This review contains full spoilers for The Boys Season 4, Episode 6, “Dirty Business.”
Only a show like The Boys could make an episode about sex dungeon foreplay, lobotomies and heroic gimps. “Dirty Business” avoids feeling unnecessarily complicated or distracting, pursuing a singular narrative that involves secretly infiltrating an alt-right cocktail soiree. It lifts our spirits after the downer that was last week’s teary-eyed conclusion, and also drops its own bombshell of a farewell (which you probably saw coming if you were paying close attention). Even after a multi-week hiatus, punctuated by multiple storytelling angles, The Boys finally feels like its unmistakable self again.
The serious-sounding elephant in the room is finally confirmed: Joe Kessler (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is having hallucinations induced by the same illness as Becca (Shantel VanSanten). Clues have been sprinkled throughout previous episodes, but nothing concrete so far. Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) isn’t too much into “Dirty Business,” just enough time to establish his two imaginary friends—now the one-legged Dr. Samir Shah (Omid Abtahi) gets the honor of summoning Butcher’s delirious state. , complete with a quick montage of Butcher talking to empty rooms in past scenes where we thought Kessler was present. It’s not a groundbreaking twist, but having Kessler and Samir Butcher react to a whacked-out state helps the shock value last longer.
Elsewhere, and for the lion’s share of the episode’s duration, we spend an evening at Tech Knight’s (Derek Wilson) Bruce Wayne-like mansion — only his Batcave is a Fifty Shades hideout. The invitation-only, highfalutin affair brings the Seven’s A-list players together with United States government officials, complete with all the self-serving corruption we could wish for. The purpose of the gathering is to ally and discuss Robert Singer’s (Jim Beaver) presidency with Antinode, which means The Boys have no choice but to secretly send a junkie named Webweaver (Dan) to Hughie (Jack Quaid) as The Boys’ Spider-Man counterpart. Not an option. Mousso). Quaid strategically plays the awkward and out-of-depth role, which he already did so well in The Boys, until Hughie restrains himself, learning the hard way that inviting a webweaver is just a pass-around pleasure boy. they came.
An innocent Hughie stuck in a secret room with a horned tech knight and Ashley Barrett (Colby Miniffee) is a recipe for comedy gold. It starts out simple, with Hughie trying to imitate the talk of a drugged-up stoner from Webbweaver – then panic sets in when he sees Homelander (Antony Starr) at the party. Tech Knight later takes Hughie down to his perverted lair, where Ashley gets first crack while tickling the “webweaver” until she climaxes. Hughie is embarrassed to laugh his way through the sticky-stanky ordeal, which Quaid sells with just the right undertones of exhilarating panic — but Colby Minifie is the secret sauce. The way she forcefully delivers lewd lines as a sexually dominant alpha exudes volcanic confidence, as Ashley beams her devilish smirk while humiliating her partners in a fetishistic display of ball-crushing power.
When Hughie is kicked out by Tech Knight for forgetting the Webweaver’s safe word, The Boys rush to his aid – but he barely makes a clean escape. Annie (Erin Moriarty) confronts Firecracker (Valorie Curry) in the hallway upstairs, where she apologizes for being a proper monster in her pageant days before incapacitating Watt’s racist, anti-racist mouthpiece. Mother’s Milk (Lez Alonso) suffers a panic attack after shooting Sister Sage (Susan Hayward) in the head, as she succumbs to the pressure of never cracking Butcher. Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) and Annie finally reach Hughie before Tech Knight creates a new hole to enter his body, and they turn the tables on the adulterous freak, but not until the remaining characters from The Boys have moved on significantly. Annie’s confession, MM’s health scare, and Hughie’s ability to admit that he’s not okay are all packaged succinctly into the main storyline. It’s a huge upgrade from previous Season 4 episodes that felt torn in fifty different directions.
A narrow scope allows performances to shine, like how Sister Sage and Victoria Newman (Claudia Doumit) steal “Dirty Business” toward the end. Sister Sage spends most of the episode playing mind games with her vote-controlled pawns until MM’s bullet turns her into the bloomin’ onion Sister Sage desires in a hilarious moment. She can’t help Homelander win over the voter crowd with her over-the-top supremacy scheme, so Victoria steals Homelander’s thunder and brings her monologue home with aplomb. Homelander, a tyrannical superhuman who insists humans are toys, shrinks to the size of a pea when he fails to smile his way to success. Worse, his masculine aura is shattered by Victoria’s actions and Sister Sage’s inability to directly support him. Homelander crumbles under the pressure like a Nature Valley granola bar, acknowledging his inability to be the sole dictator of Watt.
“Dirty Business” revives the sardonic wits of The Boys and the dark comedy outside of Hughie’s psycho-sexual episodes. Victoria hates the obsession with the wrinkly conservative ghost where she imagines violently popping her head off because some Roe Vs. An officer opposing Wade can be heard explaining inaccurate abortion facts. A-Train (Jesse T. Usher) listens to Teck Knight’s despicably bigoted story about his family’s fascinating legacy as slave catchers, commenting on how he would have given his great-grandfather a run for his money — A-Train’s reaction is priceless. Self-proclaimed guardians like tech knights say the quiet parts into a megaphone, and “Dirty Business” just follows the villain with the desert. After Annie and Kimiko reprimand Tech Night, they donate millions from her bank account to a charitable fund for Black Lives Matter or Elizabeth Warren’s Super PAC as she protests in agony. Will he not accept pain while partaking of the most depraved carnal pleasures, but send his filthy legacy to a worthy cause? His Muskian intolerance throws a tantrum.
Best of all, Tech Knight’s death leaves The Seven in disarray. The boys may be crumbling, especially in prison with Frenchie (Tomer Capone), but their unpredictable actions are a shrewd dagger. Homelander realizes that the mole is still alive — it was never Ashley’s sacrificial lamb Cameron Coleman (Matthew Addison) — and is one step closer to the edge (and about to break). Enter Firecracker, who squirts him with medically-possible lactation as the ultimate olive branch. Cut to Homelander, wrapped in his cape, sipping crackers, both seated in front of a large American flag tapestry. It’s one of my favorite shots in The Boys, because America’s greatest patriot is a man-child behind closed doors who is still breastfeeding. This is the show I know and love; There’s a lot missing from Season 4 so far.