The Saddest Moments In The Boys

When viewers think of "The Boys," many of them probably focus on the show's biting humor or its bombastic gore before they consider its devastating emotional beats. The satirical superhero series is full of gut-wrenching emotion and heartbreaking moments, made all the more affecting by its stellar cast. "The Boys" digs into what it really means to have unlimited power in a world ruled by greedy CEOs and mendacious media companies, and it uncovers a great deal of sorrow in the "collateral damage" that is often ignored by more straightforward superhero stories.

The characters in "The Boys" mourn many different types of deaths: deaths of loved ones, deaths of dreams, and deaths of hope. Guilt and loss guide so many of their actions, yet they keep creating new avenues for those heavy emotions. The show interrogates the myth of superheroism, batting away nearly every opportunity for love or happiness. This list takes a look at those dashed hopes and losses, ranking the saddest moments in "The Boys."

Homelander (Antony Starr) has tracked down his son Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) and introduced him to Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) as his grandson. Though Soldier Boy rejects the family reunion and engages Homelander in battle, Maeve defeats Soldier Boy, leaving Homelander and Ryan free to continue their father-son bonding out from under the watchful eyes of the people who have been trying to protect Ryan from his psychopathic father. Feeling like no one else in the world cares about him other than Homelander, Ryan begs his father to leave with him, taking his hand as Butcher (Karl Urban) watches in pain.

So many of the Boys' efforts in Seasons 2 and 3 revolve around keeping Ryan safe from Homelander's influence. Butcher promised Becca (Shantel VanSanten) on her deathbed that he would protect her son at any cost. It's devastating to see an innocent child succumb to Homelander's brainwashing, particularly knowing how many people have suffered and died to prevent that exact occurrence. Seeing how Homelander turned out, and knowing that Ryan will now likely go down the exact same path, is a gut punch to viewers, who are essentially watching the birth of another generation of fear and hatred happen in real-time.

The Boys are a found family, made up of lost and broken people. Butcher, Hughie, and Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) have all lost loved ones to Supes, and Frenchie (Tomer Capone) is a lonely man constantly searching for connection and guidance. Mother's Milk (Laz Alonso) is the only family man in the group. Though his grandfather was also murdered by a Supe, his ex-wife Monique (Frances Turner) and his daughter Janine (Liyou Abere) are still very much in his life, and he often feels torn between his duties to his two very different families.

Janine means the world to M.M. His guilt over being absent for a large part of her life is never more evident than when he watches another man — Todd (Matthew Gorman), Monique's new boyfriend — take family photos with her at her Supe-themed birthday party. Todd wears a Homelander costume, further twisting the knife and letting M.M. know that Janine lives in a world wholly separate from his own. He can't tell his daughter the truth, and he can't be a part of her big happy family anymore. The work he's doing to try to make her world safer has taken its toll, as he starts to lose his connection to her, bit by bit.

Ironically, given the way Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) became pigeonholed after Homelander outed her in Season 2, Episode 4, "Nothing Like It in the World," "The Boys" never seemed to know what to do with her character in Season 3. She felt sidelined for most of the season, working through her bitterness and apparent hopelessness off-screen. She gets possibly the series' most heroic moment, however, when she selflessly tackles Soldier Boy and dives out of the window just as he is about to explode. Soldier Boy's inability to control his power coupled with its capacity for catastrophic devastation makes him a bigger threat than even Homelander, and Maeve sets aside her goal of defeating Homelander in order to serve the greater good.

Maeve knows that exposing herself to Soldier Boy's power will strip her of her own superhuman abilities, so she has no way of knowing whether she will survive the one-two punch of the explosion and the fall. It's a beautiful redemption arc for a character who has struggled with her own lack of heroism throughout the series, one that left fans briefly mourning assuming the popular character may have not survived. The scene is made all the more poignant when Maeve shares a knowing look with Starlight just before she makes what could be the ultimate sacrifice.

Becca spent Ryan's entire life trying to teach him to be a good person. She left Butcher, the love of her life, and agreed to Vought's demands so that she could raise her son to be the opposite of his deplorable father, Homelander. When Homelander learns that Becca is alive and raising their son far away from him, he inserts himself into their lives, violating Becca all over again. He salts the wound even more when he introduces Ryan to his girlfriend Stormfront (Aya Cash), a Nazi who wants to indoctrinate Ryan with her hateful philosophy. When Homelander and Stormfront reveal to Ryan that Becca hasn't told Ryan everything about their lives and his powers, he tells Becca that he hates her, just before Homelander and Stormfront fly off with Ryan in their arms.

Long before viewers met Becca, she was one of the beating hearts of the show, due to Butcher's fierce love for her and his devotion to avenging her supposed death. Seeing her panic and anguish over losing her son — the only thing she has left in the world after Vought took everything else away from her — is one of the most heartbreaking moments in the series. Not only is Becca suffering her worst nightmare, but an innocent young boy has been manipulated and kidnapped by nigh-indestructible Nazi psychopaths. The sadness and hopelessness that Becca and the viewers feel as they fly far away from her is a devastating blow.

When viewers meet Starlight, she is a sweet and innocent woman who wants to make a difference in the world. She's a small-town Iowa girl who gets called up to the big leagues when she's accepted as a member of The Seven. Sadly, it doesn't take long for her to realize that her dream is a lie, as The Deep (Chace Crawford) assaults her, coercing her into a sexual act by convincing her that it's the only way for her to remain in The Seven, or even to remain a superhero at all. Starlight grew up dreaming about being in The Seven and helping people, but when she finally reaches her goal, she finds out quickly that helping people is the last thing on anyone's mind.

Note: This ranking is based on Starlight having her dreams dashed, not on her assault. It is insensitive and insulting to try to quantify how sad it is for a person to be sexually assaulted. The ranking of this incident is solely based on Starlight's disillusionment with the heroes she's idolized her whole life as no one is willing to trivialize what happened to Starlight by placing her assault within any kind of hierarchical list.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

"The Boys" often examines the fraught relationship between heroism and innocence, and nowhere is that innocence portrayed more heartbreakingly than in the depiction of a young Homelander being raised in a Vought lab. Homelander didn't grow up in a home with a family; he grew up in a sterile, locked room, being peered at through a window by scientists. When Dr. Vogelbaum (John Doman) looks in through the observation window and sees young Homelander, he covers his eyes in a game of peekaboo, eliciting delighted giggles from the boy as he sits on the cold lab floor with only a blanket to keep him company.

No matter how reprehensible Homelander is as an adult, it's impossible to look at him as an innocent baby and feel anything but pity for him, and sorrow for what Vought would turn him into. As he flashes back to the memory, Homelander's face contorts through a myriad of emotions in Antony Starr's brilliant portrayal of Homelander's arrested development. He's the most powerful man in the world, but he also remains the loneliest child in the world, constantly seeking a way to fill the void in his soul that the Vought scientists systematically and methodically inculcated in him.

Homelander and Maeve are dispatched to a plane that has been hijacked, in the hopes that their heroic act of rescuing a plane full of people will convince Congress to allow superheroes into the military. When they arrive on board, the passengers rejoice that their saviors have arrived, cheering and applauding them. However, when the Supes go into the cockpit and find an armed hijacker, Homelander accidentally melts the control panel with his laser vision, ensuring that the plane has no hope of making it safely home. Homelander tells Maeve that they have no choice but to leave the terrified, screaming passengers, who beg for their lives and ask the superheroes why they're just leaving them to die. Maeve grabs a little girl and her mother, pleading with Homelander to at least save them, but he refuses to leave any witnesses alive. Homelander flies Maeve off the plane, and they watch as it slowly descends into the ocean.

The passengers' dawning realization that the heroes can't and won't save them is agonizing to watch. Their jubilation over their supposed rescue followed so closely by betrayal and disbelief is a hideous rollercoaster ride that underscores the vast gulf between the altruistic public image of superheroes and their craven reality. Maeve's desperate attempt to save even one or two of the doomed people on the flight highlights how helpless even she is in the face of Homelander's utter contempt for humanity and Vought's constant focus on the bottom line. Maeve never really recovers from her inability to be a hero that day, and the audience doesn't either.