‘The Boys’ Recap: 5 Most Shocking Moments From Season 4, Episode 8

Victoria Neuman is dead, Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) has gone full-blown Joe Kessler (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Sister Sage (Susan Heyward) is back? It’s the Season 4 finale of “The Boys” and it definitely ended with a bang.

Episode 8, titled “Assassin Run,” closed out an eventful season of the Prime Video drama, and before we get into the biggest moments, let’s discuss some of the other need-to-knows. Hughie proposed to Annie/Starlight (Erin Moriarty). Well, who he thought was Starlight. He didn’t know the Starlight look-alike was actually The Shape Shifter until the evil supe was already near her target president Robert “Dakota Bob” Singer (Jim Beaver), who Homelander (Antony Starr) needed Shape Shifter to take out. Thankfully, Starlight was able to break free from Shape Shifter’s captivity and save the day, but she was a little sore about Hughie’s slew of adult sleepovers with shifter.

In other news, Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) and Frenchie (Tomer Capone) finally locked lips, signally the two have officially shipped up. Plus, Vought CEO Ashley Barrett (Colby Minifie) shot herself up with Compound V after she learned she was included in Homelander’s list of Vought employees to kill.

There’s a lot in store. Here are the five shocking moments from the Season 4 finale of “The Boys.”

1. Homelander exposes Victoria Neuman’s supe identity to millions

Despite how uncertain Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) felt about working with Homelander, everything was going fairly smoothly … until their appearance on Firecracker’s internet-to-Vought New Network program, “The Truthbomb with Firecracker.” While the pair was there to discuss the Vice President-elect’s thoughts around Singer’s slew of anti-supe legislations, Homelander instead used the platform to tell the millions watching that Victoria, too, is a super-abled being.

“Victoria here is a superhero,” Homelander says to viewers.

“Thanks for the compliment. I think the truth is, we all want to be heroes,” Neuman says right before Homelander laser beams her to display her impenetrability.

After the segment was over Victoria raged at Homelander for exposing her years-long secret, mentioning that it could ruin her chances at reelection in four years. In response, Homelander tried to redirect her frustration into a bigger look at the future.

“Listen to me: we are going to change the world, Vicky — for our kids and their kids. The first super-abled president, and you’re a gal,” Homelander says. “Now shut the f–k up and listen. Our fates are connected now. Singer’s as good as dead and I am the only f–g friend you’ve got left. The train has left the station gorgeous and you’re on it.”

Homelander’s words end up cutting Victoria too deeply later on in the episode, as he threatened to hurt her daughter Zoey after Victoria chewed him out over their failed assassination attempt on Singer. This led to Victoria’s decision to leave Homelander’s side and team up with The Boys.

2. Ryan Butcher kills The Boys founder Grace Mallory

That’s right, that sweet kid fans had so much faith in (and still somewhat do), ended up taking out CIA Deputy Director and The Boys founder, Grace Mallory. Grace, who hasn’t shown up the entire season, dropped in to pay her dying friend Butcher a visit in the hospital and to also convince Ryan to be part of their plan to take Homelander down. Seeing as Ryan is Homelander’s complete genetic match, he would be the only supe that’s capable of murdering him.

When the two explained that they’d like to put Ryan through training to prepare him for his match against his dad, it didn’t sit too well with Ryan.

“No, I can’t! Don’t ask me to!” Ryan exclaims. “So this is why you all want me to go with you? So you can teach me how to kill my dad? I have to go!”

Grace tried to stop him and explain further, but hospital’s six-feet-thick walls tipped him off to the realization that Grace and Butcher were trapping him.

“You’re locking my in a cage unless I agree to be your weapon, just like they did to my dad,” Ryan says. Despite learning that Homelander raped his mother Rebecca Butcher, rather than the affair stories he’d heard all along, he still wanted to leave. Just as Grace was about to use a button to trap him in, Ryan pushed Grace into a wall and killed her. Shocked by his own actions, Ryan stared down at Grace’s lifeless body, looked back at Butcher and left.

All the restraint, care and faith Butcher had for supes completely went out the window. And Butcher’s evil shoulder devil Joe Kessler officially entered the chat.

3. Billy Butcher murders Victoria Neuman and reveals his true supe ability

Nice Butcher has left the building. After Ryan killed Grace, Butcher pretty much is back to his original ways: ruthless, unforgiving and quick to pop a cap if need be. In the closing bits of the episode, fans got to see him unleash a deadly wrath and reveal a supe ability that’s been dodging screen all season.

As mentioned earlier, Victoria agreed to join forces with The Boys to fight Homelander, so Hughie brought her and her daughter down to their hideout to plot their next move. When Butcher shows up unexpectedly and sees Victoria, he immediately attacks her and splits her in half with several tentacles that are coming out of his chest. This is the first time viewers see his true powers. Afterward, he bullies Frenchie out of the supe-killing virus that The Boys extracted from Kimiko’s chopped off leg and left.

4. Sister Sage returns and reveals her pro-supe plan to take over the White House all worked out

Now that Victoria is dead, all seems lost inside the Vought tower where Homelander weeps at the sight of his plan falling through. That’s when he gets an unexpected visit from Sage, who reveals that the events taking place are exactly what she planned.

“This is the plan. I mean, sure, a few curve balls but we got here. Just had to keep a few bits to myself. You know, the bits you’d f–k up by, you know, being you. Neuman would have been a s–t patsy. Too many ideas, so I went another way.”

She then stands to the side to let the news broadcast report that Singer was arrested after footage surfaced (likely due to Sage) of him seemingly ordering a hit on Victoria. Sage then surprises Homelander with a phone call from the Speaker of the House Calhoun, who is next in the line of succession to take over the Oval Office as president and wants to pledge allegiance to Homelander.

Stunned that Sage continued on with their ploy despite Homelander previously dismissing her, Sage shares that she kept up on her promise to her just to see if she could pull off getting him into the White House.

“Thank you … this was so much fun. Just, you know, next time, listen to me,” Sage says before adding in that she has even more schemes up her sleeve.

“Next time?” Homelander questions Sage.

“Hells yeah, blonde ambition. Buckle up for phase two.”

In the next scene, viewers see Speaker Calhoun, now in his presidential role, announcing the declaration of Martial Law “and deputizing hundreds of superheroes nationwide who will report directly to Homelander himself.”

5. Cindy, Sam Riordan and Cate Dunlap kidnap The Boys

With their plans totally soiled, The Boys decide to go their separate ways and regroup at a later date. But as Homelander said, “I’m coming for you.” And that’s exactly what happened in the last few moments of the episode. Some familiar faces showed back up, including Cindy, that freakily strong test subject supe that escaped from the Sage Grove Center in Season 3, plus Godolkin University supes Cate Dunlap (Maddie Philips) and Sam Riordan (Asa Germann) from “Gen V.”

Cate and Sam attacked Frenchie and Kimiko, Mother’s Milk was taken down by supe Love Sausage (Derek Johns), and Hughie and Starlight were subdued by Cindy. Luckily, Starlight’s power came back right before they were swarmed and she was able to escape.

There’s no confirmation yet, but we can bet the captured Boys will likely be taken to the same prison Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair), Emma Meyer (Lizze Broadway), Jordan Li (London Thor, Derek Luh) and Andre Anderson (Chance Perdomo) are being held in.

And before you leave, make sure you saw that President Calhoun has been keeping Soldier Boy, Homelander’s father, stored in some secret storage center in a regulated coma. He’s alive!

All episodes of “The Boys” are now streaming on Prime Video.

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