I am severely disappointed in myself with how long it took me to watch the third season of The Boys. Even though it still ended up being a stellar season (as expected), for some reason I just wasn’t as hype to watch it as the other two. I think a part of the reason is that I should have watched the episodes as they aired, instead of waiting for them all to watch at once. While fun, the show is intense.
And when I say this show is intense, I mean it in all the ways possible. The violence is obviously a given, although there was plenty of blood and guts this season, nothing made me cringe more than a fight in the final episode where Maeve loses and eye and Homelander gets a spike in the ear. I shuddered at the sight. Speaking of Maeve, her and Starlight were my MVPs of the season! The two never really lost sight (oh man, pun kind of intended) of what their end goal was. To stop Homelander. With that being said, they sill kept their morals throughout that process. For the most part anyways. Maeve kind of wavered a time or two, but Annie stayed true to herself.
The same can’t be said for Hughie. When he learns that Butcher’s been given temporary Compound V, he has to try it for himself. It is truly a drug because Hughie has never felt so good. I did laugh that his temporary teleportation means he loses his clothes every time. He’s tired of always being saved, but he’s going to have to save himself eventually from the lethal effects of the V. Butcher on the other hand is always in full-blown self-destruction mode and he doesn’t really care who he takes down with him. He does undergo some serious growth by the end of the season, but not before alienating everyone around him.
The rest of the supporting cast goes through their own struggles, with The Deep trying to get back on Homelander’s good side now that he’s back in The Seven, A-Train is trying to be a more responsible human but it seems he’s too far gone. The Boys manage to find a very much alive Soldier Boy, who they plan to use to kill Homelander, even at the expense of Mother’s Milk’s mental health. Kimiko gets the chance to live a powers-free life, but she wants to be able to protect the ones she loves (aka Frenchie). And finally, Black Noir, as awful as he’s been sometimes, gets a pretty sweet arc, where we get to see how he became this mute superhero, but also the penance he is surely going to suffer in the end.
Even though a lot gets tied up, there are still so many open threads to explore. Of course Homelander lives, but now he’s got Ryan with him, and Victoria Neuman (aka the head popper) is now running for Vice President. Yikes! Annie and Maeve are officially done with The Seven, though Homelander’s psychotic behaviors are being embraced by the public….gee, who does that remind you of? It’s crazy many parallels a show about very fictional superheroes can have with the chaos of the real world. It’s pretty unsettling. But, this show remains amazing and I can’t wait to see what the fourth season brings – and it’s filming is already underway! It sounds like we can also look forward to several spin-off shows, as well!