Episodes 01

“The Name of the Game”

Hugh “Hughie” Campbell suffers mental trauma after his girlfriend Robin is killed in a high-velocity impact with celebrity superhero A-Train. Lawyers offer a $45,000 settlement which Hughie hesitates to accept. Aspiring superhero Annie January auditions as “Starlight” and is accepted to join the superhero group the Seven following the Lamplighter’s retirement. Arriving at the Seven’s headquarters, she is greeted by The Deep, who blackmails her into performing oral sex on him. Vigilante Billy Butcher offers Hughie a chance to expose superhero corruption, taking him to a secret “Supes Club” to show him security footage of A-Train laughing about Robin’s death. Butcher asks Hughie to take the settlement money and secretly place a bug at Seven Tower, but Hughie initially refuses. In Central Park, Annie meets Hughie by happenstance, motivating each other to stand up for themselves and face their challenges. Hughie plants the bug, but Translucent discovers it and confronts him. Butcher arrives and helps Hughie incapacitate Translucent. Elsewhere, Homelander destroys the Mayor of Baltimore’s plane while in flight, killing all passengers, in response to the Mayor’s attempt to blackmail his boss and surrogate mother figure/lover at Vought International: company VP Madelyn Stillwell.

Episodes 02

“Cherry”

Butcher and Hughie take Translucent to former partner Frenchie, who makes a meta-bullet to pierce the hero’s diamond-hard skin, but it fails to kill him. Butcher turns to CIA Dept. Director Susan Raynor for the “Mallory files”, but she refuses. Stillwell tells Homelander about evidence the Deep found incriminating him for the plane crash, so she handles it while he talks to Deep. While working with the Deep, Annie promises to kill him if he tries to sexually assault her again. Stillwell uses shapeshifting Supe Doppelgänger to blackmail Senator Calhoun into allowing a vote that could enable Vought to contract superheroes to the military. Annie stops an attempted rape, unaware she is being recorded. Her agent, Ashley Barrett, reprimands her for potentially causing negative exposure and legal implications. While Homelander searches for Translucent, Frenchie places C-4 explosives in Translucent’s colon, who fearfully confesses A-Train was with his girlfriend Popclaw before he killed Robin. The Boys learn Homelander is nearby, so they cannot risk killing Translucent with the C4. While Frenchie and Butcher create a distraction elsewhere, Translucent escapes and convinces Hughie to let him go. However, Hughie changes his mind and detonates the C-4, killing Translucent.

Episodes 03

“Get Some”

Hughie moves out after telling his father how he truly feels. Annie gains positive publicity for stopping the rape but subsequently learns Stillwell wants her to wear a revealing costume. She declines, but Stillwell forces her to do so lest she lose her job. Butcher brings in his former friend, Mother’s Milk (MM), to run surveillance on Popclaw by having Hughie install spyware on her computer, through which they learn that A-Train takes a drug called Compound V. Butcher wants to expose them before Supes can be allowed into the United States Armed Forces, but requires a vial of Compound V from A-Train’s upcoming race with another speedster, Shockwave. Beforehand, Hughie meets Annie and invites her to lunch, where they open up to each other. Meanwhile, A-Train secretly uses Compound V to win and publicly announces he is single, breaking his promise to Popclaw to announce their relationship. With MM deducing Popclaw swiped some vials, the Boys find her heartbroken, high, and in the midst of accidentally killing her landlord during hyper-charged sex. Butcher uses this to blackmail her as an informant. At Vought headquarters, Homelander presents Translucent’s remains to Stillwell along with Butcher’s message “COMING FOR YOU”.

Episodes 04

“The Female of the Species”

Following Popclaw’s tip, the Boys find a Triad hideout holding an imprisoned Japanese woman they call “the Female”. Frenchie frees her and she kills her guards before running off. While MM finds evidence she was a test subject, Hughie goes bowling with Annie, bugging her phone at Butcher’s request. With their Compound V supply compromised, A-Train has Popclaw go into hiding while he searches for the Female. Stillwell sends Homelander and Queen Maeve to save a hijacked airliner. After Homelander accidentally destroys the control panel, he abandons the plane and its passengers, forcing Maeve to leave with him before she can rescue them. After the Female kills a woman associated with her captors, Frenchie tracks her to Penn Station and makes a momentary connection with her before losing her in the crowd, just as A-Train arrives and tries to kill her. Frenchie attracts a crowd to distract A-Train, allowing the Female to escape. The Boys corner her, but she attacks them before Butcher uses knockout gas. Stillwell is pleased to see Homelander use the airliner tragedy to push for militarized Supes, rousing the crowd with a speech, all while Maeve grieves for those she and Homelander allowed to die.

Episodes 05

“Good for the Soul”

At the Believe Expo, Annie is quietly directed to push Vought’s agenda while Butcher has Hughie use her to meet Ezekiel, the Expo host and their next lead. Feeling guilty for letting the airliner crash, Maeve visits her ex-girlfriend Elena, but leaves before explaining herself fully. Butcher talks with his sister-in-law, Rachel, over putting a tombstone to his wife Becca. After A-Train kills Popclaw for betraying him, he returns to her apartment and finds surveillance footage of Frenchie. Once Ezekiel is alone, Hughie extorts him for information about Compound V, while Homelander rallies the crowd with an impromptu hardline speech. Annie breaks script to speak candidly on Christianity, her sexual assault, and the compromises she made for her corporate employer. Hughie later sympathizes with her, telling her about Robin’s death and its toll on him. In a hospital, Butcher and MM discover Vought is using Compound V on infants to manufacture Supes years in advance. Frenchie discovers Black Noir is looking for him. While attempting to escape, he is told to leave the Female behind but releases her out of sympathy. She seemingly dies protecting him from Noir, but her wounds immediately heal.

Episodes 06

“The Innocents”

Now informed, the Boys know Vought has used super charities to smuggle Compound V disguised as vaccines and make super-babies since 1971. With Ashley fired, Stillwell demands Annie comply with her designed image, but she refuses, remarking that firing her after reporting a sexual assault would hurt Vought’s image. Aware it was the Deep, Stillwell has him publicly apologize and transfers him to Sandusky, Ohio for a “sabbatical”. Butcher brings Hughie to a superhuman survivors’ support group but leaves after yelling at them for doing nothing to get justice. Butcher later tells Hughie that Homelander raped his wife, who went missing shortly afterward. Frenchie and MM get help from telepath Mesmer to see into the Female’s mind, learning her name is Kimiko and that she was kidnapped by the Shining Light Liberation Army terrorist group. They also learn that Vought is making Compound V-boosted terrorists to push their agenda for militarizing Supes. Butcher tells Raynor, but he calls off the deal when she refuses to target Homelander. Mesmer gives Homelander surveillance photos of the Boys. Butcher finds out about Hughie and Annie, warning him not to fraternize with the enemy and threatening to tell her about Translucent.

Episodes 07

“The Self-Preservation Society”

Hughie and Annie have sex at a hotel, unaware Butcher has followed them. A depressed Deep finds his transfer dull and is sexually assaulted by a fangirl. Holding a meeting discussing Hughie killing Translucent, extorting Ezekiel, and A-Train killing Robin, Homelander accuses Starlight of co-conspiracy, but Maeve defends her. When A-Train calls Hughie, claiming he is holding his dad hostage, the Boys deduce Mesmer betrayed them, for which Butcher later murders him. Hughie obtains Compound V to distract A-Train and allow Kimiko to cripple him. Homelander asks Vought scientist Dr. Jonah Vogelbaum about Becca, who informs him she was pregnant with his child but claims both died, and Vought covered it up. Questioning the revelation’s timing, Vogelbaum regrets raising him in a lab, calling Homelander his “greatest failure”. Butcher asks Raynor to protect Hughie and MM’s families in exchange for evidence. As Raynor charges Stillwell and Vought, she learns of the superhuman terrorist “Naqib”. Annie confronts Hughie, who explains Vought’s use of Compound V before Butcher arrives to exfil him and shoots her.

Episodes 08

“You Found Me”

The Pentagon classifies Compound V as a controlled substance and the Boys as fugitives while Annie confronts her mother. Angry at being racially profiled while out of costume, an injured A-Train relapses with Compound V. Butcher takes Hughie to Colonel Grace Mallory, his former supervisor. She refuses participation, but informs them about Homelander’s connection to Stillwell and warns Hughie about Butcher’s desire for vengeance. The Deep learns Stillwell has denied his return to the Seven and suffers an emotional breakdown. Hughie asks for Annie’s help, but she refuses out of distrust. After seeing her old self reflected in her, Maeve opens up to Annie, asking her to be herself. Homelander confesses to Stillwell that he secretly made the super-terrorists, and they have sex. At a black site, Hughie helps Frenchie and MM free Kimiko following their capture, before Annie rescues them. A-Train arrives and fights Annie until he suffers a heart attack. Hughie applies CPR, but Annie takes over so he can escape. Butcher takes Stillwell hostage and fits her with explosives to bait Homelander, who kills Stillwell himself. Butcher detonates the explosives, but Homelander saves him and reveals to him that Becca was hidden away to raise Homelander’s son.