The major conflict of “The Boys” Season 3 was to get rid of Homelander, and thus to accomplish the mission, Billy the Butcher and his team of misfits went on a hunt for a superweapon that could have killed him. However, they soon realized that no such weapon existed. But, during the search for the superweapon, they found another forgotten hero, Soldier Boy, who was as mighty as Homelander and once used to be Vought’s hero before Homelander took away the spotlight. Butcher rescued Soldier Boy and later cracked a deal with the supe to help him kill Homelander in exchange for finding out Soldier Boy’s Payback teammates who conspired against him, and finally Soldier Boy took his revenge.
By the end of “The Boys” Season 3: Episode 7, Soldier Boy found out that Homelander was his own blood, and thus had his doubts about killing his own son. But in the finale episode of Season 3, Soldier Boy made a conscious decision and decided to kill Homelander as he believed that his son never got the father that he deserved, because of which he turned into an attention-seeking weakling and hence was just a big disappointment. So we finally got a showdown between Homelander and Soldier Boy, but how did it end? Who survived and who died? Let’s find out.
Spoilers Ahead
Is Queen Maeve Dead Or Alive?
In Episode 7, Starlight had recorded Homelander on the video where he admitted that he had locked up Queen Maeve. She released the video on her social media platform soon after which a crowd of protestors turned up in front of Vought Tower, and the attorney general’s office released a search warrant to search for Maeve inside the tower. During this time, Homelander was away to meet his son, Ryan, whose whereabouts were shared by Victoria Neuman in the previous episode. In Homelander’s absence, Ashley Barrett and Deep decided to move Maeve out of the tower. While she was being moved, Maeve took the chance to escape.
Maeve came back to Butcher and joined hands with Soldier Boy to kill Homelander, and the three decided to infiltrate Vought Tower. Soldier Boy wanted to kill Black Noir before finally facing Homelander. As soon as they arrived at the tower, Homelander informed Soldier Boy that he had already killed Black Noir because he hid the truth about his father and he doesn’t like people who lie to him. Homelander compared his cause with that of Soldier Boy, who too was betrayed by his team, and thus tried to reconcile with his father. He had been yearning for a family for a long time, and thus, to complete his family, he introduced Ryan to his grandfather, the Soldier Boy. However, Soldier Boy was not in the mood for any kind of happy family reunion and quickly revealed to Homelander that he was nothing but a disgrace to his lineage. Soldier Boy tried to attack Homelander when suddenly Ryan intervened, and Soldier Boy thrashed him too. Butcher couldn’t see Ryan getting hurt and thus turned against Soldier Boy to stop him from attacking Ryan, as he had made a promise to his wife, Becca, that he wouldn’t let anything happen to Ryan. And while Butcher dealt with Soldier Boy, Queen Maeve attacked Homelander to get rid of the wicked supe who had ruined her life completely.
During the one-on-one battle, Homelander smashed one of Maeve’s eyeballs, thus making her blind in one eye. And while they fought against each other, Soldier Boy went out of control and activated his energy blast, pointing at Starlight and her friends. In order to stop Soldier Boy from killing any more people, Maeve decided to sacrifice herself, and she jumped out of the Vought Tower with Soldier Boy, who released his energy blast mid-way in the air. But she didn’t die from the attack or the crash. At the end of “The Boys” Season 3, it was revealed that Queen Maeve was very much alive. However, she had lost her powers because of the fatal impact of Soldier Boy’s blast of energy. Starlight and MM found Maeve lying wounded in the alley and quickly brought her to their hideout, where she finally recovered. Her girlfriend, Elena, had come to see her, and she told Starlight that they were planning to disappear and live the rest of their lives peacefully somewhere on farmland where Homelander couldn’t find them.
For the world, Queen Maeve was dead and gone, but Ashley Barrett found footage on the CCTV database where she witnessed that Maeve was still alive. However, she quickly deleted the video before Homelander or Deep could see it, as she didn’t want Homelander to go hunting for Maeve again. Homelander had humiliated Ashley to the core, but she couldn’t escape Homelander’s tyranny, but fortunately, someone did, and thus she made a conscious decision to help the free bird fly far away.
Will Queen Maeve Return For ‘The Boys’ Season 4?
Maeve has lost her powers, just like Kimiko did in the previous episodes. However, Kimiko soon realized that she needed them to save Frenchie from the threats and hence requested that Frenchie inject her with some compound V so that she could get back her powers. This procedure may probably work for Maeve, too, in case, in the near future, she wants to have her power back. She may need her powers back, if Homelander finds her and tries to hurt her or her girlfriend, Elena, in “The Boys” Season 4. So, we can speculate her return if the creators will feel the need for it.
See More: Why Did Soldier Boy Want To Kill Black Noir In ‘The Boys’ Season 3? Is Noir Dead Or Alive?
Is Soldier Boy Dead Or Alive?
There was a moment in the finale episode of “The Boys” Season 3, where Soldier Boy shared with Butcher that his origin story, from being a poor kid in Philadelphia to becoming America’s greatest superhero, was a complete lie. In reality, his father owned half the steel mills in the state, and he was a spoiled brat who was kicked out of a boarding school. His father considered him an utter disappointment, not good enough to carry his name, and thus to prove his worth, he used his father’s connection to get into Dr. Frederick Vought’s Compound V trials and became a supe. He was expecting that his father would be happy to find out that his own son was the strongest man alive, but instead, he accused him of taking a shortcut. Soldier Boy grew up in a toxic environment and, thus, he believed that he would probably try to change things with his own kids and raise them well. But eventually, Soldier Boy fell prey to his genetics and acted like his father when he told Homelander that he was a disappointment and a disgrace to his name. He told Homelander that he starves for attention, which is actually true, but then Soldier Boy was not different. He took all the credit from his team and never let them shine, as that would have eclipsed his own brand image.
So no matter what Soldier Boy told Homelander, the only possible reason that he wanted to get rid of him was because there could be only one ruler on the throne, and Soldier Boy greedily needed it all for himself, not for some son who was grown in a test tube. And as soon as Soldier Boy attacked Homelander, Ryan laser-beamed Soldier Boy, and in anger, Soldier Boy decided to get rid of Ryan as well. But as soon as he turned towards Ryan, Butcher, who had made a promise to Becca to protect Ryan from all dangers, intervened and attacked Soldier Boy to stop him. The two ended up fighting together, and they were soon joined by Starlight and others. In the meantime, Frenchie and Kimiko sneaked into Vought’s lab, where Frenchie cooked some Novichok, the deadliest nerve agent that could put Soldier Boy to sleep.
As soon as the chemical was ready, Kimiko brought it to the studio floor where Starlight and MM held Soldier Boy to sedate him. However, before he could fall asleep, he activated his blast of energy pointed towards Starlight, MM, and Kimiko, and it could have killed them if Queen Maeve hadn’t decided to save them. She jumped out of the tower with Soldier Boy, where he activated his energy blast but probably went into a deep sleep after the massive attack. Though it wasn’t revealed visually, it could be speculated that MM and others brought Soldier Boy to Grace Mallory, who had designed a specially designed container where she locked Soldier Boy and sedated him with Novichok, just like the Russians. As a result, Soldier Boy would most likely be imprisoned until someone tried to wake him up again, as Butcher did in Season 3. But will he return? It depends on the creators whether they want his presence in “The Boys” Season 4, as Soldier Boy isn’t dead and could be brought back to the scene easily in case the writers are in dire need of some menacing threat.
‘The Boys’ Season 3: Ending Explained: Is Butcher Going To Die?
Butcher had constantly been injecting himself with experimental Temp V, even after Starlight had warned him that these shots could cause malignant tumors and take away his life. But Butcher wanted to take revenge on Homelander so badly that he didn’t care about his own survival, and thus, even at the end of Season 3, injected himself with a Temp V to prepare for a final face-off. However, he didn’t want to take Hughie along with him, as he reminded him of his younger brother, Lenny. Butcher punched Hughie in a gas pump and locked him up to stop him from following him on a suicide mission. Hughie understood the fact that Butcher might have his odd ways of expressing his love, but he wasn’t an inherently bad person. He saved Hughie’s life, and he was more than grateful for that. It was for this reason that when Soldier Boy was about to attack Starlight, Hughie didn’t use Temp V but instead used his brain to light up the studio so that Starlight could absorb the light from her surroundings and attack Soldier Boy. But even though Hughie learned his lesson, it was too late for Butcher, and things got out of hand. As soon as Homelander took away Ryan, as Ryan wanted to go with him, at the same moment, Butcher suffered a stroke, and he fainted on the spot.
At the end of “The Boys” Season 3, a doctor at the hospital told Butcher that even though they had drained out all the fluid from his body, he only got a few months to live. He wouldn’t be able to survive more than 12-18 months and thus the doctor advised him to look after his health. But Butcher being Butcher, smoked a cigarette and quickly returned to the Boys HQ to jump on yet another mission to get rid of the menacing supes, and this time, the target was Hughie’s old boss, Victoria Neuman who was running for the position of Vice President Of the United States. In the end, it could also be speculated that Butcher doesn’t know the truth about Maeve and Soldier Boy’s death, and it is better for everyone if he doesn’t know it.
What To Expect From ‘The Boys’ Season 4?
In Episode 7, Victoria Neuman had proposed to Homelander, a transactional relationship, and to gain his trust, she had shared Ryan’s whereabouts with him. In return, Neuman wanted Homelander to get rid of VP candidate Lamar Bishop, and hence Homelander ordered Deep to drown him inside the swimming pool of his house. After Bishop’s death, Robert A. Singer, aka, Dakota Bob (running for president) picked Victoria Neuman as the new VP candidate to replace Bishop, and probably it was her plan all along to get a strong foothold in high management.
If Neuman wins the election in “The Boys” Season 4, then there will be no one to stop her as she has already gotten rid of Stan Edgar, and we didn’t see him again after he resigned from his post. It is the reason why Butcher and the boys decided to stop her, as her new alliance with Homelander could be more alarming than it already seems.
On the other hand, Homelander, who has decided to become an unfiltered version of himself, finally faces the crowd at the end of Season 3. At this gathering, he also brings Ryan with him, and one of the protesters throws a can at Ryan, which enrages Homelander, and he loses his control. He uses his laser beam to burn the man’s brain out in front of the public and the media. Monique (MM’s wife)’s boyfriend, Todd, claps and cheers for Homelander believing that he did the right thing, and Ryan is standing there witnessing it all.
For a kid like Ryan, having Homelander as a father is the worst thing that can happen to him. He is a monster and is slowly molding Ryan into one too. For Ryan, killing people publicly is soon going to become a new reality or a new normal, and there is no one to teach him otherwise. Homelander considers his brutal acts and angry outbursts as accidents or mistakes, which he believes often happen with people with such incredible powers. But it isn’t like it happens once in a while. It happens all the time, and the Homelander never feels guilty for his acts, and he is preaching the same things to Ryan. So Butcher has some 12 months to save Ryan from Homelander’s shadow, and if he fails to do so, then evidently we see another Homelander in the making, maybe someone worse than him. The smirk on Ryan’s face during the closing shot depicts the danger that awaits in “The Boys” Season 4. It seems he has started enjoying the killing of innocent people like his father, and thinks that people cheer for you when you do so and it is from here that the doom begins.
