The stakes in Gen V might feel a lot lower but if there’s one thing the show can be praised for, it’s introducing us to tons of new and interesting supes (and humans). About midway through Gen V Season 1, we meet Tek Knight for the first time. He runs his own show about urban legends and unsolved mysteries and while it all seems kinda hokey at first, we quickly see that Tek Knight is a brilliant investigator in his own right.
His superpower is literally his observational skills. Like a suped up Sherlock Holmes, Tek Knight can zero in on even the slightest, out-of-place detail and probably make a very educated guess on what you’ve been up to over the past 24 hours. He’s intimidating, he wields a lot of power, and his ability to shake up even the most stoic characters in Gen V makes him genuinely frightening. Which is why his little cameo appearance in The Boys Season 4 has turned out to be such a disappointment.
Tek Knight is blessed not only with enhanced senses, but also superhuman strength. He’s able to perceive oncoming threats well ahead of time and deal with them appropriately. He’s presented as an incredibly intelligent detective when he first shows up at God U, as evidenced by his ability to break all of the students he interrogates, and even Indira Shetty, who’s supposed to be one of the most sinister figures in Gen V Season 1. It certainly helps that he’s so charming too, packed with a disarming smile that can catch his victims off-guard, only to corner them immediately after with a smart observation that might rattle them and lead to them spilling their guts.
His one flaw? Tek Knight is revealed to be suffering from a brain tumor that causes him to lean into his aggressive, hypersexual side. This is largely played off as a comedic bit in Gen V, though, when Shetty eventually manages to uncover his secret and uses it to get him out of God U. It’s very apropos for Gen V and The Boys, both shows that have leaned into this punk rock vibe and not being afraid to get a little bit crude and disgusting for a laugh.
This is a show where Homelander — the Superman equivalent of The Boys — has major mommy issues and a creepy breast milk kink. So of course someone as brilliant as Tek Knight would have an equally silly weakness like his compulsion to have sex with every single hole he sees and make hole puns whenever the opportunity arises because of his brain tumor.
The thing is, unlike with Homelander, whose mommy issues drive his entire character arc, Tek Knight’s weakness doesn’t define him. Gen V plays it off as a funny bit because that’s all it was ever supposed to be. A funny bit that comes up as a post-credits montage that you’re meant to forget about after it’s over. So when Tek Knight makes his long awaited appearance in The Boys Season 4 and that entire appearance is centered around his weird hole kink, it feels juvenile and honestly even a little insulting to his character.
In the sixth episode of The Boys Season 4, titled Dirty Business, the Boys learn that Tek Knight is hosting a party at his mansion. They have Hughie disguise himself as Webweaver to infiltrate the party, but things go awry as we learn that Webweaver’s actually Tek Knight’s kink buddy and Hughie finds himself trapped in the latter’s sex dungeon. Things get progressively weird and disturbing especially when Ashley comes into the picture, and the entire Tek Knight sequence just devolves into this slobbering mess of BDSM, scary sex toys, and a disturbing fixation on hole talk and hole-related surgeries.
My first time watching this episode, I had a few laughs at Tek Knight and Hughie’s expense, sure, but I also just dismissed it as The Boys being The Boys. After all, this is a show that saw fit to write a whole ass disclaimer for the Herogasm episode explaining just how much time and money went into creating one of the most outrageous orgy scenes we’ve ever seen on television. I dismissed Tek Knight as an unimportant side character who was just there for a few cheap laughs.
After watching Gen V, however, I totally get it now. The guy who literally threatened to shut down all of God U and destroy all our main characters in one fell swoop got reduced to nothing but a punchline for a bad kink joke? I’d be upset too. Tek Knight showed a lot of potential as an antagonist in Gen V and I personally would’ve loved to see him play a more active role, maybe even replacing Shetty as the series’ main villain. I can totally see fans loving Tek Knight and getting excited to see him take a bigger role in The Boys, only to be let down by how his character arc ultimately ended.
A superpowered Sherlock Holmes deserved a lot more than what Tek Knight got in The Boys, and it’s a shame that was the last we saw of him. Fortunately for The Boys, there are still plenty of interesting and intelligent characters to help carry the show. Still, never forget Tek Knight.
Gen V and The Boys are available for streaming on Prime Video.
