The Boys season 4 goes out with a bang as Butcher is hanging on for dear life. Here’s our The Boys episode 8 review.
Spoiler warning! These reviews will be spoiler-free for the week in question, but will discuss previous seasons and episodes in detail.
There have been a lot of ups and downs in The Boys season 4. For the first time, creator Eric Kripke has slightly struggled to balance all the characters, but this season has also proved to be the most politically potent of them all.
“Today, a new era of superheroes begins,” is The Boys season 4’s closing note. We won’t spoil what exactly that means, but let’s just say this season feels more authentic and dangerous than any of the previous seasons. With the US currently grappling with a particularly tumultuous election year, The Boys season 4 has been like a waking nightmare each week, but a compelling one.
Let’s recap a little. This season has largely focused on Butcher trying to recreate the virus from Gen V to use against all supes while Homelander is looking to gain more power and convince his son Ryan to stand by his side. A-Train is considering swapping sides and a particularly nice moment saw him perform a genuine act of heroism, basking in the glory of having done a good deed for unselfish reasons.
At the end of last week’s episode, we learned the Starlight that convinced Hughie to marry her wasn’t actually Starlight, but a shapeshifting supe who stole the ever important laptop that holds all the information about the plan to assassinate Singer and make Neuman the new president.
Episode 8 brings things to a messy close. On one hand, there’s a lot of nice moments, but arguably, The Boys could have used a bit more room to let its ambitious narrative breathe a little. The final episode is packed with plot twists, gore and exposition. It’s incredibly exciting and I’m fairly sure I had the biggest grin on my face during the episode, but it also took me a while to process the entire season.
This is The Boys, so naturally this season finale is a bloody one. There is some gnarly, deeply satisfying gore here and the balance between pure spectacle and heavier theme is spot on. From the murderous farm animals in episode 5 to the truly bonkers reveal of a certain character’s new powers in this episode, we have been feasting with the craziness this season.
Episode 8 makes sure to also make room for more intimate moments between characters. Kimiko and Frenchie finally have a moment to themselves and are able to work out their thorny relationship. So much of The Boys is focused on the violence that moments like this, just two characters connecting, feel truly special.
Hughie seems to be the character that has drawn the shortest stick of the lot. He’s lost his dad and even sexually assaulted – something that has just been brushed under the rug, really – but this season has largely ignored any need for character development for the one character that has always acted as the audience surrogate, our eyes into the story.
Regardless, this season of The Boys has been excellent. We already know the next season will be the show’s last and while we’re sad to see it go, it seems like a good idea to go out on a high. Season 4 perfectly sets the stage for the final season, but a last minute reveal has me worried The Boys has bitten off more than they can chew.
The Boys season 4 is now streaming on Prime Video.
