Frenchie turns himself into the police
Tomer Capone as Frenchie in “The Boys” Season 4 (Prime Video)
Billy Butcher finally told The Boys about the supe-killing virus, Sage is on to A-Train’s secret partnership with The Boys and Hughie’s Dad? R.I.P. There’s always so much going on in Prime Video’s “The Boys,” and we’re here to break it all the down every week.
Episode 5, “Beware the Jabberwork, My Son,” was a doozy. Lots of people died, there were flying, murderous farm animals doped up on Compound V and fans find out Victoria Neuman has a boo. Before we get into all that though, here are some other tidbits from the episode to know.
Beat down and bent out of shape about it, Firecracker (Valorie Curry) decided that she’s going to press charges against Starlight (Erin Moriarty) after she opened up a can of whoop a—s on her in Episode 4. Firecracker also mentioned she is going hunting season on the Starlighters (Starlight’s fan base), and Firecracker’s fans destroyed Starlight’s safe haven house.
In addition, Godolkin University’s Cate Dunlap (Maddie Phillips) and Sam (Asa Germann) joined Homelander’s squad of corrupt killers, and Frenchie (Tomer Capone) turned himself into the police because he couldn’t get over the guilt he felt for taking several innocent lives, including that of his ex-boyfriend Colin’s family.
There’s a lot to unpack, but here are the biggest moments from the episode.
1. Billy Butcher tells The Boys about the supe-killing virus
Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) finally spilled the beans to The Boys about the supe-killing virus scientists manufactured in an underground laboratory at the Vought-operated supe college Godolkin University. At first, his crew didn’t believe him, but after he explained its origin, the potential leg up for The Boys in their supe vs. humans war piqued their interest. Right now, Victoria Neuman is the only one with access to the virus after murdering its creator Dr. Edison Pigossi Cardosa (Marco Pigossi) in Season 1 of “Gen V.”
“You see some clever c—s over at Godolkin University cooked up a bug that letchers onto the V in their bloodstream. Now, it’s completely harmless to humans, but to supes… f—g diabolical,” Butcher tells the group, mentioning the virus isn’t quite powerful enough for Seven leader Homelander. However, Butcher said he’s open to testing it out on supe and vice president elect Victoria Neuman.
After breaking down his plan, Butcher — of course — has one condition for the group: he needs a presidential pardon. For whom? Well, that brings us to the next shocking moment.
2. Billy Butcher and Mother’s Milk pardon Stan Edgar out of prison, in exchange for his help with taking down Neuman
Billy Butcher wants to use the pardon on former Vought International CEO, and Victoria Neuman’s adoptive father Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito). After Billy Butcher shared the details about the supe-killing virus, they took the next step of propositioning Stan — who is behind bars for committing a myriad of crimes over the years — with a “get out of jail free” card if he helps them take down his daughter.
Despite Butcher bringing up how Victoria did him dirty by selling him out, Stan stood 10 toes down about not switching to The Boys’ side. However, when Butcher revealed to Stan that Victoria used Compound V to turn her daughter Zoey into a supe, Stan’s answer changed.
“You taught her how to be a monster, but not her little girl. Ahh, you didn’t know,” Butcher says to a shocked Stan. “She shot up sweet little Zoe full of V — turned her into a tentacle-mouth nightmare. How about we get you out of here, exonerated and throw in custody of Zoe. Ain’t no better deal, and you know it.”
And just like that, Stan is now working with The Boys.
3. Victoria Neuman and The Boys make a temporary truce in order to find Compound V, but they end up finding Victoria’s baby daddy and a little more
Victoria Neuman always seems to be one step ahead of everyone, and this time was no different. Just as The Boys were sniffing through a virology lab — which used to be Stan’s and where Victoria’s team had been testing V on animals, Victoria confronted them in person when Stan Edgar’s ankle monitor — or now, lack thereof — tipped her off.
Recovering from the shock of seeing her adoptive father freed, she questioned Stan about the whereabouts of Sameer (Omid Abtahi), Victoria’s lover and the father of her daughter Zoey. When Stan suggested he and Victoria find Sameer together with the help of The Boys, he reminded her that if she doesn’t, she runs the risk of being exposed as a murderous supe to the public.
For now, Stan, Victoria and The Boys come to a truce, at least until Butcher gets his hands on the supe-killing virus. While searching through Stan’s farm-turned-virus lab, they realize the animals are a little off, and that’s because they’re all doped up off Compound V, which they consumed through the farm’s watering system and previous experiments.
After Victoria told the gang about Butcher’s previous plans to steal The Boys’ records on her, and Starlight punched the daylights out of Victoria for talking crap about her jammed powers (that were ruined by Firecracker’s face), the group ended up finding Sameer hiding in a farmhouse. Prior to Victoria and Sameer’s relationship, the scientist was Stan Edgar’s “top man” at Vought. After embracing each other in a hug, Sameer revealed that every ounce of the supe killing virus was gone except for one dose, and he confirmed the virus is only transmissible through bodily fluids like saliva, blood or semen.
As mentioned, the farm is full of nothing but drugged up, blood-thirsty sheep, bulls, chickens and more. With no way out and only one dose of the supe-killing virus left, the group decided to shoot the virus into a lifeless man’s body and give it to the farm animals to eat, which in turn will kill them. Their idea worked, but in the midst of sheep falling dead from the sky, they lost Sameer. After the police show up and carry Stan back to his prison cell — since he technically didn’t keep up his deal to obtain the supe-killing virus — Victoria is distraught. By the end of it, Victoria broke Stan out of the cop car, showing the father-daughter duo may be back up to no good, and Butcher went back to his scoundrel ways. Sameer was never missing, despite police officers finding his leg. Butcher, with the help of Joe, chopped off Sameer’s leg and stowed him away. Butcher plans to force Sameer to make him some new batches of the virus.
4. A-Train blackmails Vought exec Ashley Barrett into helping him get Sage off his back
With Sage being the smartest person in the world, it wasn’t going to be long before she caught on to A-Train’s secret partnership with The Boys. Sage wants to know who from inside Vought leaked footage that proved Starlighters actually didn’t murder three Hometeamers (Homelander’s fan base). Realizing he’s about to be uncovered, he reaches out to Ashley Barrett to help him throw off Sage’s radar.
“Remember when we said we’d help each other? The leak wasn’t Annika, it was me,” A-Train says to a now-stressed Ashley. Just as Ashley was about to inform Homelander of A-Train’s disloyalty, he reminds her that he’s got dirt on her as well.
“You’ve done a lot more than just take a s—t, and we both know that. We made a deal, so you either help me get Sage off my jock or you go down with me,” A-Train says.
Fearful of becoming Homelander’s next victim, she frames Vought News Network anchor Cameron Coleman, who just so happened to dump her as his dominatrix partner. But A-Train, who already regrets the slew of innocent people’s he’s killed, can’t help but show the guilt on his face.
5. Hughie is forced to kill his father Hugh
Everything started off amazing. Hughie’s mother Daphne Campbell (Rosemarie DeWitt) gave Hugh (Simon Pegg) the Compund V that fell out of Hughie’s pocket, and at first Hugh felt great. But things quickly went south after Daphne and Hughie found Hugh covered in blood from accidentally going through a hospital worker. In shock, and seemingly suffering from dementia, Hugh panics, while mistakenly slaughtering people in the facility. Sadly, Hughie is forced to put his father to sleep, as he deduced that the V seems to have a distorted reaction on braindead people. Now, it’s just Hughie and his formerly absentee mother.
