The Boys Season 4 Review: In a recent interview, Eric Kripke, showrunner of The Boys, made his thoughts on possible criticism of the new year very clear. “I clearly have a perspective and I'm not shy about putting that perspective on the show. Anyone who wants to call the show 'woke' or something like that, that's fine. Go watch something else. But I’m certainly not going to beat around the bush or apologize for what we’re doing,” he said. He also commented on those who believe that Homelander (Antony Starr) is a hero: “The show is many things. Subtle is not one of them. So if that's the message you're getting, I'll just wash my hands.”
And Kripke is absolutely right. The Boys was never subtle. Both for the good and for the bad of the series. The criticisms and satire made based on the heroes were always in the spectator's face. Captain Patria's fascist behavior, ditto. The great thing about the series is following this “realistic” world, where heroes are controlled by large corporations and the view of most of them on the rest of the world: disposable pawns on the board.
If this satire was lost in a sea of scatologically purposeful jokes - and many of them were unfunny - or in gore scenes and gratuitous sexual content, the beginning of the fourth season proves that the strength of the series' discourse still exists and is more current than ever before. that never.
Extremism and political polarization
The third season of The Boys ends with Homelander introducing Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) to the world as his son. In the crowd, a supporter of Luz-Estrela (Erin Moriarty) throws a bottle at the superhero and he retaliates with the laser beam, killing the man. After a few seconds of silence, the audience begins to shout in support of the hero's attitude. Crime is a central part of the beginning of the fourth season.
Luz-Estrela now has a foundation and his image is used as an example by opponents of Captain Patria. On the other side, those who support the hero create fake news and other atrocities to try to tarnish the image of the former heroine. And it is in this scenario that two new additions to the cast will enter. They are Sister Sage (Susan Heyward) and Firecracker (Valorie Curry).
The first is known as the smartest person - and she makes this very clear - in the world. Homelander goes after her after Ashley (Colby Minifie) shows a series of new hero options for The Seven. He ends up finding in Sage what the group was missing: intelligence and strategy. If there is polarization and the other side is articulated intellectually and socially, the Supers need to act in the same way so as not to lose the large mass that supports them. The reference to the Roman emperor Julius Caesar is perfect in the conversation between the Captain and Sage. He is the emperor and she is the head, just as Mark Antony was to Caesar, Joseph Goebbels to Hitler, and Steve Bannon to Trump.
Right away, she comes up with a plan that takes a group of Homelander fans to a meeting, which is actually a trap. The three are killed by Deep (Chance Crawford), Trem-Bala (Jessie T. Usher), and the new Noir (Nathan Mitchell). Sage, disguised as Starlighter, starts a fight with Homelander's supporters in front of the court where he is being tried and a general fight breaks out. Trem Bala leaves the bodies of the three fans among Luz-Estrela's supporters and the deaths pit the hero-supporting media against the former Vought heroine.
Continuing with the plan, Sage sees in Firecracker the Fake News machine that Homelander's followers need to be inflamed. The series uses several atrocities created in recent years, in the real world, as lines for the character. She associates Luz-Estrela with Hollywood and pedophilia, child trafficking, and working with Oprah and Tom Hanks in creating satanic services. “If you ask for a hot dog, they give you a boy. If you order a taco, they give you a girl. One combo is worth a child forced to have trans surgery,” she says during a conference. And of course, without being able to prove it. It would be even more comical if we weren't exposed to it all the time.
The conflict between Firecracker and Luz-Estrela is still far from over and a rumor created by Annie in the past, during a beauty contest, is the great trigger for the hatred of the new member of Os Sete. Her work in joining the group soon proves worthwhile when an armed supporter invades Luz-Estrela's foundation looking for kidnapped children.
The success of Sage's work in the strategy of undermining Homelander's opponents begins to give her more space within Vought and the leader places her in Ahsley's place as CEO. The way he treats Ashley is yet another - not at all subtle - proof of the character's superior race thinking. It's still unclear whether Sage has a bigger plan for either the boss or Vought itself, but her final scene in the third episode, in which she seduces Deep, leaves even more doubt about that.
Bruto x Homelander for the love of Ryan
If the social and political context is that truck that has been running over the episodes with references and mockery, the theme of fatherhood and the love between parents and children is central to guiding the first three episodes of the fourth year of The Boys. The main front is in the major conflict of the series: Billy Bruto (Karl Urban) against Captain Patria. Since discovering that he is Ryan's father, the superhero has been trying to get him by his side and the end of last season suggested that he had found this path.
However, Ryan was a child who, unlike Homelander, was raised for a normal life, without getting a taste of being a Supe or learning that those without powers are a debased race. It is in this difference in thinking and in the new reality that Ryan has to live in, that the conflict between father and son begins to emerge. The leader of Os Sete wants to give the boy everything he claims he didn't have when he was young: a father who is present, who does his bidding, and who shows some appreciation for him. Furthermore, the fact that he is getting older and collecting white pubic hair still puts the factor of the finiteness of life in the hero's path.
On the other hand, Ryan wasn't created for that world. He feels regret when he kills a stuntman by unintentionally using force. He doesn't find it that interesting to see an image of him wearing a uniform similar to that of the Homeland Captain. That artificial Vought world isn't his.
In the other corner of the ring is Bruto, the one who raised Ryan like a son and who, now, increasingly closer to the end of his life - due to the use of compound V - needs to save the last living remnant of his love for Becca. Bruto begins to hallucinate and see his wife dead and it is to her that he promises to save the boy, but his destructive behavior, which separated him from his work group and his son, still leaves marks on their relationship. He even thinks about drugging the boy to kidnap him at one point, but when the two end up understanding each other, Bruto gives up on the idea and starts trying to do it the right way.
Family relationships continue throughout other segments of the series. Hughie (Jack Quaid), who has become estranged from his father (Simon Pegg) because of his mission against superheroes, finds him in a coma in the hospital after a stroke. He now has to face his mother, who abandoned the family when he was still a child and returned to take care of his father. Trem-Bala has to face his brother and former coach again, now paraplegic after being shot last season. Leitinho (Laz Alonso) needs to help his ex-wife with Todd, a father figure for their daughter. Even Deep - and his boring personal drama - takes on more interesting contours with his forbidden relationship with the octopus Ambrosius - voiced by Tilda Swinton.
The Boys x Neuman and a new ally
In the midst of all this, the team led by Leitinho da Mamãe continues its plan to kill the superheroes, but now faces an even greater threat: Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) as vice president.
Early in the season, we discover that Robert Singer (Jim Beaver) is working with the CIA on a plan to kill Victoria before she blows his head off and assumes the presidency. It is on this mission that they invade a hotel where Singer and Neuman's entourage are waiting for the votes to be counted. French (Tomer Capone) and Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) try to put acid in Victoria's eye drops in her room, but are hunted by Zoe (Olivia Morandin), Neuman's daughter, who received compound V from her mother last season. The girl uses killer tentacles in her mouth to try to kill them both, but they escape. Outside, Hughie and Butcher try to kill Victoria, but she even survives being shot in the head.
One of the most interesting parts here is the relationship between Bruto and Joe Kessler, Jeffrey Dean Morgan's new character. The two have already worked together on missions for the government and form a duo parallel to the work of the CIA, which is focused on protecting the elected president. It's a point that could become more important in the season, but it hasn't been explored much yet.
Needing evidence against Homelander, Annie and Hughie find Trem-Bala with his family on the street. Before Annie exposes him in front of her nephews and brother, Hughie asks her to wait and the superhero runs away. However, Trem-Bala knew they were there and, because of Hughie's good deed, ends up giving them both the evidence that shows that the three bodies at the demonstration were a set-up. This attitude of the hero, plus the humiliations he goes through at Vought with the Homeland Captain, makes Leitinho call him to collaborate with his team. This new alliance could shake Hughie and his trust in the group, in fact, the death of his old girlfriend, caused by Trem-Bala, was the beginning of this whole story. Will the cycle close with an unexpected partnership?
French, Kimiko, and the shadow of the past
The one who gets a new, more interesting arc in the story is French. Serge meets a person from his past, Colin (Elliot Knight), who works at the Luz-Estrela Foundation. Their friendship proves to be more than that when the activist is injured in the conflict against the Homeland Captain's supporters and he and Serge end up sleeping together. The Boys puts Frances in the middle of a torrid passion with Colin, however, he is always on the run and we soon discover why. Serge killed Colin's entire family on one mission. All this drama is welcome for the character who has always been in fans' sights as a possible death on the team. Having something to fight for, suffer and lose for, gives the Frenchman a new charge of energy for the season.
Likewise, Kimiko encounters shadows from her past and a Shining Light Liberation Army cell operating in NY. When she and Serge go to investigate - and he starts having a hallucinogenic trip - she ends up meeting another girl, who calls her by her name. The young woman, who has a scar on her face, runs away before any further information is revealed.
Francês and Kimiko's relationship begins to be shaken by these two new paths that their plots take and this should be reflected throughout the season, which could end badly for one of them.