This week's episode of The Boys, "Wisdom of the Ages," saw Firecracker continue her smear campaign to turn the people against Starlight, but the jingoistic Supe pushed the former Seven member a little too far when she spilled a secret from her past to the entire world.
Spoilers follow.
On her show, "Truthbomb," Firecracker reveals that Annie and Hughie decided to have an abortion. This proves to be the final straw for Starlight, who powers-up and beats the ever loving crap out of Firecracker on live TV. Later, Annie has a conversation with Hughie about how she agonized over the decision, but ultimately felt that they weren't ready to have a child.
During an interview with EW, showrunner Eric Kripke explained that the inspiration for this particular plot point was an SNL sketch.
"The overturning of Roe v. Wade was happening in real time as we were writing, so it was definitely on everybody's mind. But another inspiration for us was Cecily Strong."
"It really moved me," Kripke recalls of watching the sketch (see below). "What I think we were really trying to get across [on The Boys] is how common it is, and yet so few women can talk about it. So we were like, 'Let's just throw it out there and deal with it.'"
"We spoke to a lot of women who had abortions, but the main thing we wanted to get across was it's not a particularly massive, overdramatic thing," he went on. "It's a thing that thousands and thousands and thousands of women go through," Kripke continues. "We just wanted to normalize it a little bit. If in a big genre show you can talk about it and not have it be the most earth-shattering, apocalyptic moment, but it's a difficult moment that a woman went through and then continued to live her life, we thought there was value in that perspective, which is a perspective that's almost never in TV or movies."
If you want a full breakdown of the episode, click here.
"The world is on the brink. Victoria Neuman is closer than ever to the Oval Office and under the muscly thumb of Homelander, who is consolidating his power," reads the official season 4 synopsis. "Butcher, with only months to live, has lost Becca’s son as well as his job as The Boys’ leader. The rest of the team are fed up with his lies. With the stakes higher than ever, they have to find a way to work together and save the world before it’s too late."
Returning cast members include Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Tomer Capone, Karen Fukuhara, Colby Minifie, Claudia Doumit, and Cameron Crovetti, along with new recruits Susan Heyward, Valorie Curry, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
The first three episodes of The Boys season 4 will be available to stream from June 13th, with new instalments dropping weekly through to the season finale on July 18.