The Boys Season 4: What is a Jabberwock?

The latest episode of The Boys warns fans about a creature called the Jabberwock, but the episode doesn’t explain what it is, nor the metaphor it represents.

The Boys Season 4, Episode 5, is an even more gruesome tale than usual. It follows the fallout of Hughie and Daphne’s decision in Episode 4 to inject the dying Hugh with Temp-V while the rest of The Boys, along with Victoria Neuman and Stan Edgar, face horrifying V-infused animals in their quest for the supe-killing virus.

As for the episode, it’s titled “Beware the Jabberwock, My Son.” However, an actual Jabberwock doesn’t appear; they aren’t real, after all, even in the world of The Boys.

The Jabberwock originated in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, an 1871 novel that is the sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

The Jabberwock itself is the subject of a nonsense poem Alice reads in the first chapter, simply titled Jabberwocky. The poem concerns a young hero facing a fearsome creature known as the Jabberwock, loosely described as having “jaws that bite” and “claws that catch.”

The poem seemingly ends with the hero returning home after having slain the fearsome Jabberwock. While it may be easy to compare it to the antics on the barn, it’s more likely that the title was chosen to reference Hughie’s fear of losing his father and his acceptance of his father’s death in the episode’s final moments.

Of course, the title has another meaning: it’s a comic reference. Beware the Jabberwock, My Son is the title of the third issue of The Boys: Highland Laddie, a mini-series that serves as an origin story for Hughie.

Highland Laddie is set shortly after Hughie learns his girlfriend Annie January is a supe and deals with their attempts at reconciling their relationship. Like other The Boys comic references, it’s in name only, with Highland Laddie largely being about Hughie solving a mystery in his native Scotland.

If you’re looking for more from The Boys, you can read up on Mother’s Milk’s nickname, Black Noir’s return, and how the Gen V timeline fits into Season 4. You can also catch up on all the new TV shows heading to streaming this month.