(Includes events in the first three episodes of The Boys Season 4 but we’ve left some of the biggest spoilers for you to experience yourself…)
The first three episodes of The Boys dropped in the wee hours of the morning yesterday, much to the delight of fans who’ve been waiting for almost two years for more of their favorite show. While we were waiting, Dr. Matt Snyder and I put together a book of essays and interviews from the cast of the show and psychologists and media experts who love it, dissecting the complicated characters and what makes them tick – Supes Ain’t Always Heroes. I was hoping to see some of the themes in the book picked up in the new season – which they were. So let’s dig in! What’s happening with all our favorites?
Neuman & Singer: Winning Ticket
I can’t help but like Victoria Neuman. I know, I know, she’s exploded lots of people’s heads, but she’s been used her whole life and is more focused on protecting her own daughter than anything, which is one of those universally relatable motivations. (Okay, okay, so Zoe is now a tentacle-spewing supe herself, but still). In the first three episodes of Season 4, we see that while once she was, I think, genuinely friends with Hughie, now they’re at odds. Actually that’s an understatement, but Neuman takes it in stride.
Neuman: You guys are actually getting worse at your jobs!
I love her running mate too, Presidential candidate Robert Singer. He’s a bit less enthusiastic about her, with good reason.
Singer: Everyone told me to pick Buttigieg instead…
(I happen to know how much Beaver relishes this show and that kind of dialogue. You can read all his thoughts on The Boys and his character in his exclusive interview in Supes Ain’t Always Heroes: Inside The Complex Characters and Twisted Psychology of The Boys)
Homelander: Daddy Issues
I’ve read some reviews that question whether focusing on the same big bad for four seasons will have to get old, but honestly? This season brings a whole new batch of neuroses and Oedipal struggles for Homie to deal with, and I’m here for that. So much of Homelander’s life has been anything but ordinary, but one of the things he confronts in this season is something that’s as universal as breathing – aging. How do you think he’s going to handle that? Yep, you probably guessed right.
And then there’s parenting. It’s tough to put your progeny in the spotlight when your own narcissism is insisting it should be YOU there, even if you really do care (as much as you’re able). Soldier Boy was proof of just how hard it is to break the horrors of intergenerational trauma, and hoo boy, did Homelander ever have a lot of that. Trauma with a capital T. We learn more about John’s early upbringing in the first episodes of this season, as he goes back to visit his first “home”. With a Fudgie the Whale cake.
That’s a real Time Magazine cover, btw, as showrunner Eric Kripke tweeted. He’s right, this show’s marketing team is beyond amazing!
I will forever relish the character of Homelander for a) Antony Starr’s brilliance and b) the opportunities it offers for real life parallels that are so on the nose they’re almost painful. He emerges from his trial calmly telling everyone to “remain calm, you’re all very special people” and I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
The New Supes Drop Some Truth Bombs
New supe Sister Sage energizes Homelander – and the show itself. As Homelander’s supporters square off in a shouting match with Starlight supporters, she comes up with the plan to manipulate public opinion against the Starlighters. And she knows the value of a martyr. Much like Stormfront, Sage is introduced in a way that makes us think we’re going to like her. Her apartment is literally floor to ceiling books and not much else, befitting for the smartest person in the world.
Sage: That person is too smart to give a fuck about Pottery Barn.
She’s also refreshingly and brutally honest with Homelander, commenting on his enlarged prostate and his gray hairs and that he’s “going through some existential midlife stuff.”
Sage also easily manipulates The Deep (and hooks up with him over their mutual love of Outback’s bloomin’ onion, which, valid) and knows how they could pitch Ryan as the newest chosen-by-God hero.
Sage: The chosen one narrative only works if he stands alone. Hollywood trains people to fall in love with the white boy saviors.
Oof, she’s not wrong.
Firecracker, on the other hand, is sort of a mini Stormfront, in that she’s every offensive thing we hear proclaimed on the ‘news’ and in the media every single day. She’s transphobic, anti-vax, you name the thing and she’s saying it – on her “Truth Bomb” youtube channel usually. Occasionally she says something that really is a truth bomb. “What are you selling?” Sage asks her at the TruthCon convention.
Firecracker: Purpose. These people have nothing, maybe just lost a job or a house. I tell them a story, give them a purpose.
This show hits you in the stomach just when you least expect it.
