The Boys S4, EP6 Review, Recap & Thoughts.!
The Boys as we know, is in its worst phase right now due to a combination of mediocre writing and lackluster character developments at some occasions. While the previous episode paved way for chances of getting back to its golden phase, this episode badly ruined those chances to the state of wondering whether this is it. The sixth episode of season 4 the show titled ‘Dirty Business’ is deemed by many as the worst episode in the history of The Boys’ run and none of them can be blamed as the chances for anyone to put their own hand on their face after watching the episode, is pretty high. First of all, we would like to apologize for raising any interest in the show using some of our analysis and theories as some of them turned out to be pointless and improbable. However, some of them are still on the run and the chances for them to turn out right, is still up there.
The sixth episode of season 4 of The Boys begins with Firecracker announcing to the public about taking over the host’s position as Cameron Coleman is in ‘sabbatical’. Joe Kessler and William aka Billy Butcher next to Sameer, Victoria Neuman’s boyfriend and Zoe’s father, and tormenting him over his missing leg. Hughie while still struggling over the death of his father, is looking towards life with optimism with his mother aside. Marvin aka Mother’s Milk along with the Boys (excluding Billy) contemplates a new plan with the help of A-Train. Frenchie is absent in this episode as he previously surrendered in front of the police and confessed the past deeds he conducted under the orders of Russian Mob Boss Nina. Colin Hauser is neither mentioned nor appears here as he broke all the ties with Frenchie after learning about the latter’s involvement with his parent’s murder. Kimiko tries her best to speak to him but he is hesitant. She tries her best with the prison guard lady (interestingly enough, they are both Asians with Kimiko being Japanese while the other being a Chinese descendent).
The main plot this time is about The Boys secretly trying to enter the party hosted by Tek Knight, a supe who is the parody of famous characters Batman, Daredevil and Iron Man, and extract information(we advise you to watch Gen V, to get more idea about this character).
In fact, in The Boys universe, Tek Knight is the ‘Sherlock Holmes’ among all the Supes. Tek is a billionaire like both Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark, who even hosts a true crime series called ‘The Whole Truth’. Hughie tries to enter his mansion by assuming the identity of Webweaver (an obvious parody of the Spiderman) and enters the mansion. As Hughie is not at all used to assuming someone’s identity, he obviously has his own fair share of trembling and freezing. But nevertheless, he still passes through the situation up until he meets Tek. Tek takes Hughie to his secret compartment named Tek Cave and brings him in front of Elija, Tek’s butler, who raised him since he became orphaned at a younger age. This whole plot point is a dig at Batan’s mythos as both Tek Cave and Elijah are in fact parodies of the iconic Batcave and Alfred, the famous butler of the Wayne family. There are some visible mockeries against the mythos as while Batcave is a mysterious and haunting large space under the ground with enhanced technology encompassed within, the Tek Cave is a highly disorganized dungeon which mostly resembles a place where lab experiments are conducted. The father-son relationship between Bruce Wayne and Alfred is turned into something problematic as Tek Knight is shown lashing his anger at Elijah with the latter forced to clean up the ‘dirty’ mess of the former. Apropos of all of that, Tek’s sidekick Laddio(an obvious jibe at Robin) is shown in a compromising situation inside the cave. Ashley Barrett is shown entering the mansion despite facing Sister Sage’s disapproval since Ashley has a great connection with Tek. Both Ashley and Tek Knight are revealed to be lovers with interest in extreme taboo practices like sadomasochism and coprophilia. Ashley’s wild side was initially shown in her relationship with Cameron. We could call this whole segment as the wildest Ashley has ever shown in the show. While Hughie in the disguise of Webweaver, entered the cave with the pretext of joining hands with Tek as his new sidekick (a reference to the relationship between Spiderman and Iron Man), he is compromised and is forced by both Tek and Ashley to engage in a gruesome practice for their own pleasure. Tek being the detective at first instance itself deduced that it wasn’t the original Webweaver who has appeared in front of him, but nevertheless went on to display his cruel side. While Ashley is asked to move out for the purpose of prepping for conducting another ‘taboo’ act, Tek after unmasking Hughie tries to make use of his for displaying his sadistic sexual side.
Before Tek conducts something creepy on Hughie, Annie, Kimiko and Mother’s Milk barge in and stop Tek. Even though initially he was adamant at revealing his plans, The Boys along with the help of Laddio, who finally unchained himself, blackmails Tek into submission by transferring some of his money to charity organization (again, another obvious jibe at Bruce Wayne as Bruce is someone who constantly tries his best for the betterment of the society). After revealing the plans between him and Sister Sage, Elijah in his final straw kills Tek along with the help of Laddio. He promises the team that they’ll cover the whole incident as suicide. Sister Sage was planning on taking command in front of the audience at the manor about her plans at stopping Robert Singer, for Victoria Neuman’s Presidential campaign. However, none except Sage and Tek are aware of the plans. Sister Sage after seeing Mother’s Milk trying to barge in at the cave, tries to distract the latter by tormenting over his relationship with his daughter, gets shot in her head. While she being a Supe, survived the gunshot would, Sage lost her memory to the point of behaving entirely out of character.
Victoria Neuman takes charge as Homelander stands helpless without Sage’s help. Her speech for taking down Singer wins everyone’s hearts while it disturbs Homelander, who usually likes to take command, To be noted, this speech also does throw some mockery at Donald Trump. As you can see, the theory about Neuman’s Presidency is still on. A-Train after initial hesitance, saves Mother’s Milk by admitting him at the hospital. A-Train finally earns a genuine support for his actions when a kid after seeing his heroic attempts, smile back at him. Marvin on the other side is informed that he suffered a panic attack (after shooting Sage) and is advised to retire from doing whatever he does. This kind of brings him in parallel with Billy, who is also pondered with the same question on some levels. Hughie after going through all this, finally breaks down in front of Annie January aka formerly Starfire. Annie tries her best to comfort Hughie, whose traumatic experience at the dungeons coupled with his father’s apparent death, brings him into a pathetic situation. This is one interesting arc to see how it goes. Black Noir II out of dissatisfaction finally unmasks himself (an act considered deeply unethical for Black Noirs) in front of The Deep, expressing his lack of interest in teaming with The Seven, citing the amount of violence. The Deep in his most anarchist mode, explains about his view about violence and why he likes it. Black Noir II isn’t actually feeling pleasant by hearing it. Homelander is still disturbed by Victoria stealing his thunder at the mansion. After learning after Tek’s death from Firecracker, he deduces that the rat within Vought wasn’t Cameron Coleman as he initially thought.
Firecracker by trying to prove her allegiance to Homelander, breastfeeds him like Madelyn Stillwell did in the past. His earning for motherly love is exploited once again. Both Billy and Joe give Sameer a meagre deadline of 1 week for concocting the virus to put an end to the evil Supes. However, Sameer begs them for at least some months period for making it. Billy in the end puts an ultimatum for Sameer that he could walk away safely if the latter would make him at least one dose which is strong enough to bring down Homelander. Sameer to this finally replies back by explaining the potency rate of such a virus and how dangerous it could be. The revelation puts Billy in a dilemma while Joe pushes him to. Joe’s role in the story here is revealed with a new suspense which confuses and puts Billy in a state of disorientation.
While there are indeed some nice moments within the show like A-Train’s final satisfaction, this episode is marked with an increment in gruesomeness. We would love to admit that we didn’t watch the whole episode in a single stretch and had to take breaks due to its nature. Webweaver’s introduction sequence was something not everyone could go through. The introduction of taboo and some gratuitous moments was something we weren’t prepared for. This might be the first and one of the most graphic, such elements have been mentioned in a highly successful show. Finally the odd number/even number pattern as we mentioned before in our older reviews is broken, but with a cause. Victoria Neuman goes through a crucial stage in this plot. Joe Kessler’s role in the plot is explained with divisiveness attached. Ryan makes a mere appearance where he doesn’t have any lines. The relevance of Sister Sage is questioned once again and from the initial look of it, we feel like the things would’ve stayed the same even if she was substituted instead by Tek Knight from the beginning itself. However, we are still unsure if her presence would in any way prove consequential in the future episodes or the next season, as she is hinted to have gone through a huge memory loss. Her whole characterisation however still looks faulty and devoid of proper development. While she is described as the ‘most intelligence person’ in the planet (she talks about being capable of inventing a cure for cancer and preventing global warming), she makes a foolish approach by taunting someone who holds a gun. Sister Sage’s hatred for mankind is also expresses in one of her conversations with Neuman. Victoria Neuman’s head explosion shot, which she imagined while conversing with an elite at the mansion, could be accepted as one of the best moments in the whole season itself. For a moment, the audience get befuddled but in the next, comes back to the realisation.
But still, the lack of proper character developments in general coupled with twists which causes little to no impact or contribution to the show along with the disturbingly gratuitous plot elements, pushes The Boys, to perhaps the brink of no return. The coming episodes should do something big to compensate well for the show’s betterment and reputation. Lets hope they would do. 😉The Boys season four is currently running on Amazon Prime.
Compiled By Amal John