Ok so the Boys Season 3 Episode 4 is now out and it's time to take a butchers at all the
easter eggs, hidden details and things you missed in it. There's also major callbacks
to the comic in this episode and we'll be talking about what originally happens in them
and comparing it to what we get here.
So far the season has had homelander teasing that he's going off the deep-end but this
episode he really goes supersonic.
Oop spoiler alert and as I'm sure you can guess we will be talking about everything
so if you haven't had a chance to check it out then I highly recommend that you check
out now. With that out the way, thank you for clicking this, now let's get into the
Boys Season 3 Episode 4.
Now we open the episode with the real life american TV show Solid Gold hosting Soldier
boy. This series started in 1980 and it ran for 8 years, hosting several singers and dancerslike
what we get here. The show was criticised for being pretty corny and the New York times
stated that it devolved into becoming a parody of itself due to soap opera-esque storylines
that we sewed throughout the series. The tracks were also heavily mimed, meaning that it was
all image which of course mirrors Vought.
Soldier Boy performs the song Rapture by Blondie which made it's tv debut on Solid Gold. It's
credited as being the first ever rap video broadcast on MTV but it has a bit of a controversial
legacy to it. Debbie Harry is often mistakingly said to be the first rapper which, yeah isn't
true and it devalues Kool Herc a bit who is said to have kickstarted the genre. However,
you have others that say she recognised the artform and brought it to the masses which
helped to propel hip hop into the mainstream. There's some reflection here in Soldier Boy
who's credited as being a hero but really he killed some of MM's family.
Mother's Milk is of course a massive rap music fan and we see him watching the performance
and remembering when he saw it as a kid with his family. There's also flashes of a toy
car and we learned in the newspaper clippings that Soldier Boy forced his family's car off
the road which killed several of them.
Cut to the FlatIron building which was also the headquarters of the boys in the comics.
Hughie confronts Butcher about V24 and though he berates him for taking it, come the end
of the episode he himself also injects it too. Hughie ends up punching through a security
guard in Russia which actually plays somewhat on the first time that he killed someone in
the comics. After being injected with Compound V for the first time, Hughie ended up punching
through The Blarney Cock who he and the boys had been spying on. Hughie didn't know his
own strength and he felt guilty about it for weeks after, until Blarney returned as a zombie
due to V basically firing up the neurons in someone after they died. A hamster wrapped
in cling film that had been shoved up Blarney's ermm...we'll not go into that, actually ended
up climbing out of him which Hughie ended up keeping as a pet. We even get a potential
nod to that Hamster later on out in Russia.
Cut to the Cameron Colson show and bit of a correction from last week, I said that Termites
movie was called Rocket Romance and it was Pocket Romance. I had Pocket in the script
but I misread it, however that doesn't excuse my actions and I want to apologise to everyone
I let down last time. I see you, I hear you, I grow.
Now when we last left them, Mr. Steal Yo Supes had just announced that he and Starlight were
a couple. However, what he's here to talk about is the birthday rant and how the media
are reporting on it. Homelander cites it as being fake news and he pays lip service to
there being powerful people within Vought that pull the strings. We then cut immediately
to Stan Edgar meeting Victoria "Nadia" Neuman, the three of which all have major arcs in
this entry.
Homelander ends up ousting Edgar through Vic who exposes him during a press conference.
Edgar here uses whatever he can to try and keep Homelander inline and he even suggests
her using FCC fines for him dropping F and C C bombs ey, on tv.
This shows main theme at the moment is all about Power and what people will do to attain
it. We of course have Homelander, the most powerful man on Earth who's dismantling the
beuaracracy to get to the top. Edgar who's attempting to use red tape to stop him and
also Billy who's taking V24 at the expense of his own principles. Starlight wants to
quit the Seven but she's being co-erced into staying with them. The Deep was willing to
eat his best buddy Timothy just to get back in the group and there's also several characters
in the group that fit this theme.
Supersonic was warned not to join the team but the allure of power was too much. A-Train
is running on borrowed time and if he uses his power again he could potentially have
a fatal heart attack. So he's now trying to gain power through other means, namely by
using his image to give him ins to social causes.
Lastly is Hughie, someone completely powerless who's now stuck with feelings of jealousy
over his Supes girlfriend and her new quote unquote boyfriend. When talking to Starlight
later on he says he'll save her for once but Homelander arrives and spoils the fun. He
signs Hughie's fleshly minted cast and almost pressures him into talking about their sexlife.
Though he stands up to Homelander, Starlight is the one who steps in. I think it's this
feeling of inadequacy that makes him end up attempting to gain power himself which we'll
talk about later on.
Hughie also carries on wearing band T-Shirts and we can catch him donning one for Foreigner.
Neuman is terrified that Homelander will come for Zoe in retaliation and come the end of
the episode she ends up injecting Compound V into her as a way to protect her. Now at
this point Billy and Frenchy go to meet Little Nina. In the comic the main arc that this
episode is based on started at Issue 11 and it followed The Boys as they went to Russia
to investigate Supes who's heads had been exploding. In it we discovered that there
was a variant of V that had been placed into certain ones which made them a ticking time
bomb. This was overseen by Little Nina who was selling this version on the black market
on behalf of Vought.
There's a scene in the source material where she met with James Stillwell who in the comics
was the CEO of Vought. Also huge shoutouts to everyone who pointed out that the kid who
was a teleporter at Red River was actually Madelyn Stillwell's son. Whether he'll come
back or not we don't know but him being able to teleport explains how he managed to escape
the explosion at the end of the first season.
Thank you for everyone who corrected me on that, I see you, I hear you.
Now in the comics, Nina was a completely ruthless killer who had over a 2,000 body count like
Ryan Arey's mom. There rumours were that she had taken over the St Petersburg racket after
killing her father and she was brought in by Vought to help stage a coup. She was tasked
with injecting all the russian ones with the explosive form of V and that they would then
launch a coup on the government to take over. Nina believed that at this point she would
swoop in, set off a radio frequency to make their heads explode and that she would be
seen as a saviour. However, Vought gave her a dud and they were going to be the ones who
appeared to save the day. They also put an explosive on a her plane which we'll get to
in a bit.
Now on the opposite side of this, The Boys were investigating it all and they met with
Love Sausage, a Russian Supes who made a cameo back in Season 2. Nina had also been hired
by vought to take them out but they killed her goons and Butcher went to her plane. Here
he found the vought employee, learned the plan and then he told him to put the explosives
in her vibrator. It was said that after Nina killed her father that she refused to feel
the touch of a man. As the plane took off she went to use it which blew it up and it
crashed into the side of a mountain. Butcher then went to where all her Supes were and
using a radio device that actually worked he blew all their heads off.
Butcher pays off Cherie's debt and gives Little Nina an extra 100k for her troubles. However
Nina still wants the girl but they seemingly putt their differences to the side in order
for the Russian mission to play out.
A-Train goes to Ashley and also Ashley who belittles him for wanting to go after Blue
Hawk. Ashley says Black Lives Matter is her favourite hashtag and talks about her instagram
being all black squares which was what was used at the time to show unity with the movement.
When it comes to Vought it's all just social gestures without actually meaning it and this
is seen in the commercial for his energy drink Turbo Rush.
This commercial is parodying the Kendall Jenner pepsi ad in which she gave a can to a police
officer. Completely de-escalated the situation and was a bit tone deaf. Jenner got a load
of backlash for it and A-Train clearly is questioning whether he's doing the right thing,
though he does end up falling back in line to the detriment of Supersonic.
Anyway it's theory time, theory time, theory time, theory time.
Now there is this weird thing around soft drinks in the series that might just be a
coincidence but I still think its worth talking about. Fresca was brought up several times
in season 2 as being something the church of the collective constantly drank. There
were theories it helped with the brain washing and Turbo Rush also being used to control
the police might hint at something else.
Big reach but that's why it's called Theoy time, theory time, theory time.
Next we see Maeve training with her sword in her room. Gonna drop some heavy spoilers
for the comics on this bit so if you don't want the show spoiled then skip to the next
section. Now in the source material, Maeve was the constantly drunk alcoholic that her
reputation now paints her out to be. However she did have a moment of clarity towards the
back end of the run and she went head to head with Homelander. Using her sword she ended
up attacking him however because this was a prop, it broke in half. This could later
be referenced in the Sex Toy scene as I believe hers snaps in the same way that the sword
did in the comics. Maeve was murdered by Homelander and I think this scene is setting up a showdown
between them.
Now at this point Starlight goes to her about the weapon capable of taking down Homelander.
Russia is the perfect place for this too and we see several pieces of Grafitti of the character
symbolising their hate for him. Homelander is very much a representation of Western Superiority
and they run broadcasts on the TV mocking not only him but also Hughie. This is played
on CMN a parody of CNN.
Mothers Milk wears a ruff ryders T-shirt further carrying up the motif of him wearing hip hop
bands. Little Nina has found the location of the lab but she wants Kimiko to carry out
a hit on a target first. This involves Kimiko dressing as a woman of the night and in the
comics, Butcher hired these same sorts of ladies to distract the pilots on Ninas jet.
Also I know what they're called yeah, youtube are just a bunch of see you next tuesday when
you mention anything like that.
Starlight goes to Supersonic and tries to recruit him into the #Homefight. He jokingly
plays off still being in love with her but I think it's clear he actually feels that
way and is just gauging her reaction.
At a meal for the Seven, Homelander gives them all tacos, showing how he doesn't respect
him at all and it's clearly used in a derogatory way, along with the constant spanish that
he drops. This mirrors the end of episode 3 when he also said the following.
-
Black Noir sketches a cool cat and this reflects him doing childlike drawings in the series.
At this point, A-Train brings up Blue Hawk, a racist supe that we discovered curb stomped
a man returning from work last week which was a nod to American History X. Blue Hawk
very much represents police brutality and blue is of course a colour that's synonmous
with the police force. Huge shoutouts to David Ruiz who pointed out on our last video that
in the army, the term 'Blue Falcon' means a lazy soldier and Blue Hawk may also be based
on the supe Groundhawk from the comics and the boys diabolical.
With some help from Cassandra, Deep brings up that Blue Hawk and Homelander share some
of the same base so he decides not to do anything.
Ashley gets a tip on the press conference and Homelander ends up belittling her. She
ends up doing the same to Cameron Colson showing how he's having a negative effect on everyone
around him. She also uses the Homelander Dildo, cementing this idea that she's now using him
to carry out negative acts.
Look at me getting all psychoanalytical on the subtext.
This idea of Homelander enforcing people to act negatively is seen in A-Train who confronts
the Deep outside the Seven's office. Homelander did the same thing to A-Train at the start
of the season. This also pulled from the comics and after A-Train joked about Starlight giving
him, Homelander and Black Noir a BJ infront of Stillwell he hit him. Homelander was very
much about keeping things business in front of the big guy and the team is clearly starting
to fall apart.
A-train knows Deep got the plane tape and the Deep knows that he leaked Stormfront's
past. Supersonic ends up trusting in him but he ends up snitching on their plan in order
to get back in his good books. It's all a quest for power and the only person who doesn't
seem to want it is Kimiko who hates the fact that she has to kill.
She enters the mansion to the sound of Poison by Bell Biv Devoe before we hear a russian
version of I Will Survive, maybe a bullet to the head ey?
This scene in which she heals is very similar to the one in X-2 in which Wolverine also
pushes a bullet out of his forehead after being shot.
There are of course all the dildos that are all inline with members of the seven. Kimiko
questions whether she's doing the right thing which is then mirrored by Nueman who announces
Edgars corruption on NNC, which, no prizes for guessing it's also a satire of CNN. Homelander
says its the dawn of the seven and that anyone hiding is now no longer gonna have his protection.
Cut to Ashley's office where we see that the seven mural behind her now has all it's members.
This juxtaposes it's earlier appearance in the series where it just had 5.
Homelander travels to Vic, crosses some boundaries a bit and hands over the evidence that Edgar
was planning to turn her in too. As he later says, he taught her to play both sides which
is something that he's done throughout the series. He of course has right wing politicians
in his pocket and Neuman is an AOC parody that's on the left. He also loves the Supes
but he was the one who tipped off butcher about Stormfront.
Victoria is just playing whatever side she can and it is possible that she will follow
her comic book counterpart and end up in the whitehouse. She takes the compound V to protect
her daughter showing that she does have an Achilies heal. This makes her weaker than
Edgar who was willing to throw her in harms way if it came to it.
Hughie goes to Butcher and pleads for V which he ends up taking due to how weak he feels.
At Vought Tower Homelander and Edgar end up having a talk. This feels like it massively
pulls from a scene in the comics in which he went to Stillwell. He remarked that his
heartrate stayed steady throughout which is reflected in Homelander's comments here about
how relaxed Edgar is. In the end, Homelander summised that Stillwell was the real superman
because of the calmness and power that he had.
Edgar tells Homelander that now he's out the way, the world no one will cover for him and
they'll realise that he's bad product.
In the comics Stillwell delivers this devastating speech to him:
Think about it. This is par for the course with you. When have you ever done anything
remotely interesting or original? What have you thought of to do that the lowest speck
of this pointless species couldn't, where they to be granted your level of power? And
what next, destroy another airliner? Dismember more families, that kind of thing? A spoiled
child's personal Auschwitz. It's so petty it's actually quite embarrassing.
Now James was a perfectionist and he viewed V creating this sociopaths as being a failing
that he wished he could forget.
He ends up leaving and it's gonna be interesting to see where things go.
The boys go to the lab and Mother's Milk brings up Rocky 4, a film that is of course about
the US vs Russia.
After discovering a suped up hamster called Jamie they're ambushed by SWAT and this leads
to Butcher unleashing his own powers along with Hughie.
Now the name Jamie actually calls back to the comics and after Hughie saved it from
Blarney Cock he called it that. However, when the villain showed back up he referred to
him as Herbie.
It all builts to a head when they come across Soldier Boy who's body is inside a container.
This is similar to how the Winter Soldier was stored in both the second and third captain
america films.
Similar to Bucky he's clearly been captured by the Russians and experimented on it and
very much riffs on the Captain America backstory that he of course plays into. Now he has powers
like Havoc from the X-men and he can shoot concussive blasts out of his chest. There's
a feeling of Terminator to the music and he ends up taking out Kimiko
She's no longer healing and I think they might end up injecting her with more V in order
to save her life. This might jump start her healing again and we see in Hughie that his
broken arm is now back to normal after injecting it. Mother's Milk says there's no team anymore
and this gut punch is mirrored in the threat that Homelander gives to Starlight. The original
Superman film had he and Lois going for a flight together and though the scene is initially
set up like that, it's got a big reveal.
Homelander messes up Supersonics face so bad I couldn't even tell if it was him when doing
the breakdown and he says that is what will happen to Hughie if she steps out of line.
He says that they are who people are shipping and them alone. This might mean that if she
even sees Hughie again that he could end up killing him. However on the opposite side
of this he has access to V which will level the playing field. The boys taking the substance
in the comics was something that they did early on but the series has weirdly done things
the opposite way around. The focus on the Seven didn't come until much later and a lot
of the things that they're referencing in the show now happened in the first omnibus.
This is the same with V but it has added some tension to it.
I really can't wait to see how the show evolves and I've loved these first four episodes.
We're now past the half way point and you can see it all kinda falling into place with
Homelander getting worse and worse and worse.
This episode pushed the stakes even further and with him ousting Edgar and also killing
Supersonic, there's no knowing where things could go next. Personally I think that we're
due for a showdown very soon but he might end up holding onto Starlight so that she
can't warn Hughie. I also think Maeve's death is probably right around the corner and with
Edgar out the way he's gonna be fully off the leash.
Another great episode and I'd love to hear your thoughts on it so make sure you comment
below and let me know.
We're running a competition right now and giving away 3 copies of The Batman On The
15th Of June. All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is like the video,
make sure you subscribe with notifications on and drop a comment below with your thoughts
on the episode. We pick the comments at random at the end of the month and the winners of
the last one are on screen right now so message me @heavySpoilers if that's you.
If you want something else to watch then make sure you check out our breakdown of perfect
scene in Spider-Man Homecoming. We break down the entire thing so it's definitely worth
checking out if you wanna know more.
With that out the way thank you for sitting through the video, I’ve been Paul and I’ll
see you next time. Take care, Peace