The boys
The boys has always been a show determined to shock and disgust its audience, so it’s no wonder they continue to push the proverbial boundaries. I’m no prude, but I’m often quite disgusted by this show, even if in the past it’s been (mostly) a good kind of disgust.
Most of the time, it’s funny, although early in the series, Starlight (Erin Moriarty) is sexually assaulted by superhero The Deep (Chace Crawford). It was a deeply disturbing scene, and it was meant to be. It was a difficult scene, but it was there for a reason: Starlight got her first taste of the Seven’s villainy, but not her last. Soon, she would realize that even the golden boy, Homelander (Antony Starr), was a villain.
In this week’s episode of The boys, However, things go too far and not in a good way. There is a shocking side and a shocking side. Episode 6 of season 4, titled “Dirty Business”, is shocking only in its lack of empathy towards victims of sexual assault. Spoilers ahead.
It’s weird, because last week was the first time this season that I actually thought, “This is finally getting good.” The episode had a lot to like, from the flying “Supe” sheep to a hilarious parody of Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe. “Get woke, get yoked” is one of the funniest and most absurd things this show has done, and the ridiculous “woke” product placement in this episode is a classic. The boys.
But it all comes crashing down in Episode 6, when Hughie (Jack Quaid) learns the hard way the adage “never meet your heroes” – much in the same way Starlight did in Season 1. This time, however, sexual assault is approached with all the nuance of a freight train crashing into a brick wall.
Content warning.
My colleague Paul Tassi has already explained why this scene is so awkward, so I’ll refer you to his synopsis and review. I’m talking about the author’s intent, which makes this all so much worse. From what I could tell, watching the scene and its aftermath, The boys He played Hughie’s suffering scene for laughs. I was somewhat soothed by his emotional breakdown afterward, but it turns out I was wrong: showrunner Eric Kripke called the scene “hilarious” in an interview with Variety.
The interviewer asked the following question, which I would have asked myself: “Let’s start with the sex dungeon part of Tek Knight. Where did the idea come from? And why put Hughie in this situation now, kicking him down while he’s down by having him sexually assaulted by his childhood hero after his father’s death?”
Kripke’s full answer is:
Well, that’s a dark way of looking at it! We think it’s hilarious. Obviously, Tek Knight is our version of Batman, and we really wanted to play with that trope: the fascist underpinnings of Batman as this very rich guy who preys on the poor and then profits from incarceration. So that was an example. Tek Knight was already designed to be a monster, so we were already halfway there. Then the idea came up that he should have a Batcave—but let’s be honest, the Batcave would be a sex dungeon. Even the real Batcave is just that side of the sex dungeon. It’s really dark, and there are rubber suits everywhere. It’s not that hard to add a few dildos and then a weird urinal that turns into a face mask.
And in the comics, there’s a great storyline where Hughie pretends to be a superhero. That’s a story that Jack had always asked us to do. So part of it is you always have to be careful what you ask of the writers. Then we finally got this Webweaver character and the idea of Spider-Man going down to get tickled in the Batcave was just too good to pass up. I’m sorry, I couldn’t pass that up.
A pervert tickling you? I’m sorry, that wasn’t “perverted”, that was entirely non-consensual. The fact that the show’s creator calls it “hilarious” and sees it as some kind of fun sex dungeon scene is more disturbing than the scene itself.
Asked if there was a point where Amazon said it was going too far, Kripke added:
“I love that it’s a perfect situation, that he doesn’t know his own password. It’s like a beautiful comedic situation that he’s trying to find all the time.”
Not knowing your own safe word is about the funniest thing I can think of, and it absolutely baffles me that someone in charge of a major television series could be so tone deaf.
It wasn’t just a “shock” in my opinion, any more than Starlight’s assault was, but it’s odd how Kripke treats it as just a funny segment, rather than something that should be taken very, very seriously. Compare his comments with what he said about Starlight’s scene at the time:
I wanted to do it right. I had a lot of conversations with a lot of women, some of them very painful. And I did my best to let them talk, and I didn’t try to steer them one way or the other. And then, ultimately, I focused on Starlight’s experience, both in that moment and afterward. And then, when it came time to bring in Erin, and then Chace… we started that process all over again. Because actors really have to live and play that role. And so, I will say this: I’ve never worked harder or been so stressed about a scene in my life, before or since. Because if I got it wrong, it wouldn’t just be a failure as a scene, it would be hurtful. And I felt that pressure and responsibility throughout the whole process.
Imagine if he called Starlight’s scene “hilarious” and dismissed it the same way he did Hughie’s horrific scene. There’s a lot of stigma around male victims of sexual assault, and rather than addressing it in a serious way, The boys This only amplifies this stigma. It is hypocritical and more than a little revolting. I would say it is a shame, but it is not strong enough.
Reprehensible. That’s the word I’m looking for.
Imagine again that this scene is not Hughie’s, but Starlight’s or Kimiko’s (Karen Fukuhara). Then compare how this show handles such a devastating moment to Netflix’s recent miniseries Baby reindeer, who dove head first into how trauma can destroy your life. What a disappointment.