'The Boys' Season 4: Recap and Review
It’s strange to hear The Boys being accused of having been warped from a compelling story into woke propaganda. Such was the response that show creator Eric Kripke and even the original comics creator Garth Ennis have felt the need to directly address the controversial response from certain groups of fans. Most baffling of all is the fact that this season is arguably the best one yet.
We continue where we left off at the end of the third season. The Boys, consisting of Hughie (Jack Quaid), Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso), Frenchie (Tomer Capone), Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara), Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), and the newly joined Annie January (Erin Moriarty). As always, they are determined to bring down the mega-corporation Vought and their corrupt band of superheroes, led by the sadistic narcissist Homelander (Anthony Starr). Homelander has entered his Trump phase, literally being cheered for killing someone who threw a cup at his son Ryan (Cameron Crovetti), whom Homelander seized custody of in the third season’s finale. The Boys also have a new target, whom they know is secretly in cahoots with Vought. Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit), the seemingly progressive politician that Hughie once worked for, is now poised to become the next Vice President of the United States. Not only is she the adopted daughter of former Vought CEO Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito), she’s also a secret supe who’s responsible for several high-profile murders in previous seasons.
Of the various characters making their debuts this season, the most important ones are Susan Hayward (Sage), Valorie Curry (Firecracker), and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Joe Kessler). Sage is the smartest person on the planet, which leads Homelander to seek her out as a new ally in the season’s premiere. He has a plan for the future, and he needs Sage’s help to manifest it. Homelander recruits Sage to the Seven, along with Firecracker. The latter is a superheroine with mediocre powers, but she looms large amongst the far-right masses and conspiracy theorists (three guesses which controversial politician she’s based on; go on, guess). She also has an intense loathing for Starlight, for reasons which become clear over the course of the season. Kessler, meanwhile, is introduced to us as an old war buddy of Butcher’s, now working for the CIA. As Butcher laments his loss of leadership in the Boys, Kessler tries to recruit him for a much more nefarious plot to turn Ryan against his father.
One of the main themes of this season is reckoning with the past. Literally every single important character, both good and bad, spends the season being haunted by past trauma, past memories, and past mistakes. Mother’s Milk is thrust into a leadership role over the Boys, but this only compounds his stress from having to look after his family. Frenchie falls head over heels for a handsome young man named Colin (Elliot Knight), who doesn’t realise that Frenchie is the man who murdered his family. This adds to the well-established guilt that Frenchie has been carrying around since we first met him, and when he inevitably confesses the truth to Colin, he proceeds to spiral even further. Kimiko struggles with lingering PTSD from her own dark past, especially when she’s forced to literally face it once more. We also finally learn the true reason for why she has lost her ability to speak. Annie, meanwhile, wants to put her superheroine identity, Starlight, behind her, even as she’s targeted by the aforementioned Firecracker. It’s quickly revealed that Firecracker has a history with Annie, one where Annie was a cruel bully who ruined Firecracker’s reputation; now she’s determined to put Annie through the same torment. Frenchie, Kimiko, and Annie all spend the season grappling with the notion of whether they have truly changed, and also whether they can be forgiven for their past actions.
Meanwhile, Hughie strives to be the supportive partner to Annie, especially when all her deepest secrets are leaked by Firecracker and Sage. However, Hughie has troubles of his own; early in the season, he’s given terrible news about his father, whom he’s been distancing himself from over the course of the show. As if that wasn’t enough, Hughie is also reunited with his long-lost mother at the hospital. As for Billy Butcher, he has to deal with his impending mortality, as well as his apparent inability to keep his promise to Becca to save Ryan. It doesn’t help that he is hallucinating Becca (Shantel VanSanten), who wavers between berating him and advising him.
Even the villains have a chance to experience self-reflection. The best example is A-Train, who has been growing increasingly disillusioned with the way that he’s lived his life. His devotion to Homelander and the Seven has been undermined by his own increased sense of guilt, especially where his paralyzed and estranged brother is concerned. When Mother’s Milk approaches him as a potential informant and spy, A-Train is given opportunities to finally act like a hero again. One of the big turning points of his arc involves him bringing an unconscious Mother’s Milk to the hospital, where he’s witnessed by a child. It is a touching moment, as A-Train later admits to, and one where he finally felt good about himself again.
By contrast, there is the case of the Deep (Chace Crawford), whose self-reflection leads to further spiralling. While he’s often been relegated to comic relief and the poster boy for toxic masculinity, the Deep’s arc in this season has been one of shocking pathos. It’s clear that he’s utterly sick of being looked down on, even as he continues an unorthodox relationship with the octopus from the last season (now voiced by Tilda Swinton). When Sage joins the Seven, she and the Deep strike up an even more unorthodox relationship, where she reveals the truth of her enhanced intelligence; her brain is constantly growing, and will recover from any damage inflicted on it. As a result, Sage urges the Deep to lobotomize her, which will allow her to feel human for once, in exchange for sex. Meanwhile, she also reminds the Deep of his superiority as a superhero, leading him to become openly aggressive against those who mock him (with Homelander being the obvious exception).
Speaking of Homelander, he continues to be one of the strongest aspects of The Boys. Whether he’s growing paranoid over his aging body, or struggling with his being a father to Ryan, Starr continues to give one of the most memorable performances of the 2020s. For all that he is a monstrous figure, and the primary antagonist of the series, this season does not deny him the chance to appear almost sympathetic. In one episode, Homelander returns to the facility where he spent his appalling childhood. In one of the season’s most chilling sequences, he toys with and punishes those people who played a part in various tests which tortured him and left him utterly isolated. His own behaviour is cruel, to be sure, but it ties in with the same conflict which affects the heroes on their own journeys. Everyone is forced to confront their pasts, and they must decide whether the past will continue to shape them in the present and future.
All through the season, the characters struggle to make sense of their pasts, or simply struggle to function as people in the midst of their world falling apart. People are forced to their most desperate actions, where they must decide what is most important to them. It’s rather ironic that people gripe so loudly about this season, when this has been the season where, more than ever, the heroes are scrutinized almost as much as the villains. Annie, always portrayed as one of the morally upright people in the show, is confronted by In one of the best moments of the season, Hughie gives an impassioned speech during the finale to persuade his friends that they should be trying to save Neuman when she balks at Homelander’s plans for her. It is a speech which ties everything together; these good guys have all done horrible things, for which they have spent much of this season - or even the entire show - feeling guilt-stricken and traumatized. By all rights, they should hate Neuman and seek her downfall, but Hughie begs them to consider making Neuman into an ally just as they turned A-Train. After spending the fourth season laying his grudges to rest, Hughie observes that he was once horrified by violence and blood, and now he is utterly desensitized to it. It is one of Quaid’s best moments as Hughie, where we really see how far he’s come since the first season.
Speaking of the supposed good guys and the horrible things they’ve done, let’s go back to Billy Butcher. It’s safe to say that Butcher was at a low point through most of the fourth season. Not only was he inching closer and closer to death’s door, but his sanity was deteriorating even faster than his physical health. All through the first half of the season, Kessler is a toxic influence on Butcher. He urges him to turn Ryan into a weapon against Homelander. When Butcher refuses to give in, Kessler instead suggests that he go behind the backs of his teammates and kidnap Dr. Sameer Shah (Omid Abtahi) to develop a virus which will take out Homelander. As it turns out, if the virus is strong enough to kill Homelander, it will be strong enough to become airborne and wipe out every person with a trace of Compound V in their veins. The effect of the virus is demonstrated in a scene late in the season where Frenchie must desperately work to save Kimiko’s life. In true Boys fashion, the scene manages to blend intense drama and hilarious dark comedy. Butcher initially balks at this, even as it’s revealed, in an astonishing twist, that Kessler is actually a manifestation of his own deteriorating sanity. While the spirit of Becca is his conscience, Kessler represents his worst impulses, all his anger, all his hate, and his determination to destroy all supes. This Jekyll-Hyde conflict continues to build across the latter part of the season, even as Ryan seems to be drifting back to Butcher as a guardian and father-figure. It is in the finale, which must surely be counted as one of the best The Boys episodes yet made, where Butcher finally decides which direction he will go. He and Mallory (Laila Robins), the person who recruited Butcher in the first place, seek to win Ryan to their side against Homelander. Unfortunately, despite his growing disillusionment with Homelander, Ryan justifiably reacts with horror at their wish for him to kill his own father. It was always hinted that Mallory was a deeply grey character, but the fourth season’s finale brings that greyness to a head. She might have genuinely cared for Ryan, but it’s also clear that she was fully intending to train Ryan to kill Homelander, even if she had to imprison Ryan to do it. This is deeply triggering to Ryan, and he lashes out against Mallory when push comes to shove. As Butcher looks down at the broken body of his former mentor, abandoned by Ryan once again, it proves to be the last straw, with devastating effect. As a result, he turns on his friends and their plan to recruit Neuman, killing her instead with newfound superpowers (which were hinted at several time in the season) and condemning the others to a criminal investigation into Neuman’s murder.
With all that said, there is certainly room to criticise this season. The writing, while brilliant, does have a tendency to drop storylines when they are no longer necessary. Hughie’s mother leaves just as abruptly as she enters the story, for example. There is also the matter of the liberation army which Kimiko used to work for, the ease with which Butcher gets Frenchie out of prison, and the fact that a billionaire’s murder is completely swept under the rug. There is also the matter of Sage. It is always risky to write a character with superhuman intelligence, as they can only ever be as smart as the writers who create them. Kripke and his writing team do their best, but some fans will doubtless be disappointed by the fact that everything goes according to Sage’s plan, even when they seemingly don’t. That’s not to say that Sage is a bad character; she has some incredible scenes with Homelander, the Deep, and Neuman, the latter of whom bonds with her over having to constantly navigate rooms full of mediocre and condescending white men. Moreover, Sage’s love-hate relationship with her own powers is fascinating, and provides a good contrast between her cynical detachment from the rest of humanity and her desire to be an ordinary human. Her Cassandra-like origin story, coupled with her intellectual arrogance, serve as good motivators for why she’d want to help Homelander, while also leaving an aura of mystery as to whether she’s actually on his side.
Admittedly, the show has become less subtle in its mirroring of our own society, as well as its criticisms of certain demographics. There are occasionally lines which do feel clunky in their delivery, such as a scene where the Deep taunts Annie with all the subtlety of a right-wing social media bot. However, the show’s messages are no different now than they’ve always been. If The Boys has become more blatant in its delivery, then it at least reflects the increasingly polarized society which is watching the show.
It’s already been said that the fifth season will be the last one, and Kripke has laid the groundwork for what can only be a truly explosive conclusion. Sage’s plans have been carried out, through no fault of Homelander’s antics. The supes have seized control of the United States, lionizing Neuman in death as they go after her alleged killers. The Boys attempt to flee, but Mother’s Milk, Frenchie, and Hughie are quickly taken into custody. Starlight manages to go on the run, while Kimiko finds her voice again at this most desperate hour. As before, Butcher remains to be the wild card, the thorn in Homelander’s side. He still has a sample of the virus, though it remains to be seen just how he’ll make use of it.
Of course, there are some unanswered questions with this finale; we have no idea where Stan Edgar is, or Dr. Sameer Shah. Since both have strong ties to Victoria Neuman, it’s going to be very interesting to see what they’ll be up to in the fifth season. Meanwhile, A-Train is literally on the run, Ashley Barrett has injected herself with Compound V, and we don’t know where Ryan went. We can only speculate how these loose ends will factor into the fifth season.
All in all, this season of The Boys has been an utter delight to behold. It has maintained its ability to deliver edgy humour while also doing its best to parody the absurdities of our present to enhance their own dystopian setting.