This post contains spoilers for “The Boys” season 4 finale.
Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) has been a wild card since her introduction in “The Boys.” Revealed to be a head-popping Supe with immense durability, Neuman emerged as a complex character with complicated allegiances that kept shifting with the show’s progress. Although Neuman was forced to work closely with an overbearing Homelander (Antony Starr), who outed her as a Supe on live television at the end of the latest season, her genuine, almost-familial bond with Hughie (Jack Quaid) posed an intriguing possibility for her as an ally to the titular Boys. However, the show’s Season 4 finale robbed us of this what-if scenario when an enraged Butcher (Karl Urban) unceremoniously snapped her in half and put an abrupt end to her wonderful, promising arc.
Neuman’s morality had never been as spineless as that of most Vought superheroes, as most of her decisions were fueled by the urge to protect her daughter Zoe (Olivia Morandin), whom she had to inject with Compound V after Homelander threatened to kill her. Even her betrayal of ex-Vought CEO Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) was tinged with regrets — invested with a sense of regret for what could have been — while her bond with Hughie oscillated between begrudging truce and restrained hostility. However, when backed against the wall, Neuman reached out to Hughie to make amends and keep Zoe safe, the accumulating guilt of signing off on Homelander’s violent and bigoted plan for a Supes-first America weighing heavy on her shoulders.
Doumit recently spoke to Variety about her feelings about Neuman’s shocking death, which, although sudden and violent, was a “great” one nonetheless, which is an honor that most deaths in the show are not afforded.
A shocking character send-off in The Boys
Doumit stated that filming her character’s gruesome death scene “just felt like another day at work,” calling it a “beautiful, bittersweet moment” that evokes mixed feelings:
“It was really shocking, but it was also really beautiful, and so well done. And most of all, it was a great death — that’s an honor in and of itself. I’m really happy to get a fun, twisted death, which is just such a great rite of passage for characters on this show. So I was really happy about it, which sounds like such an insane thing to say about being split in half.
I don’t know if I was in denial or hadn’t processed it yet, but it just felt like another day at work. I’m not new to being drenched in fake blood, or pretending that there’s some gruesome thing happening in front of me on the show. The only difference that day was that it was my fake blood and the gruesome thing happened to me.”
As Doumit said, Neuman was rarely at the receiving end of such horror, as the anxiety of her head-popping abilities added an edge to every scene she was in, introducing chaos when she did make people’s heads pop without warning. Her death creates a vacuum within the show, as it not only spells tragedy for Zoe, who ends up at Red River (a fate Neuman desperately wanted her daughter to avoid), but also puts an end to a reunion with Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair), the only other blood bender in “The Boys” universe. Neuman and Marie previously shared an emotional moment in “Gen V,” and this heart-to-heart validated Marie’s complicated feelings about her powers and gave her the necessary push to save the day, albeit with terrible repercussions.
Victoria Neuman wasn’t solely motivated by power
The ability to wield superpowers in a Vought-helmed world comes with a hunger to be perceived and adored by the masses, and in some cases, to be feared. Even someone as twisted as Homelander craves public validation for his skewed morality, while others like Firecracker (Valorie Curry) actively leverage extremist attitudes to nudge the masses toward problematic narratives. Neuman’s position as Vice President-elect points to her need to assert control, with most of her dealings occurring behind the scenes, but her primary objective was to keep Zoe safe and prevent her from following the same path she herself took. Doumit echoes this sentiment in the Variety interview:
“It is truly, deeply such a heartbreaking moment, because all Victoria wants for her daughter is for her to have a life that was nothing like hers growing up. And Zoe, ultimately, ends up in the same place as her mother. It’s really tragic that she’s got these powers that were loosed upon her, she doesn’t have a parent, and she’s most likely going to end up in Red River, the same place her mom was in. It’s a really tragic, full circle ending to that story.”
While the path ahead for Season 5 of “The Boys” is unclear at the moment, Doumit wishes the best for Zoe, hoping for an intervention from Stan Edgar, who loves Zoe like a granddaughter despite everything that happened. Moreover, the fact that Neuman’s conviction to back up Homelander had wavered once Hughie confronted her paints the picture of a figure who wanted to do the right thing, but was robbed of the opportunity before being allowed to progress in that direction.
Victoria Neuman’s presence will be dearly missed, no matter how “The Boys” chooses to end its violent, unpredictable final chapter.
