‘The Boys’ Season 4 Finale: 7 Biggest Unanswered Questions

This season of The Boys has been wild. It dives deeper into political satire than ever before, leaving a divided nation in its wake.

The series follows The Boys, led by Butcher ( Karl Urban ) and Hughie ( Jack Quaid ), and their efforts to take down the evil superhero group The Seven. Known on the show as “supes,” that group is led by the all-powerful Homelander ( Antony Starr ). This week’s Season 4 finale was packed with shocking twists and turns , leaving us with some big questions as The Boys prepares for its fifth—and final—season. Let’s get into it.

( Warning: Spoilers ahead!)

Will Ashley survive taking Compound V?

Ashley Barrett (Colby Minife), CEO of Vought, is in serious trouble. Homelander and company turned against her and set out to kill her, as she’s believed to be the leak that’s been a thorn in the side of Vought and The Seven all season long. In a desperate bid for survival, Ashley takes a vial of Compound V, the drug that gives supes their powers, and injects it into her veins. The reaction doesn’t seem great. She screams, and it looks like her brain is trying to burst out of her skull. However, we cut away before we see the full fallout. Is Ashley done for, or perhaps more excitingly, will Ashley become an unexpected new member of The Seven?

Is Butcher b eyond r edemption?

Butcher (Karl Urban) has had an awfully rough go of things in Season 4, where a new addiction to the Compound V has him getting closer to becoming a supe than he ever thought possible—especially since, you know, his whole goal is to wipe out Homelander and The Seven for good. In the Season 4 finale, Butcher’s plans to get Ryan back from Homelander wind up in disaster, driving Butcher to his lowest point.

The whole season has seen Butcher torn between acquiring and unleashing a virus that would effectively wipe out every supe on Earth, regardless of whether they’re enemies or allies, like Starlight and Kimiko. But at his worst, Butcher kills supe Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) in shockingly violent fashion, as tentacles launch out of his chest and tear Neuman apart. Compound V has effectively turned Butcher into the very thing he despises, and worryingly, he seems to relish his newfound power. Is there any hope for Butcher in Season 5, or has he gone to the dark side for good?

Is this the last of The Seven?

Things don’t look great for The Seven, everyone’s (least) favorite supe group bankrolled by the Vought Corporation. After word gets out that there’s some serious evil at the core of the super group, Firecracker (Valorie Curry), The Deep (Chace Crawford), and Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell) go on a murderous rampage, killing endless swathes of people who work at Vought that have information on them that could be leaked, changing public perception. But perhaps the biggest threat to The Seven is that leader Homelander is now in charge of a supe militia. Will he be able to split his time between The Seven and the military, or will the Vought supergroup fall by the wayside now that the military is effectively run by supes?

Can The Boys survive?

As if Butcher turning against The Boys wasn’t enough, the new rise of a Supe-led Martial Law brings The Boys to the brink. In the final scene, the anti-Vought group is seen separating, but they’re also all kidnapped by various Supe militia. Hughie, Mother’s Milk, Kimiko, and Frenchie are all taken in, which bodes especially poorly for a group already in disarray.

The two members that escape are Starlight (Erin Moriarty) and Butcher. The pair have always been opposed to each other, but after Butcher slaughters Neuman, it’s hard to imagine the two ever reconciling. But if there’s any chance of saving The Boys and taking down Vought, Starlight and Butcher are going to have to join forces to rescue their allies from imprisonment and save the world as they know it.

How does Soldier Boy impact the future?

A mid-credit scene drops a major shock twist: Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) is somehow still alive. For a long time, he was thought to be the only supe capable of stopping Homelander, but after he fell to Homelander in an epic faceoff in the Season 3 finale, he’s been assumed dead.

Not any longer! Perhaps the most concerning element here is that Homelander—whom Soldier Boy tried to take down—is the only one who knows he’s alive. How exactly will Homelander use this to his advantage? Will he keep Soldier Boy asleep in what looks like an incubator, or will he bring him back to life and turn him into his mightiest warrior yet? As if things couldn’t be any worse for The Boys, Soldier Boy could put the nail in their effective coffin.

Is Homelander still the biggest threat to humanity?

The Seven is in shambles, but Homelander isn’t: In the wake of chaos, a new President orders Martial Law, and puts Homelander in charge of the new superhero forces that will be administering justice. However, there’s one person he has to thank for his newfound success, and that’s Sister Sage (Susan Heyward), the new addition to The Seven in Season 4. Sage proves to be the most valuable member of the team, and the one who shakes things up, even though she has no physical powers to speak of.

Sister Sage used her status as the world’s smartest person to turn Homelander into the ultimate symbol of American hope, causing massive political divide and chaos. Though Homelander turns against her at the last minute, she still masterminds his victory. “Why would you do this?” Homelander asks Sage. “To see if I could,” she responds. Sage says she’s ready to start Phase 2, and we’re more scared of that than Homelander. Hell hath no fury like a woman, with unlimited intellectual possibilities, scorned.

Will The Boys figure out what to do with Starlight?

One of The Boys biggest struggles has been what to do with its increasingly large cast of characters. Annie January aka Starlight was one of the most integral characters of both The Seven and the overall show in the first few seasons, but her character arc in Season 4 has oscillated between frustratingly thin and non-existent. This season has turned Starlight into something of a fallen woman, despised by those who once adored her as she came out as an enemy of Vought and joined The Boys in the efforts to take down The Seven. Thankfully, there’s a flash of hope in the series finale, as Starlight gets the spotlight via a brutal fight with her doppelganger, whom she successfully defeats.

It’s awesome to see what a powerhouse Starlight can be—after so much struggling it’s been hard to remember that she has any powers at all. Hopefully, her big fight functions as a taster for the final season: After taking down herself, Starlight is ready for bigger and better things in Season 5. The fact that she’s one of just two members of The Boys not to be kidnapped at the end of Season 4 suggests that she may just be humanity’s last hope. Let’s hope Annie January is up to the task.

Read more at The Daily Beast.