We need to talk about that superpowered gay sex scene in ‘The Boys’ season 3

We’ve been begging to see more queer superheroes in media for years now, but after watching the premiere of The Boys‘ third season, we’re thinking we should be more careful about what we wish for.

Amazon Prime Video’s bawdy comic book adaptation is known for its wicked sense of humor, never passing up the opportunity to exploit its character’s super powers for body horror and other shocking explosions of blood and guts. But The Boys may have outdone itself in its third season premiere, introducing us to a man with the ability to shrink himself, and then taking that to sexual and violent extremes.

This isn’t your grandparents’ Ant-Man.

Spoilers ahead for The Boys’ season 3 episode “Payback”…

Early in the episode, we’re introduced to Brett Geddes’ Termite—the aforementioned “Supe”—first seen at the height of a doll, miming sex with a Barbie for the enjoyment of the guests at his drug-fueled party. When he grows to full size, his Ken Doll shorts rip off in the process, and he triumphantly shows off his goods. No complaints so far!

A scene later, Termite and his lover step into a private room for copious amounts of drug use, and that’s when the partner commands, “I want you inside me.” And, well, if you know The Boys, you know he’s not talking about that in the traditional sense. Termite tosses off his robe, shrinks down to size, and steps over a few (now massive) lines of coke on his way to his partner’s schlong, strewn across the table.

Related: Where the boys are: 5 shows to stream that feature full-frontal male nudity

As Termite struts toward the penis, we’re treated to the sight of a giant “head” (more on that in a second), and he excitedly leaps—and squirms—into the urethra. Gently caressing the inside of the shaft, it’s clear we’re witnessing the wildest scene of sounding ever committed to film. But, oh no, it doesn’t stop there.

After all that coke, Termite has a slight tickle in his nose and tries to hold in a sneeze… it doesn’t work. That little “achoo” triggers his powers, and he’s suddenly springing back to full size while still inside. It, um, doesn’t end well. Again, The Boys has never skimped on gore, but this peen-exploding scene has got to be a new high (or maybe low) for the series. It’s the kind of thing you have to see to believe. But even still, we’ve seen it and we really can’t believe we did.

 

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A post shared by Brett Geddes (@brettgeddes)

“For those wondering…the d*ck is real,” shares Geddes on his Instagram. He’s talking about the 11-foot-tall, 30-foot-long prosthetic dong, which showrunner Eric Kripke confirmed was built to film this jaw-dropping scene. Geddes actually did climb into this thing! Both the actor and his stunt double, Alex Armbruster, took to social media to share some of the messy photos from set, somehow not traumatized by the thought of exploding male appendages.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Kripke went on to explain why the shocking scene felt like a “very natural evolution” for The Boys:

“Once you realize you’re gonna do a tiny Ant-Man character, you have to have that Ant-Man run up someone’s butt and then blow them up,” he shared. “But then we realized that we already had blown up someone’s ass.” (He’s referencing the “death by anal pipe bomb” scene from the first season.) “There’s only so many orifices a person can go in. So really, by process of elimination, you [have to] run into a urethra.”

Yeah, we suppose that’s a “sound” argument—pun intended.

 

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A post shared by Alex Armbruster (@armbruster.stunts)

The Boys season 3 is streaming now, exclusively on Amazon Prime Video, so you can watch the scene for yourself if you dare. Just be prepared to squirm!

Here’s what fans are saying on Twitter about that explosive moment.