The Boys season 3, episode 5 recap: The Last Time to Look on This World of Lies

Episode 305 of Amazon prime’s The Boys picks up with Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) still gravely injured. Meanwhile, at The Boys’ headquarters, Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) is busy watching file research footage of Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) being tortured/tested in a Russian science lab.

It’s also readily apparent that, since Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) was forced out of his leadership role by his adoptive daughter, Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit), everyone at Vought is afraid of the notorious Homelander (Antony Starr). Oh, and The Deep (Chace Crawford) is now in charge of Vought’s “crime analytics” department.

The media is also lying, claiming Supersonic (Miles Gaston Villanueva) is dead from a drug overdose, rather than being a victim of Homelander’s savage violence. Then, we see that, in his standard, sheepish way, Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid) explains to Starlight (Erin Moriarty) that Soldier Boy is loose in Russia, and also admits to taking the temporary form of Compound V (V24). In another surprising scene, Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) meets with Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) to attain more V24, and the two end up in a tryst. Of course, that complicates things even more for The Boys, and for Butcher, who wants so desperately to hate supes.

The Boys and Vought’s culture of abuse

While staying with Kimiko in the hospital, Frenchie (Tomer Capone) is visited by Little Nina (Katia Winter). Nina wants him to kill someone named Pyotr and his young daughter, Katarina. He tries to decline, but she is very insistent. That aside, Kimiko actually seems happy that her powers are gone, perhaps helping her to lead a more normal life. Then the story shifts back to The Seven.

After goody-two-shoes Starlight confronts A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) regarding Supersonc’s death and his betrayal, A-Train seemingly feels some pressure to redeem himself. As if to cope with guilt and feel like less of a sellout, A-Train later confronts Blue Hawk (Nick Wechsler) about his patrols in Trenton, New Jersey, and the two arrange a media event to address his use of excessive force against black citizens.

Next, Mother’s Milk has his own problems with troubling issues, as Todd (Matthew Gorman) is showing Homelander content to MM’s daughter, Janine (Liyou Abere). Of course, MM does not like this, but he also doesn’t want to further strain the relationship between himself, his kid, and his ex-wife (Frances Turner).

Soldier Boys explodes onto the scene

In another development, there is an explosion in Manhattan, courtesy of Soldier Boy having a trauma-induced freakout. As Hughie and Billy show up later to survey the damage, one of Huggie’s work associates, Ivy (Jessica B. Hill) notes that Hughie’s arm is no longer broken (an excuse for missing work, after having Kimiko break it for him). Hughie explains it was only a bad sprain, though we know it was actually healed through the magnificent power over V24. Obviously, Hughie sometimes suffers for his craft, for sure.

After that scene, we are reminded of the awful “work culture” over at Vought. We learn that, as a lackey to Homelander, The Deep has fired everyone on his crime analytics staff who was critical of Homelander online (thus assuring yet another way that Homelander’s power is unchecked).

Meanwhile, Blue Hawk provides a disgustingly lackluster apology for targeting black citizens with his violent patrols. The crowd challenges him, saying “Black lives matter,” to which Blue Hawk responds: “All lives matter” and “Supe lives matter.” Then he actually attacks the crowd, seriously injuring A-Train’s brother Nathan (Christian Keyes) in a horrific scene!

Killing the Crimson Countess camgirl

Next, The Boys introduce Hughie (and us) to a new character called “The Legend” (Paul Reiser), a former VP of Hero Management at Vought, and the group deduces that Soldier Boy must be tracking down the Crimson Countess (Laurie Holden).

After drugging Mother’s Milk and revealing that Crimson Countess is working as a supe camgirl, The Boys kidnap her. As a matter of convenient timing, Soldier Boy shows up shortly after her capture and The Boys offer to let him have revenge upon the Countess if he agrees to team up (against Homelander).

After Soldier Boy kills the Crimson Countess in a fireball explosion, Starlight arrives on the scene and Hughie explains that he must prioritize taking on Homelander, hopefully with Soldier Boy as a weapon against the powerful miscreant.

Odds and ends from The Boys season 3 episode 5

There are some other important developments in this episode of The Boys. Homelander accurately accuses Queen Maeve of colluding with Billy Butcher and she gets kidnapped by Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell), who previously seemed to have been down and out, if not deceased, thanks to Maeve exploiting his nut allergy.

Also, Starlight confronts Ashley Barrett (Colby Minifie) about whether her CEO job is worth her life, but Ashley seems resilient and, through behavior, indicates she’s going to keep siding with Homelander.

We also learn that Nathan will never walk again due to Blue Hawk’s violent outbreak (though A-Train may have a cure if he could convince Nathan to try Compound V). Finally, in a moment that surely dominates many people’s memories of the episode, Kimiko dreams up a dance routine featuring Frenchy and the hospital staff, all to the tune of “I Got Rhythm,” originally made famous by Judy Garland.

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