The Boys Season 3 Finale Moment That Has Fans Scratching Their Heads
In "The Boys" Season 3, the show's titular rebels are given their best shot yet at killing their archnemesis, the villainous Homelander (Antony Starr). After investigating the supposed death of America's first superhero, the Boys and their leader, Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), discover that the superpowered individual in question, Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles), never actually died. Instead, Butcher and his allies stumble upon Soldier Boy in a secret Russian military facility and help the former superhero escape his imprisonment.
Soldier Boy's super strength and ability to generate powerful nuclear blasts make him the only superhero on the planet truly capable of killing Homelander. As a result, it doesn't take long for Butcher and Soldier Boy to come to an agreement — one that sees the latter agree to help the Boys put Homelander down once and for all. For a majority of the second half of "The Boys" Season 3, that's exactly what Soldier Boy and his newfound allies spend their time trying to do, too.
However, Soldier Boy's relationship with Butcher takes an unexpected turn in Episode 8 of "The Boys" Season 3. The turn in question has, unsurprisingly, proven to be quite divisive among fans of "The Boys," many of whom have taken to social media to express their confusion and disappointment with the overall direction of the show's Season 3 finale.
Fans don't understand why everyone turns on Soldier Boy
In the Season 3 finale of "The Boys," Soldier Boy, Billy Butcher, and Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) team up to take down Homelander. Things take a turn, however, when Soldier Boy attacks Ryan Butcher (Cameron Crovetti) after the young boy tries to save his father, Homelander. In response to the attack on Ryan, Billy unexpectedly turns on Soldier Boy and subsequently teams up with Homelander to stop him.
Billy's decision to turn on Soldier Boy has been met with some understandable confusion from fans of "The Boys." On Reddit, one fan even created a post noting, "It's just weird that taking down Soldier Boy was considered an equal, if not higher, priority than taking down Homelander." The post earned a number of responses, and many other fans used it as an opportunity to express their disappointment with the show's latest Soldier Boy twist.
For instance, in response to the original post, u/SophisticatedBT observed, "Don't get me wrong [Soldier Boy] sucks but idk how I'm not supposed to be on his side. ... He did what he said he would and nothing else." Elsewhere in the Reddit thread, u/Catboxaoi admitted, "To me, it feels like a good example of [the show's creative team] wanting to keep the status quo. The Boys had to go after [Soldier Boy] because [he] isn't in the main cast but Homelander is."
In other words, it looks like fans of "The Boys" have a real problem with how the show's third season brought its Soldier Boy-centric arc to an end. Unfortunately, those same fans will have to wait to see whether or not "The Boys" Season 4 manages to satisfyingly address this particular criticism.