The Boys Season 4 Finale: 10 Questions Going Into The Final Season

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

The night is darkest before the dawn, as the saying goes, and that is definitely true for the actual heroes of The Boys. The season ending episode was originally titled “Assassination Run” but was changed to “Season 4 Finale” in light of the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump that resulted in one death. Prime Video and The Boys released a statement about coincidental plot points in the episode and denounced all real-world violence.

Warning: The following contains spoilers for all of The Boys Season 4. You should turn away now if you aren’t caught up.

The superhero satire definitely had its fair share of violence. Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) was assassinated by Butcher (Karl Urban) who tore her in half with his new creepy chest tentacles. President-Elect Robert Singer (Jim Beaver) was framed for the crime and taken into custody, leaving Homelander (Antony Starr) sycophant Senator Calhoun to take the oval office. Calhoun and Homelander declared Martial Law and began rounding up Starlighters, including The Boys (minus Butcher), before they could leave the country.

Being tight with the president means that Homelander also gets to know state secrets. Calhoun wasted no time in informing Homelander, who also became head of Vought in another violent coup, that Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) is still alive. A mid-credits scene showed a disturbing reunion between the father and son.

Billy is also now in possession of the supe-killing virus and driving off into the night, Annie (Erin Moriarty) can fly, Kamiko (Karen Fukuhara) can talk, and we have so many questions as we prepare for the fifth and final season of this superhero satire. Here’s what we need to know before The Boys sign off for good.

1. Does Butcher still have cancer?

Maybe The Boys would have succeeded in taking down Homelander if it weren’t for Butcher. He showed up just as Hughie and the crew were working on a plan with Victoria Neuman to kill Homelander in exchange for helping her escape the CIA. Butcher refused to make a deal with Victoria, opting to kill her with his brand-new chest tentacles and leave with Frenchie’s recreation of the supe-killer virus. Butcher’s health has been declining all season, but he seemed in top shape when he took down Neuman, so does he still have terminal Temp-V illness or has it manifested into his new powers? Either way, we are less sure of where Butcher stands on the hero-to-evil-superhero villain spectrum than we’ve ever been before.

2. Are The Boys prisoners heading to Gen V prison?

Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso), Frenchie (Tomer Capone), and Hughie (Jack Quaid) were all taken into custody by Vought/government guards at the end of the finale. It’s assumed that they’ll be sent to the Starlight internment camps, but Kamiko wasn’t put in the armored truck with Frenchie, and Annie flew away before she could be apprehended. It seems that Homelander has different plans for his superpowered dissidents, but what is their fate in comparison to MM and the rest? Will they end up in the same padded room as the rebels from Gen V?

3. Where did Ryan go?

There are multiple people on the missing persons list after The Boys Season 4 finale, but the top position has to go to Ryan (Cameron Crovetti). He dipped out after killing Grace (Laila Robbins) after she and Butcher asked him to train so that he could learn to kill Homelander. When Ryan realized the choices for his future were to be a weapon or be imprisoned, he made his own path to freedom. He left the CIA holding cell, but we are unsure where he went afterwards or who he is going to turn to now that he knows Homelander is evil and Billy isn’t that great either.

4. What happened to Ashley?

Ashley (Colby Minifie) is also missing after Homelander declared a hostile takeover of Vought in the finale. The majority of Ashley’s coworkers, including her assistant Ashley, were slaughtered in Vought Tower. However, Ashley was nowhere to be found. Before she escaped, Ashley gave herself a dose of Compound-V and watched herself become a monster. Now, she’s gone underground, but she’s worked the closest with Homelander over the past few years which means she probably has invaluable knowledge about how to take him down. Her new powers are also eerily similar to Butcher’s, which we think can’t be a coincidence.

5. What happened to Stan Edgar?

Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) reappeared earlier in the season, but we have no idea where Victoria helped him escape to after the rampage at the farm. Will he resurface to help The Boys now that Victoria is dead or will he side with Homelander because it will keep him safer? The man has so many secrets and we don’t believe he’ll stay hidden forever.

6. Who is in The Seven?

Is The Seven still a thing, and if it is, who is in it? The Deep (Chace Crawford), Black Noir (Nate Mitchell) and Firecracker (Valorie Curry) are still loyal Homelander servants, but are Sister Sage (Susan Howard), Sam (Asa Germann), and Cate (Maddie Phillips) rounding out the group? If The Seven is no longer really a thing, what happens to the movie rollouts in Vought’s content plan? And does this mean Homelander will be making decisions completely on his own?

7. Where is Sameer?

Wait, one more for the missing-persons list! Sameer also disappeared in Episode 7. We know that he reconnected with Victoria after he escaped from Frenchie and Butcher, but where is he and what is he going to do now that Victoria is dead? He’s the man who knows the most about the supe-killer virus so he’s an important asset for both The Boys and Homelander, but The Boys are currently detained and Homelander is worrying about many other things than the virus at the moment.

8. What is Phase 2 of Sage’s plan?

We thought that Sage was down for the count after Homelander kicked her out of Vought Tower, but it turns out the smartest person in the world was working behind the scenes the entire time. She made sure that Calhoun was installed as president after Victoria was murdered, giving Homeander a direct line to the Oval Office. After she delivered the good news to Homelander she said, “Buckle up for Stage 2.” Apparently essentially making Homelander pregnant and watching him enact martial law wasn’t enough? She’s got more planned and we can only hope that she’s going to use those brains to lead to Homelander’s downfall.

9. What will Homelander do with Soldier Boy?

The mid-credits sequence revealed an unexpected family reunion. Homelander was informed that Soldier Boy is still alive. Homelander immediately became emotional at seeing his dad comatose but still alive. The two did not have the greatest encounter in The Boys Season 3 finale. Will Homelander pull Soldier Boy out of his coma now that he’s essentially running the world? Who will win the rematch between the two narcissists? We are ready for a rematch in Season 5.

10. Who will be the one to kill Homelander?

Series co-creator Eric Kripke told Gamespot sister site Metacriticat the end of Season 3 that the series can only end when Homelander dies. Kripke has also announced that Season 5 will be the last for The Boys, which seemingly means that Homelander is going down in the next batch of episodes. Will Butcher finally get revenge against the man that ruined his life? Will Soldier Boy kill his own son? Will Ryan step up and take down his father? Will Hughie and The Boys be the ones to do it? Maybe it’ll be Ashley, who lived under Homelander’s terrifying rule for so long. There’s a long line of people who want to see Homelander dead, but he’s still the most-powerful superhero on Earth and now he’s insulated by the full force of the United States government. There are a lot of people who want Homelander dead, but it doesn’t seem possible that any of them would succeed at killing him unless they learn to work together.