The Ending Of The Boys Season 3 Episode 6 Explained

Contains spoilers for "The Boys" Season 3 Episode 6, "Herogasm"

Soldier Boy's (Jensen Ackles) explosive reemergence makes waves among the remaining members of Seven. The steadily unraveling Homelander (Antony Starr) decides to get rid of the classic hero before he causes a PR disaster, and the usually implacable Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell) gets out of Dodge the second he hears the news of his old teammate's return. Meanwhile, the Deep (Chace Crawford) reacts to the carnage with a star-studded social media singalong of the John Lennon classic "Imagine" — a fun reference to Gal Gadot's cringeworthy 2020 viral moment. And after all this, things get really weird...

From the beginning of "Herogasm," it's clear that almost every major character is moving toward the same direction, and that the episode will end in a collision of epic proportions. As various representatives of the Boys and the Seven make their way toward a very particular house, strange and slippery things are happening within its walls. By the end of the episode, the characters (and the viewers' eyes) have gone through a whole bunch more than they signed up for, and the status quo has changed in a number of significant ways. Let's take a look at the ending of "The Boys" Season 3 Episode 6.

As the Deep heads out to meet the TNT Twins (Jack Doolan and Kristin Booth) before Soldier Boy arrives, he discovers that the pair is hosting an event called Herogasm. This annual free-for-all of earthly Supe delights is pretty much exactly what it says on the tin, as Mother's Milk (Laz Alonso) and Starlight (Erin Moriarty) find out when the peculiarly powered Season 2 character Love Sausage (Andrew Jackson) greets them at the door. Meanwhile, Hughie (Jack Quaid) fits in the proceeding like a glove, largely due to the fact that his temporary teleporting power doesn't transport clothes.

It's pretty safe to say that the scenes within the mansion are unlike anything that's ever been seen in a superhero show. The house is full of massively R-rated, super-themed action that litters the background throughout much of the episode, even when the main characters have dramatic conversations and prepare to wage war. 

Herogasm is easily one of the comics' most risqué storylines. While the show's version takes place in a mansion instead of an entire island, the amount of nude Supe antics is easily comparable to the comic book version. As the Deep and his new octopus friend would no doubt tell you, this is definitely not an episode you want to watch with the family.

Soldier Boy is stuck in a motel room with Hughie as Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) tracks down the TNT Twins. He immediately turns out to be a man who's stuck in the past ... and not just because he's been shut away from the world since 1984. He masks his obvious and considerable emotional pain under a massive layer of toxic masculinity that would probably have seemed excessive even in the 1950s. 

When it's time to battle Homelander in the Herogasm mansion, Soldier Boy quickly discovers that he can't quite back up his machismo in a one-on-one battle against his powerful successor. Fortunately, he's not alone. The Compound V-enhanced Butcher soon joins the battle, prompting a hilarious double take reaction from the shocked Homelander. 

Though the confrontation between Butcher and Homelander is a sight to behold, he's ultimately just as powerless against the powerhouse as Soldier Boy. The situation changes when Hughie teleports in the fight, and the three quickly manage to subdue Homelander. However, just as Soldier Boy is charging his depowering and destructive energy explosion, the desperate Homelander is able to escape.

The scene is a fine superhero battle, and if longtime fans of the show think it's somehow familiar, it's because "The Boys" has done something very similar before. In Season 2 of the show, Stormfront (Aya Cash) attacks the Boys on an open field, and is taken down by Starlight, Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara), and Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott). Though different enough to stand out on their own, the battles have many similarities, from multiple one-on-one moments to supposedly fatal damage to a member of the Boys. The fights even end the same way, as both Stormfront and Homelander manage to fly away at the last second.

As Mother's Milk notes, Frenchie (Tomer Capon) is the sole member of the Boys who genuinely wants to witness Herogasm. Naturally, then, this bucket list item has to wait for future seasons, because the Boys' charmingly-accented arms dealer and the powerless Kimiko are stuck in the middle of the only major plotline that steers entirely clear of the TNT Twins' funky abode.

Last week's episode's temporary happiness and musical antics are nowhere to be seen here, as Little Nina (Katia Winter) abducts the pair to further mess with her former ally and lover. The ensuing conversation provides a crash course to Frenchie's impressive array of scars, and offers a sneak peek at his turbulent history. Conveniently, it also gives Kimiko enough time to pick the lock of her handcuffs, and to brutally tear through Little Nina's henchmen as the helpless Frenchie looks on.

This bloody encounter might save the pair's lives, but it also convinces Kimiko that her powers were never the thing that made her monstrous — that mindset was inside her all along. Though Frenchie fervently disagrees with this assessment, it appears that the two have a lot of baggage to go through in the immediate future. 

The show's versions of both Kimiko and Frenchie are pretty different from their comics counterparts, so it's anyone's guess where things will go from here. However, with Kimiko's changed attitude toward her powers — and the fact that the Boys have vials of temporary V — it wouldn't be surprising if she finds a way to get her strength back before the season is over.  

While other people take care of the fighting and backstabbing, the unlikely team of Mother's Milk and Starlight is in a more peaceful mode — though it's not for lack of trying on MM's part. 

Starlight's chat with surprise wannabe ally Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) is the final straw in her heap of troubles. Instead of tolerating further political and corporate shenanigans, she decides to head out to Vermont with MM in an effort to minimize Soldier Boy's casualties. On the way, MM explains that the Supe is responsible for his family's death, and his own OCD. 

There's no revenge for MM today, however, because his bag of tricks does nothing against either Soldier Boy or the superpowered Butcher. Starlight is also frustrated to discover that Hughie is once again hopped on V, and a far more insecure man than she thought.

While it's clear that they can't do much physically, MM and Starlight still find a way to unleash a move that might just change the show's balance of power. In a video they release on Starlight's highly popular social media channels, she exposes Homelander and other Supes as the horrible people that they are. She also denounces her own superhero name, and annouces that she quits the Seven. 

As Homelander's worrying internal monologue in the episode reveals, his absolute biggest weakness is his pathological need to be loved by all. Up to this moment, Starlight has been one of his biggest assets on this front. As such, she's just dealt a much bigger blow to him than the combined might of Soldier Boy, Butcher, and Hughie did. It'll be interesting to see how Homelander reacts to this ... especially since his usual gut instinct in these situations is to violently lash out. 

A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) continues to deal with the aftermath of his brother's (Christian Keyes) injury at the hands of Blue Hawk (Nick Wechsler). His employers, alas, aren't exactly sympathetic. In fact, the ball of stress that's the newly-promoted CEO Ashley Barrett (Colby Minifie) immediately shoots down the Supe's quest for justice, and delivers a well-deserved lecture about the numerous murders and atrocities A-Train himself has committed over the years.

While A-Train ultimately decides to take the law in his own hands, bits and pieces of Ashley's speech seem to go through. He tracks Blue Hawk down to Herogasm, where he encounters an angry Hughie — and heartfeltly and genuinely apologizes for what he did to Robin (Jess Salgueiro) in Season 1.

Of course, this is still "The Boys," so any and all attempts at genuine redemption are quickly shot down. In the end of the episode, A-Train chooses violence, and unleashes his powers for the first time in the season to give Blue Hawk a fatal dose of road rash. This might very well be the last thing that A-Train does, because as some doctors suspected, his heart can't take super-speed anymore. 

Justice as he may have seeked, A-Train collapses on the road as a guy who just murdered a Vought-protected vigilante during a moment of extreme crisis in the Supe community. While this would make a fitting and somewhat telegraphed death scene, it's difficult to imagine that his story ends here. The character has been on a flailing, insecure arc of self-discovery, and it seems unlikely that "The Boys" would miss a chance to make him deal with the aftermath of his latest flub. The question is, who will he find harder to face — Vought, or the community A-Train tried and failed to protect?