# Season Four Finale

"Season Four Finale", originally titled Assassination Run (after the third chapter of Over the Hill with the Swords of a Thousand Men), is the eighth episode of the fourth season and thirty-second episode overall of the American satirical superhero television series The Boys. It was written by Jessica Chou & David Reed and directed by Eric Kripke. The episode was released on July 18, 2024, on Amazon Prime Video.
In the episode, the Boys try to stop Victoria Neuman from reaching the White House while also trying to stop the assassination of Robert Singer. Butcher uses his last card to try to defeat Homelander, which is to have Ryan kill his father. The relationship between Homelander and Neuman reaches its most critical point.

## Plot

While Butcher is recovering at a CIA facility, he has a conversation with Kessler in which he urges him to commit a Supe genocide that would kill Homelander as well, though he rebuffs him before Mallory arrives and calls Ryan. When Ryan arrives there, Mallory, unwillingly to Butcher, tells him all the crimes his father committed and tells him that he has to train him to kill Homelander. When he refuses, Mallory tries to lock him up only for him to end up killing her. Following Mallory's death, Butcher embraces his dark side as Kessler.
As the votes certifying Robert Singer's electoral victory are being counted, Hughie begins searching for the files incriminating Victoria Neuman only to discover that they have been deleted by the shapeshifting Annie without his knowledge. Without the virus, The Boys, after M.M.'s idea, take Singer to a bunker, and when Hughie discovers that Annie is the shapeshifter, a fight breaks out in which the real Annie ends up killing the shapeshifter. At the same time, Homelander exposes Neuman as Supe on live and orders the remaining Seven to kill anyone who could incriminate them, causing Ashley to inject herself with Compound V and begin to mutate.
After Homelander threatens Zoe, Neuman asks for Hughie's help to break free from Homelander's control. At first, the Boys are hesitant to work with Neuman, but after a speech from Hughie they agree. When they meet at the Boys' temporary base, while the team and Neuman are talking, Butcher arrives and kills Neuman with his new superpowers and takes the dose of the virus.
After Neuman's death, a devastated Homelander is told by Sister Sage that this was the plan and Steven Calhoun, who will be the new president of the United States, swears loyalty to him. In a speech, Calhoun declares martial law and Homelander assures that they will take revenge on the "enemies" of the country while all of The Boys are captured except Butcher and Annie, who flies away when she regains her powers.
In a post-credits scene, Calhoun shows Homelander where Soldier Boy is being held, revealing to Homelander that he is still alive.

## Production
### Casting

The episode main cast includes Karl Urban as Billy Butcher, Jack Quaid as Hughie Campbell, Antony Starr as John Gillman / Homelander, Erin Moriarty as Annie January / Starlight, Laz Alonso as Marvin T. Milk / Mother's Milk (M.M.), Chace Crawford as Kevin Moskowitz / The Deep, Tomer Capone as Serge / Frenchie, Karen Fukuhara as Kimiko Miyashiro / The Female, Nathan Mitchell as Black Noir II, Colby Minifie as Ashley Barrett, Claudia Doumit as Victoria Neuman, Cameron Crovetti as Ryan Butcher, Susan Heyward as Jessica "Sage" Bradley / Sister Sage, Valorie Curry as Misty Tucker Gray / Firecracker and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Joe Kessler. Also starring are Jim Beaver as Robert "Dakota Bob" Singer, David Andrews as Senator Calhoun and Jensen Ackles as Ben / Soldier Boy.

### Music

The episode featured the song "Heart-Shaped Box" by Nirvana.

## Reception
### Critical response

On Metacritic, the episode has a weighted average score of 60.7 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Joshua M. Patton for Comic Book Resources' deemed the finale as "the series' most important episode yet". Erik Kain for Forbes said "The Boys ended with a bang in Season 4 after treading water through much of the eight-episode run" but clarified that "a strong season finale is [not] enough to elevate this season beyond just "okay"." Graeme Guttmann for Screen Rant praised the finale saying "When you expect it to zig, it zags. Just when you think things are going to work out, another problem arises...it's still a thrilling hour of television." Saloni Gajjar for The AV Club said "The Boys fails to deliver on this crucial installment beyond a few thrills. It doesn’t hold much merit of its own...I hope Kripke goes back to the show’s roots...bringing cohesion and humor into the mix way more than he did this time." Jante A. Leigh for Digital Spy praised that "The Boys somehow found a way to do what, at the start of the season, felt impossible to achieve – make all the blood, entrails and sinister plot points come alive in an exciting way again" but criticized how Kimiko was taken in the episode "Her voice was taken away from her in a situation she couldn't control. It would have been more powerful if she were able to reclaim it through a moment of healing...instead of it being another traumatic thing that forces her to react."

## Release

"Season Four Finale" was released on Amazon Prime Video on July 18, 2024.

### Title change

Upon the season finale's release, the title of the episode was retitled from "Assassination Run" (after the third chapter of Over the Hill with the Swords of a Thousand Men) to "Season Four Finale", following the attempted assassination of Donald Trump five days prior. A "viewer discretion advised" warning was added at the beginning of the episode, with Amazon, Sony Pictures Television and the producers of The Boys opposing real-world political violence and clarifying that "any scene or plotline similarities to these real-world events are coincidental and unintentional". These sentiments were echoed by Kripke, saying: "We are a superhero TV show. We're fictional. Obviously, it's a political show with a point of view so there's gonna be some horrible coincidences. But anything real-world we condemn and are against in the strongest possible terms. We're just making our superhero show."