Season 4 of The Boys is over. Despite some turbulence in the latter half, the series still managed to stick the landing. It’s a gory, swear-word filled ride to an ending that will leave you praying for the final series to come out a lot sooner.
Spoiler Warning
This article will spoil the entirety of season 4 of the Boys, including the finale. If you don’t want to know what happens yet, take some time to read something else first.
Trigger Warning
This article will discuss sexual assault and rape.
The Boys fourth series gets off to a good start. It opens with The Boys attempting to assassinate Neuman, the Supe head-popper politician who is still in the closet. The usual antics occur – they try to keep Butcher in line, Kimiko gets mutilated beyond recognition and shrugs it off, and everything that can go wrong, goes wrong.
The Boys
The Boys are back working for the CIA. Annie has officially joined the team, and they are now lead by M.M., with Butcher taking a back seat.
Billy Butcher
Billy Butcher is the most different in this season. He is dying, a cancerous tumour brought on by the Temp-V he had been using in the previous series. As a result he is seeing visions of Becca, his late wife, who is keeping him in check.
He also meets a new character, Joe Kessler, and it’s easy to guess the twist that Kessler is another imaginary person. The real Kessler died after Butcher failed to rescue him. Though the twist was poorly executed, I loved how he and Becca evolved into the devil vs. angel on the shoulder for Butcher.
A twist that did work is the fact the Butcher had already taken V in an attempt to save his own life. He reveals this to Hughie in an attempt to convince him not to try and do the same to save his father’s life. We realise fairly quickly that the V has done something to Butcher, something even he doesn’t understand.
The back and forth of The Boys kicking Butcher to the kerb, and deciding they needed him again got tiring in this season. It seemed to happen every episode and got old really fast. However, Butcher does end up on his own a lot as a result, his demon and angel battling for control of his mind.
However, it all played out in the end, where it’s revealed that Compound V has made Butcher into a Supe, and after failing to convince Ryan to go with the CIA, is convinced by the imaginary Kessler to go off the deep end. The series ends with Butcher on the warpath and, presumably, with the goal to commit Supe genocide.
Hughie Campbell
Hughie’s story starts off strong, with him having to face the fact that his father is dying. The whole thing is complicated by his mother coming back and enforcing the DNR his father signed. Hughie has to face the fact that he neglected his father since joining The Boys, as well as the mother that abandoned him as a child.
Eventually Hughie gets some Compound-V from A-Train with the hopes of saving his father’s life, but Butcher convinces him not to go through with it. Unfortunately, his mother finds the V and injects his father anyway. His father is alive again, able to run through walls (and bodies), but his mind isn’t all there. In the end Hughie is forced to end his own father’s life, comforting him as he leaves the world.
This first half of the season is extremely well done. It portrays the difficulties of having to let someone go, even if it is exaggerated with gory moments along the way.
Unfortunately it goes downhill very fast.
In the 6th episode entitled “Dirty Business”, Hughie has to infiltrate a meeting between The Seven and a group of wealthy politicians and political backers. He does so by disguising himself as Webweaver. It’s unclear why Webweaver, a drug-addicted Supe of no real note, was invited to this party, until Tek Knight takes Hughie down to his “dungeon”.
What follows is about 40 minutes of Hughie being sexually assaulted by Tek Knight and Ashley. Though Ashley is unaware of what she is doing (Hughie’s face is covered by a mask), it is revealed that Tek Knight has known all along.
While the series is no stranger to dealing with difficult topics – Deep’s sexual assault of Annie as an example, this scene (or scenes) is difficult to watch because it is so long and there are parts which seem to be played for laughs.
Then Kripke was quoted in an interview after being asked about the long sexual assault scene saying, “that’s a dark way to look at it. We found it hilarious!”, implying that the showrunners really saw this whole scene as a joke rather than what it actually was.
Hughie does show a brief moment of trauma at the end of the episode when he breaks down, and there is still chance for the writer’s to course-correct next series, but it’s disappointing to see how different they handled the sexual assault of Annie versus the sexual assault of Hughie.
And then he gets raped. Multiple times.
Annie is replaced by a shapeshifter who starts having sex with Hughie, and rubbing it in Annie’s face every time she does so. Obviously, as Hughie is unaware of who he is sleeping with, this is non-consensual. Now, I disagree with the general sentiment of how this was handled. When Annie escapes she lashes out at Hughie: how could he not tell it wasn’t her? You slept with another woman!
Many people have said this is unfair. And they are right. But it is also realistic. Annie is still processing everything she has gone through, all the thoughts and feelings. Whether she is right or wrong to feel those things, she is lashing out at the person she loves the most. This is a normal reaction to an extreme situation.
She comes around fairly quickly, obviously realising she is being unfair. And Hughie is supportive as always. Again, these are realistic reactions to me. What is missing from all of this is showing how Hughie has been affected by these things. Again, the last few episodes cover a short space of time, so there is still a possibility of exploring his trauma later, but it does seem weird that Hughie is unaffected by being sexually assaulted so many times.
It’s a major downer in an otherwise great series.
Annie January
Annie is locked in a sort of political battle with Homelander at the beginning of the series. She leads an organisation of activists, known as Starlighters, protesting against Homelander and Supes in general. Initially The Boys help her foil a plan to blame her activists for the murder of Homelander supporters.
Things don’t go well after Firecracker joins the Seven. Firecracker reveals to the world that Annie had an abortion, something that doesn’t go down too well with the extremist Christian crowd that follows Homelander et al. It also doesn’t go down well with her mother. It also doesn’t help that Annie’s reaction to this is to beat the shit out of Firecracker publicly.
Firecracker reveals that the reason she hates Annie so much is that Annie was extremely cruel when she was on the pageant circuit. Annie initially blames this on her mother, but later accepts that she wasn’t always a good person, and she is still growing as a person.
Annie has a lot to overcome later in the season. Managing to escape from her kidnapper by mutilating her own hands, killing the kidnapper, and finally learning how to fly to escape being murdered by Vought. She’s always seemed like she could be more powerful if she masters her powers and herself, and this series shows her to grow into that power.
I’m genuinely excited to see her finally let loose in the final series.
Mother’s Milk (M.M.)
MM is now the leader of The Boys, working directly for the CIA. While he is a good leader, he isn’t one to take risks like Butcher would. This leads to a lot of missions going awry, and him questioning if he really needs Butcher or not (hence the constant back and forth).
It also tests his OCD leading to panic attacks that could potentially kill him. Ultimately he is able to stay in the fight thanks to one of his more successful actions: flipping A-Train. When he decides to leave after ending up in hospital, it is A-Train that convinces him to come back.
I really like MM in this series, despite him shaving off his awesome beard.
Frenchie and Kimoko
In this series Frenchie decides to face up to his past as an assassin for the mob. Overwhelmed by guilt for the people he has murdered, he eventually turns himself in. Of course, the CIA pulls him right back out again when they need him to synthesise the Supe virus.
Kimoko is also forced to face her past, when she comes face to face with someone she was forced to fight when she was a child. Together they learn that they can forgive themselves for their wrongdoings, and that they are not protecting each other by running away from their feelings for each other.
It’s a nice continuation of their relationship, that becomes even more heart wrenching when they are separated again when the Supes start rounding up The Boys. Kimoko speaks for the first time, screaming “NO!” as she is forced to watch Frenchie being dragged away.
The Seven
As is tradition, The Seven doesn’t have seven members. No matter how hard they keep trying they will never fill out those ranks.
Homelander
Homelander has become far more unhinged this season. He starts off, in probably the most disturbing scene in episode, asking the Seven to beat some of his closest supporters to death. By the end of the series he’s talking about turning the Seven into wrathful gods and rounding up dissidents. Homelander has gone from someone who wants to be liked, to someone who wants power and control.
The best episode by far is the fourth episode, Wisdom of the Ages. In this episode Homelander returns to the lab where he was “raised”, experimented on, and tortured. In some ways it’s a strange episode because you end up empathising with him a little. Of course, that empathy doesn’t justify what he does to everyone by the end of the episode.
Antony Starr is excellent in the role, as always, able to express his emotions and frustrations using facial tics or just the look in his eyes.
A-Train
A-Train finally gets his redemption in this series. This already started in series 3 when he starts questioning himself, but he still fears and respects Homelander too much. This time he is forced to face the horror of the other Supes when Homelander instructs them to murder 3 innocent people. He is the only one who hesitates, and while he does block one of them from leaving the room, he doesn’t take part in the actual murders.
This leads to him helping The Boys out, and M.M. flipping him. When he helps Hughie get the Compound V for his father, he is surprised when Hughie forgives him for accidentally killing Robin. Hughie can see he has genuine remorse, and he has earned it.
He finally turns against the Seven completely, helping The Boys fight The Deep and Black Noir when they try to kill them. He tries to save Ashley one before he runs away into the sunset, presumably never to be heard from again.
A-Train’s arc is one of the best in the series. While he has done some fucked up things, he’s done it out of either respect or fear of Homelander. He’s started out as a junkie and a murderer, but he’s since realised he is wrong and has slowly learned that doing the right thing means more to him.
The Deep
The Deep parallels A-Train in that he is pretty much the opposite of him. His arc is up there with A-Train’s, only instead of redemption, The Deep goes off the deep end (sorry, couldn’t help it). The Deep has never learned from his mistakes, instead trying to make them go away so he can be liked again.
This series pretty much finishes his arc. He realises that he can just kill the people he doesn’t like, and it makes him feel powerful. He is one of the wrathful gods Homelander talks about. While it’s a running joke that The Deep is basically a pathetic loser, his speech to Black Noir about how he’s learned to love killing people is truly terrifying.
He and Black Noir also develop one of the best buddy relationships on screen. It’s fun to watch their friendship for each other grow, despite the fact they are both homicidal psychopaths by this point.
Black Noir
Homelander murdered Black Noir in the last season but, since no one outside of Vought knows, they replace him with an actor. It’s fun to not that the real-life actor hasn’t actually changed, he’s just allowed to talk now. He’s perhaps the funniest character in the series now.
The Seven are constantly telling him to shut up, which is a great gag. He also has narcolepsy, reflecting Nathan Mitchell’s tendency to fall asleep on set. While the new Black Noir doesn’t have much development other than trying to get into character and being very happy murdering people, he’s a fun yet disturbing addition to the Seven.
Sister Sage
Sister Sage is the weakest addition to the series. I do love some of the more comedic scenes with her. After she is shot in the head and starts acting like a child, or the reveal that she’s been sleeping with both Noir and the Deep (and that she didn’t need to lobotimise herself to sleep with Noir).
But her role in the series is a little lost. Her “power” is that she’s the smartest person to exist, which is always hard to write for. But we never get to see her do any actual planning. She’s just kind of there, we’re told that the Seven are following her plan, but most things seem to happen out of her’s or the Seven’s control.
There are a couple of things she does early on. She has Firecracker talk about Annie’s abortion, leading to her public beating. She convinces The Deep that he shouldn’t let Ashley talk down to her. But later in the series this seems to wane, and her involvement in The Plan is unclear.
They try and explain this away by having her say there were a few hiccups along the way, but it leaves a lot of gaps to fill as to what exactly she did manipulate in order for the final plan to execute. Maybe I’m being too harsh, but I feel like they could have actually shown more of what she actually did to contribute to the events in the series.
Firecracker
The other new member of the Seven is a smoking hot version of Alex Jones. She runs a show where she spouts right-wing nonsense and conspiracy theories, and especially hates on Annie and her Starlighters. She is both out to get Annie, and after Homelander’s approval, willing to do anything to get both.
She’s a fun character to watch, and one that makes sense for the Seven right now. They need better PR, and who better than someone who is effectively a symbol of the right-wing Christofascists that Homelander is taking advantage of?
The Others
There are a host of other characters outside of The Boys and the Seven. Most of them stand somewhere in the middle, their allegiances starting to shift from one to the other.
Ashley Barret
Ashley has always been one of the most interesting characters to me. She’s not a Supe, but a PR rep who is now the CEO of Vought. Despite her lack of powers, she’s one of the experts when it comes to talking down Supes and keeping them in line. Except for Homelander of course.
This season she starts to realise that she’s losing that control. The Deep starts talking down to her. Homelander won’t let her attend meetings. She decides to leave, only to realise that could be fatal when Homelander murders someone in her office.
In the final episode Homelander orders a purge of anyone who knows any secrets about the Seven. The Deep puts Ashley on top of the list, and The Seven go on a rampage. Ashley rushes to Homelander’s room and injects herself with Compound V.
Unfortunately we will need to wait to see what exactly the V did to her.
Victoria Neuman
In a way, the fourth series revolves around Neuman. In the opening scene, The Boys are attempting to assassinate her. After Hughie throws acid on her and Butcher bounces a bullet into her head at point blank range, they learn she is basically invulnerable.
The plan for the Seven seems to be to depose the new president and set up Neuman as the President. A coup from the inside. Neuman is hesitant, but goes along with the plan thinking she’ll be able to change things from within.
Her relationship with Hughie is expanded upon. They became close friends when they were working together, and he was horrified to find out who she really is. Still, he tries to convince her to give up on Homelander’s plan.
This is futile until Homelander loses it and threatens to kill her daughter, at which point she panics and calls Hughie. The Boys agree to take her in and protect her in return for her help.
Her story ends as it began, with Butcher trying to kill her. Only this time it is a Suped up Butcher who tears her in half, leaving The Boys to clean up the mess.
Ryan
Ryan, now under Homelander’s tutelage, is caught in a tug of war between Butcher and Homelander. He slowly learns his father’s true nature, how he is not really a hero, and how he doesn’t care about non-Supe lives.
Ryan ends up going to Butcher for help, something which convinces Butcher that genocide isn’t the answer. However, Grace Mallory makes the mistake of info dumping everything about Homelander, including the fact that his mother was raped, in a desperate attempt to turn him.
Ryan, on realising they intended to weaponise him against his father, loses control and accidentally kills Mallory in front of Butcher. He leaves, presumably to return to Homelander, but to find out for sure we’ll have to wait.
The Good and the Bad
There are a few things about this series that work really well. Most of the characters are forced to face up to mistakes of their past. Hughie has been neglecting his father since joining the Boys, Annie was kind of mean when she was on the pageant circuit, Frenchie feels guilt over the people he assassinated for the Russian Mob, Kimiko has similar guilt for the girls she was forced to kill.
Even Homelander faces his past head on, returning to the lab where they grew him, and slaughtering the people responsible for his upbringing.
This theme of facing the past is expanded upon with A-Train and the Deep. A-Train has to face up to the fact that he is a bad person, and realising he wants to be a hero. A real hero. So he turns against the Seven and helps in the attempt to take them down.
The Deep goes in the opposite direction. Rather than face his past, he decides to try and cover it up and make excuses for it. He embraces the idea that people who don’t love him are just wrong, and if he wants to feel powerful he can just take someone’s life.
One thing I think is starting to not work is the extreme gore throughout. It’s not that I’m a prude or I think they have to tone it down, but there’s been so much of it now that it isn’t shocking anymore. Neuman’s death, while unexpected, was just another splattering of blood and guts on the screen as we’ve seen in every episode leading up to it.
This does lead to a realisation of how dark some scenes truly are. The scene in which Homelander orders the Seven to bludgeon three of his supporters to death is one of the most disturbing early on, and most of the violence is slightly off camera. Then there’s the scene where the Deep “accidentally” kills his octopus lover. The scene drags on with the Deep crying in front of the door as we hear her begging for help and gasping for water.
The obvious lowpoint for the series is the way Hughie’s sexual assaults were handled. The showrunners seem to have not realised that some of it wasn’t as hilarious as they thought it was, and I think they still have a chance to fix things in the following series.
The End
Despite these flaws, The Boys has managed to stick the landing. Homelander wins. He all but controls the USA now. Martial law has been declared, with the Supes acting as the army in control. The Boys have been rounded up, with the exception of Annie who manages to fly away. Things are looking their bleakest as the credits roll up.
Then we find out Soldier Boy is still alive.
Fuck, I’m excited for the fifth series now.
