In what may be one of the bloodiest shows streaming this weekend (or ever), the first three episodes of The Boys arrived on Amazon Prime Video with a bang.
Warning: Spoilers ahead.
The first explosion is caused by Termite (Brett Geddes), a Vought B-lister who’s sniffed too much cocaine and accidentally sneezed inside his partner, causing him to explode from the waste down, and it only gets bloodier from there. While this scene is sure to draw a lot of attention and press, there are much more urgent happenings in the satirical world of The Boys.
The main narrative of the new season follows Billy the Butcher (Karl Urban) who’s come into possession of V24, a synthetic blend of the superhero elixir that gives normal humans super powers for 24 hours. With a bit of V24 in hand, Billy is desperate for a one-on-one with Homelander (Anthony Starr). Everything about the dynamic between Billy and Homelander seems to indicate that viewers are likely to see a showdown between these two by the end of the season. So, hold on to your butts.
Well, maybe not so fast. According to a Reddit threat from last year, The Boys might be throwing viewers a curveball.
The Boys Reddit Thread Has Been Accurate So Far
In 2021, Redditor AccidentalUniverse put out a call for speculation about future plots of the Amazon superhero satire. There was no shortage of comments, many of which seemed right on the money. So much so that several threads that claimed to have actual inside information were ultimately taken down, but of course, the people of the internet always keep the receipts, and much of those details were preserved.
In fact, the claims that originated on Reddit have predicted many future plot points. Let’s discuss what the thread has already gotten right.
Butcher Has Powers
Check. In episode two of Season 3, Maeve (Dominique McElligot) drops by Butcher’s place to give him a secret weapon, V24, which was introduced by Stan Edgar (Giancario Esposito) in episode one and billed as a $20 million-a-shot military enhancement. Of course, Butcher isn’t interested, but that changes when he’s shot and cornered by Gunpowder (Sean Patrick Flanery) in the garage.
After Butcher ingests the super serum and beats Soldier Boy’s old sidekick to death, its pretty clear where things are headed as Butcher has two remaining vials of V24 and an everlasting hatred for Homelander who’s also looking forward to a confrontation.
Stormfront Kills Herself
Check. After a botched happy ending, which abruptly ends after too much talk about master races, Stormfront (Aya Cash) refuses to acknowledge Homelander on his birthday and later swallows her own tongue, killing herself, a move that ultimately costs another poor young girl her life (this scene was hard to watch).
While Homelander is initially devasted and isolated, he later snaps back as only he can, and kicks off what may be the biggest threat to Vought and the universe of The Boys in general–an unhinged and incredibly superpowered lunatic who’s tapped into the fringes of middle-class white America. And while the leak didn’t detail how this would happen, it was accurate nonetheless. Stormfront is dead, and it’s because Homelander had enough with the Nazi talk while he was concentrating on the matter at hand.
A-Train Gets a New Costume
Check. When A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) is continuously harassed by Homelander for being too fat and slow, (“fastest man alive, what a f**king joke”) he looks to his “roots” and tries to achieve new relevance by associating himself with his ancestors and the middle passage. After doing some research, A-Train decides to rebrand himself and changes up his costume for “the cause.” It’s not genuine of course, as even his brother believes it is just ploy to get attention, which it is. Ultimately, A-Train’s new costume is a flop and he must cope with the hard truth: He just isn’t the fastest man in the world anymore.
What Else Did the Thread Predict for The Boys?
According to the thread, there is going to be a huge character death and it is “not who viewers might think.” This invites viewers to wonder if this refers to an unexpected character at the time of the thread or unexpected as of the airing of episode three. With the writers pushing the Butcher/Homelander showdown pretty aggressively in the first few episodes, dynamics have shifted and what’s “expected” has changed.
Adding to the confusion is the fact that in the same post, the OP references a quote from Dominique McElligott in which she expresses excitement for Season 4. If that’s the case, and it isn’t Homelander or Maeve, who could it be?
In a response to the original thread, Reddit user Poindextered claims that Hughie (Jack Quaid) will end up with teleportation powers. And that while a major character will die, he believes it will be A-Train based on several comments that are now deleted. Of course, this could all be considered speculation, but both posts have very similar claims (Poindextered also references Butcher’s powers and Stormfront’s death) and each were posted well before the show was released.
Again, given the post dates and the accuracy through season three so far, A-Train’s death isn’t far-fetched, especially considering Homelander’s obvious disdain for him. And now with nothing to lose and the fringe in full support of his lunacy, perhaps nothing is off limits for the original Vought 7. Only time will tell who will be left standing at the end of the season.
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