Hughie has been a main character of The Boys since the very beginning, but we really need to talk about the character’s role in season 4. Although Hughie hasn’t always been as proficient at killing supes as other members of the titular team, he has been an incredibly important character throughout The Boys‘ run. Hughie emerged as a strong fan favorite due to having a stronger moral compass compared to the rest of The Boys‘ cast, but things have taken a turn for the worse during the second half of season 4.

Hughie has been separated from the Boys for much of The Boys season 4 due to the death of Simon Pegg’s Hugh Campbell Sr. and various other concerns, but he’s still finding time to help his colleagues stop Homelander’s coup. Hughie has gone undercover, crawled through air ducts, and buried his beef with A-Train, but building up to season 4’s finale, The Boys has taken a much darker route with Hughie – and it’s one that perhaps goes too far.

Hughie’s The Boys Season 4 Story Has Been Brutally Upsetting

It Hasn’t Gotten Any Better

Although Hughie’s story in The Boys has been a tragedy from the very beginning, his arc in The Boys season 4 has been brutally upsetting. Hughie’s first major storyline in season 4 was his father’s stroke and subsequent death. Hughie discovered that his father had fallen into a coma, leaving Jack Quaid’s character feeling guilty about taking his ailing parent for granted. Hugh Sr. was ultimately turned into a supe thanks to a last-gasp attempt at saving his life, but after he accidentally killed several innocent people, Hughie had to euthanize his own father in a heartbreaking scene.

After having to kill his own father, Hughie decided that he needed to start helping the Boys again, leading to him going undercover inside Tek Knight’s mansion with the intention of uncovering Homelander and Sister Sage’s true plan. After disguising himself as a supe named Webweaver, the disguised Hughie met Tek Knight, but was quickly whisked to a sex dungeon underneath the mansion. While there, Hughie was continuously assaulted by Tek Knight and Ashley Barrett – a disturbing scene that The Boys season 4, episode 6 played at least partially for laughs.

Things get even worse for Hughie in episode 7, which features the twist that Starlight has been replaced by a shapeshifting supe. At the end of the episode, the fake Annie puts on Starlight’s costume and has sex with Hughie, only to then get up while he is still sleeping to destroy his blackmail on Victoria Neuman. This is how The Boys reveals Hughie actually slept with the shapeshifter. A deliberate trick to gain his consent, the shapeshifter has committed a sex crime against Hughie here.

The Shapeshifter Scene Risks Taking Hughie’s Season 4 Story Too Far

It Happened In Back-To-Back Episodes

The death of Hughie’s father was already one significant tragedy to handle, and the shapeshifter sex scene risks taking Hughie’s The Boys season 4 story too far. Not only does the incident come so soon after the death of Hugh Sr., it immediately follows the shocking events that transpired at Tek Knight’s mansion. Hughie being sexually assaulted in back-to-back episodes is an incredibly strange choice for The Boys to make, bordering on the edge of overkill in terms of one character enduring so much within a short space of time.

Hughie is a character that audiences care about, and while The Boys‘ very nature is to be shocking and ruthless toward characters, the narrative must also find balance between hardship and resolution. Since The Boys season 4 started, Hughie has simply been knocked down over and over – sometimes with comedic intentions, sometimes not. Regardless, there is an important distinction between a character experiencing something horrible and then the story chronicling their journey, and one character being relentlessly singled out in a way that stops being meaningful.

The Boys Needs To Properly Handle The Fallout From Season 4’s Shapeshifter Scene

It Has Already Done This Before

Although The Boys season 4 has already gone very far in tormenting Hughie, there is a way to fix it. The Boys season 4 needs to properly handle the fallout from the shapeshifter scene, as the character having non-consensual sex with a villain is something that cannot be brushed off. The Boys needs to explore the psychological damage an event like this could do to Hughie, especially after his other dark moments in season 4. Jack Quaid’s character needs the opportunity to honor the severity of this storyline with the appropriate consequences.

The Boys has done exactly that with Starlight in past episodes. The Boys season 1 featured a controversial scene in which Starlight was forced to perform sex acts on The Deep, and the fallout from that moment has played a major role in defining both characters’ stories since. The impact this event had on Starlight has consistently been explored throughout The Boys‘ four seasons, and Hughie’s experiences in season 4 – the shapeshifter especially – require similar treatment.

Hughie Has Always Been A Tragic Figure, But The Boys Season 4 Is Different

Things Have Gone Too Far

Hughie has been a tragic character since the beginning of The Boys, always getting knocked down wherever he turns, and that’s almost his role in the show at this point. The Boys opens on A-Train murdering Hughie’s then-girlfriend, Robin, and throughout season 1, Hughie is constantly covered in blood as he finds himself in deadly situations. Even when he isn’t directly being threatened or harmed, Hughie is frequently the target of jokes made by the Boys and other characters, with him being the butt of many of The Boys‘ humorous moments.

However, The Boys season 4 has pushed that theme to its limits, forcing Hughie to undergo even more upsetting and distressing situations at a far more frequent rate. As season 4’s crimes against Hughie mount up, it becomes necessary to step back and examine whether the story is still working as a piece of entertainment or as a dramatic narrative. At best, The Boys season 4’s treatment of Hughie is needlessly repetitive; at worst, it’s punishing to watch for even the most hardened viewer.