"You're a fucking disappointment."
Tensions come to a head when Butcher brings in Soldier Boy to kill Homelander.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Abusive Parents:
- Butcher and Soldier Boy bond over their fathers being utter shitheels. As opposed to Butcher's father, who was physically abusive, Soldier Boy's father was more emotionally abusive, making his son feel like less than he is and expressing disappointment when he "took a shortcut" by letting himself get suped up by Vought.
- Soldier Boy proves to be even worse than his father, revealing he's perfectly willing to murder Homelander and Ryan, his son and grandson respectively, due to him viewing Homelander's emotional fragility as a weakness.
- Alas, Poor Villain: It's impossible not to feel bad for Black Noir as he bleeds out from the stomach wound Homelander gave him, as his cartoon animals reassure him he's going to heaven.
- All for Nothing:
- Butcher spent most of the season trying to find something that can kill Homelander and he found it in the form of Soldier Boy. But after all the multiple deaths and infighting amongst the Boys, Soldier Boy was prevented from killing Homelander because Ryan got involved and Butcher didn't want him hurt, so he gives up on the idea of using Soldier Boy. To add insult to injury, Butcher taking too many Temp V ends up giving him 12-18 months to live and he loses Ryan to Homelander who starts to take to Homelander's way of thinking.
- A-Train regains the full extent of his powers and secures his position on what's left of The Seven, but in so doing has completely ruined his relationship with his brother and screwed himself out of actually using his celebrity for good causes. His attempt to hold Blue Hawk accountable for his crimes, either through public apology or through vigilante means, completely failed — it left several people in the targeted community injured or dead, with A-Train's brother being crippled for life, and his death was easily brushed off by Vought as being a result of Soldier Boy's actions. Vought makes plans to rehabilitate his image with a White Man's Burden biopic, setting back any and all plans of his own to give back to his community, meaning that all that he has is a spot on a team whose leader openly hates him.
- All the work The Deep endured to restore his stature and get back in the Seven is all for naught after Kevin cheats on Cassandra with an octopus, and she comes out with a book telling how he "abused" her on the news. While he is still a member of the Seven, it's only a matter of time until he's kicked out of their ranks again. Kevin's almost back to where he started during Season 1, and his life is (again) ruined by another woman he wronged.
- Apologetic Attacker: As they gas Maeve in her cell to move her someplace else, Ashley watches from behind her cell door with a sad look on her face, saying "I'm sorry" to her.
- Ask a Stupid Question...: A rhetorical one, but when Homelander confronts Black Noir and gets confirmation that he always knew about his true parentage and that Homelander had a father out there, he brokenly asks why the latter never told him about it over all the years they worked together, only to then catch himself.
- Badass Normal: MM is the only normal person who gets involved in the final fight, but he uses a shotgun to distract Soldier Boy and fearlessly jumps on his back to try and sedate him with the nerve gas Frenchie made.
- Bittersweet Ending: More on the bitter than the sweet. Yes, Soldier Boy is defeated, MM has repaired his relationship with his daughter, Maeve has lost her powers and faked her death, allowing her to finally have a normal life, and Butcher seems to have earned back a sliver of his team's respect. But Butcher's days are numbered due to his abuse of Temp V, Victoria Neuman now has a shot at becoming Vice President of the United States, Homelander has completely lost it, and Ryan is now becoming indoctrinated to Homelander's way of thinking.
- Broken Smile: Both Homelander and Ryan's faces morph from disbelief to this when his crowd of supporters erupt in cheers after he murders a protester, signifying both Homelander's realization that his fanbase will let him get away with literally anything, as well as Ryan starting to embrace his role as Homelander's heir.
- Bookends: The season opened with a scene from David Bourke's Dawn of the Seven, which featured Vought plaza damaged and Soldier Boy's statue toppled. The season ends with the tower damaged by Soldier Boy's blast, and his statue toppled by Homelander's followers.
- Call-Back: Todd is standing next to the protestor Homelander murders and is the one to start the cheering when he recovers from his shock.
- Cardiovascular Love: Animated red hearts float around Black Noir when he reunites with Homelander.
- The Chain of Harm: 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 sees him openly display his feelings, denouncing him as a disappointment just like he was.
- Dead Hat Shot: Homelander placing Noir's helmet onto a table, to the shock of everyone in the room.
- De-power: Maeve tackles Soldier Boy through the window of Vought Tower so he won't explode inside and kill everyone. She survives the initial explosion, but loses her powers as a result of the radiation. She isn't complaining and ends up Faking the Dead to live a normal life.
- Destination Defenestration: Maeve throws herself and Soldier Boy out of a window of Vought Tower before he can explode. Both survive.
- Disney Death: After Maeve's Heroic Sacrifice, we get treated to a news report about her death. Later we see her alive and kicking at Annie's place.
- Disproportionate Retribution:
- A supporter of Starlight throws a water bottle at Ryan, to which Homelander responds by lasering his head off.
- After finding out that Noir knew about Soldier Boy being his father, Homelander punches a hole straight through his chest.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The #FreeMaeve movement that has formed as a result of Starlight's live streams bears a strong resemblance to the #FreeBritney movement, down to the LGBT+ fandom at its forefront.
- Dramatic Irony: 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 Ryan is starting to take to Homelander's way of thinking — so now there's two Homelanders anyway. Butcher's relentless and thoughtless pursuit of Homelander throughout the season ended up causing the very disaster he and the late Becca wanted to avoid.
- Ear Ache: Maeve jabs a metal rod directly into Homelander's ear, which is just weak enough that her strength combined with the sharp metal is able to pierce through and leave him disoriented.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After enduring Vought and Homelander's abuse over the course of the series and letting her career damage her relationship with the woman she loved, Queen Maeve finally makes a clean break from Vought: she is presumed dead, powerless, and going into hiding with her girlfriend. That is if it manages to stick.
- Easily Forgiven: Despite Hughie choosing to side with Butcher when he betrays the team and taking Temp V, Starlight and the Boys are a little mad at him but they still welcome him back to the team.
- Enemy Mine: When Soldier Boy attacks Ryan, Butcher and Homelander form a brief, but very unlikely, alliance to fight back against Soldier Boy.
- Especially Zoidberg: When Hughie makes a point about saving everyone:"We save everyone. Even if they don't deserve it. Especially if they don't deserve it."
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: This episode confirms that Homelander truly does love his son, forgiving him for nearly vaporizing Stormfront. When Ryan is knocked down in the fight, Homelander shifts all his attention to comforting his son.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- Even A-Train and the Deep, the bastards that they are, seem shocked when Ashley takes off her wig and shows that she's close to bald from the stress, with both of them averting their eyes in terror.
- The Deep is also disturbed when Homelander requests him to assassinate a politician, flat-out calling it treason. 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.
- Butcher has no problem having Homelander and Soldier Boy fight in Vought Tower, potentially killing thousands in collateral, but draws the line when Soldier Boy tries to kill Ryan.
- Eye Patch Of Power: Discussed by Maeve when she asks Annie if she should get a pirate patch or a glass eye for her gouged-out eye. Annie tells her an eyepatch is cooler.
- Eye Scream: Maeve has her eye gouged out by Homelander during their fight at Vought Tower.
- Faking the Dead: Maeve is reported as having died along with Soldier Boy in the blast that damages Vought Tower. She actually survived the blast and lost her powers. Ashley discovers 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.
- The Final Temptation: Hughie took a vial of Temp-V with him and is tempted to use it when he sees 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.
- First Blood:
- Fearing for Homelander, Ryan uses his Eye Beams on Soldier Boy, cutting his cheek and delivering his first notable injury.
- When Maeve and Homelander get into a straight-up brawl, Maeve manages to punch him in the face repeatedly and draws 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.
- Get Out!: A-Train's brother wants him out of his house and his life.
- Groin Attack: Maeve punches Homelander in the crotch as he's gouging her eye out, which is painful enough to make him stop and recover for a few moments.
- Gutted Like a Fish: Homelander impales Black Noir with his hand, resulting in the latter's guts hanging out as he dies.
- Handicapped Badass: Despite Homelander blinding one of her eyes, Maeve still manages to survive Homelander's beating, sacrifice herself to stop Soldier Boy, and survive.
- Here We Go Again!: The Deep has to watch once more as a woman he treated like shit exposes him and ruins his reputation on live television while he eats junk food.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Queen Maeve gave up her life to defeat Soldier Boy......is what the news says. She survived but was de-powered...not that she minds.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: For all the horrifying 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 minor slight... And applaud him for it, showing how strong Homelander's Cult of Personality has become that people will support him even when his Sociopathic Hero personality traits are demonstrated.
- Hypocrite:
- Homelander calls out A-Train for killing Blue Hawk, one of his own kind (Supes), in cold blood, after he revealed he killed Black Noir for keeping Soldier Boy a secret from him. A-Train even glances at Black Noir's helmet when Homelander calls him out but he's smart enough to keep quiet on Homelander's hypocrisy.
- Soldier Boy relates how his father felt he was a disappointment, and always felt that he would do better as a parent when the time came. 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, showing in the end he's really no better than his father.
- Butcher convinces Soldier Boy to kill Homelander because, despite their blood relation, Homelander wasn't raised by him and is just a test-tube baby raised by Vought as his replacement. Soldier Boy then calls out Butcher for stopping the whole operation to save his wife's Child by Rape Ryan, who isn't even biologically related to him.
- It's All About Me: As Nate accurately points out, A-Train has only ever been about himself. And he’s done giving him more chances to prove otherwise.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While Homelander calling-out A-Train for killing another supe is hypocritical (since he just killed Noir) and forcing Ashley to take off her wig is just pure bullying, his assessment that the Deep is a cowardly and moronic zoophile isn't far off the mark.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The Deep cheating on Cassandra with an octopus leads to Cassandra writing a tell-all book about him and dragging him through the mud on live television, destroying his reputation once more.
- The Last Dance: Billy is dying from V24 abuse, he lost Ryan to Homelander, and Victoria is running for Vice President. Despite these massive setbacks, he's still got a year left before his time is up and the Boys, plus Annie, are still alive. So, until then, they'll do what they do best: put Supes in their place, starting with Victoria.Butcher: Well... that bitch [Victoria] has definitely got to go...
- Let's Get Dangerous!: Maeve had little hope that she could legitimately face Homelander but had been taking time to train thinking she could distract him for a minute while Butcher found a weapon capable of killing him. In this episode she finds herself fighting Homelander one-on-one and was actually capable of making him bleed with a combination of punches to the face (his fight against Soldier Boy merely left a mild bruise on his cheek). Homelander is surprised and even she gains more confidence after being the first to harm him so.
- Logical Weakness: Maeve demonstrates that Homelander's super-hearing leaves his ear drums slightly less invulnerable than the rest of his body. With enough force, she's able to drive a piece of metal into his left ear, which actually causes him intense pain and makes his ear bleed.
- Magic A Is Magic A: Starlight's powers are based on redirecting electricity and light into energy pulses, and in the second season she was largely powerless when the group was stranded in a remote forest. In the climactic fight, the reverse happens when she's fighting Soldier Boy in a studio. Hughie amps all the lights to maximum intensity, which supercharges her powers enough for her to float in the air before blasting Soldier Boy with enough force to stagger him.
- Minor Injury Overreaction: Ryan's eye beam gives Soldier Boy his first genuine injury of the fight in a small cut, this prompts him to change targets from Homelander to Ryan, charging him with his shield and going in for a Nuclear Pulse right after.
- Morality Chain: After Soldier Boy is incapacitated, Homelander turns his sights on Butcher and the rest of the Boys. Then Ryan holds his hand and asks to leave, at which point he does.
- Mythology Gag:
- Presidential candidate Robert Singer's new pick for VP is Victoria Neuman, which is the position her comic counterpart Victor held.
- Maeve sacrificing herself to save Annie is precisely what her comic version did. In the comic, Maeve sacrificed herself to buy Annie some time to run from Homelander. Here, she gives up her life to stop Soldier Boy from exploding and killing everyone, as well as Annie. Also, unlike her comic version, Maggie is still alive, albeit without powers.
- The Boys have all their mugshots on the wall above their trash suit, a nod to a similar image from the comics.
- Never Going Back to Prison: 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 spend the rest of his life on life-support.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- By choosing to protect Ryan by fighting Soldier Boy instead of simply moving the boy to safety, Butcher completely blows their chances of beating Homelander.
- But even worse, him rejecting Ryan earlier in the season (though he was doing it to keep Ryan safe) causes Ryan to willingly go with Homelander. And with the ending showing Ryan becoming like his father, that means there are now two Homelanders…
- No Endor Holocaust: 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 Soldier Boy into the streets of New York should be incredibly devastating but we're not shown any consequences of the act.
- Not Afraid of You Anymore: Frenchie finally begins to stand up for himself, telling Butcher off before he and Soldier Boy go to Vought Tower, and later affirming that he is his own man when he dismisses concerns about Butcher disapproving of Annie joining the Boys.
- Not Quite the Right Thing: Butcher pulled a Break His Heart to Save Him on Ryan earlier in the season, believing the boy would be better off not looking to him as a father figure. Unfortunately, this left a void in that department for Homelander to fill. Once 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 replacement.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Ashley, The Deep, and A-Train when Homelander reveals he killed Black Noir for keeping secrets from him.
- The Boys when they see Victoria Neuman running for Vice President.
- Papa Wolf:
- Butcher and Homelander attack Soldier Boy after he knocks Ryan out.
- After a Starlight loyalist throws a bottle at Ryan, Homelander immediately gets in front of him and shoots the loyalist's head off with his heat-vision for hitting his son.
- Pet the Dog:
- Homelander connecting with Ryan was a genuine attempt to patch things up, he tells Ryan that Becca's death was not his fault and that accidents happen. When the fight breaks out he first tells Ryan to get to safety, then immediately rushes to see if he's okay when Soldier Boy hits him.
- Two involving Butcher.
- Butcher proves that he really does care about Hughie by knocking him so that he won't get himself killed on Butcher's potentially suicidal mission to kill Homelander.
- When it looks like Soldier Boy is about to release one of his pulse attacks, Butcher uses himself to shield Ryan.
- Ashley decides to delete the footage of Maeve surviving Soldier Boy's explosion and being carried off by The Boys, apparently letting Maeve leave rather than telling Homelander about it or trying to find her.
- Poor Communication Kills: Butcher outright ignores several calls from Mallory which come right after Homelander's visit. It's revealed Ryan left with Homelander and is at Vought Tower with him, catching Butcher completely off-guard, forcing him to forgo the alliance when Solider Boy decides to kill both Homelander and Ryan, not knowing of Butcher's connection to Ryan until after Butcher fights him off.
- Post-Stress Overeating: The Deep gobbles down lots of junk food as Cassandra comes out with her book on the news, telling thousands of people the "abuse" she endured under him. Kevin can only watch this from his TV as his life (once again) crumbles.
- Power Floats: Starlight starts floating once the light boost kicks in.
- Prematurely Bald: Ashley is revealed to wear a wig and is clearly embarrassed and frightened when Homelander orders her to remove it. She has lost so much hair that she is nearly bald at a young age, presumably due to the stress of her job. The use of the wig also explains why she sometimes had chunks of hair ripped off without much effort nor any feeling of pain.
- The Promise: Butcher tells Soldier Boy that he gave a promise to his dying wife that he would protect her son at all costs.
- Real Men Hate Affection: Homelander, with tears in his eyes, opens up to Soldier Boy about how they could be a real family. His open display of emotion just confirms Soldier Boy's view that Homelander is a 'weak, sniveling pussy' and a disappointment.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: MM gives one to Soldier Boy while subduing him with Novichok.MM: You ain't no hero. You're just another racist piece of shit we can't seem to get rid of!
- Rejected Apology: Following his paralysis, Nathan does this to A-Train and bluntly tells him to just stay away, pointing out that he wanted to see Blue Hawk's mugshot instead of a bloodied corpse and that A-Train only ever seems to make things worse for people.
- Relocating the Explosion: 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.
- Removed Achilles' Heel: In prior seasons, Homelander's obsessive need to 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. How the rest of the world will react to him blatantly murdering a civilian is another matter.
- The Reveal: The info Victoria offered Homelander last episode was the location of Ryan. In exchange, she wanted him to ensure she would be Dakota Bob's running mate, giving her a shot at becoming Vice President.
- Revenge Before Reason: Maeve would rather kill Homelander than help gang up on Soldier Boy, only realizing the Boys are in serious trouble when Soldier Boy is about to go nuclear. She then decides to perform a potential Heroic Sacrifice.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Soldier Boy ends up this way. His blasts don't depower him, so now he's being kept locked away and prevented from waking up by the government.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Black Noir had spent the past episode gaining the courage to face Soldier Boy. Unfortunately, Homelander rips his guts out before they even meet.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: Kimiko pretty brutally slaughters an assault team while listening to "Maniac" by Michael Sembello.
- Spanner in the Works: The plan to have Soldier Boy kill Homelander falls apart because Homelander brought Ryan with him to Vought Tower to show Soldier Boy he has a grandson. When Soldier Boy tries to blast Homelander, Ryan stops him with his laser vision, and when Soldier Boy hits Ryan for interfering, Butcher fights back against him. In the end, they lose their best chance to take down Homelander.
- Talking with Signs: Black Noir uses words scribbled on paper to tell Homelander they have to kill Soldier Boy, whom he emphasizes is a bad person by underlining "BAD".
- That Man Is Dead: Annie tosses her costume down a chute at the Boys' HQ, believing it was always herself that makes her who she is, not Vought or the costume. Starlight is dead, and Annie doesn't need her to be a hero. The Boys, in return, welcome her into their ranks with open arms.
- Thwarted Coup de Grâce: The rest of the Boys pull a Big Damn Heroes at Vought Tower when Soldier Boy is about to kill the defeated Butcher with his raised shield.
- Too Dumb to Live: A Starlight fanatic throws a water bottle at Ryan, directly in Homelander's presence. For Homelander, who had been a Slave to PR for three seasons straight, this proves to be the final straw, and he blows the guy's brains out with his Eye Beams in full view of dozens of onlookers.
- Trapped in Villainy: Homelander makes it clear that Ashley, A-Train, and Deep will meet the same fate as Black Noir if they don't keep obeying him.
- Trumplica: The parallels between Homelander's and Trump's followings continue.
- There is a Homelander supporter dressed like the infamous "QAnon Shaman".
- Homelander's lasering a Starlight fan in broad daylight, and receiving applause from his supporters for it, echoes an infamous boast of former President Donald Trump about how he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose a single vote.
- Uncertain Doom: After Black Noir admits to keeping Soldier Boy's relationship to him a secret the whole time, Homelander punches Black Noir through his stomach and rips out his intestines and leaves him to bleed out on the floor. Noir's Super-Toughness and implied Healing Factor has helped him survive numerous situations so it remains unclear if the damage that Homelander inflicted on him is enough to kill him.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
- A Starlight supporter that attacks Ryan gets killed by Homelander. However, the supporter's death in front of Homelander's fans, who still cheer for him despite killing someone in front of them, makes John realize that his fanbase will let him get away with basically anything. In other words, he can do "whatever the fuck he wants" now without any scorn from the public.
- Soldier Boy's 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.
- We Can Rule Together: Homelander tries to win over Soldier Boy but the latter is not interested.
- Weak, but Skilled: Weak compared to Homelander, anyway, but Maeve holds her own against him and is the first to give him a serious injury by stabbing him in the ear.
- Would Hurt a Child: Soldier Boy doesn't hesitate to slam Ryan across the room when he gets in the way, prompting a brief team-up between Butcher and Homelander to protect him.
- Wrecked Weapon: Soldier Boy's shield gets shattered due to Butcher and Homelander lasering it until it was malleable enough to break with a single punch.
- You Have Failed Me: Homelander isn't happy Black Noir knew about his father and never told him. He demonstrates his disapproval by punching a hole through Black Noir's stomach and leaving him to bleed out on the floor.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: A happier and more joyful (though no less horrific) take on the trope than normal, but this is very much Homelander's reaction when he kills a Starlight supporter at a public rally and the crowd actually applaud him for it, realizing that he can actually get away with murder in broad daylight.
- Your Days Are Numbered: Taking another dose of Temp V causes Butcher to finally reach the threshold and end up in hospital, where he's informed that he has around 12 to 18 months left to live.
