By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

Usually shows like to wait until the season finale to drop the biggest episode of the season but it’s possible “The Boys” just managed that with episode 6 in season 4 with the long awaited arrival of “Herogasm.”

Based on a storyline from the original comic book series, “Herogasm” was a name given to a superhero sex retreat where the world’s most powerful people would gather for a weekend fueled by all sorts of debauchery, drugs and sexual depravity as a way for those with powers to recharge their batteries.

Many of the most despicable acts carried out in the comics never made it to television — and that’s a good thing — but there was still plenty to unpack from the latest episode.

Before we get there, let’s just recap where we ended last week as Butcher decided to forgo stopping Soldier Boy by instead teaming up with him. Butcher figured there’s no better way to stop Homelander than to send Soldier Boy after him so alongside Hughie, they all teamed up together after giving the former American hero a chance to get some much needed revenge against his ex-girlfriend Crimson Countess, who was one of the members of his old team that sold him out to the Russians.

Of course, Hughie’s decision to go along with Butcher put him at odds with Starlight, who has been trying to keep him out of harm’s way for quite some time. Now that he’s gotten a taste of what powers feel like after dipping into Butcher’s stash of V24, Hughie isn’t ready to give that up just yet, especially now that he can actually pitch in a helping hand.

As for Homelander — he’s just as unglued as ever after he wiped out Supersonic, stopped the coup working against him by silencing Maeve and now he’s the man in charge of Vought International. The only problem is Homelander is much better at taking orders than giving them, especially now that everybody is looking to him for answers after Soldier Boy accidentally killed 19 people in the middle of Manhattan.

Now with Soldier Boy on the loose and looking for revenge against the rest of his team, Homelander might actually have to step up to do something about it.

With that said, let’s get to our recap for the latest episode of “The Boys” titled “Herogasm”…

In the wake of the explosion that left 19 dead in Manhattan, The Deep takes it upon himself to send out thoughts and prayers with a tone deaf rendition of “Imagine” by John Lennon alongside a bunch of celebrities — the same tone deaf attempt made by Gal Gadot and other A-listers at the start of the global pandemic.

While Deep pretends to care, in all reality he’s manning the computers back at Vought Towers as he tries to track down the person responsible for the blast as well as whoever crispy fried Crimson Countess at her home. Thanks to his expert leadership where he fired all of the employees in the crime analytics department, Deep is left to look at surveillance footage.

Eventually, Deep is able to pause the video on the exact moment that captures Soldier Boy walking out of Crimson Countess’ demolished trailer. Everybody watching — including Homelander — is understandably stunned by this turn of events, especially considering Soldier Boy was supposed to be dead for several decades at this point.

Instead, he’s turned up very much alive and he torched his ex-girlfriend.

When Ashley details a plan to reveal Soldier Boy is back, Homelander nearly pops a blood vessel at the suggestion because that news would make it look like he doesn’t have things handled. Instead of causing a panic, Homelander says he’ll just take care of this himself by killing Soldier Boy and putting a stop to the mayhem before anyone can figure out what exactly happened.

Still, Homelander can’t figure out why Soldier Boy would execute Crimson Countess and when he asks Black Noir about it, the always stoic and silent assassin doesn’t say a word in return even after he was previously part of the same super team.

Black Noir obviously knows something because after Homelander exits, he ends up in an elevator with a hapless Vought employee who watches him stab into his own arm and pull out the tracking device implanted in every hero by Vought. Black Noir is obviously going off the radar but why doesn’t he want anybody to be able to find him? More on that later.

As for Homelander’s problems, they are only compounded after Deep informs him that Black Noir removed his tracker and that seems to confirm a theory he worked up alongside his ever encouraging wife. The Deep believes that Soldier Boy is working his way through his entire team, which means he’s coming after Black Noir as well — that would explain why Noir running right now.

But that also means that The Deep has an idea where Soldier Boy is going next because there are still several more members of Payback for him to murder. The closest stop would be Vermont where the TNT twins — Tommy and Tessa — reside.

Homelander sends Deep there as his emissary with instructions to call him if Soldier Boy actually shows up. As far as the twins go, Homelander doesn’t give a fuck.

As the pressure continues to mount, Homelander ends up talking to himself via the man in the mirror, who is apparently the superpowered part of him. Homelander tells himself that the tiny sliver of humanity still bouncing around in his veins is what’s preventing him from truly leading and carrying out the acts that need to be executed now that he’s in charge.

Homelander has always been so concerned about people loving him that he never thought about truly doing whatever the fuck he wanted because nobody was actually capable of stopping him.

Meanwhile at an undisclosed trashy motel, Butcher and Hughie are babysitting Soldier Boy as he catches up on the past 30 plus years that he’s missed. Of course he can’t go without pounding down some greasy fast food, pounding whiskey and snorting Benzedrine while revealing that he helped win D-Day while he was high as a kite on pills.

Butcher finally approaches him about the team-up idea he pitched but Soldier Boy isn’t sure why he’d need anybody to help him track down and kill the rest of Payback.

That’s when Hughie reminds Soldier Boy that he’s missed a lot since he was gone including the internet, GPS and all sorts of other tools he’ll need if he wants to effectively execute his former teammates. In return, Butcher tells Soldier Boy that all they want is for him to kill Homelander.

Soldier Boy recognizes the name after seeing Homelander’s face plastered all over New York and he’s fine eliminating one Supe so he can demolish the rest of Payback. While Butcher goes to find out some information on where they can locate more members of the team, Hughie stays behind and learns all about how Soldier Boy considers Bill Cosby as America’s dad while remarking that he used to make really strong drinks back in the day.

Hughie does manage to question Soldier Boy about the disaster in Manhattan and things take a somber turn because the formerly great hero doesn’t really remember what happened. Soldier Boy just knows he blacked out and woke up with all those people dead — and that was never his intention.

When Butcher finally returns — with some blood on his collar — he tells Soldier Boy that he’s tracked down the TNT twins to their home in Vermont. That will be their next stop but only after Butcher and Hughie both dose up with V24 as they prepare to take on even more Supes.

Finally, Homelander tries to do some damage control by appearing on a talk show alongside his “sweetheart” Starlight and a special guest in Congresswoman Victoria Neuman.

The host attempts to question the heroes about the attack in Manhattan that left 19 dead but Homelander finally gets tired of using kid gloves when dancing around the subject. Instead, Homelander lashes out yet again and tells America that there is no threat, they’re all safe and under his protection as he blames the media for continuing to pander lies about the danger lurking after this attack.

Homelander essentially just leaves the set while Ashley rips the host a new asshole. As for Victoria Neuman, she pulls Starlight aside for a little one-on-one time between girls.

As they sit down, Victoria reveals that she knows Starlight, Hughie and probably more people know she’s the Supe who was popping heads in Congress. Rather than blow up Starlight’s head like a cantaloupe with a firecracker stuffed inside, Victoria offers her another option.

She wants to begin wielding real power to do some good so Victoria asks to team up with Starlight to put a muzzle on Homelander, put her in the spotlight as the real leader of The Seven and then she can get some work done in Congress while simultaneously protecting her daughter from Vought.

Just when it looks like Starlight is about to partner up with the Congresswoman, she balks at the suggestion and tells Victoria Neuman to kick rocks.

Obviously, Victoria Neuman isn’t going to back down but it remains to be seen how far she’s willing to push to get what she wants. She reminds Starlight not to get in her way with a gentle touch on the arm, which causes her nose to bleed — just further proof that Victoria could pop her head at any moment she chooses.

Her comic book counterpart (who was actually a man named Vic Neuman) eventually became vice president before a short-lived stint as president. Perhaps that’s where Victoria Neuman is destined to reign while working alongside Robert Singer, the former secretary of defense, who is now running for president.

Kimiko is still recovering in the hospital and curious why Frenchie hasn’t returned.

She can’t help but wonder if that kiss between them sent him running and she has a million questions running through her head but Frenchie isn’t answering to help her solve them. Before she can send another text, one of Little Nina’s goons grabs her and takes her away to an abandoned warehouse as she’s finally reunited with Frenchie as well as his ex-girlfriend Cherie.

Little Nina has Cherie and Kimiko tied to chairs while Frenchie is stripped bare and chained to a pole as she explains all the various scars across his body. After going on a road map of the pain Frenchie has inflicted upon himself by way of hurting other people, Little Nina decides to give him a choice about the next bit of punishment that will be dished out.

She tells Frenchie to choose — either Kimiko or Cherie will die but if he refuses to pick, both of them will be executed.

As the countdown begins, Kimiko manages to get free of her restraints as she attacks one of Little Nina’s guards and kills him dead just as the other goon unloads a full clip into his partner’s back. It appears that Kimiko is dead until she springs back to life while engaging in a fight with the other goon, who gets the upper hand and beats her rather viciously now that she no longer has super powers.

Little Nina attempts to intervene but Cherie is able to wiggle free enough to knock her over while Kimiko finally fights back by stabbing the henchmen in the leg, Kimiko tackles the goon and stabs him repeatedly until he’s very much dead.

During the melee, Little Nina gets away but Frenchie doesn’t care much because both Kimiko and Cherie are safe and sound.

Back at home, Frenchie patches up Kimiko, who realizes that the powers she possessed didn’t make her a monster — she believes that darkness has always lived inside of her with or without abilities. Frenchie doesn’t seem to agree as he holds hands with Kimiko while both take some necessary time to recover.

The Deep arrives in Vermont at the mansion owned by the TNT twins, who are understandably surprised to see a member of The Seven on their doorstep. Before he can warn them about Soldier Boy, he gets a look inside and discovers that the TNT twins are carrying on a legendary party known amongst the Supes as Herogasm.

The Deep injects himself into the party rather than worrying about when Soldier Boy might show up.

As for Starlight, she turns to Mother’s Milk for help as he seethes with anger over Butcher betraying him and Hughie going along for the ride. Starlight convinces Mother’s Milk that he’s better than the rage fueling him right now and she needs his help to infiltrate this party so they can hopefully stop Soldier Boy before he kills a whole bunch more people.

She knows his next stop will likely be Vermont because the TNT twins are the members from Payback with the closest proximity.

So Starlight and Mother’s Milk being driving to Vermont where he finally tells her about the moment when Soldier Boy was stopping a car thief in his neighborhood before launching a Mercedes that went directly through the middle of his house.

If not for Mother’s Milk waking up his grandfather with excitement about seeing Soldier Boy, he might have lived but instead the car ripped through their home and literally tore his family apart. Now Mother’s Milk is determined to make Soldier Boy pay.

When they finally arrive in Vermont, Starlight is greeted by a gigantic cock attached to a Russian Supe, who recognizes her as a member of The Seven. He grants them entry and once inside, Starlight and Mother’s Milk get an eyeful at the kind of depravity being carried out by the Supes and a room full of sex workers being used as toys.

Mother’s Milk tells Starlight this is a Herogasm party — it’s when a C-list Supe hosts a bunch of other Supes together so they can get down and dirty together. It seems Frenchie has always wanted to lay eyes on an actual Herogasm but alas he wasn’t along for this particular ride.

After seeing more than they could ever possibly hope to understand, Starlight remarks that they need to get these people out of here before Soldier Boy arrives. Sadly, they’re interrupted after Termite — the coke snorting Supe who blew up boyfriend via his penis in the season debut — grows back to full size and accidentally bumps into M.M. and wipes lube all over his favorite jacket.

That’s the least of M.M.’s problems after he opens a door to what he thinks is a bathroom and he’s immediately doused in a supersized amount of semen. The Supe in the room responsible for the giant load tells him to “lick it up, you yummy brown bear.”

Outside, Hughie is stunned to see an actual superhero orgy while Soldier Boy is proud to see the tradition is still carrying on after he hosted the first ever Herogasm back in 1952. But more importantly, he’s one step closer to vengeance but Hughie recognizes that there are a lot of innocent people inside who have nothing to do with the TNT twins or Payback.

So Hughie volunteers to teleport inside, find the TNT twins and report back to Soldier Boy so he can go after only them and nobody else.

When Hughie zaps himself inside, he’s a little stunned at what he’s seeing but he’s even more shocked after bumping into A-Train, who is also hanging out at the Herogasm.

Emboldened by the V24 running through his veins, Hughie actually confronts A-Train and tells him to apologize for the atrocity he carried out by literally running through his former girlfriend Robin back in season 1. Rather that scoff at the suggestion, A-Train actually apologizes and means it because he now understands that kind of pain and suffering.

A-Train’s brother is now paralyzed for life after tangling with a Supe and Vought essentially laughed off his suggestion at punishment for Blue Hawk. To make matters worse, Ashley reminded A-Train about all the murders he’s committed that have been covered up by Vought in the past so what they’re doing for Blue Hawk is no different.

An apology still isn’t enough for Hughie as he unloads a punch that actually hurts A-Train.

That’s when Starlight spots a nearly nude Hughie about to get into a fight so she pulls him away even as A-Train is curious how he got punched so hard.

Starlight then tries to convince Hughie that he needs to help her get these people out of here before Soldier Boy arrives to do even more damage. To make matters worse, Starlight walked in on Deep having sex with an octopus and blackmailed him to reveal that Homelander will be on his way to eliminate Soldier Boy once he shows up to the party.

Starlight warns Hughie that things are going to get very messy and she wants him to help her evacuate these people but before she can finish her sentence, Soldier Boy makes his arrival.

She runs towards him but Hughie can’t allow her to get hurt so he grabs her and teleports both of them minus clothes back out to the car. It’s there when Hughie once again tells Starlight that he’s just trying to protect her but she begins to realize that he’s struggling to deal with having a superpowered girlfriend.

It’s not the V24 making Hughie this way — Annie realizes he’s always had these feelings.

When Hughie tries to stop her from returning to the party, Annie knocks him down with her light force and she stomps back towards the house.

Back inside, Soldier Boy finally confronts the TNT twins, who are shocked to see him standing there alive.

He offers to possibly spare them if they’ll reveal who orchestrated his kidnapping by the Russians and that’s when Tommy and Tessa tell their former leader that it was Black Noir who set everything in motion. Soldier Boy knows Black Noir wouldn’t make a move without Vought’s authorization but now that explains why Noir was in such a hurry to get the fuck out of town after learning the former Payback commander was alive again.

Before Soldier Boy can just kill the TNT twins the old fashioned way, he hears a song in the background that reminds him of that Russian lab yet again — the same situation as what happened in midtown Manhattan — and he unleashes another super charged blast from his chest.

The TNT twins are eviscerated while Butcher and Hughie are knocked to the ground with numerous other Supes and humans torched by the explosion. Thankfully, Mother’s Milk survived but only after he tried desperately to beat down Billy Butcher.

His efforts came up short thanks to Butcher being powered by V24.

As for The Deep, he escapes the party with his octopus lover stuffed in a plastic sack while A-Train takes this opportunity to exact some much needed revenge on Blue Hawk.

He confronts Blue Hawk and then uses whatever remaining power he has left and drags the racist superhero through the streets with his super speed. By the time A-Train is finished, Blue Hawk’s upper body has been torn to shreds and he’s deader than dead.

Unfortunately using that burst of speed sends A-Train into cardiac arrest as he falls to the ground in what might just be his final act of heroism because his life may be over.

In the aftermath of the explosion, Homelander finally descends from the sky and squashes a tiny Termite as he gets for help on the ground. Inside, Soldier Boy has no idea what happened — he blacked out again and has no idea that he caused the explosion.

Before Butcher can tell him anything, Homelander arrives to restore some order. He reminds Butcher that they agreed to fight to the death but bringing in Soldier Boy was cheating so the deal is now off the table.

Homelander then turns his attention back to Soldier Boy as the star-spangled psycho confronts the most powerful Supe in the world before he took over.

A fight breaks out between Homelander and Soldier Boy and it’s everything you could expect. Homelander eventually gets the upper hand until Butcher shows off his new toys.

He blasts Homelander with his laser eyes and an even bigger fight ensues this time with Butcher and Soldier Boy teamed up together. Once again, Homelander overpowers them but that’s when Hughie shows up to turn the odds in their favor.

All three together, Soldier Boy, Butcher and Hughie are able to pin Homelander to the ground.

Soldier Boy begins fueling up his nuclear power as Butcher tells Hughie to get out of there but he refuses to leave until the job is done. Sadly before Soldier Boy can unleash his best weapon, Homelander uses one last burst of energy to break free and fly away into the sky as Butcher and the others lick their wounds after missing the chance to end him once and for all.

They all leave together as Hughie locks eyes with Annie but there’s no embrace because it appears these two are done.

As for Annie, she teams up with Mother’s Milk to help the wounded while the casualties continue to pile up from the mayhem unleashed by Soldier Boy. As day turns to night, Annie decides to finally come clean about everything as she turns on her Instagram live to tell the world what really happened.

The scene fades to black as Annie goes scorched Earth on Homelander, Vought and the entire superhero industry. Back at Vought Tower, Homelander stares at that same man in the mirror except nobody is talking back this time as he looks at the bruises on his face from the fight he nearly lost.

This may mean that whatever humanity was left inside of Homelander is now gone because the monster is about to be uncaged now that the world’s adoration may no longer be enough for him.

“The Boys” returns for the penultimate episode for season 3 next Friday on Amazon Prime Video.

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