‘The Boys’ Showrunner discusses Hughie’s encounter, Zendaya reference, and Firecracker’s gift

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from Episode 6 of “The Boys” Season 4, currently streaming on Amazon’s Prime Video.

In the latest episode of “The Boys” Season 4, several shocking developments unfold. Homelander (Antony Starr), Sage (Susan Heyward), and VP-elect Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) rally a group of Federalist Society elites to support their plan for supe supremacist domination, including creating internment camps for dissenters.

A major reveal in the episode is that CIA agent Joe Kessler, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, has been a hallucination of Butcher’s (Karl Urban) all along. Hughie (Jack Quaid) also goes undercover as the supe Webweaver at a party hosted by billionaire supe Tek Knight (Derek Wilson) and ends up in Tek Knight’s sex dungeon. This intense scene follows the death of Hughie’s father, Hugh Sr. (Simon Pegg).

In an interview with Variety, Colby Minifie, who plays Ashley, discussed the scene: “It was one of the most challenging and one of my favorite things that I’ve gotten to do in this crazy world of a show. There was a lot of prep for that... But I really loved how the writers and Kripke found this new door for Ashley to explore.”

Another notable scene features Firecracker (Valorie Curry) proving her loyalty to Homelander by taking medication that causes her to lactate, allowing Homelander to breastfeed from her. Curry told Variety, “I love how that scene played so much, because we both came to it with this utter vulnerability and full of sincerity — which just makes it so much fucking weirder.”

Showrunner Eric Kripke also spoke to Variety about the episode's dark and comedic elements, including the Tek Knight sex dungeon. He explained that Tek Knight is their version of Batman, and they wanted to explore Batman’s darker, fascist undertones. Kripke said, “Tek Knight was already set up to be a freak, so we were kind of already halfway there... Then the notion came up of, he should have a Batcave — but let’s be honest, the Batcave would be a sex dungeon.”

Regarding the safe word "Zendaya," Kripke credited writer Anslem Richardson with the idea. He said, “Anslem Richardson, who is the brilliant writer of the episode — he just put that in the first draft... I just laughed my ass off about that.”

Kripke also elaborated on Firecracker’s breastfeeding scene, noting the character’s devotion to Homelander and her willingness to fulfill his needs. He said, “When you take that character and how slavishly devoted she is to Homelander... that giving him the thing he wants most in the world becomes logical, in a bananas sort of way.”

These developments contribute to the ongoing complexities and dark humor of “The Boys,” keeping viewers engaged and surprised by the show’s unpredictable narrative.