The fourth season of Prime Video’s The Boys premiered this week, releasing its first three episodes today (June 13) – the last of these, episode three, ended on a cryptic note which confused some fans of the foul-mouthed superhero series.

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The Boys, adapted from a set of comic books written by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson and developed for the screen by Eric Kripke, follows the titular team of vigilantes as they combat super-powered enemies who abuse their position at the head of society.

Last month, the trailer for season four was released, in which the group’s leader Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) reveals that he doesn’t have long left to live after abusing drugs that temporarily grant super-powers during season three. As he rallies the gang for an assault on corrupt superhero leader Homelander (Anthony Starr), other nefarious groups start to make moves in the shadows. You can watch the trailer below.

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The Boys season 4 episode 3 ending explained

In the final moments of The Boys season four episode three, Homelander, who has been experiencing somewhat of a confidence crisis (he found grey pubic hairs at the start of the season and he can’t relate effectively to his son, Ryan), is seen arguing with himself in a cracked mirror in his penthouse apartment.

Presumably a result of Homelander’s psychotic personality, four versions of his face give him different advice until one silences the rest and says: “It’s time to overcome this need for love, this sickness – once and for all. You’re never gonna be your true self until you transcend your humanity… You need to go back to the start. John, you need to go home.”

The viewer is then shown a series of snapshot images from Homelander’s (real name John Gillman) memory: a shadowy, red door; an older woman’s face; someone in a lab coat handling sharp scientific-looking tools; a blowtorch being used. We then cut to black.

Where does the red door lead to?

Homelander is a lab-created superhero, engineered by sinister corporation Vought in the early 1980s. When The Boys begins, in the late 2010s, he is leader of ‘The Seven’, Vought’s elite superhero force marketed as mankind’s protectors who actually abuse their power behind the scenes. In the course of the series, Vought’s big secret – that they use a drug to create the superheroes called Compound V, rather than recruiting naturally-gifted child prodigies – is revealed to the public.

In recent spin-off series, Gen V, which follows new recruits at supe college Godolkin University, it is revealed that Vought has been testing and torturing some of their students in the hopes of creating a virus that can kill them (to ultimately control them more closely).

It’s not a stretch to imagine that when Vought created Homelander, they used equally vicious and cruel methods to see what he was capable of. This could be what he is remembering in the final seconds of season four episode three. The red door, presumably, leads to the lab where these experiments took place during his childhood and adolescence – before he became the depraved villain The Boys fans know as Homelander.

In a 2022 episode of animated anthology series The Boys Presents: Diabolical, this was indeed confirmed to be what happened to Homelander. Flashbacks of his childhood during One Plus One Equals Two revealed the systematic torture he received from Vought scientists testing the extent of his powers.

As for the woman we catch a glimpse of, it’s possible she is his first handler. Homelander is known for responding best to women. In season one, he seemed to have a closeness with Vought CEO Madelyn Stillwell, one of the only people at the company capable of keeping him under control. In one scene, he was even seen suckling on her breasts. Could this mystery woman be another of his female confidantes – or even, perhaps, his mother?

The remaining five episodes of this season are set to hit Prime Video on a weekly basis, with the final one arriving on July 18.