The Boys third season continues its legacy as a gory and satirical take on the superhero genre

By Saiba Haque, Second Year, Politics and Philosophy

To say that the start of this season was “Diabolically” shocking would be an understatement. Just the first 15 minutes of episode one left me in awe, it’s almost indescribable. While not all of the episodes for the third season have been released yet, it’s safe to say that a lot happens in the span of the three episodes that have been released thus far.

The third season of The Boys (2019-) picks up a year later from the events of season two. Stormfront (Aya Cash) was taken down and Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid) started working with Congresswoman Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) at the Federal Bureau of Superhero Affairs to hold ‘Supes’ accountable for their actions. A lot has changed since then; Starlight (Erin Moriarty) has progressed in popularity within the Vought and is hosting a reality talent show for Supes.

Homelander (Anthony Starr) has been slowly slipping both mentally and in popularity and is more unhinged than ever. William Butcher (Karl Urban), Kimiko Miyashiro (Karen Fukuhara) and Frenchie (Tomer Kapon) now take orders from Hughie to catch Supes “The right way”.

MM (Laz Alanzo) has decided to leave the group to focus on his family. We even get a small but ultimately tragic origin story for Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell/Fritzy-Klevans Destine), along with the introduction of Supe group, Payback, in a flashback sequence narrated by Grace Mallory (Laila Robins).

One of the most interesting elements of this season so far is Homelander’s demise of his sanity. Although, one can argue that it is questionable that he was sane in the first place, this season we see him slipping towards becoming even more deranged and unhinged than ever.

From witnessing the ever so subtle yet unnerving faked smiles in the interviews to the characters around him being more horrified by his behaviour than ever, to him finally becoming unhinged after Stormfronts demise, Anthony Starr has played the character of Homelander to perfection yet again.

Homelander finally comes clean to the public about his true self on him being a “God Figure”, which only we the audience, and the central characters have been aware of so far. To everyone’s surprise, a particular percentage of the public admire him even more for it.

Which begs the question, how far are we willing to go to put our trust and idolise celebrities, politicians, businessmen and heroes? And how glorifying certain figures can allow them to get away with committing heinous acts. Questions that have been looming throughout the entirety of the show.

Another interesting aspect of this season is the moral principles of the characters being challenged. Starlight, although initially wanting to bring down Vought and the Supes, is now positively considering taking the co-captain role for The Seven, as she believes it can promote female empowerment.

Butcher has consistently been against all things Supe, but when he is presented with the compound V24 (which can temporarily turn a person into a Supe) he decides to take it as it can get him a step closer to finding Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) and “ending Homelander”.

Last season we, the audience, found out that Neuman is a “head-popping” supe. This season, Hughie discovers this information along with the fact that Neuman is technically adopted by Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito). Although Hughie wanted to do things the “right way”, this notion now seems hopeless and “rigged” for him to pursue. Thus leading him back to work with The Boys again, like in the old days.

There has also been some growth in the character arcs of other characters. There is more depth and insight into Kimiko’s tragedy of being “broken” from trauma. MM is shown to be struggling with his OCD tendencies after he stops working with The Boys.

There is some more reveal on Frenchie’s past, but not enough so far in the season to be a fully-fledged arc; which is understandable, as the show consists of so many characters, it can be difficult to squeeze in fully-fledged arcs for all characters.

Nevertheless, the first three episodes have been extremely entertaining to watch. I look forward to what is yet to come in the rest of the season.

Featured Image: IMDB

Tune in every Friday on Amazon Prime to catch the rest of the season