The world of The Boys and Gen V never fails to leave us with questions that need answers. Until recently, one of the biggest mysteries leading into The Boys season four was about Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s mysterious new character. A lot of fans, myself included, assumed that Morgan would portray Tek Knight, a character from The Boys comics. We discovered that wasn’t the case when Gen V actually introduced Tek Knight, played by Derek Wilson, in its fourth episode. But who is Tek Knight and what role does he play in The Boys’ universe? Let’s get into his history, powers, and much more.
The History of Tek Knight in The Boys Comics and TV Show, Explained
As we all know, The Boys characters are (mostly) evil parodies of Marvel and DC Comics icons. Tek Knight a.k.a. Robert Vernon is no different as a mashup of Iron Man and Batman. In the comics, he is a founding member of the Payback collective despite having no clear superpowers. Instead, technology and intelligence are his powers; however, he uses them for nefarious reasons. Tek Knight is rather homophobic and engages in bizarre sexual behaviors, some in reality and others during moments of imagined psychosis. But compared to other villains he was mostly harmless, at least in the eyes of The Boys. Tek Knight’s behavior is explained due to a tumor in his brain. Eventually, a psychotic episode leads to his death. He thinks he’s saved Earth by having sex with a meteor but a falling wheelbarrow actually hits and kills him. [Editor’s note: A whole lot to unpack there.]
The Boys TV show mentioned Tek Knight a few times throughout its first three seasons. There’s a movie called Tek Knight Lives and that he’s made some tech in the universe. And Tek Knight was apparently a part of a hostage situation that left a woman paralyzed, as evidenced by a newspaper clipping in MM’s closet. So he’s certainly been in the ether for a while before his Gen V appearance (more on that below).
Following Gen V, Tek Knight made a brief appearance in The Boys season four’s fifth episode during a Vought event where he revealed his new movie, hilariously titled The Tek Knight. He had a much larger role in following episode, which took poor Hughie to the Tek Cave. A lot of strange sex things went down but, more importantly, the crew discovered that Tek Knight was working with Homelander and Sister Sage to use his prisons as internment camps for non-supes. In the end, Tek Knight’s butler Elijah kills him after discovering the truth, allowing Hughie, Annie, and Kimiko to escape his lair.
Tek Knight’s Motivations, Powers, and Place in the Gen V Spinoff
Gen V’s fourth episode is very, very Tek Knight heavy. We meet him through a Vought+ commercial for his crime investigation series The Whole Truth. Tek Knight is a famous Godolkin University alumni who is back on campus to dig into Golden Boy’s death. His presence is unsettling for many, especially Dean Shetty. She’s very busy trying to keep the truth about the woods, Golden Boy, and Sam’s escape under wraps. Dean Shetty reveals that many of Tek Knight’s interview subjects end up dead or badly beaten after crossing his path.
Unlike the comics, Tek Knight does have some level of special powers. He’s able to sense that Dean Shetty has adrenaline coming from her pores and is apparently ovulating. Tek Knight later uses his powers to break down Andre after smelling Maddie’s, erm, hole on his breath. He later agitates Marie, calling her a liar when her pupils dilate during an impromptu class interrogation. Thankfully, Andre calls him out for being a hack and a “small man playing f**king hero” because he’s never been one. Still, Tek Knight is so unnerving that Marie ends up admitting the truth. She tells the room about what happened with Golden Boy, finally giving Jordan their due credit.
Tek Knight is willing to do anything to continue to increase his celebrity and popularity, including fabricating wild lies as the truth. He tells Dean Shetty that knows the complete truth and tries to blackmail her into taking the fall for Golden Boy’s death. Mr. Knight says he will go to Vought about Sam’s escape but he underestimates the power of a human dean with a lot to lose.
Dean Shetty gets the last laugh with some dirt on Tek Knight. Like the comics, Tek Knight has a fatal brain tumor that causes him to do sexual things with pretty much any object that has a hole. She shows him video evidence of his odd trysts and threatens to leak them online if he doesn’t get out of God U’s business. Tek Knight flips his story, saying Golden Boy’s death is nothing more than an unfortunate tragedy. He goes about his business but not without having a couple intimate moments with a tree and a bathroom hand dryer. Thank you, sir, for your contributions to our post about Gen V‘s gross and shocking moments.
Unless there is a flashback, we will not see Tek Knight anymore. And we are kind of okay with that.
Originally published October 6, 2023.
