The Boys season 4 episode 3 recap and review: “We’ll Keep the Red Flag Flying Here”

The third episode of The Boys season 4, “We’ll Keep the Red Flag Flying Here,” opens at a Vought rally for Homelander, who gives the big speech that he’s been waiting to give, and the Seven. Homelander blames the country’s problems on the Starlighters, who are also present to protest the event. Homelander brings out the Seven with two new members, Firecracker and Sister Sage.

They’re still a member short, and Homelander teases Ryan as the seventh and final member, but he doesn’t announce him as the new member of the team yet. Homelander, then, brings Ryan on stage and demands that he smile. Things are getting bad in their relationship. Who could have seen this coming? 

Butcher is talking to Joe, and they plan to kill Homelander as soon as they get their hands on Ryan and make sure he’s safe. They plan to knock out Ryan and take him to a safe location where Homelander can’t find him. 

After the event, Sage and Homelander argue about Sage’s role in the Seven. She says it’s too hard to stage a coup with that many eyes on her now. It seems like there are already cracks in the early stages of this fragile relationship. Will Sage eventually flip on Homelander? I have my suspicions.

At Starlight House, a man pulls a gun on a lawyer after Firecracker’s recent inflammatory comments about Starlight and her supporters. Frenchie stops him, but Colin knows he’s not what he says that he is. Frenchie tries his best to keep his secret. 

In Bob Singer’s war room, Neuman and and Bob spar over Supes and banning them from the military and other high-profile positions within the government. Neuman begrudgingly agrees. 

Back at the Boys HQ, MM tells Annie and Hughie that they need to flip A-Train. Hughie tells MM that he doesn’t want to do that. Instead, he wants Butcher back, but MM won’t budge. 

Playing a Mortal Kombat-inspired Supe game, Butcher tries to convince Ryan to come hang out with him at Butcher’s place, even though Homelander tells Ryan that he can’t talk to Butcher anymore. Finally, Ryan comes over to Butcher’s apartment. He’s baked cookies, inspired by Becca’s recipe, but Ryan doesn’t want one. Butcher’s ear starts bleeding, but Ryan asks if he’s scared of dying. Butcher says no, but Ryan knows that he’s lying. Butcher changes the subject and gets him to play foosball. 

Without Annie or Hughie's support, MM still makes his move to flip A-Train. While A-Train doesn’t like the pitch, he doesn’t kill MM, which seems like progress, honestly. 

Kimiko enlists Frenchie on a mission to stop Shining Light. They’re making a move on the Shining Light compound, but Frenchie is tripping. Kimiko is killing dudes left and right, but Frenchie is having serious hallucinations. He’s not even close to reality. He’s fantasizing about Colin, but Frenchie sees Colin’s dead family, the ones that were killed by Frenchie. He sees all of the people that died at his hand or the deaths that he’s responsible for. Then, Frenchie’s old boss is there. She calls him a murderer and a monster. 

Then, Kimiko sees someone that she knows. They fight before Frenchie returns. Frenchie asks who she is, but Kimiko just asks where Frenchie went. He wasn’t there for backup. 

Ryan finally opens up about life at the tower. Butcher asks him about his save, but Ryan admits that he accidentally hurt someone. Ryan tells Butcher about how he killed Koy. Ryan says, “I get why you don’t want me. I wouldn’t want me, either.” Butcher asks forgiveness for the things he said about not wanting Ryan. Butcher explains that he’s a bad man that pushes people away. He knows that he can’t look after a kid, but Ryan said that’s not true. Butcher admits that he is scared to die, especially leaving the world with nothing to show for it. Butcher wants to make right with Ryan, the part of Becca that is still alive, and that’s the one thing keeping him going and the thing he’s most afraid of at this point. Butcher dumps out the cookies he made for Ryan. 

At the first official meeting of the Seven (minus one), Homelander kicks Ashley out of the meeting. Sage is taking over.

Later, Homelander and Sage are questioning Annika about her relationship with Starlight. Sage makes Homelander swear that he won’t harm Annika if she tells the truth about their friendship and why Starlight contacted her. As soon as she begins to tell the truth, Homelander kills her instantly. 

While this is all happening, Starlight is there at Vought Tower! She snuck into her old room, which now belongs to Firecracker. Annie questions Firecracker about why she’s targeting her. They have history! Firecracker reveals that Annie bullied her when they were on the pageant circuit years ago. Annie doesn’t remember Firecracker, but she eventually does remember what happened. Annie apologizes, but Firecracker doesn’t accept her apology. She lets her know that she’s not going to stop coming for Annie until she’s won. 

MM and Hughie pay a visit to a Vought on Ice rehearsal. The whole gang was supposed to be there to see Neuman meet with Homelander and Sage, which A-Train leaked to MM. Neuman arrives early to take photos with the cast. Hughie climbs through the arena’s ventilation to plant a bug to record the meeting, but Homelander and Sage are already there.

Sage reveals the plan to Neuman. They will clear the way for Neuman to be President after killing Robert Singer. In return, Neuman will come out as a Supe in front of the world and pave the way for Supes to take control of America and the world. Initially, Neuman is not into the idea, but  Homelander makes a big pitch to Neuman about not hating herself anymore. Just then, a drop of Hughie’s sweat falls from the air vent that he’s hiding in onto Homelander’s shoulder, and Homelander lasers the vent. Luckily, Hughie is on the move, but Homelander is on his tail! 

As Homelander tries to laser Hughie throughout the arena, MM shoots the stage lights in his eyes. Homelander accidentally lasers one of the skater playing Queen Maeve in half. Chaos ensues on the ice as the cast of Vought on Ice start skating over each other, cutting off limbs and trying to fight their way to safety. Just when it looks like Homelander is about to catch Hughie, A-Train shows up and races Hughie away before Homelander sees them! It looks like he’s truly flipped. What a turn! Who would have seen this coming way back in season 1 or season 2? Not me. 

Back at the Boys HQ, Frenchie, Kimiko, and Annie drink and share horror stories of their day. Frenchie and Kimiko fight, and Frenchie leaves to get high. 

Hughie, knowing that he has to reconnect with his mom to keep his dad alive, finally has the long overdue conversation about why she left in the first place. Hughie asks her how she could leave him. She explains that she was depressed, and it was painful. That depression never left, even after Hughie was born. She tried to kill herself with sleeping pills, and she left because she didn’t want to hurt him. She apologizes for hurting him all those years ago and now. 

Later, Joe is pissed that Butcher didn’t knock Ryan out with the cookies. Butcher doesn’t want to hurt Ryan, but Joe lets him know that they’re either going to figure out how to train Ryan or they’re going to figure out how they’ll kill him. Not great, especially considering Butcher has months to live. 

Back at Vought Tower, Sage and Deep finally hook up after eating some Bloomin’ Onions from Outback, but as they get after it, the camera focuses on what appears to be a bloody harpoon. Surely, she didn’t kill Ambrosius, voiced by Tilda Swinton, right? RIGHT?

Homelander questions Ryan about where he’s been all day. Ryan lies, but Homelander knows he was with Butcher. Homelander freaks out, and he asks Ryan why he’s lying, why he’s not happy, and why he isn’t good enough for him. Homelander flies into a fit of rage, and Ryan runs away. Things aren’t good at all in the Lander household! 

And, that’s when Homelander starts hallucinating Green Goblin-style! The mirror Homelander tells him he needs to “go back to start” and to “go home.”

This is one of the most important episodes of The Boys so far. Finally, we learn more about Neuman's motivation, why she doesn't want to become a Vought puppet as a president, and how she plans to do it on her own. Unfortunately, Sage and Homelander have other ideas. Perhaps, Neuman will eventually work with the Boys to take out Homelander for good? We'll just have to wait and see.