Critic's Rating: 4.75 / 5.0
4.75
Remember back at the beginning of this season when the weirdest thing we'd seen was a man giving himself the Human Centipede treatment?
Yeah, me too.
The Boys keeps us on our toes as usual with its latest episode, providing us with scenes no one asked for and no one will forget anytime soon.
And look, I'm not here to kinkshame. But after that dungeon scene, I think we've all earned the right to kink-question.
The episode started off on a dark note, with Butcher torturing Samir while Kessler watched, trying to convince him to make more of the supe-killing virus they need to stop Homelander.
Plus, Frenchie is still in prison, which is a bummer for everyone but especially Kimiko, who desperately misses her friend.
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Given how broken and ashamed he was when he turned himself in at the end of The Boys Season 4 Episode 5, it's no surprise Frenchie isn't up for visitors.
But watching Kimiko be heartbroken isn't easy.
Frenchie is the only person Kimiko really has a connection with, and with everything that's been going on, the two of them need each other.
The bulk of the episode takes place at billionaire Tek Knight's house.
We knew already from his earlier appearances on the show and its spinoff, Gen V, that Tek Knight (a.k.a. Robert Vernon) is pretty much the worst.
But this episode took us down a shady path.
Tek Knight's party, catering to the country's richest billionaires and featuring an appearance from the members of the Seven, turns out to be a classed-up KKK meeting, essentially.
It's not the first time (by a long shot) that we've heard racist vitriol spewed from the mouths of characters on The Boys.
Alas, it's still a nightmare, and some of the quotes in the episode were essentially word-for-word replications of things said by actual American politicians. Horrifying.
The Boys' big plan is to infiltrate the party by dressing Hughie up in a stolen super suit.
Unfortunately for him, that suit belongs to Webweaver, with whom Tek Knight and Ashley have a hole — sorry, whole — lot of big plans.
Hughie manages to place a few bugs around Tek Knight's house, but at what cost?
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This is the part in the episode where we talk about where the line is and when it's crossed.
From an objective perspective, Hughie was repeatedly (and gruesomely) sexually assaulted.
Is that just a hazard of the job? He didn't seem particularly traumatized afterward, but how is that possible?
At the very least, Hughie deserves a raise. (Do The Boys get paid?)
I also don't think I'll ever be able to look at a cake the same way again.
Let's move on.
Butcher continues to deteriorate.
The toll Compound V has taken on him is hard to ignore, and his hallucinations of Becca get harder and harder to watch each episode.
But he's determined to get this virus and finish what he started, regardless of who might get hurt in the process.
Shoutout to Jeffrey Dean Morgan for his impeccable acting, as always.
Aside from the absolutely massive reveal at the end of the episode (we'll get to that, don't worry), we're reminded that JDM is the absolute king of monologues.
From his days on Supernatural and Grey's Anatomy, he's always delivered monologues with an expert touch.
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But his performance on The Boys has given us back a smidge of his unsettling and terrifying character, Negan, from The Walking Dead.
Something has felt off all season long, and many of you eagle-eyed fans caught it long ago, too.
That's right, folks. Kessler doesn't actually exist!
Call me a victim of Victoria Neumann, because my mind is BLOWN.
"Dirty Business" dropped the bomb that all along, Kessler has been a figment of Butcher's imagination, just like Becca.
There were those of you who saw this coming after noticing that no one other than Butcher had actually spoken to Kessler all season, and his cup remained untouched in his first appearance during the season premiere.
Kessler: You got a big old fat V’d up brain tumor, you c*nt, which is why you’re seeing me in the first place.
🔗 permalink: You got a big old fat V’d up brain tumor. – THE BOYS S04E06 – DIRTY BUSINESS
However, nothing was confirmed until we saw Kessler turn to Becca and tell her to shut up, proving that everything we were seeing was happening inside Butcher's head.
What a fantastic reveal it was, too.
It was an M. Night Shyamalan-level twist, truly.
The most sinister reveal of the episode, however, was that the powers that be in the country have plans to build and use internment camps.
The news was as terrifying as it was unsurprising.
Whether Butcher's plan to use the virus (which Samir has reminded him will kill anyone with Compound V in their bloodstream) will work remains to be seen.
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But it's clear that someone is going to have to do something, and soon, if they're going to prevent some very severe war crimes.
And speaking of horrible things no one wants to see, how wonderful is it that Firecracker took it upon herself to induce lactation so she could breastfeed Homelander?
We've all been missing that since Stillwell was killed off in The Boys Season 1 Episode 8. (That's sarcasm.)
Anyway.
Before we go: does anyone think Zendaya watches this show, and if so, I wonder how she feels about her name being Webweaver's safe word?
With only two episodes left in Season 4, it seems impossible that the writers have managed to wrap everything up in time for the finale.
That said, we can probably expect some intense and action-packed hours ahead of us as we round out the season.
In the meantime, let us know in the comments how you feel about the season so far. Who are your favorite new characters? Are the writers taking things too far?
We'll see you next time!
