The Boys Season 4 Premiere Recap (Spoilers)

The Boys returns for Season 4 with some of the biggest stakes for the series – both onscreen and behind-the-scenes. It’s a presidential election year, and The Boys is stepping right into the political fray with a story arc that directly echoes our current socio-political tensions. 

Moreover, The Boy Season 4 will be the first season to incorporate the newly expanded Boys Universe. The recent spinoff series Gen V and its game-changing reveals had a direct impact on setting up The Boys Season 4’s story –  franchise chess moves that need to pay off. 

So far, reviews of The Boys Season 4 haven’t been great – read for yourself to see what went down in Episode 1, “Department of Dirty Tricks”. 

The Boys Season 4 Episode 1 Recap (Spoilers) 

A Stronger America – Congresswoman Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) holds a rally for her Vice Presidential campaign on election night, announcing that her partner on the ticket – Presidential candidate Robert Singer – just took Colorado and Nevada. 

Boys Are Back In Town – As Neuman is rallying the crowd we see Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) pass by, disguised as one of the servers at the event. Kimiko pushes a cart of food outside to a van parked in the alley; she tries to communicate with a slim-looking Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) about his eating needs, while Frenchie (Tomer Capone) translates her gestures. M.M. is all business, claiming that if they complete the mission he’ll eat all the foods; the team preps, with Frenchi preparing some concoction, while Hughie (Jack Quaid) and Starlight (Erin Moriarty) are in the basement trying to hack the electrical and security systems. M.M. can’t find Butcher, who is revealed to be puking in a different alley. Butcher seems to be talking to someone when Frenchie and Kimiko find him – but he brushes off their confusion and concern about his health with the usual Butcher braggadocio. 

On Misson – Butcher tells the security guards at the rear door of the hotel that they are straight-up there to commit treason. The guards turn out to be contacts and slip Butcher an access card, which Kimiko is quick to take. Butcher, Kimiko, and Frenchie infiltrate the building, but Frenchie and Kimiko stop Butcher from tagging along, with M.M. making sure he sticks to their plan. 

American Man – Homelander (Antony Starr) is in the bathroom peeing and seems to get the startling revelation of finding a single white pubic hair – a sign of some kind of aging or breakdown. Outside the restroom, his son Ryan Butcher (Cameron Crovetti) is waiting, expressing fear about facing the public and media at Neuman’s rally. Homelander walks his son through their learned mantra that average people are toys there for their amusement, and they head into the event. Homelander makes a beeline for Neuman, making The Boys hold their positions since they weren’t expecting their nemesis. Neuman sends her daughter off with Ryan and tries to smile for cameras while chastising Homelander for showing up when he’s on trial for murder (an anti-Homelander demonstrator in the Season 3 finale). Homelander shrugs off the case, touting his sky-high public sentiment since the incident; Neuman counters that shareholders didn’t feel the same. Homelander tries to insist that they will be creating a stable continuance of his dominance in American culture; Neuman refuses to deal with him anymore. Instead, Homelander makes a public spectacle of support for Neuman, creating the impression of their allegiance. 

Daddy Issues – Butcher intercepts Ryan in the kitchen of the hotel, and tries to speak with his estranged son. Butcher tries to tell Ryan that Homelander isn’t a good or safe father figure, but Homelander arrives before Ryan can be convinced. Homelander’s X-ray vision instantly confirms that Butcher is dying of the brain mass caused by the Compound V he consumed to get temporary superpowers, saying he’ll miss their conflict. When Homelander reaches for Ryan, the boy goes with him willingly. 

Operation Neumanizers – The Boys infiltrate Victoria Neuman’s room. Frenchie and Kimiko swap some of her meds with the concoction that Frenchie made – but they’re discovered by Neuman’s daughter Zoey. Zoey attacks the two security guards working with Butcher, revealing herself to be a supe – one with a horrific hydra-style mouth. M.M. and Starlight rush in to help their teammates, while Himiko takes on Zoey to protect Frenchie. Kimiko’s arm is ripped off by Zoey, but she and Frenchie escape by jumping out of a window – where Starlight is waiting to catch them. Himiko’s re-growing baby arm doesn’t make the grab and she hits the pavement; Frenchie catches hold of Starlight and makes it safely to the ground. Victoria Neuman surprises Hughie in the surveillance van, where they argue about how Zoey was turned into a nightmare supe with Compound V. Neuman appeals to her history with Hughie, calling him a real friend, but Hughie douses her with Frenchie’s concoction, which does not affect her. Neuman is confident that Hughie and the Boys can’t out her without her killing everyone they love, so she offers a truce. Butcher shows up and tries to blow Neuman’s brains out, but the bullet bounces off. Neuman gets an alert that her ticket just won Arizona, and leaves unbothered. Moments later she’s on stage in a new outfit, celebrating the election win

Mission Failure – M.M. and Butcher have to appear before Boys founder Grace Mallory (Laila Robins) at C.I.A. headquarters. Grace only admits M.M. to the briefing room, where he’s chewed out for failing to take out Neuman and getting two agents killed. Grace is hard on M.M., who says he’s glad to put Butcher back in charge. The C.I.A. directors try to speculate how they could kill Neuman, but M.M. tries to argue that she may be invulnerable at this point. M.M. gets a call he ignores, further angering his bosses. 

Meet Joe K – Butcher is approached in the waiting room by Joe Kessler (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), an old colleague who clearly is a rough around the edges as Butcher. The two old war dogs had to the kitchen to have cups of whiskey-spiked coffee; Butcher goes on a tirade about how Grace is focused on Neuman and he’s focused on Homelander; Kessler questions why Butcher didn’t take Homelander out during the fight with Soldier Boy, leading Butcher to deduce that the reunion isn’t casual. He’s right: Kessler reveals himself to be a hardliner who wants to take down the supe power structure before non-powered humans end up ‘thrown in camps.’ And he wants to recruit Butcher to his group. 

Like Father, Like Daughter – M.M. is visited by his ex-wife Monique (Frances Turner), who informs him that his daughter beat up a boy at school and is generally having issues with violence and aggression. Her new man Todd (Matthew Gorman) is checked out and vanishing for periods of time, so she wants M.M. to follow him.

Nightmare Life – Homelander is seen having troubled dreams about all the violence and killing he’s done. His waking hours are shown to be a pastiche of bored and detached stares as the world moves around him – whether it’s the corporate bureaucracy of Vought or the legal malaise of being in court during his trial. Homelander is seen watching an interview with The Deep (Chace Crawford), who uses the platform to deny the alleged sex scandal with an octopus, as well as throw his former fiance under the bus as being a vengeful woman. Behind the scenes, The Deep assures Ashley (Colby Minifie) that the Octopus has been “taken care of” during The Seven’s PR meeting. Homelander looks stressed as Ashley brings up potential new members to the team; it’s a messy selection process as Deep or A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) shoots down or slander most of the candidates. Homelander reaches his frustration point when they all suddenly back his choice of a candidate they were just putting down; he commands Deep to pleasure A-Train right then and there and they almost do it, until Homelander calls it off, disgusted that none of his “super” teammates can challenge his views. When Homelander storms off, Ashley says he’s right, once again stoking the depression he now feels as king of the mountain. 

Culture Wars – News footage of Homelander’s trial shows how divided the Starlight and Homelander supporters are. On a podcast by rural hero Firecracker, she argues that the man Homelander vaporized was actually a left-wing pedo and that Homelander did the world a favor. She makes an unfortunate reference to the Jewish section of the Bible supporting the eye-for-an-eye mentality. 

Butcher Betrayal – At Boys HQ, Butcher is mournfully looking at a picture of him and his wife Becca. Butcher storms out, and the team wonders aloud about his drinking and erratic behavior, but Hughie won’t give up on him. Butcher meets Neauman at a secret location and reveals he understands her plight, with Homelander breathing down her neck. We get a callback to the Gen V spinoff as Butcher reveals that he knows about how she has a supe-killing virus, which is not yet able to take out Homelander. Butcher tries to argue his way into an alliance with Neuman, who has the condition that Butcher gets back the intel Hughie has on her past and time at a group home. Back at HQ, Hughie gets a call and has to race to the hospital: his dad Hugh Sr. took a turn for the worst. 

Starlighter Org – Starlight is at her organization, planning the next steps in the public campaign against Homelander. Frenchie arrives and Annie thanks him for bringing her Colin, one of the heads of the organization. Frenchie blows Colin’s spot as an addict from his recovery group; Frenchie’s spot gets blown when Kimiko observes that he and Colin are perhaps intimately close. 

Gray Hairs Big Brains – Homelander is getting dressed in some orange briefs and finds another gray pubic hair. He stores them in a case of his most valuable, next to one of his old baby bottles (for breast milk consumption), and a photo of company founder Frederick Vought and his wife, Stormfront. Homelander looks back through the files of potential recruits for The Seven and decides to visit the smartest woman in the world, “Sister Sage” in Detroit. Sage deduces that Homelander is graying and that his prostrate is enlarging – all signs of aging. Sage knows that Homelander won’t kill her because he needs her; she also understands his existential angst after seeing people cheer on every action he does, whether bad or good. Homelander is concerned with his legacy and wants guidance on how to make it a great one. Sage advises that Homelander not try to crush the masses with his power, but instead tip society into chaos and then step in to save it like Caesar in Rome. Homelander offers her a spot on The Seven which Sage initially refuses – until Homelander promises to put her ideas into play on a global scale. 

Who’s Your Daddy? – Hughie returns to Boys HQ frazzled about his dad (Simon Pegg) having a stroke, mainly because he didn’t pick up what was likely his father’s call for help. Butcher is morose about the idea of mistakes and regret, and Hughie notices how badly his hand is shaking as he drinks a beer. Butcher shows genuine compassion and concern and hugs Hughie, who leaves with Annie. Butcher reveals that he pickpocketed Hughie for some kind of flash drive device, which presumably has the files Neuman wants from him. 

Fandoom – M.M., Frenchie, and Kimiko are following M.M.’s Todd in the city doing surveillance. Kimiko makes it clear to Frenchie that anything romantic with them is off the table, and he should be with Colin if he wants to. When Todd disappears into an alley, M.M. finds him meeting another group of men, who are all there to meet Sister Sage. Sage leads all the men inside, to meet Homelander. Todd is over the moon about it. Inside, Todd and the other men are led into The Seven’s rec room, where Homelander hands out bats to Deep, A-Train, and Black Noir, and commands them to beat his adoring fans to death. Black Noir and Deep get things started; Todd tries to run but gets his brains pulped by Noir, who is extremely talkative in his reaction to how messed up it all is. Sister Sage leaves her teammates there to await further instruction; outside, M.M. realizes something is very wrong when he sees Homelander walk out and fly away. 

Verdict Is In – At the Homelander trial the two Homelaner/Starlight factions await the verdict. It comes in “Not Guilty” but Sister Sage (posing as a ‘Starlighter’) incites a riot. M.M., Kimiko, and Frenchie enter the fray, with Frenchie battling to save Colin from the mob. When Colin is safe, Frenchie kisses him passionately. Inside Vought, A-Train gets a phone message, grabs Todd’s body, and speeds away with it. Homelander walks outside to witness the riot, robotically pretending to call for the violence to end. Starlight arrives and tries to save one of her assistants who is being beaten; A-Train successfully leaves Todd and the other Homelander fans’ corpses on the scene, sparking the narrative that they were “patriots” killed by far-left extremists. 

It Was A Good (Bad) Day – M.M. watches the new report about Todd’s death, while also reviewing surveillance footage of Sage luring them inside. Homelander is trying to enjoy the news, but Ryan is bumming him out. Ryan confesses that he doesn’t want Butcher to die because his mom loved him. Homelander questions if Ryan feels the same, but gets no answer. In Deep’s apartment, it’s revealed that he’s still shacking up with his Octopus lover; Frenchie wakes up next to Colin but is disturbed by a family photo he finds on his lover’s mantle. Hughie is bedside with his dad and finally listens to the voicemail he got from him. His father was excitedly telling him about a book he enjoyed and looked forward to discussing it; Hughie tries to talk his dad into recovery so they can have that talk – but his mother (Rosemarie DeWitt) shows up in the hospital doorway, surprising him. Butcher is revealed to be seeing and talking to the “ghost” of Becca (special guest Shantel VanSanten), who reiterates his obligation to not let Ryan become Homelander Jr., and be better than screwing over Hughie again. Butcher sends VP-Elect Neuman a msg saying he got the intel files she wanted – but it turns out to be a picture of his butt spread wide open and gaping, leaving Neuman shocked and revolted when she receives it. Butcher wonders to the unseen ghost of Becca if he’s done right while pouring himself another drink. 

[End Credits]