This was a slow season, but was good. A lot of important stuff happens and making the season 5 more wishable. [spoiler]- Kimiko finally speaks in such scene was breathtaking. [/spoiler] [spoiler]- Vic Neuman dead was a lost, I actually like her a lot. [/spoiler] [spoiler]- I knew Butcher was gonna be like that, but out of nowhere he can control that pretty well was kinda weird, but I did not hate it at all. [/spoiler] [spoiler]- Finally Frenchie and Kimiko kiss, kinda naturally i really like it. [/spoiler] [spoiler]- The actors from GEN V it was a good extra. [/spoiler] [spoiler]- Erin Moriarty [Starlight] was very good in this episode but kinda annoy me being piss of with Hughie for not knowing was not her, Can we blame him??! but was good after so its ok. [/spoiler] [spoiler]- It's a shame we don't have a conclusion on A-Train, Ryan and especially Ashley[What is her superpower??], but I hope they cook in the season 5.[/spoiler] See you next season!

As expected, the Season 4 finale serves as a "setup" for Season 5, much like the Season 1 finale. However, it mirrors the Season 3 finale in the way that many of the key plot points end up meaningless. This finale isn't as underwhelming as the Season 3 finale; not because it was better, but because the entire season lacked buildup, making the Season 4 finale feels... flat, despite all those setup for the ultimate showdown in Season 5. Bear with me, as this will be long. I'll address the elephant in the room: the assassination plot; before going to the romantic subplots, Ryan subplot, and the ending. First of all, the assassination plot concludes in an unexpected, but... unsatisfying manner. [spoiler]Singer survives, Neuman is killed by Butcher, [/spoiler] and the big "reveal" is that it's all part of Sage's master plan. However, this doesn't come across as a carefully crafted scheme to me, but rather a series of random events Sage apparently takes credit for. For instance, [spoiler]how did Sage obtain the recording of Singer's statement about killing Neuman? Did she plant a bug in the Shifter? If so, how did she recover it from the Shifter's dead body, especially given the body is in a secure bunker? And how did Starlight manage to sneak inside this bunker unguarded? Sage claims that the leak involving A-Train was intentional, but how did this actually play out? To her credits, I do think it still makes sense that Sage anticipated The Boys to intervene with the plan to assassinate Singer, and the Shifter is just a foil to be sacrificed. But how did she anticipate Neuman's death? It feels far-fetched, especially as it resulted from Butcher and Mallory's plan to recruit Ryan, and Butcher's subsequent outburst due to Mallory's death.[/spoiler] It feels like a convoluted 4D chess game that fails to give the "oh shit!" moment a master schemer character usually gives us after the big "reveal". And this episode's decision to kill off several key characters while reintroducing old ones like Stan Edgar feels like an attempt to save these characters for the next season. This approach feels somewhat tacky and reminiscent of how the MCU "saves" future potential heroes and characters for later use. That being said, Ryan's relationship with Butcher and Homelander is well-handled, showing a balanced fast and loose dynamic between the two. I like that despite several scenes seemingly indicating Ryan's "soft-heartedness" (as the fans like to say), they still managed to avoid the cliché of Ryan being easily swayed. Kids are emotionally turbulent, and the fact they showed how Butcher struggled to handle this relationship, not to mention Mallory's anxiety, is a good one. The supposed brotherly love between Hughie and Butcher is also addressed, albeit a bit tacky as it only surfaces in the finale, [spoiler]with Butcher abandoning their relationship completely after Mallory's death, going full unhinged. I also like that it seems, with something that bulges out Ashley's head after she took V, and Butcher showing off his tentacle power, that the tentacle monster that emerged from the bunnies in the farm episode is confirmed to be some sort of power (cancer?) resulting from taking V.[/spoiler] Also, given that this has caused contention among the fandom in this season, I would like to say that the Frenchie-Kimiko subplot unfortunately ends up rather... disappointing. While their relationship eventually prevails, the way it is handled seems a bit disrespectful to the LGBTQ community, as Colin's character feels like being used as a mere distraction. While I understand that the writers wanted to bring up the theme of regret in this season, having Colin's role as a bump in Frenchie's journey towards his real romantic interest in Kimiko ends up feeling like a sidetrack of a sidetrack, since Frenchie-Kimiko subplot often is already a sidetrack of the main plot, and a problematic one at that. There's a problematic undertone in using a LGBTQ character as a distraction to the "real" romance, but I'm not qualified to delve deeper into that. And while we're talking about relationship, the way Hughie-Annie's is handled is... weird. There should be no reason Annie should be mad with Hughie since he was duped; he didn't realize. It feels like it's just something to get Hughie to express his love for her. Finally, as we see that they are preparing on a "supe authoritarianism" for Season 5, I’m disappointed that we didn't get to see more of what Stan Edgar said about Vought in Season 2: "The point is that you are under a misconception that we are a superhero company. We are not. What we are, really, is a pharmaceutical company." They instead went full-force with the superhero plot. While it seems they are aiming to align with the comic book ending, it feels like they've lost their strongest critique on American corporatism, which Season 2 delivered exceptionally well. What we get here thus is a season that ends with The Boys once again as underdogs, funnily enough a recurring theme in the series. While the finale features cool cameos from characters like [spoiler]the kids from Gen V, the Sage Grove Hospital kid, Love Sausage, and Soldier Boy,[/spoiler] these appearances feel more like fan service, as most of them seemingly end up as Homelander's henchmen as The Boys are captured by the supes and the government. And while all these do set up high stakes for the next season, the finale's dismissal of most subplots developed throughout the season makes it feel like the majority of the episodes could have been skipped to reach this point. I'd still watch Season 5, but just to see how it finally unfolds.

Bobby Singer said the thing! 10/10