Did The Boys' shock value take things too far in Ep 6? Kripke's view may wreck your fave childhood superhero memories

The Boys has exceedingly relied on pushing through with visual shock value to keep bringing back more and more attention to the storyline. Somehow, some of the grossest bits of the show have often been linked to Hughie's (Jack Quaid) storyline, and Season 4 just overdid its disgust factor to the extent that it once again dropped heavy “Dirty Business” on the character, cutting off any supply of empathy for him.

The Boys Season 4 Episode 6 dropped some heavy bombshells on July 4. However, ultimately, it was Hughie's bit about going undercover as a Spider-Man adjacent supe Webweaver to the billionaire Batman counterpart of this superhero universe—Tek Knight (Derek Wilson)–that drew out a troubling scenario, once again tapping heavy-handed, triggering visuals of sexual assault, but hypocritically this time. 

Hughie was still covered knee-deep in the gut-spilling traumatic end of his father (Simon Pegg) from the previous episode. And yet, Episode 6 cursed him with the “never meet your heroes” lesson at the worst possible time, only for the murkiest consequences of unknowingly walking into Tek Knight's sex dungeon to be brushed aside by other characters as well as the show creator.

Also read | Beloved Jujutsu Kaisen ‘Sorcerer Killer’ Toji Fushiguro is based on THIS Hollywood action star

Fan reactions to The Boys Season 4 Episode 6

As netizens continued to voice their emotional breakdown over what Hughie had to face, some outrightly called out the show for walking such an insensitive walk. “Having a character get assaulted in such a ‘jokey’ manner is gross. The boys is nowhere near as progressive as it thinks it is.”

On the flip side, some fans tried to weigh the situation, claiming that it was intentionally portrayed in such a way to reflect a realistic take. “People, especially men, don't want to talk about SA and it's not unusual in this situation for someone to brush it off. It's not as though they didn't have a lot going on. Does seem like Annie genuinely should have approached the subject prior to the breakdown, but it happens,” someone else commented.

Eric Kripke calls what happened to Hughie in Episode 6 “hilarious”

Somehow, everything seemed understandable until show creator Eric Kripke opened up about what shaped Hughie's situation in this case.

Shunning the “dark” aspects of his storyline, considering how Hughie was sexually assaulted by his childhood hero just after his dad died, Kripke called the sex dungeon transaction “hilarious.”

On top of that, everything that he said next in his recent Variety interview could instantly tarnish all your heartfelt memories associated with your favourite superheroes from Marvel and DC.

Also read | The Batman spin-off series Arkham Asylum, shelved infinitely by Max: Here's why

Confirming that Tek Knight was their “version of Batman,” Kripke acknowledged that they “wanted to really play around with that trope: Batman’s fascist underpinnings as a really wealthy dude who hunts poor people, and then profits of the incarceration.”

“Tek Knight was already set up to be a freak, so we were kind of already halfway there. Then the notion came up of, he should have a Batcave — but let’s be honest, the Batcave would be a sex dungeon. Like, even the real Batcave is just this side of being a sex dungeon. It’s really dark, and there’s rubber suits everywhere. It’s not that much of a push to add a couple dildos and then a weird urinal that turns into a face mask.”

Thereafter, speaking of how a subplot in the comics already calls for Hughie to go undercover as a superhero, Kripke added that Quaid “always asked” them to do it. And somehow, in this case, too, he learnt another lesson the hard way, “always be careful what you ask the writers for.”

“Then we finally had this Webweaver character and the idea of Spider-Man going down to be kink tickled in the Batcave is just too good to pass up. I’m sorry, I just couldn’t leave that on the table,” Kripke said.

When asked if Amazon ever tried to pull the plug on any aspects of the episode for taking things “too far,” Kripke confirmed it was “all pretty much scripted.” They brought in their “poor writers' assistant” to “do a long list of real kinks.”

On the contrary, a completely different conversation about wanting “to get it right” followed when Kripke and the team had to deal with the upsetting translation of Starlight’s assault in the initial season. Hilarity was nowhere detected in the proximity, as Kripke said at the time, “I’ve never worked so hard or stressed so much about a scene in my life before or since. Because if I got that wrong, it’s not just that it would fail as a scene, it would be hurtful. And I felt that pressure and responsibility all throughout.”

Some cast members perpetuated Kripke’s hypocritical “hilarious” take on Hughie’s arc by continuing to joke about it in a behind-the-scenes conversation.