The Boys season 1, episode 4 recap: The Female of the Species

In episode 4 of Amazon Prime’s The Boys, Frenchie tries to calm a mysterious escapee and Homelander cruelly exploits a tragedy he actually helped create.

Previously on The Boys, we learned that A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) was using Compound V as a performance enhancer and that other superheroes in The Seven likely do as well. Also, Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) blackmailed A-Train’s secret lover, Popclaw (Brittany Allen), into spilling information leading to the powerful drug.

In this episode, they track the location down (it’s a place that sells Asian noodles). They find some Compound V, but also a deadly superhuman female (Karen Fukuhara) who kills a bunch of Chinese gangsters who returned to their hideout. Luckily for The Boys, she spared them as she escaped.

Meanwhile, we learn a little about Billy Butcher’s past, including that he has a wife named Becca (Shantel VanSanten). Apparently, Butcher also really wants financial/technical support from CIA director Susan Raynor (Jennifer Esposito), who he visits once again. She wants hard proof regarding Compound V, and presumably other nefarious aspects of The Seven.

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Billy decides to extrapolate more info from Popclaw, using her recent accidental murder of her landlord as blackmail ammo. It’s apparent that, for whatever reason, they were dosing the unknown female before she escaped (most likely to see how much her system could take as a superhuman guinea pig).

Hughie’s date with Starlight

Can new recruit Hughie (Jack Quaid) lead a semi-normal life while spying on (or even murdering) bad superheroes? It’s hard to say, but Billy Butcher encourages him to follow through on his relationship with Annie January/Starlight (Erin Moriarty). He hesitates at first, saying, “As a rule, I don’t normally go out after a gory massacre.” However, he goes bowling with her, and Billy uses it as an opportunity to bug her phone and get more dirt on The Seven.

At first, it seems that Annie is terrible at bowling. However, she reveals her true ability, which is phenomenal. She explains that, when she was younger, she beat up someone who was picking on her date, making the guy feel so weak he never spoke to her again. Hughie suggests she doesn’t need to hide her strengths.

It’s not all fun for Hughie, though. The sound of clattering pins reminds him of when he exploded Translucent (Alex Hassell), killing him. When she tells Hughie that Translucent has a son, it makes his flashbacks even more jarring. To complicate things, he also imagines his ex, Robin (Jess Salgueiro), standing nearby watching him bowl — indicative of some guilty feelings surrounding his motives. Meanwhile, Frenchie (Tomer Capon) gets knockout gas from Cherie (Jordana Lajoie), ostensibly to use on the escaped female.

Also, A-Train asks Popclaw who she told about Compound V, knowing it must have been her as no one else knew of the location raided by The Boys. A-Train promises to take her somewhere safe, but it seems we can’t trust him. Later, A-Train tells police investigators that the Asian noodle place was subjected to a gang hit.

The hijacking

In one of The Boys‘ darkest scenes, The Seven’s Homelander (Antony Starr) and Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) are sent out by Madelyn Stillwell (Elisabeth Shue) to rescue a hijacked plane over international waters. Things get a bit rough up there, however, and not just because Queen Maeve snaps a hijacker’s neck.

While the passengers are initially thrilled, Homelander ruins the plane’s controls with his heat vision. Rather than trying to save everyone — or anyone — he wants the plane to crash (the second plane crash he’s caused within 4 episodes)! In fact, he doesn’t even let Maeve save anyone, at one point telling people, “Stay back or I’ll laser you!”

While it could be seen as accidental, Homelander later uses the crash to justify giving military authority to The Seven, saying they could have prevented it were they not held back (this is, of course, a brutal lie). As he advocates being put in the military’s chain of command, the crowd cheers his name (it’s implied that they would defend him almost no matter what, regarding anyone who doubts him as a slanderous traitor). However, Queen Maeve seems ashamed by the whole thing.

Finding The Female

The Boys learn that a box of Compound V is linked to a charity called Samaritan’s Embrace, which is enthusiastically spearheaded by Ezekiel (Shaun Benson), an evangelical superhuman in charge of “Capes for Christ.” Meanwhile, Frenchie finds The Female in a tech store. To calm her down, he relates a story to her about his father kidnapping him for years.

When she escapes again, Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) chides him for not gassing her, saying “Even Hughie, the white Urkel, is more professional.” He also blames Frenchie for not following another superhuman named Lamplighter, who apparently “torched” someone named Mallory’s grandkids.

While this threatens to divide The Boys, Billy Butcher gives a rousing speech about how, much like the Spice Girls, they’re useless by themselves, but as a team they become significant. They track The Female down again, but A-Train gets to her first.

As he brutally bashes her head against a wall with his super-speed, Frenchie draws the attention of a crowd to A-Train, causing the villainous hero to relent. Frenchie talks to her again, then asks Billy, “What if she’s a Spice Girl?” (Essentially meaning, ‘What if she’s one of us?’) Although she attacks Frenchie, she doesn’t kill him, and Billy knocks her out with the gas agent.

The Deep is in it deep

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Another scummy hero, The Deep (Chace Crawford) reveals a gentler side in this episode. While in therapy he disparages himself, calling himself a “diversity hire” due to his relatively minor powers (breathing underwater and communicating with sea-life). However, he decides to do something about underfed dolphins at Oceanland. In another darkly comedic moment, The Deep accidentally kills a rescued dolphin when, during a police chase, he comes to a sudden stop, sending the creature flying through the windshield, only to get run over by a speeding semi-truck! In other words, even when The Seven are being goody two shoes, they often still wreak havoc!

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