The Boys Reveals The Key to Finally Killing Homelander

The Boys Season 3 has set up a lofty, do-or-die mission for Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) and his Boys: kill Homelander (Antony Starr) before Homelander finally snaps and kills them all. The key to Butcher’s plan has been an ace-in-the-hole weapon that supposedly killed America’s iconic superhero Soldier Boy: BCL-Red. However, when the investigation led to Russia, Butcher and The Boys learned that history wasn’t telling them the truth at all: Soldier Boy wasn’t dead, but very much alive, throwing-off Butcher’s entire plan. However, in The Boys Season 3 Episode 5, we learn that Butcher just didn’t understand the nature of the weapon he was after. 

(WARNING: The Boys Season 3 Episode 5 Spoilers Follow!) 

The climax of The Boys S3E4 saw Butcher and The Boys releasing Soldier Boy from a containment tube in Russia, only to have the former super-soldier literally blow up from the inside out, catching Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) in the last. In Episode 5, “The Last Time to Look on This World of Lies”, it’s confirmed that Soldier Boy’s blast has a remarkable side-effect: it leaves Kimiko powerless – much to her delight. Nowhere in the episode is it even hinted that Kimiko’s powers could return – but that’s beside the point. 

What this latest episode of The Boys seems to reveal is that BCL-Red isn’t a weapon that killed Soldier Boy – Soldier Boy is BCL-Red, a living weapon created by Soviet experimentation. The horrific flashbacks Soldier Boy sees reveal just what kind of demented tortures he was exposed to, in order to test the limits of his durability and strength; details about the explosions that Soldier Boy lets off suggest that there is radiation involved in the blasts, suggesting the Russians may have used radioactive experiments to change Soldier Boy’s powers. 

By the end of Episode 5, Soldier Boy and Butcher strike up a deal, which seems to put a target right on Homelander’s back: Soldier Boy’s power can, at the very least, leave the indestructible superman powerless just long enough for Butcher and The Boys to kill him (with or without their Temporary V enhancements). 

Of course, the real question is: will Soldier Boy side with Butcher and willing use his powers against Homelander? Based on the way Soldier Boy seemed to view the modern America he finds himself in… it’s easy to see him leaning more toward Homelander’s point of view. 

The Boys streams new episodes Fridays on Prime Video.