Spoilers for this week’s episode of The Boys and the comics follow! In the early part of The Boys season three it was revealed that a botched mission in Nicaragua by the Vought supe team Payback was the last time that Soldier Boy was seen alive. This sequence was pretty pivotal for not only leading toward the location of Soldier Boy, but also offering some teases about his teammates and even some backstory on the mysterious Black Noir. Last week’s episode saw Noir cut out his tracker in his arm and then disappear, seemingly spooked by having to face Soldier Boy, and now we know why.
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In a surprise move, Black Noir pops back up in a place called Buster Beaver’s, a busted up and rusted out parody of Chuck E. Cheese. While sitting there, the cartoon mascots of the restaurant appear out of nowhere and begin talking to Black Noir. Though not outright said, a major tease is dropped by the characters about Noir’s connection to the restaurant, seemingly revealing that he holds onto it in his mind (and hallucinates the characters as his subconscious and memories) because it was the last place he was happy as a child before his Compound V powers manifested themselves.
While sitting in the nasty restaurant, the Buster Beaver gang begins to reenact what went down just before Nicaragua and what happened on the “botched mission.” First its revealed that Soldier Boy held onto the members of Payback with an Iron Fist, keeping Noir and the others from ever outshining him (it’s revealed that Noir was up for the part of Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop, but lost it because of Soldier Boy’s interference). Nicaragua however is when it’s revealed that the conversation Black Noir had with Stan Edgar was one where they planted the seed of how to get rid of him, where it was also revealed that Vought was okay to get rid of him since “a replacement” was being made.
The flashback to Nicaragua reveals that the injuries sustained by Black Noir, as seen in Episode 3 and which included a major cut to his head and scarring on his face, were all caused by Soldier Boy. After he attacks Noir however, Payback is given their chance to attack, and they’re able to subdue Soldier Boy before handing him off to the Russians.
As readers of the comics know, this is a pretty major departure for Black Noir. In the pages of Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s source material, Black Noir is revealed to actually be a clone of Homelander, something that the TV adaptation had seemingly thrown out entirely and now which seems to not be in the cards in the slightest. In the end, probably a good change to make.
The first seven episodes of The Boys season three are now streaming, with just one left before the season concludes. Amazon Prime Video has already renewed the series for season four, with production starting later this year.
