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The camera briefly passes over a fallen Soldier Boy statue in a scene from "Dawn of the Seven," which is a parody of DC Comic's "Justice League."
The same figure was briefly shown in season two, episode seven when Homelander (Antony Starr) and Stormfront (Aya Cash) spoke at a rally outside Vought Tower.
The statue is also a tease of Jensen Ackles' highly anticipated arrival as Soldier Boy in season three.
Termite is a parody of Marvel's Ant-Man and can shrink to a tiny size.
Termite quickly appeared in the season one premiere (played by Mike Donis) when Butcher (Karl Urban) and Hughie (Jack Quaid) went to a secret supe sex club.
In season three, the character shows up at a penthouse party. In one of the show's most outrageous scenes, Termite (played by Brett Geddes) shrinks and crawls into a man's penis to pleasure him. Termite accidentally sneezes, leading him to revert to his normal size and murder the man.
Joel's hit song "Uptown Girl" plays during a montage of Hughie and Annie January/Starlight (Erin Moriarty) getting ready in the morning and at the episode's conclusion.
Past episodes have included the singer's other songs like "You're Only Human (Second Wind)," and "Pressure."
His dad (played by Simon Pegg) was put in protective custody in season one, episode seven to prevent him from getting in harm's way as the Boys' fight against Vought intensified.
Hughie joined the FBSA, which is led by congresswoman Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit), in the season two finale.
By the end of the season three premiere, he learns that she's the head-popping supe.
Season three of "The Boys" reveals more about Victoria's backstory, such as her unlikely connection to Vought's Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito).
The giant clock is the rapper's signature accessory.
In a 2011 interview with Vanity Fair, Flava Flav said that he began wearing the clock around his neck after a friend dared him. Then, the item started to become much more symbolic.
"The reason why I wear this clock is because it represents time being the most important element in our life," he said. "Time can't afford to be wasted, but not only that, but God only gave us one life. Each minute we live, we got to live each second to our best value. Time brought us up in here, and time can also take us out."
In the world of the TV series, those supes are B-listers. In the comics, Cold Snap and Stacker are part of the G-Force and Starburst is from G-Wiz, subgroups of the G-Men.
The group previously operated out of filthy basements in the first two seasons of "The Boys." In season three, they finally get an upgraded location with more space to scheme.
In the comics, Annie met Drummer Boy at Capes for Christ, a junior ministry.
In the TV show, Alex/Supersonic (Miles Gaston Villanueva) dated Starlight while on the Capes for Christ circuit back in the day. He used to be a member of the boy band known as Super-Sweet and rebranded to Supersonic after going solo.
Supersonic reenters her life when he competes on the reality show "American Hero" in the hopes of joining The Seven.
In the show, Silver (Jasmin Husain) is the first supe to wear a hijab. She's from Birmingham, UK, and her powers are telepathy and telekinesis.
In the comics, the character is much different. Silver first appeared in volume four, issue 23. As a child, she was kidnapped by G-Men head John Godolkin and trained to become a member of his supe group. Silver was a leading member of the G-Men until she publicly killed herself using her powers.
In season three, Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) shares intel with Butcher from the inside — like the location of Termite in the season premiere. She also gives him samples of temporary compound V, an untested drug that gives users powers for 24 hours.
Maeve teams up with Butcher because they have a shared hatred of Homelander and there's supposedly a weapon that they can use to kill the supe.
In volume seven, issue 46, Maeve is revealed to be the Boys' informant who plants bugs in the Seven's headquarters. Similar to her TV show counterpart, Maeve despises Homelander.
The dog has a collar with the UK flag printed on it and is wearing the country's flag around its back.
Butcher's real-life dog was first seen in a season one flashback and returned for season two in the present day.
In episode one of "The Boys," Homelander visits Butcher at his apartment and they agree to fight to the death once their strength is regained.
In the 1995 crime film "Heat," the most iconic moment took place between De Niro and Pacino's characters at a diner. During the scene, the two realized that despite being different people, they share some similarities. The guys also bluntly state that they won't hesitate to fight each other if they get in each other's way.
Every season opener features a scene in which Hughie unexpectedly finds himself covered in blood.
In the season one premiere, it happened when A-Train ran through his then-girlfriend, Robin (Jess Salgueiro), and murdered her as Hughie was holding her hands.
In the season two premiere, Hughie got covered in CIA director Susan Raynor's (Jennifer Esposito) guts after Victoria made her head explode.
Then in season three, Hughie again gets caught in Neuman's line of fire. While spying on her in an alleyway, he witnesses Victoria murder a former friend named Tony, who knew her back when they were in a group home for supe children.
The movie is called "Not Without My Dophin," starring the Deep (Chace Crawford) and based on the supe's best-selling memoir "Deeper." Unlike reality, the Deep is the hero of the story.
Zane previously showed up in season two, in the form of a poster for a film called "Terminal Beauty 3," costarring Popclaw.
You can see it when Butcher video chats with Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) at the start of episode two.
Amy Wright is seen helping Supersonic with the dance moves for his hit song "You've Got a License to Drive (Me Crazy)."
The magnets are arranged in three columns based on their colors. This is the result of MM's OCD and his tendency to do things in threes, something that Annie picked up on in season two, episode four.
The article about Soldier Boy catching a car thief in Harlem was written by Adam Bocknek and Janet Chandler. In real life, Bocknek is the show's second assistant director.
While pitching a rebranding of his image in episode two, A-Train tells Ashley: "I even had LJ redesign the suit. You know, for the culture." Later in the episode, A-Train debuts the new suit at Homelander's birthday special, despite Ashley forbidding it.
In the world of "The Boys" and in real life, Laura Jean Shannon serves as the costume designer and brains behind the supes' suits.
Teddy was in Madelyn's (Elisabeth Shue) house when Butcher detonated a bomb right after her death in the season one finale. The season two premiere revealed via a news report that Teddy was found alive 17 miles away.
In season three, episode two, Hughie runs into Teddy, now 3 years old, at The Red River Institute. Teddy is shown to have the power to teleport, which explains how he escaped the house and survived the bomb explosion.
As the woman from Red River shows Hughie kids in the system, a photo of a 17-year-old girl named Marie M. can be seen. The character is played by "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" star Jaz Sinclair, who will lead the untitled "Boys" spin-off show.
The series will center on young people with superpowers at a Vought-owned college.
It can be seen when Hughie watches footage of young Victoria, then known as Nadia, meeting Stan for the first time.
When Butcher sits in on Gunpowder's speech at the event, you can catch a glimpse of a poster for a woman-themed weapon called GalGear by Vought. The poster features a quote from a woman named Joelle Craven, who, in real life, served as a first assistant art director/graphic designer this season.
In the comics, Superman sees a girl named Regan contemplating jumping off a building. But he tells her that she's stronger than she thinks she is and is able to talk her down from following through.
Homelander is far from heroic in episode two of "The Boys."
Initially, he's supposed to prevent Chelsea from jumping as part of his yearly tradition of saving a civilian. But when he learns that Stormfront has committed suicide on his Vought-given birthday, he disregards the plan and tells Chelsea to jump.
As a terrified Chelsea gets closer to the edge of the building, she says "Oh, God, oh God." In response, Homelander replies: "No, no, no. No God. The only man in the sky is me."
The line also served as inspiration for the episode's title.
In volume seven, issue No. 47 of the comics, Homelander said the same line — but the context was slightly different.
In the source material, a family called the Mullers won the grand prize of dinner with Homelander at a Believe event. As Homelander lifted a car with the family through the sky, he revealed to them that Believe is a scam. Then he dropped the car and let the people fall to their death, saying, "The only man in the sky is me."
Mouse was the nickname Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) had for Kenji (Abraham Lim), who was murdered by Stormfront in season two, episode three.
This is a nod to Gunpowder's (Sean Patrick Flanery) diehard support of the 2nd Amendment.
The storyline took place across issues 52 and 53 of the comics. It centered on Hughie meeting Mallory for the first time and learning more about the real events that went on during WWII and other revelations.
The title is fitting for episode three of "The Boys," since the titular crew visits Grace Mallory (Laila Robins) to find out what actually happened in Nicaragua.
In episode three, Mother's Milk tells Frenchie (Tomer Capone) to show some respect because it's a historic building.
He said the same thing in volume one of the comics when the Boys arrived at their Flatiron HQ.
Greywal died in October 2020, while designing the sets for season two of "The Boys."
This is a nod to showrunner Eric Kripke, who graduated from Southview High School in 1992. The mascot is the same one from Kripke's junior high in Toledo, Ohio.
Griffith appeared in season five, episode six of "Supernatural" ("I Believe the Children are Our Future") as a half-human, half-demon.
Butcher gave Ryan that St. Christopher necklace in the season two finale, following Becca's (Shantel VanSanten) death.
Butcher told Ryan that it belonged to Becca and she gave it to him years prior, assuring him that it would keep him safe.
In the show, Nina (Katia Winter) is a ruthless drug trafficker that Frenchie used to work for.
In the comics, she makes her first appearance in volume two and is literally a small woman with a bowl haircut. She gave over 100 people a compound V derivative and planned on orchestrating a coup to bring down the Russian government.
In the "Glorious Five Year Plan" storyline, the Boys travel to Moscow, Russia, and investigate Nina's coup.
In episode four of the show, the crew heads to Russia in search of a weapon powerful enough to take down Homelander.
In episode four, Queen Maeve told Starlight that she's been training for months in preparation to fight Homelander. She also says that she doesn't care if she dies because she believes she had it coming.
In response, Starlight says: "You cannot do this alone. He'll kill you. You really care that little about yourself?"
"I got it coming," Queen Maeve says, walking away.
A similar conversation happened between Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Ackles) in season three, episode 10 of "Supernatural" — the hit series that was created by Kripke.
In the episode, Sam told Dean at a bar: "No one can save you because you don't want to be saved. I mean, how can you care so little about yourself? What's wrong with you?"
After being ousted as the Vought CEO, Stan tells Homelander that he'll regret the move because the public will learn how pitiful he is. To further crush Homelander's fragile ego, he tells the supe that he's not a god, just a "bad product."
A similar moment occurred in volume 23, issue 72 of the comics when Vought executive James Stillwell called a new supe team "bad product."
Early in the comics, the Boys encountered the hamster after Hughie murders a supe named Blarney Cock from the group Teenage Kix. The animal was shoved up the supe's butt and Hughie saved it. Then he renamed it from Herbie to Jamie.
In episode four, the Boys see a seemingly harmless hamster named Jamie in a chamber in the lab. When it goes wild and breaks free, they realize that the hamster has powers because it was given compound V.
With V24 in his system, Hughie uses his newfound strength and power of teleportation to save the Boys when guards barge in. While fighting off one guard, he accidentally punches his fist straight through his chest, murdering him.
In the comics, Hughie accidentally murdered Blarney Cock in the exact same way.
Kimiko ultimately survives, but in the series finale of "Supernatural" that aired in November 2020, a piece of rebar is what killed Ackles' character while on a hunt with his brother.
In an interview with Variety, Kripke said that there are "Supernatural" Easter eggs in scenes that feature Ackles.
The showrunner said it was only natural for this to happen, given how many people on the creative team for "The Boys" also worked in "Supernatural."
"We sort of couldn't help but drop some stuff in because that show was such a huge part of our lives," he said. "We couldn't resist just a few things here and there. Small things, but enough that the fans will see a little wink from us of what we're doing."
The same title was used for volume 10, issue four of the comics, which was a six-issue mini-series about Butcher's origin story.
Fans who have followed Kripke's career know that January 24 is the birthday of his wife Deanna Kripke, "Supernatural" characters Dean Winchester and Jessica Moore, and "Timeless" protagonist Lucy Preston.
Hughie gives her the candy, along with White Claws and bath bombs, after the death of Supersonic.
While on a road trip with Mother's Milk in season two, episode four, Hughie met with Annie to help her with a "vending machine crisis." She revealed that her top three candy bars are Almond Joy, Charleston Chew, and Bit-O-Honey.
In response, Hughie called them the "'three worst candy bars in the history of candy."
While speaking with Queen Maeve at the Boys HQ, he tells her that he's done all the drugs, but nothing has compared to V-24.
"Used to be months of leg work to take down a supe," he says. "Gunpowder... not even a New York minute."
It's unclear if Butcher's use of the phrase was a wink to "Supernatural" star Jared Padalecki's 2004 comedy "New York Minute," or if it was just a coincidence.
In the show, Kimiko ends up in the hospital following Soldier Boy's attack.
In volume six, issue 34 of the comics, Frenchie got the same treat for The Female while she was in a coma.
Aside from Bob Singer being inspired by Robert "Dakota Bob" Shaefer from the comics, there was a character in "Supernatural" named Bobby Singer who also hailed from South Dakota.
In "Supernatural," he acted as a hunter and mentor to Sam and Dean. Both characters are played by actor Jim Beaver.
In the show, the Legend was the VP of hero management at Vought before Madelyn took over. He helps the Boys out occasionally and has a lot of eccentric stories about encounters with celebrities.
In episode five, they ask the Legend about Soldier Boy's whereabouts.
In the comics, the Legend was inspired by Stan Lee. The character made his first appearance in volume two. He used to be a comic-book writer for Vought-American, spinning false narratives about the corrupt supes to make them look good to the public.
Both versions of the Legend have a prosthetic leg.
The same shot was used in season one, episode two of "The Boys" when Butcher opened a car trunk to show Frenchie a captured Translucent.
This camera angle was also used in "Supernatural," beginning with the final scene of the series premiere when Sam tossed a weapon into his trunk and told Dean, "We got work to do," which would become a recurring phrase in the show.
This kind of shot isn't specific to "Supernatural," though. The trunk shot has also been used in shows like "Breaking Bad" and films, including "Reservoir Dogs," "Pulp Fiction," "He Walked by Night," and "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome."
In season three, episode five, he appears on Crimson Countess' (Laurie Holden) OnlyFans account. His username is SirCumsALot779.
Rogen previously appeared in season one, episode six while discussing his experience working with Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell) on a film. He returned in the season two premiere while speaking about the supe named Translucent (Alex Hassell).
The star said on Twitter that in the world of "The Boys," the character Seth Rogen is "an actor who stars in films with Black Noir, and that actor also goes by the alias SirCumsAlot779."
In the show, Homelander expresses his fear that he won't be able to handle Soldier Boy. Homelander finally admits to himself that he wants people to love him.
In response, his mirror self tells him that it never seems to work, as evidenced by his experiences with Madelyn Stillwell, Queen Maeve, Stormfront, and even his son Ryan — but yet he runs headfirst into rejection.
The mirror version of Homelander also says that he does this because deep down, there's a part of him that's still human and craves approval and love.
A similar conversion happened in issue nine, volume 49 of the comics, in which Homelander was forced to confront the fact that he was constantly seeking the approval of others and "trying to impress daddy."
The supe greets Annie and Mother's Milk at the door and lets them inside to experience the 70th anniversary of Herogasm.
Love Sausage was last seen strangling Mother's Milk with his elongated penis at Sage Grove Center in season two, episode six of "The Boys."
He looks different this time around because he was previously played by Andrew Jackson in season two. This season, Derek Johns portrays him.
When Mother's Milk opens a door in search of a place to get cleaned up, an off-camera man shouts, "throwin' ropes!"
After Mother's Milk gets drenched in more unwanted fluids, he shouts "lick it up, you yummy brown bear."
When the two supes come face to face at Herogasm, Homelander says that he grew up idolizing Soldier Boy because he was "the only one that was nearly as strong as me."
Unfazed, Solider Boy retorts: "Buddy, you think you look strong? You're wearing a cape."
During the ensuing fight, Soldier Boy yanks Homelander's cape to bring him back to the ground and beat up him.
The title is fitting since, like volume 10 of the comics, episode seven explores Butcher's tragic origin story.
The scene occurs early in the episode as Soldier Boy, Butcher, and Hughie begin their hunt for Mindstorm.
In the flashback, Butcher lashes out after the headmaster informs him that he's going to have to tell his father that the boy was caught selling marijuana.
The mug is a callback to MM's first appearance in the comics. The cup previously popped up in the character's first appearance in the show, in season one, episode three.
In the comics, "The Instant White-Hot Wild" storyline explains how Kimiko got her powers.
In season three of the show, Kimiko grapples with her own powers and how they affect her humanity. By the end of the season, she comes to embrace her powers because they help her to protect the people she loves, like Frenchie.
In season two, episode five, Aunt Judy made the same remark about Hughie when she met him for the first time.
This is the opposite of the season two finale, in which Ryan picked Butcher over his dad after accidentally murdering Becca.
The Deep is seen eating junk food while watching Cassandra talk about her book. The cover of the biography includes a quote from Stefany Koutroumpis, which reads: "A brave and harrowing true story."
In real life, Koutroumpis is a first assistant art director/set designer for "The Boys."
The season opened with the fallen statue as part of the movie "Dawn of the Seven." In the finale, the statue is knocked over at a rally.