Refresher: The Boys Season 1 in a Nutshell

For those who have watched The Boys and need a refresher on the characters and events of season 1.

Refreshers for The Boys seasons 2 and 3 coming soon! 
Click here for spinf-off series Refresher: Gen V season 1 in a Nutshell.

**Mentions of Sexual Harassment and Assault**

Key Takeaways

Over the past few decades, many people throughout the U.S.A. have displayed superpowers, A.K.A. Supes.

The Boys:

• The Boys are a team of (mostly) regular humans taking a secret stand against the supposed “superheroes” after realizing they aren’t as heroic as portrayed.
• The Boys in season 1 initially consists of Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid), Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonzo), and Frenchie (Tomer Capone).
• Later, they add Supe Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara).
• Mother’s Milk doesn’t trust Frenchie due to an incident in their past: Frenchie was supposed to be guarding the grandkids of Butcher’s former mentor Grace Mallory (Laila Robbins), but he left his post and the kids were killed by Supe Lamplighter.

The Seven:

• The Seven is the main superhero team in the U.S.A.
• The Seven currently consists of Homelander (Antony Starr), Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott), A-Train (Jessie T. Usher), Translucent (Alex Hassell), The Deep (Chase Crawford), Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell), and new member Starlight (Erin Moriarty), who replaces recently retired Lamplighter (not shown).
• On her first day, Starlight is essentially subjected to a “casting couch” demand by The Deep. Much later, she reveals this on live TV. 
• The Deep is then reassigned to a small town in Ohio where he is, in turn, sexually assaulted by a fan.
• Translucent is captured by The Boys, forced to disclose what he knows, then killed by Hughie’s hand.

Hughie, Starlight, and A-Train:

• Hughie’s girlfriend Robin (Jess Salgueiro) is accidentally killed by A-Train when he runs through her at full speed.
• Hughie is approached by Butcher to join The Boys to bring down A-Train and the rest of the Supes
• Hughie meets Starlight and, at Butcher’s prompting, begins dating her in order to spy on The Seven. 
• When the two genuinely start falling in love, Hughie questions his loyalty to The Boys and attempts to quit in order to be with Starlight without an underlying agenda. 
• Starlight is informed about Hughie’s deceit and is upset, but ultimately Hughie convinces her to help them take a stand against The Seven and its sponsor Vought. 
• In their final confrontation with A-Train, A-Train suffers a heart attack and Hughie and Starlight save him, despite knowing he will likely continue to hunt them for opposing The Seven.

Vought:

• Vought is a large company specializing in all things superhero, including running The Seven. While Americans view the company and the team as heroic, they both hide dark secrets.
• Vought is trying to convince the government to allow Supes into the military.
• Between a failed mission to save a hijacked plane and the appearance of a super terrorist–both of which Homelander spins to make The Seven seem more needed than ever–Vought is able to pass the bill.
  • Homelander and Maeve are sent to stop a hijacked transoceanic flight in an appeal to those opposed to the proposed bill. 
  • Homelander inadvertently destroys the plane’s navigational systems while defeating the hijackers, causing the plane to crash. 
  • He convinces Maeve to leave all passengers aboard to die so there will be no witnesses to reveal what really happened. 
  • Maeve is shaken by this and seeks comfort from her ex-girlfriend, Elena (Nicole Correia-Damude), who she left years ago for Homelander though Maeve currently is no longer together with Homelander.
• Vought developed a secret product called Compound V, which can create and enhance Supes.
  • A-Train was on Compound V when he accidentally killed Hughie’s girlfriend.
  • A-Train has become addicted to Compound V, along with his girlfriend, B-list Supe Popclaw (Brittany Allen). 
  • When The Boys blackmail Popclaw into giving them info about Compound V, A-Train kills her, but he blames it on Hughie. 
  • The Boys further discover that Compound V was also infused into babies, with their parent’s permission, which is what creates Supes–a secret Vought has worked hard to hide. 
  • Butcher gives the information about Compound V to Detective Raynor (Jennifer Esposito). 
  • Detective Raynor confronts Madelyn Stillwell (Elisabeth Shue), Vought’s head of The Seven, threatening to expose Vought, but is unable to follow through with the threat.
  • Homelander, with A-Train’s help, gives Compound V to foreign terrorists in order to create supervillains.

Butcher, Homelander, and Becca:

• Butcher’s wife, Becca (Shantel VanSanten), went missing 8 years ago. 
• Becca used to work for Vought and was raped by Homelander shortly before disappearing. 
• In the present, Homelander learns that Becca had been impregnated by him and she went to Vought for help. 
• Madelyn, the one person Homelander cares about, hid Becca away and claimed she and the baby died in childbirth. 
• When Butcher confronts Madelyn and Homelander, Homelander reveals his discovery that both she and the child are alive, killing Madelyn for her betrayal and bringing Butcher with him to Becca’s safe house. 
• Becca and Homelander’s son has inherited Homelander’s powers.

Major Characters

The Boys

Hughie Campbell

Hughie (Jack Quaid) was just a normal guy working at a tech store until his girlfriend Robin (Jess Salgueiro) is killed by A-Train when he runs through her at superspeed. Vought attempts to pay him to keep silent, but Hughie is approached by Billy Butcher, who has also been disenfranchised about the supposed “heroes.” Butcher recruits him to The Boys and convinces him to assist in the fight against The Seven. Together, they capture Translucent and Hughie kills him. Hughie later begins dating Annie/Starlight, at first to use her connections to spy on The Seven, but ends up falling in love with her as she helps him get past the grief of losing Robin. Once Annie realizes he was using her, she wants to break up with him, but he shows her how much he values her as a good person and a hero and convinces her to help them. Together, they fight A-Train, who suffers a heart attack, and Hughie ultimately chooses to save him.

Billy Butcher

Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) is the leader of The Boys. 8 years ago, his wife, Becca, went missing after getting raped by Homelander, and ever since he has been obsessed with bringing Homelander down and finding Becca, if she’s still alive. He believes all Supes are evil, no exceptions, and though he initially pushed Hughie to date Starlight for her connections, he becomes upset when Hughie falls for her. In an attempt to hurt Homelander, he threatens to blow up Madelyn with a bomb, believing her to be someone Homelander wouldn’t want to lose. Instead, Homelander reveals he just found out Madelyn lied to him about Becca and kills her while allowing Butcher to trigger the bomb. Homelander brings Butcher to find Becca, who is still alive and has been in hiding with her son by Homelander, who inherited his powers. 

Mother’s Milk

Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) is a social worker who also has OCD. Not much has been revealed yet about his backstory, except that he’s previously worked with Butcher and Frenchie. He doesn’t like Frenchie, blaming him for letting Mallory’s grandkids get murdered due to negligence. He has a wife, Monique (Alvina August), and young daughter, Janine (Nalini Ingrita).

Frenchie

Frenchie (Tomer Capone) is the go-to guy for figuring out unique solutions to combat Supes. Due to his abusive upbringing, he’s sympathetic to people who are unjustly harmed, particularly Kimiko, whom he finds locked up in a cage after being experimented on and frees her. Over time, he wins her trust. At some point before the events of season 1, Frenchie was supposed to be watching Mallory’s grandkids, but left his post and they were killed by Lamplight.

Kimiko

Powers: Super strength and healing

Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) is a mute Japanese woman found by The Boys. She was experimented on and given powers with the intention of turning her into a super terrorist. She’s found locked in a cage by the Compound V smugglers, and when Frenchie releases her, she shows a fierce brutal nature as she slaughters her captors using her super strength. Initially, The Boys are afraid of her, but Frenchie treats her kindly and wins her trust. A-Train and Black Noir each try to capture or kill her, but Frenchie helps her and learns she has super healing as well. She breaks A-Train’s knee during one confrontation. Although Butcher doesn’t like any Supes and still doesn’t really trust her, she has become a part of The Boys.

The Seven

Homelander

Powers: Flying, super strength, x-ray vision, eye lasers

Homelander is the biggest “hero” in America, but secretly he’s a psychopath. Everything he does is a calculated move to win support and favor. By the time season 1 wraps, he has raped Butcher’s wife, murdered a senator, allowed all passengers on a commercial airliner to die because he didn’t want to put the effort in to save them, and given Compound V to terrorists to create supervillians to fight–spinning most of these in a way that makes America feel they need him more than ever. He views himself above everyone who isn’t a Supe, and Queen Maeve is pretty much the only one he considers his equal. The one person he shows affection towards is Madelyn Stillwell, developing an unusual relationship with her, but he’s jealous of the attention she gives her infant son. When he realizes Butcher is hunting him, he investigates Becca’s disappearance. At first, he’s told that she got pregnant, but both Becca and the baby died in childbirth. Later, when Butcher threatens to kill Madelyn as revenge for what he did to Becca, Homelander reveals he’s just learned that Madelyn lied to him about what happened to Becca and kills Madelyn himself. He takes Butcher to the safe house where Becca has been hiding with her son, who shows a glimpse of having inherited Homelander’s powers.

Starlight

Powers: Harnesses light into powerful blasts

Annie, or Starlight (Erin Moriarty), is a sweet Christian girl who wants nothing more than to be a superhero. Her father left when she was young, and her mother raised her on superhero pageants and Christian expos. She’s excited to be the newest member of The Seven, but grows quickly disillusioned as she realizes this is not at all what she thought superheroing would be like. She’s not allowed to do any of the things she wants and is constantly forced to compromise, including wearing a skimpy costume. On her first day, The Deep coerces her into giving him a blow job by threatening to get her kicked off. She’s very upset by this but keeps it a secret for a long time, until revealing it on live TV at a Christian expo after deciding to finally take a stand for herself. She also starts dating Hughie, appreciating how he isn’t intimidated by her being more powerful than him, and is distraught when Homelander finds out Hughie has been working with The Boys to bring down The Seven. When she confronts him about it, he convinces her that she is a true hero and should help them fight against this group she knows is corrupt. She saves Hughie in the final confrontation with A-Train, and when A-Train has a heart attack, Hughie decides to save him. She sends Hughie away and stays with A-Train to wait for help.

Queen Maeve

Powers: Super strength

Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) has been with Vought and The Seven long enough to stop putting up a fight when they do questionable things. When Homelander convinces her to abandon an entire flight filled with passengers to die, she feels too guilty to let it go this time. She tries to reconnect with her ex-girlfriend, Elena, who she left many years ago for Homelander though they are no longer together. Elena is at first angry with her, but grows concerned when she realizes how distraught Maeve is. When Homelander reveals to The Seven that Hughie has been using Starlight to spy on them, Maeve defends Starlight’s innocence, recognizing that Starlight had no idea she was being used and is heartbroken by this development. By the end of this season, she has not joined the fight against either The Seven nor The Boys.

A-Train

Powers: Super speed

A-Train (Jesse Usher) is addicted to Compound V, which he uses to enhance his powers. While on the compound, he accidentally runs through Hughie’s girlfriend Robin at full force, killing her. He also uses the compound to win a race against Shockwave (Mishka Thebaud), revealing that his position in The Seven will be in jeopardy if he is no longer the fastest man. He works with Homelander to distribute Compound V to terrorists and with Kimiko’s captors to run Compound V locally. He secretly dates B-list Supe and fellow addict Popclaw (Brittany Allen), but is too embarrassed to go public with the relationship. When Popclaw accidentally kills her landlord while on Compound V, The Boys blackmail her into giving them information about the drug smuggling. After Kimiko is released and her captors killed, A-Train pressures Popclaw to tell him who she told about this, then kills her by forcing her to overdose. He tries to catch Kimiko and threatens Hughie’s father (Simon Pegg), but Kimiko breaks his knee. He redoubles his addiction to Compound V in order to heal faster, but this causes him to have a heart attack during his final confrontation with Hughie and Starlight.

The Deep

Powers: Water abilities–has gills to breathe underwater and can communicate with sea creatures

The Deep (Chase Crawford) feels like he’s a joke to the rest of The Seven, so he tries to exert power by forcing Starlight to give him a blow job. He is the only one besides Madelyn who knows Homelander killed a senator, and he finds Transclusent’s body in the ocean. He often tries to help free various sea creatures but it always goes poorly. When Starlight goes public about his assault, he is reassigned to a small town in Ohio, where a fan molests his gills. 

Black Noir

Powers: Unspecified

Not much has been revealed about Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell) in season 1, a silent member clothed all in black. Homelander has shown favor towards him, and Black Noir does almost kill Kimiko, though she is saved by her healing powers.

Translucent

Powers: Invisibility

When Hughie attempts to spy on The Seven, Translucent (Alex Hassell) notices and follows Hughie to his workplace. Translucent tries to kill Hughie, but Butcher intervenes and Hughie is able to knock him out. The Boys bring him to one of Frenchie’s hideouts and lock him in a cage, attempting to get information from him. Frenchie devises a plan to threaten him by sticking C4 up his butt, which convinces him to reveal what he knows. He almost escapes, but Hughie triggers the C4, killing him. Although The Deep finds his body before long, Madelyn, Homelander, and The Deep keep his murder a secret, not wanting to tarnish The Seven’s reputation by revealing one of their indestructible heroes was killed. They’re able to keep this ruse up due to Translucent already being known for staying invisible as much as possible, and by using the excuse that he’s on a secret mission.

Madelyn Stillwell

Though not a Supe nor a member of The Seven, Madelyn (Elisabeth Shue) is a high-ranking member of Vought who oversees everything about The Seven. Her primary job is to keep them out of trouble publicly and manipulate the government into supporting her team. She knows more secrets than anyone, including the truth that Compound V is what creates Supes, and is the only one Homelander truly likes. She recently went through IVF to have a baby, Teddy, but her time is largely focused on The Seven. Homelander comes to realize that she has hidden the fact that Butcher’s wife Becca was impregnated by Homelander after he raped her and came to Madelyn for help. Madelyn at first claims the baby was miscarried, which conflicts with another version of the story Homelander heard about the situation where the two died in childbirth. Butcher discovers Homelander’s affection towards Madelyn and straps her with C4, threatening  Homelander that he will kill her as revenge for what he did to Becca. Instead, Homelander proclaims he learned Madelyn lied about Becca and kills her, allowing Butcher to trigger the bomb. Madelyn’s baby is in the house at the time.

Other Notable Characters

Note: Many of these characters have little significance/screentime in this season, but will become important in future seasons.

Stan Edgar

Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) is the head of Vought, and had planned to make Madelyn his successor before she was killed by Homelander.

Ashley

Ashley (Colby Minifie) is Madelyn’s PR assistant and works closely with The Seven in regards to their public appearance. She is fired after Starlight’s off-scripted speech at a Christian expo.

Lamplighter

Powers: Fire

Lamplighter has not been shown yet, but he has been referenced several times. He was a member of The Seven until he recently retired and was replaced by Starlight. Sometime before the events of this season, he killed Mallory’s grandkids.

Grace Mallory

Grace Mallory (Laila Robbins) was the one who originally recruited Butcher to The Boys, but retired after Lamplighter killed her grandkids. She is currently living in seclusion.

Detective Raynor

Susan Raynor (Jennifer Esposito) works for the CIA and used to work with Mallory and Butcher, so Butcher goes to her with information about Compound V. She tries to threaten Madelyn with it, but they are interrupted by the discovery of a super terrorist, which causes her chain of command to stop her work against Vought, believing The Seven is necessary to protect them against this new threat.

Becca Butcher and Ryan

Billy’s wife Becca (Shantel VanSanten) has been missing for 8 years and is presumed dead. She got pregnant by Homelander when he raped her and went to Vought for help. They hid her and Homelander’s son from everyone, including Butcher and Homelander, but the pair discover them at the end of this season. Homelander tells the boy that he’s his father, and the boy’s eyes glow, showing he has inherited Homelander’s powers.

Elena

Elena (Nicole Correia-Damude) is Maeve’s ex-girlfriend. Maeve is currently single but left Elena for Homelander many years ago. Maeve goes to Elena for comfort after allowing over a hundred people to die, but still hasn’t fully revealed what happened. 

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