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Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Season 3 of the Prime Video series, The Boys.
As the third season of The Boys came to a close, one thing became evident. Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) was going to have her happy ending, or at least as close as she would ever get. As she set off in the sunset with Elena (Nicola Correia-Damude) after a confrontation with Homelander (Anthony Starr) that left her with one eye missing and the world thinking she died taking down Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles), she lost her powers. But Maeve finally had what she had always wanted: a life away from Homelander. As Starlight (Erin Moriarty) said goodbye to her, the audience did the same, as The Boys saw one of the original members of The Seven leave the show for a while.
But, Maeve’s exit was not unpredictable. Over three seasons, Maeve’s arc was one of discovering her independence and gutting ties to the company that not only had created her but also gave her so many of the traumas that had defined her. An uneven arc often saw her sidelined and never get the due that she deserved. For what might have been her last appearance on the show, Maeve spent most of her time in a jail cell, incapable of escaping until Starlight came in and saved the day.
Queen Maeve was complex. A woman raised by an abusive father who used her powers for his gain, she saw herself put into a team where she grabbed the attention of a psychopath who saw her as nothing but his property. From its pilot episode, The Boys offered brief glimpses of who Maeve had been before being brought down to the cynical and alcoholic person we met. Starlight was who she had been that day, and Maeve was who Starlight could have become if she had never met Hughie (Jack Quaid) and the other members of The Boys. Used as a mirror, Maeve was supposed to showcase who Starlight could have become.
The Boys made points to show how both were similar, yet Maeve’s tenure with Vought and Homelander had broken her. The plane scene in Season 1 is one of the best examples. How Maeve tries so hard to save people shows that she still has good in her but ultimately, she follows Homelander and drowns herself in liquor to forget. This was always the key difference between Starlight and Queen Maeve. Starlight never gave in, always trying to find a way to stick to her ideals, while Maeve had been so worn down that she just relegated herself to drinking all her problems away.
Except, the show had one major flaw. Even if she was considered a series regular, Maeve never got as much attention or as many storylines as the others. She felt more like a side character than one of the main ones, and her stories mostly revolved around Homelander and Starlight. While Season 2 tried to remedy that, it was quickly put aside in the third season, and she was again relegated to the sidelines.
In the comics, Queen Maeve was just like her television counterpart — a jaded alcoholic who wanted nothing more than to see Homelander die. But, unlike in the television show, Maeve doesn’t survive her confrontation with Homelander in the comics. Instead, she sacrifices herself so that Starlight can survive. It’s a key difference and lets the show get Maeve back in the future, but it is a difference that shows how the show simply mishandled her story.
In the second season, the show finally tapped into Maeve’s potential. While her storyline was still very rooted in her hatred of Homelander, it was also her own. Her character growth had started, and it seemed like the show would continue with the following season. For most of the second season, Maeve finally had a semblance of happiness with Elena. While it got derailed quickly with her sexuality exposed and the manipulation that occurred not only from Homelander but with Vought in general, Maeve finally started to get her own story.
By giving her this story, The Boys were able to tap into something that they couldn’t before. Maeve’s sexuality wasn’t something the show had explored during the first season. It had been shown that she was bisexual and that her only real relationship had been with Elena. But other than that, Maeve’s story revolved around trying to break off Homelander’s grasp. While the second season still used that idea, by making her be outed, the show was able to do a commentary on how corporation uses sexuality to gain favor from the public. It was nuanced and layered and provided a lot of development, except once Season 2 ended, the show forgot about Maeve.
While she was present in most Season 3 episodes, Queen Maeve had almost no impact, coming in for one or two scenes before disappearing. Most of her character growth had been done between seasons, with a one-off comment about how she had stopped drinking and training non-stop to take down Homelander. It’s a perplexing choice because it takes away any storylines from her. Instead, she is there only to support or to be part of the final fight of the season. The missed opportunities with her during the third season are endless.
And that is where the most significant problem lies. Queen Maeve’s story was filled with potential and exciting ideas, except the show never knew what to do with her — relegating her to a simple side character who appeared only to advance other stories and never her own. When given the spotlight, she proved to be a nuanced and interesting character, but those moments were so few and far between that Maeve never got to shine by the time of her exit. Her development was often done off-screen, and she barely got the screen time she deserved.
It’s a shame, as The Boys has proven that they can do character development better than most shows. Except, of course, they never knew how to handle Queen Maeve and her story.
