The Boys season 3, episode 4 recap: Glorious Five Year Plan

Episode 304 of Amazon Prime’s The Boys picks up where the previous episode left off. Starlight and Homelander fake being a couple for Vought’s reality TV game show, “American Hero.”

This episode promises to address the lingering question of whether or not a superweapon called “BCL Red” killed Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles). However, we first get a glimpse of Soldier Boy in his 1980s glory, performing a cringe-inducing rap to Blondie’s song, “Rapture.”

Over at Vought, Stan Edgar visits Victoria Neuman about imposing FCC fines on Homelander for swearing during his rant in the hopes it will function as another power play and reminder that Homelander works for him. Elsewhere, after Billy Butcher had puked on Hughie, he deduces that Billy is sick from using Compound V.

Butcher shrugs it off as being a necessary evil, also treating the killing of Gunpowder as no big deal. In little time, Butcher visits “Little Nina” Namenko to pay off the debt owed by Cherie, and to get information on the BCL Red super weapon using Nina’s old Kremlin connections pay off.

Though Nina wants revenge on Cherie for ripping her off, they get a plane from Nina after Billy Butcher promises to assassinate a Russian oligarch for her.

The Boys head to Russia

Before heading to Russia, Homelander assures Hughie that his on-screen relationship with Starlight is just for the cameras. However, because Homelander still speaks in a threatening way, Starlight threatens to walk away if he does anything to harm Hughie.

While The Boys head out to play, Starlight visits Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) about BCL Red. Nothing new is learned, but it further establishes that Maeve would be interested in destroying Homelander.

When The Boys arrive in Russia, Kimiko is tasked with assassinating a Russian oligarch (Jasmin Geljo), ostensibly to let Cherie off Little Nina’s hook and to gain access to BCL Red. Meanwhile, back in The Seven, Starlight privately asks fellow Seven members and ex-boyfriend Supersonic for help against Homelander.

Shortly after that conversation, Homelander gets taco bowls to celebrate Supersonic joining the team. Obviously, this is likely a less-than-subtle jab at Supersonic’s Hispanic heritage (though, to be fair, plenty of people find Mexican food to be delicious, so it’s far from Homelander being at his worst).

Trying to be less of a sellout

Later, A-Train no doubt feels like a sellout after advertising for an energy drink that exploits the issue of police brutality. However, Homelander and The Deep don’t listen to his concerns about a violent supe named Blue Hawk who killed someone in a black neighborhood.

In the hall, A-Train gets into a verbal fight with The Deep on the subject, and The Deep threatens to tell Homelander that A-Train leaked the Nazi origins of Stormfront. Not to be outdone, A-Train threatens to reveal that The Deep gave the infamous Flight 37 information to Queen Maeve, prompting a physical altercation.

Kimiko’s fresh carnage

Next on The Boys, Kimiko joins an entourage of coked-up Russian prostitutes on her mission to assassinate the Russian oligarch. She makes fairly quick work of it, skillfully slaughtering him and his security force, awkwardly using sex toys to get the deed done.

However, she suffers a minor setback by getting shot through the head by a prostitute (Storm Steenson)! Due to her incredible healing abilities, Kimiko survives but has to assure others she is not a threat by using hand gestures.

Later, when she rejoins The Boys, she tells Frenchie that Butcher is no better than Nina or Shining Light. Meanwhile, back in the States, Stan Edgar thinks Victoria Neuman will assure the media that Homelander is not above the law in a statement to the press.

Instead, she tells the media that Edgar has broken the law. After this big moment, Homelander tells his super team that the transition away from Edgar will be the dawn of The Seven.

There is also a quick aside moment where it’s insinuated that Vought’s Ashley Barrett may have had a dalliance with VNN’s Cameron Coleman (Matthew Edison).

Compounding problems with Compound V

As another interesting development, Homelander sneaks into Victoria Neuman’s house and makes it clear that he knows of her powers. He recognizes that she may be comparable to him as a threat, saying she is not Stan Edgar’s daughter but his weapon.

Homelander provides her with some Compound V, which she injects into her daughter Zoe (Olivia Morandin). It is apparent that this is why she helped Homelander by turning against Stan Edgar (though there may be additional reasons).

Later, Edgar meets with Homelander and they discuss their little power struggle, with Edgar saying “You are not a god, you are simply bad product.” Ouch!

Victoria is not alone in Compound V-related hijinks. Back in Russia, Billy Butcher is caught by Hughie injecting himself with some V24.

Hughie wants to try some, too, saying he is frequently embarrassed by Starlight always needing to save him. In little time, we see The Boys break into and get involved in a shootout in a Russian facility while looking for the superweapon.

It’s funny to see “Jamie the super hampster” kill one of the armed guards, but the big reveal is when Billy and Hughie flex their superpowers, previously hidden to the rest of The Boys (and with Hughie’s being extra fresh).

Soldier Boy escapes

Even though The Boys express hatred of the superpowered, they nevertheless seem to embrace their newfound abilities. Hughie can teleport and has superstrength, even punching through a guy!

However, when he teleports, it apparently has him moving out of his clothes. That is when Billy opens a storage container to see what exactly is inside.

In quick succession, Soldier Boy, thought to have been dead, escapes from his confines. Unfortunately, in the process, he gravely injures Kimiko and, much to Frenchie’s dismay, she is not healing adequately.

It’s implied that something happened to greatly diminish her powers. Obviously, The Boys also have Soldier Boy to worry about.

Starlight’s new dilemma

In what first seems like a lighthearted moment, Homelander and Starlight fly for the fans. He promises her an amazing view, and they land on a rooftop.

Of course Homelander is a maniac, so the “amazing view” she gets is actually of Supersonic’s mutilated corpse! It becomes clear that A-Train ratted on them regarding their general plotting against Homelander.

He threatens to murder Hughie if she doesn’t fall completely in line and do everything his way. On the (vaguely) brighter side of a horrible situation, Hughie had been embarrassed by coverage of Homelander and Starlight together, and now he no longer has to worry about her rekindling a relationship with her old flame Supersonic.

What are your thoughts on this episode of The Boys? Let us know in the comments!