‘The Boys’ – ‘Life Among the Septics’ – Review
Season Four of The Boys started off with a hell of a bang in ‘Department of Dirty Tricks’, and it’s becoming clear that the Supes have an end game for humanity, and it ain’t gonna be pretty. With mounting political tensions and their backs very much against the wall, our favourite rag-tag team of anti-hero vigilantes is going to need to make things happen if they want to come out on top.
The Boys follow Sage to the conspiracy theory convention, TruthCon, to find out why she’s meeting with a bombastic Supe named Firecracker who has a vendetta against Starlight. Meanwhile, Ryan gets his first public (but staged) save, stopping some bank robbers — but it goes tragically off script when Homelander shows up to take the spotlight from his son. Hughie is furious when he learns that his mother has power-of-attorney over his father, awakening painful memories of the day she abandoned him. Annie reluctantly steps back into the role of Starlight to give hope to her supporters in the wake of Homelander’s acquittal.
Things got messy in the last episode of The Boys, and with the Humelanders and Starlighters coming to blows, not to mention Homelander’s (Antony Starr) devious trick to create mass violence, with more violence, it’s starting to get damn explosive in Season Four of The Boys. We’re just at the start of this new series, and it’s already beginning to go to hell with a mounting political tension that is making things bloody dangerous for humanity in the truest sense of the word. Starr’s Homelander is, of course, acquitted in his murder trial, claiming ‘self-defence’, and this sends an already despondent Annie January/Starlight (Erin) into a tailspin. And Eric Kripke is starting to push his characters into very tight corners, and this added pressure adds to all kinds of drama in ‘Life Among the Septics’.
Facing his own troubles this time around is Hughie Campbell (Jack Quid), who, along with his duties to The Boys, is plucked into a heavy family drama following his father suffering a stroke and his long-time absentee mother, Daphne Campbell (Rosemarie DeWitt) suddenly returning to care for him. The emotions are heavy and fraught, and with Hughie barely hanging on as it is, this adds fuel to the already combustible fire that is his life. There’s a level of real hostility that is present between Hughie and his mum, and this is well deserved given the fact that she walked out on him, which is made worse by the fact that she works for Vought as a ‘Voughtality Consultant’. For her part, Rosemarie DeWitt is an intriguing casting, and I’m sure we’ll see a lot more of her as the series progresses.
It wouldn’t be The Boys without us mentioning The Deep. Oh The Deep, the long maligned broey, douchebag, frat boy of The Seven who is its recurring joke and whose sense of self is now at an all-time low. Not only is he now divorced from his psychotic ex-wife Cassandra, but she’s written a tell-all book about his ‘love’ for the ocean. And things really don’t look good for him. While it’s truly hard to feel sorry for The Deep, Chase Crawford delivers an incredibly layered performance, and even though he’s an utter jerk, you do feel that Kevin is a guy who’s really out of place in this world and just wants to be himself. With his lack of self-worth and a desperate desire to please, Deep’s also a new pawn in Sister Sage’s (Susan Heyward) game plan, and this has some very unexpected consequences.
The crux of the episode hangs on The Boys infiltrating TruthCon, a hotel basement event for fringe, conspiracy whackjobs, and their self-appointed spokeswoman, Firecracker (Valorie Curry). As the leader of an online alt-right podcast, Firecracker is building a legion of fans, and she raises Sage’s interest. Thanks to her bombastic personality and over-the-top performance, Curry is a hoot in the role, and she’s a definite scene-stealer. The whole TruthCon investigation of course descends into a minefield of mayhem and gore, and if you thought that Kripke and his team couldn’t find a way to top the sexual depravity of Herogasm, well, think again. The final moments of TruthCon make for a spectacle of wanton violence, and it’s very nice to see the reunion of Butcher and his trusty crowbar!
‘Life Among the Septics’ is both a fiendishly funny (we still can’t get over that cameo appearance) and a violently crazy new episode of The Boys, and it makes one thing very clear: the Boys are in trouble. And it ain’t looking good to be simply human.
The Boys streams every Friday on Prime Video.
Image: Prime Video
