Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for The Boys Season 4, Episode 5
Ever sinceThe Boyspremiered in 2019,Eric Kripke’sgritty, subversive satire has been slowly dismantling the myth of what it means to be a mainstream superhero. By highlighting the realistic consequences of being born with unpredictable powers, the series' first three seasons were notorious for showing audiences the dangerous potential of public figures worshiped as gods, emphasizing this danger with unprecedented levels of gore, casual incidents of murder, and a frankly surprising number of exploding penises. Yet, whileThe Boys’past seasons have primarily focused on the most depraved actions of popular superheroes like Homelander (Antony Starr),Season 4 has flipped the script by doubling down on the darkest parts of its real heroes' backstories.
While “hero” is obviously a loaded term in the series, viewers have been able to rely upon the morality of good-natured characters like Hughie (Jack Quaid) and Annie January (Erin Moriarty) to try and do the right thing in a world constantly overrun by selfish interests. Other members of the Boys like Frenchie (Tomer Capone) and Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) are certainly no saints, brutally killing Translucent (Alex Hassell) in Season 1 and unleashing Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) onthe infamous Herogasm gathering in Season 3, but they do what they do to honestly try and protect the world. Revelations from the first five episodes of Season 4, however, reveal details from many of these characters' pasts that make them culpable of similar crimes as those perpetrated by the superheroes they fight, muddying the show’s moral waters andmaking it clear that no one can be purely good in the world ofThe Boys.
The Boys is a drama series that explores the darker aspects of superhero culture, portraying a world where superheroes abuse their powers rather than use them for good. Centered around a vigilante group aiming to control these corrupt heroes, the series delves into themes of power, corruption, and accountability. The show features a complex narrative with multifaceted characters, offering an unfiltered look at the consequences of unchecked power.
‘The Boys’ Season 4 Highlights the Villainous Actions of the Show’s Main Heroes
The season’s main revelations revolve around Annie and Frenchie, both of whom have more skeletons in their closet than evenThe Boys’previous flashbacks have led fans to believe. While Frenchie’s past ties to the Russian mob and role in the tragic Lamplighter incident undoubtedly keep the character up at night, the character’s relationship with Colin (Elliot Knight) in Season 4 gives fans a clearer look at what kinds of jobs Frenchie pulled as a mafia hitman. Likewise,Firecracker’s (Valorie Curry)revelations inThe Boysabout Annie’s lowest moments when she was a young pageant Supe cast a pall over her depiction as one of the few superheroes with a solid moral compass. In both cases,two characters who seemed mostly sympathetic suddenly feel much more conflicted, with each of them revealed to be far less blameless than they appear on the surface.
In Frenchie’s case, the character’s heroic identity as an ashamed contract killer who puts his dark past behind him in order to save lives isundermined by the specifics of just how dark that past really was in practice. Frenchie’s own admission that he killed Colin’s parents and younger sister for the Russian mob underscores the depths of his past cruelty, while Colin’s horrified recollection of that night demonstrates how Frenchie became a villain through another person’s eyes. While it’s not impossible to relate to contract killers, with the popularity of characters likeKeanu Reeves’John Wick earning admirationfor their smooth fighting styles and relatable desires for vengeance,it’s impossible to defend Frenchie’s murder of a child.
‘The Boys’ Season 4 Gives Us This Unexpected Alliance
You know what they say about enemies of enemies…
Firecracker’s revelations about the sins of Annie’s pageant past aren’t as straightforward as simple murder, but the conspiracy theorist’s attacks strike at the core ofStarlight’s characternonetheless. Throughout previous seasons ofThe Boys, Starlight has largely been portrayed as a defender of the voiceless, the kind of allywho calls out The Deep (Chace Crawford)for his harassment of women and fights to expose the brutal truths of Vought’s cruel business practices. ButFirecracker’s storyabout how Annie bullied her when they were children and accidentally blinded a woman during one of Starlight’s first missionsdamages her credibility as a defender of the helpless. As someone who shamed another young girl for her body and carelessly injured a civilian with her powers, it’s harder for Annie to criticize Homelander for being a bully who thoughtlessly injures people with his powers.
On the other hand,neither Frenchie nor Annie are their pasts, and both characters have done more than their share of good throughoutThe Boys.From confronting Stormfront’s (Aya Cash) racist history in Season 2 to stopping Soldier Boy in Season 3, both members ofThe Boys’main team have risked their lives countless times to rid the world of superpowered murderers. Furthermore, while Firecracker’s accusations are confirmed by Annie, they mostly serve to further the agenda of Sister Sage (Susan Heyward) as she tries to incite enough chaos for Homelander to rule the world. Annie and Frenchie’s continued questto opposeThe Boys’worst villainsthereforeconfirms they’re not as bad as the series' antagonists, though neither character has come out of Season 4 unscathed.
Season 4 of ‘The Boys’ Proves That No Character Is Completely Good
Even with all the good that Annie’s Starlighters are doing to oppose the far-right ideologies of Homelander’s violent supporters, the revelations about both her and Frenchie’s past inevitably change the way both characters should be perceived. No longer confined to the mistakes they’ve made during the show, such as Starlight teaming up with Supersonic (Miles Gaston Villenueva) to challenge Homelander in Season 3, the value of each character’s morality can now also be judged by their actions off-screen. The knowledge that two ofThe Boys’most compelling heroesinjured innocent people in the past connects directly to the show’s depiction of its heroes as morally gray, demonstrating thatno Supe is entirely good,just as Homelander’s lab sceneworks to provide his character with a bit of humanity.
This season’s exploration of its characters' contradictory layers is best representedbyThe Boys’A-Train (Jessie T. Usher), whose recent decision to help the government confirms one of the show’s most consistent antagonists is starting to realize the error of his ways. From killing Robin (Jess Salgueiro) in Season 1 to attacking Starlight, A-Train has repeatedly attempted to maintain his influence with Vought by eliminating anyone who gets in his way, even those he claims to love, like Popclaw (Brittany Allen). Subsequent seasons have seen the character flirt with doing the right thing by exposing Stormfront and killing Blue Hawk (Nick Wechsler), butSeason 4 is the first time A-Train is directly communicating with Mother’s Milkto actually give the government information that could help them contain Homelander’s superhero threat.
Season 4 also marks the first time A-Train helps Hughie for Hughie’s own sake, illustrating the similar moralstruggle experienced byThe Boys' main team.Hughie’s decision to take Temp V in Season 3 with Billy (Karl Urban) already demonstrates the lengths he is willing to go in order to protect himself and Starlight from Homelander, but Season 4 seesHughie crossing an even more ethically ambiguous line. By convincing A-Train to procure Compound V for Hughie’s comatose father (Simon Pegg), Hughie makes it possible for his father to be physically altered in ways the man never consented to be. Hughie has good reason for this, seeing as the hospital expects to pull the plug on him shortly, but without knowing whether Mr. Campbell wants powers or will be better off with them,Hughie’s decisionunderscores the murky choice between wrong and right thatsurrounds every character onThe Boys— and the tragic outcome of that decision only compounds that further.
Since even the most well-intentioned characters in the series have still caused immeasurable pain, and some of the show’s worst antagonists still can’t help but try to do the right thing, Season 4 ofThe Boysshrugs off labels of good and bad completely to take a deeper look at heroes of great complexity. The show never portrays a superhero whose beliefs are as unimpeachable as Marvel’s Captain America or ashauntingly noble as DC’s Batman, instead exposing audiences to everyday people doing the best they can under extraordinary circumstances. Frenchie and Starlight’s tragic pasts illustrate howThe Boysdoesn’t abide by simple conventions of schoolboy heroics, while Season 4’s broader context underscores thatsuperheroes don’t truly exist inThe Boysbecause no one can be only good all the time. In a world where babies shoot lasers from their eyes and congressional planes get burned out of the sky, everyone is an antihero pursuing their own version of what they think is right.
New episodes of Season 4 ofThe Boysare streaming every Thursday on Prime Video in the U.S.WATCH ON PRIME VIDEO
