‘The Boys’ S4 E6 Recap Explained: What Was Homelander And Sister Sage’s Masterplan?

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As the sixth episode of The Boys releases on July 4, the series unwittingly celebrates Independence Day in typical subversive, satirical fashion by mocking its pop culture icons in the most crass way and providing a reality check about the contemporary political landscape of the nation with a critique of topical discriminatory ideologies. Previously, Cameron Coleman was killed by the members of the Seven under Homelander’s command after Ashley set him up as the culprit of the Vought data leak—in order to protect A-Train. After freeing Stan Edgar to get access to the supe killing virus stashed by Victoria Neuman, the Boys ventured to a suped-up animal farm and had to team up with Neuman to find her lover and chief Vought scientist, Sameer, who was assigned to modify the virus to make it strong enough to kill Homelander. Unfortunately, the entire stock of the virus gets depleted at the end, and Butcher secretly abducts Sameer with Joe Kessler’s help, as he wishes to coerce him into making new batch of the virus. After getting dosed with Compound V, Hughie’s father gains a new lease on life but leaves a trail of bloody massacre behind due to his uncontrollable powers, prompting Hughie to finally make amends with his guilt and let his father rest in peace as he injects him with poison to end his misery. Sage and Homelander had been planning something nefarious, which Sage had shared with Tek Knight, and all of these plot points get addressed in the sixth episode titled “Dirty Business.”

Spoilers Ahead


Becca and Kessler’s Influence Explained

At this point, it is pretty obvious to the majority of viewers that Butcher’s deteriorating physical and mental condition has him seeing ghosts of the past, the truth about his CIA buddy Joe Kessler gets revealed in this episode in dramatic fashion. Butcher repeatedly coerces Sameer to modify the virus, only to learn at the end that he is unwilling to do it because not only will it increase the virus’ lethality, it will also make it airborne, which entails the risk of spreading a global supe pandemic. While Kessler delightfully chuckles at the idea of wiping out all the supes in one go, Becca’s vision tries to help Butcher choose the right path, and eventually Butcher realizes that his guilt over not being able to save his best buddy—Kessler, all those years ago—has found common ground with his regret over Becca’s death. With a Negan-esque vile smirk, Kessler remarks that he is a manifestation of Butcher’s darkest desires, and he is going to be around for the time being. Will Butcher make the right choice at the end, or has he gone way too far to redeem himself? The remaining two episodes of the season might shed some light on that.


Hughie Becomes Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Perv

After witnessing the murder of Cameron Coleman, a panicked A-Train calls MM and reveals that Sage and Homelander are conspiring big time, and the superhero-detective Tek Knight is somehow connected with the plans. The Boys learn about a Federalist society party is going to take place at Tek Knight’s ancestral estate, where a number of right-wing socialites and political hotshots will be present. MM decides to send Hughie on a recon mission in the guise of Webweaver, who has also been invited to the party.

In classic The Boys style parody, just as the character’s name suggests, Webweaver is a mockery of Spider-Man, as the character is presented as a washed-up junkie pervert who shoots web out of a special web hole in his back. It is suggested that Webweaver has previously assisted the Boys in a number of secretive missions as well in exchange for his required ‘substances,’ which makes the ordeal of knocking him out all the easier, and Hughie dons the webslinger’s suit (which is quite similar to Spidey’s suit as well) to infiltrate Tek Knight’s party. Kimiko tries to reach out to Frenchie, who had surrendered himself to the authorities as his guilt-ridden psyche acted up, but Frenchie effectively shuts everyone out. 


Tek Knight and Ashley Traumatize Hughie in the Worst Ways

Donning Webweaver’s suit, Hughie joins Tek Knight’s party and plants bugs, allowing the team to listen in on the conversation inside. Hughie is shocked to see that members of the Seven and VP elect Victoria Neuman have been invited to the gala as well, but he remains composed enough to not get his cover blown. However, after Tek Knight aka Robert Vernon reveals the reason why someone like Webweaver was invited to his party in the first place, Hughie’s misery continues to grow. Tek Knight brings him to his Tek Cave, a sex dungeon where Tek Knight engages in all his degraded, despicable sex fetishes, a testament to which is seen as his former sidekick, Laddio, stays chained in his gimp suit. Webweaver was supposed to be Vernon’s new sidekick, and to get that position, he needed to partake in some specific, super awkward, sadomasochist BDSM acts, which Hughie performs, having no other option to protect his cover. Ashley, a former acquaintance of Vernon, shared a similar taste as the perverted detective, and as she joins the duo as well, Hughie is tortured even more. With Tek Knight being a distorted version of Batman and Webweaver of Spidey, this was a hero crossover nobody would have ever expected or wanted. 


A-Train’s Hero Moment

Meanwhile, even a shrewd politician and killer like Neuman finds it difficult to gulp down all the racist, misogynist nonsense spewed by the conservative billionaires, but Sage reminds her that even with their powers, it is pointless to try to do better as humanity will always end up in a cesspool due to their own vices. So it is better to go along with the flow and watch the world burn, and at the moment, Neuman needs to calibrate her mindset to gain the financial and political leverage to aid the cause of supes and Vought. Meanwhile, concerned about Hughie’s safety ever since his comms went off, MM, Annie, and Kimiko decide to infiltrate Tek Knight’s mansion.

Quite unexpectedly, Annie comes across Firecracker and manages to knock her out without getting herself caught—not before addressing an apology to her. MM stumbles upon Sage as she was chalking up the plan she and Homelander had concocted, and as Sage threatens him with his daughter’s life, MM shoots her in the head and collapses after having a panic attack. Kimiko requests assistance from A-Train, who begrudgingly admits MM to the hospital without being noticed thanks to his superspeed. However, after a kid at the hospital lights up seeing A-Train rescuing someone’s life and doing proper heroic work for a change, the speedster earns his hero moment after a long, long while. 


What was Homelander and Sage’s master plan?

After Hughie fails to remember Webweaver’s safe word while participating in BDSM acts, Vernon gets skeptical and finds out his true identity. The maniac pervert prepares to cut a few holes open in Hughie’s body to satisfy his sexual fantasies regarding ‘holes,’ which makes Hughie realize quite practically why it is said to never meet your heroes (Tek Knight was Hughie’s). Fortunately, Kimiko and Annie make a last-minute save to rescue Hughie from further humiliation. As they force Tek Knight to reveal the reason for Homelander needing his assistance, it is revealed that his slaver ancestors had built a chain of prisons across the nations, which Homelander and Sage need to lock up all the dissidents as they plan to take over the White House once Singer gets the seat, and internment camps will be the place for all the detractors. Vernon’s trusted butler, Elijah, who had raised the orphan Vernon since a young age, decides to strangle him to death as internment camps are where he draws the line of his morality.

Homelander finally prepares to deliver his pitch of the takeover to the socialites with Sage’s help, but the latter has temporarily lost her grip on her mind after MM’s headshot has made her undergo the same experience that her self-performed lobotomy does. Neuman rises to the occasion as she delivers a resounding speech justifying the supes attempting a coup and giving control to the socialites, conglomerates, and agents of the capitalist nation who have absolute power anyway. Later, Firecracker conveys her total devotion and adherence to Homelander by entertaining one of his perverted fantasies and also reveals that Coleman wasn’t the leaker after all, as the Boys had infiltrated the Vernon mansion with credible information. MM recovers quickly and re-joins his team.

Neuman’s conversation is overheard by the team as they ponder how bad the situation can get. As the episode ends, it has become pretty clear that A-Train joining the Boys is merely a matter of time, but even that will not help the team much if Homelander indeed goes through his entire coup orchestrating plan. Is Billy’s supe-virus going to be the last resort after all, or is a Gen V connection going to be explored to provide a better solution in the remaining couple of episodes? I guess we have to wait to know that for certain. 


Siddhartha Das
Siddhartha Das
An avid fan and voracious reader of comic book literature, Siddhartha thinks the ideals accentuated in the superhero genre should be taken as lessons in real life also. A sucker for everything horror and different art styles, Siddhartha likes to spend his time reading subjects. He's always eager to learn more about world fauna, history, geography, crime fiction, sports, and cultures. He also wishes to abolish human egocentrism, which can make the world a better place.


 

 

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