REVIEW: ‘The Boys’ Season 4 Episode 5 — “Beware The Jabberwork, My Son”

Simon Pegg and Jack Quaid take aim at our hearts in The Boys Season 4 Episode 5, “Beware The Jabberwork, My Son.” In an episode that manages to be the series at its most biting and heartfelt, Hughie’s dad awakens through the help of Compound V, administered by Hughie’s mom. However, as we’ve come to learn through Hughie himself, Butcher (Karl Urban), and more, Compound V is a dangerous substance, and its side effects outweigh the strength that comes with it. We know early that Hughie’s dad, Hugh, is doomed. But the ride we take to get there doesn’t lessen the impact.

There’s more to The Boys Season 4 Episode 5 than just the father and son storyline, but none quite as effective. There’s the stomach-churning announcement of “Vought Faith” to be headed by the worst person on the show other than Homelander, Firecracker. Butcher is being asked by his old colleague, John (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), to join forces. He rightfully calls his current team a joke as the Boys find themselves preoccupied with personal lows rather than missions. They’ve always been a ragtag group of misfits and societal outcasts, but Season 4 greater highlights the severity of their inability to work cohesively. We see this as they attempt to track down the creator of a virus meant to wipe out supes, only to be derailed by Neauman and an army of superpowered farm animals.

In the land of the supes, Homelander feels a certain way about his murdering spree in Episode 4, though it would be too hopeful to suggest that feeling is regret. But something about it lingers on, and he uses the manipulation he has learned to put it into practice with his son, Ryan. Ryan, who had recently begun to pull away from Homelander and back into Butcher’s orbit. Homelander reaffirms Ryan’s agency by giving him back control and then some. Or at least a form of control that Homelander can puppeteer.

Homelanders goal throughout Season 4 has been to distance himself from any level of humanity completely. He is above them — humans are nothing but bugs to someone with his power. It’s why aging has taken such a toll on his mental fortitude and why he’s now instilling the same belief systems in Ryan. At least now, they can be in it together. Homelander’s storyline continues with the expectant edge of the unexpected. We assume that, at any moment, his words and actions can inspire devastating violence. And they do, yet again, as he tells the member of the Boys to act with constant vigilance, tormenting and killing a longstanding Vought partner in the process.

However, the greatest strength of The Boys Season 4 Episode 5 is the storyline with Hughie and his dad. While Butcher and Homelander are meant to be one anothers foil, it’s Hughie who truly is the inverse of everything Homelander stands for. It’s Hughie who is impossibly, delicately, human. Breakable but able to heal. We see this throughout the episode as Hugh’s powers awaken, and he loses control of himself, causing carnage throughout the hospital and leaving bloody, dismembered bodies in his wake. Here lies the extreme power of Compound V. It brings Hugh back from near death but at too great a cost, as he loses himself.

Early in the episode, Hugh tells Hughie that his defining trait is that he holds on tight to anyone. It’s why his mom had power of attorney over Hugh’s will despite being estranged. In this instance, he references a poor cat that Hughie held tight to as a child rather than letting it go to a vet where it would likely be put down and out of its misery. We see in real-time his relationship with Butcher, a figure in his life who hurt him as much as he’s helped but with whom he shares a bond.

He grows attached and wants to help beyond reasonable outcomes. It’s why it makes Hughie’s decision at the end all the more painful — more painful than the scenario already is. Because despite the lives he’s taken and the gore he’s bore witness to, Hughie isn’t meant to take lives. Quaid and Pegg are tremendous, the latter reminding us of his expert ability to break our hearts (see: The Worlds End) as Hughie tries to help bring his dad peace. Because the life he was living as he tore through the hospital confused, sickly, and singed with incredible power isn’t a real life. It’s a mirage — an echo of himself amplified.

The government business and the introduction to the Gen V cast all pales in comparison. The Boys Season 4 Episode 5 falters mainly because it’s an episode that should’ve been split in two. An entire episode focused on the fallout of Hughie’s dad’s interaction with Compound V would’ve been just as invigorating. This is especially true when it plays against Season 4 Episode 4, which touches on the cruelty Homelander is capable of. Instead, the episode attempts too much.

It’s still entertaining, and the needling at companies such as Marvel is hilarious as The Boys make it increasingly apparent who they’re mocking. But The Boys Season 4 Episode 5 is at its best when it hones in on the heart of the storyline and, for once, allows emotions to rule the storyline rather than shock value gore.

The Boys Season 4 Episode 5 is out now on Prime Video.