The Boys Season 4 Episode 1, 2 & 3 Review
Amazon’s original series The Boys is quite a celebrated show within the modern pop cultural scenario. Everything ranging from the iconic catchphrases of William ‘Billy’ Butcher to some of the memorable moments within the show are quite reused and discussed via social media platforms and the usual social media short status videos. However, one thing the fans usually find excruciating about this satirical portrayal of the whole Superhero character spectrum would be the long years gap between each season. Even though the whole first season was released on the very first same day, The Boys creators resorted to a different pattern of having the first three episodes released on the same day while having the rest of the episodes stream on a weekly base, which they followed till now. The gap between each season widened to the point of having a pause of about two years and ten days between the day the first three episodes of the previous season, this time and sadly that pause did inspire a sense of weariness for everyone around to the point of almost forgetting the ‘fourth season’s’ arrival. And sadly, the wait wasn’t truly paid off this time.
Now before proceeding to the next part, I’ll admit that we are still a long way from making a full set of assessment for a show like this. This piece of opinions presented are truly with respect to what we have witnessed so far this time. Of course, none of us can’t predict when and where a show would catch the grip once again.
The Boys this time starts with a scenario filled with, doubts, search for love, ego clash, facing the past as well as the upcoming election turmoil within the show. ‘The Seven’ is still as strong and wrongly glorified within the public as usual. The original Boys team consisting of William aka Bily Butcher, Hughie Campbell, Sergei aka Frenchie, Marvin aka Mother’s Milk, Kimiko aka The Female and Annie January who was formerly ‘Starlight’ from ‘The Seven’. Voight is still trying to do their best maintain the public image of their ‘Supes’ as legit saviors of humanity while in reality they are still a gang with no elements of ethics and care for the people around.
‘The Seven’ has a few changes this time. There is new Black Noir dubbed as ‘Black Noir II’ as well as two additional superheroines who are supposed to fill the gap left.
The latest characters this time are ‘Sister Sage’, a black Supe whose only power is her extreme level of intelligence (she self-dubs as the ‘smartest person on the planet’) and Firecracker, a Supe with a strong Southern accent who has a charming ability to generate sparks as well as some superhuman abilities like super hearing, durability and strength.
Sister Sage in this season plays a version of DC’s ‘Batman’ who is also known as the smartest person in his universe. Sage has no qualms about widely putting out the first thing that comes into her mind. She is smart and brash in the same way Batman sometimes behaves. She also educates and informs plans and her deductions to ‘Homelander’ himself, who is this universe’s equivalent of ‘Superman’. And unlike Superman, Homelander as usual doesn’t have any patience towards hearing out another person’s opinions or thoughts and the same has happened a couple of times in front of Sage itself, even though he at times tried to keep shut. Firecracker on the other side joins the team with a sinister plan of getting back at Starlight who ruined her chances at the pageants when they were young.
Ryan, son of Becca, Billy’s former wife, is in an emotional turmoil after joining Homelander, his father’s gang. Homelander initially manipulated Ryan by claiming himself as his savior and that Billy is a pedophile. However, his views began changing after witnessing and learning every aspect of his father’s creepy behavior and began struggling with his decisions.
Victoria Neuman, the founding director of Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs (FBSA) and a closeted Supe herself is filled with her political aspirations herself. From the beginning itself, she was a congressman earning for the post of the Vice President of the United States. And from the looks of it, she is getting closer to the Oval Office than she originally was. The original ‘The Boys’ comics had Victor Neuman (the original male version) assassinating the previous President of the United States and occupying the place himself. This won’t last long as Homelander would personally kill Victor and become the President himself. The Boys series however seems like having a different plan for the character as they always had (the original Victor Neuman was a mere minor character in the comics). Homelander is shown persuading her to come out as a Supe in front of the public. Whether or not Homelander is planning on using this persuasion as one of his machinations into assuming the throne himself like in the comics, is something we should wait to see in the future. If it does, this whole plot could in one way mirror the fate of John F. Kennedy (a version of the original former American President) from the ‘X-Men’ universe where he himself was a closeted mutant who fought in favor of is kind even though he ultimately will face his untimely disaster.
Moreover, Victoria’s child Zoe, who in the previous season injected herself with a dose of Compound V and became a Supe, is also shown as a possible threat in the storyline. In the beginning itself, she is shown killing a couple of Fed agents with her tentacles. We might witness her true destiny or at least an idea about it in the future episodes.
‘Search for love’ is one of the biggest recurring themes in this season. Homelander is yearning for love from Ryan, his illegitimate son, even though he can’t let go off his negative shades or purely embrace the role of a daunting father. In addition to it, Homelander is also trying to raise Ryan, who is also the first ‘natural Supe’, into a popular superhero in front of the public like he became. However, the shades which Homelander lacks is visibly showcased by Billy, who still can’t digest the idea of having to ‘kill’ the boy if he has to. Frenchie this time forms a whirlwind romance with Colin Hauser, an employee at the Starlight house and one of the oldest sparks in the former’s life. Kimiko after realizing that her relationship with Frenchie isn’t working out and noticing the tension between him and Colin, finally persuades him to go and start a new life with his new male lover.
Hughie’s father’s unexpected stroke makes him confront his mother (played by the lovely Rosemarie DeWitt) after a long gap and they are still not on good terms. The Deep, the caricature Supe of DC’s Aquaman is also struggling with his feelings for Ambrosius, an octopus, even though he can’t reveal it to the public. He hides her within his room cupboard even though he was instructed to get her out.
The most intriguing subplot or theme in this season would be the ‘facing the past’ part. In the previous seasons, only a few characters had to deal with the past but this time, barring a few, most of the central characters has a past which they struggle to either face or even forget. Hughie’s history with his mother puts him in a compromising situation similar to how he faced when his girlfriend got killed by A-Train out of negligence. Homelander’s past is catching up with him once again even though his story arc is still a Billy with his terminal disease and his issues with Ryan, made him hallucinate the presence of Becca right next to him on one juncture. Frenchie during his relationship with Colin has to consume pills in order to stop one of his old regrettable actions into killing his sanity. Kimiko’s past has confronted once again after going through a few occasions.
Victoria’s past history with Stan Edgar is put out once again in front of her on numerous occasions. A-Train’s past story narrated by his brother brings him to the brink of self-doubt and pity and is seemingly interested in letting go of his erratic lifestyle, which Mother’s Milk would later think of exploiting for ‘The Boys’ moves. But perhaps the most intriguing here would be Annie aka Starlight’s case as she has to confront an old nemesis from her bitchy days. Even though the situation might look simply in a kid’s perspective in the initial glance, things are more complicated than ever. Annie has a bunch of followers of her own with whom she fights against the supporters of Homelander who are blinded by his ideals and preachings. Firecracker’s actions against Annie would result in Annie losing her support (she even publicly embraced her old identity as Starlight, after Hughie pressed her to) which could affect her moves in putting down ‘The Seven’.
However, while the themes and motives sound intriguing, The Boys season 4 is also filled with some cons. A major issue as many fans pointed out was the repetition of the same narrative i.e. having The Boys team plotting against the Supes and the parent ‘Voight’ once again, which would get later thwarted by either Homelander or some unexpected circumstances. This recycling of plot somehow puts them in the same league of series like The Walking Dead. This however get coupled with another one of the major issues, which is the lag in each episode which sometimes affects the viewing mentality. Needless to say, these issues in a way are also stated by some of the reasons as to why the fourth season of The Boys failed to garner initial traffic like it used to. Even though explicit gore and blood is a specialty of The Boys like any other R rated series, it also does look a bit gratuitous on some occasions.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s addition was an awe-inspiring move like Jensen Ackles’ in the previous season. But so far, he hasn’t done much for piquing the attention of the viewers.
This leads us to wonder whether he would suffer the same fate like he did in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, where potential went unexplored and wasted. If it’d happen, the showrunners might face some major criticism. But still, we have got five more episodes left and can hope to see something kickass out of him.
Curiously enough, Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s character Joe Kessler as well as Ambrosius, Victoria and an arc between Billy and Ryan were all absent in the second episode, only for them to appear once again in the next one.
Out of all arcs presented, Frenchie’s situation with Colin and Starlight’s with Firecracker would be the only novelties and something we should look after. Lets hope that we’ll get a satisfying resolution in the end.
The Boys is streaming on Amazon Prime on Thursdays. We’ll get our next aka the fourth output on 19th of June, this year.
Compiled by Amal John