‘The Boys’ Season 4 shows us how a world full of superheroes leads to anarchy

During a party thrown by President-Elect Bob Singer and VP Victoria Neuman to celebrate their victory in the elections, The Boys attempt to assassinate Neuman by replacing her eyedrops with acid. But the plan goes awry when Zoe Neuman catches Frenchie (Tomer Capone) and Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) in her hotel room with CIA operatives. In season three, we see Neuman inject her daughter with Compound V, and in this episode, we get to see her powers as she murders the CIA agents. Only in the first episode and in typical The Boys fashion do we already get gruesome scenes that set the tone for the rest of the season—it doesn’t feel forced or like it was added just to be edgy. It’s also shown that Starlight (Erin Moriarty) possesses the ability to fly. While this was shown in the season three finale during the fight against Soldier Boy, it was lacklustre at the time and had no practical use. 

We also get introduced to Joe Kessler (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), a CIA Case Officer who goes way back with Butcher. When the trailer for season four dropped, fans were excited to see the actor who played Negan in The Walking Dead play a vital role in The Boys. While he has little screen time in this episode, he leaves us with some words that tease us about what to expect in the coming weeks. “We need someone like you, Billy… Before the Supes start rounding us up and dumping us off in camps.” 

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On the Supe side of things, we get acquainted with Firecracker (Valorie Curry)—a Floridian ‘truth sayer’ with a personal vendetta against Starlight—and Sister Sage (Susan Heyward)—the smartest person in the world. Homelander (Antony Starr) recruits Sage into The Seven after being frustrated over everyone being too scared to speak up to him. Here, we see a glimpse of his erratic ego. One second, he wants to be loved as a god. Later, he wants someone to tell him things straight—even if it upsets him. Sage takes the role of Homelander’s advisor in further manipulating the masses. Under her advice, they gather Homelander’s biggest fans—including Todd, MM’s ex-wife’s new partner—and order A-Train (Jessie T Usher), The Deep (Chace Crawford), and Black Noir to kill them with baseball bats. At this point, we’re already familiar with how Homelander can kill innocents without any remorse, but to see him willingly kill his own fans is a new level that has yet to be explored. Black Noir’s presence itself is already surprising as he died in season three at the hands of Homelander, but what’s even more surprising is that he spoke for the first time since 1984 when he suffered brain damage. After seeing Black Noir in the season four trailer, I was excited to see more of the silent assassin and know how he returned from the dead. But upon seeing this scene, that excitement turned into disappointment as this is not the real Black Noir—simply a replacement who humorously fails at keeping quiet.

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As Butcher grows more unstable due to his shattered pride and declining health, the group wants to kick him out, but Hughie insists on keeping him. In true Butcher fashion, he goes behind the team’s back and secretly meets with Neuman to strike a deal. In exchange for getting Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) away from Homelander, Butcher gives up Hughie’s only trump card against Neuman—ultimately dooming him. 

Following the massacre, A-Train then transports the bodies to a nearby rally to frame Starlight supporters for the killings. Disillusioned by the cruelty of Vought and Homelander, we see more of his character grow. The entire series started with A-Train killing Hughie’s (Jack Quaid) girlfriend, and back then, he showed no remorse. In season two, he helped take down Stormfront, and in season three, he killed Blue Hawk, a racist Supe that crippled his brother. By far, A-Train’s character development is the one I’m most excited about. He has inflicted much collateral damage over the years, and when it finally happened to him, he decided to take action. From a selfish, ego-centric man, he is slowly going through a cathartic transformation and might be able to redeem himself from the pain he has caused. 

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Following Frenchie once more, we see developments in his personal life through Colin, a potential romantic interest. I feel the interaction between them was rushed and didn’t have enough screen time to develop. Their entire background—from how they met to their whole dynamic—was done offscreen implicitly during the six-month time skip.

Towards the end, Hughie visits his father, who suffered a stroke. While there, a familiar voice responds to him—his mother, who left him when he was six. In just a few seconds, you can hear the shock in his voice and see the pent-up anger in his face—excellently acted by Quaid. 

The episode ends with Butcher hallucinating about his wife, Becca (Shantel VanSanten). The two discuss saving Ryan from Soldier Boy as Butcher beats himself up for his past mistakes. Becca then convinces Butcher not to sell out Hughie and to continue doing things the right way, and he agrees by sending Neuman an explicit image instead of the files she asked for.

Overall, the first episode delivered intense action scenes, a psychopathic Homelander, and The Boys back in business. 

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