The Boys: Why Hughie had to kill his dad in season 4? Explained

The Boys season 4 had Hughie Campbell face the difficult possibility of losing his father, due to him being rendered brain-dead due to a stroke. Hughie went to great lengths to save his father, culminating in him cutting a deal with his former nemesis, A-Train, to secure a vial of Compound V.

However, in the fifth episode of The Boys season 4, titled "Beware the Jabberwock, My Son", Hughie's father did die, by his own hand no less.

Compound V proved to have disastrous effects on his father, making him a clear danger to both himself and everyone around him. He becomes a Supe who can walk through things and people but doesn't know how to control his disastrous power.

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The Boys season 4 showed the extreme lengths Hughie could go to

In The Boys season 4, Hughie's father, Hughie Sr., suffered a stroke that rendered him brain-dead. As a result, Hughie resorted to increasingly extreme lengths to save his life, culminating in his trying to use Compound V.

Hughie ended up cutting a deal with A-Train, his nemesis who'd murdered his old girlfriend, Robin, to smuggle a vial from Homelander's place. The two ended up burying the hatchet as Hughie realized that it wasn't worth it to nurse his long-standing grudge anymore.

However, even after Hughie secured the vial, Billy Butcher warned him that nothing good would come from using Compound V. He revealed that he'd dosed himself with permanent Compound V after his abuse of Temp V had rendered him terminally ill, but it didn't help matters.

While Hughie said he'd use Compound V anyway, after he returned to the hospital he decided against it and was willing to take his father off life support. However, when he briefly left the hospital room, his mother discovered the Compound V vial and used it herself.

Hughie and his mother confront his disoriented father (Image via Prime Video)

While Hughie's father seemed to make a full recovery in season 4, episode 5 of The Boys, the disastrous effects of Compound V became apparent when he started losing his memory. This led to a catastrophic incident in the hospital when a disoriented Hughie Sr. left his room and began unknowingly killing people.

It eventually became clear that Hughie's father had not recovered from the brain death of his stroke, resulting in him developing a severe memory loss problem.

Furthermore, the reason he was killing people was because Compound V gave him the ability to phase in and out of objects and other people, and he was completely incapable of controlling this power.

Hughie and his mother realize that their efforts to save his father have gone catastrophically and that he's doomed to a horrific future where he will continue to be a danger to himself and others. Hughie makes the difficult decision to kill his father by giving him a lethal injection.

Hughie's difficult decision was foreshadowed in an earlier scene of the episode when Hughie asked his father why he gave his estranged ex-wife power of attorney, instead of his own son. In response, his father said:

"You remember when Jar Jar got leukemia? Cat wouldn't eat and yet somehow still had diarrhea and you would not let me put him down, until he eventually kind of just, you know, exploded?"

He further added:

"You are still the same little kid. You hold on tight to everyone. And I love you for that, but...when it came to, uh, an advanced directive...let's just say I didn't want to end up like Jar Jar."

When Hughie decides to give his father the lethal injection, his dad agrees with him, calling back to this scene. In the end, Hughie's father would've been doomed to the same fate as Jar Jar, so Hughie had to let his father go.

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New episodes of The Boys season 4 stream every Thursday on Prime Video.