Everything You Need To Remember To Watch The Boys Season 3
After almost 2 years, "The Boys" are finally back, and yeah, they're definitely looking for trouble. Our favorite group of anti-"Supes" outlaws (and their far more dangerous and completely unhinged super-powered counterparts known as the Seven) have just the fix for anyone who might be suffering from a debilitating case of superhero fatigue these days. Where Marvel and DC operate in the four-quadrant, crowd-pleasing space of traditional storytelling, "The Boys" takes an uncontrolled and visceral eye-laser blast to the very idea of superheroes as innocuous power fantasies, putting every superhero trope and, more importantly, the frightening rise of right-wing extremism in the United States squarely in its crosshairs. Created by Eric Kripke, the irreverent Prime Video series is mean, edgy, and shockingly gory, all while boasting a politically-charged chip on its shoulder ... and we wouldn't have it any other way.
Led by Karl Urban's vengeful Billy Butcher, Jack Quaid's Hughie Campbell, Erin Moriarty's Annie January/Starlight, and the rest of the lovably violent Boys, our flawed heroes have been locked in a deadly conflict with Vought International and their monopolistic stranglehold on Supes (and, secretly, their artificially created supervillains, as well) for 2 action-packed and wildly unpredictable seasons now.
With the highly-anticipated third season set to arrive on June 3, 2022, viewers would be well-served to refresh their memory banks on all the major developments that took place in previous episodes. So sit back, inject a vial of Vought-made Compound V into your veins, and take a trip down memory lane to catch up on everything you need to remember ahead of "The Boys" season 3.
Good guys gone bad?
Season 2 began with the Boys officially declared as fugitives of the law, as Billy Butcher specifically had been framed by the sociopathic Homelander (Antony Starr) for the murder of Vought executive (and subject of Homelander's creepy Oedipus complex) Madelyn Stillwell (Elizabeth Shue). Driven underground and forced into guerilla tactics against the corporate-bankrolled might of Vought CEO Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito), the Boys spend much of the initial episodes in hiding and planning their next steps to bring Billy back into the fold as their leader. Meanwhile, Billy himself is left to grapple with the season 1 finale revealing that his wife Becca (Shantel VanSanten), presumed dead, is actually very much alive — secretly under captivity and quietly raising their super-powered son Ryan, who was a product of rape at Homelander's hands.
All of this, combined with the arrival of a new Supe terrorist at large (revealed to be the brother of Kimiko, the mute Supe taken in by the Boys and played by Karen Fukuhara) and the even more blatant evil associated with Nazi-era Supe Stormfront (Aya Cash), puts the pressure on our protagonists to either give in to their darkest and most violent impulses in the pursuit of justice, or find a better way forward that could lead to some measure of redemption. Over the course of the season, Billy, Starlight, Hughie, Frenchie (Tomer Capone), and even the formerly villainous Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) all take significant steps towards the light ... but in the world of "The Boys," darkness is always lurking just around the corner.
The other side of the coin
While the good guys struggled (and oftentimes failed) to stay on the straight and narrow, the chief villains of "The Boys" in season 2 only ever seemed to get even worse. The arrival of white supremacist Stormfront shakes up the hierarchy of the Seven, initially marginalizing Homelander as she receives a welcome mat into Vought's prestigious group of Supes on Stan Edgar's authority. This leads to Homelander attempting to exercise power wherever he can get it: unfortunately for Becca and her son Ryan, that takes the form of his unexpected efforts to re-establish himself in his son's life, bring him up as a Supe in his own right, and further subject Becca to emotional trauma.
In the public eye, the worst members of the Seven get even more reckless with increased amounts of collateral damage and the coldblooded murder of innocents caught on camera. In a clever bit of running commentary on politicians and corporations bending real-world deaths to their advantage, Stan Edgar and Vought smoothly hijack this narrative to further reassert the manufactured need for Supes in the first place. This doesn't fully prevent anti-Homelander protests or media scandals from Starlight's leak that Vought's Compound V formula is responsible for Supes' powers in the first place, but Stormfront's seduction of Homelander and the carefully orchestrated PR frenzy of 2 Supes in love (along with that hilarious "Girls Get It Done" campaign) helps make the Seven even more impenetrable in the court of public opinion.
Collision course
The pressure-cooker of a second season inevitably brings the Boys and the most outwardly sinister members of the Seven into direct conflict. With evidence growing of Vought's conspiracy to subject unwilling patients to Compound V for their own nefarious purposes and along with the help of congresswoman Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit), an outspoken critic of Vought, a public hearing is scheduled against Vought as the Boys attempt to undermine the corporation from within the bounds of the law. Of course, all these plans go awry once a mysterious assassin strikes again and heads start exploding in one of the most gruesome, shocking, and memorable sequences of all of last season.
With political action against Vought stonewalled, Stormfront and Homelander continuing to manipulate young Ryan against his mother Becca, and Homelander's increasingly disturbing behavior steadily turning Maeve against the Seven, things finally come to a head as the Boys attempt to deal with Stormfront in decisive fashion and Billy rescues Becca and Ryan. The climactic showdown between Homelander and Stormfront versus Billy's family leads to Ryan unleashing the full might of his unstable powers against the threatening Stormfront — killing the villainous Supe and inadvertently causing mortal injury to his mother in the process. Having never warmed up to Ryan as a result of his parentage, Billy chooses to forgive the kid and honor Becca's last words by taking care of him. Homelander, distraught by the death of his lover and blackmailed by Maeve's video footage of the pair allowing an entire plane of civilians to crash back in season 1, has no other recourse than to fly away and regroup — leaving us with the indelible final image of Homelander, ah, pleasuring himself from atop a skyscraper.
Loose ends
Based on the trailers, "The Boys" season 3 will pick up on several hanging threads and cliffhangers left over from 2 years ago. Chief among them has to do with the last-minute reveal that Victoria Neuman is, in fact, a Supe and responsible for the horrific deaths that prevented any public testimony against Vought. Even more alarmingly, Hughie amicably parted ways with the Boys and joined up with her political campaign in the waning moments of season 2, with absolutely no idea of the threat she poses.
Elsewhere, the continued journeys of A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) and The Deep (Chace Crawford) ran parallel to the main storylines of season 2, with both disgraced Supes finding themselves on the outs with Vought and driven to the clutches of the Scientology-like Church of the Collective. The murder of the church leader by Neuman in the season's concluding moments gives us our first indication of her villainy, which leads to A-Train being admitted back into the Seven's good graces and The Deep still on the outside looking in.
And finally, Billy's final confrontation with Homelander and Stormfront that brought the war far too close to home will undoubtedly have a ripple effect on season 3. Outmanned and outgunned, it's clear that the Boys will need bigger and badder weapons to help even the playing field — even if that involves Billy ingesting a potion that gives him Supe-like powers for 24 hours and calling in the services of the maniacal Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles), as we've seen hints of in the trailers for the forthcoming third season.
The action and tension are ramping up as season 3 is set to deliver some of the wildest and most talked-about moments in the entire show's run.
"The Boys" season 3 will premiere on Prime Video on June 3, 2022.