The Boys season 3 trailer had already revealed that Billy Butcher would inject himself with a serum that would give him superpowers. In episode 3, he goes ahead with the deed and gets uncontrollable powers similar to Homelander.
However, the problem was that the serum also had side effects, making Butcher puke on Hughie, and his secret is out. Hughie has been going through a crisis of his own. At the beginning of season 3, he felt useful and valuable to a team while working alongside Victoria.
However, after he learns that she’s a supe and all their work the past year has been futile, he feels insignificant again. Homelander almost lasering him into two halves, and Starlight coming to her rescue doesn’t help either.
So, does he become a supe like Butcher, and is he on the path of evil?
Butch takes the Compound V24 vial and injects himself with it. He becomes a temporary supe, can teleport, and has super strength. He doesn’t seem to care about anything other than his abilities, which might make him evil and more desperate to own these powers.
When Billy and the boys engage in an all-out battle with the Russian agents at a military facility, it is a revelation to the entire team that Butch has superpowers now. However, what’s more, surprising and unexpected is that even Hughie has them.
Although with Compound V24, the powers last only for 24 hours, everyone is quite disappointed with the two. After all, they’ve become what they hate in the most literal sense. Hughie seems to have an opposite reaction to what can be expected.
The people-pleaser we know seems to be transfixed by what he could do. The way he teleported and punched through a soldier was unimaginable to him.
Even after Soldier Boy releases an energy blast that catches Kimiko, he seems unfazed. What’s worse is that Kimiko isn’t able to heal automatically, and the team is trying to keep her alive.
While all this is happening, Hughie is smiling and looking at his hand, still amazed by what he pulled off. Could this mean that the vial does not just amplify one’s powers but also their worst insecurities?
Hughie’s biggest insecurity is that he isn’t powerful enough to do anything to the supes or keep his girlfriend, Starlight, from harm’s way. In fact, she is the one who does that for him, and it gives him an inferiority complex.
Now that he’s taken V24, he seems to love himself for what he did and could do. But, before moving on, let’s take a slight detour. At the beginning of the season, Stan Edgar is seen explaining how every vial of V24 can be given to soldiers when in need. However, the price seems astronomical.
Edgar makes it clear that he wants Vought to be a ‘non-superhero’ company and just a defense contractor who provides America’s soldiers with the greatest weapon. However, as a good businessman, he’d want the army to keep coming back to him for more.
So would he make the Compound addictive? Will the Compound V24 be formulated so that the more one uses it, the more one wants to have it? We might know in the future, but let’s get back to Hughie.
He seems to be ecstatic, and we will only know whether or not he turns evil in the future. But for now, he sure does show signs of becoming like one of the supes.
About The Boys
The Boys is an American satirical superhero streaming television series developed by Eric Kripke for Prime Video. Based on the comic book of the same name by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, which was originally published by DC Comics under their Wildstorm imprint before moving to Dynamite Entertainment, it follows the eponymous team of vigilantes as they combat superpowered individuals who abuse their abilities.
The show is a satirical take on the superhero genre and showcases a world where superheroes are corporatized and controlled by companies. What happens when these superheroes step out of line and rub some boys the wrong way, is the story.
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