EntertainmentTVSuperhero ShowsThe BoysWhat’s the virus in The Boys season 4? Neuman’s Supe-killing substance, explainedWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
EntertainmentTVSuperhero ShowsThe BoysWhat’s the virus in The Boys season 4? Neuman’s Supe-killing substance, explainedWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Prime Video)
Warning! This article contains spoilers for bothThe Boys season 4andGen V season 1. If you’ve yet to catch up, and don’t want to know anything that happens, turn back now!
Now, if you’ve not yet watched Gen V (and who could blame you, honestly, given thatKripke claimed you wouldn’t need to not so long ago), you might be a little confused as to what the substance is, and how it came to be. Below, we dive into all of that, to get you up to speed as the two Prime Video shows continue to crossover…
What is the virus, and where did it come from?
(Image credit: Prime Video)
The virus actually started out as a Vought-funded project, with the company hiring gifted scientist Dr. Edison Cardosa (Marco Pigossi) to create a bioweapon that could subdue and control Supes. To enable Cardosa to work without outside interference, Vought created The Woods, an underground medical facility, much likethe one Homelander revisited in episode 4, for he and his partner Richard Brinkerhoff (Clancy Brown).
Unsatisfied with the idea of merelycontrollingSupes, Shetty pushed an increasingly uncomfortable Cardosa to make the effects of the virus more and more devastating and, eventually, ordered him to make it airborne. While he refused to do the latter, he succeeded in making it lethal, and transmittable through bodily fluids.
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With the plane going down, Maeve suggested Homelander fly its passengers to safety, but he refused, complaining that it’d take him 123 trips. Eventually, the two Supes flew down on their own, leaving everyone on board to die – and setting Shetty on a grief-stricken quest for revenge against all Supe kind.
How does Victoria Neuman have the virus?
(Image credit: Prime Video)
The pair meet in a secluded parking garage, where he asks her to assure him she’s aligned with Vought’s original plan for the virus: to use a non-deadly version of it to control Supes or, at their request, rid them of their powers. She agrees.
Luring him into a false sense of security, Neuman vows to protect him and his family if news of the substance were to ever go public and goes to give him her card. As she does so, she asks him whether the sample he’s brought is the only batch in existence and if there’s anyone else in the world who can replicate it, to which Cardosa replies that there isn’t. She tells him he’s a hero, to which he smiles shyly.
With that, he looks down at the card, and realizes it’s completely blank as a drop of blood drips from his nose onto it. He apologizes, blaming the dry air, but when he looks up at Neuman, he sees her eyes are glassed over. Neuman then uses her powers to explode his head.
Part of said scene was glimpsed in the “previously on” section of this week’s episode of The Boys.
Now, it looks like Neuman has enlisted the help of her long-term partner Sameer (Omid Abtahi) to make the virus suitable for what she’s planning to do with it. Which brings us onto the next section…
What does Neuman want to do with the virus?
(Image credit: Prime Video)
At this stage, it’skind ofunclear what Neuman’s true intentions with the Supe-killing virus are, especially when you consider that it’s kind of contagious and she’s a Supe herself, but The Boys' latest installment offers up a hint as to what she’s planning.
“You turned my farm into an infectious disease lab”, her adopted father Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) says, as they escort Butcher (Karl Urban and the rest of his gang around the premises. “I can only assume that you’re searching for a way to control Homelander?”
“He’s a Freudian cesspool; random impulse and deep insecurity. There’sno onethat can control that. You’re putting yourself and Zoe in terrible danger,” he goes on, before she snaps back: “No! You put me and Zoe in terrible danger. You used me like you use everybody else. Somebody had to protect her.”
“You took a bright-eyed little girl and turned her into a…” Edgar replies, before an angry Neuman cuts him off: “Into a what? A monster? Is that why you had me hide what I was? Stick to the shadows, never reach too high? You were ashamed of me. My daughter will never have to live like that.”
In a follow-up scene, MM (Laz Alonso) asks Butcher whathehas planned for the virus, to which the foul-mouthed Brit spells out: “Starlight blinds the b**** and before she knows what’s what, I’ll stab her with a dose.”
The Boys season 4is currently streaming on Prime Video, with new episodes dropping every Thursday. For more, check out our latest coverage on the show:
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