Last month was the first Creation Entertainment convention for Prime Video’s hit streaming series, ‘The Boys’ – which, as I write this, somehow seems more prescient than ever. Filming for Season 5, the final season of the show, begins in a few weeks, with Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy returning for hopefully every episode (and maybe being joined by his former Supernatural costar Jared Padalecki for some episodes too!) As filming draws near, I couldn’t wait to hear what the actors were hoping for and what might be next for their characters.
Lucky for me, the convention was held in Whippany, New Jersey, so I was able to drive up and join the fun. It was the cast’s first Creation convention, which are modeled differently than multi-series Comic Cons or Fan Expos. The entire con was devoted to ‘The Boys’, so they had a great time getting to interact with fans of the hit Prime Video series. The cast is clearly as excited as we are about the upcoming final season of the show, as well as its spinoff Gen V and the prequel starring Jensen Ackles (Soldier Boy) and Aya Cash (Stormfront), Vought Rising. Here are some highlights of the convention and what the actors are hoping for for their characters in the final season.
I brought copies of the new book that takes a deep dive into ‘The Boys’ and all its complicated characters, Supes Ain’t Always Heroes, to give a copy to the actors, most of whom contributed interviews to the book, including in depth exclusive chapters from Jensen Ackles and Aya Cash, the stars of Vought Rising. There are also chapters devoted to figuring out what makes all the characters tick, written by people who can do that – psychologists, sociologists and media experts. The Boys is such a smart show, I love digging deep and analyzing what makes IT tick too! Turns out, the cast is just as thoughtful about the show.
Colby Minifie, who plays Ashley, was as delightful onstage as she is onscreen. Yes, I know she’s not exactly one of the “good guys” but I love her character and she plays Ashley with such wit, I love watching her. There are several chapters in Supes that analyze her character, and she was excited to get a copy of the book. In fact, she could hardly believe there WAS a book about the show!
Here are some highlights of her panel and the others. She puts a lot of thought into her character, which is clear in her answers to some fan questions.
Colby: The dominatrix scene made sense to me because Ashley needs control somewhere in her life. We had lots and lots of meetings to be sure everyone felt safe.
We had lots and lots of meetings to be sure everyone felt safe. We have an intimacy coordinator on set. For example, I asked Jack if he was okay with it before I licked his feet.
Something you can only say on a show like ‘The Boys’ and just have everyone nod.
Another fan asked, what didn’t happen that she would have loved to see?
Colby: I would have loved to see what would’ve happened if Ashley did go escape with A Train. But I trust the writers.
(I for one was hoping Ashley would take A Train up on it when he suggested that things were about to go to shit and they should just get the hell outta there! I may have been yelling ‘run Ashley run!’)
It’s hard to answer a question about the “most shocking scene” in a show that’s known for its shocking scenes, but Colby weighed in.
Colby: The salad tossing human centipede… and the dick explosion. There are also simple things that are shocking in The Boys. I really do think the commentary on celebrity and the entertainment industry is quite out there and bold in its satire. It’s interesting from the tiniest thing to, you know, dick explosions.
(I told Colby that there’s a chapter that delves into the show’s commentary on celebrity and industry in Supes – I’m guessing she’ll read that one first!)
Some of Colby’s insights at the con were hilarious – and on point for the show. She told a story about how she pitched that Ashley’s super power should be that she has acid pee.
Me: I can’t believe you didn’t go for this, Kripke!
Suddenly we’re almost at the end of The Boys season 4 – it seemed to go by very quickly, didn’t it? This season’s reception has been a bit more uneven than the nearly universal kudos for the previous season, especially for the last episode and the treatment of Hughie’s assault. It’s undoubtedly challenging to keep upping the game with a show that started out with such high levels of shock, sex and especially violence right from the jump. That may be the source of some struggle this season, but I’m still thoroughly enjoying what this show does best – hold up a mirror to some of the worst parts of our real life and poke at them. There’s so much that’s over the top in reality right now, sometimes The Boys feels a little too real – but mostly for me it’s validating to see the reflection and be assured that yes, someone else sees the insanity too!
I also enjoy watching the show through the lens of what it’s trying to say, which is slightly different each season. It’s why my colleague Matt and I edited a book on The Boys, examining those themes with input from actors, psychologists and media experts. I was fascinated then, in Season 3, and I’m still fascinated now. (You can find Supes Ain’t Always Heroes at your favorite bookstore or on Amazon)
We have one more episode that will air in the wee hours of Thursday morning this week – and believe me, you do NOT want to miss it!
So, what happened last week in Episode 4.07? A lot!
The Life of Ryan
The theme of this episode – attempting to be your own person and who you really are — is expressed in a biting parody of one of my favorite shows of all time, Avenue Q, which I saw on Broadway with my kids a long time ago – and adored. Vought Studios presents, of course, Avenue V, complete with puppets of all the supes and poor Ryan looking uncomfortable with every single thing they sing about. Most of that is encouraging kids to rat out their parents and teachers and neighbors for anything that might be ANTIFA or Christmas hate. Ryan keeps calling ‘cut’, though the director insists his dad approved the lyrics. Homelander, overwhelmed with issues of his own, leaves Ryan a snippy message to just suck it up and do it, but that doesn’t go over too well.
Ryan eventually stops the filming and addresses the camera, much to Homelander’s anger and disappointment (though he’s taking his father’s previous advice not to let anyone else prevent you from speaking your mind…Be careful what you wish for, Homelander)
(I feel like Cameron Crovetti had a blast filming this…)
Ryan: That song isn’t cool, none of this is cool. Your family isn’t your enemy, your family is all you’ve got. I’ve been thinking about my mom a lot. She died but she loved Christmas…and Terms of Endearment…and her husband Billy. But she wouldn’t love this and she wouldn’t want me doing it. My mom always told me to tell the truth.
Ryan is as torn as everyone else this season – in his case, between two dads. At Homelander’s place, Ryan sees a package under the Christmas tree and recognizes the return address as “dontbeacunt”. It’s a photo of his mom and Butcher and their dog.
Butcher, watching Ryan’s speech on a TV in a bar, tells Kessler aka himself that’s why he’s got faith in the kid.
And then he collapses on the floor of the bar.
Butcher also reunites with the Boys in this episode, telling them about the virus Sameer is working on and that it would cause global pandemic and a supe genocide. They all notice for the first time that Butcher is sometimes talking to no one (as Kessler calls him an asshole and warns him that he’s pissing away their best shot). Butcher agrees that they’ll only use the virus on Homelander and Neuman, much to his alter ego’s disgust.
Kessler confronts Butcher, aka Butcher confronts himself. Why does he have such a soft spot for supes? Is it because he fucked Maeve? Cares about Ryan, who’s not even his? Butcher says he gave Becca his word, but Kessler scoffs that if their love was so perfect and pure why did he go around fucking waitresses?
Nobody is better at convincing Butcher that he’s a fuck-up than Butcher himself.
The Boys are starting to pull together again, though. Butcher also got Mallory to pull some strings and free a reluctant and still guilt-stricken Frenchie. MM asks Butcher to be back in charge, saying he’s better off doing research instead of being the skipper – and trying to follow doctor’s orders. Hughie, Butcher and Annie start to figure out the assassination plot for January 6 (of course) and also find a supe shapeshifter that Sister Sage put on the job. Uh oh.
Before we get into the fourth episode of Season 4 of The Boys, arguably one of the best episodes of the series, there’s other exciting news for the show – Jared Padalecki, who Eric Kripke cast as Sam in Supernatural, has finally said yes to hopefully joining The Boys in Season 5. If, as we suspect, Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy will also be back in Season 5, the entire Supernatural fandom will be sat and waiting impatiently (not that many of us aren’t already doing that this season, thoroughly enjoying SPN alums Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Rob Benedict (RIP Splinter) along with the entire stellar cast of The Boys).
I’ve been hoping Jared joined The Boys when his schedule allowed for a long time, so I’m thrilled to hear that might well be happening soon!
(You can catch up on all things ‘The Boys’, including deep dives into the characters and everything that makes the show special – plus exclusive interviews with Jensen Ackles on Soldier Boy and other cast – with that book Jensen’s holding, Supes Ain’t Always Heroes. Links at the end of the article fyi).
So, where are we now in Season 4? The fourth episode of Season 4 of The Boys takes a dark dark turn – as in, things go very wrong for a lot of people.
It’s been more than a week, so I’m assuming you’ve caught up with all the insanity of the first three episodes (Spoilers for those episodes ahead). To recap:
The Insanity so Far: 4.01 to 4.03 Recap
Homelander and company have a plan for taking out poor Robert Singer and putting in fellow supe Victoria Neuman. On a personal note, Homelander is so obsessed with aging that he’s collecting gray hairs in a jar – gray hairs from anywhere he finds ‘em. He’s also sick of being surrounded by sycophants and imbeciles, proving it by demanding that The Deep give A Train a blow job and having them stand up and start getting to it (much to Ashley’s obvious excitement which was a touch I loved!).
That was a weirdly fitting counterpoint to Season 1 when The Deep forces Starlight to give him a blow job – and actually does go through with it. I love that the show remembers its own history.
Butcher’s having a crisis of conscience as he contemplates how much he’s willing to do to Ryan to “get him on our side”, personified in visions of Becca. Butcher’s new buddy Joe Kessler is not only played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan but has also traumatized the Supernatural fandom by channeling John Winchester (the character he played on that show) by insisting to Butcher that yes, he’d train his son up to be a killer. (Which is just what John Winchester did to both his sons).
(Includes events in the first three episodes of The Boys Season 4 but we’ve left some of the biggest spoilers for you to experience yourself…)
The first three episodes of The Boys dropped in the wee hours of the morning yesterday, much to the delight of fans who’ve been waiting for almost two years for more of their favorite show. While we were waiting, Dr. Matt Snyder and I put together a book of essays and interviews from the cast of the show and psychologists and media experts who love it, dissecting the complicated characters and what makes them tick – Supes Ain’t Always Heroes. I was hoping to see some of the themes in the book picked up in the new season – which they were. So let’s dig in! What’s happening with all our favorites?
Neuman & Singer: Winning Ticket
I can’t help but like Victoria Neuman. I know, I know, she’s exploded lots of people’s heads, but she’s been used her whole life and is more focused on protecting her own daughter than anything, which is one of those universally relatable motivations. (Okay, okay, so Zoe is now a tentacle-spewing supe herself, but still). In the first three episodes of Season 4, we see that while once she was, I think, genuinely friends with Hughie, now they’re at odds. Actually that’s an understatement, but Neuman takes it in stride.
Neuman: You guys are actually getting worse at your jobs!
I love her running mate too, Presidential candidate Robert Singer. He’s a bit less enthusiastic about her, with good reason.
Singer: Everyone told me to pick Buttigieg instead…
(I happen to know how much Beaver relishes this show and that kind of dialogue. You can read all his thoughts on The Boys and his character in his exclusive interview in Supes Ain’t Always Heroes: Inside The Complex Characters and Twisted Psychology of The Boys)
Homelander: Daddy Issues
I’ve read some reviews that question whether focusing on the same big bad for four seasons will have to get old, but honestly? This season brings a whole new batch of neuroses and Oedipal struggles for Homie to deal with, and I’m here for that. So much of Homelander’s life has been anything but ordinary, but one of the things he confronts in this season is something that’s as universal as breathing – aging. How do you think he’s going to handle that? Yep, you probably guessed right.
And then there’s parenting. It’s tough to put your progeny in the spotlight when your own narcissism is insisting it should be YOU there, even if you really do care (as much as you’re able). Soldier Boy was proof of just how hard it is to break the horrors of intergenerational trauma, and hoo boy, did Homelander ever have a lot of that. Trauma with a capital T. We learn more about John’s early upbringing in the first episodes of this season, as he goes back to visit his first “home”. With a Fudgie the Whale cake.
That’s a real Time Magazine cover, btw, as showrunner Eric Kripke tweeted. He’s right, this show’s marketing team is beyond amazing!
I will forever relish the character of Homelander for a) Antony Starr’s brilliance and b) the opportunities it offers for real life parallels that are so on the nose they’re almost painful. He emerges from his trial calmly telling everyone to “remain calm, you’re all very special people” and I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
The New Supes Drop Some Truth Bombs
New supe Sister Sage energizes Homelander – and the show itself. As Homelander’s supporters square off in a shouting match with Starlight supporters, she comes up with the plan to manipulate public opinion against the Starlighters. And she knows the value of a martyr. Much like Stormfront, Sage is introduced in a way that makes us think we’re going to like her. Her apartment is literally floor to ceiling books and not much else, befitting for the smartest person in the world.
Sage: That person is too smart to give a fuck about Pottery Barn.
She’s also refreshingly and brutally honest with Homelander, commenting on his enlarged prostate and his gray hairs and that he’s “going through some existential midlife stuff.”
Sage also easily manipulates The Deep (and hooks up with him over their mutual love of Outback’s bloomin’ onion, which, valid) and knows how they could pitch Ryan as the newest chosen-by-God hero.
Sage: The chosen one narrative only works if he stands alone. Hollywood trains people to fall in love with the white boy saviors.
Oof, she’s not wrong.
Firecracker, on the other hand, is sort of a mini Stormfront, in that she’s every offensive thing we hear proclaimed on the ‘news’ and in the media every single day. She’s transphobic, anti-vax, you name the thing and she’s saying it – on her “Truth Bomb” youtube channel usually. Occasionally she says something that really is a truth bomb. “What are you selling?” Sage asks her at the TruthCon convention.
Firecracker: Purpose. These people have nothing, maybe just lost a job or a house. I tell them a story, give them a purpose.
This show hits you in the stomach just when you least expect it.
The season finale of Season 3 of The Boys has been one of the most anticipated ever. It’s honestly been so much fun watching the excitement ramp up each week for each episode – it was a brilliant decision on Eric Kripke and Prime Video’s part to release the episodes over five weeks instead of all at once, especially with the insane promotion we were treated to each week. I watched the whole season before it streamed in the press screeners, but I still felt entirely swept up in the anticipation and excitement (and, let’s face it, dread!) each week.
The cast traveled to Brazil for four wild days of promotion, which only served to amp up the anticipation even more. We were treated to interviews and red carpets and the cast all having a bloody good time. And Jensen Ackles looking like this.
Now that everyone has had a chance to watch it, this is the spoilery recap and review of the season finale, so SPOILERS ahead. LOTS OF THEM!
I’ve been watching this show since its beginning and have loved it since then, but Season 3 has been a whole different ballgame. As a passionate Supernatural fan, the addition of Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy meant that I was even more excited about this season, but even I wasn’t prepared for just how much I’d be drawn in by the character or just how complicated my feelings about Soldier Boy would be. He’s an asshole and a bigot and a bully, but Ackles also portrays him with vulnerability and humor and at times he’s almost charming. I feel like I should not have been hoping for any kind of redemption arc for Soldier Boy, and yet I found myself nervous as hell going into the finale, hoping that a) he wouldn’t be killed off and b) he might find at least a little bit of redemption. Help save the day, maybe?
Well… I should know Eric Kripke better than that by now!
I’ve been writing a lot about this season of The Boys being all about choice, and the season finale sees every main character have to make some difficult ones.
Passing It On From Father To Son – Or Not
This season is also about the intergenerational transmission of trauma, and the toxic masculinity messages that are passed down from fathers to sons. One of those messages is about strength and power. All the men whose fathers were abusive, with either physical or verbal violence or both, have a hard time not repeating the cycle.
Butcher’s father was both, and those toxic messages are ever-present in his head, bleeding out of him in eruptions of physical violence and caustic, cruel barbs thrown at enemies and friends alike.
In this episode, he vacillates wildly between giving into those violent impulses, laser focused (heh heh) on taking down Homelander and willing to use anyone as a weapon to do that, and trying to hang onto the caring part of him that wanted to protect Lenny and now wants to protect Hughie. He never does tell Hughie about the Temp V being fatal, but he unceremoniously knocks him out with a punch and shoves him in a convenience store bathroom to keep him from taking it again. So, a few points at least in his favor?
On the other hand, he’s been fine with using Frenchie and Kimiko and now Soldier Boy to get the revenge he wants, and he’s as manipulative as ever in this episode, as he repeatedly tells Soldier Boy that Homelander is not really his son. We see Soldier Boy’s ambivalence several times, hesitating to kill his own son and emotional about having a child – but Butcher knows to play to the rage he feels at being tossed aside and replaced, focusing that rage on Homelander by telling Soldier Boy that he is his replacement and the reason he was tortured. Well played, Butcher, but chillingly cruel.
Homelander was not just abused but neglected, deprived of not just a father but a mother too. A sensitive boy like Butcher seems to have been, he too had that knocked out of him with cruelty, absorbing the same message that to be “a man” you must not only be strong and powerful but unfeeling too. Showing vulnerability is weakness, unmanly. Both men struggle to have any kind of healthy relationships – even Butcher’s with his wife was doomed once Ryan existed – and both have been increasingly isolated and alone as this season progressed.
Only one more episode of Season 3 of The Boys to go, and I don’t think anyone is ready for this wild ride to be over! This week’s episode, ominously titled “Here Comes A Candle To Light You To Bed” brought one of the biggest revelations of the series, and delivered it in a way that ensured it left a powerful impact. I know some people guessed what was coming, but I wasn’t one of those people, so it left me gobsmacked and repeating WTF more than once. Luckily I love it when this show can surprise me, so this is far from a complaint.
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD, SO BE SURE YOU’VE WATCHED THE EPISODE FIRST!
It’s been amusing, as a long time Supernatural fan, to watch the rest of the world discover Jensen Ackles’ acting brilliance as they watch this season of The Boys. He gave a tour de force in this episode, once again making me feel a ridiculous range of emotions that shouldn’t be possible for one character – especially one like Soldier Boy. And yet…
Look, even the official accounts can’t help but get a little heart eyed over this character (and the guy who so vividly portrays him).
More than anything, this episode was about agency and choice, as many of the characters confront their own fears and make decisions about their trajectories in life that acknowledge those fears but refuse to be constrained by them. Homelander and Vought (as now personified by Ashley) continue to hold power by wielding that fear, Ashley utilizing their voicepiece Cameron Coleman to cast doubt on Annie’s accusations. Surely no one can take her seriously when she’s clearly just a woman scorned, and oh by the way, doesn’t she have ties to known terrorists and human traffickers? No wonder she started a home for runaway girls! Imagine a world where the real bad guys take the moral high ground to silence a voice for change and people just believe it…oh wait.
Maeve is one of the characters who has faced the worst case scenario and decided she’s willing to lose it all to go up against Vought and Homelander. He visits her to see if he can find out where Butcher and Soldier Boy are, trying to scare her by saying that Soldier Boy has already killed seven supes and fried the power out of others – reminding her that could happen to any of them. His fear mongering doesn’t work on her anymore though.
Maeve: That’s the difference between you and me. You need to be a supe; I can’t wait til it’s over.
In one of the many parallels in this episode, Homelander recalls almost fondly that at one time he wanted to have kids with Maeve, just as Soldier Boy recalled the same about Crimson Countess previously. In an eerily prescient theme for what’s going on in the real world right now, Homelander assures her that he’d never force himself on her – but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t harvest her eggs against her will to make himself some kids. It’s a shocking attempt to control her body and her reproductive decisions and how the hell are Kripke and this show always so good at predicting the dystopian future?
Maeve refuses to give him the upper hand though, saying that the day is still a top three for her, because she saw him scared. Touche.
Later, Homelander speaks at a rally and attacks Starlight once again when he’s supposed to be rallying in support of candidate Robert Singer (Supernatural’s own Jim Beaver). Homelander is losing it a bit though, hallucinating Soldier Boy in the crowd, his eyes glowing for a second before he gets himself under control. Walking it off, he ends up in a nearby barn where a cow is plaintively mooing. As ‘Crimson and Clover’ starts to play, the scene goes surreal, Homelander milking the cow and looking positively orgasmic while doing it and then drinking the milk right out of the bucket.
Only on The Boys, seriously.
Neuman catches him at it and tells him to pull himself together, offering him some information and a working alliance. That should go well.
A Train wakes up in the hospital with a new heart and an Ashley-written fake news story about how he got it that involves Soldier Boy killing Blue Hawk just as he and A Train were getting along again. Nice cover story, tying up all the loose ends. A Train is ambivalent about going along with all this, but you get the feeling he’s going to cave, drawn back in by the fame and fortune – and Ashley knows it.
Black Noir, on the run and hiding from Soldier Boy, also faces his fears – with the help of Buster Beaver and his cast of cartoon characters. Nathan Mitchell somehow manages to convey all kinds of emotions without saying a word, and it’s a brilliant use of cartoons to depict Noir’s backstory (as this show has done before). Much like Homelander’s heart to heart with his own mirror image, Black Noir’s dream sequence in his head gives voice to his own self doubt and trauma without him having to utter a thing.
The sixth episode of The Boys third season was possibly the most anticipated one of all, and the title explains why. ‘Herogasm’ is a decadent, drug-fueled supe orgy taken from the pages of the original comics, and I’m fairly certain Eric Kripke is still giggling gleefully at somehow being given the green light to depict it in the series too.
Ackles is probably giggling along with him still too.
It is as over the top as advertised, though I’m guessing there were plenty of people who were hoping that there were more participants, such as some of our favorite supes, not just in the “I’m here” way but in the “take my pants off” way. Though we certainly do get some memorable moments with The Deep, don’t we?
This is the spoilery recap and review of the ‘Herogasm’ episode, so make sure you’ve watched before you read – hopefully your eyes are still working after some of the shit you saw!
The lead up to this episode was so much fun, with multiple ‘warnings’ including one from a shirtless Jensen Ackles standing in the Caribbean that should have come with a warning itself and a final warning on the episode itself as viewers were about to stream it.
There were even some real life screenings if you were lucky enough to be a town where that was happening! I am endlessly fascinated by how well the show crosses over into reality, both poking fun at itself and doing real life marketing while it lampoons its in-show marketing simultaneously. And somehow it keeps pulling it off!
There’s actually a lot going on in this episode that is not Herogasm though. It’s an episode full of crisis for Homelander, who is increasingly isolated and legitimately traumatized by the desertion of so many of his former team. He is also traumatized by finding out that there’s a new and unanticipated threat on the scene as he views the footage of Crimson Countess’ death.
Homelander: Soldier Boy…
The ever not helpful Ashley: Someone cosplaying maybe?
The Deep: CGI?
But Homelander knows what he’s seeing, and he’s rattled, freaking out and muttering that it’s not fair like a two year old before he pulls himself together.
He instructs Ashley to bury all the footage (complicated by Vought’s serious technical problems now that The Deep fired all the tech people and then blamed Ashley) and belatedly tries to shore up some support from Black Noir, saying he’s glad to have Black Noir on his team to count on and calling him “pal”. As a member of Soldier Boy’s Payback team, though, Black Noir knows he’s got a target on his back, and he knows who’s the biggest danger to him right now. He carves the chip right out of his arm in an elevator, handing it to a shocked and sobbing woman.
Woman: Uhhh, thank you…
The dark humor in this show, I love it.
The Deep, loyal to the end, tells Homelander about it, and Homelander of course takes it as yet another personal desertion, sending him into a spiral of desperation. (The Deep’s arranged wife, Cassandra, is still pulling his strings at this point, but it’s clear he’s getting pretty tired of it, which may partially explain his later dalliance with someone (something?) else….
This episode has one of my favorite scenes in the series so far – and no, it’s not Herogasm. It’s the quiet scene that follows the news about Noir, and it packs a tremendous psychological punch. Homelander, alone, upset. Feeling abandoned. His own image in the mirror talks back to him – literally – feeding his narcissism with reassurance that he can handle it, he’s at the top of the food chain.
Prime video bts
When Homelander is still unsure, his mirror image reminds him that when they were kids “I got us through it…in the bad room…and now I’ll get us through this, as long as you and me stick together.”
Episode 6 of The Boys Season 3 drops tomorrow (or tonight if we’re lucky) and has a lot of anticipation around it, simply because – as its title announces – it’s the Herogasm episode. It’s still amazing to me that the series was able to pull off the supe orgy event from the comics and put it on streaming video. Herogasm is every bit as zany as everyone expected, and surprisingly humorous too. I didn’t expect to laugh out loud when there were such … creative… things going on. Flying vibrators? Sex with a…. Okay, you have to watch. This show is good at that, though – mixing the sexual with the violent with the humorous with the occasionally touching. And not just the Herogasm kind of touching!
Herogasm comic cover by Darick Robertson
Here’s my non-spoilery teaser review of Episode 6, which everyone should watch when it drops on Friday (or Thursday night if we’re lucky). Stay tuned for a spoilery recap and in depth review this weekend once everyone has had a chance to watch.
I won’t give away what actually happens at the Herogasm bash, or who ends up being there to join in the fun (or pursue other goals while others have fun). Let’s just say that a lot happens, and it is both disturbing and darkly funny. I will forever appreciate The Boys for being able to combine all those things with a drug-fueled supe orgy that had so many pump bottles of lube on the set that many a hapless crew member apparently mistook one for covid-protocol hand sanitizer.
So yes, that happened.
Now that I’ve seen it, I can only imagine what it was like to be on the set that day. Jensen Ackles shared his own experience on set that day with us at a convention in Denver shortly after filming it.
Jensen: They had rented out this huge mansion, just gaudy and perfect, and I see the A camera operator, his mask down, eating a sandwich and he looks a little traumatized. I was like, hey man, what’s goin’ on, you good? And he just shakes his head nad says “I seen some shit, man. I seen some shit.” He was already PTSD and we hadn’t even gone to lunch yet. And he was right. I can’t unsee it, can’t put that toothpaste back in the bottle. There was the set dec stuff brought in by the art department and let’s just say there were a lot of sex toys all around, and in addition there were just like vats of lube. The problem was they looked very similar to the covid hand sanitizers that they had spread throughout the set, so every now and then you’d hear an expletive because somebody had done an entire pump of lube on their hand and was like oh crap!
Jensen to Supernatural costar Jared Padalecki standing next to him: I don’t know that you’re old enough to see this. (He then played it for Padalecki on their recent flight to another convention).
So, be prepared!
The underlying theme of the episode plays out before and alongside Herogasm — the slow but sure desertion of anyone who is truly “on his team” for Homelander. Because anyone who has watched Eric Kripke’s shows for a long long time knows he can bring the OMG and the OHMYHEART and the OUCH all in one episode.
Homelander is increasingly isolated, in one poignant and disturbing scene left with only himself to talk to – literally. He also talks back, which is never a good sign but makes for fascinating fictional media. It makes horrifying sense that it’s the persona created in childhood when John needed to dissociate, still with him after all this time – probably more and more present as the stress and isolation build up. It’s the ‘strong one’ who got him through the trauma that happened in the ‘bad room’, who at first tries to give him(self) a pep talk about being better than everyone and not needing anyone, then resorts to taunting him for the part of himself that still longs for love and approval. There’s the suggestion that he carve those parts of himself out, leave him pure, clean.
You get the feeling that’s exactly where Homelander is headed. Impermeable. Cold. Unfeeling.
Makes sense when you’re a helpless, traumatized child – shut off your feelings, make yourself like stone. Make the pain stop. My little bit of empathy for Homelander reappears briefly every time I hear about his horribly abusive childhood – his defenses make sense, but they are so far from helpful at this point, they’re likely to take everyone around him down. And there’s no justifying that, even if you can see how he got there. His lack of remorse when he kills, even innocent bystanders, is absolutely horrifying.
In contrast to Homelander’s coldness, Starlight in this episode runs hot and takes no shit. She’s increasingly fed up with everyone and their brother and sister who keep “telling me I need to be shitty in order to win.” You can tell she wants to give a big fuck you to all kinds of people in this episode, including Victoria Neuman, who is so damn pleasant even though you know she could pop everyone’s heads like a melon. That’s scarier than someone who actually looks scary! Annie January takes the spotlight in a different way in this episode, and I was cheering.
We also get more backstory of Frenchie’s childhood and how much it messed him up, which is for sure the theme of this entire show. We get more backstory on Mother’s Milk too, including exactly what happened with his family and Soldier Boy back in the day, the origin of his OCD and his current obsession to confront Soldier Boy and get some kind of revenge. For many of the characters, revenge seems like the only way to end that kind of obsession. Mother’s Milk is looking for that with Soldier Boy, Hughie is looking for that with A Train, and A Train is looking for it with Blue Hawk. Round and round and round we go.
And that brings us to Soldier Boy and Butcher. Butcher’s looking for that with Homelander; Soldier Boy is looking for that with the team who abandoned him. The utilitarian partnership between Butcher and Soldier Boy, with Hughie along for the ride, is a lot more fascinating than I expected it to be. Soldier Boy’s return shakes everything and everyone up, supes included. Having someone else on the playing field with at least as much power as Homelander is a game changer, but while there are plenty of similarities between the two, there are also differences.
I was thrilled that we get to know Soldier Boy better in this episode. Ackles brings unexpected depth to his character once again, much to my distress – he’s a jerk who’s stuck in the racist misogynistic homophobic ideas that were so common in his time, and that have clearly always worked just fine for him so why would he change them? They’re beliefs that have probably hurt countless people over the decades and he remains uninterested in changing them. But he’s surprisingly open in sharing his feelings and how lost he is in this new world. A world that, as he says, forgot him.
Gif abordelimpala
He doesn’t seem interested in causing harm to anyone except the team that betrayed him. Like Homelander, though, he’s also a man who has nothing and has lost everything; and that, as we’ve seen before, is a dangerous man. Especially when they have great power. He may not be out for revenge against anyone but Payback, but he also can’t control his explosions that destroy city blocks and he’s not very concerned about collateral damage. Not exactly a caring, compassionate chap.
The rest of the original Payback team better be on the lookout…
The underlying theme of this episode is how much blame to give other things – whether outside influences or substances like V – for when people do bad things. Is it the V who turns people evil, corrupting them, or does it just bring out who they really are? It’s a metaphor both for the power and privilege someone gains and what that allows them to do, and also for the ways in which we absolve ourselves of blame for the things we do that hurt others – it’s not my fault, it’s the people who hurt me in the past. It’s the drugs. It’s the V. Or is it?
The episode is also very much about the mantra of Eric Kripke’s earlier show, Supernatural. Saving people, hunting things. What does it mean to be saved and what does it mean to be the one doing the saving? There are some pivotal choices made in this episode around that question. Mother’s Milk, Starlight, Kimiko and Hughie all make decisions about what’s most important to them, confronting some hard truths about themselves.
This is perhaps the most powerful episode yet of Season 3, with every actor stepping up with compelling performances, and twists and turns to make your head spin. One of the things I love most about this show is that I almost never know what’s coming. I don’t like it when things are predictable, and that is one thing The Boys has never been.
And just so you know, there are two episodes left of this season, and you can count on that unpredictability to remain. And then some!
Tune in tomorrow (or later tonight if we’re lucky) for Herogasm – and then check back here on the weekend for our spoilery review and recap!
It’s the day after the release of The Boys Episode 5 (The Last Time To Look on This World of Lies) after another week of anticipation running high and the official accounts doing a great job of teasing us while we wait. This episode was billed as “The Boys Musical” which left some fans expecting all the characters to burst into song ala Buffy’s musical episode – and while it wasn’t that, we did get some amazing song and dance (and there’s more if you make use of the XRay function on the streaming videos). Those moments provided a welcome interlude of lightness and even joy interspersed between the more usual moments of darkness, angst and violence. Oh, and kinky sex. I love The Boys for its ability to swing between those different states seamlessly, something Kripke seems to have mastered in all his shows.
The episode also introduces the new character of The Legend, a Stan Lee homage and iconic figure from the comics who is played to perfection by Paul Reiser. In the comics, The Legend was a Vought comic book writer who helped sell the Supes as heroes, and who later gives information to the boys.
Prime VideoOriginal comic art by Darick Robertson
He’s a former Vought employee in the series too, but more a producer and manager for the Supes with the official title of VP of Hero Management before Stillwell took that job. He’s also quite a character – decadent, irreverent, a man from a bygone era a bit like Soldier Boy is. He’s probably a complete asshole but somehow kind of appealing anyway. The Legend also provides some more pointed commentary on celebrity – to him, the Supes are “the talent”, and as he wryly notes, “who knows why they do what they do?” If you’ve ever been backstage or on the other side of the celebrity fence for even a little while, it’s both fascinating and disturbing to see how differently someone is treated who’s identified as “the talent”. They are both coddled and infantilized simultaneously, which is a great way to encourage narcissism and discourage self awareness. It’s doubly fascinating when this is a show employing a bunch of “talent” in real life, but The Boys never backs away from its own attempts at self awareness (or self parody).
I feel like I say this every time, but there are pivotal happenings in this episode for many of the characters. SPOILERS AHEAD, so be sure you’ve watched before you read!
Butcher is still sliding down that slippery slope at breakneck speed. He embraces taking the Temp V, rationalizing his decision to MM when he asks if it felt good to use his laser eyes and kill Gunpowder.
Butcher: It did – for once I leveled the fucking playing field.
MM isn’t having it, with the one line that encompasses the primary message of this show.
MM: The whole point of what we do – the whole goddamn point – is that no one should have that kind of power.
Butcher is not without ambivalence himself, especially about Hughie also taking the Temp V. He imagines Hughie as his younger brother Lenny, upset when Hughie reacts to the drug by vomiting a lot of green puke into the sink repeatedly.
The title of this episode (Glorious Five Year Plan) refers to something Mr. Edgar said about Vought’s long term planning, but I can’t help but think it also could refer to what The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke’s former show Supernatural originally was – Kripke’s Glorious Five Year Plan for the show that ended up running for a decade more and changing many people’s lives in the process. Mine included. The episode was written by Meredith Glynn, who also was a writer for Supernatural. It seems fitting to make the title into a Supernatural reference, because we get to see more of Soldier Boy.
Like, a lot more of him.
That was not a spoiler or a surprise to anyone following what Jensen Ackles and Eric Kripke and everyone else has said about that scene, but still, it’s maybe a bit eye opening. Okay, more than a bit. Let me just grab a cold drink here before I go on.
No significant spoilers here, by the way, so you can enjoy the full impact of the episode that is about to be released, which is AMAZING. I’ll be back with a more detailed recap in a few days once everyone has had a chance to watch and enjoy. This episode is a pivotal one, and not just for Soldier Boy. Most of the episode watches Homelander consolidate his power; he knows even more than we think he does about the people currently in power, and is not afraid to use every single method he can think of to flip that power balance to his favor. He makes some surprising alliances to do it – but that is so often what this show is about. The one you think holds all the power sometimes suddenly doesn’t, and the people you think are allies may just have been temporarily pretending to be. Virtually anyone is capable of stabbing anyone else in the back at any time, which keeps the suspense factor going every episode. The Deep, parroting his ambitious scheming wife, ingratiates himself with Homelander and gets into a physical fight with A Train, which leaves A Train roaring with rage. For a while it looks like Starlight has Queen Maeve, Supersonic and maybe even A Train (after that altercation) more or less united against Homelander, but underestimating him is never a good idea. Some people find that out the hard way.
I have to say that Antony Starr is brilliant as this unhinged-and-owning-it version of Homelander. He’s constantly manipulating everyone around him, keeping them off guard with provocative comments and overt threats that he then keeps insisting was “just kidding, lighten up you guys!” It’s like Gaslighting 101 and he is an absolute master. There’s a priceless scene with Ashley (Colby Minifie, always a favorite of mine) where he asks her in disgust, “Is your idiot brain getting fucked by stupid?” She says no, obviously flustered, but Ashley learns fast. Later she asks Cameron Coleman the same question, threatening/promising to punish him if he says yes, and did I mention there’s maybe an impressive strap-on somewhere in this scene? I can’t help it, I kinda love Ashley.
While the supes continue to smile for the cameras and engage in brutal infighting, the boys are in search of the weapon that was powerful enough to reputedly kill Soldier Boy – and thus maybe powerful enough to kill Homelander. Butcher is perfectly willing to send Kimiko on a mission of murder even when she protests that she’s “not your fucking gun”. In fact, that’s exactly what he says she is – he tells them what to do and they fucking do it. Frenchie bristles, especially after Butcher keeps treating him like a dog exactly as Little Nina taunted him about, but he also backs down. The parallels between Butcher, who is perfectly happy to use people as weapons instead of treating them like people, and the people in power at Vought who do exactly the same, are striking, and Karl Urban knows just how to make it chilling.
Kimiko doesn’t like it, but she does the job – decked out in silver stilettos and a skin tight sequined dress and looking like fire. This is not a spoiler since Karen Fukuhara has described this scene and the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of fighting with dildos, but there’s nothing like actually seeing it. There’s the Star Spangled Banger for Homelander, the Deep’s Flounder Pounder, Black Noir’s Silent Screamer. It’s pretty epic. I’ve never really thought about a fight with dildos as the weapons of choice, but Kimiko makes it work – in a bloody, disgusting and entirely lethal way. As soon as I saw the cabinet, I started to snicker, after hearing Karen talk about enjoying the insane scene. She’s a brown belt in real life and it shows when Kimiko gets to do a fight scene. Sometimes the over-the-top scenes include an unexpected emotional impact too, which is something I value in this show – this is one of them. Kimiko’s innovative murder of the bad guy saves the prostitutes he hired or trafficked, but they’re more terrified of her than they were of him, and that isn’t lost on her.
And then there’s Soldier Boy. Eric Kripke tweeted some behind the scenes fun times with Soldier Boy back in the day, so you can look forward to more of that. Such as it is.
Everyone in the Supernatural fandom who has found their way over to The Boys is eagerly awaiting more of Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy. Without spoiling anything that isn’t already known, this episode includes a scene that is both insane (including a supe hamster that flies through the air like the Monty Python rabbit in The Holy Grail to eat a guard’s face) and dramatically epic (recall those temporary laser eyed powers we all know Butcher becomes desperate enough to take on) before Soldier Boy makes his memorable debut.
There’s a subtle Supernatural homage in there that reminds me of Castiel’s epic entrance complete with shattering glass and flashing lights, and then there’s a reveal that no one is going to soon forget. We’ve already seen in teasers and trailers what the boys see, so this is not a spoiler – steam pouring from an opened door, the shadowy figure of a person inside, oxygen mask on and tubes keeping him alive. He wakes slowly, raising his head, snapping his restraints and pulling out all his tubes and mask. He stands, staggers to the door, hands gripping the sides, looking disoriented, and then stumbles out.
I confess that I gasped. And maybe watched that scene more than once. Maybe.
Jensen Ackles has told the story of his very first day on set being naked in front of the coworkers he didn’t even know yet, “nothing between me and them but a sock”, so that’s no spoiler either. There’s a whole lot of steam going on, but let’s just say that all that working out he put himself through did not go to waste in my humble opinion. The Boys is all about showing its male cast with fewer clothes than its female cast, and I am here for it.
I won’t say what happens next so you can watch it for yourself, but I am looking forward to some gifs and screencaps from this episode. Like, a lot of them. ALL of them. Don’t let me down, fandom!
Halfway through the season and I don’t want it to end! Next episode drops in one week – stay tuned for a proper recap of this episode, for more from our exclusive chat with Jensen Ackles, and for more on The Boys Season 3!
