The Boys Episode 4.01 Recap and Review: Easing into a New Season by Feeling Uneasy

The Boys is back and the first episode of season four, “Department of Dirty Tricks,” wasted no time in digging into the action, moving the plot forward at a brisk pace while at the same time drilling into each of the characters’ rather twisted psyches.  And man, do we mean twisted.  Each character seems to be taking a personal journey this season and as usual, it’s not going the way we think. 

While the first scene went instantly for the bizarre action scene laced with some dark humor that this show is famous for, it’s not quite as shocking (or utterly disgusting) as last year’s Termite inside his lover’s shaft scene.  For that, I want to say thank you.  That was a bit too much for me right off the bat!   Not that the gore was spared.  Not at all.  It was just more digestible, if that can even be a thing for some.  This episode is directed by Phil Sgriccia, so we know we’re getting something visually appealing.  

There’s no better way to kick off the season with a classic punk anthem, “God Save the Queen” by the Sex Pistols, and starting with Victoria Neuman.  Nice play Kripke!  If you haven’t heard those lyrics, you must!  I’ll share a line, which totally sums up the uneasiness of her ascent to power.  “God save the queen, She’s not a human being and There’s no future…”  Just perfect.   Turns out the event is election night, and team Boys are doing their usual cloak and dagger stuff at Robert Singer/Victoria Neuman election party headquarters.  Are Singer and Neuman winning?  Yes, yes they are.  But that’s not the important part.  The idea is to assassinate Neuman.  Did it go well?  Hee, you know it didn’t.  

To set up all the scheming that goes on in this universe, a party that magnitude can’t happen without Homelander showing up.  In a mix of brilliant editing and score, Homelander gets the hero edit on his first shot.  He’s bathed in a bright white light, dramatic music roaring in the background, just for the shot to pan down to reveal he’s standing at a urinal, the score falling just as the camera does.  Then, there’s a rise of scary violins as a horrified Homelander discovers a gray pubic hair.  There’s that Kripke humor we all know and love!  Bravo to music director Chris Lennertz too!  

Next there’s a tasty exchange between Neuman and Homelander in the ballroom.  He of course thinks he has her wrapped around his finger but she tells him otherwise, with both soft talking and fake smiling for the crowd during the whole conversation.  She points out that Homelander may have support from his fans while being on trial, but the shareholders of Vought didn’t like it.  She tells him that any transaction they had before is ancient history.  As usual, Homelander isn’t listening.   We know this topic will be coming up again!  

On the flip side Mother’s Milk’s surveillance spots Homelander, and he delivers the stern warning to Butcher, who’s not having a good evening.  Do not engage Homelander.  You think that’s going to work?  Again, you know what show we’re watching.  Butcher approaches Ryan in the kitchen, who’s there with Neuman’s daughter to get ice cream.  This is what derails the team’s plans, because it’s Butcher.   Homelander arrives before the talk can finish, which is a pretty big signal that they’re up to something by being there.   Neuman’s daughter goes to their hotel room, sees the attempted exchange of eye drops that will supposedly take out Neuman by Frenchie and Kimiko, as well as two Singer guards, and we quickly find out what her supe power is! 

She screams, spews killer tentacles from her mouth, taking out the guards with plenty of blood gushing everywhere and graphic dismemberments, and she eventually severs Kimiko’s arm, which starts growing back as a wonderful baby arm nub while the rest of the sequence plays out.  She and Frenchie flee through a window, and Starlight is able to catch Frenchie before splatting on the pavement.  The same can’t be said for Kimiko, because Starlight tried to grab her baby arm and missed, but we know it only takes a minute for her to regenerate from such calamities.  I’m really underplaying how this all goes down, but let’s just say it’s another spectacular bloody collateral damage flub for team Boys. 

That leads to the scene we’ve been waiting for a long time, a confrontation between Hughie and Neuman, who figured out right away who was behind this.  This time last year, Hughie was her passionate and enthusiastic employee on her anti-supe task force, so naturally there’s some hurt feelings over her being a supe.  Neuman doesn’t want to kill Hughie, but relishes in taunting that the Boys are actually getting worse at their job.  Hughie does convey his feelings of betrayal and it feels like a long overdue earnest conversation.  But then Hughie tries to kill her with acid, which does nothing, and Butcher shows up to deliver a head shot, that does nothing, so they’re lucky that she doesn’t want to kill them.  Instead she threatens those that care about them, and hey, it’s not like those people ever stopped being in the hot seat.  That’s all you’ve got Vicky?  

One has to wonder though, is her reluctance to kill Hughie over the fact that she really did find him to be a true friend, or does she think Hughie can expose her secret?  The way that conversation played out, I’m leaning toward the former.  However, when push comes to shove, would she take out Hughie?   There’s that glint that maybe she can be redeemable, but those qualities are often shown in these characters just for them to end up not having to courage to choose their humanity over pursuit of power.  Still, it makes you wonder, do you think Neuman will eventually do the right thing?  

After all that, it’s back to business as usual and we get to see the full cast of characters deal with their current situations.  Starlight is struggling with her purpose.  She doesn’t want to wear the Starlight suit anymore, and is going by her original name of Annie January.  Hughie is by her side, helping her boost her flying power, as well as being her biggest supporter, but he knows that by not embracing Starlight, she’s not winning people over.  Actually, the person running Starlight House tells her the same thing, and enough hints are being thrown her way that she needs to stop denying that side of her.  

Mother’s Milk gets to do the CIA briefings with Grace Mallory now that he’s leading the team, indicating that they’re doing jobs for her now.  This leads to a great reveal, Robert Singer, the president elect, was in the room and knows his vice president elect is a dangerous supe!  He knows as soon as the results are certified on January 6th (another less than subtle call out to current times), she’ll explode his head and take over the country.  He’s not happy the assassination attempt failed and knows they don’t have much time to take her out.  That’s really cool that he’s in the loop, a crafty move by Grace.  He’s not going down without a fight!  

Butcher, who’s only part of the team because Hughie has taken pity on him (accenting his true little brother relationship with Butcher), is visited by an old military friend, Joe Kessler, played by the most awesome Jeffrey Dean Morgan.  Butcher tells him he’s only got a few months left, which means there isn’t enough time for him to accomplish what he set out to do.  Kessler provides new focus, perhaps his biggest mistake was taking on Homelander to protect Ryan.  

Butcher, as we know by the closing credits of the Gen V season one finale, knows there’s a supe virus out there.  He can’t take on Homelander though until Ryan is safe.  He contacts Neuman and lays out all the cards.  He knows about the virus and has seen the lab.  The CIA is after her.  Homelander is after her.  He can help her, she just has to protect Ryan.  She won’t do anything though unless Butcher turns over Hughie’s evidence that she was at Red Rock Institute (a nice piece of dirt he acquired last season).  Butcher is given time to think about it, and boy does he. 

Hughie in the meantime is devastated over his Dad, who had a stroke after Hughie blew off his phone call.  He goes back to the office to retrieve things, and there’s a sweet moment between him and Butcher that lulls us into this false sense of brotherhood security.  I mean, wow, has Butcher changed?  He’s acting like a real…big brother?  You know, listening, taking a positive outlook, offering support and even a big hug.  Yeah, Butcher.  I know!  Of course, when it’s all over, it was revealed it was all a ploy to steal Hughie’s portable drive, aka to steal the documents for Neuman.  What an asshole.  He deserves to die now!  

But then, miracles of miracles, Butcher’s temp V fueled conscience won’t let him go through with it.  Becca shows up, in form of a vivid hallucination, and scolds him for what he’s doing.   He can’t betray Hughie and must find another way to protect Ryan.  He of course starts shouting at empty space, meaning that she’s gotten through to him.  But he’s not going to ignore Neuman, he’s got a better way to deliver the message.  He texts a file to Neuman, which turned out to be a graphic shot of his butthole!  There’s the Butcher we all know and love.    

Vought Tower

Yeah, that was only half the story!  The rest comes from the very fucked up Vought Tower.  Like much of the rest of the series, Homelander is spending a lot of time alone contemplating his relevance.  He’s now disturbed by the fact that he’s aging.  He doesn’t like that talk at Vought is that Ryan will be an eventual replacement.  He really hates all the negative talk about him in the media, especially when Starlight goes on TV to talk about how evil he is.  When Homelander sits quietly in a dark room and listens to those churning voices in his head, it’s creepy as hell.  It also proves how further detached he’s become with reality, even though he wasn’t in touch to begin with.  He’s getting creepier, scarier, and more out of control.  Hmm, remind us of another polarizing figure in the real world today? 

On top of all that, things are a effing mess with The Seven right now.  So far it’s Homelander, The Deep, A-Train, and a new Black Noir that talks!  Homelander clearly is bored.  He has Ryan by his side, but the fact that Ryan has a conscience and Homelander tells him humans are toys for them to play with, he’s not winning his son over as Father of the year.   It’s obvious Homelander thinks he’s the only supe they need and the rest is for show.  That doesn’t eliminate the need though of filling the remaining three slots of The Seven, which is being pushed by Ashley.    

“I’m surrounded by sycophants and imbeciles.”

Homelander’s got everyone kissing his ass and doing exactly what he says, and he’s not having fun.  This point is applied with a sledgehammer when he orders The Deep to blow A-Train in front of everyone.  They seriously go to do it, but even Homelander doesn’t want to watch that (I know I didn’t!).  He leaves in disgust, realizing he’s stuck with a bunch of weaklings who won’t challenge him.  

Enter Sister Sage.  This is a brilliant meeting between her and Homelander.  Her superpower is she’s the smartest being on earth.  She’s not afraid of him and tells him the blunt truth.  She knows that he’s getting his hair dyed more often lists the other signs that he’s aging.  She knows he isn’t happy.  He immediately opens up to her about his frustrations.  “I save people, they cheer.  I kill people, they cheer.  It’s meaningless.  Humans are nothing, they’re less than nothing.  They’re just toys for my amusement, but they control everything.”  

Sister Sage points out the obvious, getting what he wants still won’t make him happy.  She lets that go though when he won’t acknowledge that, and instead tells him the real secret to world domination.  It’s like ancient Greece, he has to stop trying to dominate with fear.  “If you crush the masses, who builds your monuments?  Who taunts your taint? The people will tear it apart themselves, just got to nudge them a little. Then you get to swoop in, be the one saving it.”  

Homelander is very impressed and wants her to join the seven.  She tells him exactly why that’s a bad idea.  “I’m a black woman 8,000 times smarter than you.  Your ego can’t handle it.”  Bingo!  He convinces her to use her abilities to put her theories in action, and she can’t refuse that opportunity.  She’s smart, she has to know what she’s getting into!  Personally, I think this woman just realized that she was just given the opportunity to control the world and can best Homelander. I’m fascinated where this is going.  Plus I think she’s pretty awesome.  

Sister Sage orchestrates a plan to invite three of Homelander’s biggest fans to a private meeting, including Todd, the man who last season married Mother’s Milk’s ex-wife and became step dad to his daughter.  Todd was an unbalanced asshole if you remember.  He was really Homelander crazy and poisoned his step-daughter’s mind with his right wing crap. What happens next is fitting, but chilling nonetheless.  With A-Train, The Deep, and Black Noir there, Homelander thanks these fans for their sacrifice and commands the other supes to bash their heads in with a bat, then leaves.  As the fans try to flee, Black Noir does so without question.  So does The Deep.  A-Train stops Todd from escaping, but won’t swing the bat like the others.  They’re left with the dead bodies and a command to wait for instructions.  

The next scene is very predictable, and the art of manipulating the masses has begun.  Homelander is declared innocent (like he would ever be guilty), fights break out between the Starlight supporters and the Homelander supporters, and with A-Train’s help, the dead bodies of the Homelander supporters suddenly appear among the crowd.  The Starlight supporters are framed as the perpetrators, and the mayhem begins.  

Other Stray Thoughts

Mother’s Milk is still in touch with his ex-wife, as their daughter Jeannine is mad that her Mom kicked out Todd.  After the news about Todd ’s demise MM told her they could tell his daughter together what happened.  He’s doing this while spending his evenings digging up dirt on supes like Sister Sage.  Clearly the dude has a lot of his plate right now!  

Frenchie has fallen for Colin, a guy he knew from Starlight House. Kimiko urged him to pursue the relationship, but it wasn’t until Colin was injured during the riot at the courthouse that Frenchie kissed him.  They had a night together, but there’s still some sort of guilt haunting Frenchie.  More to come on that.  

Hughie got a real shock while visiting his dad at the hospital, his mother showed up!  Remember, he hasn’t seen her since she walked out when he was six years old.  That’s going to lead to an awkward conversation.  

The Deep continues to struggle, aside from being humiliated by Homelander.  Even though he promised everyone that there were no more sea creatures around, especially after his ex-wife wrote a tell all book, he’s hiding in his closet Ambrosius, the octopus he started having sexual relations with in last season’s “Herogasm.”  This time, we can hear her voice.  It’s Tilda Swinton!  That’s priceless.  She’s trying to convince him to run away with her and live in the sea.  You know Deep, that’s not a bad plan!  

As I said before, This Black Noir talks!  He’s a mindless, dangerous stooge, but he stated the obvious after the beating of the fans.  “That was fucked up.”  I have a feeling he might be the comic relief this season.  

Ryan is definitely having doubts about his Dad and Vought.  He still cares about Butcher, and trying to tell Homelander that didn’t go over very well.  “My Mom loved him.”  Clearly being raised by a real Mom has given him a conscience and a sense of humanity.  It goes back to what Sister Sage said, Homelander’s ego can’t handle these questions.  This has potential to unravel fast.    

How awesome is Sister Sage?  She had a Palace of Auburn Hills t-shirt on.  I grew up near that place!  I went to lots of great concerts and Pistons games (when they were champions) there.  They tore it down after the Pistons moved back downtown, and there was no reason why.  It was a beautiful place and not that old, just another victim of corporate greed. 

There were some clips of a Majorie Taylor Green like loudmouth by the name of Firecracker.  This becomes important next episode.  

That little bulging thing moving in Butcher’s vein in his temple, I’m thinking that might be an important hint.  We might not be seeing the end of Butcher after all.  I’m curious if that will play out, or if it’s just a reminder of his state.  I think it’s the former, because this show is usually intentional with its little details.  

Overall grade, a B.  This episode succeeded in doing what The Boys does best, easing us into the new season by making us feel very uneasy.  This wasn’t the most groundbreaking episode, but it felt familiar and it’s good to have these characters back.  Coming up next, oh boy, how do I describe this, things get very weird at a right wing convention.  I mean, “Herogasm” weird.  I might spend most of the review on just two scenes.  We’ll see how it plays out!