Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for The Boys Season 5 Episode 4. Last week’s episode of The Boys was a heavy one. Things come full circle for Hughie (Jack Quaid) when he meets Translucent’s (Alex Hassell) son, Maverick (Nicholas Hamilton), before witnessing his explosive death. Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) has been kidnapped by The Deep (Chace Crawford), who brings him to Homelander (Antony Starr). Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) and Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) start to see eye-to-eye again, only for things to turn sour, leading to Ryan running away once again and having a brutal showdown with Homelander. Vought’s golden boy is forming his own scheme after hallucinating former Vought CEO Madelyn Stillwell (Elisabeth Shue) as an angel, believing he needs to become the world’s new messiah.

It’s a lot, and things aren’t slowing down in Episode 4, titled “King of Hell,” which finds Butcher and the Boys making the trek to Fort Harmony in search of V1, with Homelander and Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) hot on their trail. What none of them know is that something lurks within the confines of the decommissioned facility that threatens to tear the team apart.
Homelander Wants To Become God in ‘The Boys’ Season 5 Episode 4

Episode 4 begins with Firecracker (Valorie Curry) visiting Homelander in his bedroom. Homelander immediately notices Soldier Boy’s scent on her, but she brushes it off, claiming that they were just prepping for an interview. Homelander explains that he was visited by an angel and that he wants to become God. As an evangelical Christian, what Homelander is saying clearly strikes Firecracker as pure heresy. Homelander requests that she help him spread propaganda claiming that he is the new God, and she hesitantly agrees. It’s another scene that feels all too timely in the wake of President Donald Trump posting an AI image of himself as Jesus Christ earlier this month. Ryan wakes up to find Butcher nursing him back to health at the Boys’ hideout. Butcher compares Ryan to Luke Skywalker and Homelander to Darth Vader, attempting to make Ryan feel better about himself, but Ryan doesn’t buy it, leaving when Butcher goes to fetch him a glass of water. While Frenchie (Tomer Capone) works in the lab, he notices Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) hugging Hughie and asks her what it was about, but she promises they weren’t talking about anything special. Butcher walks in and asks how long until the virus is ready, and Frenchie tells him that it will still take at least two weeks. Hughie proposes that they travel to Fort Harmony, the decommissioned Vought facility, but MM (Laz Alonso) notes that the virus may not even be there, and if it is, there’s not going to be a lot of it. Frenchie also mentions the V’ed-up beast lurking within the confines of the base, which allegedly killed a group of Boy Scouts years ago.

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Annie (Erin Moriarty) arrives at the home of her estranged father, Rick (Tim Daly), who she learns has remarried and has a teenage son, Mason (Callum Shoniker). Meanwhile, Soldier Boy meets with Sister Sage (Susan Heyward), who reveals that Edgar has informed Homelander about Fort Harmony. Soldier Boy looks visibly uncomfortable once Sage adds that if Homelander gets his hands on V1, he will become immortal. While walking through the woods surrounding Fort Harmony, Hughie trips on a decaying, maggot-infested corpse, and Frenchie suggests that it may be from the alleged beast that killed the Boy Scouts. As The Deep (Chace Crawford) and Black Noir II (Nathan Mitchell) prepare to record the latest episode of their manosphere podcast, the latter calls the former out for leaving him behind when kidnapping Edgar. Noir accuses The Deep of always trying to win Homelander’s approval, even though he’ll never be more important to him than Soldier Boy is. Ashley Barrett (Colby Minifie) and Oh Father (Daveed Diggs) are wrapping up some sexual antics when Oh Father tells Ashley he has to go to a meeting with the church board, but “Back Ashley” informs Ashley that he is lying, and the church is bankrupt. Oh Father reveals that his church is $11.50M in debt, but before Ashley can get another word in, Firecracker barges into the room, asking for their help.
Annie’s Father Reveals Why He Left in ‘The Boys’ Season 5 Episode 4

Kimiko and Annie standing outside a cabin.Image via Prime Video

As the Boys approach Fort Harmony, Frenchie notices that Hughie is acting weirdly hostile, venting about Annie, but then the group discovers that the fort is surrounded by mangled animal carcasses. Rick invites Annie into his home, where he reveals to her that he is a deputy at the local police department. Although Rick’s wife, Kathy (Deborah Drakeford), knows about Annie, he’d kept her a secret from Mason, who isn’t pro-Homelander but still appears to have bought into a lot of the recent propaganda. Annie tries to leave, but Kathy invites her to stay with them. At Vought Tower, Firecracker is meeting with Worm (Ely Henry), Vought’s senior producer, Courtenay Fortney (Jackie Tohn), Ashley, and Oh Father about Homelander’s God propaganda, which only 22% of Americans would actually accept. After Worm makes a crack about series finales, Firecracker proposes the creation of a new church, the Democratic Church of America. As Homelander and Soldier Boy make their way to Fort Harmony, the conversation turns to Stormfront (Aya Cash). Soldier Boy reveals that he also had a romantic relationship with her, and tensions between him and Homelander continue to rise. Now inside Fort Harmony, Butcher, Hughie, MM, and Kimiko begin acting more hostile; the only one who seems unfazed is Frenchie, who begins to realize that something is off. Annie asks Rick about the Homelander signs in his yard, and he tells her that the police department forced him to. He can’t speak out against Homelander, or his family will be killed. Rick then shows Annie that he has kept mementos of her, including newspaper clippings about her and a ticket for the Dawn of the Seven movie. When Annie asks Rick why he left, he admits that he didn’t want to inject her with Compound V and began to hate her mother for manipulating her. Annie then opens up to Rick about leaving Hughie, and Rick tells her, “The people we love aren’t a weakness. They’re the reason we fight.” Moved to tears, Annie decides to talk to Mason. As the rest of the Boys continue to argue, Frenchie realizes that no beast is lurking inside Fort Harmony — there’s a fungus inside the facility that causes people (and animals) to kill each other, with Hughie comparing it to the fungus in The Last of Us. The only reason why Frenchie doesn’t seem to be affected is because of his past drug use, which makes him immune. Butcher spots Homelander and Soldier Boy approaching the base, and Frenchie sprays deer urine on the team to hide their scent while MM plants a sensor to track Homelander and Soldier Boy’s movements. Mason is initially hostile to Annie despite her efforts to start a conversation, but upon spotting a Dunkin’ Donuts bag on his nightstand, she relays a story about how Rick always took her there before school every Thursday morning, and the half-siblings begin to bond. As Homelander and Soldier Boy make their way inside Fort Harmony, MM discovers that the last vial of V1 was recently taken. Noticing that the safe containing the V1 was punched up and somebody left behind a bag of heroin, Butcher and MM surmise that a Supe known as Bombsight, Soldier Boy’s former partner who went missing years ago, took the remaining vial. Hughie suggests that Bombsight was likely already injected with V1 and questions why he’d need more. Meanwhile, Rick’s fellow police officer, Ed (Ben Carlson), visits the house, telling him that Mason had called the precinct about Annie being there. Ed points his gun at Annie, who, in turn, begins to activate her powers. Rick de-escalates the situation and attempts to reason with Ed, who ultimately doesn’t arrest Annie, but says she needs to leave within the hour.
Soldier Boy Has Had It With Homelander in ‘The Boys’ Season 5 Episode 4

Back at Fort Harmony, Homelander and Soldier Boy continue to argue, which alerts MM to their presence. Butcher wants to destroy the last vial of V1, causing Hughie to freak out. Frenchie tries to calm things down, but nobody’s listening to him. Soon, everybody, aside from Frenchie, begins fighting one another. Fortunately, Homelander and Soldier Boy don’t hear anything, too caught up in their own argument. Soldier Boy locks Homelander inside a vault full of enriched uranium, which causes him severe pain. Soldier Boy admits that he also wants to destroy the last vial of V1, revealing how much he hates Homelander and doesn’t want him to get his hands on it.

As Butcher searches for Hughie, he finds Homelander locked inside the vault. Realizing that Soldier Boy put him there, Butcher taunts Homelander, who responds by saying that he knows Butcher doesn’t have the virus. Hughie, MM, and Kimiko become more violent, and their fight escalates. Frenchie and Soldier Boy cross paths and find Quinn (Kris Hagen), a man covered in fungus, who went through Dr. Vought’s trials alongside Soldier Boy. Frenchie realizes that Quinn’s hatred-spreading power is the root cause of everybody’s hostility, so Frenchie purposefully angers Soldier Boy to the point where he kills Quinn with his energy blast, as Butcher looks on. Suddenly, Hughie, Kimiko, and MM stop fighting, and everyone drives back to the base in silence. Annie says goodbye to Rick, who then forces Mason to apologize to her. Before she leaves, Rick tells her, “Don’t give up on the people you love.” Homelander escapes the vault and finds Soldier Boy crying, begging to be killed, but refuses to end his suffering. The episode ends with Oh Father announcing the Democratic Church of America to his congregation, proclaiming Homelander as their new God, while a visibly uncomfortable Firecracker and Ashley watch from backstage. The Boys has always been a political show, but these past two episodes have laid out the true plot of the final season: the weaponization of religion. People always talk about how The Simpsons predicted the future, but the fact remains that The Boys has become even more eerily relevant in recent weeks. As Season 5 reaches its halfway point, “King of Hell” is easily one of its most important episodes, preparing fans for a back half that doesn’t seem to be pulling any punches.

Release Date

2019 – 2026-00-00

Showrunner

Eric Kripke

Writers

Eric Kripke

Franchise(s)

The Boys

Pros & Cons

Homelander’s holy plot mirrors current events almost too well.
Annie gets an emotional storyline with her father.
Frenchie shines as he takes the lead in this episode.