Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for The Boys Season 4, Episode 5, and The Boys comics
The big picture
- Hughie confronts his fear of loss by allowing his father to die peacefully, emphasizing the importance of letting go.
- The use of compound V a
the boys
emphasizes the uncontrollable and corrupting nature of superpowers. - Hughie's journey and the death of Hugh Sr. could have a huge impact on the future of the series, potentially leading to a tragic showdown between Hughie and Butcher.
As a series, the boys is known for two things in particular: satire and gratuitousness. However, the show always has something to say underneath it all and can be surprisingly emotional when it needs to be. Perhaps the best example this season comes with the decline and death of Hugh Campbell Sr.Simon Pegg) over the course of five episodes. The moment is a crucial test for Hughie (Jack Quaid) as a character, teaching him to let go of his father and his own fear of loss. The scene, born of a selfish act that Hughie now has to pay for, reinforces the notion that no superpower can be trusted, as they remain uncontrollable and can corrupt even good people. This thought sets the stage for the virus subplot and, if the comics are any illustration, could foreshadow a final showdown between Hughie and Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) in the last season, both moral and physical.
The death of Hugh Sr. in “The Boys” Season 4 acts as an important lesson for Hughie
Since Robin's death (Jess Salgueiro) began his own journey in the opening scene, poor Hughie has been through more trauma than anyone should have to deal with. Having already lost his mother Daphne (Rosemarie DeWitt) as a child, he stayed away from his father after he became involved with Butcher and his teammates. So when his father has a stroke just moments after trying to call him, Hughie understandably feels guilty. Risk exposing A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) as the Boys' informant asking him to find Compound V in hopes of using it to save his father. Although Butcher warns her against the idea, and seems to back out at the last minute, Daphne does it for him, and is still responsible for creating the circumstances for Hugh Sr. revive again Although the reunion is truly heartfelt and offers the family one last day together, the consequences are clearly seen in the background and Hughie himself deeply suspects that something could go very wrong, as it inevitably does.
Hugh Mr. himself. he knows how much his son can latch on to others, relaying the anecdote about his cat to explain why he gave Daphne the power. This selfish drive also extends to the negative, such as when he struggles to forgive A-Train. But his ability to finally do so in Season 4 marks a major shift by its character. As a showrunner Eric Kripke noted recently in an interview with The Hollywood Reporterthe arc that Hughie and others experience in Season 4 is about the importance of letting go for the sake of your own happiness:
“Hughie was never good at letting go. He wasn't good at letting Butcher, Annie, or his anger toward A-Train go. And so, this season, he learns that it's time to let his father go; s “he learns it's time to let go of his anger towards A-Train. It's time to show forgiveness towards his mother, and that forgiveness is not about the other person; forgiveness is a healthy benefit for yourself. Because you don't carry so much hate anymore. So, in many ways, she has the most mature emotional journey, because she really learns the secret of mercy and forgiveness and letting go.”
Hugh Sr.'s reaction in compound V it finally rears its ugly head. Uncontrollable skills from phase to side, the deteriorating state of mind of Hugh Sr. remember dementia, which many adults witness with their parents throughout their own lives. Watching Hughie's father regain his sanity before he dies is a poignant farewell to the most important figure in Hughie's life. As the man who inspired the physical likeness of Hughie himself in the original comics, the show almost feels like he's saying goodbye to his own inspiration, just as Hughie does in the scene. In a series that can be so graphic and even mean-spirited, such a rare and tender moment speaks volumes.
In 'The Boys', power always comes at a cost
Since the end of season three, the true nature of what the use of Compound V can do to those who use it recklessly has been a major theme of the show. In the same episode in which Hugh Sr. gets scared (“Beware the Jabberwock, My Son”), we see killer animals threatening everyone present on the farm, as well as Butcher dealing with his terminal illness, which is reflected in the tortured bunny. found in the grass ironically, the powers themselves seem to reflect the state of the person using them, and Hugh Sr. literally comments that Daphne made him feel invisible after she left. There's also an interesting family dynamic here, as Hughie himself had very similar teleportation powers while using the temporal V compound, suggesting that genetics may play a role in the distribution of powers.
Like Butcher before him, Hughie faces major consequences for trying to use Compound V as a simple solution to many of his problems. Throughout the show, superpowers are portrayed as things that ameliorate personal problems, rather than mitigating them. Characters like Homelander (Anthony Starr) show it on a larger scale, showing his unstoppable powers and clear lack of morality as a terrifying global threat, but Hughie shows that even the best of people can be tempted to use him for the wrong reasons. Season four in particular has shown the darker side of even the most heroic characters, raising questions about whether someone with these kinds of powers can be trusted in the first place. Instead of regulating them in a lab or fighting fire with fire, the show suggests that the answer may be to get rid of superpowers altogether due to its inherently distrustful nature. This very thought, combined with his own status as a dying man, explains the ethical rationale behind the creation of the virus and Butcher's attempt to spread it to the population, creating a major dilemma that could define the end of the same series
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The death of Hugh Sr. could have a significant impact in the future
Initially, the plot surrounding Hughie and his father may seem out of place in a season full of political intrigue, murderous sheep and even a possible future pandemic. After all, the scenes with his mother have kept Hughie isolated from the rest of the cast for much of the season, with no idea of the superhuman virus about to be unleashed. However, this could be a good thing, as it gives him a new perspective on life and only improves his own moral code. With his crucial lesson of letting go of the people he cares about when the time is right, Hughie could be forced to make an impossible decision.
Next to Starlight (Erin Moriarty) as a double lead, Hughie remains possibly one of the few truly “good” characters in the boys, and it remains unlikely that he would agree to such a desperate approach to ending Supes that Butcher has begun to entertain. Even Grace Mallory (Laila Robins) was horrified by the idea a Gene V, and the question of genocide against superhumans could finally be what breaks the strained relationship between Hughie and Butcher. Clearly, the show has taken deviations from the ending of the comics, but many of the core elements are still there. Butcher himself is a dying man, who has begun to indulge his darker impulses on Kessler's advice (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), and Hughie might decide the time has come to put his friend out of his misery, exactly like his own father. Unlike the nihilism of his comic counterpart, the boys has often shown a willingness to embrace both romantic and cynical notions of the nature of superheroes. Like Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) will inevitably be forced to overthrow his own father in order to reaffirm the notion of being a hero, so Hughie may also have to tragically confront Butcher to prevent him from becoming a villain.
New episodes of season 4 of the boys airs every Thursday on Prime Video in the USWatch on Prime Video
