Editor's note: The below contains major spoilers for the Season 3 finale of The Boys.The Boys are back! With Season 3 of the hit Prime Video series finally having dropped its finale this week, we've been treated to the return of our favorite irreverent, disturbing, and often downright nasty supes who couldn't be further from heroic — as well as the group of resident misfits the show is named for, who are determined to hold them accountable for previous and current slights against humanity. Based on how last week's episode played out, everything seemed to be gearing up for an epic showdown of many of our favorite supes versus Homelander, and the possibility of more than one casualty was high.

Fortunately, someone who did make it out of the fight alive (although not entirely unscathed)? Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott). After going hand-to-hand with Homelander (Antony Starr) and taking out some much-deserved frustrations on her former teammate — though not without losing an eye in the process — the supe realized that someone had to take drastic action to stop Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) from going nuclear again. In what seemed to be a moment of heroic sacrifice, Maeve tackled Soldier Boy through a window, with both of them seemingly plummeting to their demise. Later, however, it was revealed that both supes survived — though Soldier Boy has now been put back on ice, while the rest of the world believes that Maeve died in the battle, leaving her free to live out the rest of her powerless life in obscurity with her girlfriend Elena (Nicola Correia-Damude).

So was it always in the cards for Maeve to survive, regardless of what Homelander and that final battle put her through? According to The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke, killing her was never even a decision that crossed the writers' minds:

"From the beginning, we were never going to kill her. We were always going to give her a happy ending. We're well aware of the super irritating trend of killing off queer characters, and we're dedicated to not doing that. So then it became about, 'Well, can we explore that from a meta way and play with the audience's expectation a little bit and present that big sacrifice moment that happens way too many times?'"

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Image via Prime Video

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According to Kripke, his hope is that the fakeout doesn't keep fans from watching to find out what happens next: "I'm so scared that a lot of the viewers are going to be really mad that we're doing it. I'm like, 'Just keep watching another seven minutes, six minutes!' We wanted to say, 'No, she actually is going to get every single thing she wanted and deserves,' which is she does not want to be a superhero. She just wants to live a quiet life with Elena."

Maeve's decision to disappear herself so that she can live a normal life with someone she loves also serves a dual story purpose. Now that Annie January (Erin Moriarty) has also quit the Seven and come on as an official member of The Boys, not having her former sort-of mentor around is another way to push her out of the metaphorical nest and help her flourish on her own power. In Kripke's words:

"It is right narratively for [Maeve] to exit stage left because she was too powerful, and she solved too many of Starlight's problems for her. For Starlight to truly flower into the powerful character she is, she needs to remove all of her life preservers. So it's right for all of those reasons, but I was really, from the beginning, really committed to giving her a happy ending."

Will we ever see Maeve again in some capacity? That question, at least for the moment, seems unclear, but fortunately, she's been given the ending she deserves — an ending that is all-too-rare on this show.

All three seasons of The Boys are now available to stream on Prime Video. No release date has yet been confirmed for the upcoming Season 4.