The Boys – Season 3 Episode 8 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

The Instant White-Hot Wild

Episode 8 of The Boys Season 3 starts this finale with Homelander heading off to visit Ryan and Grace Mallory. He shrugs off what Ryan did to Stormfront and admits he’s always going to be there for the child. Ryan steps forward and hugs Homelander, Grace is shocked.

Meanwhile, Butcher and Hughie decide to swing by Vought HQ to pick up more temp Compound V. Soldier Boy is still with them but Butcher is clearly concerned that he may lose control and switch sides. So naturally, he knocks out Hughie on the road and drives off with Soldier Boy.

Does Homelander kill Black Noir?

Frenchie visits MM, complete with a bottle of perfume. However, this happens to include the world’s most deadly nerve agent, something he wants them to use against Soldier Boy.

Back at Vought HQ, Homelander returns to find out everything has gone awry. Maeve has been moved out the tower (and subsequently escaped) while protestors outside rally by Starlight’s side after Homelander’s video. In the middle of all this, Homelander also kills Noir, learning that he knew about Soldier Boy’s lineage all this time. After slamming his fist through Noir’s stomach, Homelander leaves his old friend to bleed out.

A-Train catches up with Nate and admits that he’s killed Blue Hawk. He did this for his brother but Nathan is having none of it. He tells A-Train to get out, unwilling to share the house with a murderer.

Why does Butcher turn on Soldier Boy?

The boys and Maeve eventually catch up together (minus Butcher of course), where the truth about Soldier Boy and Homelander is revealed. Hughie urges them to try and save everyone – including Butcher – and stop Solider Boy from causing more drama.

The group eventually catch up with Butcher and Soldier Boy but things soon go to hell when Maeve turns on them and teams up with the pair, deciding they need to stop Homelander no matter what. The trio do find Homelander, alone at Neuman’s office. Homelander tries to convince his father, Soldier Boy, bringing out Ryan to show Soldier Boy has a grandson.

Soldier Boy though, sees through this and calls Homelander a disappointment. Soldier Boy blasts Ryan, knocking him out, prompting Butcher to defend Becca’s son, wanting to keep his promise. While Maeve and Homelander trade blows, so too do Butcher and Soldier Boy. Annie and MM thankfully show up and start to turn the tables.

Is Soldier Boy stopped?

As for Frenchie and Kimiko, they head into the lab and create their nerve agent, having earlier lost it from the perfume bottle. They’re going to use this against Soldier boy.

Kimiko is thrown across the room when she gets near, while Starlight looks set to cause chaos. Hughie meanwhile, cranks up the electrics from the control room to help her out, rather than use Temp V, watching as Annie channels her power she can to blast back against Solider Boy.

In the middle of all this, drama ensues. Maeve stabs Homelander through the ear and knocks him down, while Soldier Boy is hit with the nerve agent. Only, he looks set to completely blow up and kill everyone. Maeve notices and tackles him out the window, with the pair presumably blowing up completely.

Unfortunately, this also means their plan to stop Homelander has gone south. Ryan steps up and holds Homelander’s hand, deciding to turn away from Butcher and stay by his father’s side. When they leave, Butcher collapses on the floor.

How does The Boys Season 3 end?

Unfortunately, Butcher’s use of temp V has completely eroded his lifespan. He’s got less than 11 months left to live. However, we soon learn that Queen Maeve is actually still alive. Despite the news reporting that she’s dead, Maeve is in hiding and decides to hightail it out of town with Elena. Ashley and other Ashley see the footage of this but decide to delete it, protecting Maeve.

As for Soldier Boy, he’s back sedated and locked up again. Grace Mallory is watching over him. As for Annie, she’s officially invited in as one of the Boys. Only, their whole operation goes awry when the news announces the death of Bishop. As for Victoria Neuman, she takes advantage of this and decides to join the political battlefield.

The final scenes of the episode (and season) shows Homelander introducing Ryan in front of a crowd of protestors. When one calls Homelander a fascist, the Supe completely obliterates the guy with his laser eyes.

There’s a silence hanging over the crowd until Todd starts off the cheers and everyone joins in. A thin smile crosses Ryan’s face.

The Episode Review

I’m a massive fan of The Boys but this final episode definitely rushed. The pacing is way off, with a lot of the drama rushed and squeezed into this hour-long episode. You could easily have had another 45 minutes or so of drama and really added to what’s going on, developing the character relations and turned this into a nail-biting two-parter.

Instead, what we get is a rather simple but decent final episode that doesn’t really hold many surprises. A-Train and Deep do very little, there aren’t really any casualties either and all of this feels like a vessel to get Ryan involved in the action, prepping for season 4, and giving Butcher a reason to turn on Soldier Boy.

This was the perfect episode to kill off Maeve but for some reason writers in Hollywood seem to be absolutely terrified of killing off main characters. Stranger Things is a prime example of this but in The Boys, where characters do have grisly deaths, this was the perfect moment to kill off Maeve in a blaze of glory. But nah, she’s still alive and off somewhere else.

The third season has been good, punctuated by the Herogasm episode, but this finale is a little underwhelming; a blemish on what’s otherwise been a really enjoyable show. With The Boys renewed for season 4 already, thankfully we’ve got more of this to come in the future.