Spoiler Warning: The Boys Season 3

Amazon Prime’s The Boys, a violent and vulgar exploration of superpowers and their devastating consequences, has been massively popular since its release back in 2019. Since then, the show has absolutely refused to slow down, and season three was the most shocking installment of the series to date. Raunch and gore aside, this most recent season has also carried with it a whole host of interesting philosophical and political quandaries.

Though the politics of the series are about as subtle as a locomotive is powerful, the creators of The Boys really ratcheted up their critiques of contemporary American life in season three. One of the most significant changes came through what the series’ creatives decided to do with Jessie T. Usher’s A-Train. The character, who during the course of the season was removed and reintroduced to the superhero squad known as the Seven, went through something of a moral renaissance throughout the season. He tried to better serve the African American community and issued a long-awaited and much-need apology to another of the series’ main characters. When his attempts at community outreach were met with resistance, he utilized his super-speed to utterly brutalize one of his fellow supes.

Here are some of the reasons why, in season three of The Boys, there was no character more important than A-Train.

A-Train Finally Apologizes to Hughie

During the first episode of The Boys season one, “The Name of the Game,” fans of the series got an immediate sense of just how brutal it would be when Jack Quaid’s Hughie Campbell steps out onto the sidewalk with his girlfriend, Jess Salgueiro’s Robin Ward, and Robin brutally and unceremoniously explodes. A-Train skids to a halt several meters up the sidewalk, offers the apoplectic Hughie a shrug of apology, and then speeds off.

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Hughie and A-Train have interacted with one another before, and Hughie has attempted to squeeze an apology out of the generally apathetic Seven team member. However, it was not until a recently released episode, season three’s outrageous and much-anticipated “Herogasm,” that A-Train actually showed remorse for his murder of Robin. The unexpected admission of guilt stunned audiences almost as much as it stunned Hughie. This represented one of the first genuine moments of repentance for A-Train, or for that matter, any of the series’ supes.

In season three of The Boys, A-Train tries to do community outreach in a desperate attempt to revive his tarnished image. A-Train has a discussion with his brother, Christian Keyes’ (Saints & Sinner, The Young and the Restless) Franklin, where he learns about an extrajudicial murder of a local, unarmed African American man. The crime was carried out by a supe known as Blue Hawk, portrayed by Nick Wechsler (This Is Us, Shades of Blue). Following this conversation, A-Train decides that Blue Hawk should be held accountable.

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Unfortunately for A-Train, all does not go according to plan. During season three’s fifth episode, “The Last Time to Look on This World of Lies,” Blue Hawk is forced to go to a press conference in the community of the man he killed. However, the supe is utterly unrepentant, and when the crowd gets angry at his series of non-apologies, he begins to assault them. One of the crowd members was A-Train’s brother Franklin, who was ultimately paralyzed by Blue Hawk’s attack.

Going Face-To-Face With Blue Hawk

A-Train is not one to simply lie down and take the paralyzing assault on his brother in stride. When Blue Hawk and A-Train inevitably game face to face in season three’s subsequent episode, the aforementioned “Herogasm,” the already off-the-rails episode has perhaps its most shocking moment.

A-Train seizes Blue Hawk by the lapels of his jacket and uses the full extent of his super-speed to drag Blue Hawk, his face grinding against the pavement, for miles down the road. Blue Hawk is ground into a bloody pulp. Though the violent display almost certainly pushed audiences to the edge of their comfort zone, it represented A-Train finally taking power back.

Though A-Train, like many of his fellow supes, is all but invulnerable, he has had one weakness that has plagued him through the history of The Boys: a faulty heart, brought on by his continued abuse of Temporary V. After he kills Blue Hawk and suffers another heart attack, it is unclear if A-Train will continue his redemptive arc in future seasons.


Nevertheless, this season utilized his character incredibly effectively and proved that even the most callous of supes can, every once in a while, find it within themselves to do good.