The Boys Season 4, Episode 7 Review, Recap & Thoughts.!

The season 4 of The Boys was taunted for being comparatively so vague and motionless along with elements of poor character development and scripting. At one point, the show was simply travelling in the same cat & mouse narrative with nothing remarkable to offer. In addition to it, the previous episode of the series ended up being one of the worst of all time within. However, its safe to say that the penultimate episode of brings back the hope towards having a prosperous ending to this season of the series.

The seventh episode of season 4 of The Boys, titled ‘The Insider’ begins with a Christmas special from Vought, which is about a puppet show similar to Sesame Street, with characters modeled on the original ‘The Seven’. Its Ryan’s turn to have an whole arc centered about him with no other major characters coming to mingle or talk with him, except for one moment when Homelander records an audio message to him via phone. Ryan while initially enjoys the presence of the characters within the studio, begins flipping out when they sing about reporting the parents of kids to The Seven, if they’d ever talk low about the superhero team or any other Supe. He would later receive a Christmas gift from William ‘Billy Butcher’, which is a photo of the latter and his wife Becca, who is also Ryan’s mother. Even though Ryan at one point in a previous episode acts viciously under his father’s manipulation, he later gives it all up in the middle of the recording of the puppet show, telling to the world about the value ‘parents hold’ and accepting that he wants to be what his mother loves and not the rotten one his father has in mind. While this disappoints Homelander while watching the episode on TV, Butcher from another corner points out to Joe Kessler (who was revealed in the previous episode as a figment of Butcher’s imagination), as to why he still puts trust on Ryan.

Homelander is in a mixed state as he still doubts who the ‘leak’ is. Sister Sage is back after the attack in the previous episode and is ordered to stay out of their investigation regarding the leak. Firecracker manages to present the real Webweaver who is still in an inebriated stage, in front of Homelander, as the leak. Webweaver while quivering and somehow pissing from the same point next to his buttocks where the web comes, finally admits to him that it wasn’t him who was there in the first place. Out of disappointment, Homelander rips him apart in front of an aghast Firecracker. She might be even thinking what she bought herself into at that point as her abilities are in no way match for Homelander. In a later stage, Homelander after finding out about the true leak, dismisses Sister Sage from the team for not being able to figure out who the apparent rat was, even though she repeatedly claimed that she was aware of who it was and thought of not acting out for her plans to work. Sage even leaves her notepad on the table before leaving the team. Firecracker’s attempt on comforting him with her lactating abilities backfires and gets ordered to leave. Billy the Butcher is back on the team. He tells them all about Sameer and his plans and after a potential leak from A-Train enters an apartment room where he and The Boys, find details about Rob Singer’s event, hinting that he could be assassinated. They also find a shapeshifter in the same place, giving them a hint that she could either be Singer’s assassin or taking his place. Billy is also questioned by his decisions to safeguard Ryan and other supes of his team by Joe Kessler, claiming that he doesn’t actually care for them.

Marvin aka ‘Mother’s Milk’ decides to leave The Boys under Billy’s direction because of the panic attack he had the other day. He meets Monique, his ex-wife and persuades her and their daughter to leave for good, in-order to save them from the reign of Supes. Monique after giving him a passionate kiss, asks him to tag along and be together till the end. Even though initially coerced by this move, he decides to stay with the team after A-Train’s reasoning, knowing that the evil Supes could still find him and his family no matter how much he tries to hide, and putting an end to them is the only way to provide a safe place for his family. A-Track under the positive influence he received in front of the hospital in the previous episode (an instance he personally felt like the first time ever he felt truly satisfied, without hating himself) later prevents an attack on The Boys by The Deep and Black Noir II under Homelander’s orders, to which Mother’s Milk later joins. Mother’s Milk would later inform Monique about his decision while A-Train leaves with his family after destroying his tracking chip under Ashley Barrett’s instructions.

Ambrosius is back again after some break (the typical odd number/even number episode pattern). The Deep recites a story to her and puts her back on the bowl while she fervently begs him to put her in a safer place as she wishes. The Deep however doesn’t listen to it with sincerity. A portrait is also shown hanging on the wall with him and Homelander in it. Later at one-point Ambrosius faces him, saying that she knows about him and Sister Sage. She also tells him that Sage can’t be trusted repeatedly. As an impulsive action, The Deep breaks down the glass case, causing difficulties for Ambrosius’ breathing. She starts choking and asks him to save her, while admitting her at most affection to him. The Deep however comes out of the cabin and closes the door, all while breaking down. Later after the attack on The Boys, while he and Black Noir II sees walking out of Homelander’s office, Black Noir II tells her that he loves him, hinting that Ambrosius was right after all.

Frenchie and Kimiko are initially tasked with monitoring Sameer’s experimentation in order to create a potential virus that could put an end to Homelander. Frenchie and Kimiko later reconcile over his actions in the previous episodes during which Kimiko also shares her past deeds, claiming that she wished if she was the one who got killed instead of making moves on her opponents. Kimiko is later injected on one of her legs, a dose of the virus by Sameer, who would later escapes. Frenchie decides to cut off her leg inorder to prevent the virus from spreading (as she possesses the regenerative ability similar to Deadpool). The Boys would later decide to extract the virus from the leg that was cut off, inorder to create the virus. Hughie and Annie are still close as ever. She would later express her disgust after Hughie, knowing from her own mother that Hughie still possess her own ‘Starlight’ costume, which he throws away after Annie’s demands. After suffering from a slash on the encounter with the shapeshifter, he under the guise of getting medical help, visits Victoria Neuman. He tries to persuade her into throwing all the plans, to which she would not accept to. A series of events later takes place between him and Annie, which causes the biggest pivotal point for the climatic events of the season to work.

One of the weirdest things about this episode was that the events of the dreadful previous is barely mentioned here. Sister Sage is shown to miraculously come back to her own form quickly than we all thought. While Hughie was shown to be having a mental breakdown after going through his father’s death and the events at the dungeons, he looks completely normal here. Either that he chose to let go off it or he is still visiting a therapist in the background, God knows because nothing is hinted here. Not even Ashley shows any form of remorse over knowing about Tek Knight’s demise since they were in the middle of having wild encounter (something which we chose not to explain as its still disgusting to even think of it) with him.  Instead, she laments over the fact that Cameron Coleman got killed because of her. Billy Butcher looks like not having any sort of trouble having any sort of trouble having Joe Kessler inside his mind, even though at points he hinted in front of The Boys about Kessler’s presence with him. This could be because he is simply so bold at heart. Maybe because the makers were pretty much convinced before the airing of the show about how worse the sixth episode would end up so they deliberately chose not to include any bit of it in the future works. Anyway, we are kinda grateful about how things ended up there.

To be fair, Billy Butcher saying “F**k off c**t” to Joe Kessler was one of the good signs hinting that the The Boys hasn’t lost its spark yet. Joe Kessler is getting more antagonistic than he ever was in the show. Despite showing a lackluster twist in the end of the previous episodes, Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s character proved that he still has something to offer for the betterment of the series. He has showed some essence of his true skills while taunting Billy through his subconscious mind. He might even play a bigger part in the final episode but fitting him there could be a huge risk as simply involving him for the sake of it in the form of last-minute scuffle inside Billy’s mind, could be a cliché. Still, watching out for what he could bring out could still prove worth of it. Mother’s Milk is still in a dilemma but him choosing to safeguard his family by not simply being there with them, shows his level of devotion deep within. It proves that in deep, he is hellbent on putting an end to the Supes, even though he thinks at first that it’s a never-ending cycle. A-Train’s short stint in front of The Boys and The Seven, proves that he is still up to ‘more god’ than succumbing to his old careless self as he even admits that he felt finally satisfied after doing a ‘true good deed’, unlike in the past where he had to live with hate and disgust over his actions while getting hailed as a public hero. His decision to safeguard The Boys from The Deep and Black Noir II even at the cost of getting exposed in front of Homelander proves his genuine side. Moreover, he even asks Ashley to join him instead of suffering at Vought. A-Train might even become an important character for the final episode.

Ryan‘s short stint proves that he still has good in him unlike in the last time where we thought he might even enter the evil side. The only natural born Supes in The Boys, is still a good human being at heart, nurtured by the morals his mother taught him. His only problem in reality was that he never had a strong moral person to look after. Who knows if Ryan might even join The Boys in the future. Sister Sage’s reputation as the ‘Smartest person on earth’ is still put on question as she apparently fails in front of Homelander about finding the leak. Not to mention that she did chose to taunt a guy with a gun, which caused her to get shot on head. She is later fired by Homelander even though she claimed to have deliberately lied in front of Homelander about the leak to get her plans work successfully. In a way, she is also shown to have manipulating both The Deep and Black Noir II. The climax sequence of this season could prove that she might still be smart as she claims as we can currently speculate that the shapeshifter is one of her own allies. What she truly has in mind might be included in the notepad she drops in Homelander’s table. Only in the coming episode would we be able to get a true picture of this whole scenario.

The Deep proves to be a character more complex than Homelander is by his decision to not save Ambrosius when he could’ve. A picture on the wall with him standing and Homelander sitting on a chair, coupled with his admitting in front of the latter that he ‘would kill any fish on the ocean for Homelander’, could be a testament to his devotion towards him. Or he might be someone who still can’t find a decision on tough circumstances. He also said in the previous episode as to why he enjoys violence. When we initially thought that he might even join The Boys later during the previous seasons, he is shown to be still diving on dilemma. He never even got moved by Ambrosius admitting her love for The Deep, despite putting causing her apparent death and even while addressing him as Kevin. It is also kind of a bummer that we won’t get to hear any more of Tilda Swinton’s dialogue deliveries which are essentially erotic, in the coming episodes. Homelander doesn’t have much role here apart from his usual regret and annoyance. However, he is shown to be sad when he hears about A-Train’s treachery. The fact that Victoria Neuman is still planning for her elections and that a hit on Rob Singer is still at stake, shows that the whole ‘presidential campaign’ arc is still on as we said before.

The series is still gruesome as it used to be. Just looking at Webweaver’s fate in front of Homelander is a testament for it. But while his ‘piss’ scene is still shown to be somewhat unwanted on some levels, his death doesn’t look so gratuitous. Not to mention that the previous episodes were all criticized for the inclusion of gratuitous gore or seemingly hideous segments. What all these episodes would culminate in the finale is yet to be witnessed. But judging by the events in this one, we can safely say that the series hasn’t truly staggered in the midway and can still deliver something worth of time. How truly worthy they could be, is still something we are yet to watch. However, we are also glad that we are still able to watch the series without regret, unlike how we thought it would’ve ended up before.

The Boys season four is currently running on Amazon Prime.

Compiled By Amal John