The Boys’ most shocking death scene is the one with the least bloodshed

The young is full of death but little grief. Since season 1, Homelander has shot laser beams at passersby, punched Vought underlings in the chest, and ripped his fellow superheroes to pieces almost once per episode. The violence is so over-the-top that the loss of innocent life never really penetrates beyond “My God, someone has to stop this guy!” It’s a bit of a miracle; every week, showrunner Eric Kripke and his team of writers and directors walk the line between gleeful shock value and grotesque reality. There’s no show that has made me scream out loud more often than The young.

That’s why Season 4, Episode 5, “Beware the Jabberwock, My Son,” blew me away. The episode is full of standard Boys Absurdity, from the Marvel-at-Comic-Con parody of the V52 Expo to a standoff against Compound V-enhanced sheep. But amid the chaos, writer Judalina Neira and director Shana Stein stumble upon a grim scene: Hughie (Jack Quaid) discovers that his estranged mother has been injecting his terminally ill father, Hughie Sr. (Simon Pegg), with stolen Compound V. Hughie nearly administered the shot himself, a last-ditch effort to save his father by superhuman means, but ended up throwing the dose away, knowing all too well the long-term consequences. His mother did not—and although Hughie Sr. briefly recovers, all hell quickly breaks loose.

Pegg’s screen time is only 15 or 20 minutes of an hour-long episode, but it feels painfully long, the way it can feel to stand next to a loved one dying in their final years, months or even days. The Compound V causes Hughie Sr. to immediately lose control of his body, but instead of breaking his hip or having an accident, he teleports into the torso of a nearby patient, spraying blood and guts around the room. Hughie Sr. is constantly self-aware of his actions. When he’s on air, he’s in shock – How did he come to hold a human heart in his hands? Hughie, who has seen these horrors before, remains calm… until he realizes that he has never The The horror beforehand: His father, until then a simple but healthy man, completely collapses.

Images: Prime Video

A few weeks earlier The young When Season 4 began, my grandmother’s years-long descent into dementia and pain ended with a sudden bout of pneumonia that I can only imagine ended her suffering. The road to get there was paved with endless care from her family and friends who wanted to give her all the time she deserved, and many obstacles along the way that could have very well been the end. So I was in A Helluva Place when I turned on “Beware the Jabberwock, Son” and saw the whole saga of elder care through the mania of The young – and it felt awfully right. Nothing prepares you for the shock of someone you’ve known your whole life forgetting your name.

Pegg spent most of season four unconscious in a bed, breathing through tubes. At first I thought this was a cheeky gag for a franchise that is always ready to honor the actor. Pegg was, after all, The young Comic artist Darick Robertson was the inspiration for the original Hughie, and his role in the show was stunt casting at its finest. But having Hughie Sr. come back to life in “Beware the Jabberwock, Son” is another cruel and familiar lure – there’s no hope in these circumstances. This was Pegg’s farewell.

As the guy who constantly screams while covered in blood, Jack Quaid doesn’t get enough credit for dealing with the ethical dilemmas of The young with a lighthearted touch. Alongside Pegg, who has never been so vulnerable on screen, Quaid lovingly reframes a question his character considers throughout the season: Will Hughie take a life to solve a problem? Most episodes find Hughie considering murdering superpowered superheroes. In “Beware the Jabberwock, Son,” he is confronted with the euthanasia of his own father. Because of what he witnesses, there is no hesitation.

“If we don’t do this,” he tells his mother, “he’ll spend the rest of his life frightened and confused, or in prison, or in an institution, or killing more innocent people.”

The subplot is not Michael Haneke’s Lovebut it arrives thanks to the ethereal quality of Pegg’s performance and Quaid’s commitment to playing all sides of Hughie as Hughie. This is not an Oscar-worthy, tear-jerking moment for either actor. It’s The youngsubdued and above all a real end-of-life experience – a person fading away and his family wondering what will happen next. For Hughie, a whole Vought nightmare stands outside the hospital door; he feels it when he gives his father a lethal injection. But for a second all the chaos of The young fades away, and two men have a moment. A death with just a little sadness.