The Boys season 4 is past the halfway point and, thankfully, some momentum has been achieved. The titular team is at an all-time low after Starlight channeled her anger into Firecracker’s face and Butcher caused havoc at her rally. In the latest episode, Butcher’s larger plan begins to take shape even as he remains a foul-mouthed thorn in everyone’s sides.

The Gen V Supe virus has finally made its way to the world of The Boys and, with the help of Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Joe Kessler, Butcher is on the hunt for it, leading to a team-up with Stan Edgar. Along with the return of the former Vought CEO, some returning characters, a tragic ending for one another, and an outrageous sequence involving flying, carnivorous sheep makes for another solid entry in season 4.

V’ed Up Farm Animals Lets The Boys Get Silly Again

After a few self-serious episodes, it’s a refreshing reprieve

Butcher, Starlight, MM, Frenchie, and Kimiko all head upstate with Stan Edgar to search for the Supe virus, leading to Victoria Neuman’s secret laboratory where animals were experimented on. When Neuman shows up, a tense search for the virus and Neuman’s child’s father, a lab tech who works in her lab, is underway.

Everything about this location change is a welcome shift for The Boys season 4, which so far has stuck to the grimy and gray streets of New York. It’s all still pretty grim — the upstate farm is covered in snow and as gray as it gets — but it allows the series to stretch its legs and get a little freaky with it.

So who is matching The Boys’ freak? A gang of man-eating sheep and tentacle-having chickens. After being dosed with V by Neuman’s lab tech, things have gone very wrong at the farm and Butcher and the gang must fight off the bloodthirsty animals to make it out alive. It’s one of the more outlandish sequences this season, and it just shows that The Boys doesn’t need to try too hard to be freaky and fun. Sometimes, flying sheep with razor sharp teeth is all you need.

Hughie’s Story Ends Tragically

Episode 4 wraps up Simon Pegg’s role

Hughie’s plan to give his father V was always going to end badly, and it’s strange that one of the series’ more cautious characters was so willing to take this risk. It’s Hughie’s estranged mother who ultimately gives Hugh Sr. the V and the consequences are fittingly tragic. Simon Pegg, Jack Quaid, and Rosemarie Dewitt make the most of this story, even if Hughie’s mother, Daphne, doesn’t feel fully fleshed out quite yet.

This doesn’t dull the emotional impact of Hugh Sr.’s inevitable demise, though, and once the consequences of the V take hold, he accidentally kills several people in a bloody hospital rampage. Even though Pegg’s presence was always minimal, it was most welcome, and it’s sad to see him go, with Hughie and Hugh Sr. sharing one final, heart-wrenching scene.

The Seven Remain Vought Puppets — For Now

Homelander is reeling from episode 4’s lab massacre

The Seven spend most of their time at V52, a Comic-Con-esque convention that takes a stab at some low-hanging fruit and once again parodies the MCU and DC. Tek Knight, who appears here for the first time since his role in Gen V, gets in a particularly funny jab at The Batman, touting a 12-minute-long sequence in his upcoming movie, The Tek Knight, that is completely dark on screen.

The V52 con allows for the return of two key Gen V characters in The Boys season 4 — Sam and Cate, now known as the Guardians of Godolkin. They aren’t given much to do, but it’s exciting to see them, especially after Gen V knocked season 1 out of the park. How their characters will come into play through the rest of the season remains to be seen, but it certainly seems like it’s not the last we’ve seen of them.

Meanwhile, Homelander is still on the verge of a nervous breakdown, numb after the massacre at the Vought lab in episode 4 that saw him murder everyone except Barbara. He continues taking this out on Ryan and young star Cameron Corvetti continues to give a layered performance as the evil Supe’s son.

Otherwise, The Seven isn’t given much to do as The Boys moves everything into place for its final few episodes of season 4. Butcher slyly saves Neuman’s lab assistant to develop more of the Supe virus, and it seems that he may continue giving in to his worst impulses, much to everyone else’s consternation. Right now, it’s hard to see how everything will come together, but like Butcher’s plan, things are beginning to fall into place.

The Boys season 4, episode 5 is now streaming on Prime Video.