# Season Four Finale
**"Season Four Finale"** is the eighth episode and season finale of the fourth season of the Amazon Prime Video superhero satire *The Boys*, first streamed on July 18, 2024.[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26660301) The episode's title is itself a production artifact: it was originally written and announced as "Assassination Run", and was retitled after a real-world event made the original name untenable.[2](https://www.cinemablend.com/superheroes/amazon-nearly-made-eric-kripke-pull-the-boys-episode-last-season-what-happened)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Position in series | Season 4, Episode 8 of *The Boys*; the season finale[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26660301) • [3](https://www.tvmaze.com/episodes/2777914/the-boys-4x08-season-four-finale) |
| Original air date | July 18, 2024; rated TV-MA; running time 1 hour 5 minutes[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26660301) |
| Original title | "Assassination Run", changed to "Season Four Finale" at Amazon's direction[2](https://www.cinemablend.com/superheroes/amazon-nearly-made-eric-kripke-pull-the-boys-episode-last-season-what-happened) |
| Credits | Director credited as Eric Kripke; writers Jessica Chou, David Reed, and Garth Ennis; stars Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, and Antony Starr[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26660301) |
| Audience rating | 9.0/10 on IMDb from about 43,000 user ratings[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26660301) |
| Series function | Sets up the show's fifth and final season[2](https://www.cinemablend.com/superheroes/amazon-nearly-made-eric-kripke-pull-the-boys-episode-last-season-what-happened) |
## The title change
The episode was scripted under the title "Assassination Run", and its story dealt with a presidential assassination plot. Because *The Boys* was heading into its fifth and final season, the episode was key to setting up the last chapter of the series, and showrunner [Eric Kripke](https://www.edgepedia.org/eric-kripke) did not want it scrapped or delayed.[2](https://www.cinemablend.com/superheroes/amazon-nearly-made-eric-kripke-pull-the-boys-episode-last-season-what-happened)
The problem was timing. News broke of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump shortly before the episode was due to stream, and a title referencing an assassination became, in Amazon's judgment, tasteless in that context. Rather than pulling or postponing the finale, the streamer ordered a rename. Kripke described the exchange: "All that came back was, 'Just change the title. It's a tasteless title considering, but it's different enough, and we will back it.' Thank God that they did. I had a really stressful 24 hours, but it all pales in comparison to the madness in the real world."[2](https://www.cinemablend.com/superheroes/amazon-nearly-made-eric-kripke-pull-the-boys-episode-last-season-what-happened) The replacement title, "Season Four Finale", is deliberately generic, and it is the name under which the episode is now indexed on IMDb and TVmaze.[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26660301) • [3](https://www.tvmaze.com/episodes/2777914/the-boys-4x08-season-four-finale)
## Production
A copy of the shooting script circulated under the original title, "THE BOYS #408 'Season Four Finale'", as a full goldenrod draft dated March 6, 2023, showing that the episode number and the replacement title were already paired in production paperwork well before broadcast.[4](https://tvwriting.co.uk/tv_scripts/Collections/Drama/The_Boys/The_Boys_4x08_-_Season_Four_Finale.pdf) The episode carries a TV-MA rating and runs 1 hour 5 minutes.[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26660301)
## Story elements
The finale closes out a season of escalating tension and leaves the audience with a set of cliffhangers that the fifth season resolves.[2](https://www.cinemablend.com/superheroes/amazon-nearly-made-eric-kripke-pull-the-boys-episode-last-season-what-happened) One widely discussed beat comes after the main story: a mid-credits scene in which a character takes [Homelander](https://www.edgepedia.org/homelander), played by [Antony Starr](https://www.edgepedia.org/antony-starr), to a room where he discovers that [Soldier Boy](https://www.edgepedia.org/soldier-boy) is still alive inside a pod.[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26660301)
## Reception
On IMDb the episode holds a 9.0/10 rating from roughly 43,000 users, placing it among the better-received entries of the series by that measure.[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26660301) Coverage of the title controversy drew attention to how closely the show's satirical content had converged with real-world politics; the rename was reported as a rare case of a streamer intervening over a title rather than the content of an episode.[2](https://www.cinemablend.com/superheroes/amazon-nearly-made-eric-kripke-pull-the-boys-episode-last-season-what-happened)
## Place in the series
*The Boys* was confirmed to be ending with its fifth season, which makes the fourth-season finale the last regular-season closer before the series' endgame. The cliffhangers it left, including the Soldier Boy reveal, were positioned as the setup for that final run of episodes.[2](https://www.cinemablend.com/superheroes/amazon-nearly-made-eric-kripke-pull-the-boys-episode-last-season-what-happened)
## References
1. ["The Boys" Season Four Finale (TV Episode 2024), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26660301)
2. [Amazon Nearly Made Eric Kripke Pull An Episode Of The Boys Last Season. So, What Happened?, CinemaBlend](https://www.cinemablend.com/superheroes/amazon-nearly-made-eric-kripke-pull-the-boys-episode-last-season-what-happened)
3. [Season Four Finale - The Boys 4x08, TVmaze](https://www.tvmaze.com/episodes/2777914/the-boys-4x08-season-four-finale)
4. [The Boys 4x08 "Season Four Finale" shooting script, TV Writing](https://tvwriting.co.uk/tv_scripts/Collections/Drama/The_Boys/The_Boys_4x08_-_Season_Four_Finale.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Seasons, episodes, and installments › Episodes and serial chapters › Individual episode articles › Season and series finales › Science-fiction and fantasy franchise finales*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license