When it comes to The Boys and season finales, fans have come to expect a few things. There will be a big showdown. Whatever new Supe character was introduced this season will probably wind up dead (or seriously injured). And Homelander will just barely escape Billy Butcher’s best-laid plans to capture or murder the psychotic Superman parody.
But in the final episode of Season 4, The Boys finally flips that script. Maybe it’s because we’re heading into the show’s fifth and final season (though there is talk of a movie), but for once, it feels like Amazon’s superhero show is raising the stakes in a truly interesting way, rather than just simply resetting the series to its edgy status quo.
Warning! Major Spoilers for The Boys Season 4 Episode 8 ahead!
What happened in The Boys Season 4 Episode 8?
Despite hinting at a January 6 insurrection parody for the entire season, The Boys Season 4 finale doesn’t go that route. Instead, the episode (titled “Assassination Run” in a somewhat disturbing instance of life imitating art) focuses on a more insidious type of coup.
After the Boys manage to save newly elected President Robert Singer from a shapeshifting assassin, the action pivots to Vice President Victoria Neuman. She may be a head-exploding Supe, but due to her differences with Homelander, Neuman is ready to make a deal with the Boys. Unfortunately, that deal goes sideways when Butcher’s rage gets the better of him, and the compound V swimming in his bloodstream emerges to rip the Veep limb from limb.
If you think that’s a good thing, you’re dead wrong. Turns out, this was Sister Sage’s plan all along. The smartest person/Supe in the world emerges from the shadows to reveal that, with Neuman gone and Singer somehow framed for treason, the mantle of president has passed to the Speaker of the House, who just so happens to be a diehard Homelander supporter.
The newly sworn-in president’s first act is to declare martial law, deputizing Supes across the country to defeat the “deep-state Starlighters.” Meanwhile, the Boys try to make a run for it, splitting up and going into hiding, but as the episode ends we see two superhero groups led by Sam and Cate from Gen V and Cindy and Love Sausage from Sage Grove capture our heroes, prompting Kimiko to say her first words of the entire series: screaming “NO!” while Frenchie is wrestled away from her.
What this means for The Boys Season 5
Season 4 is a dark finale, even for The Boys, but that’s exactly what the series needed. This isn’t another “Homelander just barely gets away” moment. Instead, the Boys are at the lowest they’ve ever been. They’re captured fugitives, and the very person they’ve wanted to stop for years is essentially running the entire country.
With only one season left, The Boys Season 4 finale perfectly sets up an epic rise from the worst situation these characters have encountered so far. Even worse, a deputized Homelander isn’t the only enemy they’ll have to overcome — a post-credits scene shows the Supe looking over a seemingly comatose Soldier Boy who’s been stashed away by American leadership.
Season 5 has its work cut out for it, but The Boys appears to be doing everything right in setting up one last showdown between the forces of evil and the force of... well, slightly less evil. Hopefully, by the time the series comes to an end, Homelander will finally get what’s coming to him.
