The Boys Season 4 Episode 5 recap: V’ed up chickens and wrathful gods

Here’s your full recap to The Boys Season 4 Episode 5, which includes a Marvel roast, Homelander’s sinister plan, and V’ed up farm animals. 

It’s hard to forget Episode 4 thanks to Homelander, whose trip “home” (to the Vought lab he was raised in) turned into a bloodbath. 

As for The Boys, Annie lost it and beat new supe Firecracker on live TV, while Butcher blacked out and killed Ezekiel, which begs the question: is he a supe?

With The Boys Season 4 Episode 5, ‘Beware of the Jabberwock, My Son’, out now, here’s everything you need to know about what went down. Warning: Spoilers ahead!

Vought Cinematic Universe

Proceedings kick off at V52 Expo, a Marvel-esque event where The Deep and Cameron Coleman announce the plans for the Vought’s Cinematic Universe’s Phases 7 through 19 (a not-so-subtle rip of the MCU’s ever-expanding timeline). 

Homelander watches from the sidelines, having flashbacks to the brutal massacre at the Vought lab. His face twitches as he thinks back to the painful memories of his childhood before his thoughts land on Ryan. 

At the hospital, Hughie’s father Hugh is awake after Daphne secretly slipped him a dose of Compound V in the previous episode of The Boys, and he seems to be doing just fine. But Hughie pulls Daphne aside, asking why she did it. “You grew up without one parent,” she says. “I couldn’t bear the idea of you losing another one.”

On The Truthbomb With Firecracker, the new supe announces her plans to sue Starlight after she brutally beat her on live TV. She also suggests Annie’s responsible for the murder of Ezekiel (even though it was Butcher), telling her viewers that this is a “Biblical war of good vs evil.”

Elsewhere, Butcher has another secret meeting with Joe Kessler, who shows him photos of the security cam footage from Gen V’s The Woods. Kessler claims The Boys are a joke and Butcher should leave them to do his own thing – aka, focus on taking down Homelander. 

At The Boys’ HQ, the mood isn’t great. Frenchie’s down after his fight with Colin, Kimiko’s down after her fight with Tala, and Starlight’s down after Firecracker leaked her abortion to the world and is now being wrongly blamed for Ezekiel’s murder.

However, when Butcher rocks up, he has a plan after finding out about the secret facility at Godolkin University. He tells them about the supe virus, suggesting they try it out on Victoria Neuman. The only issue is they need to get it off her first. 

Back at the V52 Expo, we see a cheesy clip from Firecracker’s new movie Lord’s Soldier from the conglomerate’s religious division Vought Faith. This is followed by an equally cheesy in memoriam for Ezekiel. 

Behind the scenes, Sister Sage intercepts A-Train, making it clear she’s considering the possibility he is the Vought leaker she’s trying to hunt down. He’s giving nothing away, but it’s clear he’s worried. 

Stan Edgar is back

Prime Video

Meanwhile, Butcher and MM pay an unexpected visit to none other than Stan Edgar, who’s currently serving his stint in prison after being fired in The Boys Season 3. They present him with a deal: if Edgar helps them get the supe virus from his adoptive daughter Neuman, they’ll get him exonerated. 

Edgar joins The Boys, with the whole gang present except for Hughie, who’s at the hospital playing happy families with his reunited parents. While opening up about their past marriage, Daphne gives Hughie her engagement ring, suggesting he pops the question to Annie. 

When she leaves the room, Hughie takes the opportunity to ask his dad why he gave her power of attorney. Hugh recalls when their pet Jar Jar was sick, but Hughie refused to get him put down, resulting in the poor dog dying in a rather gruesome manner. 

“You’re still the same little kid,” says Hugh. “You hold on tight to everyone. I love you for that but when it came to an advanced directive, let’s just say I didn’t want to end up like Jar Jar.”

The Boys arrive at Edgar’s home – a remote area he doesn’t visit all that often. Edgar explains that if Neuman wanted to keep anything quiet, it’d be here. Butcher and Mother’s Milk follow a trail of blood to the basement, where they find a trashed laboratory. 

It looks like whoever was working down there had been testing on animals, only the cages are busted, there’s blood everywhere, and a load of broken Compound V vials surround a drain on the floor. Butcher clocks a bunny rabbit still in its cage with a Temp V IV drip, deciding to set it free.

Frenchie discovers the lab had been used to test different iterations of the supe virus, but now everything’s gone. Suddenly, everyone starts getting nosebleeds, and you know what that means? Neuman’s here. 

She arrives on the scene with two bodyguards, and she’s pissed her adoptive father brought the people who want to kill her to their house. But Edgar trumps her with the fact that she betrayed him. 

The key to finding out what happened is a man named Sameer, but neither Edgar nor Neuman know what happened to him. They agree to call a truce and look for him together. 

Training A-Train

The scene cuts to yet another hilarious VCU clip, this time from A-Train’s Blind Side-esque movie Training A-Train starring Will Ferrell – it’s as obnoxious as it sounds. A-Train clearly agrees, as he’s having a hard time selling it on stage (not that the fans seem to care). 

The Deep and Coleman take the stage for more PR spiel, claiming Vought “proudly supports and amplifies BIPOC voices.” They then reveal a poster for a new movie starring Sister Sage, A-Train, and Black Noir titled Black At It. 

Back at Vought Tower, VCU boss Adam Bourke (P.J. Byrne) is pitching Ryan’s new show Super School to him and Homelander, but neither of them are impressed. 

After the Vought lab massacre, Homelander seems determined to forge his own terrifying path – and he wants to bring Ryan with him. After the meeting, he tells his son, “I’ve been manipulated by people my whole life, being told what to say, where to stand. 

“I did some reflecting and I realized I’ve been doing the same thing to you. But no more. From now on, no more rules, for either of us. We’re free. I don’t care what anyone else thinks but you. As far as I’m concerned, this whole planet is empty except for you and me.”

That sure is nice of him to be kind to Ryan, but it doesn’t bode well for the rest of the planet. 

We cut to Edgar and Neuman, who are bickering amongst themselves. Edgar says Neuman is putting herself and her (now supe) daughter Zoe in grave danger by trying to secretly control Homelander. 

She claps back, saying he was ashamed of her being a supe growing up and that her daughter will never have to live like that. 

As this conversation is unfolding, MM quietly asks Butcher what the plan is when they find the virus, to which he suggests that Annie will blind Neuman with her powers before jabbing her with a dose. 

The whole gang notice one of the surrounding barn’s doors is open and they head in to find a horrifying sight: one of Sameer’s lab assistants dead on the floor, with a chicken nest resting within his intestines. 

V’ed up chickens

Prime Video

Before they can figure out what’s going on, a chicken flies right through one of Neuman’s bodyguards, ripping a gaping hole in his torso. That’s right: they’re in a farm of V’ed up animals. 

After Frenchie’s gunshots do nothing against the chickens’ bullet-proof skin, Starlight tries to fire up her powers but they’re not really working. They manage to run out and lock the door behind them before Butcher delivers the best line of the episode: “Well you could’ve told us your pal Sameer was V’ing up a kentucky fried f*cking massacre, couldn’t ya.” 

But Neuman insists she doesn’t know and something obviously went wrong at the lab, saying they need to find Sameer and figure out what happened. 

The pair get into a fight, leading Neuman to reveal the deal he proposed in The Boys Season 4 Episode 1: she’d get Ryan back for him if he gave her the info Hughie has on her from Red River. 

Ultimately, Butcher decided against it, instead sending Neuman a photo of his butthole. But the revelation still doesn’t go down well, especially with Starlight, who says he’s never going to change. But MM interjects, saying they need to put all the squabbling to the side and just focus on getting out of there. 

Back at Vought Tower, Coleman essentially dumps Ashley as his dom, saying their dynamic doesn’t work for him now she’s lost her power as CEO. 

The camera heads over to Sister Sage, who’s taunting Firecracker after she got beat up by Starlight. “Y’all just think I’m stupid, poor white trash,” she says, to which Sage fires back, “I don’t think you’re poor.” In other words, the tension between them isn’t going away anytime soon. 

Over at the farm, Annie’s powers are still not working properly. Neuman catches on before leveling with her about the downside of leading a double life, highlighting the fact that she was born Nadia Khayat.

“Dual identities? I’m still Nadia, you think I don’t want to let her out sometimes? But I can’t, I’ve got to be Neuman. I mean, sh*t, you’ve been Starlight for so long do you know who Annie is anymore?” says Neuman. Clearly this rubs her up the wrong way, as Annie punches her to the ground. 

As they continue to walk, Butcher notices the rabbit he set free earlier. It’s laying on the floor panting so he takes a closer look, getting a shock three tentacles burst out of its torso. Butcher crushes the rabbit and its three-pronged friend, but he’s understandably concerned after seeing what Temp V does to its hosts. Is the same going to happen to him?

We head back to the V52 Expo, where we get our first major Gen V cameo with Tek Knight on the stage promising a reboot of his movie. 

In the wings, A-Train quietly tells Ashley that he’s the Vought leaker. She threatens to tell The Seven, but he reminds her that he’s got dirt on her too. A-Train tells Ashley that if she refuses to help get Sage off his back, he’ll make sure she goes down with him. 

Where is Hugh?

Over at the hospital, things aren’t looking too great; Hugh’s gone missing. It appears that Compound V has finally kicked in – but as we know, it’s a lot riskier for adults to take, often leading to complications. 

When they find Hugh, he’s in another room with a human heart in his hand, having ripped it straight from a patient’s chest. It’s clear Hugh isn’t in his right mind, as he’s unable to comprehend his surroundings and doesn’t recognize Hughie. 

If that weren’t terrifying enough, Hugh’s power is the ability to move through solid objects like a ghost. This coupled with his confusion spells disaster. After accidentally turning another patient into a human slushie, Hughie and Daphne find him in the hallway freaking out. 

In his mind, Hughie’s still 11 years old, and when he clocks Daphne, he grows angry at her for leaving the way she did. 

The scene cuts back to V52 Expo, where another Gen V crossover arrives as Cate and Sam, aka the “Guardians of Godolkin,” take to the stage. 

Elsewhere, Homelander continues his quest on turning Ryan into a mini-him. He asks his son what he wants, to which Ryan responds by saying he wants to really help people. 

Homelander gives him his chance after spotting an assistant who Bourke keeps harassing. Egging Ryan on, they make Bourke fall to his knees and apologize to the woman before getting her to slap him repeatedly. 

Homelander’s enjoying watching his son take control, while Ryan’s starting to relish this new level of power. As he watches Bourke getting slapped, he cracks a sinister smile while taking a sip of his milkshake. 

Revenge of the supe sheep

Prime Video

Back at the farm and The Boys are still walking through the fields, where Frenchie admits to Annie that he’s struggling to forgive himself – not only for killing Colin’s family but for all of the terrible things he did while working for Little Nina. 

Annie recommends talking to someone, perhaps confiding in Kimiko, but Frenchie’s worried about her response. 

Out of nowhere, a bull arrives on the scene, looking ready to charge at the gang. But before they get a chance to react, the animal is ripped to shreds by a herd of V’ed up sheep – oh, and they can fly. 

They make a run for it, except for Neuman’s surviving employee, who gets mauled by one of the sheep. They make it to a nearby barn where they lock the door, only to find a terrified Sameer hiding out.  

As Neuman and Sameer embrace, it comes out that he’s the father to Zoe. “Dr. Shah was my top man at Vought R&D, before he went behind my back and deflowered my daughter,” says Edgar, although Neuman reminds him that she was 20 and already “thoroughly deflowered.”

Sameer explains what happened: the team gave V to a hamster to test the supe virus on it, but it got loose and trashed the lab. They ran but the Compound V had already made it into the water supply, infecting the whole farm. All of the virus is gone, except for one dose, which Sameer has on him. 

This strain is only transmissible by bodily fluid such as blood, saliva, and semen. Although Butcher and Neuman think they should hold onto it and make a run for it, MM is the voice of reason. They eventually agree to go with the logical plan: give the dose to an already dead lab worker, kill the supe sheep, and get out of there safely. 

It doesn’t take long for the virus to take effect, but when the dust settles, they realize Sameer’s nowhere to be found. 

The Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs (FBSA) shows up to take Edgar back to prison. Why? Because the deal was for him to get The Boys the virus. As MM tells him, “No virus, no deal.”

An operative approaches Neuman to reveal they’ve scoured the property, and though they can’t find Sameer, they did find his severed leg, leaving her devastated. 

As they go their separate ways, we see Edgar being taken away by the FSBA, only for the driver’s head to explode. Sure enough, Neuman’s come back to save him.

Wrathful gods

Prime Video

We cut to Vought Tower, where Firecracker, Black Noir, A-Train, The Deep, Tek Knight, Sister Sage, Cate, and Sam are all in the conference room. Homelander rocks up to give a terrifying speech. 

“What does it mean to be a hero? This country is corrupt beyond repair. We have to save America. We have to save the world for our kids,” he says. 

“So I’m reaching out to you to do your part. Now, it’s not going to be easy. We’ll have to do some terrible things. Some violent, merciless, maybe even cruel things for the greater good. That’s war. 

“You’ll no longer be beloved celebrities. You will be wrathful gods when the time comes, will you answer the call?”

They express that they’re ready, with Cate saying, “Anything you need, Homelander.” 

Homelander then brings up the Vought leaker, leaving A-Train looking worried – but he doesn’t need to be. The Deep bursts in with Coleman, who’s been tied up with a bag over his head. 

Ashley has essentially killed two birds with one stone. As well as keeping up her end of the bargain with A-Train, she’s also framed the man who dumped her.

So, patriots, show me a little wrath. The gang all go in on him, beating him to a bloody pulp, except A-Train, who looks away in disgust. 

Back at The Boys HQ, the mood is low. Kimiko tries to help Frenchie, messaging, “We can’t solve each other’s problems, but we can hold each other’s hands. Let’s talk.” But it’s too late – Frenchie’s at the police station, confessing to committing multiple murders. 

At the hospital, Hugh’s sedated, with Hughie preparing to administer a cocktail of drugs he knows will allow his father to die peacefully. “If we don’t do this then he spends the rest of his life scared and confused, in prison or in an asylum,” he tells his mom. “Or he kills more innocent people.”

Hugh agrees, saying he doesn’t want to end up like their pet. Daphne thanks Hugh for taking such good care of their son, promising she’ll do the same now. 

The three tearfully embrace as Hugh slips peacefully into the next life. Hughie’s devastated, but for the first time he allows his mom to comfort him. 

In the final scene, Butcher meets up with Kessler and makes a shocking reveal: he kidnapped Sameer, cutting off his leg to make everyone think he’s dead. 

He’s got the scientist tied up, telling Sameer that he won’t hurt him (anymore)… so long as he makes more of the supe virus. 

The Boys Season 4 Episodes 1-5 are streaming on Prime Video now. For more on The Boys, read about whether Soldier Boy will return in Season 4, the best Season 4 theories, and the most shocking moments from Season 3. You can also take a look at all the new TV shows coming to streaming this month.