The Boys Season 3 Catch-Up: Everything You Need To Remember Ahead of The Boys Season 4

The Boys Season 4 arrives in 2024 — an exact release date has not been announced, but a recent trailer finally offered fans a glimpse of the season. 

Consisting of eight episodes aired in summer 2022, The Boys Season 3 feels like a distant memory. 2023 also saw the debut of spin-off, Gen V, about young “supes” in college.

In most superhero stories, keeping track of everything can be a challenge. The Boys is hard-R and satirical, but it’s not an exception to this rule.

The show thus far has also taken liberties with its source material, the original The Boys comics by Garth Ennis and Darrick Robertson. Season 3 was no exception.

Everything you need to remember about The Boys Season 3:

Hughie and Billy Butcher

At the start of Season 3, The Boys aren’t fugitive vigilantes anymore. They’re deputized agents of Congresswoman Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit). Then Hughie (Jack Quaid) discovers Neuman is a Supe herself and is in the pocket of Vought International.

Meanwhile, Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) and Homelander (Antony Starr) agree to fight to the death.

So, Season 3 is about Hughie and Butcher going to extremes to take down Homelander for good. For one, they start dosing Temporary Compound V, which gives them superpowers for an hour; Butcher gets super strength and laser eyes (like Homelander) and Hughie gets teleportation. Unfortunately, after 3-5 doses, it’s lethal.

In a flashback during The Boys Season 3 Episode 7, “Here Comes a Candle to Light You to Bed,” it’s revealed Butcher left his little brother, Lenny, with their abusive father. Lenny died by suicide and Billy blames himself, hence why he’s protective of Hughie.

Hughie stops himself from taking the lethal Temp V dose, but Butcher does so and ends Season 3 with eighteen months to live. Worse, he didn’t even finish his promised showdown. Speaking of…

Homelander

The leader of Vought’s superhero team The Seven, Homelander ended Season 2 at a low point. In Season 3, he climbs his way back from the bottom and becomes terrifyingly untethered.

On The Boys Season 3 Episode 2, “The Only Man In The Sky,” he drops the nice guy public facade and goes on a self-congratulatory rant on live TV.

He takes control of Vought from CEO Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito), then installs his cronies in administrative positions, such as Ashley (Colby Minifie) and The Deep (Chace Crawford), while imprisoning Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott).

In the season finale, “The Instant White-Hot Wild,” Homelander gets his young son Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) on his side. Ryan was conceived when Homelander assaulted Butcher’s wife Becca; in Season 2, Ryan accidentally killed his mom with his own laser vision — Butcher pushes him away while Homelander reassures him.

The very last scene is Homelander introducing Ryan to the world; a protestor accidentally hits the boy with a bottle, so Homelander kills him. Scariest of all? His crowd of fans cheers.

Soldier Boy

Also central to the Hughie/Butcher vs Homelander storyline was Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles). Once America’s greatest hero and leader of the Supe team Payback, he seemingly died in 1984 on a mission to Nicaragua. 

In reality, his teammates —  sick of his abuse —  knocked him out and handed him over to the Russians. Soldier Boy was experimented on and given the new power to cause explosions (and remove superpowers in the process).

The Boys find him frozen in an old Soviet lab on The Boys Season 3 Episode 4, “Glorious Five-Year Plan,” and he awakes to the modern world (think Captain America and the Winter Soldier in one).

Soldier Boy makes a deal with Butcher and Hughie; he’ll help them kill Homelander if they help him kill Payback. The deal gets complicated in the finale.

It turns out Homelander is secretly Soldier Boy’s son — Vought used the latter’s DNA to make his replacement. Homelander introduces Ryan to his Grandpa, but Soldier Boy finds Homelander pathetic. When he attacks, Ryan intervenes and hits Soldier Boy.

Butcher had promised Becca to keep Ryan safe, so he breaks his deal with Soldier Boy, who is taken down by the Boys and ends the season back in cryo-sleep. 

Starlight

Annie January/Starlight is a Supe with photon-based powers. She’s a member of the Seven, but a genuine hero and ally of the Boys; she’s even dating Hughie.

During Season 3, she tries to operate against Homelander from inside the team, but he gains more and more power. He forces Starlight to pretend they’re dating and even kills her only ally on the Seven, Supersonic.

So Annie instead becomes an activist, rallying support via social media and recording Homelander threatening her. Right-wing Homelander fans and Starlight fans grow to be at odds; going by the season 4 trailer, this conflict will continue there.

However, Annie is also at odds with Hughie and Butcher because she thinks they’re ignoring the danger Soldier Boy poses; on The Boys Season 3 Episode 5, “The Last Time to Look on This World of Lies,” he accidentally blows up a Manhattan block. Hughie mends their relationship by choosing to not take more Temp V and instead trust Annie.

At the end of the season, Annie has officially quit the Seven and is part of the Boys.

MM

Marvin Milk aka “Mother’s Milk” or MM (Laz Alonso) is one of the Boys. During his childhood, his family was collateral damage during a Soldier Boy fight.

MM thus badly wants to kill Soldier Boy. In the second half of the season, this puts him at odds with Butcher and Hughie. So, MM starts working with Annie to track down Soldier Boy and their teammates.

MM’s ex-wife Monique is also seeing someone new, Todd — who turns out to be a Homelander fan. In fact, Todd is the one who first cheers Homelander murdering the protestor in the finale.

Frenchie and Kimiko 

Frenchie (Tomer Capone) and Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) took a backseat this season; Kimiko temporarily lost her super strength when fighting the just-awoken Soldier Boy.

From there, she grows even closer to Frenchie; in “The Last Time to Look on This World of Lies,” she imagines them sharing a romantic musical number. She also learns to accept that even with her powers, she’s not a monster.

Frenchie’s arc is about learning to stand up for himself. His old boss, Russian gangster Little Nina (Katia Winter), tries and fails to reassert her control over him. Frenchie carries over that lesson to dealing with Butcher, saying he’ll no longer blindly accept orders from him.

Going into Season 4, the Boys team is now a democracy.

What to remember from Gen V

Gen V is set between Seasons 3 and 4 of The Boys. Some characters from the parent show cameo, but no Gen V cast members are confirmed to appear on The Boys yet.

There are only two major developments from Gen V to remember. One, Homelander is going on trial for murder. This was previously suggested by viral marketing and looks to be a storyline in Season 4.

Two, there was a contagious virus developed that only kills superhumans. By the end of the season, Neuman is the one who possesses it. Butcher is shown investigating the lab where it was made, so he might have a sample too.

Other Things That Happened in The Boys Season 3

• On The Boys Season 3 Episode 6, “Herogasm,” the Boys paid a visit to the eponymous event; a Supe orgy where they use their power for debauchery.
• Victoria Neuman is Stan Edgar’s adopted daughter, but she sells him out to Homelander. She’s now a Vice Presidential candidate after The Deep assassinated her predecessor.
• Black Noir, once part of Payback, relives his abuse at Soldier Boy’s hands (represented by talking animal cartoons he hallucinates). Homelander kills him in the finale for not telling him that Soldier Boy was his father.
• A-Train (Jesse T. Usher) ran afoul of racist super “hero” Blue Hawk (Nick Wechsler) and had his eyes opened to how Supes can cause suffering. Still, he hasn’t committed to redemption yet.
• Queen Maeve was depowered by Soldier Boy, faked her death, and ran off to live in peace.

The Boys and Gen V stream on Prime Video.

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The Boys Season 4 Key Art Reveals First Looks at Butcher and Homelander