This story contains spoilers for The Boys.
From comics to the small screen, The Boys franchise has always tortured Hughie Campbell. The story is known for its sadism (and nihilism, and misanthropy), so constantly putting the softest member of the team through the ringer isn’t surprising. The problem is that it also isn’t interesting. Not anymore, at least. Constantly beating the shit out of the most obvious target starts off sad, and maybe even occasionally funny in the beginning! But the perpetual torment of Jack Quaid’s Hughie is, at this point, more lazy than it is engaging.
Season 4’s fifth episode, “Beware the Jabberwock, My Son” features Hughie and his mother Daphne (Rosemarie DeWitt) taking care of Hugh (Simon Pegg) after giving him Compound V in a last-ditch effort to save his life after his stroke earlier in the season. The drug does successfully stop the father from starving to death after having his feeding tube removed, but his brain was dead for too long. Hugh wakes up confused, and can only remember Daphne and Hughie in certain moments. This would be emotionally devastating on its own, but it would at least be navigable if the resuscitation is where the V stopped impacting Hugh. It seems that wasn’t enough, though.
Hugh’s power set includes super strength, and the ability to seemingly blip from place to place, including in and through people. A panicked, frightened, and sometimes angry Hugh tries to cling to reality while his devastated family watches on. The sweet and ostensibly kind man stands in pools of blood before Hughie is eventually forced to put him out of his misery and kill him. And I would like to gently ask “What the f*%$, The Boys writers?”
Hughie is most certainly not The Boys’ only punching bag — everyone in this series goes through hell. And there is at least vague narrative intent here as Hugh and Butcher’s ailments will result in Hughie having to grapple with the potential loss of two father figures. But that vague narrative mirror isn’t clever enough to give the continued treatment of Hughie the oomph that it needs to still be anything other than cheap at this point.
One-upmanship has been a theme from season to season. How can we make it more shocking? How can we make the deaths go harder? How can we gross the audience out this time? And, by and large, that’s worked. The kills getting killy-er and the shocking getting shocky-er is at least fun and sometimes even silly. Who doesn’t love debating their favorite kill or WTF moment on The Boys? It’s fun dancing on or across those lines. But with Hughie, it feels like “Beware the Jabberwock, My Son” pole-vaulted over that line and is waiting for applause. And it just ain’t that clever.
Let’s be clear here: sadness is an incredible storytelling tool, but it’s gotta be earned. Not in the “this character is an asshole so I want to see bad things happen to them” kind of way, but in a “this is going to rip viewers’ hearts out, and that is narratively important to the overall goal of our story.” Eric Kripke-led shows often excel at this, but the limited story justification of Hugh Campbell’s death is not enough to justify the cruelty Hughie is forced to endure here. It’s just another version of “How can we torture Hughie this season?” and it is lazy and dull. Two crimes that are especially noteworthy in a season that doesn’t have enough episodes or time to tackle all of the themes it’s trying to cram into its arc.
I don’t expect things to get easier for Hughie — most of us know what Butcher does to him in the comics — but I hope whatever tragedy befalls The Boys’ lovable softboy next is at least interesting rather than cruel for the sake of it.
Amelia is the entertainment Streaming Editor here at IGN. She’s also a film and television critic who spends too much time talking about dinosaurs, superheroes, and folk horror. You can usually find her with her dog, Rogers. There may be cheeseburgers involved. Follow her across social @ThatWitchMia
