Spoilers for ‘The Boys’ Season 4 Finale (Episode 8)
Talk about life imitating art. In a season where showrunner Eric Kripke and the writers have sometimes been too on the nose in terms of the show’s politics, this week saw a change in the title and an added disclaimer due to the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. The episode, originally titled “Assassination Run,“ was changed to “Season Four Finale,“ with a disclaimer added. It addresses the fictional political violence in the show and how all those involved oppose any real-world violence.
The Boys’ season 4 finale pushes the messages to the edge. Violence begets violence, heroes versus villains, villains versus heroes, master plans, and paths to redemption. For our Boys, almost all of their plans have blown up in their collective faces, sometimes literally, but the mission has always been the same: Take down Vought and stop Homelander.
For The Seven, it’s about power, and they are run at the whim of the unhinged and unstable Homelander (Antony Starr). That template allows many characters to shine, creating memorable moments amongst the violent, gory chaos.
The shapeshifter who took over for Annie January (Erin Moriarty) is having a grand ole time. Hughie (Jack Quaid) is so overcome by her sexual appetite and wedding proposal that he doesn’t see what has happened. However, he begins to notice differences that start to gnaw at him, even if he doesn’t realize it on a conscious level yet. Meanwhile, the shifter taunts the imprisoned Annie on one of her visits but underestimates what she will do to escape. The real Annie does just that in a rather gruesome display, brought to you, of course, in a very focused camera closeup.
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Homelander discovers the framed picture of Butcher (Karl Urban) and Becca (Shantel VanSanten) in Ryan’s (Cameron Crovetti) backpack and destroys much of their living quarters in a hissy fit of uncontrollable violence. As usual, he doesn’t know how to deal with his anger and lets it loose again, this time verbally while live on TV. He outs supe-in-hiding Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) to the world. The ramifications of this are staggering, not just for Neuman, but it was like tipping over dominoes and watching it spread everywhere and to everyone.
Meanwhile, Butcher is in recovery, thanks to Grace Mallory (Laila Robins). She manages to bring Ryan in to see Butcher, and the two of them try to bond a bit, even though it’s never that simple where Butcher is concerned. In fact, it’s Grace who spells out the brutal truth about Homelander to Ryan and how they need his help. They want him to stay and not go back to Homelander. Grace pushes too hard, however, and in a move Homelander would be proud of, Ryan slams Grace against a wall, killing her, and makes his exit. Here, Butcher changes his tactics with a nod to the ever-present imaginary Joe Kessler (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), the nasty voice in Butcher’s head that just cannot be silenced.
The Boys are tasked with protecting President-elect Rober Singer (Jim Beaver) from the Shifter and tucking him away in a bunker. Hughie finally puts it all together about the Shifter, but soon, they are running for their lives, leaving Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) to slow her down. The real Annie shows up and kills the Shifter after a brief fight, leaving her and Hughie to try and sort through the awkwardness of what happened since the Shifter took Annie’s shape. (It leads to some uncomfortable but hilarious conversations.)
Things begin to happen very quickly from here on in as Neuman reaches out to Hughie, asking for his help to protect her and her daughter. In a very passionate speech, Hughie convinces the rest of The Boys that this is a good idea, so they bring her in but keep a wary eye on her, having Frenchie (Tomer Capone) ready with his now finished supe virus. However, in typical Boys fashion, it all goes to hell as Butcher shows up and lets loose his hidden power, sprouting tentacles out of his chest. Within seconds, Neuman is dead. He confiscated the virus and left, leaving everyone in shock and Hughie, again, completely drenched in blood.
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Homelander tasks Ashley (Colby Minifie) to list everyone in the company who threatens him. As members of The Seven carry out the executions all over the Vought building, Ashey realizes her life’s in jeopardy. Her solution? Inject herself with Compound V, of course. She started to change, but we never saw the final product of Compound V.
Even with his master plan to rule completely, Homelander is distraught over Ryan, who is still missing, and also the news about the death of Neuman. That changes, however, when Sister Sage (Susan Heyward) shows up and explains to him that this was mostly her plan. Singer is in hiding after some damning video shows up, so now the installed President is entirely behind Homelander, allowing him to tell everyone what his master plan is, in all its horrifying ramifications.
The Boys split up to try and avoid the supes hunting them down, but all of them are captured, except Annie, whose powers return. She flies away, and Butcher, who is on his own, driving who knows where, with the virus and his life still slipping away thanks to Compound V. The episode wraps with Homelander finding Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) alive but in hibernation, leaving his role in the final season up in the air.
There were so many things going on in this season finale but I have to give the show credit, it did a great job keeping it all together and moving at a good pace. Many characters got good screen time, and we even had a moment between Frenchie and Kimiko, much to the delight of many fans. Jack Quaid was excellent as Hugie and solid for most of the season, as his character experienced so many highs and lows. Erin Moriarty also shone brightly this week, no pun intended, being forced to face many things about herself. Antony Starr is still the straw that stirs the drink, though, and his performance as the psychotic Homelander was stellar yet again.
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The new world order is in place, and those heroes who oppose it have scattered, leaving the powers in charge to do who knows what. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, the elites siding with the fascists, violence just brings more violence, all points hammered home here, some subtle, some not so much. The truth is, there are not many innocents on either side of this show. How that plays out in the final season is anyone’s guess.
Even with a very uneven season, The Boys season 4 finale showed us that the show still has the power to deliver, and now we wait to see if they can wrap it all up in season five.