Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for The Boys Season 4, Episode 6.

The Big Picture

The Boys Season 4, Episode 6, titled “Dirty Business,” continues to explore the twisted world of The Boys as they navigate through the consequences of their actions.
The episode highlights Homelander’s suspicion towards Neuman, who he believes is responsible for Edgar’s escape from prison. Meanwhile, Tek Knight invites Hughie to visit the Tek Cave, which leads to uncomfortable situations and revelations.
Annie and Kimiko convince Mother’s Milk to join them in breaking into Tek Knight’s mansion to save Hughie, while Butcher continues to hallucinate Becca.

Last week’s episode of The Boys Season 4 delivered one of the series’ most heart-breaking moments to date, as Hughie (Jack Quaid) was forced to euthanize his newly V-ed-up father (Simon Pegg) after Hugh Sr. hysterically caused havoc in the hospital. In the meantime, Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) and The Boys are forced to forge an uneasy alliance with former Vought CEO Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) and VP-elect Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) to escape an estate where the latter had been testing animals with Compound V and the Supe-killing virus. This storyline concluded with Butcher kidnapping Neuman’s lover Sameer (Omid Abtahi), forcing him to make more Compound V.

The Seven were also quite busy, promoting their exhaustingly expansive slate of Vought original movies and shows at their “fan-run” expo V52, but backstage chaos erupted as Sister Sage (Susan Heyward) suspected that A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) was behind the leaks outside of Homelander’s (Antony Starr) trial. The speedster ends up finally coming to a truce with Ashley (Colby Minifie), framing VNN newsman Cameron Coleman (Matthew Edison) for the leak. As a result, Homelander rounded up the Seven alongside Gen V’s Cate Dunlap (Maddie Phillips) and Sam Riordan (Asa Germann), to take turns beating Coleman to death. Episode 6 of Season 4 is titled “Dirty Business,” and delivers one of the series’ grossest and kinkiest episodes to date. Whether or not all of it works is another story in itself, but it is certainly one trip to the Tek Cave that you won’t forget.

The Boys A group of vigilantes set out to take down corrupt superheroes who abuse their superpowers.Release Date July 26, 2019 Creator Eric Kripke Seasons 4 Studio Amazon Studios Expand

Mother’s Milk Has An Awkward Encounter With Webweaver in ‘The Boys’ Season 4, Episode 6
The episode opens with Billy Butcher and Kessler (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) interrogating Sameer, who they now have chained up in an abandoned warehouse. The scientist is initially resistant, but Butcher continues to inflict pain on him by poking the stub where his leg was amputated. Butcher tells him he has only a matter of weeks to make the serum, or he’ll kill him. It is also apparent that Butcher’s illness is worsening.

Paying tribute to Hugh Sr. and to spread his ashes, Hughie and Daphne (Rosemarie DeWitt) go on a walking tour through the streets of New York to visit the sets of the romantic comedy Maid in Manhattan. Annie (Erin Moriarty) is also on the tour and is harassed by a Hometruther, shouting “Abortion is murder.” Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) attempts to visit Frenchie (Tomer Capone) in prison, but is turned away, with the guard claiming that “he refuses visitation.”

Firecracker (Valorie Curry) has now taken over Cameron Coleman’s timeslot on VNN, where she continues to spout absurd conspiracy theories. Firecracker reports that Coleman is on sabbatical, despite having been a part of his murder. Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) is watching the broadcast but is interrupted by a call from A-Train, who tells him he’s in Toronto, revealing the truth about Coleman. MM is worried that Homelander has begun using Supes as his private military, and tells The Boys that Sister Sage was seen talking to Tek Knight (Derek Wilson) about the potential rebellion. He tasks the team with breaking into a gala being held at Tek Knight’s estate, by getting Hughie to disguise as the arachnid-powered Supe Webweaver (Dan Mousseau). MM goes to Webweaver’s rundown apartment, giving him opioids as a payment. Webweaver, already high off of other substances, asks MM to inject the drugs into his “web-shooting” hole, located right above his butt, and then falls unconscious. Hughie walks into the apartment and helps MM steal Webweaver’s costume.

Hughie Takes a Trip to the TekCave in ‘The Boys’ Season 4, Episode 5
Image via Prime Video

Homelander and Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) arrive at Tek Knight’s mansion for his gala, alongside a confident Firecracker, an annoyed Sister Sage, and an uncomfortable A-Train. Speaker of the House Calhoun (David Andrews) approaches the father-and-son, expressing his excitement about the young Supe one day joining The Seven. Homelander is then approached by Tek Knight, who talks about a future “team-up,” but Homelander says that his and Sister Sage’s rebellion is not a “team-up.”

Hughie puts on the Webweaver costume in front of The Boys and complains about this foul smell, which MM assures him will help throw Tek Knight off their scent. Hughie walks into Tek Knight’s mansion wearing the costume and is shocked to find The Seven in attendance. While planting bugs around the party, Hughie is caught by Neuman, who fails to recognize him. Tek Knight approaches the disguised Hughie, also unable to recognize him, having also never previously met Webweaver. Tek Knight talks about his excitement over hiring Webweaver as his sidekick, much to Hughie’s confusion. Neuman walks up to Homelander and Sister Sage, complaining about the gala. Homelander tells her that Sage will be hosting a sidebar at the Gala, intoxicating the ultrarich GOP donors into invoking the 25th Amendment. Once Sage leaves, Homelander implies that he suspects that Neuman broke Edgar out of prison.

Tek Knight invites Hughie to visit the Tek Cave, which is hidden underneath his library, cutting off his contact with The Boys. The TekCave is no Batcave, and, much to Hughie’s discomfort, is filled with BDSM paraphernalia. Tek Knight berates his butler, Elijah (Tyrone Benskin), for failing to clean the cave properly. In The Boys’ van, a panicked Annie expresses that they need to go inside the mansion, fearing Hughie’s fate. Hughie, going into panic mode, finds a stranger tied up in a red gimp suit, and is informed that he was Tek Knight’s “last sidekick.” Meanwhile, The Deep (Chace Crawford) finds Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell) drinking saké maskless. Noir talks about how he feels unimportant to the team, and not being able to grasp Noir’s bizarre personality, including his obsession with Buster Beaver. He then reveals to The Deep that he is quitting The Seven, and convinces him to stay by threatening him.

Annie and Kimiko finally convince Mother’s Milk to join them in breaking into Tek Knight’s mansion, fearing that Hughie will be exposed and killed. Butcher, in another episode, hallucinates Becca (Shantel VanSanten), where she questions his end goal of killing Homelander only to stand with another. Neuman imagines blowing up her own head while listening to Calhoun mansplaining abortion. Expressing her growing frustration to Sage, the brainy Supe replies by telling her story from her youth, when she created a cure for her grandmother’s cancer only to be laughed off by the establishment. Elijah and Tek Knight present Hughie with a German Chocolate Cake, claiming that Webweaver enjoys the feeling the texture gives to his bare cheeks. Tek Knight chains himself up and forces Hughie to sit on the cake with his bare butt and fart into it. Ashley arrives down the elevator, revealing that she is a part of Tek Knight’s playtime before he offers Hughie sandpaper to wipe his cake-smeared behind.

Homelander Plans to Invoke the 25th Amendment in ‘The Boys’ Season 4, Episode 6

Kessler continues to chide Butcher about Sameer’s resistance, before reflecting on his PTSD and saying that being a stay-at-home father wasn’t his true self, the real version of himself likes inflicting pain. Tek Knight begins tickling Hughie’s feet with a feather while Ashley whips him and insults him. Tek Knight references that Webweaver has a safe word, which makes Hughie shout out random words such as “spiderweb” and “tarantula” in the hopes of getting it right. Firecracker, feeling insecure about herself and dismissed by Sage and Homelander, runs into Annie while exiting the bathroom. Annie begins to apologize to Firecracker for bullying her as a child. Just as Firecracker seems ready to forgive her, Annie stabs her in the neck. Tek Knight begins to suspect that Hughie is in the Webweaver suit, quizzing him on his safeword and realizing that he doesn’t have the Supe’s signature “web-shooter.” He unmasks Hughie and takes out several surgical instruments, planning to torture him.

MM and Kimiko discover Sister Sage rummaging through Tek Knight’s library, resulting in MM holding the Supe at gunpoint. Sage begins to mock MM about his daughter, causing him to shoot her in the head out of sheer rage, just as Kimiko activates the elevator to the Tek Cave. In shock at his actions, MM collapses, causing Kimiko to convince A-Train to take him to a hospital. Annie and Kimiko then take the elevator to the Tek Cave and attack Tek Knight before he harms Hughie. As A-Train sets MM on a gurney outside the hospital, he sees a young boy watching him in awe, and the two exchange smiles.

Homelander finds a now conscious Sage, tending to her head wound, demanding whether or not she knows where the other members of The Seven went. Sage ignores his questions while talking in childish gibberish. As A-Train returns to the estate, Homelander begins to talk in front of the intoxicated GOP donors, claiming that President-elect Robert Singer (Jim Beaver) will destroy the country, claiming that Neuman is on their side. Homelander then reveals that he wants them to invoke the 25th Amendment, which would make Neuman the new President. The donors begin questioning Homelander’s plan, causing him to become increasingly agitated. He turns to Sage to have her reveal that she’s the mastermind, but turns around to find her shoving cake into her mouth. Neuman then steps in, claiming that she is the mastermind, denouncing democracy, promising the GOP donors that she will make sure that their businesses will receive zero government interference.

Kessler’s Shocking Secret Is Revealed in ‘The Boys’ Season 4, Episode 6
Image via Prime Video

Having freed Hughie, Annie and Kimiko have now tied up Tek Knight and proceeded to stab him, which only arouses him. Tek Knight’s former sidekick breaks free from his restraints and hands Hughie his laptop. Having gained access to all of Tek Knight’s bank accounts, the three begin to send all of his money to liberal causes, including an Elizabeth Warren Super-Pac, the Innocence Project, and Black Lives Matter. Tek Knight finally breaks down, revealing that Sage and Homelander are using him to gain access to his privately owned prisons so that they can turn them into internment camps for their dissenters. Elijah sneaks behind Tek Knight and begins strangling him to death, letting Annie, Hughie, and Kimiko get away.

At the hospital, MM is told that he suffered a panic attack and needs to stop whatever he’s doing that is making him stressed before he gets a real heart attack. Kimiko returns to the prison where Frenchie is being held and tells the guard that she has nowhere else to go.

The next day, Homelander questions Firecracker about her sudden disappearance at the gala, and in turn, she reveals that she was attacked by Starlight and that Tek Knight is now dead, believing Annie was behind it. Annie accuses Sister Sage of lying to Homelander about the leak while criticizing Sage’s competence. Homelander questions whether Firecracker is the true leak, which she denies. She tells Homelander that he gave her a platform where she can continue to spread propaganda about him and Vought, before telling him that he is “everything to her.” Firecracker begins to unzip her costume, which Homelander quickly turns down, claiming he is not sexually attracted to her. However, Firecracker replies that it isn’t about sex, but about loyalty, and proceeds to spray him with her breast milk. While not pregnant, Firecracker reveals that she has been taking drugs to produce milk for Homelander and begins to breastfeed him.

Hughie and Annie watch a recording of Neuman’s speech. Annie tries to talk to Hughie, but he is too paralyzed by what happened to him at the Tek Cave. Hughie confides in her, telling her that he is “not fine.” The episode ends with Butcher bringing Sameer the material to create the virus. The scientist tearfully confesses that creating a strain of the virus powerful enough to kill Homelander would be unstable and become airborne, killing every single Supe on Earth. Butcher hears Becca’s voice saying “Annie, Kimiko, Ryan.” Butcher begins having a moral crisis by the news, but Kessler is excited, claiming that the virus is their “silver bullet.” Becca begins arguing directly with Kessler, confusing Butcher. Kessler then reveals that he too is just a figment of Butcher’s imagination.

While the previous two episodes offered some of the strongest storylines of the series yet, this week’s episode felt like a pretty big step backward. While it’s not truly terrible and offers some great scenes, including A-Train rescuing MM, most of this episode relied almost entirely on shocking the audience with gross-out gags. Shock value isn’t a new concept to The Boys. It has become synonymous with the series, but this episode took things to a whole other level. The entire Tek Cave BDSM scene and MM’s interactions with Webweaver felt like they were stretched out for far too long. Even the Season 3 episode “Herogasm,” showed restraint. Despite its grimness, The Boys is not entertaining, but this episode just pushed things way too far.

The political commentary also just felt off in the episode, with the references to real-life politicians such as Elizabeth Warren and AOC being jarring. Eric Kripke and Starr have done a brilliant job at making Homelander into this universe’s version of Donald Trump, but name-dropping real-life politicians takes you completely out of the show. This episode isn’t without some merit. Firecracker’s reveal at the end of the episode is just as memorable as when Stormfront professed her Nazism in Season 2. Curry may just be this season’s secret weapon. Doumit also gives a remarkable performance as Neuman as her character goes through a crisis of her own, proving she is almost as unpredictable as Homelander himself.

REVIEW The Boys Season 4, Episode 6 of The Boys feels like a giant step backward from the previous two episodes, relying too much on shock value.ProsClaudia Doumit and Valorie Curry are excellent and easily this episode’s biggest stand-outs. ConsThe Webweaver and Tek Cave sequences went on for far too long.The references to real-life political figures were only jarring.

The Boys Season 4, Episode 6 is now available to stream on Prime Video.

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