a supe with fly wings, gave away their position by, well, flying. Frenchie ( Tomer Capon) also has a run-in with a woman named “Little Nina” (Katia Winter). He has a past with her, and Cherie gets on her bad side for losing a drug shipment. Panicked, Starlight calls Hughie ( Jack Quaid) — who has gone to Grace Mallory with the rest of the Boys to hear what she has to say about Soldier Boy — and says she wants to stop being co-captain. In fact, the best thing about him might be his death, if it means taking down Homelander ( Antony Starr) is possible.

New and crazy adventures await William Butcher (Karl Urban) and his team in their attempt to eliminate Vought's Supes. Plus, Billy seems more relentless than ...

Let us know in the comments section below. The task to portray the first live-action adaptation of Soldier Boy has been entrusted to Jensen Ackles. 44-year-old Ackles is coming off a fifteen-year run as Dean Winchester, the demon hunter in The CW’s Supernatural. His credits also include voicing Bruce Wayne in the Batman: The Long Halloween animation movies. In the comics, Soldier Boy was introduced in 2009’s Herogasm miniseries created by Garth Ennis, John McCrea, and Keith Burns. Soldier Boy’s role and powers mock pretty much the ones of Marvel’s Steve Rogers, including his shield as a melee weapon.

The Boys had maybe its most disgusting scene ever, featuring an Ant-Man-esque hero named Termite and an exploding penis.

This is Termite's first major inclusion in the show by Kripke and company, though he was previously seen in the secret Supe sex club that Butcher and Hughie walked through in the very first episode. "Then silicon viscera was created, from blood to intestines, to assorted organs, and packed into the dummy's hollow rib cage, so that when it flopped onto the bed, the blood and guts would spill out of it." He tells Termite he didn't see anything, but then Termite doesn't have any interest in word of this getting out—he shrinks down to bug size, and, in a lovely reference to the famous Ant-Man Endgame theory, tries to fly into Frenchie's behind to explode him. And then the romantic suitor tells Termite that he wants to take things to the next level. Luckily, Billy Butcher ( Karl Urban) is monitoring from afar, and comes in to save the day: throwing Termite into a bag of cocaine and shaking him up like a powdered sugar dispenser for a delicious Sunday waffle. So, after the premiere for a movie called Pocket Romance, we find Frenchie (Tomer Capone) monitoring the afterparty for its hard-partying, showboating star, Termite (Brett Geddes). Termite has the power to grow very small and (presumably) very large, and shows this off in front of his adoring party guests.

Prime Video's action-packed satire asks, "What do the good guys do when the bad guys just keep winning?"

What makes The Boys’ approach to this familiar territory stick—like a speedboat plunging straight into the innards of Lucy the Whale stick—is its unrelenting winks to the world in which we actually live. But generally speaking, The Boys remains one of the more in-touch satires in streaming, putting a fine point on a metaphoric dagger too many other shows wield like a blunt butter knife. So to get what they want, The Boys have to decide what parts of themselves they’re willing to lose. (If there’s an argument to be made for a The Boys movie, then it’s seeing those cruel, icy orbs on the big screen.) So, in a painful action-packed dramedy of errors that never lets up, The Boys season three takes aim at a daunting question: What do the good guys do when the bad guys just keep winning? Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso), Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara), Frenchie (Tomer Kapon), and even Butcher (Karl Urban) try to do the same.

Showrunner Eric Kripke explains how that explosive scene from the Season 3 premiere has a surprising practical effect.

That tunnel inside is really the urethra inside that giant penis. What was supposed to be an act of pleasure turns into a bloody mess. The Boys has never been shy about its gratuitous violence or sexual exploits ever since it first premiered on Prime Video back in 2019.

Roxana Hadadi is a TV critic who also writes about film and pop culture, with the closed captions on and motion smoothing off. Photo: Amazon Prime. Dicks ...

The fight scenes continue to be well-blocked and well-staged, in particular a few in the season’s back half that are less about splashy choreography and more about brawny brutalism between their participants. Whatever can happen will happen, and whatever can go wrong will go wrong — but not wrong enough to leave a lasting impact in the world of The Boys. Sadism is still there: brain matter splooging out of a skull, the sticky smear of a body dragged along pavement, a supe punching through another person’s abdomen (a scene that happens twice with two different sets of characters). Fatherhood as a burden is still there: more memories of Butcher’s abusive father, and two more story lines with the same dynamics. But whatever wounds these men inflict upon each other are wiped away by The Boys’ unwillingness to genuinely change the structures in which its characters operate: Vought is still untouchable, the American government is still duplicitous, the criminal underworld is still full of Russians. There’s a rinse-and-repeat quality to both the heroes and the villains that means nothing much changes by the end of this season, as The Boys settles into the same cyclical narrative patterns as the cinematic universes it claims to be mocking. That American freedom is a myth and that the country’s gung ho ideology is built on propaganda and lies? Combine those decades of political awfulness with the concurrent superhero monoculture takeover of movies and TV, and certain patterns of stasis begin to emerge.

Fun! Meanwhile, Butcher (Karl Urban), Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara), and Frenchie (Tomer Capon) work to get info about Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) from his old ...

“I’m the real hero.” And with that, the episode ends. With that, Butcher heads back to the convention to confront Gunpowder. The guy shoots him several times, and Butcher falls… The prolonged, heartfelt goodbye he says to his ex-wife does not inspire confidence that he’ll survive Season 3. “No God. The only man in the sky is me.” Caught between his laser eyes and the fall, she jumps. He’s left with a bullet in his leg and a cut on his cheek, but he gets away. He tries to threaten her, and then Stan Edgar, who’s been watching the dress rehearsal, cuts in and tells Homelander that since Starlight’s numbers are better, she “can call her own shots.” With that, Homelander storms away. He shares the info about Red River with her. “Oh, God,” the girl says. Ringing in his ears, Homelander rants at the girl and says she should, in fact, jump. With his annual televised birthday celebration approaching, “The Only Man in the Sky” turns the insane supe into a ticking time bomb of contempt, arrogance, and pent-up rage. (He wasn’t supposed to go there without Annie [ Erin Moriarty], but, oh well.) He lies to the nurse and says he and Starlight are thinking of adopting, and he’s able to copy information from one of their computers onto a flash drive. Fun! Meanwhile, Butcher ( Karl Urban), Kimiko ( Karen Fukuhara), and Frenchie ( Tomer Capon) work to get info about Soldier Boy ( Jensen Ackles) from his old Payback teammates.

The Boys season 3 begins with the long-awaited blockbuster hit of the summer. Release the Bourke Cut!

“Dawn of the 7 is a very sneaky way to reset all of the story actually,” Kripke says. It kind of gives you the opportunity to kind of do bad acting. In the real world events of The Boys season 2, Homelander was unbothered by Stormfront’s ideology and had every intention of living out his days with the powerful woman who properly appreciated his god-like status. The fictional film was apparently part of a Snyder Cut-like movement to “release the Bourke Cut,” a gag that Zack Snyder himself appears to have appreciated. Dawn of the 7 is an Avengers or Justice League-style superhero teamup film starring the superpowered members of Vought’s premier team. The Boys season 3 opens in a place where the show hasn’t dared tread before: the cinema.

The Boys Season 3 opened with a mock film scene featuring Charlize Theron playing Stormfront. Here's how the Charlize Theron cameo came together.

The scene is satire within satire—The Boys itself a series parodying superhero and celebrity worship. Theron’s delivery is purposefully wooden, as is the rest of the cast’s acting. For viewers of The Boys, it equates the superhero with the celebrity. Of course, the new season of Amazon’s The Boys opens with a film parody. The film attempts to sanitize events of the previous season, when Homelander entered into a love affair with a literal Nazi and white supremacist stan. The target is Marvel. And DC. Of course, of course, of course.

“The very first 15 minutes of episode 1 is by far the craziest thing we've ever done…like, by a mile.” Naturally, when we had a chance to speak with Kripke ...

Of course, The Boys had already pulled off one instance of sudden rectal violence when they dispatched Translucent with an ass grenade in season 1. Ah, the magic of artistic creation! The case presented in the opening moments of season 3 episode 1 “Payback” is by far the most extreme and gruesome example yet. “It starts with ‘well we haven’t done Ant-Man yet’ and then someone says “you know that meme of Ant-Man climbing up Thanos’s butt? It’s a bold, grotesque opener to a season that no one could possibly have predicted. Unfortunately for that human penis, Termite sneezes, accidentally enlarging himself and exploding the penis owner’s body to smithereens.

It's Homelander's party, and he can go Nazis if he wants to. A recap of “The Only Man in the Sky,” episode two of the third season of 'The Boys' on Amazon ...

Could he actually develop some empathy for the supes he’s always thought of as inherently wrong? But it’s hard to know how Kimiko could’ve avoided the public violence, especially since it’s a Countess fireball that makes the biggest mess. Poking and prodding him with the suggestion that Soldier Boy routinely molested him, Butcher winds up provoking a gunfight that he barely escapes. He gets the information he wants — whatever happened to Soldier Boy happened during a mission in Nicaragua, working under none other than Grace Mallory! (Oh, and Soldier Boy did slap him around a little, but it never went further than that.) He tries to resist Butcher’s invitation back — he can’t abandon his family again — but we know it’s only a matter of time. She knows that he does want to be with his family, but he can’t be at peace when he still has unfinished business. After getting shot by Gunpowder (more on that later) and watching Ryan’s emotional stop-motion animation of Becca’s voice-mail, he realizes Grace Mallory might be right, it might be time to get out of the game like Mother’s Milk did. Thankfully, the fight ends with an honest admission: Hughie thought things were finally going his way, but the Neuman revelation has shown him how blind he was to the truth. But the couple’s fake fight is organic enough to morph into a real one, tied to Hughie’s awareness of his relative physical weakness. While Annie is preoccupied with the birthday boy, Hughie is too impatient — and too insecure about his reliance on his superhero girlfriend — to wait for her to investigate Neuman further. But as soon as he hears the news, he pivots from bored obligation to actively encouraging the woman to go through with the suicide. He pays a visit to the Red River Institute, a group home for the super-abled owned by Vought, where it turns out Neuman (and her latest victim, Tony) grew up.

While fans have been anticipating this date for the last two years, since the announcement of Jensen Ackles taking on the role, there have been several theories ...

While Soldier Boy could impact how the series moves forward, he could also have a lot to do with how certain characters’ stories continue to develop. Season 3 is an exploration of Soldier Boy but also how Vought operated in the early days of the company. The trailer for the series has given fans several clues into what the arc of Soldier Boy could be this season. With Soldier Boy breaking out from captivity, several other members may be alive, too, with glimpses of Crimson Countess (Laurie Holden) and Gunpowder (Sean Patrick Flanery) in the trailer. It is possible that past connections could still be alive, giving Soldier Boy the chance to call in some favors and find new ways to interact in the world he’s just woken up in. Season 3 of The Boys is about to hit Amazon Prime, and the long-awaited arrival of the Captain America counterpart, Soldier Boy, is almost here.

This article contains spoilers for The Boys season 3. As we're fond of pointing out around here, no other show on television understands superhero culture ...

Mother’s Milk alleges and Grace confirms that the CIA sold all of that excess cocaine into minority neighborhoods in the U.S. to disrupt and destabilize them. - Operation Charly, or the reason Grace was in Nicaragua in the first place, is basically completely real. - Mother’s Milk calls out Grace for another unsavory part of her role in Nicaragua – the purchase of the Contra’s plentiful cocaine. Here are all the references to the “real world” that we spotted in The Boys season 3. Does this mean thatCharlize Theron is also a part of the MCU in The Boys‘ universe? There are still many references to the church and its veiled comparisons to Scientology though. Finally! Confirmation that Amazon exists in the Boys‘ universe. Good to know that Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner exists in The Boys. Is the existence of Amazon canon in The Boys universe? - Fictional director Adam Bourke (P.J. Byrne) had to reshoot the whole film after Stormfront’s true nature came to light. This season finds Homelander making good on Antony Starr’s promise to become a “homicidal maniac” and in the process the world that Vought created begins to resemble our own more closely than ever before. The Boys season 3 opens up with one hell of a homage.

Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for Season 3, Episodes 1-3 of The Boys. After all the chaos that came with Season 2 of The Boys, ...

After revealing Supersonic and the Deep ( Chace Crawford) as the new members, Homelander announces on-air on American Hero that he and Starlight are in love. Starlight assures him nothing is going on between them and never will, but Hughie seems to have a tough time getting over the fact that she and Supersonic have a lot of history. No, he joins because he still cares about Starlight, and if she's ever in danger, he will have her back. Though shaken by this revelation, Starlight soon goes along with it by kissing him. After all the chaos that came with Season 2 of The Boys, things seem to finally be peaceful. Although their individual storylines start out on a high note, things progressively decline for the pair.

Showrunner Eric Kripke talked to us about how The Boys pulled off the Termite gag, and the Avengers Ant-Man/Thanos meme inspiration for the moment.

Just kind of the smell in the air.” And then you had like this British Invasion of Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman and Garth Ennis, who made The Boys, and then they deconstruct and tear it apart, but rebuild it and pay homage to it and just start playing with the form? The scene includes an image of Termite jumping into the giant (from his point of view, at least) penis, and also a sequence where he is inside it. “There’s certainly a trend to deconstruct the superhero genre,” Kripke said. Unfortunately, Termite (who, it must be repeated, has been doing a ton of cocaine) sneezes while inside the penis, accidentally reverting to human size and exploding his partner’s bottom half in the process. And then hilariously, one of the writers [...] raises their hand and says, Did we do a butt explosion in season 1?

'The Boys' star Erin Moriarty talks about Starlight's new role within The Seven and that unexpected Starlight/Homelander moment in Episode 3.

Hughie is so well intentioned and loves her so much, but I don’t think anyone could possibly understand how uncomfortable and scary it is to be put in that position every single day, to be by Homelander’s side. How is that going to start to affect Hughie and Annie’s relationship? Exactly! He’d sooner kill the person threatening his power or die himself than give that up. She works in an environment where she’s viewed power as something that people take advantage of, and its power has existed in a really toxic way at Vought. But she looks at it as potentially being her chance to finally impart that change and do good within Vought that she’s been wanting to do and make certain decisions that could steer Vought in a better way. TVLINE As Homelander put it, if it’s released and he loses everything, then he has nothing to lose.

Blown away by Charlize Theron's cameo in season three of The Boys? You're not alone. Chace Crawford, Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Karen Fukuhara and others weigh ...

Ackles, a newcomer to the Boys cast, had an equally funny reaction. Crawford, who plays superhero The Deep, revealed that he was equally shocked by Theron's participation, joking, "Whose favor did they have to call in for her?" The Oscar-winning actress appears in the opening scene of episode one as herself.

"The Boys" showrunner explains how they pulled off the Season 3 premiere's fatal penis accident scene and that big Charlize Theron cameo.

For Kripke, “Herogasm” isn’t just about the giant suphero orgy, anyways: “As much as we talk about all the shock and the crazy, I think ‘Herogasm’ works not because it’s a major superhero orgy, because that’s all really funny. But I think that episode really lands because, not only are there crazy moments, but there are many, many emotional moments.” “That is an 11-foot high, 20-foot long penis head that has a urethra, a tunnel in it, and built at great expense. The heart and soul with which she delivers it is so funny and stunning. “Even though it was very much sweetened by the effects, that is a practical penis,” Kripke said. As “The Boys” showrunner Eric Kripke previously promised Variety, within the first 15 minutes of the Season 3 premiere, a moment occurs that is “a thousand times crazier” than the whale scene: A superhero named Termite shrinks down and climbs into the urethra of his significant other in order to pleasure him from inside his penis. Even though that’s an insane moment, I think we continue to delve into the characters, dramatize what they’re going through in these shit-bird-insane-bananas moments, and, to me, luckily the shock of it just never quite wore off.” “Craig Rosenberg wrote the script and deserves most of the blame for it,” Kripke said. That’s the world of ‘The Boys.'” Within the first three episodes of Season 2, “The Boys” blew up a whale by having Butcher (Karl Urban) crash into it with a speedboat. And it was Craig who mounted that argument. And it was so funny.”

The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke discusses how the most despicable character of the show was always destined to return in Season 3.

Even as Kripke said this was always the plan, it remains one of the more interesting surprises of a season that is pumped full of them. It shows how her bravado and snark were all a front for the ugliness that she always represented in her hateful ideology. It certainly provides narrative closure to her character while also adding another wrinkle to Homelander’s descent into even more depravity, as it is clear that he still is drawn to her even though he can’t admit it publicly. While it seemed like she may be dead after the events of the last season left her horribly injured, we now see that she is still very much alive. it was weird how sometimes people interpret things that you didn't intend because people would ask me all the time, 'Stormfront's dead, right?' Or, 'Could you bring back Stormfront? Isn't she dead?' And I'm like, 'She's not dead. Most central to this is the return of a significant character: Stormfront (Aya Cash).

Now, the online community is coming together to mourn the tragic death of Timothy the Octopus, who, in his final moments, decided to pray for his life and that ...

Being the vicious bastard that he is, Homelander brings out Timothy and forces the Deep to eat him alive, which leads to arguably the show’s most disgusting moment to date. The Boys has always been a brutal show, ever since A-Train ran through Hughie’s girlfriend and started this whole mess in the first few minutes of the series premiere. Now, the online community is coming together to mourn the tragic death of Timothy the Octopus, who, in his final moments, decided to pray for his life and that of his children.

[Warning: The following contains spoilers for The Boys Season 3, Episode 3! Read at your own risk!] Dearly beloved The Boys fans, we are gathered here to ...

All he wanted was to masturbate while The Deep was having sex and didn't deserve the fate of being eaten by the object of his affection," executive producer Eric Kripke said so eloquently. "He was a good listener. He was as good of a friend as you could have, 60-feet below the surface," Crawford said of his departed scene partner. "Love can be cruel sometimes." He was there during some of The Deep's most intimate moments, specifically that time The Deep was having sex with his wife and Timothy got himself off against the aquarium glass. Dearly beloved The Boys fans, we are gathered here to pay tribute to a dear friend who left us too soon.

[Warning: The following contains spoilers for the Season 3 premiere of The Boys! Read at your own risk]. If fans had somehow forgotten how intensely gross ...

"Butt stuff is something that we've already done and we are not going to repeat ourselves," he stated. Kripke confirms that the staff thought about it though and were not willing to repeat previous season moments. It was the most The Boys thing to start with that sequence." Once you take butts off the table, there are really only so many orifices that he can go in to explode somebody." Not only is Termite The Boys' answer to Ant-Man, but the inspiration for, excuse us, the explosive scene came from a viral meme that was circulated post- Avengers: Infinity War. VFX sweetened it up, but that is an 11-foot high, 20-foot long, actual, practical penis built at great expense," series creator and executive producer Eric Kripke explained to TV Guide. "It's one of the reasons I love my job."

Marvin A.K.A. Mother's Milk (Laz Alonso) attempts to return to a “normal life,” while Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), Frenchie (Tomer Capone), and Kimiko (Karen ...

A sequence in the final moments of the episode reveals that he just can’t give up the fight his father started—his closet is revealed to be covered in a collage of supe-related newspaper clippings. The recurring motif of “Dream a Little Dream of Me” makes its third and final appearance, a hauntingly beautiful version performed by YouTuber Anne Reburn. He’s left in a limbo of sorts, with an apparent desire to hang up the supe-hunting towel combined with an inability to return to his former life. The documents speak of something called B.C.L. Red, which apparently killed Soldier Boy. Maeve postulates that if they can find B.C.L. Red, then they can use it to take down Homelander once and for all. Butcher returns home and intensely watches the tragic Homelander and Maeve airplane footage while the sound of the tea kettle rises. Peter tells Termite, “I want you inside me”—literally. Termite shrinks down on the table—leaping over a few lines of cocaine—and jumps into the tip of Peter’s penis. There is a particularly affectionate scene in which Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) stumbles upon a girl playing the piano (Kelsey Falconer) and seemingly joins her in a warm rendition of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong’s take on the jazz standard “Dream a Little Dream of Me.” However, this spontaneous jam session is abruptly upended by the tragic realization that it is all in Kimiko’s head. The resident Ant-Man of the Vought Universe, Termite follows the predictable supe trend of using his powers to fulfill niche fetishes. He is confronted by Billy Butcher, who is carrying out some supe-busting contract work with the Hughie-less Boys for Hughie and Congresswoman Victoria Neuman. Billy approaches Hughie about a lead on a supe they’ve been tracking, letting him know that the Boys are ready to attack and that they are just waiting for the go-ahead. So I spent the last year really slowing down and reconnecting with myself, and I am very excited for everyone to meet the real me.” Like you.” The rest of the Seven are revealed, and they and Stormfront duke it out. The reveal of the glitzy Vought Studios red carpet premiere for Dawn of the Seven establishes Hughie and Starlight (Erin Moriarty)’s newfound public face, along with some expected, subtly menacing intimidation from Homelander. A montage of Homelander’s handling of the Stormfront (Aya Cash) fiasco reveals a flurry of repetitive talking points recycled to different networks: “I am just a man who fell for the wrong woman.

The Boys season 3, episode 3 drops a series of stunning revelations about Black Noir's past before the Seven, answering many mysteries.

Filling the gaps, it seems Vought patched up Black Noir and readied their man for a post-Payback solo career, which he took to like Justin Timberlake after N*Sync. The Boys season 3's Nicaragua flashback might also explain why Noir is such a loyal soldier for Vought in the present day. He's still awful, obviously, but not quite as awful as everyone else, and season 3's flashback provides more context as to why Black Noir's moral compass points in the direction it does. Two big questions followed Black Noir throughout The Boys seasons 1 & 2 - why does he wear a mask, and why doesn't he talk? The Boys already teased Black Noir's Payback past in marketing material, but season 3 confirms exactly when and how he was a member. As Noir gurgles toward Mallory, audiences can also assume this is how the supe lost his ability to talk. "Barbary Coast" doesn't state exactly when Noir was born, but the character looks (and bearing in mind he's already an established hero by this point) in his early-mid 20s. When Mallory discovers him, the left side of Noir's face is completely burned - the skin bubbling hot, left eye loose in its socket, and large chunks of hair scorched. A shadowy ninja possessing powers of strength, agility and durability, Black Noir is the very definition of "silent but deadly." Noir's bright, vocal, almost goofy personality is - by design - the exact opposite of his superhero reputation. Meanwhile, The Boys Presents: Diabolical surprisingly confirmed Noir was Vought's most popular hero in the years immediately before Homelander debuted. Season 2 confirmed Noir was a Black man underneath the mask, and also hinted towards some horrific facial injury. The Boys season 3 completely reframes Black Noir by revealing the tragic truth behind the man - here's everything we learn in "Barbary Coast" and what it all means.

Though Noir came close to winning, Queen Maeve arrived in Starlight's defense, slamming an Almond Joy down the Silent Knight's throat and triggering his ...

Is the real Noir still in a coma, and the version currently in The Boys season 3 is a masked Homelander copy? Not only would this explain Black Noir's comeback after being stuffed with Almond Joy, it'd account for his distinct lack of lust for vengeance against Queen Maeve. We've also seen conspicuously little from Black Noir in The Boys season 3's opening episodes (the present day timeline, at least) and that could be because the Seven supe is a different character now, and too much screen time would clue viewers into his secret too early. As far as everyone in The Boys is concerned, Black Noir came out of his vegetative state to make a full recovery during the year-long gap between The Boys seasons 2 and 3. Black Noir ends The Boys season 2 in a coma, hidden away somewhere within the bowels of Vought's Seven Tower. Positive updates come when Black Noir is mentioned as an active superhero in The Boys season 3. How is Black Noir still alive in The Boys season 3? Noir's The Boys return is sort-of explained via Amazon's "Seven on 7" online promo segments released between seasons 2 and 3.

Strap yourself in for a wild ride: "The Boys" returns for a third season of head-popping gore, dark humor and psychotic superheroes -- and it's a rollicking ...

It’s riveting, with the show’s stock-in-trade cartoonish violence that’s more humorous than disturbing. He’s also on an apology talk show in which he goes full-on-smarm, but he’s further thrown for a loop once Starlight ( Erin Moriarty) is named co-captain of The Seven. It’s a “touché” moment, not just for Starlight but for evil Vought boss Stan Edgar ( Giancarlo Esposito), who’s tired of Homelander and the whole shebang. Strap yourself in for a wild ride: “The Boys” returns for a third season of head-popping gore, dark humor and psychotic superheroes — and it’s a rollicking ride.

In "Barbary Coast," Grace Mallory tells The Boys about her time working with the superhero group Payback in Nicaragua in the '80s. In her story, Mallory sees ...

A second season followed in 2020. A second season followed in 2020. Later in the episode, Black Noir receives a major injury to his face, which leads to him always wearing his mask.

'The Boys' showrunner Eric Kripke confirms the Red River Institute will become a "bigger and bigger part of 'The Boys' universe."

Among the files he searches is a profile for Marie M., a 17-year-old supe teen who is played by Chilling Adventures of Sabrina actress Jaz Sinclair and who will be a main character in a new spin-off of The Boys. "Red River becomes an interestingly bigger and bigger part of The Boys universe." Sinclair stars in the college-set drama (which is currently filming and still untitled) as one of various teens attending Vought's premiere university for supes. Red River was first made a part of The Boys Presents: Diabolical, specifically in "An Animated Short Where Pissed-Off Supes Kill Their Parents," the second episode of the animated anthology series. The Boys writers called this home Red River, a phrase used in the comic books. Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland was thinking of a similar concept for his episode of Diabolical. "He said, 'I wanna do this group home where all these freaks live,'" Kripke recalls.

The Boys showrunner Erik Kripke commented on the surprising cameo in the premiere, and the unintentional Marvel connection.

The Boys is just having a blast with its Marvel parodies this season. The heart and soul with which she delivers it is so funny and stunning. And it was Craig who mounted that argument. As for another elephant in the room: the penis scene. According to Kripke, it wasn’t purposeful and was pure coincidence. Well, now it’s been revealed that the whole circumstance was completely unintentional.

Content warning: This article mentions fictional instances of sexual abuse. Black Noir. Who is the man behind the mystery? The Seven's sole silent supe doesn't ...

Vought International actually created Black Noir as a Homelander clone (hence why he's masked in the comics). Black Noir's entire purpose was to end Homelander if the supe ever became too dangerous. Black Noir actually framed Homelander for his despicable acts, which caused him to lose his mind. He notes with frustration that he has to put the mask on just to get a cab. Let's start with Black Noir in the television series. When Grace flashes back to what went down in Nicaragua, we meet a young Black Noir, completely unmasked! Black Noir. Who is the man behind the mystery?

After nearly two years, The Boys Season 3 premiere finally gives us the "Payback" we've been waiting for.

The stakes have never been higher as everyone is willing to play the long game. The end of the episode sees Hughie leaving the bureau after work, bidding goodbye to Neuman, only to follow her shortly after. After parting ways with the boys and going to work with Congresswoman Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) at the end of Season 2, Hughie is at the top of the world. Informing them of Starlight’s stellar 96% in the polls (a new Vought record), Edgar extends an invitation to Starlight to join Homelander as co-captain of the Seven. Homelander remains calm but attempts to object, ultimately being asked to leave the room by Edgar. Once he has vacated, Edgar tells a flustered Starlight, “As long as I am CEO of Vought, he’s under control, and we both know why.” This statement from Edgar (with full knowledge that Homelander is likely within earshot) is the clearest example yet as to why Homelander is so docile, at least from the corporate perspective. Still shaken from his interaction with the speedster, Homelander is called to Edgar’s office where he bumps into Starlight. He tells her to leave them the room, but Edgar confirms he invited them both up. As if being blackmailed into working with the heroes who are actively plotting his downfall isn’t bad enough, Homelander finds himself struggling in the Vought polls for the first time.