Yahoo News ‘The Boys’ Refresher: What to Remember Before Season 4
In the current political climate — which some say is stranger than fiction — you have under 150 days before votes will be cast in the 2024 Election, where the onslaught of a media blitz can tantalize your cerebral cortex. But if you can’t wait that long, June 13 is promising to entangle you with just as much of a media overload of sexcapades, political intrigue, debauchery, violence, espionage, blood, gore and well, just outright weird kink stuff, as The Boys — Amazon Prime’s satirical series about a group of vigilantes chasing after rogue superheroes — kicks off its fourth season.
In the latest trailer for season four, a group of American citizens in the streets are seemingly divided into two social and political factions, and on the verge of violence — with the tune of the funky classic from Curtis Mayfield, “(Don’t Worry) If There’s a Hell Below, We’re All Going to Go,” egging them on. Meanwhile, the most powerful superhero, Homelander, played by Antony Starr (who is no doubt a poster child for MAGA and the far right, channeling what GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump might look like with superpowers), stands to the side and smiles with glee as chaos ensues.
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The former leader of the Boys, Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) is seen begging his team for forgiveness for taking an illegal drug in season three that temporarily gave him as much strength as the supes (the name for those with superpowers) so that he could kill Homelander. But in becoming addicted to the drug, Butcher also allowed one of the Boys’ most vulnerable group members to become addicted, Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid).
Also in the trailer, Homelander is seen telling his team of celebrity supes known as the Seven (who usually do Marvel-like films, TV series and media blitzes for a living, working for a mega-corporation conglomerate named Vought International), “This country is corrupt beyond repair, so we got to save it. It’s not going to be easy; we’ll have to do some terrible things for the greater good. You will no longer be beloved celebrities. You will be wrathful gods. Show me a little wrath.”
The footage revealed that the actor who played The Walking Dead’s ultimate villain Negan, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, will have a pivotal role in season four as one the vigilantes’ allies. And it is also revealed that season four will bring in elements of The Boys spinoff series Gen V. In that series, about a university for young supes to hone their powers and one day become the next members of the Seven, it was revealed that a secret lab existed where a virus was developed that could actually kill supes (prior to that, only supes could kill other supes). From the trailer, it appears that Butcher knows about and/or has access to this virus that can be used as a weapon against Homelander, and against the reckless supes who sexually assault, toy with and then kill regular human beings at their whim.
The fourth season will begin to usher in the end of The Boys, as creator Eric Kripke has announced that season five will be the final season. “I don’t totally know how we’re going to get there, but I know the destination,” he told The Hollywood Reporter after the announcement. Before season four starts streaming (launching with the first three episodes), here is THR’s look back at season three so viewers will be caught up when the new debauchery begins.
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The Boys Encountered Deadly Intercourse With the Tiniest of Supes
Season three exploded all over audiences’ screens as Butcher and the Boys team members, Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) and Frenchie (Tomer Capone), were in hot pursuit of a deadly supe known as Termite. Termite (Brad Geddes), because although a full-sized man, could shrink his body down to the size of said insect, crawl into victims and then will himself back into a full-sized adult, leaving his victims a mush of body parts and human waste. (Add onto that: Termite had a bad cocaine habit and sexual kink of crawling into his lovers’ penis to give the ultimate orgasm. But, what if he sneezes and that sets him into re-metabolizing to full size? You get the rest.)
Unfortunately, Frenchie had the misfortune of walking in on Termite ending the life of one his lovers, death by pleasure and sneeze. Termite knows that will be the end of him if this ever gets out. He sees only one alternative; he must shrink down to size and enter into Frenchie’s rectum to explode. Kimiko enters the room just in time to help Frenchie try to fight off Termite, who has already raced up one of his pant legs. (Termite still has superhuman strength when insect-sized.) Calamity ensues in what might be one of the funniest hand-to-hand combat fight scenes ever filmed on a streaming series. Finally, after Termite has tossed Kimiko and Frenchie against the wall in the bedroom and is about to take another run to enter one of Frenchie’s nostrils, Butcher saves the day by catching the Jiminy Cricket-sized supe in a plastic bag of his own cocaine. Butcher contemplates squashing him like a bug (the old Butcher would have), but in trying to turn over a new leaf, he tells his team to call the bureau who tracks and puts away unhinged supes.
Meanwhile, Hughie has become a suit with the organization he used to fear, the FBSA (Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs), as an assistant for U.S. Congresswoman Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) and is living with his supe girlfriend, Starlight (Erin Moriarty), who is a reluctant part of the Seven. Hughie is being used as the middleman between the Boys and FBSA, or one could say they are trying to use Hughie to control his former team on which supes they go after and why.
Also, Ryan (Cameron Crovetti), the son of Homelander and Butcher’s late wife (a government agent who was killed in season two), is still being hidden from the most powerful supe. Butcher goes to visit him and Ryan tells him he still has dreams of being killed by his father.
Butcher also receives a visit from an ally and one of the Seven, Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott), after it comes to light that Termite was set free by Vought after being captured by the Boys’ teams. Butcher is furious, but Queen Maeve brings a weapon that will help Butcher in his quest to fight Vought and perhaps stop Homelander’s tyranny. It’s a drug, Temp V, that if taken, will give Butcher (or any human) the strength of a supe for a day. Butcher’s use of the drug (and eventually, Hughie’s) becomes an addiction throughout the season.
Supes for a Day, Soldier Boy
Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito), CEO of Vought International, is tired of playing babysitter of the supes — hiding their murders, sexual assaults and building their gold star media profiles that many would say aren’t deserved. What Edgar does want to do is turn Vought pharmaceuticals into a company that makes a drug to turn ordinary citizens into supe soldiers for 24 hours. He proposes to the POTUS getting his Compound V passed in Congress quickly, with the help he has planted there. Viewers learned in episode two that Neuman was raised by Edgar and they have a niece/uncle relationship.
We also see the fifth member of the Boys’ team, Mother’s Milk, aka M.M. (played by Laz Alonso), trying to assimilate back into a normal life after he left the team at the end of season two. He’s trying to make his daughter happy at her birthday party while trying not to appear jealous of his ex-wife and her new boyfriend (M.M. secretly desires for his family unit to be together again). But also brewing in the back of Mother’s Milk’s mind is unfinished business with the Boys. Eventually, the call is too strong, and M.M.’s ex tells him he needs to go back to his team after a heart-wrenching scene where he has a violent episode in front of his daughter over a beeping smoke detector. Episode two, “The Only Man in the Sky,” also kicks off much of the search to discover details about a weapon that supposedly killed the strongest supe ever, Solider Boy. The hope is, of course, that this weapon can used in some way to eventually take down Homelander.
Homelander Shows the World Who He Really Is
One of season three’s biggest plotlines was for the Boys to find a weapon that could finally destroy Homelander (whether that was by Butcher having the same strength through the Temp V, or finding a weapon that killed the first most-powerful supe Soldier Boy, played by Nathan Mitchell). But from the corporate front, Vought’s way of controlling and stripping Homelander of his power would be through giving his star ratings and appeal to another, such as making Starlight co-captain of the Seven. Homelander’s media persona had already taken a hit from falling in love with a neo-Nazi supe Stormfront (played by Aya Cash) in season two. Badly mutilated by Homelander’s son at the end of season two, Stormfront takes her own life in season three, episode two. This sends Homelander into a mental breakdown during a televised publicity stunt birthday party for him.
Homelander announces to the world that they should be grateful to him for his superpowers and how they need him more than he needs them. He refuses to apologize anymore for any of his questionable behaviors. He sees himself as Christ-like. Yet, when Homelander hears about a woman who is about to jump off a building to commit suicide, instead of saving her, he encourages her to kill herself. She obliges him.
Soldier Boy Lives
In episode four, The Boys’ adventures finally end up with them encountering a gangster known as Little Nina (Katia Winter), who has intel on an alleged Russian super weapon that kills supes. She will only share this information if the Boys complete an assassination for her. Once again, Butcher orders Kimiko as lead killer for the team, but she pushes back. She is tired of this life and wants to be seen as a human being, not just some killing machine with special powers. Frenchie agrees with her and says that after their current assignment, they will leave for France together and go far away from the Boys.
Kimiko infiltrates a Russian Oligarch mansion who is having a supes-themed sex party. She uses the sex toys to obliterate the Little Nina’s enemy along with his army of henchmen, but she is shot by one of the sex workers and severely wounded. Her body regenerates itself.
The team is finally given the location of the lab in Russia where the super weapon can be found. They are under heavy attack by Russian fighters. Butcher and Hughie take the Temp V and are able to ward off their attackers. In the melee, there is a huge blast that once again injures Kimiko. But this time, her body doesn’t heal on its own. And the Boys discover the secret weapon they had been seeking is actually Soldier Boy. He’s alive!
Back in the U.S., Homelander threatens Starlight by saying he’ll kill Hughie if she doesn’t do whatever he tells her to do. Secretly, Starlight was building a coalition of supes to join her in fighting against an off-the-hinges Homelander. The group included Maeve, longtime Seven member A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) and newcomer Supersonic (Miles Gaston Villanueva). To make his point, Homelander delivers Supersonic’s dead body to Starlight.
No Love Lost
Nauman turns against Edgar in exchange for Homelander bringing her Compound V to permanently change her daughter Zoe (Olivia Morandin) into a supe. Nauman publicly accuses Edgar of corruption.
Herogasm
Soldier Boy is hell bent on killing his former team who sold him to the Russians. Butcher and Hughie make a deal with him that they will help him track down his former team members if he agrees to help them take out Homelander. This agreement leads the team of three, in episode six, to the annual Herogasm pilgrimage in Montpelier, Vermont. What is it, you ask? It’s a supe orgy hosted by the TNT Twins (who are on Soldier Boy’s hitlist). Homelander arrives at Herogasm and big battle ensues between him and Soldier Boy, with the help of suped-up Hughie and Butcher. Homelander is getting his ass kicked, but manages to escape because of the sonic blasts coming from Soldier Boy, who is unable to control them from time to time.
I Am Your Father, Homelander
In episode seven, Starlight, who is now going by her given name Annie, retrieves Compound V from Vought headquarters for Kimiko to heal and restore her powers. But Annie also discovers that Temp V, which Butcher and Hughie were taking, will kill its users after three to five doses. Butcher releases his hold on Hughie but doesn’t tell him about the dangers of Temp V. Butcher chooses to continue using the drug.
But the shocker of this episode comes at the end, when Soldier Boy calls Homelander and reveals that he is biological father.
This all culminates in episode eight when Homelander kills a member of the Seven, Noir (Nathan Mitchell), for failing to tell him that Soldier Boy is his father. Meanwhile, Butcher and Soldier Boy meet with the Boys team and Annie to lock them in a safehouse as they go to try to kill Homelander once again. Maeve joins them. And they are winning, but Homelander’s son attempts to defend his father and Soldier Boy attacks the child. Maeve protects the boy and Homelander escapes with his son.
The season ends with Butcher being terminally ill from his Temp V, Annie rejoining the Boys, and the government taking Soldier Boy and locking him away after battle with Maeve. Neuman is a presidential candidate and Homelander has started making public appearances with his son. And, in true Boys fashion, the season ended with a stranger attacking Ryan and Homelander, wasting no time obliterating the mere mortal within the middle of the crowd. Just like Homelander’s anger, The Boys‘ fourth season isn’t expected to hold anything back.
The Boys season four launches on Prime Video June 13.
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