The Boys
Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
In retrospect, maybe anticlimax was inevitable.
Antony Starrs performance is the most consistently complicatedandentertaining on the show; more importantly, hes the main villain.
I did not expect that he would die this early anyway.
Dont get me wrong; the finale has plenty of thrills.
When they return to home base, he makes the case that they should save Butchers, too.
But when the team arrives at Butchers hideout, their plan falls apart.
Of course, none of Butchers plan will work unless Soldier Boy sticks to his word.
Butcher is disconcerted as he trades stories with Soldier Boy about their cold, abusive fathers.
Soldier Boy always thought hed be a better dad than his own.
Homelander is genuine in his desire for a real family, an option that didnt seem available until now.
Its heartbreaking to watch Ryan turn back to Homelander, the monster who abused and imprisoned his mom.
Heres Ryans actual dad, telling him that he loves him unconditionally.
Of course hes susceptible.
The final blowout of the season happens, as expected, at Vought.
Soldier Boy ends up sticking to the plan, attacking Homelander despite his impassioned pitch for a two-strongest-people-in-the-world alliance.
To Soldier Boy, Homelander is just a weak, sniveling pussy starved for attention, a fucking disappointment.
But Ryan blasts Soldier Boy before he can finish the job, and then Soldier Boy hits Ryan back.
The rest of the Boys arrive just in time to save Butcher and immediately get to work.
Except, of course, Maevedoesntdie.
But at least shes going out with some mercy after a dark season.
Black Noir is actually the only character who doesnt make it out of The Instant White-Hot Wild alive.
RIP, I guess!
Other epilogue things take up the final minutes of the finale.
Cassandra turns on her husband/pawn the Deep to promote her own juicy autobiography.
Annie is officially inducted into the Boys.
Dakota Bob announces Neuman as his veep pick.
But the biggest development is the reveal that, as promised, V24 is killing Butcher.
In fact, he only has a year to live, 18 months at most.
Because itisa loss, even if everyone managed to subdue Soldier Boy before he could kill thousands.
And now hes dying.
Ill remember it as a good, at times heart-stopping season.
There were beautiful and touching moments here, to be sure.
(We did seeAnnietalk to her about it for some reason.)
The Boysis a big show with a big ensemble and big ideas.
Like all of season three, The Instant White-Hot Wild is fun, grisly, and neat.
It tees up plenty of storylines for season four.
Very curious to see what direction his character takes from here.
MM says that Soldier Boy killed a lot of our family members a long time ago.
In general, the show has played strangely coy about MMs dark backstory.
I loved watching and writing about this season.
