History Recap / TheBoysS03E08TheInstantWhiteHotWild

* DePowered: Maeve rescues everyone at Vought Tower, but in doing so absorbs Soldier Boy's blast and loses her powers. [[IJustWantToBeNormal She isn't complaining]] and ends up FakingTheDead to live a normal life.
* DestinationDefenestration: Maeve throws herself and Soldier Boy out of a window of the Vought tower. Both survive.

* FakingTheDead: Maeve is reported as having died along with Soldier Boy in the blast that damages Vought Tower, but is revealed to have survived but DePowered due to Soldier Boy's chest blast. Ashley discovered security footage of The Boys finding her afterwards and taking her to safety, but deletes it. Soldier Boy also survived but was anesthetized and taken into CIA lockdown under Mallory's supervision.

* NeverGoingBackToPrison: Earlier on, Soldier Boy screamed he wasn't going back on the box, but that's what happens. Now he is back in a vegetative state (either induced artificially or from his injuries) and will likely stay the rest of his life on life-support.

* RelocatingTheExplosion: When Soldier Boy charges a nuclear blast in the Vought tower studio, Maeve tackles him through a window to redirect the explosion into open air, where only they will be affected.
* RemovedAchillesHeel: In prior seasons, Homelander's obsessive need to [[IJustWantToBeLoved be adored and praised in the public eye]] was one of the only fetters actually keeping him in check from using his powers to do whatever he wanted and going on unstoppable rampages if ever the mood took him. By season's end, he kills a Starlight supporter in broad daylight at a public rally as an impulsive reaction to them hitting Ryan with a water bottle, and discovers his popularity and public image have become strong enough that he now has crowds of supporters who are willing to literally applaud him for committing murder. His ear-to-ear smile shows that he's fully willing to embrace the fact that he doesn't need to fear public scrutiny and criticism for his actions anymore. At least for those people, as the rest of the world won't likely approve of what he did and also murder is still illegal.

* RevengeBeforeReason: Maeve would rather kill Homelander than gang on Soldier Boy's first, only realizing the Boys are in serious trouble when Soldier Boy is about to go nuclear does she let go of fighting him and perform a potential HeroicSacrifice.

* ThwartedCoupDeGrace: The rest of the Boys pull a BigDamnHeroes at the Vought tower when Soldier Boy is about to kill the defeated Butcher with his raised shield.

** There is a Homelander supporter dressed like the famous "[=QAnon=] Shaman".

* KickTheSonOfABitch: Played with: Soldier Boy claiming his son is pathetic and a failure for being emotional would be terrible if the son wasn't ''Homelander''. However, Soldier Boy's willingness to kill ''Ryan'' pushes things over into "this cannot stand" territory.

* HandicappedBadass: Despite Homelander blinding one of her eyes, Maeve still manages to beat Homelander, sacrifice herself to stop Soldier Boy, and ''survive''.

** The Deep is also disturbed when Homelander requests him to assassinate a politician. He goes through with it since it was clear that Homelander would have killed him if he refused, but he didn't like what he did.

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: Soldier Boy tries to kill himself and [[TakingYouWithMe everyone else in the building]] by charging a nuclear blast rather then let himself be captured again. Maeve stops him by tackling him out the window, [[RelocatingTheExplosion redirecting the explosion into open air]].

* RemovedAchillesHeel: In prior seasons, Homelander's obsessive need to [[IJustWantToBeLoved be adored and praised in the public eye]] was one of the only fetters actually keeping him in check from using his powers to do whatever he wanted and going on unstoppable rampages if ever the mood took him. By season's end, he kills a Starlight supporter in broad daylight at a public rally as an impulsive reaction to them hitting Ryan with a water bottle, and discovers his popularity and public image have become strong enough that he now has crowds of supporters who are willing to literally applaud him for committing murder. His ear-to-ear smile shows that he's fully willing to embrace the fact that he doesn't need to fear public scrutiny and criticism for his actions anymore. At least for those people, as the rest of the world won’t likely approve of what he did and also murder is still illegal.

* RemovedAchillesHeel: In prior seasons, Homelander's obsessive need to [[IJustWantToBeLoved be adored and praised in the public eye]] was one of the only fetters actually keeping him in check from using his powers to do whatever he wanted and going on unstoppable rampages if ever the mood took him. By season's end, he kills a Starlight supporter in broad daylight at a public rally as an impulsive reaction to them hitting Ryan with a water bottle, and discovers his popularity and public image have become strong enough that he now has crowds of supporters who are willing to literally applaud him for committing murder. His ear-to-ear smile shows that he's fully willing to embrace the fact that he doesn't need to fear public scrutiny and criticism for his actions anymore.

* TheChainOfHarm: We get another addition to the "Terrible People of Homelander's bloodline" list. Soldier Boy's father was emotionally abusive to his son, and this abuse causes Soldier Boy to ultimately reject Homelander when he seems him openly display his feelings, denouncing him as a disappointment just like he was.

* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: For all the [[BodyHorror horrifying]] [[{{Gorn}} effects]] that can come about from having real-life superpowers in the hands of a bunch of people who lack the moral responsibility to use them well that the series has demonstrated, one of the more chilling acts of horror comes about from the un-empowered humans at Homelander's public rally, who witness him killing somebody in broad daylight for a [[DisproportionateRetribution minor slight]]...and applaud him for it, showing how strong Homelander's CultOfPersonality has become that people will support him even when his SociopathicHero personality traits are demonstrated.

** Ashley sees security footage of the Boys recovering Maeve and permanently deletes it.

* FakingTheDead: Maeve is reported as having died along with Soldier Boy in the blast that damages Vought Tower, but is revealed to have survived but DePowered due to Soldier Boy's chest blast. Ashley discovered security footage of The Boys finding her afterwards and taking her to safety, but deletes it. Solider Boy also survived but was anesthetized and taken into CIA lockdown under Mallory's supervision.

* DramaticIrony: Butcher finally gets the memo after seeing Soldier Boy target Ryan that bringing what is a essentially a ''second'' Homelander into the equation, even trying to set them up against each other, was a ''horrible idea''. Trouble is, Butcher's earlier rejection of Ryan caused him to run right into Homelander's arms, and during the show's ending [[LikeFatherLikeSon Ryan is starting to take to Homelander's way of thinking]] -- so now there's two Homelanders anyway, all owing to how poorly Butcher handled everything.

** The Starlight supporter that attacks Ryan gets killed by Homelander. However, his death in front of Homelander's crowd, who still cheer for him despite committing murder, makes John realize that his fanbase will let him get away with literally anything. In other words, he really can do "whatever the fuck he wants" now.

* CruelToBeKind:
** Butcher attempted this in a previous episode by blaming Ryan for the death of Becca, hoping he would not look at Butcher as a father figure. When Homelander tracks him down, his opposite approach by conveying genuine empathy for the harm their powers can create ends up making Ryan turn to Homelander as a parental figure.

** Soldier Boy relates how his father felt he was a disappointment and felt he could do better. When he actually gets the chance with Homelander, he views Homelander's open display of emotion as a weakness and decides to go ahead with killing him as per Butcher's rationale of then not really being family.

* FakingTheDead: Maeve is reported as dying along with Soldier Boy in the blast that damages Vought Tower, but revealed to have survived but DePowered due to Soldier Boy's chest blast. Ashley discovered security footage of The Boys finding her afterwards and taking her to safety, but deletes it. Solider Boy also survived but was anesthetized and taken into CIA lockdown under Mallory's supervision.
* TheFinalTemptation: Hughie took a vial of Temp-V with him and was tempted to use it when he saw Annie on the ropes against Soldier Boy. Ultimately, he resists the urge and instead uses the lighting controls in the studio to give Annie a boost.

** Fearing for Homelander, Ryan uses his EyeBeams on Soldier Boy, cutting his cheek and his [[NighInvulnerable first notable injury]].
** Maeve and Homelander get into a straight up brawl, Maeve manages to punch him in the face repeatedly and drew blood from his nose. Even after fighting Soldier Boy all Homelander had to show for it was a bruise on his cheek, and this was a surprise for both Homelander and Maeve.

** Soldier Boy is furious that Butcher convinced Soldier Boy to kill his own son when the latter was initially hesitant but stops the whole operation to save his wife's ChildByRape Ryan, who isn't even biologically related to him.

-->'''Butcher:''' Well... that bitch (Victoria) has definitely got to go...

* NoEndorHolocaust: Maeve pitches the perfume bottle of Novichok out the window of Vought tower. A raindrop worth of the stuff is fatal to a person. Tossing an amount big enough to disable [[WorldsStrongestMan Soldier Boy]] into the streets of New York should be incredibly devastating but we're not shown any consequences of the act.

* PoorCommunicationKills: Butcher outright ignores several calls from Mallory which come right after Homelander's visit. It's revealed Ryan left with Homelander and had been at the Tower for some time, with no preparation for this he ends up in the middle of the fight with Butcher being unaware until the moment, forcing him to forgo the Alliance when Solider Boy decides to kill both Homelander and Ryan having not been told this angle of the story until after he angers Billy.

* RelocatingTheExplosion: When Soldier Boy charges a nuclear blast at the Vought tower, Maeve throws him and herself out a window to redirect the explosion into open air.

** Soldier Boys father emotionally abusing his son ended up eventually giving the world two generations of emotionally stunted demigods with his great-grandson Ryan shaping up to be a third.