The Most Disturbing Scenes In The Boys Ranked
"Expecting a happy ending, were we? Well, I'm sorry, Hughie. It ain't that kind of massage parlor," Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) quips amid the dark and disturbing world of "The Boys." In a reality where super "heroes" masquerade as do-gooders but are often sleezy, corrupt, selfish, or unhinged, it's up to a group of hardened individuals to even the playing field. That's where Billy Butcher, Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid), and their band of misfits come in. In "The Boys," being a "supe" is often just a fancy way of claiming superiority over the rest of the human race. The Boys aim to reduce the "supe" population, and Butcher will drag every morally bankrupt superhero to their demise kicking and screaming if he has to.
"The Boys" is adapted from the comic book series of the same name created by Garth Ennis. It's a story that was meant to turn the trope of super-heroism in comic books on its head. In a world where the very idea of Superman inspires hope, Ennis seemingly ventured to highlight how insanely corruptible unmatched power like Kal-El's could actually be. Superman's dark mirror image became Homelander (Antony Starr) — a tyrant and sociopath fueled by his own superiority complex. As supes run amok in "The Boys," they often shock and terrify viewers with the levels of depravity they're willing to sink to. With each season of "The Boys," viewers wonder what, exactly, is going to bring their chins to the floor in utter disbelief this time around. With three seasons under its belt, let's take a look at the most disturbing moments in the series and rank them from the least to the most diabolical.
13. The Deep's gills
Despite some obvious similarities, the Deep is no Aquaman. Sure, he can plunge into the depths of the ocean and communicate with all manner of aquatic life, but he also has a particular mutation that Aquaman doesn't share. The Deep has a set of gills along his abdomen that enable him to breathe in the murky depths of the ocean just like a fish. The series positions this physical detail as a source of shame and embarrassment for the lame-brained supe. There's a reason he rarely de-robes around anyone — he wants to keep his gills covered at all times.
However, later in the first season he receives a bit of karmic comeuppance for his treatment of Starlight upon her induction into the Seven. The Deep hooks up with a fan who is infatuated with his gills. Of course, the Deep is clearly anxious over another person touching, let alone viewing them. In a disturbing sequence, however, the fan physically molests his gills, causing the Deep significant discomfort. Visually, it's a cringe-inducing moment for all of us, not just the Deep.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
12. Homelander's fantasy of obliterating everyone
There's no question about it — Homelander is off his rocker. Not only is the indestructible supe unhinged, but he's a narcissist and a sociopath. To put it simply, he doesn't have a moral code. The only thing he is beholden to is his obsessive need for attention and to be loved by the public. Everything else can be vaporized for all he cares. It's only Homelander's desire for fandom and attention that keeps him in check. In the third season, he makes this very clear as he tells Starlight that if she goes public with his misdeeds, he'll no longer have anything to lose and will travel the globe raining down wanton terror and destruction on major cities just for fun. The notion that the world's destruction is a moment away from one man's ego cracking is a very frightening thought.
In the second season, Homelander starts to truly encounter public opposition as many begin protesting his actions, the Seven, and Vought International. In one particular scene, Homelander uses his heat vision to gleefully slaughter protesting civilians. Thankfully, we learn this is simply just a daydream; he hasn't quite snapped just yet. Sadly, mass murders aren't an entirely foreign concept in our reality, and the visual here, even when the perpetrator is a fictional being, is still horrifying and disturbing.
11. Homelander's Oedipal attraction to Madelyn Stillwell
In the first season of "The Boys," Madelyn Stillwell (Elisabeth Shue) seemingly runs the show over at Vought International. While she understands the sort of power she's tampering with, she mostly displays a measure of control over Homelander and his capacity for homicidal lunacy. Madelyn manages this thanks to Homelander's very odd infatuation with her. As a supe, Homelander is one of the few who is actually not just the simple byproduct of Compound V. He's created in a lab from Soldier Boy's (Jensen Ackles) DNA, and never has actual parents.
For some reason, he's grown so attached to Madelyn as his handler that he almost views her as a mother figure. In one rather gross sequence in Season 2, we witness Homelander drink her breast milk with an air of sexual satisfaction. In the first season, whenever Madelyn and Homelander are alone, he lets down his guard as this stoic leader of the Seven and occasionally cuddles up on Madelyn's lap like a boy seeking comfort from his mother. It's a very odd relationship, and Madelyn wields it to Vought's benefit. Of course, her relationship with Homelander eventually leads to her undoing.
10. Love Sausage
While exceptionally bleak and violent, "The Boys" also thrives on dark humor and satire of real-world pop culture. The showrunners also don't shy away from graphic displays of the human anatomy. One such moment occurs in the second season when the Boys find themselves in Sage Grove Center, a Vought-backed psychiatric facility where many supes are locked away. All hell breaks loose when the prisoners are set free to wreak havoc on the facility and those trapped inside.
During the horrific onslaught of superhumans that are completely out of their gourds, a tentacle emerges from a door and strangles
Mother's Milk (Laz Alonso). One of the superhumans clearly has their hands ... or something ... on poor Mother's Milk. After Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) knocks the supe out, we see that it's a big burly man and the tentacle is retreating back up his pants. That's right, Mother's Milk is strangled by a penis wielded by the supe known as "Love Sausage." While most of us would immediately retire from the militant supe-resistance after such an incident, Mother's Milk soldiers on even though he was almost killed by a guy's wiener.
9. Soldier Boy's massacre of a superhero orgy
When it came time for Amazon to market "Herogasm," the platform wanted fans to know this hour of TV definitely lives up to the implications of its name. The Season 3 episode follows Soldier Boy and the Boys as they track down two former members of Payback. Soldier Boy has a bone to pick with his ex-comrades who seemingly turned their backs on him, resulting in his decades of imprisonment in a secret Russian laboratory.
It just so happens that the next targets are the TNT Twins, the sibling duo who host the annual superhero orgy. As you can imagine, the show depicts this gathering in all of its nasty and perverse glory. However, this shocking moment is outshined by what happens next. When Soldier Boy finds the TNT Twins, they reveal to him that Black Noir is really the culprit behind his betrayal. Before long, Soldier Boy involuntarily releases an energy blast from his body that kills the twins and many supes engaging in sexual activities throughout the building. Ultimately, it's a superhero massacre of epic proportions.
8. Popclaw and her landlord
Popclaw is another one of the show's tortured souls who meets a particularly tragic demise. She has super strength and ridiculously deadly claws, hence the name. She used to be a celebrity and appeared in multiple multimedia productions until she was cast aside after being photographed during a drug-addled party. In Season 1, Popclaw secretly dates A-Train and pleads with him to go public with their relationship, which he refuses to do.
Later, she gets high on Compound V and hooks up with her landlord. The poor guy never sees his own demise coming, but in all fairness, neither does Popclaw. While, um ... let's say she's occupying a stimulating position on her landlord's face, Popclaw accidentally tenses up a bit too much and pops his head like pimple. On a show full of memorably gross death scenes, this one might be the squishiest of the lot. And once again, the carelessness of a supe reduces an ordinary human to collateral damage.
7. Homelander and Doppelganger
Homelander is the source of plenty of disturbing moments in this series. Generally, Homelander only serves himself and his own ego. The only other person that he truly cares for is his own son, but who knows if that will last? The second season picks up right after Homelander kills Madelyn Stillwell. Even though he's the one who pulled the metaphorical trigger, Homelander still feels the grief of losing his surrogate mother. He commissions a shaft-shifting supe by the name of Doppelganger to meet him at a remote cabin and take the form of Madelyn Stillwell. Homelander begins talking to the faux-Madelyn like she still exists, and he still requires her nurturing affection.
Later in the season, things get even weirder. When the visage of Madelyn Stillwell no longer does it for Homelander, Doppelganger attempts to survive Homelander's insanity by appearing to him as someone the maniacal superman loves even more — himself. For a minute, Homelander seems to enjoy the flirtations with his mirror image. Eventually, however, his desire for total independence and power takes root and he kills Doppelganger to sever his need for this relationship.
6. Homelander encourages a woman to jump from a building
Season 3 sees Homelander expand his reign of fear beyond Vought employees and his own comrades in the Seven. Especially by the end of the eight episodes, the general public is also included under Homelander's umbrella of terror. Furthermore, Homelander no longer cares what Vought wants him to do. For his birthday, he decides to go save one desperate soul. Apparently, this man only feels a tad charitable on his birthday. He finds a woman who is ready to jump off of a building. A crowd has gathered, and Homelander lands on the building to ensure she doesn't take the plunge.
However, things take a turn for the worse when Homelander learns that his Nazi ex-lover Stormfront managed to find a way to end her own life out of despair and a sense of defeat. Whether Homelander truly loved her, or he simply felt slighted by the perception of Stormfront leaving him is unknown. But if we're willing to take bets, it's probably the latter. Angered, he then tells the poor woman on the building to jump. It's in that moment that woman realizes she doesn't want to die. Even still, Homelander gets terrifyingly convincing and forces her into the act, once again solidifying how evil he actually is.
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing 988 or by calling 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
5. The Deep and the octopus
Over the years, Aquaman has been the butt of countless jokes in the world of superhero fandom. That went on pretty much until Jason Momoa took on the role and owned it like a rockstar. Even still, DC's own productions have piggybacked off Aquaman's laughable history. For instance, in "Peacemaker," the titular character insists that the Atlantean hero gets physically intimate with fish and sea life. Momoa's Aquaman actually makes a cameo appearance in that show to squash the rumor. The super-powered being who runs parallel to Aquaman in the world of "The Boys," however, does have a deep (pun clearly intended) and abiding fondness for aquatic sea life. In typical "The Boys" fashion, the show implements all of the jokes ever made about Aquaman.
The Deep actually cares for his fish friends. He speaks to them and even knows them by name. Homelander, in all of his perversion, sees the connection and forces the Deep to eat an octopus that Deep knows personally as Timothy. Of course, Deep is traumatized by this moment. But later, he makes up for it in a way by making love to an octopus. The supe really takes the plunge when it comes to his affection for sea life. His girlfriend does not take kindly to that revelation.
4. Stillwell's death
As Homelander's go-to gal, Madelyn Stillwell keeps the beast under control in Season 1. She provides him with a nurturing atmosphere, something the supe never previously had. Despite Homelander's penchant for bloodshed, Madelyn always manages to keep Homelander's worst instincts at bay ... for the most part. For all intents and purposes, she's Homelander's emotional center throughout the first season. For that reason, ultimately, Billy Butcher sees her as a means to an end. The vindictive supe-killer sets out to simply hurt Homelander by blowing Madelyn to kingdom come in front of him, and the plan definitely does not go the way Billy originally envisions it.
It turns out if there's one thing Homelander hates more than anything else, it's someone who manipulates him. He's got no patience for it, even towards those he supposedly feels a connection with. After learning the truth about his upbringing, Homelander kills Madelyn right in front of Billy for her lies. He uses his heat vision to burn through her face in a disturbing and grotesque sequence. What's even more horrifying than Madelyn's death is the simple idea that there really isn't anything anyone can use as leverage of against this unstoppable being.
3. Homelander kills a protester
As viewers, we all understood what kind of sick and twisted individual Homelander is, and even the folks at Vought know that Homelander is a ticking time bomb unless properly controlled and corralled by the programs they've set in place for his public life as a superstar hero. Those who are unaware, however, of what Homelander is truly capable of are the citizens on the ground who've been spoon fed marketing and lies from Vought International. As far as the most credulous members of the public are concerned, Homelander might as well be Superman.
While Homelander murders and maims whoever he wishes behind the scenes, Vought always cleans up his messes. Additionally, Homelander has walked a fine line in public to ensure he's beloved by the people. Despite all of the carnage he has wrought, this history is the exact reason why his quick and decisive murder of a protestor in the final episode of Season 3 is all the more disturbing. During a rally, one of Starlight's followers lobs trash at Ryan, Homelander's son. Quickly, Homelander lasers the man's head off in a quick fit of retaliatory rage. However, the people at the scene cheer on Homelander's aggression which, in turn, delights Homelander. This murder will usher in a new age of Homelander who now sees public support for his murdering and insanity, which had previously been kept behind closed doors. Imagine if there was ever a moment in the contemporary real world where someone was murdered in broad daylight and crowds of people applauded the killer; the word "disturbing" wouldn't even begin to cover it.
2. That whale scene
When it comes to "The Boys," there's no shortage of blood and guts. Plenty of super-powered beings can beat opposition into a bloody pulp without breaking a sweat, and the crew led by Billy Butcher can also inflict some serious damage. Billy is a fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants kind of guy and has little regard for his own life in his quest to destroy supes. During an attempt to bring Kimiko's brother Kenji to a safe house, the crew is assaulted on their boat by sharks. They head for shore only to be blocked by the Deep riding a sperm whale. The whale lands on the beach, but Billy speeds ahead and impales the whale by ramming it with their boat.
The scene is a gory display as each of member of the Boys climbs out from the guts and entrails inside of the whale. Hughie, in shock, just sits inside the whale next to its slowing heart clearly contemplating his life. It's possible that no one expected Billy to actually ram the majestic animal. But somehow, it still feels very much like a Billy Butcher move.
1. Termite exploding his lover
Perhaps the most shocking sequence in "The Boys" to date comes in the premiere episode of Season 3. The show has demonstrated its propensity for crudeness, crassness, and all manner of debauchery. Even still, the showrunners seem to want to continually push the envelope with each season.
Season 3 kicks off with a bang as Billy Butcher begins working as a contractor for Victoria Neuman's Bureau of Superhero Affairs. As part of his contract, he must stop killing supes and focus on merely capturing them, even though he desperately wishes to revert to his old ways of ending their lives. In one sequence, Termite, a supe who can shrink, is a target of the Bureau and his capture by Billy comes after he accidentally kills his lover in a bafflingly disgusting manner. The two are getting intimate and Termite's lover suggests that the supe shrink and climb up his urethra. After snorting several lines of cocaine, Termite sneezes while inside his partner, which causes him to expand back to full size. This, of course, kills his partner in a bloody explosion of gore and body parts. It's a rather shocking scene that surely caused a few jaws to the hit the floor.