Did "The Boys" get a little too real for the Season 4 finale? You could definitely say that.
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00:00Did The Boys get a little too real for the Season 4 finale?
00:04You could definitely say that.
00:05The Boys has always leaned on real-world events to dispatch social commentary, some of it
00:10subtle, but some not so much.
00:12Black lives matter!
00:15The Season 4 finale, which was written more than a year ago and originally titled Assassination
00:20Run, has now been renamed by Amazon following the recent assassination attempt on Donald
00:24Trump.
00:25The title has now been simply changed to Season 4 Finale, and a viewer discretion warning
00:30has been added before the episode.
00:32It reads,
00:33Viewer discretion advised.
00:34This episode contains scenes of fictional political violence.
00:38Any similarities to recent events are completely coincidental and unintentional.
00:42Prime Video, Amazon, MGM Studios, Sony Pictures Television, and the producers of The Boys
00:47oppose, in the strongest terms, real-world violence of any kind.
00:51So what exactly happens in the finale?
00:54Season 4, Episode 6 of The Boys already cemented that Homelander attempted to rally supporters
00:58in favor of a Supes-first America, where he renounces the tenets of democracy for a puppet
01:03dictatorship of sorts, with the Supes invading every administrative and judicial branch of
01:07the country.
01:08We need to invoke the 25th Amendment.
01:11You're talking about a coup.
01:14When Homelander is unable to convince party members in favor of his vision, Vice President-elect
01:18Victoria Newman steps up and lays out a strategic plan, providing Homelander the political backing
01:23required to spring his schemes into motion.
01:26The assassination of President-elect Robert Singer is discussed, and the same is attempted
01:30in the season finale, with the Shapeshifter assassin replacing Starlight and infiltrating
01:34Singer's protected bunker.
01:36As the Boys were already aware of the probable attempt on Singer's life, they rally together
01:40to protect Singer, while Huey realizes a little too late that the Annie in the room with them
01:44is the Shapeshifter they had encountered in the previous episode.
01:47While Huey and M.M. try to fend off the assassin, Kimiko guides Singer to safety while also
01:52fighting the incredibly strong Shapeshifter.
01:55In the end, the real Annie intervenes and saves the day.
01:58On the flip side, Newman contacts Huey after fearing for her daughter's life, and the Boys
02:02agree to make a deal with the airborne virus used as leverage against her.
02:06However, Butcher gives in to his worst impulses and tears Newman apart, snuffing out the only
02:11hope against Vought's increasing tyranny that grips the nation.
02:15The ending is incredibly bleak, with most of the Boys taken into Vought custody.
02:19While The Boys is based on Garth Ennis' comic series of the same name, the show has greatly
02:23diverged from some of the plot points.
02:25For instance, we never get the grisly black noir-is-Homelander's clone twist in the show,
02:30which fares much better as it allows the original noir to have its own meaningful arc while
02:34not absolving Homelander of his heinous crimes.
02:37Singer's comic book equivalent is Robert Schaeffer-slash-Dakota Bob, who ran for president and opposed Vought
02:42puppet Victor Newman, and was fatally injured after a security mishap involving a Wolverine
02:47pet.
02:48Parallels between the show's Season 4 finale storyline and the comics converge in Homelander's
02:52coup against acting president Victor Newman, in which he rallies all supes to take over
02:56the country and kills the man in power.
02:59This assassination propels Homelander to face Butcher, which leads to the unsavory noir
03:03reveal, leading Homelander to be torn apart by his clone without remorse.
03:08Although the show approaches these ideas very, very differently, the Singer-Newman storyline
03:12is a repackaged version of what happens in the comics, with markedly disastrous stakes
03:17and consequences that are in line with the series' worldbuilding.
03:20The Singer-Newman storyline feels undoubtedly unfortunate in light of the real-world political
03:24climate, but it must be reiterated that these are fictitious events that can be traced back
03:28to the comic book source material, with no deliberate correlation to recent events.