The following contains mild spoilers for The Boys Season 3, streaming on Prime Video.
With just one more episode on the way, Season 3 of Prime Video's The Boys is gearing up to go out with a bang. As fans prepare themselves for another year without Butcher and the gang, theories have already begun spinning about what the next season could contain. Especially after Episode 7's twist, it seems like Homelander and Soldier Boy are destined for a final showdown that will see only one survivor; if they don't simply kill each, that is. Either way, The Boys is going to need a new Big Bad for its fourth season, and there's one clear -- if unconventional -- choice: Tek Knight.
Tek Knight (aka Robert Vernon) was a minor character in The Boys comic book series; though he was a founding member of Payback, he was quite different from his teammates. Tek Knight never received a dose of Compound V, instead relying on high-tech gadgets and armor to fight crime (an homage to both Iron Man and Batman). He also had a more genuinely heroic disposition, which the series implies -- thematically and logistically -- is due to his lack of powers. Though a brain tumor ultimately caused him to commit bizarre sexual acts, he is remembered as one of the few "good" Supes to be depicted.
Tek Knight has only been mentioned on The Boys TV show, each time in relation to an incident where he crushed a woman's spine while saving her life. It's not unlikely that the creative team could be saving him for the exact right story, which Season 3 is setting up perfectly. Each Soldier Boy conflict has been more public than the last, which -- combined with Starlight's persistent rebellions -- means that Homelander's time as a "hero" is about to be up.
In the wake of his inevitable public breakdown, there will likely be a changing of the guard at Vought; Season 3 has been The Boys' most allegorical yet, and it would be fitting for it to end with a nod to the 2020 elections. However, there would also be newfound mistrust of superpowered individuals. The show could then re-imagine Tek Knight (as it has most of its characters) as a more relevant figure; an Elon Musk-esque billionaire that sells himself as a rational, intellectual, selfless and non-superpowered hero. Like his real-life counterpart, however, his true nature would be far more complicated.
The Boys needs a de-powered antagonist for its fourth season. Aside from the fact that the powers may be getting bland for some viewers, having a villain with no superpowers would challenge the core ideas of The Boys while picking up right where Season 3 ends. Since its premiere, Butcher has had a Baron Zemo-like ideology when it comes to Supes: having powers makes them dangerous, thus Supes need to be killed. Yet Season 3 has been questioning this, acting on what it's been building to since the introduction of Kimiko. Through her journey, the team's struggle with Temp V, Maeve's willingness to lose her powers and Homelander's fear of the same, it's clearly asking, "Is it the powers that make you bad, or what you do with them?"
Despite its surprisingly effective social commentary, The Boys will soon struggle against its one intrinsic flaw: there are no superpowers in real life. While the audience can certainly discern the clear allegories of the show, it becomes more muddled as it has its superpowered characters constantly supersede CEOs and politicians. It begins to ring false, as the audience watches from a world where they are powerless to capital and political strength.
As such, Tek Knight -- a billionaire with political ties -- could stand as a representation of both. The show could even mirror Musk as they have Donald Trump: Tek Knight falsely sells himself as self-made, takes over Homelander's cult-like fans, and foments personally beneficial mistrust in government while accepting billions in funding from them. In short, where Homelander is a crisis of the results of American ideology, Tek Knight would be a crisis of its roots and reinventions. As he tries to save the world in self-important, idiotically destructive fashion, he would stand as a stark representation of power; a cautionary tale that capital can corrupt just as much as super strength.
The Season 3 finale of The Boys premieres July 8 on Prime Video.