Hughie's mother can explain a giant V24 mystery in Boys season 4

Hughie's V24 status remains a mystery ahead of The Boys season 4, but the impending arrival of his absent mother may explain everything.

Hughie Campbell's mother appeared in The Boys Season 4 and could explain one of V24's great mysteries. The arrival of the miraculous superpower drug V24 creates a darker edge for The Boys season 3, and while such shady behavior comes naturally to mobster Billy Butcher, the world expected better from Hugh Campbell . Due to their shared hatred of Homelander, Butcher and Hughie dose themselves with the highly experimental V24 in order to compete head-to-head with the real Superman. Unsurprisingly, Butcher paid for his stupidity, as The Boys season 3 ended with Karl Urban's character receiving a terminal diagnosis. Oddly enough, Jack Quaid's Huey has a very different fate.

While Hughie endured minor side effects of V24 powers - vomiting and mysterious ear leaks - Billy Joel's bloodiest fan seems to have escaped permanent damage. According to Vought's notes, the lethal range was between 3 and 5 doses, and Hughie took a total of 4 hits throughout season 3, putting him in the danger zone, while Butcher opted for as many as 6 vials. Hughie's two fewer doses of V24 could explain why he escaped serious injury while Butcher didn't, but the Boys season 4 casting hints at Even more shocking explanations.

Hughie's Mother Is (Probably) A Supe In The Boys

The place of Hughie's mother in the boys' timeline is itself a mystery. Originally, The Boys season 1 hinted that the mysterious Mrs. Campbell died years ago, leaving her place vacant on the couch, as Huey mentioned, in homage to the shrine. However, in The Boys Season 2, Hughie confirmed that his mom actually disappeared when he was only 6 years old. Hughie remembers a caring woman who made her son a Halloween costume and danced with him to Billy Joel's ball, but then absconded without a trace, leaving the young man with deep-seated abandonment issues.

The boys put a huge question mark over the whereabouts of Huey's mother, not only portraying her as the perfect parent who would disappear completely one day, but also purposely backtracking on the original statement in season one that Huey's mother had died. Wherever there is mystery in the world of superhero-driven boys, Walter and Compound-V follow, and if Hughie's mother confused him without explanation more than 20 years ago, then almost To be sure, Superman is the culprit. It's possible that Hughie's mother would run afoul of the Vought heroes and be killed or kidnapped, but such a backstory would be lost So close to Butcher and M.M.'s origins.

It is more likely that Hughie's mother was Superman herself. Perhaps marrying Simon Pegg and having Wee Hughie was a sincere attempt by Mrs. Campbell to find a normal family life away from Vought, but she was ultimately forced to leave in order to protect her beloved son. Or, maybe Hughie's mother is a shadowy figure in Vought's background, flying under the radar like Stormfront before her promotion to the Seven. Whatever the truth, the chances of Hughie's mother having superpowers are stronger than the stench of lactose on Homelander's breath.

Hughie's Mother Being A Supe Can Explain His V24 Resistance

The concept of super offspring is murky territory among boys, and even Vought has yet to fully grasp the science behind it. Typically, those filled with Compound-V fail to produce super children, while the likes of Translucent and Mesmer produce normal children. However, there are rare exceptions. Homelander's biological son, Ryan Butcher, proved that bosses can indeed pass power on to their offspring. Hughie doesn't show obvious biological signs of Vought's influence, so fits the former camp, but inheriting super bloodlines from his mother may make Wee Hughie Campbell more resistant How effective the V24 is compared to an average guy like Billy Butcher.

The boys didn't say what would happen if someone who already had super DNA took V24, but looking at A-Train's addiction to Compound-V, the drug might amplify whatever power was already there. Hughie Campbell's apparent resilience to V24's negative aftereffects can be explained by his mother being Superhuman. Before injecting the stuff, Hughie's Compound-V connection remained inert — like Translucent's son Maverick — but the maternal super DNA could at least prevent Hughie from suffering the same tragic end as Billy Butcher did after taking Temp V.

Hughie's Teleportation Power Could Be A Clue To His Mother's Disappearance

In the case of Ryan Butcher - mostly due to lack of replacements - children who inherit powers from a super parent get the same set of abilities. Young Lane can fly, shoot eye lasers, use super strength, and do everything his evil father can, only in a cuter way. Accepting the idea that Hughie's mother is a superpower and taking V24 to awaken the latent Compound-V already flowing in her son's veins, the aforementioned precedent set by Ryan and Homelander suggests that Mrs. Campbell's superpower is teleportation - A more powerful version of the trick Hughie used throughout The Boys Season 3.

Hughie's mother appears and disappears effortlessly and at will, which helps explain her impressive continued performance as the boys' undisputed champion of hide-and-seek. In order for Superman to disappear for over 20 years, away from her son, the public eye, and possibly Vought's surveillance, they needed a power that would make them disappear in an instant, and Hughie's teleportation provided just that. In theory, Hughie's mother could have sneaked into her child's bedroom at night, checked that her son was well, and disappeared without him knowing there was a visitor.

The Boys Season 4 Promises A Huge Story With Hughie's Mother

The Boy Season 4 Promises Answers. Rosemarie DeWitt has been cast as Hughie's mother, and while flashbacks should have been expected, hiring DeWitt shows that the AWOL character will also be present in the boys' modern lives appears in . So whatever prompted Hughie's mom to flee inevitably came to light. Hughie will confront his traumatic past and tackle his biggest childhood demons. As one of the biggest storylines of The Boys Season 4, the explanation behind Hughie's mother's disappearance is sure to be a game-changer for the Boys' narrative, and nothing is more game-changing than Hughie Realizing that Starlight isn't the first Supergirl he's danced with Billy Joel.

The Boys season 3 has dropped a potential super tease before Hughie's mother returns. Before touching a drop of V24, Hughie struggled to open a jar in his apartment, shyly leaning on Starlight for credit. When Hughie later returned from his first V24 injection in Russia, he had no trouble opening the jar long after the 24-hour limit had passed.

While this small feat of strength may have been nothing more than a confidence boost from Huey's first taste of superpowers, opening the jar may also indicate that he possessed the inborn Compound-V gene, which V24 brought to the surface . As mentioned earlier, natural superkids are an anomaly among boys, but perhaps the chemical spark of V24 can somehow activate any legacy powers one has acquired from one's parents. In fact, Hughie's discovery in season 4 that he can still jump bare-bottomed from room to room without the aid of artificial enhancements may have provided the spark for his reunion with his mother.