The Boys Season 4 Hinges On A Key Plot Point From The Gen V Spin-Off

The following article contains mild spoilers for season 4 of "The Boys." Reader discretion is advised. 

While it isn't completely necessary for fans of "The Boys" to watch the spin-off series, "Gen V," the two are intertwined and one particular plot point from "Gen V" is hugely important in season 4 of "The Boys." Thankfully, it's something pretty explainable, and "The Boys" does a decent job of making the big points clear, but "Gen V" gives the full backstory on what could turn out to be the deadliest thing Vought has ever created, and that's including the homicide-happy Homelander (Antony Starr). After designing Compound V and creating superheroes, the scientists at Vought also created Temp V, which can give people temporary powers but has some rather nasty side effects. In "Gen V," Godolkin University students Marie (Jaz Sinclair), Andre (Chance Perdomo), Jordan (London Thor/Derek Luh), and Emma (Lizze Broadway) discovered that the school is actually just a front for Vought to groom and manipulate young supes and test out new medicine and technology on them in a terrifying place known as "The Woods." 

We knew that "Gen V" was supposed to take place alongside and shortly after the events of "The Boys" season 3, lining up the timeline for season 4 and serving as a sort of an in-between for the two seasons, but now it looks like the nastiest creation from The Woods has the potential to be unleashed. At the end of "Gen V," Congresswoman Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) got her hands on a virus developed by Dr. Cardosa (Marco Pigossi) that wouldn't harm humans but could reduce supes to bloody, pus-filled corpses, and that could spell serious trouble for the Seven, the Boys, and every supe on the planet. 

The virus created by Cardosa specifically targets supes, causing them flu-like symptoms that become intense pain, pus-filled sacs that grow all over their bodies, internal bleeding, and eventually death. It's truly horrifying stuff, developed as a way to take care of problem superheroes, though it's not strong enough to kill a high-level supe like Homelander. Thankfully, it's not super transmissible and can only be caught through a transfer of bodily fluids, though Godolkin University's late Dean Shetty wanted Cardosa to create a version that was airborne. An airborne version could spell the end of all supes and could potentially mutate into something worse, but in a more controllable format, it's a powerful weapon for Neuman to wield. 

After all, she wouldn't want to release an airborne version that could kill herself and her daughter, who are both supes, but she would probably love to be able to kill those enemies who her head-exploding powers don't work on. The supe virus changes the game entirely because it's a dangerous silver bullet for many of Vought's problems. Sure, it could potentially be turned into something that could actually kill Homelander, but is it worth the danger that it poses to literally every other supe on the planet? Oh, and there's no cure.

We will have to wait and see how Neuman plans on using the virus, or what happens if it falls into different hands. Neuman might be dangerous, but just imagine the virus in supe-hating Butcher's (Karl Urban) hands. Things could get very, very bad before the series comes to an end in season 5, and it all started with Cardosa and "Gen V."

The first three episodes of "The Boys" season 4 are now streaming on Prime Video.