15 Questions We Have After The Boys Season 4 Finale

*Please note this article contains spoilers for The Boys Season 4, including the season finale.

The Boys Season 4 has officially wrapped. Earlier this year, it was confirmed that the show’s next season, its fifth, would be its grand finale. The Boys Season 4 Episode 8, “Assassination Run” shows why.

To quote Doctor Strange, we’re in the endgame now. Homelander (Antony Starr) has staged a quiet coup and turned the world’s supes into martial law enforcers. Most of the Boys have been captured and separated. Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) is fully committed to his plans for supe genocide by virus. 

The Boys has earned some (justified) criticism for treading narrative water, like the show is too scared to fundamentally change its status quo. The episode’s ending feels designed to reassure viewers that there’s no going back now. To that end, it leaves many questions unanswered for Season 5.

Here are 15 Questions We Have After The Boys Season 4 Finale

1. What will Homelander do with Soldier Boy?

Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles), the father of Homelander, was last seen in The Boys Season 3 Episode 8, “The Instant White-Hot Wild,” being put into a deep sleep by the CIA. 

The last scene of The Boys Season 4 is a post-credits stinger: Homelander, who is now the U.S. President in all but name, is shown the slumbering Soldier Boy.  When they last saw each other, they were trying to kill each other. Homelander tearfully asked for them to live as a family and Soldier Boy rejected him as “weak.”

Homelander spent The Boys Season 4 trying to kill his humanity; the root of his daddy issues showing back up leaves his next move in an unpredictable place.

Soldier Boy has to get free at some point, though (and will be looking to pay back Butcher for betraying him). Could his depowering abilities also be key to Homelander’s defeat, like Season 3 teed them up to be?

2. Will Ryan choose good or evil?

Ever since Ryan (Cameron Crovetti), son of Homelander, who was born after he assaulted Becca Butcher (Shantel VanSanten), was introduced, one of the biggest questions of The Boys  is whether he’ll follow in his father’s footsteps.

He’s bounced back and forth; him having been raised with a normal mother gives him a leg-up over his father developmentally, but will that be enough? His other father figure, Billy Butcher, isn’t much healthier than Homelander.

This season was mainly about Ryan being thrust into the spotlight and directly raised by Homelander, but he found himself unable to be the mini-me his father craved. His last scene this season is him refusing to kill Homelander, accidentally killing Grace Mallory (Laila Robins), then walking off. Will he embrace his super or human half in Season 5?

3. Where does Annie go?

Most of the Boys get captured by Homelander’s deputized supes in the closing moments of “Assassination Run.” Annie/Starlight (Erin Moriarty), building on her learning how to fly with her light projection powers this season, blasts off when she and Hughie get cornered. 

That leaves her the only member of the team free and mentally stable when the season wraps; the resistance is down to just one woman strong.

Since Starlight is a nationally-recognized celebrity, how long can she stay on the run? What’s her next move to take down Homelander now that cutting and running isn’t an option? Will Hughie be angry when they reunite that she abandoned him?

4. Where are the rest of The Boys being taken?

The rest of The Boys are captured one by one. Frenchie (Tomer Capone) is mind controlled into walking into a prison van by Cate (Maddie Phillips) while Sam (Asa Germann) holds Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) back. MM (Laz Alonso) gets knocked out by Love Sausage (Derek Johns).

The Boys Season 4 previously established Homelander plans to repurpose prisons nationwide to hold dissidents. It seems like good money the Boys are being sent there.

Will Season 5 open with a prison arc? How long will the show keep the Boys locked up (it does only have eight episodes to wrap things up)? Will the Boys be held together or separately? Why are they being imprisoned instead of killed?

5. How does this ending affect Gen V Season 2?

The Boys spin-off series Gen V has been renewed for a second season. Said season does not have a confirmed release date, but given what’s been reported and both shows’ previous production timeline, it seems likely that Gen V Season 2 will arrive in 2025 followed by The Boys Season 5 in 2026. 

The status quo set up in “Assasination Run” can’t be ignored. Will the show offer a down to earth look at what’s happening inside Homelander’s dictatorship? How will Sam and Cate’s presence in his supe army affect the main cast dynamics on Gen V? Which, if any, of The Boys characters will show up in Gen V Season 2?

6. Is Stan Edgar still alive?

Former Vought CEO Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) was last seen in The Boys Season 4 Episode 5, “Beware The Jabberwock, My Son.” While being driven back to prison, his head-popping supe adopted daughter Victoria Neuman attacked his transport. They silently locked eyes and the scene ended.

So, what happened? Generally if a character is implied to die but not actually seen doing so, it’s because they’re still alive. This seems especially true for a significant character like Edgar. If the show wanted his story to end with Neuman killing him, it probably would’ve just ended there.

Did Neuman free her father? Considering her death in “Assassination Run,” where does that leave Edgar should he return in season 5? Will he again be an ally of convenience to the Boys, considering he’s no fan of Homelander and Supes?

7. What will happen to Neuman’s daughter?

Complicating the question of Edgar’s fate is that of his granddaughter (and Victoria’s daughter), Zoe Neuman (Olivia Morandin). With her mother dead, Zoe gets sent to the same supe orphanage Victoria grew up in. 

If Edgar was still alive, wouldn’t he assume custody? Then again, he might not legally be in a position to do so if he’s on the run. Will Zoe have any role to play in Season 5?

What about her potential bond with Ryan? Or is this just the sad ending to the Neumans’ story, with Zoe inheriting her mothers’ parentless childhood that Victoria was desperate to save her from?

8. Where does A-Train go from here?

One of the strengths of The Boys Season 4 was A-Train/Reggie Franklin (Jessie T. Usher). After multiple seasons of humbling, the speedster supe finally committed to turning over a new leaf. He acted as the Boys’ mole within the Seven this season, even saving their lives on many occasions.

Like the Boys themselves, A-Train decides to lam it at the season’s end, running off outside of U.S. borders (but even that probably won’t keep him safe from Homelander).

He’ll definitely be back in Season 5 — perhaps he’ll be the supe ally Annie desperately needs now — but how will his story end? Will he get a redemptive sacrifice, or will he live to reconcile with his family after proving he could be a real hero?

9. What powers will Ashley get?

Homelander decides to purge Vought of all non-supes in order to crack down on leaks and cement his control over the company. Ashley Barrett (Colby Minifie), the all-too-human CEO, desperately injects herself with Compound V. She can’t be on the kill list if she becomes a supe herself, after all?

Ashley is last seen writhing on the floor after the injection, her chemical chrysalis underway. What powers will she get? Considering her generally rotten luck, it’s plausible Ashley will wind up with disfiguring or useless powers.

Alternatively, maybe she’ll get enviable ones and finally feel secure enough to stand up to Homelander. Despite being a corporate ghoul, Ashley’s constant state of terror has made her an endearing character — how happy of an ending will she get?

10. How closely will the show’s ending mirror the comics?

The Boys has thus far played it rather loose when it comes to adapting Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s original comics. The major characters are the same, but the details of those characters and the story surrounding them is often different.

So, in the comics, the supe takeover (and Homelander’s death) is only the penultimate arc. Afterward, Butcher betrays the Boys and tries to kill all supes, making him the final villain. Will the last season follow this structure? Some details of the comic’s last arc (like Black Noir being a clone of Homelander) definitely won’t be happening, so it could be a whole new ending.

11. Is Butcher or Homelander the final villain?

Butcher ends the season by listening to Joe Kessler (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), the devil on his shoulder. Committing to his plans to wipe out all supes, he unveils his Compound V-Tumor powers, kills Neuman, and steals the samples of the supe-killing virus. 

What’s Billy’s plan from here? The tumor may give him powers but it’s also killing him (as in toxic masculinity, hint hint). With no resources or team left, how is he planning to refine and distribute the virus?

Will he, like in the comics, take out the rest of the team and be killed by Hughie? Or will he redeem himself in this version, saving Ryan, killing Homelander with the other Boys, and redeeming himself?

12. Who’s making it out alive?

Related to the comic; there, every main character but Hughie and Annie bite the dust. Given the show isn’t as edgelord-ish as the comic could be and how little of the core cast has actually died, I think the casualties might be lower here.

If I had to bet, I’d say Butcher is the most likely to die (whether as hero or villain). Hughie and Annie will probably make it out again too. I’m going to bet on at least two of MM, Frenchie, and Kimiko making it through, though. 

I think there’s even a satisfying version of the ending where Homelander doesn’t die, but lives and loses his powers instead. He could end the series locked up again in a “bad room,” as powerless and trapped as he was during his childhood.

13. How painfully will the Deep die?

If there’s one character who feels destined for a painful ending, it’s The Deep (Chace Crawford). He cemented just how vile the superheroes of this world can be in The Boys Season 1 Episode 1, “The Name of the Game” when he assaulted Annie.

Since then, he’s slipped by with his life but lost any shred of dignity. He’s time after time rejected chances at changing and always puts himself first.

The show has never forgotten about the Deep’s original sin either, and this is a show that often reserves vile punishments for rapists. So, how will he go?

Will he anger Homelander one too many times? Will Annie get some sweet revenge? Will there be a bedroom mishap with one of his sea animal friends? We’ll see.

14. Will the writers ever figure out what to do with Frenchie?

Ah, the Frenchman. In the comics and early episodes, he was basically the Boys’ resident scientist; he analyzed supe weaknesses and devised ways of playing on those to kill them. As the series went in a less episodic direction (i.e. no “kill a supe every episode”), Frenchie’s talents fell by the wayside.

In both Seasons 3 and 4, he fell into meandering subplots where he revisits his past with regret. Neither one felt tied into the overarching narrative of each season.

The writers have also played extremely hot and cold on his relationship with Kimiko; them not being together at the start of Season 4 felt like an abrupt backtrack, yet they get together at the end of the season.

Hopefully, the writers can find a better use for Frenchie before the show wraps up. 

15. Will this show still be watchable after the election?

The Boys is a blatantly political show, to the point it often feels too didactic to be satire (especially season 4, but that’s a discussion for another time).

This season ends with Homelander (cited by series creator Eric Kripke as a stand-in for Donald Trump) seizing control of the U.S. government and becoming an official authoritarian. 

The timing of this ending, with the 2024 presidential election months away, outlines the worst-case scenario of said election.

Will the ending of the show hit too close to home with the country in a fraught place? The outcome of the election will definitely shape how Season 5 plays out as well — but that’s a counterfactual where we can only get one answer.

The Boys is currently streaming on Prime Video.

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