Popularity is Power: A Recap of The Boys by Culture Writer and Critic Ben Rosenstock, who focuses on TV and films

Three tends to be a pattern, and the fourth season of The Boys is including considerably more trauma-centered stories than just three. However, out of the first three episodes, this one is by far my favourite; it finds a great balance between the plot and the small-scale human drama, making it both intense and poignant.

 

 

Now let’s start with the larger picture. With an immediate modification that forbids superheroes from serving in the armed forces, private security firms, or government employment, Dakota Bob is moving full speed ahead with his proposed Superhero Management Act. It will be difficult to pass through Congress since Victoria Neuman is aware that the bill could end her own career and hundreds of senators and representatives are still in Vought’s pocket. Not to mention the developing hostility between the Hometeamers and Starlighters, which Sister Sage intends to purposefully worsen by selecting Firecracker for the Seven. (I suppose Sage was unaware of the screw-up from the previous episode, or it didn’t matter.) The explosive language used by Firecracker will eventually cause both sides to become more and more vocal, paving the way for a coup. This season, that is the antagonists’ ultimate objective, and it’s helpful to have the stakes stated so clearly.

 

 

Admittedly, there are some similarities between this and the second season of Stormfront: Sage joins Homelander as a new partner, and the attempted attack at Starlight House by a radicalised Firecracker fan makes me think of the Stormchaser who killed an innocent grocery store employee because he thought she was a potential terrorist. However, there’s been enough change at Vought Tower lately that I can forgive some of the satirical humour that is repeated.

 

 

Sage’s swift takeover of Ashley as CEO, while Ashley will continue to serve as the company’s spokesperson and errand girl, contributes to the distinct vibe. If this were an ordinary job, that would be a blessing in disguise because it would allow Ashley to pursue her career in a different field. She is scared into staying, though, after witnessing Homelander quickly zap a hole in the head of a treacherous employee. Given the level of corruption and grotesqueness she has seen at Vought, she could be safer elsewhere, but Homelander definitely wouldn’t let her leave anyhow.

Additionally, we discover an important detail about Firecracker’s past that gives her conflict with Starlight a personal touch: Back when they were in pageants and Annie was a bully due to her mother’s poisonous influence, she used to see Annie frequently. When Firecracker, then known as “Sparkler,” was thirteen years old when she and Annie advanced to the finals of a pageant, Annie casually remarked to the other girls that Firecracker could only get that far by having a “ass-fuck gang-bang” with the judges. That comment turned into a rumour that caused enough damage to knock Firecracker off the circuit.

Even though Firecracker’s assumption that Annie is still the same “conniving little mean-girl bitch” that she was as a teenager is absurd, it’s nevertheless a refreshing change of pace to see Annie play the bully and offer an apology to perhaps the most terrible person in America. The thought of Firecracker trying to reveal this harsher, darker aspect of America’s sweetheart intrigues me. It seems plausible that Firecracker’s largely inaccurate portrayal of her contains some truth.

Additionally, there has been significant advancement on the A-Train front, as the latest informant for the Boys has actively participated in a scheme to spy on Homelander and Neuman’s meeting during a Vought on Ice practice at VoughtCoin Arena. Mother’s Milk continues the never-ending threat-exchange on this programme by pointing out that he could blackmail A-Train if he so desired. However, I appreciate that his intention is to appeal to A-Train amid a moral crisis and persuade him to assist the Boys rather than coerce him into helping them.

When the meeting is shifted, Hughie squirms through the vents to plant a bug, but he doesn’t have enough time to go out silently, so he just sits and listens to the talk. Sage offers a deal: in exchange for Neuman dissolving the Bureau of Superhuman Affairs, denouncing the “defund the supes” movement, taking out “critical supe theory” (really?) from schools, placing heroes in charge of police departments across the nation, and—the most challenging of all—coming out as a supe herself, she and Homelander will kill Dakota Bob themselves after certification, shielding Neuman from suspicion. However, Hughie invariably drops sweat down Homelander before they can set anything in stone, exposing his existence and nearly burning to a char.

 

 

Even though the fight with Splinter in the previous episode was more dramatic and long-lasting than this entire Vought on Ice set piece, I still believe it to be the best action conclusion of the season thus far. That includes the Vought on Ice content itself: the song “Put the ‘Christ’ Back in Christmas” is excellent, and the ice skater deaths are hilariously gory, with Homelander’s unbalanced laser fire and the furious dash across the ice to escape being two of the most memorable moments. (Of course, by the end of the show, a number of ice skaters would be dead.) However, I also always love The Boys when they’re in spy thriller mode. The scene where Homelander is after Hughie and knows exactly who he is chasing is hilarious. In all likelihood, Hughie has no chance whatsoever against Homelander, which is why I like how it finishes with A-Train subtly rescuing his ass.

 

Homelander has another conversation with the more self-assured, calculating version of himself that he sees in the mirror, which makes for a fairly gloomy day for him. After learning that Ryan had spent the day with Butcher, he is still envious and wants to “transcend his humanity” in order to become a better version of himself. As Hughie, Annie, Frenchie, and Kimiko have already been doing this season, it appears that his method of achieving that will be via facing his history.

This episode’s side mission involving Frenchie and Kimiko achieves the same objective when Kimiko meets a scarred young woman from her Shining Light days. The goal is to eliminate every single person involved in this operation, but Kimiko (in an irksome way) lets the scarred woman leave without explaining to Frenchie why she’s important. Additionally, Frenchie never tells Kimiko why he’s so against Colin; instead, he would much rather use hallucinogens and put the whole thing out of his mind. This time, he doesn’t take part in the carnage at all; instead, he stands in a stupor, picturing the blood and guts as rubber ducks and bubbles.

A somewhat needless hallucination serves as a reminder of what’s bothering Frenchie, in case it wasn’t already obvious. Suddenly, the room is crowded around him as an imagined Colin calls him out for all the other victims he killed on Little Nina’s orders. Nina herself makes an appearance as well, labelling him a failure for “fucking the boy he orphaned” and continuing to engage in self-deprecating behaviour even after Nina has left. Later, at home base after the mission, he and Annie get close over the persistent need to shirk accountability and place the blame for one’s own errors on someone else.

While we’ve seen Butcher use his customary cruel tactics on missions this season, at least he’s sticking with doing things “the right way” for a while. Usually, though, he backs off before doing something truly terrible. He considers giving Ryan a very strong opioid painkiller in “We’ll Keep the Red Flag Flying Here” so that he and his ominous CIA ally may sneak him away to a safe house and “deprogram” him. However, following a sincere conversation with the child, he changes his mind and throws the spicier cookies away.

Given that we’ve been watching this interaction for a while—especially in light of Butcher’s commitment to Becca in the season two finale—that heart-to-heart may have been the most emotionally intense moment of the season for me thus far. The foosball match between Butcher and Ryan provides a natural transition point for talking about Ryan’s annoyance with everyone at Vought Tower for always letting him win—a resentment that is similar to that of his biological father. And when the child confided in me about unintentionally killing someone, I felt very sorry for him—especially after he made the incredibly vulnerable statement, “I understand why you don’t want me.” Neither would I want me.

How satisfying it is to finally bring Butcher’s agonising rejection of Ryan from last season full circle, with Butcher finally providing some crucial background and a confession: He has no business becoming a father, so he purposefully pushed Ryan away. Now, though, he fears dying before he can make amends with Ryan. It feels so good to see them both let down their guard and just spend some time getting to know one another; it also makes Kessler’s last warning all the more dire. Ryan might need to be killed or trained by the CIA soon. I’m worried for the characters and their relationships more than the country itself at this point.

 

Additional Frames

 

• Hughie discovers that he has no legal recourse about power of attorney, but he and his mother have a fruitful conversation during which she discloses to him the deep despair she went through in the years following his birth. It was “life or death” for her to leave the family, and Hughie’s father didn’t want her to confuse him by calling after she departed. I’m interested to see where this tale goes from here because it seems like she and her son are already truly beginning to mend.
• Sage is aware that the alleged Starlighters’ security film was stolen, and I don’t think she will overlook that.
• Fun fact: Near the end of the show, after sharing a Bloomin’ Onion from Outback Steakhouse, The Deep and Sage unintentionally start dating. Throughout the entire sequence, Sage also appears to be high, most likely as a result of the bloody tool that is lying nearby. Indeed, I adore the notion that Say Yes to the Dress and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen are on the minds of the world’s most intelligent person.
• “These ‘vaccines’ that they’re giving out at Starlight House don’t make you good at counting cards and stuff; they actually cause autism.”
• The statement “Enough yeast infections to open a Panera” is rather striking. It seems strange to me that Butcher would witness Ryan’s televised rescue without also witnessing the splattered body he left behind, even if I am aware that Vought controls a large portion of the news. Is there not an abundance of video from onlookers who are live streaming? Given that Ryan was “protecting” a little kid, isn’t he already in the clear legally?
• “Shy is one of my close friends. He’s hoping I’ll appear in Honey Boy 2. But the script isn’t quite ready yet.