The Boys S4, EP5 Recap & Thoughts
Finally, Amazon Prime Video’s Satirical Superhero Drama ‘The Boys’, provides a something new or a fresh experience for the watchers to rejoice. The newest season 4 of the show was lauded for being way too formulaic and not engaging enough. But the fifth episode offers a lot to bring a smile on everyone’s face as it is fused with a number of newer angles to the storyline and a moment of at most depth (one of the most hitting in the whole show if we have to admit).
The latest episode is all festooned with advertisements and promotions of the usual propaganda films under Voight’s production. The episode begins with the ‘V52 Expo’ where ‘The Seven’ along with their production members announcing the ‘Phase 7’ of the Voight films (obviously a joke intended against the usual ‘phases’ put forward by Marvel superhero studios). There is a lot of newer projects this time including ‘Training A-Train’, a propaganda film meant for whitewashing A-Train and ‘Double Standard’, a thriller series meant to be streamed via Voight’s own streaming channel ‘Voight+’. Apropos to all of that, there is also a newer film under production titled ‘Black At It’, starring Sister Sage (her first film of course), A-Train and the newest Black Noir II. This film is promised to promote a sense of diversity to the public.
Ashley Barrett, the former CEO of Voight who got demoted in favor of Sister Sage, is still struggling through her own frustrations. Her ‘relationship’ with Cameron Coleman has gotten deteriorated because of Ashley’s apparent demotion and the fact that she can’t ‘dominate’ him well as she used to. Cameron neither wants to listen to her orders or get back to her once again and instead suggested to maintain a friendly relationship and nothing more. Ashley got back to him by framing Cameron as the rat within their world. The Deep, made the best use of the situation with pleasure since Cameron is the only one (so far revealed to be) who possesses the information about Ambrosius. Ashley also is suggested to make a truce with A-Train which could possibly mean that either she would use that option to take revenge against The Seven for demoting her, or that she would use the situation to even get back what she lost in the first place. This arc along with some of the previous ones we mentioned in our olde reviews, is something to be looked after.
Firecracker is in a complete ecstasy as even after suffering all those wounds, she managed to get back at Starlight in the previous episodes. She also made another propaganda material named ‘Ezekiel remembrance’ to besmirch Starlight. In addition to all of it, the Home Team (Homelander’s faithful supporters) vandalized Starlight’s office in retaliation for the revelation about Annie January performing an abortion and doing all the earlier mistakes. However, there is a newer turn here in between her and Sister Sage. Sister Sage and Firecracker comes into an antagonistic situation fueled by the fact that they have different race. While a newer turn in the name of ‘racial angles’ could sound like an utterly ridiculous twitch, this could also lay the foundation stone for building up the final episode of the season. But again, there is no denying that it’s still a hit or miss insertion as this racial angle could also provide something for The Boys viewers to poke fun at.
Frenchie has finally succumbed to a moment of feeling guilt as he ends up surrendering in front of the police after silently confessing to Annie that he has done some really dreadful things in the past. This could mean that he will confess either just the incident with Colin Hauser or the entire bit of his history with Nina Namenko or Little Nina in the past. Also to be noted, Colin is absent in this episode but Annie once mentioned to Frenchie that Colin did ghost him once. While the entire Colin-Frenchie relationship is currently in the gutters and lauded as one of the weakest points of the season so far, this arc is also something we can look after to see how things will end up. Annie January (formerly Starllght) is going through a major psychological breakdown after suddenly reacting against Firecracker in the live program. She is also haunted by the words sprayed inside her office in the form of graffities like ‘Satan’ and ‘Babykiller’. While she is with The Boys, she is also struggling to focus well at the situation. She even has trouble bringing out her superpowers in front of her team. Victoria Neuman at one point toyed with Annie for her desperate situation, cruelly mocking by asking whether the latter went through an identity crisis scenario after all the incident in front of public, to which she reacted by punching on the former’s face. Annie later admitted to Frenchie about wanting to connect with God and her belief like she used to.
‘The Boys’(excluding Hughie) in The Boys have devised a different plan to finally put an end to the Supes situation under Billy Butcher’s leadership (who at one point also pulled out his iconic dialogue ‘f***ing diabolical!’). He suggested about a virus created at the Godolkin University (for getting some more insights regarding this arc and word, please watch Gen V, a spin-off series to The Boys) which could wipe out their entire nemesis gang.
The team is left amused by this concept but decides to execute it any way. It is also in this same arc where the plots of Annie and Frenchie gets interspersed. For executing this whole strategy, they pulled out Stan Edgar from the prison (Yeah! Gus Fring is back b****es). Stan Edgar is provided with an ultimatum for getting hold of Zoe from Victoria in exchange for the virus (in fact he wasn’t aware until then that she had injected a dose of Compound V to Zoe). Stan takes them to a remote location for fetching the mentioned virus. However, The Boys and Stan surprisingly gets ambushed by Victoria Neuman and her gang. The situation exacerbated further after a couple of domestic animals including sheep and chickens tried to attack the team using some freakish abilities. After a few moments, they finally meet Sameer Shah, a leading scientist at Vought R&D department. In a sudden turn of events, Sameer is also revealed to be the boyfriend of Victoria as well as father to Zoe. Sameer while trying to experiment with the virus, accidentally spreading Compound V among some of the animals present nearby. They hatched a new plan by making use of one of the dead bodies present next to them. Both their escape plan as well as testing the viability of the virus, ended up as a success in the end. Sameer gets missing after that with Victoria assuming him to have died within the whole situation. She later saves Stan from the police.
Joe Kessler (our own Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is back this time. Within his few moments, he is seen mocking Butcher’s team and his recent soft attitude. But the episode finale provides a major kicker which could lay as one of the founding stones towards the climax. This whole segment in a way hints that Jeffrey will make a badass appearance or performance in the coming episodes as all the fans wish for. Ryan is back and is still struggling to cope up with the environment surrounding him. He even subtly expressed a disagreement about producing a film to exhibit him in front of the public, admitting that he wants to follow the old-fashioned superhero approach and save the people just like Becca wanted. ‘Homelander’ though initially feigned concordance, manipulated him into brutally punishing Adam Bourke for flirting with a staff.
We are still yet to wonder whether Ryan will end up becoming what Butcher and everyone else worried about. Will Butcher have to follow Kessler’s suggestion in the end to put down Ryan in the future? Yeah, that’s a question we still have to find answers for in the end and this whole arc intensified the doubts surrounding it. While ‘Homelander’ had a single arc which was all left for him to perform and not to mingle with any other characters, in the previous episode, none of it has happened here. Even though he is deep inside traumatized with his past history and the recent massacre at the Vought, his arc has a short duration here. Its Hughie on the other side who gets such an episode and arc this time.
Hughie is still in the hospital looking after his father Hugh Campbell Sr. along with his mother. He hasn’t joined either The Boys or is fighting The Seven this time as he has a deeply personal stuff he needs to look after. Hugh Sr. just got revived by the Compound V, which was injected by Hughie’s mother in his absence. At first, things look all smooth and soft as if Hughie Campbell got his family back after a long wait. They are seen smiling and laughing together. Daphne, Hughie’s mother, even presented him an engagement ring for proposing to Annie. However, the Compound V later take effect and presented Hugh Sr. with freaking abilities similar to that of X-Men’s ‘Shadowcat’. Since he is emotionally unstable and his powers are uncontrollable at the moment, he ends up killing a lot of people in the hospital. Moreover, he also for a moment become all affected with temporary amnesia. His memory goes back to about 20 years prior where Hughie is still a child. He also couldn’t recognize his son at first because of the same reason. Seeing Daphne makes Hugh Sr. erratic for leaving him and his son and he proceeds to attack his wife violently. However, Hughie takes charge and finally convince him about the reality. Hughie and his mother finally take a drastic step and puts Hugh Sr. out of his misery as he himself doesn’t want to ‘end up like Jar Jar’. This is a poignant ending and quite a tearjerker providing a newer catalyst for constructing Hughie’s characterization.
The cons in this season are in few. As said, The Boys season 4 is yet to make a peaking stage. But still, the newest episode was in a lot way more satisfying than the previous ones. The episode still suffers from some developments in between. Like in the previous episode, a lot of the characters doesn’t have much duration or even a leading storyline. In fact, the situation got like triple the amount this time. The entire Seven doesn’t have much storyline. Even Kimiko, Frenchie and Mother’s Milk are mere side characters here. However, let’s not say that we also have a bunch of positives this time. The return of Giancarlo Esposito as Stan Edgar was a kicker which could incite a bunch of applause from the viewing side. I mean, who could forget him for his phenomenal performance as Gus Fring in the infamous crime drama Breaking Bad? His return to the show was a treat to watch as it provided another interesting angle or a turn here.
The show still follows the ‘odd number/even number’ pattern (as we WTF members refer it) in the case of Ryan, Joe Kessler and Victoria Neuman. They were all absent in the even number episodes 2 and 4 (even though Victoria made an appearance in a television news program in the last episode, it wasn’t a physical presence like here then xD). Joe Kessler looks like finally getting some development and about to kick some ass. The final moment suggests a green signal to him taking a rawer form once again. Victoria’s political motivation isn’t somehow mentioned this time but she has another interesting turn of events to look after with her father. Ryan does look like he is at the brink of moving either to a positive side or a negative side. Since we have three more episodes left, let’s hope that the writers will provide a proper resolution to the characters.
The show from the beginning itself had some subtle ‘X-Men’ references. It all gets intensified in this episode as both the Godolkin University and G-Men (during the expo) are mentioned. Godolkin University is the equivalent of ‘Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters’ while G-Men is the evil equivalent team of the X-Men. G-Men was announced as a part of Phase 7. This could either be a mere homage or even a tease for the future events. Hughie’s arc is perhaps the biggest positives of this episode. In fact, it is one of the best moments ever in the series itself. Simon Pegg shows another side of his acting caliber here. We were all initially excited upon hearing that the star from the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy and the Mission Impossible series is making an appearance in the show as Hughie’s father. It’s a touching moment In the end and a major turning point to Hughie’s characterization. We are yet to see how Annie and the rest of The Boys will react to upon hearing the incident. Maybe it could even bring Annie and Hughie closer than ever in the same way it did between him and his mother.
In short, there is a lot to resolve and a lot to wait for. The Boys was losing some touch in between but the episode did bring something forth to raise our expectations, even though it still has a lot of catching up to do. It’s still a huge task for the writers to make a satisfying resolution and we hope they do.The Boys season four is currently running on Amazon Prime.
Compiled By Amal John