The Boys Star Erin Moriarty On The Moral Line That Starlight Won't Cross As A Superhero

Spoilers ahead for the first seven episodes of The Boys Season 3.

The Boys is quickly approaching the Season 3 finale, and there are a lot of questions that still need answers before fans head into another hiatus ahead of Season 4. Starlight finally hit her limit of how much she could stand as part of The Seven and went rogue, publicly denouncing Homelander as Annie and spreading word that Soldier Boy was back. Still, nobody can keep their hands 100% clean on The Boys, and actress Erin Moriarty weighed in on the moral line that her character won’t cross. 

Starlight has had to make some big decisions about lines she will and won’t cross, particularly with Hughie taking Compound V for temporary superpowers. That ended their relationship (although not their feelings for each other), but then Starlight stole some Compound V for Kimiko. Erin Moriarty spoke with CinemaBlend’s Law Sharma about her character, and shared:

Annie will cross whatever line she has to, to make sure the world is a better place, to accomplish her goals, but that line won't involve hurting anyone innocent. She's pretty clear about what she will and won't do. She just wants to save people. She's not gonna hurt or kill anyone innocent. There will be no innocent casualties as long as she's around. And we see that a lot in Season 3, especially around Herogasm.

The Seven’s most altruistic former member isn’t against crossing lines to do the right thing, but she doesn’t focus on the greater good at the cost of lives as much as Butcher and Hughie in teaming up with Soldier Boy. In fact, she tried to save as many lives as possible with Mother’s Milk during Herogasm (which you can find streaming with an Amazon Prime subscription), and she isn’t on board with Hughie helping Soldier Boy murder his former teammates in exchange for his help against Homelander. As Erin Moriarty said, fans have seen a lot of this side of Annie in the third season. 

And based on the end of the seventh and penultimate episode of the season, Hughie may soon realize that he should have been on Starlight’s side all along, after the reveal that Soldier Boy is Homelander’s father. Jensen Ackles’ character called up his biological son after finding out the truth, and it seems safe to say that the situation with Hughie and Butcher expecting Soldier Boy to kill Homelander just got a lot more complicated. 

With Starlight’s warning about Compound V’s side effects possibly not getting to Hughie, they may find out about their plan backfiring when it’s too late to stop the superpowered father and son from joining forces. Of course, there’s no guarantee at this point that Soldier Boy and Homelander will team up, and both are wild card characters with the potential to kill each other, so it remains to be seen whether Hughie will be happy with his decision, or realizes that Starlight was right about not crossing her moral line.

Fans won’t have to wait too much longer to find out. The Season 3 finale of The Boys releases on Amazon Prime Video on Friday, July 8 at 12:01 a.m. PT. Fortunately, the superhero series was renewed for Season 4 just a week into the third season, so fans can look forward to the Season 3 finale without worrying that it will be the end of the show. For some viewing options to pass the time while waiting for Season 4, be sure to check out our 2022 TV premiere schedule. Or fans can just spend the hiatus still talking about the Herogasm episode, because there is plenty to discuss there!

Laura Hurley
Senior Content Producer

Laura turned a lifelong love of television into a valid reason to write and think about TV on a daily basis. She's not a doctor, lawyer, or detective, but watches a lot of them in primetime. CinemaBlend's resident expert and interviewer for One Chicago, the galaxy far, far away, and a variety of other primetime television. Will not time travel and can cite multiple TV shows to explain why. She does, however, want to believe that she can sneak references to The X-Files into daily conversation (and author bios).