*CAUTION: Spoilers ahead for The Boys Season 4, Episodes 1-3*
Amazon Prime Video’s bloody and bawdy superhero drama The Boys has never been one for subtlety. This is a show, after all, where an Aquaman-like hero has sex with an octopus, and another with Ant-Man style shrinking powers sneezes while literally inside a hookup’s urethra with explosive results.
So, if the latest season—which concerns itself with the trial of an egotistical, coiffed-blond criminal who uses money and media influence to bend the rules of democracy to his will—feels a little on the nose, we shouldn’t be too surprised.
Your dose of fabulosi-TEA
Subscribe to our newsletter for your front-row seat to all things entertainment with a sprinkle of everything else queer.
But while Trump Homelander (Anthony Starr) continues to push his nefarious agenda, The Boys just keeps getting gayer and gayer. So much so that certain conservative viewers have complained the show’s gone too “woke,” to which series creator Eric Kripke has made his feelings very clear: “Go watch something else.”
Sure, this may be a dark comedy about super-powered egomaniacs and the equally damaged group of vigilantes (the titular “Boys”) trying to take them down, but it’s long made its disdain for the MAGA crowd loud and clear, and has always been pretty liberal when it comes to sexuality (and, sure, exploding blood and guts).
The homoerotic The Boys moment that has fans shook
For example: In a new homoerotic scene that’s already got the internet buzzing, the aforementioned a-hole Homelander is so pissed that he’s surrounded by brainless “yes men” that, to prove a point, he demands The Deep (Chase Crawford) “blow” A-Train (Jessie T. Usher).
With only a millisecond of hesitation, The Deep gets up, walks over to A-Train, and gets on his knees—wait, is this really about to happen? “Sex is just a spectrum, right bro?,” The Deep asks, staring up into his teammates eyes.
Homelander calls it off before any “super-sucking” (forgive us) goes down; point proven. But it goes on for just long enough that it seems like a real possibility. We wouldn’t put it past The Boys! And that’s within the first 20 minutes of Season 4—the internet is sufficiently gagged:
“We got a great half day [filming] that scene because there’s a lot of movement,” Crawford laughs in an interview with Queerty contributor Kerensa Cadenas for Indiewire. “It was so funny the way he was directing me and the scene. God, it was so funny. They did put a lot of ‘bros’ in there this year.”
Side note: If you were curious and wanted to look the scene up online or on social media, just… maybe don’t do it in public. There’s almost no combo of words you can search that won’t give you something entirely NSFW. Think about it: “The Boys,” “blowjob,” “Deep,” “A-Train”—yeah, it’s a minefield!
Related*
What’s the deal with The Deep and the octopus Ambrosius?
But of course that almost-BJ is far from the only thing about the new season that’s raising audiences’ eyebrows. We mentioned that “Aquaman-like hero” who has sex with an octopus? That’s Crawford’s The Deep, and it turns out that wasn’t just a one-time, 12-limbed fling: They’re taking that relationship to the next level.
That octopus’ name is Ambrosius and, apparently, after The Deep’s first encounter with them at last season’s superhero orgy, a.k.a. “Herogasm” (don’t ask), he brought the cephalopod home, keeping it in a fish tank right next to his bed… for reasons.
Oh, and by the way: Ambrosius is voiced by none other than Tilda Swinton. Because who better to play a horny octopus, right?
Crawford, for his part, seems to be having a great time playing a man in love with an octopus:
“They have a real octopus, I mean a rubber one,” he continues in his chat with Indiewire. “I’m in my underwear and it’s hard for me not to laugh because the lines are so silly. I have to play it so straight. This is your mistress and you’re in love with her.” All love is love… we guess???
Related*
Meet Elliot Knight, The Boys‘ dreamy new queer star
But speaking of relationships, there is one another new one on Season 4 of The Boys to get excited about, and it’s not nearly as weird—at least, not yet!
One of the series’ characters who’s a little easier to love is Frenchie (Tomer Capone), the weapons expert for the ragtag group of vigilante antiheroes. In past seasons, he’s shown himself to be pretty sexually fluid, kissing his teammate Hughie (Jack Quaid), expressing interest in trans dancers he saw out at a party, and even sharing an intimate moment with Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) before realizing they’re better off friends.
But, this time around, Frenchie’s in a new relationship with a guy named Colin Hauser (Elliot Knight, also seen in the most recent season of Hacks), who works for the Starlight House, a nonprofit organization working to counter Homelander’s diabolical empire by helping homeless and at-risk youth.
The two are definitely cute together, and thus far seem like one of the more stable romantic relationships the show has going for itself. But this is The Boys, after all, so we’ll keep watching along with bated breath. We’re just saying, it’s probably not a great omen that Colin works for an org that Homelander would very much like to destroy, right?
Regardless, we’re thrilled about the spotlight for actor Elliot Knight, who is both openly queer and openly handsome. We’ll leave you on a high note with a few of our favorite shots from his Instagram page…
New episodes of The Boys drop every Thursday on Amazon Prime Video.
Related*
Don’t forget to share:
