The Reel Rejects - THE BOYS 4x5 Breakdown & Review

Episode Date: June 27, 2024

FARM ANIMALS & HUGHIE’S DAD ATTACK!! The Boys Season 4 Full Reaction Watch Along: https://www.patreon.com/thereelrejects "Beware The Jabberwock, My Son." The Boys Season 4 Reaction, Recap, Commentary, Analysis, Spoiler Review, Easter Eggs, & Ending Explained! We get the Gen V crossover with Cate & Sam as well as Ted Knight and Hughie Sr. getting Supers powers leading to a Simon Pegg death scene. The episode’s bizarre plot centers around a lab run by Victoria Neumann, where her ex-boyfriend experiments with a Supe-killing virus. This leads to an unexpected confrontation with superpowered livestock—buffalos, sheep, and chickens—injecting even more madness into the storyline…but not before getting a parody of Marvel & DC panels at comic-con with their Vought announcement slate! The episode kicks off with The Boys infiltrating Victoria Neumann’s secret lab, aiming to steal the Gen V virus, a dangerous bioweapon. Things go awry when the infected animals break free, attacking everyone in sight. Victoria threatens to blow up The Boys and Stan Edgar, who is temporarily out of prison, but her hesitation leads to a wild chase. Amidst the chaos, we see Butcher, MM, Frenchie, and Stan scrambling to escape the superpowered animals. The tension escalates when Victoria, Kimiko, and Starlight, despite their powers, fail to effectively counter the rogue livestock. Starlight's powers falter, and Kimiko’s usual combat prowess is subdued, leaving viewers questioning their diminished abilities in this scenario. The episode also highlights the ongoing manipulation and corruption within Vought. At the V52 Expo, a parody of Comic-Con, various new franchises and shows are announced, including A-Train’s movies and a new gender-flip series for Gen V’s Cate and Sam. Meanwhile, Homelander, seemingly supportive of his son Ryan's reluctance to star in a TV show, ultimately manipulates him into punishing a director for harassment, showcasing the sinister father-son dynamics. Billy Butcher's plan to steal the Supe-killing virus fails, but he reveals a backup strategy involving the kidnapping of Sameer, Vic’s ex who can recreate the virus. Butcher’s conversation with Joe Kessler, who appears to be a figment of his brain damage, adds another layer of psychological complexity to his character.With Election Year gearing up between Donald Trump & Joe Biden, this season seems to be honoring the America we know. The Boys cast & characters consist of Karl Urban as Billy Butcher, Jack Quaid as Hughie Campbell, Antony Starr as Homelander, Erin Moriarty as Starlight/Annie January, Dominique McElligott as Queen Maeve, Jessie T. Usher as A-Train, Laz Alonso as Mother's Milk, Chace Crawford as The Deep, Tomer Capone as Frenchie, Karen Fukuhara as Kimiko, Nathan Mitchell as Black Noir, Claudia Doumit as Victoria Neuman, Colby Minifie as Ashley Barrett, Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy, Simon Pegg, Rosemarie DeWitt as Hughie's mother, Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Walking Dead), & Firecracker, an alt right member of the Seven.  Follow Coy Jandreau:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwYH2szDTuU9ImFZ9gBRH8w Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Music Used In Manscaped Ad:  Hat the Jazz by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Co-Editor: John Humphrey Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Introducing the new Volvo XC90 with seven-seat versatility, Google built-in, and advanced safety features for all your precious cargo. The new Volvo XC90, designed for life. Visit volvocars.com slash us to learn more. At Sierra, discover great deals on top brand workout gear, like high-quality walking shoes, which might lead to another discovery. 40,000 steps, baby. Who's on top now, Karen?

You've taken the office step challenge, a step too far. Don't worry, though. Sierra also has yoga gear. It might be a good place to find your zen. Discover top brands at unexpectedly low prices. Sierra, let's get moving. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Knowing you could be saving money for the things you really want, like that dream house or ride, is a great feeling.

That's why the State Farm Personal Price Plan can help you save when you choose to bundle home and auto. Bundling. Just another way to save with a personal price plan. prices are based on rating plans that vary by state coverage options are selected by the customer availability amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state

let's jump into it boys let's do it I don't know if he's real yeah I don't know if he's real that was a real Tyler Dernie Engel ever since error post that I was like maybe actually We've been able to stop thinking about it.

The way they frame it does feel that way. That's a really good theory. And he credits Butcher with actually, you know, kidnapping and pulling off the guy's legs. And he's the reason Butcher escalated so much. Like, it's the devil on his shoulder. Part of me was like, well, maybe he did it. And this is a proof that he's real. But no.

All right, gang. Greg, thoughts, go. I love this show so much. It is such a mean show. I love how mean it is. I mean, we kind of talked about the whole reaction. So I feel like a lot of this will just be like recapping the commentary that we were having. I do find it funny that Simon Pegg was just bedridden for four episodes and just laying there.

And then he see his eyes in four and he wakes up and he just has like his most memorable episode he's ever had. And I love the direction they took with it, watching the consequences of this action to even drive home further, the dangers of what this is and when things get out of control. and I appreciate the show's commitment to after all these seasons to still go uh it's like to steer that what's the phrase I'm trying to twist the knife even further in the emotions in the via the violence because it could have just been like violence and amusing entertaining uh but to watch like this full circle moment of when Huey's girlfriend died of being run into and holding her hands and then it's looking at what her his dad has become via through this is so traumatizing and such a heartbreaking prospect

to do to the dad because he could have just died in his sleep and then to instill more trauma and then to be privy to that trauma with the living people is so freaking um it's it's cruel but it's and then it's also layered with the whole thing of like at least he got to say goodbye but then other people died and then even though they got to say goodbye he had more or his final day was horrible, you know, and committed murder unintentionally. I really do. I mean, there's so much that happened in that, but I'll just stick with that for now. There's so many scenes.

There's so many plots in this one episode. Yeah. Yeah. I love that the first few episodes, I definitely felt like, oh, this is, you know, fun. But, like, you know, it didn't feel like that insane passion, like, that I feel towards the boys. Like, I consider boys one of my favorite shows ever. I consider it one of the best superhero adaptations, period. And the first few episodes, I couldn't tell if I just, like, had been out of rhythm with it.

If I, there was, whatever it was. And I talked about it in episode four. And then episode four hit. And I was like, oh, this is everything I love about the boys. And it's nailing new nuances and it's stacking stakes. This did the same. I consider these two like A pluses of just an incredible strength to juggle 100 plots and to, do that thing like good pulp noirs do

where it goes these are two diverging paths and we know this is a trope but at the end they're going to be one story and every time it does that to me I'm always impressed in this case it was jar jar like the animals and him like that was such a beautiful like the animals getting tempi

and being this source of violence and then the jar jar metaphor of having to put an animal down and what it is to be humane and what it is to put these soups down like there's just so much here and then you have the scene of the escalation of like you know this this evil justice league where they're forming and they're they're actually going biblical and like wrath is being formed and i said at one point in the in the episode like i don't know how they're going to do

season five it was during the the baby homelander like if homelander junior is set up this season i cannot imagine the escalation to another whole season and then there's that the scene of wrath being formed i love that this show builds stakes and it builds up with stakes and down with humanity right like a depth like not down isn't bad like it builds depth so we had this incredible two scenes of like the the escalation of stakes with the soups while the boys are having so much humanity and that is just such impressive storytelling well i think the way they continue it is with gen v and boys mexico because even if you have like homelander junior he would still have the possibility of him crossing over into the other shows you know so i think there's a way where

you can do it but or you just have ryan not turn evil which seems hard. Yeah. It seems really hard. But yeah, John, what's your... I am fascinated to see what happens with Ryan because up till they are good, especially, I think, on this show at, like, prompting you with one thing

and making it look pretty bleak, and then the next episode kind of reminding you that there's more to it than just that. Yeah, I agree. Because, yeah, with Ryan here, I am like, this is obviously horrific and fascinating because it's like Homelander as he attempts to shed, this final weakness of needing approval and needing affection from people it's making him you know obviously more amoral and more detached from humanity but ironically somehow maybe possibly a better dad in concept um maybe i'm curious you're an island just me and you i'm gonna turn you into me no i i i think i think with a dad like that though who is this level of narcissism where his language is manipulation i don't think he realizes when he is being

evil manipulative sometimes like with it with i think he thinks he's being a genuine dad oh i agree i think he i think he's rationalizing it because of what he just went through and realizing he was manipulated so he i don't think he he's consciously manipulating yeah and maybe i spoke poorly yeah that's kind of what i made it sound like i don't know he's totally manipulating yeah but but he seems apt to want to try and embody more of an actual father he wished he'd had for his answer i think he thinks he's right because he is always right yeah To him. Yeah.

In some ways, that's always parenting, right? Right. In some ways, that's what we're always doing as parents. And none of us are parents. But I think that's what parents. That's why parents make mistakes. So we always, parents think they're doing the right thing sometimes and sometimes they're doing things that, because at the end of day, you're just trying to guide in the way you see the world. Right.

You know. Yeah. And it's just fascinating to watch Homelander go for, like, you always think there's no further he can go away from his humanity, humanity in general. and you know they keep finding ways to do that uh and yeah i was just impressed by the amount of things they had going on in this episode the amount of plot lines that i was like i was invested in all of them i feel like we had everybody it's felt like a very disparate season for the unit of the boys they've been very divided for various reasons and here mine is hughy it's kind of neat to just have them back together again plus to stan edgar team up briefly and all the developments with newman uh all the stuff

on the farm like i could have spent a whole episode there i could have kind of spent a whole episode in any one of these plot lines, but I thought the way that they all, you know, coalesce together in this one episode, again, tied together with this theme of mercy and humanity in death as well as, like, I don't know, the amount of deceit and, you know, the mystery of what's going to happen to A-Train and the leak and all that stuff. Because I don't, you know, having the Tucker Carlson standing guy, like, I can only imagine is going to be a diversion, but won't be the... It's a small plug, not the actual hole in the ship.

Yeah, and we had our fun, you know, the superhero movie lampooning and stuff like that. Love that it felt like a director guy being forced to apologize. Season 7 through 19. Yeah, phase... They did such a good job making the phase one superhero stuff work. They did that little bit of corporate synergy jokes, and then also it being like the current show.

Like that, this felt like a greatest hits episode. Yeah, absolutely. And it had some fun developments in terms of just, like the horror and the gore and the I'd never expected vampire evil sheep. I'd never watched Supernatural but it felt like this was the most supernatural episode. Yeah and I was thinking

with the Jeffrey D. Morgan character and this feels very like Dean if you personified John Winchester in Dean Winchester's mind as this like direct motivator, it kind of feels akin to that but in a more twisted fashion. I've seen all of Walking Dead

it just feels like Negan and me. Well, that too, and then they're on a farm and it's like Yeah, out in the middle of nowhere, and they're animals. And you want to bring out the worst in you. Snowy walking down. Well, I think the show, the obvious theme has been, I'm loving the trajectory because there's like a kind of a thematic story that's unfolding because like the show starts off where it's so much about your past is coming back to haunt you in some way, you know,

the consequences of the past. And it seems like with with Homelanders last episode, but then with everyone's episode, everyone's journey here has been a lot about, not everyone, not everyone, but a lot of them. have been about not just past coming back to haunt you but rediscovering yourself again and finding the truth of how you really are how you really feel like with you know obviously a french is a really obvious one and then the the questioning of faith of conversation that frenchie and starlight are having with each other and like starlight having to find herself again like being it seems like confronting the past are being stripped down to to discover who they really are

underneath like all this questions about butcher you know you know butcher have you really changed you know and like i didn't actually go through with this dress and then he goes and does something diabolical like this at the end again behind everyone's back severs the guy's leg you know all all of that to keep the process going and i feel like there's like other character and even like with ryan he's he's discovering himself you know he's between the he his journey is like what is my identity but whenever i'm with this dad i am this person born on with this dad i'm this person you know i'd also argue hughie with his family that's not the percent

yeah yeah like that there's a lot of different versions of it yeah his whole he's been over here the whole time it's all been sins of the past and I think they're doing a really good job making one theme for that many characters so resonant because it's insane that the same theme that Homelander's going through is what Huey's

going through and it's like the next episode like Homelader has his sins of the past and then it's the forgiveness that he gave Atrein is the same time that he forgives his mom the next episode and like systematically going through what these characters arcs are And, like, the amount of characters we care about this season is insane. Yeah.

And even with A-Train, too, like, he thematically fits into that camp, too. And Mother's Milk, I love that leadership moment where everyone just fighting and being chaotic. And that's the first, I said, I think it was the last episode where I said, like, he usually just lays down the law and people go, fine, you're in charge, you have the position. So I'll just, because he always has to be like, I'm the one in charge. And that's his last day. But this episode, it seemed like, oh, he's really inspired their, the motive to follow through. this time versus just being like, I'm in charge

guys, you know. And that's why he's my favorite character. He's a great character. Favorite character is unspoken. There's a Snyder cut to that video. But all that, all that I love the crossover at the farm with all the characters. Seeing Gen. V made me so happy. Seeing the Gen V characters just felt like that shared universe feeling I get with comic books.

It did treat it a little, like, specifically with the two kids that, if I forget their names off the bat, but Aiden and Sam. It did feel a little bit like, hey, we got GenV cameos right now. The way they're shot that where they're just on stage for a minute. And then they have their two close-up lines

that are the only ones participating in the movie. We got one line, a lot of inserts. But I definitely liked that they felt like JV, though. I did, because in the comics, this felt a lot more like the comics than some episodes, because the scene in the van felt like a comic where you see all the boys and they've got them all framed at the loop. And then that episode definitely felt like it was

the new younger JV team of soups around Homelander and going like, we'd do anything for you. Yeah. And what's up with Starlight's power? Is that due to her fractured mental state Or is it some physical thing No, I think it's like a Toby McGuire Spider-Man 2 thing That's how it reads

She's got a cold That's how it reads She's got a little back She's got a bad back I was just this in the last episode Really impressed me I'm so excited for next week And I gotta say to

You know as John Carlo Esposito I feel like since Breaking Bad Has been obnoxiously type cast As a villain What do you mean And like guy in power villain dude And normally I just see John Carlo Esposito playing that type

and, you know, he was around for a lot of the last season, and I never fully saw just Stan Eger. This was the first time I only saw the character, and it hit me right now, that I'm actually just seeing Stan Egger. I'm not just watching Jean-Carrillus, you know, play this guy's thing. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, I thought they really brought out a great nuance and dynamic between him and Newman that by the time you get to that final moment where Newman's safe breaks him out, fully bought it. She cared about him and vice versa, and his shock at the virus. This was still in character, but it was good to see him express something. Yeah.

Like, they gave us a little crack. Their characters stripping down the truth. Yeah. Beyond the veneers. How they really feel underneath the veils of what their personalities are. Yeah. And her and Starlight,

both, that exchange she has about, like, you know, there's Victoria and then there's Newman. And do you even know who Annie is anymore? You know, because you've been Starlight for so long. Yeah.

And I guess the last thing is, weird tentacle things. Looks like the parasite is what's growing in. Yeah. Physically in him. Venom symbiubium. Just like attacking few. Got that adrenaline moment?

Does he make it? I'm very impressed because Butcher was so charming This episode And I thought he was going to bite it soon But instead, they made him charming and funny And a lot of very quotable And then they had him butcher someone's leg off

So now I'm back to maybe he lives Because they usually do that you're cool Until they kill you But now he's like cool and then Unlikeable? I don't feel like they kill him before season five Now I don't. I don't feel like they'll kill him

Before the end of the show I don't know And leave a whole ass season with no Carl Urban Like as much as this is an ensemble I feel like the one person and you need to keep to some degrees. But what a shocking finale and then flashbacks. I don't know.

I think at the end of the day, Butcher does need to have a showdown with Homeland. Yeah, and I think he needs to have it souped up. Yeah. Yeah. Agreed, gang. What do you guys think?

He'll get all the powers. He'll get a Drax arm. Yeah. He'll get a gauntlet and then he'll have it. Captain Marvel's family. And he'll know how to use them very quickly. He'll get a all in one episode. By phase 19, he'll know how to use them.

I'm telling you what? He'll be everybody. What powers do you think? Butcher will amalgamatedly absorb for this showdown with Homelander. Lead it in the comments, people. We love you. We'll see you next week. Leave us your thoughts. Be well.