Thursday, Prime Video’s The Boys closed its chaotic fourth season on a devastating cliffhanger. While most of our dysfunctional heroes were apprehended by Homelander’s rogue militia, one Vought employee’s fate was unwritten. TVLine sat down with Colby Minifie (Homebody, Fear the Walking Dead) who portrays Vought figurehead CEO and anxious hair-puller, Ashely Barrett, to discuss what may lie ahead for her tragic character.

For most viewers, Minifie’s Ashley has been viewed as a villain. The corporate climber ruthlessly clawed her way from the meek office dweller to the top of the food chain after the fall of Madelyn Stillwell (Elizabeth Shue, Cocktail, Hollow Man). However, the last few seasons have shown Ashley’s precarious position among the powerful supes of The Seven. As Homelander (Antony Starr, Outrageous Fortune, Banshee) becomes more unhinged, Ashley is replaced by super-intelligent Sister Sage (Susan Heyward, The Incredible Jessica James, Powers), seeing her status and value shrink. It comes to a tipping point when Homelander orders the remaining tower’s supes – The Deep, Black Noire, and Firecracker – to remove any Vought employees with compromising evidence on them. Finding herself at the top of the hit list, Ashley injects herself with Compound V.

Minifie describes what powers she thinks Ashley may receive from the blue serum.

“They all are humiliating and disgusting, because I think they have to be humiliating for Ashley,” she tells TVLine. “Like, she has to, like, hide in a closet to get her power ready somewhere, because it’s not going to be that easy for Ashley. There has to be, like, a bittersweet part of this, I think, but I don’t know what they’re going to choose.”

Many could argue Barrett could have avoided the situation entirely if she had left Vought, as she proposed to do with Jessie T. Usher’s (Survivor’s Remorse, Smile) A-Train. Minifie explained her character’s mindset at the time and why she chose to stay behind.

“I think the devil you know is much safer to her than the devil she doesn’t know,” Minifie told TVLine. “I also think that she knows the inner workings of Vought too closely. I think she knows, on some level, that she wouldn’t last a day knowing what she knows. I think she would be hunted down and murdered pretty quickly.”

“I think it absolutely terrifies her to actually leave the thing,” Minifie told TVLine. “It’s like leaving an abuser. Like, it’s much harder to leave when you don’t know what the other world looks like.” 

Minifie continued to explain how everything with A-Train was too new to trust.

 “A-Train’s been a pain in her ass for so many years, and I think there is a new trust there,” Minifie said via TVLine. She explained it as too big a leap of faith, especially an idea she developed when “she was really drunk.”  

Fans of the series will have to wait another year to see how the story ends for Ms. Barrett with the final fifth season of The Boys aiming to premiere in 2026. All four seasons are available to stream on Prime Video.