Department of Dirty Tricks

Season 4 picks up where Season 3 left off with the battle between The Boys and Vought. It opens at a party for presidential candidate Robert Singer and his running mate Victoria Neuman.

Meanwhile, The Boys team—including Kimiko, Frenchie, Mother’s Milk, Hughie, Starlight, and Butcher—are preparing to execute a plan to sabotage Neuman's party. Kimiko and Frenchie are assigned to disguise themselves as servers to infiltrate the party along with two service agents. Butcher seems to be extremely ill, and the others agree to keep him outside and not let him join the mission.

At the same time, Homelander is in the bathroom, upset about discovering gray pubic hair. He then sees his son Ryan, who is nervous about appearing in public and becoming one of the heroes. Homelander comforts him and refers to ordinary people as cockroaches, saying they are only humans and toys for their amusement.

Homelander and Ryan's presence surprises The Boys team. Homelander and Ryan then meet Neuman and her daughter Zoe. Homelander tells Ryan to take Zoe to the kitchen for some ice cream, making an inappropriate joke in the process.

Alone with Neuman, Homelander tells her that he is on trial for the murder of the pro-Starlight protester in the Season 3 finale. Meanwhile, Butcher follows Ryan to the kitchen and tries to talk to him, attempting to convince Ryan to leave Homelander because he is a bad person who kills people. Ryan defends his dad, telling Butcher that the protester Homelander killed was pedophile. At that moment, Homelander enters and stops their conversation, taking Ryan out of the kitchen in front of Butcher.

Upstairs, Kimiko and Frenchie enter Neuman’s hotel room, with the agents outside pretending to be security. They find Neuman's eye drops and are about to put some deadly chemicals inside when Zoe walks in. She turns out to be a Supe with the ability to unleash four tentacle-like mouths coated with sharp teeth from her mouth.

Zoe quickly kills the agents and starts to attack Frenchie. Kimiko runs in to protect him, but Zoe bites off her arm. They then run away and jump out the window. Annie comes to the rescue and catches Frenchie but fails to catch Kimiko because her arm hasn't grown back fast enough. Kimiko falls to the ground, smashing her body, but she is still alive due to her ability to regenerate.

Meanwhile, Neuman finds Hughie in the van and tries to talk to him. Hughie asks her why she turned Zoe into a Supe, and Neuman tells him she did it to protect Zoe. Neuman says she won't hurt Hughie because she appreciates how he cares about Zoe. Hughie then takes the chance to throw the deadly chemical on Neuman. However, it doesn't hurt her at all and only leaves some burns on her suit.

Butcher appears and shoots Neuman from behind, but it doesn't do anything since she can control blood loss. The Boys gather back at their office, where Hughie declines a call from his father. Annie and Mother's Milk attempt to persuade Hughie to distance himself from Butcher, but Hughie stands firm. Meanwhile, Butcher secretly meets with Neuman at a deserted “Vought Video” store. He tries to negotiate a truce, suggesting that if she helps him get Ryan back, the CIA would offer her protection from Homelander and destroy Hughie's compromising information on her from the Red River Group Home. Neuman then receives the news on her phone that she and Robert have won the presidential election. She returns to the party to celebrate. Afterward, Butcher and MM go to the CIA headquarters to report their failed mission. Grace is furious at Butcher and only allows MM into the room. It turns out Robert was the one who conspired with the CIA to use the Boys to eliminate Neuman. They only have until January 6, when the election is certified, to assassinate Neuman before she can fully claim victory and explode Robert’s head.

Meanwhile, outside, Butcher sees Joe Kessler, an agent he used to work with and once saved. MM goes home and finds his ex-wife at his door. She tells him about their daughter, Janine, who has started acting violently at school since her stepdad Todd moved out and became consumed with conspiracy theories about Homelander. Monique asks MM to find Todd to help Janine.

At Vought Tower, Homelander has a nightmare about his actions and the ongoing situation with Starlight. Meanwhile, The Deep is being interviewed when the host asks about his ex-wife's public revelation about his relationship with an octopus named Ambrosius. After the interview, Ashley asks him to ensure the octopus is truly gone. She hosts a meeting about finding new members for the Seven and their strategy to regain their reputation. The Seven now consist of Homelander, A-Train, The Deep, and Black Noir, who somehow survived being brutally killed by Homelander last season.

One of the candidates on Ashley's list is Sister Sage, who A-Train knows personally from their time in a teenage supe team. Her superpower is being the smartest person in the world. Homelander, frustrated by the boring plan, tells The Deep to give A-Train a blowjob. Both are shocked, but The Deep complies to prove how everyone in the room is so stupid and will do whatever Homelander says. He leaves the room in disgust.

The Boys gather back at their office. Hughie receives a call from his dad but declines it. Annie and Mother's Milk try to persuade Hughie to distance himself from Butcher, but Hughie refuses. Meanwhile, Butcher secretly meets with Neuman at an abandoned “Vought Video” store. He tries to negotiate a treaty, suggesting that if she helps him get Ryan back, the CIA would offer her protection from Homelander and destroy Hughie's compromising information on her from the Red River Group Home. She leaves without giving him an answer.

The next day, Hughie receives a voicemail informing him that his father is hospitalized after a stroke. He rushes to the hospital and finds him in a coma. At Starlight’s office for at-risk teens, Annie’s assistant convinces her to show up as Starlight to receive more support and donations, but Annie doesn’t want to associate her name with the program. Here we meet Colin, who was recommended to work for Annie by Frenchie. There is some chemistry between the two, and Kimiko quickly notices it. Homelander, disguised in normal clothes, visits Sister Sage at her home. He tests her powers and talks to her about his disappointment with his team and how their incompetence will lead the world to betray the Supes. Sage tells him to create chaos among humans so he can take over. Homelander asks Sage to join the Seven, and she reluctantly agrees.

Meanwhile, Hughie finds Butcher alone at their office. He tells Butcher his father had a stroke and that he ignored his father's call before it happened. Butcher hugs Hughie but uses the moment to steal his hard drive with important information on Neuman.

MM, Kimiko, and Frenchie are looking for Todd and see him meeting with two other "Hometeamers" and Sage outside Planet Vought. They go inside and are introduced by Sage to Homelander, Black Noir, The Deep, and A-Train. Homelander reveals his plan to make his supporters martyrs and orders his teammates to kill them with baseball bats. Black Noir and The Deep do it quickly, but A-Train hesitates and watches.

Outside the courthouse where Homelander is on trial, Sage disguises herself as a "Starlighter" as the verdict of "not guilty" is announced. She starts a riot by throwing hot coffee on a "Hometeamer." In the chaos, Frenchie saves Colin from an attacker, and they kiss, while Kimiko watches. A-Train is told to drop the bodies of Todd and the others outside the courthouse to make it look like they were killed by Starlighters.

After the riot, Ryan tells Homelander he still cares about Butcher and doesn't want him to die. The Deep talks to his octopus lover Ambrosius, which he hides in his closet. Frenchie is in bed with Colin and gets up to look at a picture of Colin’s family. Hughie sits by his father's bedside, listening to the voicemail his father left, before being interrupted by his estranged mother. At home, Butcher sees visions of his late wife Becca, making him change his mind about sending Hughie’s files to Neuman. Instead, he sends Neuman a lewd photo.