'The Boys' Season 3 Episode 4 Review: Operation 'Kill Homelander' goes all murky for all parties
Contains spoilers for 'The Boys' Season 3 Episode 4 'Glorious Five Year Plan'
'Glorious Five Year Plan' sets the tone for what promises to be an absolute firecracker of 'The Boys' Season 3' second half. Taking down a deranged and dangerous Homelander (Anthony Starr) proves to be a lot more difficult than on paper. Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) makes his mark, with some consequences, and the show sees a new character's death. Hughie (Jack Quaid) and Butcher (Karl Urban) pull off a move that upsets the rest of the boys. While the larger picture is to kill Homelander, the setbacks are on the rise and that makes the hour-long episode a mind-blowing affair.
'The Boys' has always relied on the element of surprise to compensate for the blood it unabashedly splashes on-screen, or the unbridled doses of sex. This time around, the latter factor takes a backseat, but the episode instead looks at some action that serves as a temporary distraction. There's some betrayal at both camps and that worsens things, especially for Starlight (Erin Moriarty) and the Boys.
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With Butcher dangerously looking addicted to the temporary Compound V, the boys are in complete disarray. Jumping onto the supe bandwagon is Hughie who gives himself a taste of powers when they head into a mission to find Soldier Boy and that ends badly for Kimiko as she first-hand experiences the damage he can cause. She takes the full force of an energy blast and fails to heal hinting at a sad fate for the character. If Kimiko does die, it hints at the first major death in the season. The usage of the compound is also certain to cause friction between Hughie and Starlight.
The fourth episode is all about the domino effect that some of the actions will have. Each character has his or her plans, and the execution comes with consequences. Going against Vought and Homelander will mean Hughie's death — an example of which was made out of Supersonic's death. Homelander kills the latest supe on the block after A-Train's desperation to please him sees him leak the plans hatched to get the better of the Seven's leader. As far as speculations go, Queen Maeve and A-Train will surely be casualties as the season comes to an end. It appears they have accepted that fate, but only time will tell if this will turn out to be true.
Victoria Neunman's intentions are still unclear. She sides with Homelander in exchange to give her daughter the temporary compound, and there's still reason to believe she may turn against him at some point. There's a lot to speculate from, but what's a given is that this episode promises a scary, yet delightful season ahead.
'The Boys' Season 3 Episodes 1-4 are streaming on Amazon Prime Video.