If you thought things couldn’t get crazier than the BDSM storylines at the Tek Cave in The Boys Season 4 Episode 6, you were wrong! The Boys Season 4 Episode 7, titled “The Insider,” ups the ante once again. As the penultimate episode of the season, it delivers a Christmas-themed episode, a surprising first for the series. The episode begins shortly after the events of Episode 6, with Homelander and Firecracker growing closer while Sage, fresh off her embarrassment at Tek Knight’s, finds herself on the outs.
Homelander and Firecracker are now working together to find the real leak after it’s revealed that Butcher and the Boys planted bugs at the event and recorded Homelander and Victoria’s speeches to the donors. Meanwhile, Butcher goes against Kessler’s wishes and reveals that he kidnapped Sameer, using him to build a virus to kill Homelander and Victoria Neuman. He also convinces Grace Mallory to release Frenchie from jail to help Sameer create a dose strong enough to kill both targets. Frenchie is reluctant, but MM asks Kimiko and Frenchie to work with Sameer while the rest of the gang deals with the mystery person A-Train photographed working with Sage.
MM, dealing with a panic attack, sends Janine and Monique to Belize because things are about to get hairy with the virus plot and Sage’s plan. Monique asks him to ditch the Boys and be with his family, but we know he’s not going to go. At Vought Tower, A-Train meets with Ashley, who is drunk at 11 a.m. She’s having a meltdown, feeling responsible for Cameron’s death, and asks A-Train to run away with her. He gives her a reality check, telling her to button it up as it’s only a matter of time before Sage realizes she’s the weak link.
During the Boys-certified split up, Butcher takes Annie and Hughie to find the mystery man, but his health is failing him. Kessler’s voice in his head is getting stronger and more frequent. They find a map of where Bob Singer is having a rally in the apartment of the mystery man, whom Butcher called Lee Harvey Oswald earlier. In the closet, they find a battered and bruised woman who turns out to be a shape-shifting Supe. She escapes, and Hughie gets cut in the chase, splitting off from the group to go to the ER, but he doesn’t really go to the ER.
At MM’s apartment, A-Train convinces MM to stick around and see things through. We all knew this would happen; there’s no way out for the Boys. At the lab, Sameer asks Frenchie if the virus they’re making is for Homelander only, and Frenchie nods. Uh-oh! While they wait for Sameer to finish the virus, Frenchie and Kimiko open up to each other about their pasts. Kimiko reveals that in her training, she was forced to kill many girls without speaking, and when she was allowed to speak again, she couldn’t. Frenchie tells her she shouldn’t hate herself, and she tells him the same.
At Vought, Homelander and Firecracker question Webweaver about being an informant for Butcher and MM, but Webweaver can’t keep it together. Annoyed, Homelander rips Webweaver in half. In Deep’s room, Deep and Ambrosius argue about Sage. Deep breaks the glass case and lets Ambrosius suffocate. Shortly after, Homelander gives Deep a mission to attack Butcher and the Boys, which Sage specifically told them not to do. Deep says he’ll kill every fish in the ocean for him.
Hughie visits Victoria Neuman, bringing her favorite snacks and trying to convince her to stop working with Homelander and Sage to kill Singer. She didn’t know about the plan to use Tek Knight’s prisons but decides to forge ahead. She tells Hughie she’s sorry about his dad as he leaves. When Annie and Butcher return to the Boys HQ, Deep and Black Noir emerge to dispose of Butcher on Homelander’s orders. Butcher tells them to leave, but Deep punches Annie, and the fight is on. A-Train and MM arrive just in time to help them escape.
A-Train goes back to Vought to tell Ashley to leave, but she chooses to stay, telling A-Train to take out his tracking chip. Homelander is upset over A-Train being the leak. Firecracker comforts him until Sage storms in, revealing she knew A-Train was the leak but was saving that information for a better time. Homelander sends her away. In the hallway, Black Noir and Deep realize they were both hooking up with Sage, but only Deep was lobotomizing her beforehand.
At the lab, Sameer stabs Kimiko in the leg with the virus, forcing Frenchie to cut her leg off to save her life. They keep Kimiko’s leg to extract the virus and make it strong enough to kill Homelander. During a live Christmas special with Vought puppets, Ryan stands up for himself, trying to bring the country together but steps aside before revealing anything significant. Butcher watches Ryan’s speech before collapsing in a bar.
Back at their apartment, Hughie admits to Annie that he lied about going to urgent care. During their chat, Annie puts back on the Starlight suit that Hughie saved. They hook up, but it’s not Annie; it’s the shapeshifter! She steals the laptop from their safe, likely containing Homelander and Victoria’s speeches. The episode ends with Annie chained up in an abandoned house, unable to use her powers. How will the Boys find her? Does this mean the Starlight impersonator will assassinate Bob Singer? This all seems bad, bad, bad!
Heading into the finale, Homelander is lonelier than ever. Sage and Victoria are ready to make their move. A-Train is fully a member of the Boys and on the run from Vought. Deep and Black Noir are licking their wounds after failing to stop Butcher and the Boys. Meanwhile, Butcher is potentially removed from the equation with his illness. Kimiko and Frenchie are trying to extract the Supe-killing virus from Kimiko’s severed leg. Will they do it in time to kill Homelander or Victoria?
That’s where things stand heading into The Boys Season 4 finale! “The Insider” is another excellent episode of The Boys. It lacks some of the comedic elements of the first few episodes of the season but acts as a bridge to the season finale without pulling any punches.
Source: The Insider
