The Boys season four is in full swing and, to quote the great MM, it is truly “the bold and the bats**t.” Butcher and company cannot get along for more than two seconds, people are literally fighting on the streets, and Vought’s supes are up to no good. Despite having a ton of superheroes, I’d say no one on this show is truly a hero. But some characters are up to some seriously nefarious activities. Quite a few villains are at play in The Boys season four, so let’s look at how they are shaking up this universe.
Homelander
Of course, the chief antagonist is Homelander. He’s trying to mold Ryan in his own twisted image and is willing to do anything to take down Annie/Starlight and the Boys for good. Homelander is threatening Victoria Neuman, lasering the heads of innocent people, and being an all-around d*ck to most of his Vought family. He’s also unraveling mentally so he could do or say literally anything at any moment, like when he went back to his birthplace and killed pretty much everyone in horrific fashion. In episode five, he even starts to turn Ryan into a diabolical mini-me by appealing to his son’s desire to help others while offering his twisted guidance. The longer Ryan stays with him, the less chances of Butcher being able to save Ryan before he becomes a full-fledged baddie.
Interestingly, he’s actually not the mastermind of this season’s most heinous acts so far.
Sister Sage
The one who is really calling the evil shots is Sister Sage. Homelander brought her into the fold to help sustain Vought’s power and destroy everything that Starlight has built. And boy is she using her smarts to the wildest extent. She convinces Homelander to have A-Train, Black Noir, and the Deep murder three of Homelander’s biggest fans and pin it on two Starlight supporters. (Her doing this as a Black woman and framing two Black men is exceptionally nasty work.)
She’s also turned the Deep against Ashley, which helped her secure power as Vought’s CEO. And, she brought Firecracker, a dangerous conspiracy theorist with a rabid following, into the fold to tell her lies on a really large platform. Having someone as calculating yet even-keeled as her to balance out Homelander is frightening. Sister Sage may not be killing people directly but she is certainly a villain in The Boys season four.
Firecracker
Being a dangerous “truther” aside, Firecracker is dangerous because of her deep-seated hatred for Starlight. In episode three, we discover Firecracker was shunned from the pageant world after Annie told people she had sex with judges. She’s certainly within her rights to hate Annie’s guts but she’s also putting a lot of innocent people in danger with her lies and twisted propaganda. Homelander’s followers are bad, but her devotees are 10 times worse because they will literally believe anything she says. Sounds familiar, right?
From sharing Annie’s very private information on a national platform to her gross statutory rape of a teenage boy, Firecracker is absolutely a villain in The Boys. Annie may not be a natural killer but she’s going to have to silence this supe for good.
Victoria Neuman
Victoria is also up to no good. She’s working with Homelander and Sister Sage to get Robert Singer out of the way so she can be the President. Once installed, they want Victoria to give supes ultimate power in every city and get rid of any educational platforms/theories that are “anti-supe.” After what happened with Soldier Boy killing MM’s grandfather and Blue Hawk’s murder of an innocent Black man, this certainly isn’t good for society.
In episode five, we discover that she’s taken the supe-killing virus from God U and has (sorta accidentally) created an entire farm of Compound V-powered deranged animals. She wants to take Homelander down but she also wants to make sure that she obtains the highest level of power. Right now, she’s playing nice with the Boys and Stan Edgar, but Butcher’s decision to hurt Zoe’s father and force him into making more of the virus will probably lead to her popping a few heads.
Of course, there are other people who aren’t exactly heroic. We are still trying to fully figure out what’s up with Joe Kessler (played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and if A-Train is truly going to be #TeamBoys or turn on them once again. A-Train even has Ashley as his ally, which makes sense considering how Sage destroyed her career. Stan Edgar is also back on the streets, so who knows what he will cook up to save his own ass. And Butcher is always on the wrong side of a moral debate.
We will have to see what other villains emerge and keep our eyes on the Big Four as The Boys season four progresses.
Originally published on June 13, 2024.