This Monday, Eric Kripke the creator of “The Boys Season 4 Department of Dirty Tricks” said that the show’s fifth season, which will most likely broadcast in 2025, barring another strike, will be its final one. This was always Kripke’s intention, and it seems like a good one, especially as we move closer to the finish.
The Boys Season 4 Department of Dirty Tricks Review: A Familiar Pattern
Last season, I grew frustrated with The Boys, despite the fact that it consistently delivered exhilarating moments in each episode. The longer the show runs, the more it feels like it’s spinning its wheels and putting off the actual fireworks, especially in season three, which is a collection of episodes built loosely around a scheme to get serious and murder Homelander once and for all. Of course, that was never going to happen because Homelander is both the show’s major antagonist and its most engaging character, particularly in the hands of Antony Starr.
Less Shock Value: There’s still plenty of action and violence, but the “shocking” moments are becoming more common, as evidenced at the beginning of season four. “Department of Dirty Tricks” is a perfectly good season opening, but it may be the first time a premiere hasn’t left me excited for the next seven episodes. I loved this hour of television, but when it ended, I had no instant desire to watch the next installment.
Deep Dive into “The Boys Season 4 Department of Dirty Tricks”
Butcher’s Decline
Hallucinations and Deteriorating Health: At least six months after the conclusion of season three (and not too long after the conclusion of the first season of the spinoff Gen V), the episode opens in media res during an Election Night mission.
This would be the ideal time for the Boys to take their shot, with newly elected vice president Victoria Neuman occupied with victory speeches; nevertheless, Billy Butcher is still a liability, particularly given the illness that temp-V inflicted on his brain. It has gotten to the point that Butcher is experiencing hallucinations and having chats with his deceased wife, but his comrades are still unaware of the reality. However, he’s essentially the same old Butcher in all except disguise—more obstinate and conceited.
Custody Battle for Ryan: He’s also worried with a custody dispute in which the child’s soul is at risk. Now, I’m not sure how old Ryan is meant to be at this point — in general, this show’s timeline is a little goofy, and Cameron Crovetti’s yearly growth spurts don’t help with the disparities — but I find this scenario quite intriguing.
Homelander’s Influence on Ryan: Homelander has successfully wormed his way into Ryan’s head and impacted his sense of good and wrong, as seen by the sinister smile at the end of the finale, but Ryan is already beginning to feel uncomfortable about constantly being by his biological father’s side. Homelander continues to remind him that humans are merely “toys for our amusement,” but Ryan’s empathy remains largely intact.
Butcher undermines the Election Night operation by approaching Ryan and providing a means of escape, which prompts Homelander to give him a snide “six months to live” diagnosis. The plan then collapses even worse when Zoe, Neuman’s daughter who was exposed to Compound-V in the previous season, discovers what’s happening on and opens her mouth to release four deadly snakes, killing two agents from Dakota Bob Singer’s security detail.
A New Ally for The Boys
Yes, Dakota Bob, the incoming president, is collaborating with Grace Mallory and the Boys! This is an astute move: They needed a victory after witnessing how severely our main characters were smacked around the previous season, so it’s great to see that they’ve at last found a powerful friend. It makes sense, which is another reason it works: Neuman is now one step away from being president, so it’s only a matter of time until she cracks Bob’s skull and has her Frank Underwood in the Oval Office moment. Before Congress approves the election on January 6, she needs to be stopped. (I’m curious how the authors selected that date.)
The unsuccessful operation prompts a much-needed conversation between Hughie and Neuman. One of my biggest issues with season three was the lack of follow-through on some of the emotional consequences of the larger plot beats, particularly with this pairing; the two of them formed a real and believable bond, as evidenced by a couple of casual conversations, but Hughie never reckoned with the betrayal he felt when he discovered the truth about his boss and friend, and Neuman was never given the opportunity to explain herself.
Hughie Confronts Neuman: This moment finally addresses it, with Hughie calling Neuman out for turning her daughter into a monster — and, more importantly, for harboring so many major secrets from someone she considered family. The two assassination attempts that follow (Hughie soaking her with acid, then Butcher shooting her in the head) are very weak, but Neuman doesn’t immediately retaliate, instead threatening the lives of everyone Hughie is concerned about. The Boys takes this approach much too frequently — almost every time someone acquires power over an opponent, the authors can neutralize it with a poorly delivered death threat or blackmail — but the sequence fulfills its purpose.
The Boys Season 4 Department of Dirty Tricks: Subplots Take Shape
The rest of the show is spent introducing the season’s individual subplots. Some of them fit quite naturally within the larger structure that the season is establishing: Annie January, for example, wishes to express her support for the Starlighters but finds it difficult to do so without wearing the renowned Starlight costume again. It feels fitting when she makes a public appearance at the courthouse later in the episode, but it’s evident that her journey to recover her superhero identity is far from complete.
Butcher’s ongoing moral struggle is at the foreground, as usual, with old military pal Joe Kessler (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) serving as the latest devil on his shoulder. Butcher feels useless with Mother’s Milk as the current leader; he only has a few months to live, which isn’t enough time to do everything he wants for his family or the planet. His abuse of V24 led him to this point, but Kessler reframes his thinking: perhaps his biggest mistake was losing focus by sparing Homelander to protect Ryan.
In any case, Ryan must stay out of harm’s way if Butcher decides to take another shot at Homelander, possibly if the supe-killing virus developed at Godolkin University is strong enough. (If you haven’t seen Gen V, Neuman discovered the virus and stole the samples, and Butcher discovered the lab where it was studied during a mid-credits sequence in the finale.) Butcher considers making yet another bargain with the devil – handing over Hughie’s dirt on Neuman’s childhood at the Red River Institute in exchange for Ryan’s protection — but finally decides against it, thank goodness. Returning to the well of sabotaging Hughie would be somewhat frustrating at this point, even if Butcher’s morality remains a mystery.
Frenchie’s New Relationship
Codependent Bond with Kimiko: Some storylines appear disjointed and distant from the overall image. Frenchie wishes to pursue a relationship with Colin, a man he met in Narcotics Anonymous (who now works at Starlight House), but his co-dependent relationship with Kimiko prevents him from going all in. By the end of the episode, he has conquered that obstacle with Kimiko’s gentle encouragement, but something about the scenario still appears to be bothering him — something about Colin’s family, whom he sees in a photo after he and Colin eventually fall into bed together. Exploring more of Frenchie’s past could be interesting, but I wish he and Kimiko weren’t always so separate.
Hughie’s Family Drama
The same is true for Hughie this season, whose father is comatose in the hospital following a stroke. There are some emotional moments in this film, particularly when Hughie listens to a message from his father and realizes that if he makes it through this, he will no longer take Hugh Sr.’s extended rants about James Patterson for granted. But I’m not sure I care about Hughie’s mother (Rosemarie DeWitt) being introduced quite yet, even if her absence has had such an impact on his life.
Homelander’s Midlife Crisis
Still, there’s a lot of potential here, especially given Homelander’s midlife crisis. He and Stormfront had an intriguing chemistry in season two, but we’ve never seen the man want pushback like he does now, with Starlight and Queen Maeve’s absences creating a gap in the Seven. Nobody is willing to face Homelander anymore, so he seeks out Sister Sage (Susan Heyward), a supe whose power stems only from being the world’s most intelligent person. Her response to his nagging dissatisfaction is to sow unrest and then save the people, rather than crushing them.
Homelander’s Manipulative Scheme: The announcement of Homelander’s trial result provides the ideal chance. He made it clear to Neuman early on that this was all just a formality and that the man would not go to jail, especially not with a bogus claim of self-defense to support him. Thus, with Sage’s assistance, Homelander hatches a plot: he invites his three biggest supporters—including Todd, the reactionary ex-boyfriend of Marvin’s ex-wife—to meet him prior to the verdict, kills them, shows up at the courthouse, feeds the rivalry between the Hometeamer and Starlighter protestors, and then accuses the Starlighters of being responsible for the fans’ deaths. And it works well, condemning Janine, Marvin’s daughter, to an extremely depressing morning talk.
The Boys Season 4 Department of Dirty Tricks: Potential
All of this is a clear political allegory that refers to outside agitators and a certain uprising from a few years ago. This season, it seems like the show is drawing more parallels between Trump and Hillary, to the point where we might have to replace the term “allegory” with “faithful retelling, but with superheroes.” The first season of “Department of Dirty Tricks” is a little disjointed, and it doesn’t really accomplish anything to persuade me that, even with Kripke’s wishes, this program could last for more than five seasons. However, it’s comforting to know that the conclusion is in sight and that I’ll be here with you all to unpack at least one more season.