The largest moment from the last episode of The Boys was that their virus works, as it killed the members of Teenage Kix, excluding Countess Crow (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), whom Mother Milk (Laz Alonso) saved. Their target was to finish off Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles), which was an unexpected counter for them, but unfortunately, rising back like he’s the Undertaker, it’s seen that the virus has no effect on him.
The Boys find themselves hitting a roadblock with Soldier Boy coming out of the situation unscathed and fully healed. It’s revealed that due to the V1 in his blood, it makes him immune from the virus. While Soldier Boy gets all the spotlight in the media, Homelander (Antony Starr) once again is visited by a bright holy light, and once he’s back down to reality, he decides to bring the spotlight back onto him, revealing to the public that Soldier Boy is his father.
This bright light that’s visiting Homelander is just the start of his season-long arc that will see him enter a place of faith that we’ve not seen the character explore before. It’s one of the few things that this season gets right, and that’s the character development that we get from him. Being the most powerful supe isn’t enough for him, and it gets to a point where he wants everyone to worship him. When you think you’ve seen it all from The Boys, this episode really breaks apart your disbelief in what this show is capable of.
We’ve been hearing Madelyn Stillwell’s (Elisabeth Shue) voice, but she finally appears in a cameo role as an angel coming down to Homelander. All of Homelander’s problems come out here as we learn that he’s not happy about the relationships that he has with his father or his son. This vision of Angelic Stillwell puts the idea into Homelander’s head that he should have more love than Jesus, which sets in stone his journey to gain the belief of everyone and attain God status.
With V1 being the answer to how Homelander can attain his God title, he’s now in a race with the Boys to find the last remaining V1 in the world. The Boys find themselves meeting up with Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito), who has some information on where they could possibly find some V1. In his bunker, we get the first Gen V appearance of the season, and annoyingly, it isn’t Marie Moreau or any of her friends but instead Maverick.
The absence of Marie is honestly felt, but seeing Hughie be faced with Maverick (Nicholas Hamilton) after killing his father in the first season makes for some decent storytelling. He tries to share a moment with him, consoling him over his father’s death and trying to relate to him due to his own father’s death, but still hides the truth from him.
This is all for nothing because Maverick quickly finds out the truth from Deep (Chace Crawford) when he tries to get the jump on them but is caught by Dogknott (Zach McGowan), who sniffs him out. He switches sides and faces off against Hughie but dies an explosive death as Cindy (Ess Hödlmoser) accidentally kills him, with Annie (Erin Moriarty) killing Cindy in a fit of despair and rage, believing that Hughie (Jack Quaid) had been killed, which, thankfully, he wasn’t.
This episode of The Boys highlights how self-centred a lot of its characters are. Homelander believes he can become a god. Butcher (Karl Urban) gets to reunite with Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) but lies to him while focusing on his main mission. Deep knocks out Black Noir II (Nathan Mitchell) so that he can take all the credit on the mission for retrieving Stan Edgar.
There’s no selflessness among any of these characters, and it only sets up what may be their demise if they don’t get things in order. It’s interesting that they may either share similar goals or entirely different goals overall but manage to still feel alike. It’s The Boys’ biggest strength, and that’s the character work that they manage to do. It’s so minimal in this episode with a lot of them aside from Homelander but is still greatly effective.
Ryan still manages to lead Homelander out of the tower, which is what Butcher planned, but Ryan asks him the question of if he raped his mother. At first Homelander continues to lie before essentially admitting to it. Ryan tries fighting Homelander, but it doesn’t go well for him, and we’re met with a scene that fans have been anticipating since the trailer.
With Ryan laid flat out on the ground, Homelander begins beating into his face, each punch harder than the last as his face crunches under his fist. If I had a nickel for every time Prime Video had a scene of a superpowered father beating his superpowered son on the ground, I’d have two nickels, but it’s weird that it has happened twice. It’s clear that this scene takes inspiration from Invincible, and seeing it animated is one thing, but witnessing it in live action only makes it more brutal and the pain feel real.
At the end of it all, Frenchie (Tomer Capone) is able to discover that Fort Harmony is the first place they can look for any remnants of V1. Annie is unable to recover from thinking that Hughie was dead and flies away, saying it was easier on her own. Butcher comes across Ryan’s unconscious but breathing beaten body, and Stan Edgar is brought to Homelander.
The Boys Season 5 Episode 3, “Every One of You Sons of Bitches,” creates a lot of progress for both the Boys and Homelander. They both know what they need, and it has officially become a race to get it. There’s some movement with the story, even if it’s minimal, but the highlight, as always, which is hard to deny, is the individual character writing by writer Ellie Monahan, who in this episode excels with Homelander’s self-discovery arc that begins and his relationship with his son, Ryan.
