The V52 Expo, once teased in the shadows of The Boys' narrative, has now blossomed into a vibrant spectacle. Vought's relentless 10,000 PSI propaganda hose is unleashing a barrage of diarrhea-like branding, saturating the convention's rabid attendees with its liquefied propaganda. It's an all-consuming experience, a Vought vertical tailored to every twisted kink imaginable.
Onstage, The Deep and the slick Vought News Network spokesperson Cameron Coleman (Matthew Edison) hype up phases 7 through 19 of the VCU timeline, while an advertisement for the Vought Faith channel flashes across screens. And then, Cate and Sam from Gen V emerge to promote a subpar Vought college comedy, sanitizing the murderous rampage they incited against humans for the malleable masses. But the Gen V storyline remains a bleeding wound.
Billy Butcher has revealed to the team the existence of a superhero-killing virus concocted at Godolkin U. It could be the key to their takedown of Homelander and the Seven, and Butcher has a lead on locating the stash, stolen by Victoria Neuman. "Harmless to humans," he explains, but for supes? "Pure evil." It's a line that Karl Urban was destined to deliver as Butcher.
As Homelander stands simmering in the shadows of V52, silently glitching as he recalls his vengeful massacre of the Vought researchers who raised him in a chamber of horrors, Butcher and Mother's Milk spring Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) from federal confinement. The disgraced Vought executive will be pardoned if he aids them in locating the anti-supe virus. It's an unlikely alliance, but it takes an even stranger turn when Neuman arrives at the farm where Edgar has taken MM, Butcher, Annie, Kimiko, and Frenchie.
This is where she has been conducting secret experiments with both Compound V and the antivirus. It's also where she injected her daughter Zoe with V, giving her the ability to unleash people-eating tentacles from her face. (Edgar is not amused to learn that his grandchild now possesses such terrifying powers.) And to top off this bizarre gathering on the farm, the entire unlikely group is suddenly attacked by V-enhanced barnyard animals.
If V-infused chickens, cows, and sheep aren't enough for you, how about a dose of Compound-V transforming Simon Pegg's Hugh Campbell from a brain-dead father into a rampaging, murderous maniac? It's a shocking twist that breathes new life into this sputtering storyline, which had previously boxed in the Hughie character. But it also raises more questions about the role of Rosemarie DeWitt's Daphne Campbell, Hughie's previously absent mother. Early in season 4, it was mentioned that Daphne works for something resembling Vought's version of Avon. But now, she casually injects her comatose husband with Compound-V after it conveniently falls out of Hughie's pocket? She watches nonchalantly as Hughie suddenly awakens, phases through walls, rips out security guards' hearts, and randomly kills nearby innocents? And then she stands by as Hughie prepares a drug cocktail that will put Hugh Sr. back under? If Daphne is indeed some kind of villain in cahoots with Vought, it's been a stumble for The Boys to try and set up such a reveal.
Since its inception in the 1950s, Vought's propaganda machine cunningly transformed its superheroes, initially post-war champions of liberty, into flamboyant icons of shock and awe. But Homelander, his mind clouded by delusions, pondered: why not both? In a gathering of the Seven at Vought Tower, augmented by the presence of Cate and Sam, Homelander rallied them for a crusade he deemed as a battle to salvage America. Their path would be fraught with brutality, cruelty, and perhaps, even "cool" acts. This, however, was the essence of war. And once the dust settled, freedom would resonate, and the nation would be secure for Ryan's generation. His entire speech was a revelation of Homelander's self-realization. Humans had created him, but not in their own image. He had shattered their mold, even slain his creators. His ultimate solution to quell his insecurities was to transform beings of unparalleled might, like himself, his son, and the rest of the Seven, from protectors of humanity into undisputed rulers. "You shall no longer be adored icons. You shall be wrathful deities."
The secret lab at the farm lay in ruins, along with most of the anti-supe virus, transforming the Boys' hasty alliance with Edgars and Neuman into a desperate struggle for survival against psychotic foes. Amidst the turmoil, Victoria and Annie reluctantly acknowledged their similarities, each grappling with contrasting outer and inner identities. Victoria's blunt remark, though met with a fierce punch, rang true: "You've been Starlight for so long, do you even know who Annie is anymore?" This internal turmoil might also explain Annie's sudden difficulty in harnessing her powers. (Neuman aptly termed it "projectile dysfunction.") As MM sent Edgars back to prison, devoid of the virus, there was no pardon. Meanwhile, Neuman hijacked the convoy, rescuing her adoptive father. The two were undoubtedly plotting something, perhaps in alignment with Vought and Homelander's scheme for violent divine ascendance, perhaps not. Yet, they too fell victim to Billy Butcher's cunning ruse. Amongst the carnage at the farm, only a leg was retrieved from Dr. Sameer Shah (Omid Abtahi). The head of Neuman's clandestine V-lab was also her lover and Zoe's biological father. Now, unknown to all, including the rest of the Boys, Butcher and Joe Kessler had imprisoned Sameer in a secure facility, intending to harness his expertise to create more of that potent supe-killing serum.
