REVIEW: ‘The Boys’ Season 4 Episode 4 — “Wisdom Of The Ages”

By far the grossest episode of the season (if not the series) The Boys Season 4 Episode 4 is relentless. Most of this is due to Homelander (Antony Starr), who is exorcising some of his many, many demons by terrorizing and torturing the group of laboratory workers who raised him. But it’s not just him. Throughout the episode, “Wisdom of the Ages” devices new ways to shock and nauseate — often in the same sequence. Packed with hilarity and unsettling darkness, The Boys Season 4 Episode 4 is a strong installment, even if I spent much of it watching through my fingers.

The Boys Season 4 Episode 4 is worth watching just to see Firecracker (Valorie Curry) get the snot kicked out of her. It’s hard to think of a character in recent memory as viscerally repugnant at Firecracker, a mixed amalgamation of conservative, alt-right podcasters and all of the worst people you know in the Facebook comment sections. While members of The Boys try to corner her by threatening to reveal her arrest for assault, she twists it into her born-again Christian narrative. Heinous and deliberately targeting Starlight (Erin Moriarty), she pushes it too far when she reveals medical records stating that Annie had an abortion.

The ensuing warpath Annie sets forth on as she bludgeons Firecracker’s face is one of the most exciting things the character has gotten to do in ages. Yes, it blows up spectacularly in her face. But she’s no longer passive, rightfully enraged by the violation.

The less entertaining violence comes in the aforementioned visit Homelander takes to the laboratory he grew up in. It’s there we realize the full extent of trauma he carries, even if he tries hard to pretend he’s above such human emotions. He recounts how he was observed in an oven as they tested to see if his skin was heat resistant, and a poor man meets his untimely fate soon after. As his stories progress, the likelihood of any of these workers making it out alive decreases. It’s a miserable, tense sequence that draws on all we know about Homelander and his powderkeg rage.

He cuts a pitiful figure even amongst the bloodshed and carnage. He’s committing unspeakable acts of violence, and yet Starr imbues his performance with just enough vulnerability that we’re able to see through him. He sees himself as playing God — a man untouchable to mere humans. Yet so much of it is a little boy acting out. He’s reprehensible, and there’s no happy ending in this show that doesn’t include him meeting his end, but to make him just a thoughtless villain would be too dull. Instead, seeing the past manipulations seep through makes him so much more exciting and, subsequently, terrifying.

The Boys Season 4 Episode 4 continues to build on the troubling personal lives of its characters. Frenchie (Tomer Capone) reveals his secret to Colin (Elliot Knight), tanking any thoughts of relationships when Colin learns it was Frenchie who murdered his family. Sage (Susan Heyward) continues to be one the more fascinating characters as she reaches out to The Deep (Chace Crawford) yet again, though this time with a more ulterior motive.

She confesses that her brain never stops growing, and to take the edge off, she’s learned to lobotomize herself. She gets not to be herself for a few hours, and her brain grows back, always rengerating. Of course, it wouldn’t be The Boys if we didn’t see said lobotomy in extreme, excessive detail and fair warning that covering your eyes isn’t enough for this sequence. The Boys commits to its gore and discomfort and is happy to play with sonic horror as well. It’s not enough to see it; we need to feel and hear it, too.

But it’s Hughie’s (Jack Quaid) storyline that once again makes for the heart of the episode as he deliberates with himself over whether or not to give his dad Compound V. The decision comes after learning his mom wants to take his dad off of life support. The path of getting V is fun, at least, since it gives us the rare team-up of Hughie and Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara). Quaid and Fukuhara have tremendous chemistry, playing off Hughie’s weakness in comparison. The scene where she rushedly teaches Hughie how to fight and defend himself is a highlight, her exasperation palpable.

However, it’s A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) who continues to be a silent MVP of the season. He’s the one who ends up getting Compound V for Hughie in his continued, small steps in working against Vought. By doing so, Hughie forgives him. Hughie admits he didn’t initially plan to, and truthfully, it would have been understandable if he hadn’t. But as he tells Butcher (Karl Urban), he isn’t interested in living his life with hate. A-Train took someone from him, and now he’s given him the chance to save someone he loves.

However, Hughie comes to his senses, though it does him little good. Because his mom notices the Compound V and injects it herself into Hughie’s dad’s IV. It makes sense that they wouldn’t simply have Simon Pegg return only to have him unconscious the entire time.

The Boys Season 4 Episode 4 engages even through the brutality it commits against characters and the rescue it induces in viewers. From shocking deaths to even more startling displays of forgiveness, “Wisdom of the Ages” might be one of the more disgusting episodes of the series, but what’s worse is that it still feels like the calm before the storm.

The Boys Season 4 Episode 4 is out now on Prime Video.