The Boys is known for their creation of unworldly concepts that feel eerily familiar to an audience. This season sets up another trial that takes a great similarity to the political climate and events of recent. This first episode follows Homelander through his Trump-like trial, and we hear a specific line that was heard out of the real-life president’s mouth first, as he stated he could “shoot somebody and not lose followers.”
Here in this season, we see that Homelander has taken a turn as a villain, and the followers are loving him despite his crimes. Nothing is stopping him from taking the seat. This is taking place as the episode follows Victoria Neuman, an anti-superhero congresswoman who is feeling all too empowered to take down superheroes with a deadly virus she has found a way to acquire.
Both Marvin, Huey, and Billy are focused on talking down Neuman and plan multiple attacks. Including throwing acid and attempting to shoot her during the event. Both attempts for her takedown do not go as planned and they must come up with another way to take her down. Billy Butcher in this episode is incredibly occupied with a harsh custody battle with his son Ryan, however, his son is becoming increasingly weary of him as he decides bonding is long rants about how humans are just “toys for our amusement”. He begins to question whether he should be in his life at all.
News breaks this season of Dakota Bob, president-elect is working with the boys and Grace Mallory. This happens as Neuman’s daughter has taken compound V and as Neuman’s mother is finding this out as she opens her mouth and sees a whole slew of snakes and two agents come out of her mouth. This makes it incredibly believable that Neuman might get eager for a presidential title and get rid of anything in her way. Also felt it was hilarious that the writers wrote Election Day on January 6th. This is the political closure we all needed from season four.
The Boys continues to create a deeply politically relevant plot that is familiar to its audience in subject matter but is not a complete rewind of world events and continues to keep the uniqueness of the superhero world top priority. This episode also featured new characters that we have been waiting to see for a while. Both Joe Kessler, an old friend of Butcher’s from the army, and Hughie’s mom guest star in this episode. At this point, it is unclear if these characters will be seen in the rest of season three. as she shows up after Hughie’s father has been hospitalized from a stroke. Another new character we meet is Sister Sage, the smartest supe and person in the world. Homelander is feeling threatened by the rising fan power of Starlight and decides to enlist her help and recruit her into the Seven. She decides to agree and creates an intense riot at a Starlight protest in an attempt to show the fans violence, so that as Sister Sage suggested, he can swoop in to fix humanities mess and become a martyr.
This season’s premiere has not been shy with the action and allegory and through the integration of new faces. However, it is worth noting that this season’s premiere for me was not the best of The Boys. Who can forget the Hughie one-take opening shot for season two premiere, but season 4 episode one did start to feel a bit tired, as the only intense threat this episode was to Butcher the main character they would never kill off.
Rating: 8/10