‘The Boys’ Fans Are Begging for This Awful Hughie Subplot To Stop Already
Hughie Campbell’s (Jack Quaid) story arc in The Boys season 4 somehow keeps getting worse and worse, and fans are completely over it.
The Boys season 4 immediately started a tragic storyline for Hughie as his father, Hugh Campbell, Sr. (Simon Pegg), suffers a stroke that leaves him brain-dead. Instead of just letting Hugh die peacefully, he is injected with Compound V. Obviously, giving superpowers to an unconscious man is a recipe for disaster, considering the horrific and tragic ways most supes’ powers manifest. As expected, Hughie’s father ends up in a state of extreme confusion while exhibiting super strength and causing innocent lives to be lost.
As soon as this storyline closes, Hughie is sexually assaulted by Tek Knight (Derek Wilson) and Ashley Barrett (Colby Minifie) during a mission. The worst part of the Tek incident is that The Boys bizarrely decided to frame it as a largely humorous scene, with showrunner Eric Kripke even claiming he found the assault “hilarious.” It was a horribly insensitive handling of such a serious topic that drew much criticism from viewers. Then, The Boys immediately followed up with another deeply uncomfortable and mishandled sexual assault.
Hughie’s mishandled story arc is destroying The Boys
The Boys has always been graphic and is known for utilizing the shock factor. However, its brutality is rarely offensive as it’s often necessary to make viewers uncomfortable and to get across the show’s important concepts and political parallels. Recently, though, the show has crossed a line it shouldn’t with Hughie’s multiple sexual assaults. In the latest episode, Hughie experiences another horrific violation when a shapeshifter posing as Starlight (Erin Moriarty) initiates sex with him. He has no idea that the woman is not Starlight, meaning he could not consent to the act.
There’s a strong possibility that this assault will be mishandled, too. After all, there is only one episode left of season 4. With countless pressing storylines in need of a conclusion, it’s almost guaranteed that the trauma of this incident is going to be completely brushed to the side, raising the question (again) of why? The only reason a TV show or film should ever depict assault or abuse is if they’re trying to raise awareness or to make survivors feel seen. While The Boys did try to do this when handling Starlight’s assault in season 1, it has failed to do the same with either of Hughie’s assaults. They are both mishandled, insensitive to survivors, and wholly unnecessary to the plot.
All The Boys is doing is making viewers deeply uncomfortable and disturbed. Many have taken to social media to ask for this arc to stop already. Things already went far enough with Hughie’s father’s death, and there was no need to introduce even more significant trauma that the show won’t have time to adequately explore. Hughie’s plotline is essentially ruining everything the show is known for. The Boys gained attention because of its poignant exploration of many forms of trauma and its ability to make viewers uncomfortable for a reason. However, it’s so desperate for that attention that it has become insincere and is now just recklessly throwing around trauma and creating needless discomfort because that’s just what it does now.
Since season 4, episode 6, fans of The Boys have gotten Hughie trending on X multiple times, with the vast majority of posts expressing their discomfort and dissatisfaction with the character’s story arc. Their posts highlight how unnecessary and nonsensical the show’s choice for Hughie is.
With another season of The Boys confirmed, the showrunner and writers would do well to consider fan feedback. As it stands, when it comes to the topic of sexual assault, they are becoming almost as insensitive as some of the awful characters they poke fun at all the time.
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