WARNING: Spoilers ahead for The Boys season 3, episode 5


The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke explains the surprising sex scene and what may be a budding relationship between Butcher and Maeve in season 3. Based on Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s comic series of the same name, Amazon Prime Video’s The Boys follows Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid), and the eponymous vigilante group as they combat corrupt superheroes. At the end of season 2, Queen Maeve/Maggie Shaw (Dominique McElligott) managed to blackmail Homelander - the show's satirical take on Superman - into leaving Butcher and his crew alone.

At the beginning of The Boys season 3, however, it’s revealed that Maeve and Butcher have actually been working together to try and find a way to kill Homelander. The former gives the latter three vials of Temp-V or V-24, leveling the playing field by giving its user powers for 24 hours. Following Butcher and Hughie’s super-powered excursion in Russia, episode 5, “The Last Time to Look on This World of Lies,” sees Maeve bring Butcher more V-24. Feeling defeated, the pair then get drunk and have sex—which very few people likely saw coming.

In a recent interview with TVLine, Kripke explains that moment between Butcher and Maeve. According to the showrunner, the encounter was inspired by the “grimy” scene from Monster’s Ball, when Billy Bob Thorton and Halle Berry’s characters hook up amid their grief. Read the full quote below:

“The writers talked about that moment as like desperate and a little grimy. We talked about Monster’s Ball when Billy Bob Thorton and Halle Berry hook up and it’s just so grimy because they’re both mourning deaths. So, we talked a lot about [how] they’re both so cornered right then and there, and they both have so much in common, surprisingly, [in] how much they hate Homelander, how much they hate superheroes, in general, how f—ked they both feel. And then it just kind of explodes in this hookup.”

Kripke went on to talk about how Urban took inspiration from the sex scene between Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange in The Postman Always Rings Twice, which influenced the staging of Butch and Maeve’s desperate romp. Following the fling, Maeve was put in an even more desperate situation when Homelander smelled Butcher's scent on her, resulting in her being kidnapped by Black Noir. While Starlight feared Maeve was dead, Ashley spun a story about The Boys’ Wonder Woman being committed to a wellness center. Kripke seemed to confirm Maeve’s at least alive but said fans should be concerned as “she’s in a tight spot.”

It’ll be interesting to see if Butcher and Maeve’s indiscretion plays a role in The Boys' upcoming episodes. Given Butcher’s utter disdain for Supes, believing they all should be wiped off the face of the Earth, it’s likely his hook up with Maeve was a moment of passion and nothing more. As of now, their “romance” feels like something written into the season to move the plot forward with Homelander. However, if Butcher develops feelings for Maeve, it could go a long way in altering his perspective.