Well, The Boys just became much more interesting.
The Season 4 premiere introduced many new faces and relationships, including a new love interest for Frenchie (Tomer Capone).
The Boys and its spin-off Gen V have made great efforts to include queer characters, but like many in the universe, the characters don’t stick around.
The latest loss of a great queer character is that of Andre Anderson, who won’t be in Gen V Season 2 for unfortunate reasons.
Meet Frenchie’s New Lover, Colin Hauser
Colin’s introduction happens most casually without the flair associated with introducing queer relationships.
The show revealed that Frenchie got involved with Colin in NA, and that’s just about it.
The relationship seems emotionally and physically charged, while the casual lovers get hot and heavy several times in the three-episode premiere. Their kissing is intense and rough, which might speak to the nature of their relationship — or they’re just guys.
Who Is Colin?
Colin works at Starlight House, helping offer at-risk teens a safe space. A really great guy, basically.
When we first meet him, he explains something to Annie before Frenchie joins them. They share a knowing look, and Frenchie makes a comment that reveals that they have some history.
They seek privacy in a bathroom, where Colin romantically touches Frenchie’s hand. Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) later clocks their chemistry.
Colin is played queer actor Elliot Knight, best known for playing Sinbad in the series of the same name, Your Lucky Day, gay short film Our Place Together, and Kyle Garrick in the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare game franchise.
Frenchie and Colin Fans, Don’t Cheer Just Yet
Queer characters — and people — don’t need to explain their existence, something The Boys did beautifully. Frenchie has always been queer, even if the show never explored that side of him in detail.
There were always some suspect and not-so-suspect moments, but it was not worth thinking about a lot. Frenchie always seemed interested in people regardless of their sex. How he kissed Hughie seemed like he knew what he was doing.
Were it not that Hughie was mourning, who would have guessed what would have happened?
Given that Frenchie doesn’t discriminate between male, female, cis, or trans, he is most likely pansexual, but he might not care enough to label it.
There is some expected pushback from The Boys‘ crowd, which has not caught on yet that the show makes fun of them. Luckily, they don’t have any power bigger than complaining or googling it.
There is some history between Frenchie and Colin, but most of it is not good.
The fact that they met in NA tests their connection because what if they were two lost souls leaning on each other?
Would they have begun a relationship if they didn’t have a mutual problem? And now that they have been apart for a while, have the men and women they’ve been with served to confirm this?
The major problem is that Frenchie killed all of Colin’s family, and Colin doesn’t know. If Colin learns of it, Frenchie is screwed, and not in the good way.
Why Give Frenchie a Gay Arc?
Frenchie and Colin are one of the new arcs developed for the fourth season, and the curious cat in us questions where they are going with this.
So far, it has been a lot of hooking up and guilt on Frenchie’s part.
The story must play a big part in the season but has other implications.
This is the first central gay relationship in the series. After Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) “died,” the show has been lacking in solid queer representation, let alone gay representation.
Why now? Have the writers realized that they needed to remedy this? Is it something else?
Sometimes, writers will introduce queer characters for a specific purpose and then dump them once the arc is done. That’s how Bury Your Gays was born.
They are not interested in having multi-dimensional queer characters use them as a means to an end.
For example, if they wanted a very tragic scene, what’s better than a gay couple being gay bashed to death? Homelander (Antony Starr) would say that is appropriate because the consequences don’t matter.
Now, let anyone please try to gay-bash Frenchie. I plead with you.
So far, it seems like this new addition is a good-faith effort in representation because if we were to switch Colin with a female character, the arc would not be affected. That’s part of how you do good gay representation.
Whether it stays so remains to be seen.
But for now, let’s see what becomes of Frenchie and Colin.
Will Frenchie give him a romantic French name? Mon Cœur and Chérie are already taken.
New episodes of The Boys Season 4 every Thursday on Prime Video.