WARNING: Spoilers ahead for The Boys season 3, episode 6
Jensen Ackles' (Soldier Boy) on-set horror stories, The Boys has given "Herogasm" an awful lot to live up to.
Herogasm isn't something to watch with your grandparents around, that's for sure. Even the sturdiest stomach would struggle not to wince at MM's milky shower or TNT's "butt-cam." And it goes without saying that The Boys' "Herogasm" gives The Boys season 3's "Herogasm" isn't a letdown by any means, but neither does it hit the comic party's heights, and nor is it the absolute affront to humanity the hype implied.
What Herogasm lacks in outright obscenity and I-can't-believe-Amazon-agreed-to-this shocks, the episode more than makes up for in seismic character moments, huge plot twists, and movie-worthy superhero action. No, we didn't expect to be writing that either. Herogasm becomes a hub where every major plot point in The Boys season 3 suddenly boils over. A deliciously tense and surprisingly emotional confrontation between Hughie and A-Train pays off Robin's death from The Boys' very first scene. The bubbling romantic trouble between Starlight and Hughie erupts, with both sides spilling their guts in a cathartic clothes-free row that digs right to the heart of their relationship. Then the main event. Soldier Boy goes head-to-head against Homelander in a brief-but-brutal fight that far exceeds any superhero battle in The Boys thus far. The stakes climb higher still when Billy Butcher - juiced up on Compound-V - finally gets his hands on Homelander after years of lusting for revenge. Despite two-and-a-half seasons of waiting, their clash does not disappoint.
The Herogasm after-party is almost as massive as the sex soiree itself but, once again, not for the reasons most would've expected. As Soldier Boy leaves a bloody trail of corpses in his wake, Starlight makes the unprecedented decision to go public about everything. Vought, Homelander, Soldier Boy - every single bean is spilled in a landscape-shifting revelation that The Boys has steadily worked towards since episode 1. Starlight has fully thrown her lot in with the Boys, leaving no path back to the Seven, and if all that wasn't enough, A-Train kills a guy by dragging him along a road at super-speed.
Given all the hype (and, indeed, the comics), anyone would be forgiven for walking into The Boys season 3's "Herogasm" episode expecting 50 minutes of the wildest television ever put to film. Though definitely not for the fainthearted, live-action Herogasm isn't quite so shocking. None of episode 6's antics top the premiere's close-up view of a man's giant penis head. Instead, The Boys' "Herogasm" is a Red Wedding - a centerpiece event that ties off multiple major plot threads at once and completely defines the show's next chapter. The Boys will never be the same again after Herogasm - not because of the debauchery and naked bodies, but because so many long-awaited showdowns breathlessly collide in a 30-minute period. A hell of a climax... just not the sort everyone expected.
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The Boys continues Friday on Prime Video.