It is no secret that so far the fourth season of The Boys has been largely a predictable filler arc with no major progress or change to either the story or the characters, and the season finale contributes nothing to counter that perception of it. While viewers will remain interested in seeing how everything goes down at the end, the reason the majority of them will feel the urge to watch the next season is because it is to be the final one. Anyways, moving to the story so far – the Boys found themselves in a pickle after not being able to capture a shapeshifter supe, who is out to kill president elect Singer, as part of the planned coupe orchestrated by Homelander, Sage and Neuman. Unbeknownst to Hughie, the shifter abducts Annie, and taking her form, manages to sabotage all the confidential information the Boys had on Neuman and the lot.
On the other hand, after the captive Vought scientist Sameer flees, infecting Kimiko with the supe-killing virus, Frenchie amputates her leg to save her life and preserves the infected leg to extract and modify the virus. A-Train flees after getting exposed as the turncoat amidst the Seven, and Homelander fires Sage after learning she kept this information from him. Ryan gradually veers more towards Butcher’s ideals – frustrating Homelander in the process. The dark recesses of Butcher’s psyche continues to call out to him in the form of Kessler, as his physical and mental condition degrades even further. The finale of the fourth season, while not as eventful or action packed as viewers would have hoped for – plunges the fate of the world into darkness as the inevitable war between humans and supes draws closer than ever.
Annie’s Identity Theft
The shifter/assassin pretending to be Annie turns out to be quite a deranged psycho, who enjoys toying with their victim as much as possible. The shifter continues to keep Hughie beguiled, going as far as proposing to him as Annie, and it is revealed that they can even steal the memories of the person they are impersonating as the shifter uses Annie’s memories to trick Hughie. Occasionally, the shifter pays a visit to Annie to gloat about their success in destroying her private life, and mentally torture her by criticizing her apparent moral superiority. Surprisingly, Hughie remains clueless over a week, and finally the D-day arrives, when Singer is going to take a seat at the Oval office after official certification of the election – and Homelander’s plan is going to take effect.
Ryan Seems As Incorrigible as His Fathers
Butcher lands himself in a CIA secured hospital after his physical/ mental affliction becomes too agonizing to bear, and considering his days to be numbered, calls Hughie to deliver a remorseful monologue as the pangs of mortality have left him shaken. He is soon joined by Mallory, and later Ryan joins the duo as well, responding to Butcher’s invite. After spending some time there Ryan realizes Mallory and Butcher might have ulterior motives, and the duo come clean by confessing about planning to weaponize him against his father. Mallory reveals Homelander’s true face to Ryan, much to the kid’s shock, but at the same time Ryan also recognizes that similar to how Homelander was used and exploited while growing up, Mallory and Butcher seek to do the same with him. Mallory tries to appeal to Ryan’s humanity, her wishes are genuine as she was Ryan’s guardian figure for a certain period of time, but Ryan refuses to turn on his father. Trying to escape from getting captured, Ryan unwittingly shoves Mallory to the side, and the Boys’ founder unceremoniously dies after breaking her neck. Kessler continues to have a chuckle in the background at Butcher, with an ‘I told you so’ face, and Butcher finally snaps after seeing Ryan remorselessly fleeing from the chamber. Butcher, too, is finally prepared to choke his humanity out of his system, accept Kessler’s guidance, and do the needful.
Homelander’s Reckless Streak
After Ryan denounced Vought’s propagandist nonsense on live television and revealed his acceptance of Butcher and Becca’s morals, Homelander had been ticked off in a major way, and as he finds a family photo of Butcher and Becca in Ryan’s apartment, he starts fuming with uncontrollable anger. Ryan returns to the apartment to find it burned beyond recognition, and Homelander’s fury scares the boy off.
In the aftermath of this incident, Homelander exposes Neuman as a supe in live television, as he no longer cares about the consequences anymore, so sure he is about taking down Singer. Neuman starts panicking after having her long kept secret get unveiled bluntly, and as she charges at Homelander, she is threatened by the psycho, who assures her she will be the president after Singer’s elimination no matter what, and will work under Homelander’s thumb. After Neuman gets exposed, Singer calls for a re-election, nationwide protests erupt, and Hughie finds out he has lost all the confidential intel he had on Neuman. With the virus not prepared by Frenchie yet, the Boys have no chance to plan an offensive, therefore they instead decide to be a part of Singer’s security detail as the newly elected president is taken to a CIA secured vault.
Hughie manages to recognize the shifter at long last, and as the Boys struggle to take Singer to safety, Annie appears out of nowhere after escaping from captivity and takes down the shifter. Strangely enough, Hughie’s problematic situation with shifter Annie has been reduced to a mere laughing stock. After showrunner Eric Kripke describing Hughie’s traumatic experience in Tek Knight’s sex dungeon as ‘hilarious,’ this is another troublesome idea conveyed through his direction which we struggle to wrap our heads around.
The assassination attempt fails, leaving Neuman in a vulnerable situation – and as her fear takes over, Homelander threatens her with her daughter, Zoe’s life to keep her in check. Realizing that if she goes through with the conspiracy plan, she will have to live the rest of her life as Homelander’s puppet with Zoe’s security compromised forever, Neuman seeks her way out from this mess by asking Hughie for security in exchange for her surrender. On the other hand, Homelander orders hunting season on every Vought member who could potentially have confidential intel on him, and Firecracker, Noir, and the Deep proceed to slaughter people left and right. A petrified Ashley realizes that she is in mortal danger, and proceeds to pump Compound V into her system, which starts causing some big-brain affliction which no one cares about at this point.
What Happened To The Boys At The End?
Hughie manages to convince his comrades to extend a second chance to Neuman, and as she and Zoe arrive at their hideout, Butcher – seemingly having recovered from his ailments and with a diabolical smile on his face, appears to simply announce there will be ‘no deal’. Hughie tries to plead mercy for Neuman, for whom he obviously has a soft corner as a friend, but he is unaware of the monster Butcher has become, both literally and figuratively. Fearsome tentacled extensions erupt from Butchers chest like a gnarly Doc Ock type twist, and he rips Neuman in half in front of her daughter and the rest of the members of the Boys, who seem too traumatized to do anything. The majority of them have been useless for the better part of the season anyways, and Butcher doesn’t waste much time before taking Frenchie’s prepared vial of supe-killing virus from him and leaving the scene.
The news of Neuman’s murder reaches Homelander, who has been reduced to a miserable emotional mess already after seeing his plan failing in such a grand way. However, Sage appears to assure him that everything went according to her plan, and to validate her claim, the news broadcast shows Singer’s anti-supe rant in front of the Boys has been leaked by the shifter, and has landed him behind bars after Neuman’s death in suspicion of being involved in her murder. Homelander is puzzled as to why Sage even bothered to ensure the plan’s success after getting treated like trash by Homelander, not realizing that it was her ego which needed the satisfaction of bringing down an entire government simply by scheming.
In Singer’s absence, Homelander loyalist Speaker Calhoun becomes President, and offers the stage to the megalomaniac on his first day in office as well, and he promptly orders a crackdown on dissidents. The odds are too much for the Boys to handle at the moment and they decide to lay low for a while, however, things don’t go as planned as Homelander’s allies take the field soon enough. Frenchie and Kimiko are apprehended by the Godolkin University supes – Sam Riordan, who subdues Kimiko, and Cate Dunlap, who uses her mind controlling powers to seemingly send Frenchie to his death. MM is captured by Love Sausage. While leaving with Hughie, Annie finds her powers to be re-emerging, but it’s all too late as the duo are apprehended by Eleven pastiche unhinged telekinetic, Cindy, and a team of shadow operatives. Hughie is captured while Annie flies off, and except him, only Butcher seems to be roaming freely – hinting at an upcoming team-up between the two in the final season.
In the mid credits scene, President Calhoun brings Homelander in front of Soldier Boy, who had been put in a cryosleep in the finale of the third season, and it’s a bittersweet moment of reunion for the psycho. While this promises an unholy alliance for the final season, Soldier Boy’s loyalty remains in question at the same time.
