The case for rewatching The Boys before season 4

polygon.com:

This week, the The Boysfinally returns after a college-bound hiatus for another season of violent satire. You remember what happened, right?

Polygon has seen the upcoming season of The Boys — look forward to lots more on that in the coming weeks — and in studying up to remember where things left off, a funny thing happened. We were kind of pumped at the idea of rewatching The Boys. For all of its ridiculous juvenilia, the series remains a surprisingly thoughtful dramedy, with breakneck pacing that actually rewards a rewatch. And with only a handful of eight-episode seasons, a rewatch seems extremely achievable.

But maybe you only have time for the new stuff, or just want a guided meditation on the things you should know. That’s what this piece here for. Think of this as a quick, spoiler-free syllabus on what to refresh yourself on, because with a show as propulsive as The Boys,it can be easy to miss the finer details in the constant rain of gore and other fluids.

Three seasons and a couple spinoffs across five years is a lot of ground to cover, even with streaming’s abbreviated episode counts. Even if you’ve got a solid-enough grasp on The Boys’ major narrative arcs, the show has reached a comfortable place where it’s built out its world enough that it can lean on its own history and remix it in interesting ways. Granted, the most important thing on The Boys will always be what’s happening this very moment, so you won’t be lost at sea without brushing up. It’s just cool to see how far we’ve come.

Without spoiling anything, there’s a bit of a mystery hiding behind the suped-up collegiate drama of Gen V. What’s at the bottom of it ends up being pretty vital to what The Boys season 4 gets into, so if you’ve been looking for an excuse to finally dive in, now’s your chance. Again, you won’t be lost if you skip it — we just think the show is really fun, and you’ll feel a little more informed if you’ve seen it.

The most important thing: There was a conspiracy at Godolkin