‘The Boys’ Season 3: Episode 7 – Recap And Ending, Explained: Is Homelander Related To Soldier Boy?

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The previous episode of ‘The Boys’ Season 3 might be a little off, but Episode 7 is a complete surprise package, with an equally shocking cliffhanger. The majority of the episode follows Soldier Boy’s hunt for Mindstorm while also covering Black Noir’s reason for betraying his own team leader in the past. It also shows a glimpse of Billy’s traumatic past that involves the suicide of his younger brother, Lenny, for which he always blamed his abusive father, and Episode 7 sheds more light on that. And yes, it also reveals that A-Train is alive, and he has got a new heart that belongs to Blue Hawk. How ironic! But the good thing is, he will be able to use his superspeed again. So without any further ado, let’s take a look at the important events of the episode and explore how the shocking cliffhanger can affect the course of the last episode of “The Boys” season 3.

Spoilers Ahead


Kimiko Demands Compound V And Starlight Sneaks Into Vought Tower

In the previous episode, Kimiko finally realized that her powers were a boon and not a curse, as she needed them to save Frenchie from Little Nina. She did save him eventually, but she believed that she just got lucky this time, and to evade any future threats like that, she really needs her power back. Hence, Kimiko requested Starlight to bring her a vial of compound V from the Vought Tower. Starlight, on the other hand, had previously exposed Homelander and Vought International on her social media channel. She told her fans that Homelander had held Queen Maeve captive, and no one knew what he had done to her. More than that, the Vought International had been hiding news about Soldier Boy’s return, who had been killing innocent people throughout the city and Homelander faced his wrath too. He was quite shaken throughout “The Boys” Season 3: Episode 7, as it was the first time in history when someone really did knock him out, and he just couldn’t stop thinking about his first defeat. He wanted to talk to someone for emotional support and thus visited Queen Maeve, whom he had held captive in a cell. However, Maeve, too, noticed a bruise on Homelander’s face and mocked him. Trying to change the subject, Homelander inquired about Billy the Butcher and Soldier Boy’s hideout, but as usual, Maeve refused to share any details. It was when Homelander finally told her that he had kept her alive only because he wanted to make babies with her, but that could change at any moment. And with another futile warning, Homelander finally left Maeve’s cell scared.

While Homelander was busy making public appearances, Starlight finally sneaked into a lab in Vought Tower to steal some compound V for Kimiko. It was when she noticed some lab reports on Temp V that suggested that this experimental compound could cause malignant tumors or lesions whose growth is accelerated after each dose and thus could kill a person after three to five doses. She tried to warn Hughie but couldn’t reach his cellphone. She tried to warn Billy, as well but he ignored all the warnings and hung up the call. Nevertheless, Starlight brought Compound V for Kimiko, and Frenchie finally injected her with one, after which she got her powers back, and all her wounds healed up immediately. However, as stated throughout the episode, compound V could have some adverse effect on Kimiko’s body, which might be explored in the finale episode of “The Boys” season 3.


Russian Nerve Agent Novichok Can Sedate Soldier Boy

Marvin thought that the Russians used halothane gas to sedate and control Soldier Boy. However, when he tried using the same on Soldier Boy in Episode 6, it didn’t have any effect on him. Hence, as soon as Frenchie, the drug expert, returned back, Marvin showed him all the documents from the experiment carried out by the Russians, and Frenchie finally figured out that it wasn’t gas but a vapor that sedated Soldier Boy. He told Marvin that the Russians used a special nerve agent called Novichok to sedate the menacing supe. While the Novichok nerve agent could kill a normal person as soon as they come in contact with it, in the case of Soldier Boy, it just put him to sleep. However, to get hold of Novichok, they might have to take another trip to Russia or might have to find a substitute for the nerve agent.

What’s good about this entire discovery is that Marvin and the boys finally have a weapon against Soldier Boy through which they can put a leash on the destructive supe, and as the cliffhanger suggests, Billy the Butcher may be forced to use Novichok in the finale episode to stop Soldier Boy.


Black Noir Unearths The Wounds From The Past

In a beautifully designed sequence, Black Noir walked down memory lane and remembered all the traumatic incidents that happened in the past. His imaginary friends reminded him of the years of physical abuse and assault inflicted upon him and his teammates by Soldier Boy. Soldier Boy was nothing but a narcissistic and egoistic maniac who couldn’t see his close friends succeed or share the limelight with him. He was toxic as hell and used to mercilessly assault Gunpower for fun, who probably was still a teenager when he joined the Payback. But it wasn’t just Gunpowder who was traumatized by Soldier Boy, but the entire team. Black Noir’s imaginary friend reminded him of a time when a producer wanted Black Noir for a movie called Beverly Hills Cop, but Soldier Boy told horrible things about Black Noir to Don Simpson, after which he lost the role of Alex Foley. Black Noir tried to raise his voice against Soldier Boy’s tyranny when he lost his control and knocked down Black Noir. Everyone on the team knew that they couldn’t fight Soldier Boy alone, so they had to team up.

In 1984, during the Nicaragua mission, Stanford Edgar revealed to Black Noir that Vought America wanted to get rid of Soldier Boy as they had been working on a replacement who would be stronger and mightier than the Soldier Boy and would represent the true American hero. And without any further ado, the Payback team decided to rise in revolt against their leader in order to end his tyranny. Probably, Black Noir knew about the effect of Russian nerve agent Novichok on Soldier Boy, which he revealed to the Russians, after which they sedated the supe and took him away. It was also revealed during the flashback that it was Soldier Boy who destroyed Black Noir’s face, because of which he was compelled to hide his face and wear a mask all these years. Probably after killing Mindstorm in ‘The Boys’ Season 3: Episode 7, Soldier Boy will be coming for Black Noir until and unless someone decides to intervene and stop Soldier Boy from killing more supes.


Billy’s Brother Lenny Shot Himself

Episode 7 was all about the incidents of the past that were now coming back to the light to affect the present and change the course of the future. In Black Noir’s case, he and his teammates had a genuine reason to betray the leader of the Payback, as all of them were traumatized by Soldier Boy’s toxic attitude. While in Billy’s case, the Mindstorm trapped him in an endless nightmare in which he revisited the death of his younger brother, Lenny. Both Billy and Lenny were raised in a toxic environment where their father, Sam Butcher, used to assault their sons in order to make them strong physically, and though Billy was able to endure those beatings, it was Lenny who was emotionally traumatized by them. In order to survive the daily abuse, Billy, too, became violent as a defense mechanism, which was the only thing his father wanted and was very proud of him when he lost control and thrashed the school principal. Lenny, on the other hand, was an emotional child who didn’t want to resort to violence of any kind and thus suffered in silence. Later, to escape his father’s shadow, Billy decided to join the defense services, and even though Lenny pleaded with him not to leave him alone with their father, Billy didn’t listen and left. A teenage Billy wanted to get rid of the toxic environment as soon as possible and, in his selfishness, ignored what could have happened to Lenny in his absence.

Six months after Billy left, Lenny failed to endure any more and decided to shoot himself. All these flashbacks reminded Billy that he was slowly turning into his father, a violent, abusive alcoholic, and self-centered monster, and his consciousness told him that there was only one person alive who could save him, and that was Hughie, but Billy was trying to get him killed too. When Soldier Boy punched Hughie in front of Billy, he tried using his laser eyes but stopped suddenly because he needed Soldier Boy in his fight against Homelaner. Again, when Starlight informed Billy that the temp V could kill both of them, Billy didn’t reveal the danger to Hughie and instead asked him to get some more from the lab. Billy probably didn’t tell Hughie about its side effects because, as Lenny told him in his consciousness, it was only Hughie who could stop Billy from killing himself, but Billy didn’t want anyone to save him. However, if he does choose to take Hughie down with him, then indeed, Billy didn’t learn anything from Lenny’s death and had no remorse for it. The finale episode will shed more light on the dark side of Billy’s character.


‘The Boys’ Season 3: Episode 7 – Ending Explained – Homelander Is Soldier Boy’s Son

Soldier Boy, Billy, and Hughie went on a hunt to kill Mindstorm, where Billy was attacked by Mindstorm, and Soldier Boy was least bothered about saving anyone. The entire personality traits create a resemblance between Soldier Boy, Homelander, and Billy, who don’t care about people around them and are more concerned about their own brand image or personal vendetta. Soldier Boy ignored Billy the same way Billy has been ignoring the safety of Hughie and his other teammates. Nevertheless, Soldier Boy finally captured Mindstorm, who, upon a violent interrogation, spilled a secret that shocked Soldier Boy. Even though Soldier Boy brutally murdered Mindstorm, he kept thinking about the thing that Mindstorm had revealed to him.

As Billy, Soldier Boy, and Hughie returned back to The Legend’s house, Soldier Boy decided to give Homelander a call. At that moment, Homelander was looking at an address given to him by Victoria Neuman. This address probably belongs to the secret hideout where Grace Mallory has been hiding Homelander’s son. Maeve and Starlight had threatened Homelander not to visit Ryan, or they would release his Flight 37 footage, but now Homelander wasn’t afraid of anyone or anything and could freely go and meet Ryan or even bring him to the Vought Tower. Nevertheless, Soldier Boy called to inform Homelander about his short visit to Jonah Vogelbaum’s lab during the fall of 1980 for an experiment where Vogelbaum took a sperm sample from Soldier Boy. Mindstorm revealed to Soldier Boy that Vogelbaum had made a kid out of it who was born in the spring of 1981, the same time when Vought decided to get rid of Soldier Boy. And this new kid was none other than Homelander himself, who always suffered from existential crises and yearned for a family or emotional support because he grew up in a lab. It turns out that Homelander finally learned who his father was, though he might not be his most favorite person right now. But what’s more alarming in this heartfelt exchange between Homelander and Soldier Boy was that Soldier Boy said that he would have peacefully let Homelander replace him. This means Soldier Boy is not going to fight against Homelander anymore, but instead will murder anyone who would try to harm his son, and thus Billy and his team are back to zero. There is no weapon to kill Homelander, and the only way to control Soldier Boy is still not in their grasp. The finale episode of ‘The Boys’ Season 3 is surely going to bring some shocking surprises to the screen, which will, of course, set a course for Season 4 that has already been announced.

Speaking of genetics, Homelander and Soldier Boy do share a lot of personality traits, whether it is their narcissism, ego, or greed for public attention or validation. In Episode 7, when Hughie discussed with The Legend how Soldier Boy became America’s greatest hero during World War 2 by storming into Normandy, The Legend finally revealed the truth and told Hughie that Soldier Boy did storm into Normandy but two weeks after D-day and that too for the photo session. His entire public image was nothing but a well-crafted myth told to the public over and over again so that they would accept more superheroes into society and Vought could sell them as commodities to fill its own treasury. Hence, they are nothing but mere toys. Toys that kill people around them and cannot be stopped easily. And above all, Soldier Boy has had severe PTSD and is heavily radioactive. His entire superhero persona is a lie, but he is in denial of it too, and whoever speaks the truth dies, and that’s what Homelander does or has been doing in Starlight’s case. He probably inherited this too from his father. Let’s see how the last episode of Season 3 affects their relationship further and brings new revelations to light.


See More: ‘The Boys’ Season 3: Ending, Explained: Is Queen Maeve Dead Or Alive? What Happened To Soldier Boy?


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Shikhar Agrawal
Shikhar Agrawal
I am an Onstage Dramatist and a Screenwriter. I have been working in the Indian Film Industry for the past 12 years, writing dialogues for various films and television shows.

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