The Boys return to Comic Con in Hall H to discuss season 4! It’s the first time they’ve been back since 2019! The description of the panel is as follows:

Showrunner and executive producer Eric Kripke joins the series’ stars for a postseason finale celebration. Hear from the cast and creator about the head-exploding, jaw-dropping fourth season, along with behind-the-scenes secrets, favorite moments, and thrilling surprises. Based on the New York Times bestselling comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, The Boys is a fun and irreverent take on what happens when superheroes who are as popular as celebrities abuse their superpowers rather than use them for good. It’s the powerless against the super-powerful as The Boys embark on a heroic quest to expose the truth about The Seven.
This season had it all; action, drama, and especially romance. To be frank, romantic relationships aren’t the first things that come to mind when thinking of The Boys. Amidst all the blood and gore, some bonds of a lovely romantic nature are highlighted between the characters and those that are downright depraved. There is a clear differentiation between the two categories and some of those relationships were discussed in the panel amongst the actors. I watched the panel in its near entirety (excluding the special looks) on YouTube to get the scoop on what they talked about during the panel.  Here is an overview of those moments ranking from the degenerate to the pure. Spoilers ahead!

4. Homelander and Firecracker

Here at the height of perversion is the relationship between our new recruit to the Seven and the big bad. Through the seasons, we have all become accustomed to the infantile needs of Homelander but this season especially threw a curveball in those regards.

Anthony Starr said the moment that shocked him the most with Homelander over the course of the four seasons was when Firecracker squirted him in the face with breast milk.

“We’ve all done some weird shit on this show, but it was the psychology behind it. It was like it turned into a love scene,” said Starr.

 On set, he took a step back and asked costar Valorie Curry what the f*** they were doing as he was being cradled on her lap after the breastfeeding scene.

Valorie Curry also had some things to say at the panel regarding how her character Firecracker interacts with Homelander as it was emphasized she had a very “different” relationship with him. She observes that she seems to turn on a dime and be whatever the person in a room needs her to be.

“My favorite thing about the dynamic with Homelander that I feel very strongly about is she’s not afraid of him. She absolutely should be, she’s really wrong about that. Her devotion to him runs so sincere and so deep. She truly thinks she can walk into the lion’s den and just cuddle the lion,” said Curry.

The lack of fear that Firecracker shows is very diarming as well as Homelander’s complex. A “genuine distrubing love”. It will be very interesting, yet also horrifying, to see how it continues to play out in the next season.

3. Sage and The Deep

This fling was one of the especially messed up moments in the show and contributed to the downfall that The Deep faced this season. The circumstances of the fling were also surreal with Sage tantalizing Deep over a blooming onion which actor Chase Crawford said was weird but awesome. But the true tragedy of it all was that it resulted in the loss of Ambrosius the octopus.

“It was my favorite season’s arc with The Deep ever. It was awesome to break bad a little bit, see a darker side to him, and Ambrosius is no more. I remember when Kripke was like, ‘Have you seen My Octopus Teacher?’ And I was like, ‘I have, but why do I feel like we saw different versions of it’.”

And Sage is a true mastermind in thie season of The Boys. She primarily manipulates and controls Homelander to fulfill his plan of taking over the world, but on the side she also plays with The Deep, strangely trying to boost his confidence. Actress Susan Heyward is also deeply invested in the mindset that Sage exhibits in the series seeing it as both “delightful and delicious”. She’s such an interesting character to play since she’s so disinterested in everyone and everything since she sees herself to be smarter than them.

2. Hughie and Starlight

Starlight finally joins The Boys in their crusade this season since her character finally left the seven. You’d think that working together would make her and Hughie closer which it does in a lot of ways. However, the tides of Hughie and Starlight’s relationship were tested by the introduction of the Shifter, a chameleon-like supe. Erin Moriarty got to play as the villain as a result which was a lot of fun for her as the Shifter torments Annie.

“In all sincerity, it was so challenging and I am that kind of person that likes to torture myself. The harder I work the more gratifying something feels and it just makes it juicier that it was written as well as it was,” said Moriarty.

Annie truly faced a lot of turmoil in confronting who she is as a person which made her feel lost with Hughie, especially when he mistook the Shifter to be her. Hey. maybe next season we will get a real proposal between the two.

1. Kimiko and Frenchie

And finally saving the best for last, Frenchie and Kimiko kiss and profess their love for one another. So much of this season they were confronting their past traumas and trying to learn how to move forward with them. We also get to see an especially vulnerable side to Frenchie as he tries to pursue another before ultimately going back to Kimiko. Karen Fukuhara and Tomer Capone did an excellent job of acting and you could tell they had a lot of fun while doing so. Jefferey Morgan brought up the question to them of how they felt about their characters, but they chose to rather focus on the impact the entirety of the cast made as a whole.

There’s nothing like two characters coming together despite their flaws and living one another for it. Also this love is what allowed Kimiko to speak for the first time in the series which Fukuhara was excited about.

Conclusion

This panel was a fun one with so many things to discuss, but unfortunately not enough time for all of them. The cast has a lovely dynamic with one another and all the energy garnered from Comic-Con can be put into expectations of season 5 and how all the above relationships shall develop or diminish.

Did you go to Comic-Con and see this panel for The Boys? Let us know in the commment section down below!