The cracks begin to show in one of The Boys’ darkest chapters to date

“Dirty Business” lives up to its title in an hour full of exciting revelations and some more concerning ones

The law of diminishing returns: an economic principle stating that as investment in a particular area increases, the rate of profit from that investment, after a certain point, cannot continue to increase if other variables remain constant.

The Boys has always been a wild, intense ride. Ever since the shocking opening minutes of its pilot, the series has established a black-hearted streak. The original comics have a reputation for having a great premise and set of characters, but they are also known for writer Garth Ennis’ insanely bleak perspective, which filled far too many panels with empty shock value and shockingly X-rated depravity. The show has done a job at taking the comics’ strengths and changing most everything else; there was plenty of debauchery in store, but the writers knew when to ditch the unnecessary mean streak of the comics and sparingly include moments when they were organically derived from situations. Unlike Ennis, Kripke and co. also knew when to implement a heart at the show’s center, which makes its nihilistic outlook much easier to swallow.

Watching the newest episode of season 4, “Dirty Business,” one thought occurred to me after the sequence in the Tek Cave concluded: the show has never felt more like the comics. If you had told me that this plotline was ripped straight from Ennis’s pages, or that he had written it himself, I would have believed you (a similar event occurs in the comics, but in a much different context). I have defended this season all along the way, as I have genuinely loved its progression and thought that episodes 4 and 5 proved that the season was picking up lots of steam. “Dirty Business” was the point where the cracks in the show have revealed themselves more so than ever before; though there was a lot in the hour that I loved, this episode ranks in the bottom 3 episodes of the series thus far.

That low placement is almost entirely owed to the plotline involving Hughie or Tek Knight. As I said above, The Boys has always maintained a darkness to its identity, which has earned almost every shocking moment of extremity thus far. “Dirty Business” escalates all of that vulgarity beyond any previous point. The human centipede scene, Termite’s tunnel of love, and even Herogasm all knew to keep those moments brief enough and directed at a-hole supes to keep them palatable. This episode did not have that restraint, and it excessively draws out the Tek Knight scene to painstaking lengths. The writers were not just giving us a taste of the shock; they were rubbing our noses in it to the point of cruelty. It was the first time that the show actively left me with a bad taste in my mouth after my viewing. I didn’t even have my usual feeling of immediate anticipation for the next episode; conversely, I was happy at the thought of a week-long break just to recover from this week’s episode. 

You see, I included the definition for “the law of diminishing returns” above because I fear that I am finally starting to feel it infecting The Boys. The writers seem obsessed with pushing the envelope as far as they can without increased consideration of whether it actually benefits the show. It’s no longer a crazy surprise to find out that yet another supe is a depraved pervert with his own set of kinks. It’s no longer a fresh subversion of expectations when the in-universe Spider-Man is a drug addict who shoots webs from a special hole. The idea of the Batcave being a nasty sex dungeon would have been funny in the first season, but the impact is dulled now. Shock value doesn’t carry the same impact when it’s emphasized in every episode. The novelty is pretty much gone now, and though I don’t doubt that the writers can think of more warped ideas to shock us, I don’t think the unexpectedness will ever return.

I say all of this because it just makes me concerned for the future. Besides one effective reveal towards the end, none of this does anything to further the plot. With only two episodes left in the season, I have no idea why the writers are stalling with sequences like this, and it gives me worries about whether the ending payoff will land properly. It doesn’t help that the entire sequence is the show’s most uncomfortable yet. I’ve made jokes in the past, but this episode genuinely made me wonder if there’s someone in the writer’s room with some seriously screwed-up fetishes. Some of the material is borderline pornographic, and it’s just stale at this point.

Another reason the plotline didn’t work is because of Hughie’s involvement, and all of the implications that go with it. I genuinely have no idea why the writers, especially Eric Kripke, seem to enjoy torturing poor Hughie so much. Because he’s one of the innocent characters on the show, he’s always been subjected to some rude awakenings. But there’s also a line as to what is in good taste, and this episode definitely crossed it. Why on earth would they subject the guy to being sexually assaulted by his childhood hero (as he points out in this episode and the last) only a few days after he had to put down his dad? It’s a treatment far too rough for such an undeserving character.

And then we get to the part of the episode that has been the subject of fervent discussion across every social media platform, particularly the Reddit discussions. It’s no secret that male sexual assault is a topic that is not taken very seriously by the media; in the rare case that it does show up, it’s usually played for some cheap laughs. As soon as I saw Hughie’s treatment, I was worried that the show would do the same. However, the show also prides itself on being progressive with its politics, so I was hoping the treatment here would be tasteful. In all, it was…well, I don’t think it was well-handled, to be frank. 

Immediately after watching the episode, I was mostly okay with it. When the sexpacades began, and it was mostly just uncomfortable dialogue and harmless treatment, I was somewhat okay with the lighter tone being used. When the scene became more serious and the threat to Hughie was greater, the show clearly shifted the tone to emphasize this. I thought this distinction was done clearly enough; furthermore, the breakdown at the end was a well-done response from Hughie to outline the trauma he’s faced. Some would argue that he only addressed the loss of his dead, but it was clear to me that it was an emotional response to everything he’s faced; his plea for his dad was just his need for comfort during this time, and it was his realization that his dad will never be there for him again. Another defense I read online was that the sequence was all about skewering the unchecked power of billionaires. While we see their shallow elitism at the party above them, we are forced to reckon with Tek Knight and Ashley’s depravity; the jokes made in the scene are not all necessarily there to make us laugh, but to make us cringe at how these figures are joking while performing such demented acts.

Then I read Eric Kripke’s interview with Variety about this episode. The interviewer clearly lays out all of Hughie’s pain in this episode and asks Kripke what his motivation was for including so much of it. In response, he says, “Well, that’s a dark way to look at it! We view it as hilarious.” When he later discusses the scene of Hughie trying to stop Tek Knight and Ashley, he says, “I love that it’s just such a perfect setup that he doesn’t know his own safe word. It’s just like a beautiful comedy setup that he’s trying to find it the whole time.” 

Wow…wow. Of all the responses, Kripke? Not only is this statement shockingly tone-deaf, but it completely lacks any understanding of the implications of his own writing. It’s baffling that he treats a moment of sexual assault so flippantly, and these words make the scene impossible to defend. All of my thoughts about the clear tonal distinctions were wrong, I guess, because nothing about that was supposed to emulate the gravity of sexual assault. No insightful commentary, no deeper meaning — it was all just tasteless shock value. When asked about Hughie’s breakdown, Kripke only addresses how he’s reacting to the loss of his dad. I still think the assault instigated that moment, but all that tells me is that the events of this episode will not be properly addressed or treated with the respect that they deserve. 

Sure, there were some funny moments. The safe word joke was good material, and the Zendaya reveal was a nice punchline to tie Webweaver back to our modern Spider-Man (I also liked the sight gag of Hughie having to wipe himself up with sandpaper). Colby Minifie is ever-committed to the character of Ashely, so it’s always fun to see her manic energy in these contexts. But the scene was a delicate tonal balance that had to portray the silliness of the events and their dramatic stakes, and the writers didn’t pull off the balancing act. Sure, they have always stacked humor and violence side-by-side; there have been plenty of gory moments that are supposed to incite laughter. 

Here, the humor wasn’t clever enough, and the stakes weren’t properly conveyed, so those elements didn’t work on their own. Together, it made an even worse cocktail that was finally unbalanced and failed to convey the situation with the respect that it deserves, which is odd because the show has handled the sexual assaults of Starlight and Becca with proper gravity. The longer I sit with the sequence, the execution just gets uglier. In particular, Kripke’s comments expose his own problematic double standards when it comes to sexual assault directed at men vs women. He certainly has a lot to say about politics, and those messages are usually well-communicated in the show, but his misguided comments have never made him seem more ignorant (his take on Batman’s fascism and the Batcave in the interview was also bizarre).

This all feels like a big waste of Tek Knight’s character, too. When he appeared in Gen V, he was a calculating, intelligent figure who clearly derived glee from using his skills to intimidate others. Sure, he had that…problem, but even that was framed as more of a shameful byproduct of his tumor. In this episode, he’s just reduced to being a racist rapist. Aside from some brief analysis, we don’t see much of his Sherlock Holmes personality; his only noteworthy moment was his amusingly pleased reaction to getting tortured and his later dismay at seeing his money donated to Black Lives Matter. It feels like a superficial waste of a promising character, and it seems like there was so much more they could have done with him. Maybe he could have matched wits with Sage, or the writers could have pursued the murder mystery angle suggested by this fan. Instead, he’s swiftly killed in a somewhat underwhelming fashion by his butler. After the exhaustion of this episode, I was happy we won’t have to suffer through more perverse scenes involving him, but the nagging feeling of wasted potential remained.

I don’t want this to sound like a rant, so let’s move on to the other aspects of the episode that worked much better. We finally get the reveal of what’s up with Joe Kessler, and it turns out that everyone theorizing was right: he’s a figment of Butcher’s infected, messed-up brain. Because of the season’s many leaks, I don’t know how much of the theorizing was just that or spoilers in disguise; then again, viewers (especially on Reddit) tend to be pretty eagle-eyed nowadays, so maybe they did guess it. I’m usually pretty bad at predicting plot twists, so I don’t think I would have telegraphed this exact reveal without the many theories. Because so many people had already guessed it, I was especially on the lookout for Joe being fake in this episode, so the ultimate reveal didn’t strike me as much of a surprise. 

That doesn’t change the fact that the reveal itself was executed in a stellar fashion. Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Karl Urban are still electrifying on-screen together, which makes every scene between these two charisma magnets sizzle. The episode has a welcome share of these two together, and they do a great job at disguising Joe’s identity with overlapping dialogue (without being pivotal enough to confuse Sameer) and isolating him with Butcher. In general, Joe remains a great addition to the show, as  the character and actor perfectly mesh to match the defiant swagger of the show. In particular, his monologue about his failure to adjust to the world after the war showcases the character’s darkness well; in retrospect, lines like “I like to hear them scream” remind us of the viciousness that remains in Butcher.

As I said before, the ending was telegraphed by many, so the show really had to nail that reveal to make the twist stand out. They definitely differentiated themselves from Mr. Robot or Fight Club in the terrific fashion in which they unveiled him as a literal devil on his shoulder. It was a shock to see him suddenly address Becca with fury; the entire scene contrasted him with Becca’s role as the angel on Butcher’s shoulder with his cutting dialogue, but the shot of him turning and yelling “Shut your fucking cakehole, bitch!” was a powerful one. The following minutes were also well-done (the “redoing previous scenes but the character is actually talking to himself” moment will always get a laugh out of me), and it was impactful to realize that all of these horrible thoughts were coming from himself. Plus, the last line was a nice callback to Butcher’s “daddy’s home” line that ended the season 2 premiere; this episode gave JDM a lot more to do, and seeing him reenact one of Butcher’s most iconic moments was fun.

A focal point in this arc is one that was also used in Gen V, which is whether it’s worth releasing the virus if it will lead to a supe genocide. It’s an interesting moral quandary to wrestle with; in the first 3 seasons of The Boys, it would be a pretty safe answer to say that every supe needs to go, so I like that Gen V introduced the dilemma after humanizing many new supes. After Butcher has been adamant about saying that “every last supe needs to go,” it’s an interesting development to see him struggle with this grim decision after working so hard to better himself this season. I think the quandary is hurt a little bit because, as I said above, the writers seem adamant on making every supe a brutal a-hole with a weird drug or sex addiction. I wish the writers would change it up and introduce some supes that are actually trying to be heroic. Not only would it avoid the pitfalls that the comics fell into, but it would also make the show’s universe more diverse and unique. A-Train’s arc is a reminder of how refreshing a bit of hope can be among the constant nihilism, and we need more similar remedies to the formula.

As for The Seven, they’re occupied with some political housekeeping in this episode. Homelander gets one of the episode’s best moments when, after Sage’s intelligence is crippled, he is forced to give a speech to this group of alt-right billionaires. He begins with a familiar spiel about transgenders and illegal immigrants taking over…until one of them stops him and says, “Save it for the idiots watching VNN.” Once they start asking him more logistical questions about the Justice Department and the military, he freezes and can’t think of the answer. This sequence brilliantly portrays the incompetence of Homelander; beyond the hollow talking points and his ability to fuel the anger of the masses, he’s completely unqualified for power. Similarly, it demonstrates how these right-wing figures don’t even believe half of what they spew. They don’t care about the people; they are simply tools for them to stir up emotion and loyalty. These causes are simply gateways for their own profit, and all of their “concerns” for the country are only useful for the dollar signs behind them.

Unfortunately, Homelander makes too many stupid decisions in this hour. Somehow, after they realize Hughie is in trouble, The Boys are able to infiltrate an exclusive function filled with some of the country’s most powerful figures without encountering any reasonable security. Then, once Homelander notices that most of the heroes are missing and discovers the bullet hole in Sage’s head, he doesn’t do any further investigating into the matter. I understand that he would be more concerned with the speech at the moment, but you would think that he would do some more investigating into the matter after that. Also, in another episode where The Boys are sneaking around Homelander, it seems his powers of X-ray vision, super hearing, and super hearing are only relevant whenever the plot calls for them to be. In an installment where Homelander is making more thoughtless decisions than usual, overly goofy scenes like Firecracker’s breastfeeding only work to diminish the character’s menace.

This organization of right-wingers provides yet another opportunity for some ripe political commentary. Some are a bit too ham-handed (the “Jewish space lasers” reference was too blunt, even for this show). Some others, like the quoting of Todd Akin’s stunningly idiotic “legitimate rape” quote and a reference to Mike Pence’s avoidance of staying in a room alone with any woman who isn’t his wife out of fear of temptation, fit the absurd tone of this show without even having to alter their reality. Similarly, Tek Knight’s smirkingly racist comments at A-Train overtly skewer the uncomfortable entitlement of those proudly deriving their wealth from their slave-owning ancestors (a great, subtle moment is when Tek Knight was bragging about owning a first-edition copy of Uncle Tom’s Cabin; since it’s a notably anti-slavery book, it exposes his complete ignorance about the book itself). After seeing all of these moments, the final reveal that Sage and Homelander are planning concentration camps for their ideological opponents is even more horrifying. That inhumane measure hammers home the threat of Homelander and Sage’s plan more so than anything we’ve seen before, and such a drastic measure only adds more of a threat to the season going forward.

Speaking of Sage, she gets some welcome scenes with Neuman about the cost it takes for women like them to be respected. They have a talk, which details how Sage’s “let them burn” outlook towards the world came from her extensive intelligence being disregarded. When Neuman understands she has to play the game to be respected, she steps up after Homelander’s blunder and delivers a speech about how these billionaires will be given free reign when she’s in power, while the masses will continue to be fooled by the lie of democracy. On the surface, her speech isn’t that much more insightful than what Homelander was saying; she’s just telling these people what they want to hear because, in reality, they’re just as stupid as the masses they hate. But these idiots need their egos stroked. Her lines about how the slack-jawed masses couldn’t be trusted with their political power are a brilliant indictment of the wealthy’s entitlement and the guiding force that they believe should be maintained over the public. Claudia Doumit and Susan Heyward can both execute the threatening sides of these characters while balancing their comedic sides, as proven by a hilarious beat where Neuman’s nodding exchange goes on for an awkwardly long time with a dumbed-down Sage.

Many of the supe-on-supe dynamics were also furthered here. Starlight and Firecracker get a strong scene together where Annie genuinely apologizes for how she treated Firecracker as a teen. She rightfully doesn’t forgive her for exposing her abortion, but it’s good to see Annie genuinely try to right her past wrongs here. Granted, it just leads to her knocking Firecracker out as a way of escaping, but in an episode where Firecracker feels pretty out of her depths, she at least gets some recognition from someone who has always looked down on her (Valorie Curry gets a great moment where, after being insulted at the party, she momentarily expresses that dejection before plastering on a fake smile in front of a mirror). 

The Deep and an unmasked Black Noir also get a scene where The Deep talks about his bromance with the old Noir and how the new one can use violence to slip into the role more. The Deep’s recounting of Noir’s village massacre had plenty of his cluelessly funny remarks while making the old Noir simultaneously a more messed-up (apparently killing two dozen innocents left him quite excited) and mentally damaged character (he apparently kept boxes full of Buster Beaver drawings, aw). I like how The Deep’s arc is countering A-Train; he remains the bumbling frat-bro, but he’s continuously sliding into a more violent mentality as A-Train sheds his loyalty to Vought. It’s cool to see Nathan Mitchell finally get to show off his face, and I wonder how the new Noir will react to this new “violence is power” mantra that must be adopted to settle into Vought (also, apparently he can fly, which must be shown onscreen sometime in the next two episodes). 

The best scene of the episode easily belongs to A-Train, which I’m so happy to say is no longer a surprise to say. His arc continues to be the highlight of the season thus far, and after MM suffers a panic attack upon finding out that Sage knows everything about his daughter, A-Train must get him to the hospital. Following a fun scene where Kimiko must convince him to save MM through the use of some expressive book titles, A-Train runs MM to the hospital. Here, he sees a child looking at him with awe, and he finally feels the pride and satisfaction that can be felt once he is actually heroic. It’s one of the show’s most beautiful moments; given that the show typically operates in extremity, this small moment offers an entirely earned glimmer of hope. It’s also a great bookend to an earlier scene in the season, where A-Train’s brother confronted him with the fact that he never actually saved anyone. 

As good as this character progression is, being a hero is not exactly welcome in this universe, and I’m now certain that A-Train will be dead by the end of the season. All I can hope is that he goes out in a heroic fashion rather than being gruesomely killed by Homelander or The Deep; the former would be a much better culmination of his development. MM doesn’t get as much to do, but it’s a smart move to continue to humanize the guy and examine the toll this gig is taking on him. However, I continue to grow annoyed at the completely incompetent plans that he has formulated with The Boys this season, as they have always fallen on their faces and make them seem useless without the intervention of Butcher. I hope that we at least see some remorse from him or the other members of the team for what they got Hughie into.

Somehow, that write-up about A-Train’s amazing scene actually just made me more frustrated about the episode. The show is still capable of elevated, profound writing (as you can tell, I still enjoyed a lot of this episode), which makes it annoying when they instead lean into their surface-level tendencies. We didn’t fall in love with the show because of the shock value; we loved it because of the writing, acting, characterization, and subversive satire it offered. The plane scene wasn’t hauntingly memorable because we saw lots of gore; it was powerful because they crafted a moment of intensity and emotion that didn’t need gimmicks. Everything with Hughie and Tek Knight was beneath this show, and I have no idea why we spent such a painful amount of time on it with such little time left in this season. I’ve still loved this season, and how I felt about this episode doesn’t change my enjoyment of the other five episodes. I’m really hoping that everyone just had a bad day at the office and that the writers just momentarily spiraled into an ill-advised plot. Please, please let this simply be a blip on the radar and not a sign of things to come. If it is, The Boys may be in trouble.

Grade: B

Stray Observations

• Homelander and Neuman have a tense talk about Stan Edgar’s escape from captivity. I’m sure Homelander is not happy at the thought of taking another verbal beatdown from him.

• No Frenchie in this episode, but we get some sweet scenes of Kimiko visiting him and refusing to leave. It’s clear that Frenchie thinks he doesn’t deserve anyone’s compassion, but Kimiko’s continued clinging to him is the perfect summation of their relationship.

• On that note, can we talk about what a ride-or-die friend Kimiko is? As soon as she came into Tek Knight’s cave and saw Hughie, she immediately drop-kicked him without hesitation and in a very satisfying way. She is just too pure for the cruel world of The Boys.

• Another fan pointed this out, but I find it a little strange how they just skimmed over any consequences from last week’s hospital massacre. You would think Hughie and his mom would show at least a bit of remorse for the innocents killed, as they are basically responsible for the same amount of carnage as many other supes.

• I don’t understand why The Boys keep encountering Firecracker just to leave her alive every time.

• I wish I had an imaginary Jeffrey Dean Morgan that I could talk to.

• RFK must be quite happy that Butcher is finally providing some good representation for guys with worms crawling around their brains.

• I guess we can discard my previous prediction about a potential redemption for Ashley after this episode.