WARNING: Spoilers ahead for The Boys season 3's finale
Amazon's The Boys season 3 ending is brimming with shock surprises, supe showdowns, and sadistic smiles - here's how "The Instant White-Hot Wild" changes the game forever. After two seasons of satirical superhero mayhem, The Boys promised something bigger, better, and even more stomach-churning for season 3, and even if Herogasm couldn't quite justify its over-inflated hype, the 2022 adventures of Billy Butcher haven't been wanting for intensity or drama.
Butcher and Hughie both granted themselves temporary superpowers using V-24, Homelander knocked Stan Edgar off his Vought perch while triggering a depressingly relatable culture war, and Starlight quit the Seven. The addition of Jensen Ackles' Soldier Boy, meanwhile, has dredged up Vought's oldest, darkest secrets - not least of which is the patriotic supe legend being Homelander's secret father.
When The Boys' season 3 finale begins, Butcher, Hughie and Soldier Boy are plotting one final assault on Homelander at Vought HQ, while MM, Frenchie, Kimiko and Starlight resolve to bring down Soldier Boy, drag Butcher back from the brink, and make it back home in time for pizza rolls and Remington Steele. This is how The Boys season 3's ending shakes out.
Why Homelander Kills Black Noir
Our first major twist of The Boys season 3's finale comes when Homelander rams a gloved fist straight through Black Noir. The Silent Knight's intestines are scattered across the floor of Vought Tower's famous Floor 99, and Noir's animated pals slowly fade away, confirming his death.
Weirdly, Homelander spends the remainder of The Boys season 3 mourning Black Noir, talking as if he'd been run over by a bus, not murdered by his own hand. Though killing his only true Seven ally clearly stung, the scene speaks to Homelander's desperate longing for the love and approval he lacked during childhood. Noir did absolutely everything Homelander asked, but hid that Soldier Boy was his father, and that the Russians took him alive. So desperate is Homelander for a parent, even Black Noir doesn't escape punishment for this transgression.
Black Noir's The Boys death hammers one final nail into the coffin of an authentic comic ending (where the masked supe is revealed as a Homelander clone), but also completes Earving's tragic backstory. Payback betrayed Soldier Boy because he physically and mentally tortured them, but even after 40 years of relative peace, Black Noir can't escape the shadow of his former leader, and gets poetically finished off by his tormentor's son.
The Boys Season 3's Final Battle Decoded
Team Butcher gets a surprise draft pick ahead of The Boys season 3's final battle, with Queen Maeve abruptly switching sides - but it's a twist previous episodes signposted heavily. Not only was Maeve the person pushing V-24 to Billy Butcher (she might've even known about its deadly side effects), but her intel led directly to finding Soldier Boy in Moscow. After Homelander made her life hell throughout The Boys season 2, it's absolutely no surprise that Queen Maeve would take Butcher's view that Soldier Boy is the lesser of two red, white and blue evils.
That leaves Butcher, Maeve and Soldier Boy going after Homelander, while MM, Kimiko, Frenchie, Starlight and Hughie (who Butcher cut loose in an act of kindness) work together to stop Soldier Boy before any more Herogasm-esque detonations. Team Butcher actually comes seconds away from winning early in the fight. All three grip their target while father-of-the-year charges his power-canceling blast from point-blank range, and only thanks to Ryan's timely intervention does Homelander survive here.
Homelander almost gets beaten again after Soldier Boy knocks Ryan down with a shield whack. The Seven leader tends to his son while Soldier Boy glows ominously behind him... but this time it's Billy Butcher who saves Homelander. Watching Ryan get hurt was obviously the final straw for Karl Urban's character. What use is avenging Becca if the child Becca loved is getting beaten up?
At this point, The Boys season 3's climax turns into a free-for-all against Soldier Boy, with only Queen Maeve keeping focus on Homelander. The Boys gain an upper hand thanks to Frenchie concocting the same nerve agent Russia's scientists used to sedate Soldier Boy, but the villain's rage at being gassed triggers another explosion. Now it's Queen Maeve's turn to prioritize saving people over her own selfish desire for revenge, as she tackles the superhero bomb out an office window, ensuring he detonates in the relative safety of midair.
Why Soldier Boy Rejects Homelander (& Ryan Doesn't)
The Boys season 3's finale is a mixed bag for Homelander and family members. On one hand, his father hates him; on the other, Ryan doesn't. Soldier Boy's rejection was actually set up by episode 6, when Jensen Ackles' woefully outdated supe bashed modern fathers as "pussies" and promised any son of his would be raised as a "real man" during some pre-Herogasm downtime with Jack Quaid's Hughie. Homelander is infamously sensitive, especially where family matters are concerned, and this is why Soldier Boy rejects his son in The Boys' season 3 finale.
However, Homelander's emotional fragility works in his favor when winning over Ryan. As seen previously in The Boys season 3, Billy Butcher prioritized his crusade against Homelander over taking care of Ryan, and regrettably harsh words were uttered ("maybe I don't want to look at you after what you did to my Becca"). A murderous villain though he may be, Homelander deeply cares about his child. He refuses to lay blame for Stormfront's injuries, and doesn't even fight back against Soldier Boy until he's checked on Ryan after grandpa's shield strike. Through attentiveness and genuine compassion, Homelander finally makes Ryan see him as a father rather than the stuff of nightmares.
Starlight's Compound-V Powers Have Evolved
Starlight gains a brand new power in The Boys season 3 finale's epic last battle - she flies now! Hughie turns the VNN studio lights to maximum, which super-charges Starlight and seemingly unlocks this divine new ability to fly. However, Starlight has absorbed massive amounts of light before in The Boys and her feet never left the ground, implying this flight power wasn't just triggered by extra solar fuel, but actually marks a genuine growth in her powers. Whether or not Starlight can now fly at will (without an entire studio's worth of powerful bulbs on full-blast) remains to be seen, but The Boys likely wouldn't have introduced Star-flight unless there were plans to showcase that power further in season 4.
Starlight flying is symbolic of her relationship with Hughie. Jack Quaid's character has felt inferior to his mega-powerful girlfriend throughout The Boys season 3, but an almost-fatal brush with Compound-V exposed the error of his ways. Rather than injecting again in the final episode (thereby satisfying his urge to "rescue the girl") Hughie saves Starlight in a healthier way, turning up the lights that spark her power, and quite literally lifting his girlfriend so she can save herself.
Is Butcher Going To Die In The Boys? Can He Survive?
As Starlight already confirmed in The Boys, dosing with V-24 is fatal after 3-5 hits. Hughie appears to have escaped unscathed after dose four, but Butcher injected a whopping six, ensuring he doesn't walk away without consequences. Season 3's ending reveals the infamous spanker of supes has 12-18 months remaining, and that revelation sends massive shockwaves through The Boys' future. For starters, it's difficult to see the Amazon series continuing long-term with such a strict time limit upon its main character. A year passed in-universe between seasons 2 & 3, but another lengthy jump along those lines now looks impossible.
Facing mortality, Butcher will surely become even more desperate in The Boys season 4. He has 18 months to kill Homelander, win back Ryan, and depending on whether his philosophy changes, find a way to wipe out every Compound-V subject on god's green Earth. The diagnosis promises a more unpredictable, villainous Billy Butcher. There's only one way Karl Urban's character can feasibly avoid his death sentence, and it's not a prospect he'll relish. If Butcher injects permanent Compound-V, the resulting powers could negate any nasty side-effects left over from the V-24.
What Happened To Queen Maeve? Will She Return In The Boys Season 4?
Despite absorbing Soldier Boy's radioactive blast head-on, Queen Maeve survives her leap of faith from Vought Tower. Video footage shows her being scooped up by Starlight and MM to (mostly) recover at the latter's apartment. The Boys doesn't clearly explain how Queen Maeve survives here, but the season 3 finale's fight against Homelander makes a point of highlighting her toughness when Vought's Almost-Amazonian endures several blasts of heat vision. Audiences can perhaps assume Maeve's sheer supe durability saved her from a grisly death. As we've seen before with Soldier Boy's explosions, however, Maeve does completely lose her powers - in addition to the eye Homelander gauged out with his thumb.
Queen Maeve looks very unlikely to return in The Boys season 4. Not only has she been rendered powerless, but the public believes Maeve died heroically taking down a "radicalized" Soldier Boy. Elena (the girlfriend from The Boys season 2) is back, and Maeve bravely walks toward the mundane life she craved after a poignant torch-passing moment with Starlight. Her ending feels too perfect to ignore, and Ashley deleting the security footage of Maeve's survival ensures the truth will remain hidden... even to Homelander.
The Boys & Seven Look Completely Different After Season 3's Finale
All the drama of season 3's finale completely alters The Boys' landscape. Butcher's crew gains an official sixth member in Starlight, who became an honorary Boy in season 2 but couldn't make the arrangement official thanks to her superhero duties. Having publicly quit Vought following the Herogasm incident, Starlight now gets her official Boys membership card, "I Hate Supes" t-shirt, and list of Flatiron Building regulations. More significantly, the Boys is now a democratic team. Sick of Butcher's domineering ways, cake-holes will remain firmly open from this point onward.
Over at Vought Tower, even more drastic personnel changes are afoot. The Seven is completely broken, with only Homelander, Deep, A-Train, and Ashley as their handler. While Vought may recruit fresh Seven heroes in The Boys season 4, Homelander's speech about the team failing to become the "family" he envisioned suggests otherwise. Vought's villain can keep a tighter hold on power by limiting his inner circle to three spineless followers. The Boys season 3's ending does, however, foreshadow an A-Train redemption arc. With his brother suffering permanent injuries from Blue Hawk, A-Train might be falling out of love with his superhero lifestyle. Could he run with the Boys in season 4?
Soldier Boy Is Defeated - But Can Return In The Boys Season 4
Frenchie's nerve agent serves its purpose in Amazon's The Boys season 3 ending. Despite exploding through the night sky, Soldier Boy is knocked unconscious long enough for Mallory to permanently incarcerate him inside a secure facility. Clearly, however, Soldier Boy is still alive, setting up a potential return in The Boys season 4. If Stormfront can make a comeback after her season 2 injuries, Soldier Boy definitely can. Though he probably won't play main antagonist again, Homelander's dad might be recruited as a soldier for another villain...
Mallory's facility is very probably government-owned, and Victoria Neuman is now Robert Singer's vice-presidential running mate, giving her access to Vought's Sleeping Beauty. If Neuman can figure out a means of puppeteering Soldier Boy (either chemically or by cutting a deal), he could prove an invaluable trump card against an increasingly erratic Homelander.
What Vice President Neuman Means For The Boys Season 4
In exchange for Victoria Neuman handing over Ryan's location, Homelander orders Deep to kill Robert Singer's vice president pick. The swimming pool sneak-attack leaves Neuman in pole position to land the coveted gig, and The Boys season 3 ends with Butcher proclaiming the congresswoman as his gang's next target. That's one decision where a show of hands probably isn't necessary...
The scene firmly establishes Claudia Doumit's character as The Boys season 4's big villain (although that's what we said after season 2's finale...), and the prospect of a head-popping supe inside the White House is not a welcome one for those who know Victoria's secret. Viewers can probably also assume Neuman won't stop at Vice President level. Having already bribed Homelander to kill one politician standing in her way, how long until Deep swims up Robert Singer's plug hole? Expect "President Neuman" to become a dangerously realistic prospect in The Boys season 4. Of course, the more favors Neuman owes Homelander, the more sway he'll enjoy over American politics. Butcher's Boys could soon be facing the two-headed demon of Vought and the White House, stripping away their government protection.
The Boys Season 3's Final Scene: Homelander & Ryan Explained
The final moments of "The Instant White-Hot Wild" are revolutionary to The Boys for two distinct reasons. Firstly, the culture wars Homelander instigated reach an entirely new level. Public opinion was already split between those who believe Starlight's (completely true) accusations, and those who stand proudly by Homelander, Stormfront, and their right-wing conspiracies. Earlier in The Boys season 3, Homelander was shocked to discover unleashing his true personality in public actually brought more popularity, but even Vought's mightiest supe underestimated the depth of his supporters' blind devotion. The Boys season 3's closing scene sees Homelander deliberately murder a Starlight supporter in full view of the baying mob... who then cheer. The smile creeping across Homelander's face shows a man realizing he can finally be his true, sinister self without fear of reprisal.
Somehow, that's not even the darkest note in The Boys season 3's ending. Ryan smiling proves any goodness Becca instilled in her son is now being poisoned by Homelander's darkness. Not only is Ryan desensitized to violence and death, he's gradually becoming tempted by the safety and control that derives from wielding so much power. The more father-son time Ryan experiences, the more these feelings will grow. Billy Butcher's task in The Boys season 4 (aside from stopping Neuman, avoiding death and killing Homelander) will be finding a way to reignite Becca's values inside Ryan's evil little heart.
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