Warning: This contains spoilers for The Boys season 4 and it’s also kinda graphic so read at your own discretion. It’s known for its shocking, comical levels of violence and body horror, but The Boys’ sauna scene will go down in history as one of its most NSFW yet. The hit Prime Video series is back for its fourth (and penultimate) season, delivering some truly memorable, R-rated moments.
Based on the comic book series, The Boys by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, the show is set in a world where superheroes, or “supes,” are made, not born, and work for a powerful corporation called Vought International. While these superheroes are marketed as heroic and benevolent, many of them are corrupt, vain, and dangerous, *cough* Homelander.
While graphic comic books are one thing, to see horrific depravity play out in front of your eyes in a TV show is another thing entirely, and it’s become somewhat of a signature for this brilliant satirical take on American pop culture. The Boys sauna scene is just the latest in a series of moments that have left our mouths agape (questioning our use of that phrase and you’ll see why in a second).
The Boys sauna scene, explained
The Boys sauna scene occurs in season four, episode two titled “Life Among the Septics.” The Boys infiltrate an alt-right conspiracy theories convention to get dirt on Firecracker, a former pageant gal turned Q-Anon, extremist supe personality leading a talk on “Starlight and the Hollywood Pedophile Cabal.”
Rob Benedict, of Supernatural fame, plays her assistant Splinter, a supe with the ability to clone himself in a particularly graphic fashion. He’s also sliiiiightly obsessed with Firecracker, which fully becomes apparent when Frenchie and Kimiko walk in on him and his five, fully naked clones in a human centipede, ass-to-mouth scenario while the one at the front, Prime, jerks it to a photo of Firecracker. I told you it was graphic. The fact that this guy played God in Supernatural only adds to the depravity of it all.
“I was very, very open and honest with Rob,” showrunner Eric Kripke told Entertainment Weekly. “I think we heard from his reps that he was interested in the part. The minute I heard, I said, ‘Hold on! Let me reach out to him personally.’ He’s a friend, so I emailed with him. I’m like, ‘Yo! Here is exactly what this character is going to have do and the insane amount of nudity and everything else. Before you even audition, I just want you to know what you’re getting yourself into.’”
The Shakespearean-trained actor was into it. “For the record, it’s not totally full frontal,” Kripke clarified. “That is a prosthetic penis that he’s wearing. So it’s kind of like wearing a Speedo, just with a rubber penis attached. Maybe that makes it better or worse. I don’t know.”
With regards to the, ahem, mechanics of it all, Kripke explained, “It involves having a completely lifelike prosthetic of Rob’s butt made so that Rob can be enjoying his own butt… and then you move the butt down a little and then he enjoys his own butt again… and then you move the butt down a little and he enjoys his own butt again. Then you just pop it all together with the magic of visual effects.”
In the following fight scene, Splinter’s clones falter because they’re all suffering from pink eye—an infection caused by coming into contact with bacteria. Lol but also gross.
The Boys season four is available to stream on Prime Video, with new episodes dropping each Thursday.
