The Boys season 4 finale recap, "Assassination" — Death comes for a major player

The Boys season 4 has finally come to an end, and the finale did not disappoint in giving us plenty of shocking moments, including a season-ending cliffhanger that is sure to keep fans talking for months to come.

As the episode begins, the Electoral College vote is underway to certify the incoming president following the election, which means the clock is officially ticking until Homelander and company attempt their assassination of President Singer in order to achieve their plan of making Vice President Victoria Neuman president.

With the clock ticking, Frenchie is hard at work on replicating the Supe-killing virus. Meanwhile, Poor Hughie has no idea that Annie has been replaced by the shapeshifting Supe who makes the most of her time as Annie and proposes to Hughie, leading him to propose to her as well. Fake Annie accepts the proposal and she’s clearly doing everything possible to keep him preoccupied as works to gain access to the files they have on Neuman.

When fake Annie sees her ring fingers beginning to deteriorate, she races out of the house under the guise that she needs some champagne so they can celebrate but is actually sneaking out to visit the real Annie in order to get a recharge allowing her to maintain her cover.

As Fake Annie recharges, she tells the real Annie all about her dastardly deeds, including the proposal and how she’s enjoyed sleeping with Hughie. After Annie questions why fake Annie is doing what she’s doing, the fake Annie goes on a tangent about everyone thinking they’re the heroes of their own stories before revealing their plan to kill Singer and make Annie the fall guy.

Butcher gets a surprise visitor on his apparent deathbed

When we get our first glimpse of Butcher, he’s in a hospital room and it seems he’s on his deathbed. He’s again seeing hallucinations of Kessler, who tells Butcher that he gave him the juice needed to rip Eziekel to pieces and all he needs to do is hold up his end of the bargain and he can help take out other Supes as well. Before their conversation goes too far, Grace shows up and the pair get to work.

Later, Hughie calls Butcher to tell him they are only a few hours away from certifying the election, which means Homelander and company will be coming for Singer. Butcher takes a stroll down memory lane telling Hughie about a Topless Steakhouse he once went to when he was younger and asks Hughie to promise that he’ll go to the restaurant for him before telling him to tell The Boys he’s sorry, and goodbye.

Homelander begins making moves

With the Electoral College vote underway, Homelander is prepared to put the next stages of his — and by his, we mean Sister Sage’s — plan into action. But first he has a total meltdown in his apartment after discovering the photo of Butcher and Rebecca which Butcher had given Ryan for Christmas. Ryan walks in and Homelander pops off on him about how he’s his father, not Butcher, and orders Ryan to come to him. Ryan storms off instead.

After going nuclear on Ryan, Homelander begins to spiral even further and drops a major truth bomb on the world when he outs Neuman as a Supe live on TV during what was supposed to be a softball interview about an anti-Supe law.

Needless to say, Neuman is not happy at all about Homelander’s actions. Homelander being Homelander, he brushes her off and says they’re about to make a better world. She reminds him how short-sighted he’s being, but he says the train has left the station and she’s already on it, so buckle up. Neuman reminds him that he’d need to arrest half of Vought and half of the country in order to make their plan work.

Having jumped the gun and not thought things through, Homelander tells Ashley to make a list of anyone with leverage on him or The Seven, which she realizes is not going to end well for those on the list. And after she hands the list over and listens at the door, she realizes that includes her.

Talking to the rest of The Seven, Homelander says that the plan is to kill Singer so that Neuman will be sworn in as president, at which time they’ll put out a call to every Vought hero to surround the Capitol, White House, and Pentagon to defend President Neuman. Oh, and about that list? Well, he can’t have those on it jeopardizing the plan and orders The Deep, Firecracker, and Black Noir to eliminate everyone on it. The Deep has way too much fun adding Ashley's name. Ashley runs straight to Homelander’s apartment where she injects herself with Compound V in order to give herself a fighting chance against The Seven...or maybe to join their ranks.

We don’t get to see what comes of Ashley after she takes V, but we can’t wait to see where the story goes next season! What we do see is Firecracker, The Deep, and Black Noir taking out everyone on the list at Vought including the other Ashley who is killed by Black Noir in a hilarious moment of confusion over the number of Ashleys in the company. 

The Boys rally to save Singer

When the election is certified despite the truth about Neuman coming to light, protests break out and The Boys must go into action to keep the president safe. M.M. calls Hughie and tells him to get the dirt on Neuman ready in case they need to leak it, which is when Hughie discovers everything they have against her has been wiped clean. Fake Annie has been busy.

Frenchie is still working on the virus while Singer speaks out in the news making it clear that if anything happens to him, Neuman is to be blamed. He’s then taken to an underground bunker with The Boys and fake Annie.

After they’ve all locked themselves in the bunker, Hughie realizes Annie is actually the shapeshifting Supe and all hell breaks loose. With her cover blown, fake Annie goes on a rampage and begins taking out the Secret Service members one by one in the most gruesome of ways.

After fake Annie snaps Kimiko’s neck, thus taking her out of the equation for the moment, Hughie and M.M. race to get Singer to safety. It looks like all hope is lost until the real Annie shows up and kicks fake Annie’s ass, saving the day like the boss she is!

After Homelander’s plot to kill Singer fails, he starts to spiral even harder. Homelander tells Neuman he will find a way to make their plan work and that she is going to do everything he tells her and threatens to harm her daughter if she doesn’t.

Little do they know that The Boys not only managed to keep Singer safe, but Frenchie has managed to replicate the virus! There’s little time for Hughie to celebrate; Annie is not happy about the fact that he proposed to the shapeshifter and how he didn’t even realize Annie has been replaced.

Neuman turns on Homelander

After being threatened by Homelander, Neuman calls up Hughie and tells him that she wants out. She tells him about the threat Homelander made against her daughter and says she’ll resign and walk away so long as he helps get her and Zoe to safety.

Hughie is understandably uncertain, but it’s clear to Neuman that she’s not safe and that the only way to get out is with help from Hughie. She makes it clear that he can trust her because she’s trusting him with getting to Zoe and that she knows he is the only person he can turn to.

After their call, Hughie tells The Boys about Neuman’s wishes and persuades them to take a chance. The group is hesitant, but he tells them that if they want to beat the monsters at Vought they need to start acting human, which is enough to get M.M. to agree to the plan. As he tells the group, they took a chance on trusting A-Train and he came through, so they should give Neuman a chance as well… but he also tells Frenchie to have the virus on hand just in case they do need to use it.

When the team breaks, we get to see Kimiko and Frenchie make up after she tells him that she only pushed him into Colin’s arms because she thought he deserved to be with someone better than her. He says there is no one better than her. The two kiss and our Kimiko and Frenchie shipping hearts get to enjoy a brief moment of elation.

Ryan becomes what Butcher feared

While everything is going to shit, Ryan goes to see Butcher at the hospital. Butcher tells him they need to have a serious chat and tells Ryan that he can’t go back to Vought Tower. Instead, he says Ryan will need to go with Grace. The only problem is that Ryan isn’t sure he wants to leave.

Butcher tells Ryan that when his mom died, she had him promise to keep him safe and that’s what he’s trying to do. If he feels safest with Homelander, he won’t stop him.

Later, Grace tells Butcher about the attempt on Singer’s life and Ryan overhears. She tells Butcher Ryan needs to know the truth about the assassination attempt and she fully unloads on him. Grace tells Ryan the truth about how Homelander was responsible for killing everyone on Flight 37, how he raped Ryan’s mother, and how he was behind the assassination attack on Singer.

When Ryan questions whether this is true, Butcher apologizes to him about it all being truths that he withheld and makes it clear that Ryan is the only one who can stop Homelander. This sends Ryan into a spiral of his own as he freaks out over the idea of having to kill his father. When Grace tells Ryan he can’t leave, he realizes that this isn’t a normal hospital and was all a setup. They’re in a bunker because they were prepared to lock Ryan up just like Homelander was locked up unless he agrees to be their weapon. Grace tries to talk Ryan down, telling him how much he means to her.

The only problem is she does this while reaching for the button that would unleash a gas to knock Ryan out. When he realizes this, he pushes Grace away, sending her slamming into a wall and seemingly killing her on impact. Rather than flinching at all over his actions, he takes one glance at Grace before walking past her and out of the bunker. It’s at that moment Butcher once again sees Kessler, hinting that his subconscious knows Ryan might be too far gone.

Shit hits the fan

Back at The Boys' bunker, Neuman and Zoe arrive and she tells the team how she’s going to help take down Vought and Homelander. Just as they finalize their deal, Butcher walks in, much to the surprise of everyone, and tells them there is no deal to be had.

Hughie tells Butcher he needs to trust him like he once trusted Lenny and for a brief moment in time it seems like Butcher might once listen to Hughie. That moment is fleeting; he throws Hughie to the side and goes full Vecna on Neuman as the parasite within him literally bursts through his chest, attacking the group with many tentacles. The Boys are no match for their former leader; Butcher literally tears Neuman in half, killing her instantly before taking the virus from Frenchie and telling the group they’re welcome as he flees.

News of Neuman’s death quickly comes to light. Singer is blamed for her death thanks to leaked footage used out of context. This unfolds as Sage reveals it was all part of her master plan. Turns out Sage always knew that Neuman would have been a poor patsy. With both Neuman and Singer out of the picture, Speaker of the House Calhoun is next in line to become president, and he wants to pledge his allegiance to Homelander. Sage tells Homelander she made a promise and thanks him for giving her the opportunity, as it was “so much fun.” Before she leaves, she tells him to listen to her next time as she walks out and to buckle up for phase 2.

With the president in their pocket, Calhoun says he’s declaring Marshall Law and deputizing superheroes nationwide who will report to Homelander directly. Homelander pins Neuman’s murder on the Starlighters and makes it clear that he will hunt them down and that a new age of superheroing is about to begin.

Their backs against the wall, The Boys go off in different directions, but that plan doesn’t exactly work out for them. Hughie and Annie go off together, but as they’re driving, a boat drops out of the sky in front of their car and they crash. Metal-controlling Supe Cindy caused the crash and is prepared to go head-to-head with Starlight before Starlight flies away Captain Marvel style, leaving Hughie behind as he gets taken into custody.

Things go just as poorly for Kimiko and Frenchie, who are confronted by Gen V’s Cate and Sam. Cate uses her abilities to mind control Frenchie into walking away without a fight as Sam holds onto Kimiko who finally breaks her silence as she lets out a gut-wrenching cry for Frenchie as she watches him walk away. M.M. is attacked in an airport bathroom by Love Sausage and brought in by the same armed men who round up the others.

Sans Starlight who was able to escape, Butcher is the only member of The Boys not captured as the season comes to an end, but it’s clear he’s ready for battle as we see him driving off into the night with Kessler in the backseat of the car.

But wait, there’s more!

The Boys season 4 finale has a post credit scene

In a brief post-credits scene, Homelander is taken into a lab holding his father Soldier Boy in a cryo tank of some sort, hinting that Jensen Ackles’ hero is going to play a bigger role in the fifth and final season.

Needless to say, the finale set up what should be an intense final season of The Boys. Homelander is in power and The Boys have literally been rounded up and are about to find themselves behind bars, or worse. It’s clear an epic showdown between Butcher and Homelander is brewing, but who will win?

Starlight is likely going to have to team up with a few familiar faces from The Seven if she has any chance of stopping Homelander once and for all. But will the good guys finally win in the end? We can only hope so.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook pageandTwitter account, sign up for our exclusive newsletterand check outour YouTube channel.