#billie butcher
MY THOUGHTS ON THE BOYS SEASON 3 EPISODE 4 HEAVY SPOILERS!!!!!
- MOTHER’S MILK the duality of me being amused by Soldier Boy looking like a dummy in that clip with Solid Gold and MM totally losing his shit looking at him
- Butcher’s powers are similar to Homelander’s, and Hughie’s are similar to A-Train’s. Coincidence? I think not. “You become the thing you seek to destroy” etc
- I didn’t expect Supersonic to last long… in fact, I thought he’d die this episode. But I didn’t expect him to die offscreen.
- However he’s trying to hide it, TempV *is* effecting Butcher’s personality… and he knows it. His caution against Hughie taking it and his view of it as a “punishment” is clear enough. The effects of TempV are also why he finally chose to push Ryan away. He’s pushing MM to be the leader because he knows he’s going to lose his mind completely to this (and believes it’s his cross to bear), and he’s worried for Hughie’s soul already.
- Hughie didn’t seem to have the capacity to care about Kimiko in the throes of his high… I worry this will quickly transform into an addiction for him… and I understand. They did a good job establishing Hughie’s feelings of powerlessness and not being able to protect the person he loves… in fact, he’s a weakness that Homelander is exploiting against Starlight.
- The dildo fight was SO entertaining but then I felt instant sadness for Kimiko because she was so upset
- Kimiko and Frenchie laying upside down on the couches and looking at each other my beloved
- Laz Alonso’s acting in this episode was off the chain!! MM’s look of dread and rage when Soldier Boy emerged from that tank… I predict that if anyone else does take it, MM will be the next member of the group to fall victim to Temp V. He’s already told Butcher at the end of the episode that there is no more team, so what is there for him to lead? At the same time, MM is very sensible, so we’ll see if he faces temptation and whether he decides against it or goes for it.
- THE HAMSTER
- I think anyone who had been watching trailers knew that Soldier Boy was the weapon The Boys were going to find. That blast is new according to Butcher—not a power Soldier Boy had back in the day (Russian experimentation I gather?). It’s been described in a power card I saw somewhere as “power nullification”. Kimiko can’t heal because her powers are (at least temporarily) nullified by the blast. A power like that presents a real threat to Homelander and Soldier Boy undoubtably has the capacity to kill him.
- In separate interviews with Kripke, Starr, and Ackles, Butcher, Soldier Boy, and Homelander have been described as three apex predators. It will be interesting to see Homelander face a real threat to his power this season. Imagine your enemy who gets temporary powers from a test tube being on par with you? I bet it won’t sit will with Homelander.
- It’s been established this season that Kimiko hates her powers, but I wonder if them being taken away (even if temporarily) will actually make her happy or if it will feel like losing a limb and make her feel helpless, especially with the people she cares about on the line. Homelander is definitely going to make moves toward killing all of The Boys soon.
- I absolutely thought Victoria Nueman’s daughter was going to die when she put that shit in her.
- Stan Edgar absolutely eviscerated Homelander, and Homelander didn’t kill him because it would be like letting Stan win… plus I think Homelander is shrewd enough to suspect that Edgar has something else up his sleeve and that that’s why he’s so calm and collected. Maybe it’s TempV that has Edgar this calm, and/or maybe it’s that he had a hand in the capture of Soldier Boy. Soldier Boy isn’t just a Captain America parody, but a Winter Soldier parody as well. He’s been kept heavily sedated, I imagine to keep him compliant, and Jensen Ackles has said in interviews that Soldier Boy has PTSD from being tortured. Perhaps Edgar passed Soldier Boy to the Russians in return for the development of a weapon that could kill Homelander. I think Vought is always looking for a new way to control their supes. They use threats and bribes, they find weaknesses… with Homelander, they tried raising him from birth but completely denied him all affection as a child. With Ryan, they tried to correct by raising him in a loving home. Maybe Soldier Boy represents a different avenue for control—attempts at mind control just like Winter Soldier. Or hey—maybe they just wanted his blood to create a super weapon (and that’s why our hamster) and the torture was just being poked and prodded and kept helpless and sedated for decades.
- I suspect Soldier Boy doesn’t know how to control these energy blasts… at least not yet. It’s also possible that’s why they’ve been keeping him sedated in that tank.
- A-Train (at least assumedly) betrayed Supersonic (unless Homelander simply overheard everything A-Train, Supersonic, and The Deep said). However, I do think A-Train might come around for his own purposes. We’ll see.
