The Boys’ S4 Finale Made up for the Slow Pacing of the Rest of the Season

Do be warned that this article contains major spoilers for the entirety of The Boys Season 4.

I don’t think it’d be a stretch to say that The Boys Season 4 is easily the weakest season we’ve seen so far. Even compared to the somewhat slow start of Season 2, at least everything in the Stormfront saga felt like it was building up to something, culminating in a very satisfying payoff.

With Season 4, it was hard not to feel like the characters were just meandering and retreading old ground in terms of character development for some of them. That being said, it’s impressive how The Boys Season 4 seemed to just turn everything around with the finale, and in its last five minutes specifically.

Within the last five minutes as Nirvana’s Heart-Shaped Box starts blaring, we got the following revelations (Are you ready for it? Deep breath): Butcher has powers and is healthy again! Vicky is dead! Zoe has been sent to Red River Institute! The Boys have gone their separate ways! Love Sausage kidnaps MM, Cate and Sam kidnap Frenchie and Kimiko, the scary, Eleven-looking Supe from Season 2 kidnaps Hughie! Starlight can well and truly fly! Kimiko spoke! Homelander declared martial law! Homelander finds Soldier Boy!

I mean, whew. That is a staggering number of revelations that honestly could’ve been developed slowly over the course of the entire season, but delivering all of them in the last five minutes made for some brutal gut punches that the audience will certainly be stewing over for the next few months. Not to mention the other little things that happened in the rest of the finale, where all the members of The Boys finally reached some sort of closure for their emotional development arcs.

While I still maintain that Frenchie’s arc was completely unnecessary and pointless, I’d be remiss not to mention Starlight’s arc, which ends with her finally reaching her true potential. She’s spent most of the season struggling with an identity crisis, and that reaches a boiling point when she’s confronted with the Shapeshifter. Not only were we treated to some seriously captivating acting from Erin Moriarty, but it was also an important ordeal she had to go through in order to finally be at peace with herself.

While I do wish we got to see more of her powers and what she’s really capable of, watching her blast off into the air at the end was incredibly satisfying.

All of this is to say, despite being the worst-paced season of the lot, it’s honestly commendable how The Boys Season 4 managed to turn it all around with the finale and get us back on track for an explosive final showdown with Homelander. Everything is finally in place, and all that’s left is to just see who comes out on top in Season 5.

The Boys is available to watch now.