This assessment accommodates full spoilers for The Boys Season 4, Episode 5, “Beware the Jabberwock, My Son.”
If you’ve learn The Boys comics, you’re most likely happy that Prime Video’s adaptation isn’t wherever close to as perverted and edge-lord-y as its supply materials. Eric Kripke’s present has chosen to switch a lot of Garth Ennis’ superhero satire, however the newest episode of Season 4, “Beware the Jabberwock, My Son,” proves that the showrunner hasn’t ditched all the pieces from Ennis’ pages. Because if there’s one factor the present and comics agree on, it’s torturing Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid). He’s everybody’s favourite punching bag as a result of he’s the harmless wee mouse of the group. Testing Hughie is the franchise’s bread and butter, however even then, the Campbell household tragedy of “Beware the Jabberwock, My Son” feels particularly vindictive – and considerably like overkill.
After Compound V turns Hugh Sr. (Simon Pegg) into an amnesiac homicide machine, Hughie is compelled to humanely execute his father. These are the implications of Hughie’s actions final episode: Even although he made the accountable alternative on the final second and dropped the stolen Compound V vial, his mom, Daphne (Rosemarie DeWitt), slipped the blue superdrug into Hugh Sr.’s IV drip. He wakes up good as new – solely now he can dematerialize via stable objects, like when he unintentionally bisects a fellow affected person by glitching into his stomach. Hughie spent the previous few episodes livid that Hugh Sr. secretly granted Daphne authorized energy to “Do Not Resuscitate,” and now karma makes him comply with up on that order in cruel The Boys vogue.
My drawback isn’t the performances. Quaid, DeWitt, and Pegg are all throwing emotional haymakers because the Campbells tackle years of marital and parental trauma amid a juicy hospital bloodbath. What’s irritating is the way in which Kripke and staff conflate torturing their characters with evolving them. Hughie can apparently solely have one guardian within the image, in order that they draw out his father’s demise in exceedingly melodramatic and graphic vogue. It’s proper after Hughie forgives A-Train, too – one step ahead, 17 steps again.
The identical goes for Frenchie (Tomer Capone), who ends the episode by turning himself over to the police, coming clear about the entire murders he’s dedicated in an abrupt swerve that curbs his arc with Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara). I get that each Hughie and Frenchie (regardless of their evident variations) must heal earlier than they’ll develop. But The Boys retains telling the identical tales time and again, and it’s an actual drag on Season 4.
The different primary thread of “Beware the Jabberwock” entails Butcher (Karl Urban), The Boys, and shock visitor Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito). Butcher drops the bombshell about Victoria Neuman’s (Claudia Doumit) supe-killing virus, noting that regardless that it poses a right away menace to Annie (Erin Moriarty) and Kimiko, it’s higher of their palms than Neuman’s (or worse). Edgar leads everybody to his safehouse, a farming property within the hills, which he finds ransacked. Surprise! Neuman ambushes them along with her muscle, so all of them begin trying to find the leftover virus collectively, solely to find that V-powered animals have taken over the compound.
At least there’s room for levity on this episode: Opposite Hughie’s crushing storyline is a creature-feature sidequest pitting The Boys in opposition to flying, tentacle-shooting, bloodthirsty barnyard adversaries. First it’s chickens, then sheep, and nearly a V’ed-up bull – till the sheep assert their dominance by gnawing the bovine into bitty chunks. Butcher and crew can solely flee in confused terror as bulletproof terrors straight out of some Z-grade horror movie decide off bodyguards one after the other. It’s suitably bonkers, and gives a touch of the unserious anti-superhero present we love. But the dueling focuses of “Beware the Jabberwock” really feel incompatible. The bleeding-raw heartache and unearthly livestock carnage by no means match collectively in yin-and-yang concord.
As for Homelander (Antony Starr) and his Seven coup, they’re within the backseat. Vought is concentrated on their V52 expo – a send-up of Disney’s D23 occasion – which has all of the superheroes placing on their greatest face for the general public. This results in some hilarious line readings, like The Deep (Chace Crawford) introducing Vought’s new customized know-how that acknowledges a consumer’s race and “personalizes” product placement. There’s additionally a humorously cluttered timeline of upcoming Vought film releases that pokes enjoyable at Marvel’s section bulletins, and A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) talks about costly reshoots and ballooning budgets prefer it’s an excellent factor for viewers. The Boys isn’t being delicate, not in its political commentary or its company skewering.
We lastly get an finish to Homelander’s pesky mole drawback, although the precise offender, A-Train, stays at giant. Vought CEO and glorified meat puppet Ashley Barrett (Colby Minifie) hears his confession, implicating them each now, so she acts on an answer. After Vought News Network anchor Cameron Coleman (Matthew Edison) dumps Ashley – her vulgar dominatrix aren’t “dommy” sufficient for him – she frames Coleman because the leak. Homelander gathers his trustworthy Seven and new followers like Gen V’s Sam (Asa Germann) and Cate (Maddie Phillips) to declare his intent to show product-peddling superheroes into wrathful gods. That begins with Cameron’s execution, which is nothing greater than a ruthless gang beatdown dedicated by essentially the most highly effective “heroes” on the planet – all due to Ashley’s nastily despicable actions.
This season of The Boys began out, and continues to really feel, predictably unpredictable. Of course A-Train is off the hook (for now) and another person dies horribly for his actions. Of course Butcher ends the episode by revealing he kidnapped Neuman’s virus-making husband and sawed his leg off to make everybody suppose he’s sheep meals. The unhealthy guys maintain successful, the nice guys maintain getting screwed, and the toxic atmosphere during which everyone seems to be attempting to outlive has misplaced a few of its sting. Maybe my lukewarm response is pushed by an lack of ability to embrace each the wildly divergent tones of “Beware the Jabberwock, My Son”: monster bloodbath vs. familial ruination. Or perhaps Season 4’s behavior of repeating itself – telling the identical outdated tales, relying an excessive amount of on shock worth – is draining a few of The Boys’ juice.
