It’s Christmas eve in The Boys universe, and you know how the bloodlusted maniacs like to celebrate the festive season—obviously with murder, dismemberment, conspiracies, and an occasional, irritable dash of soul searching. The misadventures at Tek Knight‘s mansion in the previous episode revealed that Homelander and Neuman are all in to attempt a coup to eliminate president-elect Singer and fill up major administrative and legislative ranks with supes loyalists, while the dissidents will be put in internment camps. Butcher became fully aware of his troubled psyche after Kessler quite obviously turned out to be a ruthless, vile manifestation of his repressed guilt, and he also learned from the captive Sameer that the supe killing virus might lead to supe genocide if its strength is further increased. A-Train continues his efforts to turn a new page as he rescues a panic attack-stricken MM. The seventh episode is a prelude to the bombastic showdown that awaits viewers in the season finale, and from the looks of it, a number of major players are going to miss the ticket to the fifth and final season.
Spoilers Ahead
The Boys Learn About The Seven’s Assassination Plan
After the last episode’s intriguing escapade with Homelander, Firecracker has become the main man’s close acquaintance, while Sage’s lobotomy-induced fumbling has made her take a backseat. Homelander queries Sage about the leaker, as now he knows that Cameron Coleman was needlessly murdered as he wasn’t the culprit, but Sage has no answer. From her conversation with Homelander, it is revealed that the duo, along with Neuman, have already arranged a plan to assassinate President-elect Singer. A-Train, who has become a proper informant for the Boys at this point, duly passes the information to them, along with a picture of Sage meeting with the hired shooter.
Annie’s misery continues as Firecracker’s libeling continues to haunt her, this time in the form of her mother’s disappointment with her regarding Annie’s abortion becoming public news overnight. Hughie tries to comfort his girlfriend by stating that they need to pick up the pieces gradually.
Butcher breaks the grand news to his team as to how he made positive efforts to procure a stronger strain of the supe-killing virus by capturing Neuman’s lover/Vought scientist Sameer. His colleagues get shocked even more after learning that the effort might lead to global supe-genocide by making the virus airborne, but Butcher has presumably found a solution to prevent that as well. He has brought Frenchie back onto the team by pulling a few strings with Mallory’s help, as he believes that with Frenchie’s expertise, Sameer can make the virus work in the exact way they need it to—lethal enough to take out Homelander but not contagious to other supes. Frenchie is still submerged in guilt and self-pity, but he begrudgingly agrees to help the team out. MM decides to take a step back and give Butcher the reins again, as the panic attack has dialed up his concerns for the well-being of his family. Butcher, Annie, and Hughie are set to track down the shooter, while Kimiko and Frenchie are sent to watch over and assist Sameer to help create a stronger strain of supe-killing virus.
The Boys Fail Big Time
Butcher continues to get plagued by visions of Kessler, who expresses his disgust over him for trusting others and caring so much about the supes all of a sudden. For now, Butcher takes control as he dismisses Kessler, and inside the shooter’s apartment, the team finds out that the assassination is going to take place at one of Singer’s upcoming rallies. The trio rescues a seemingly traumatized, captive girl from the apartment, only to realize moments later that she is the shooter as she tries to escape by fleeing. The shooter turns out to be a shapeshifter supe, and in true The Boys fashion, her powers involve tearing her skin and flesh out to take the guise of someone else. The shooter manages to vanish after getting out in the street, and the boys return empty-handed. Hughie goes his own way to meet with Neuman with the wish to somehow convince her to turn to the right side, but to no avail.
On the other hand, Kimiko and Frenchie reconnect after their previous falling out, as Kimiko shares how she too bears the burden of past guilt, much like Frenchie. Being raised by the Shining Light terrorist clan, Kimiko had learned to take lives from a young age, out of necessity for survival, and like Frenchie, she too wasn’t able to face herself after realizing what a monster she had become. The shared experience of guilt removes the rift that was created between the duo, and they plan to release Sameer after he finishes his work. However, Sameer had secretly unlocked his restraints, and after formulating a stronger dose by adhering to Frenchie’s advice, he made a daring escape by injecting Kimiko with it. As Sameer makes a run for it, Frenchie has no choice but to hack off one of Kimiko’s legs to stop the virus from spreading into the bloodstream any further.
Homelander Sends Deep and Noir to Hunt the Boys Down
A-Train visits Ashley to inform her that Homelander and co. now know that Coleman was innocent and finds her to be wracked with guilt. After years of muddling in the filth of Vought, Ashley is truly scared for her dear life and suggests A-Train flee away with her from this cesspool.
A-Train instead goes to MM, who is preparing to quit the boys for good and leave with his family. MM sees only one end to the disastrous, never-ending battle between them and the Seven, and he is unwilling to end up like his father and grandfather, who became victims of the wanton violence of the supes. MM would rather spend his time protecting his family, but A-Train rightly mentions that there is no escaping from all this. Furthermore, A-Train thanks MM for providing him with one opportunity to feel proud about himself, as he details how his act of rescuing MM was witnessed by a kid, whose inspired face brought him much more pride than the fake limelight of Vought and the Seven ever could. MM later decides to change his decision about quitting the team and arranges for his family to leave the country. To keep them safe, he needs to see things through to the end.
Through Firecracker, Homelander is informed that Webweaver had planted bugs at Tek Knight’s party—even though it was Hughie in his costume—and the clownish hijinks of the webcrawler don’t suggest otherwise, as he confesses to assisting Butcher previously as well. Homelander rips the doofus apart, traumatizing Firecracker in the process. In his anger, Homelander plans to just stop beating around the bush and take the battle directly to the enemy.
The Deep goes through a personal crisis after his octopus mistress, Ambrosius, calls him out regarding his tryst with Sage, and after a heated argument, an infuriated Deep breaks her aquarium and keeps her locked, which eventually leads to the octopus’ agonizing death. Deep in way over his head after Sage hyped him up, and after the death of Ambrosius, he has lost it completely, as he readily offers his assistance to Homelander with newfound enthusiasm. Homelander sends him and Noir to hunt down the boys, and the duo confront Annie and Butcher in the boys’ office.
Annie and Butcher barely manage to hold their own, with Butcher calling out to Kessler as a last resort (Butcher’s Kessler persona helped him to kill Ezekiel), but help arrives in the most unexpected way as A-Train surprisingly joins the fight, revealing himself as the leaker and turning the tide in the favor of the Boys. MM arrives in the nick of time to push back Noir by riddling him with a minigun, and the boys manage to somehow survive. With his cover blown, A-Train approaches Ashley to flee as planned, but she realizes that she has gone way too deep in this mess to ever hope to get free. A-Train leaves, removes his tracking chip, adhering to Ashley’s advice, and secures his family by taking them away as well.
Can the boys stop the assassination of the president?
Homelander is comically disturbed after learning about A-Train’s betrayal and questions Sage about her lack of awareness. Sage reveals that she knew all along but allowed the deceit anyway as it was beneficial for the grand plan—she wanted to mislead the boys by sending misinformation through A-Train. Homelander fires Sage then and there for keeping secrets, and as her final retort, Sage goads Homelander about him being too ineffectual to overcome his own insecurities.
The boys learn about Sameer’s escape, and MM plans to use the virus-infected, severed leg of Kimiko to continue the work anyway. Annie later questions Butcher about his mention of Kessler and Ezekiel during their battle with Deep and Noir; quite obviously, Butcher avoids the question. On the other hand, Ryan was having a hard time regurgitating the propagandist nonsense of Vought in a Muppets/Sesame Street-inspired kids show, as his own sense of morality didn’t sit well with such nonsense. After receiving Butcher’s Christmas gift, he became even more confident about choosing the right path. Finally, he gathered the courage to denounce Vought’s shambolic messages and championed the ideals of his mother, Becca, and the better father figure of his life, Butcher. Homelander’s face after seeing the telecast was more entertaining than most of the season, while Butcher, in a drunken state, rejoices Ryan’s turn to the good side. However, his physical afflictions are catching up pretty badly, as he collapses in a bar, leaving his fate uncertain.
On the other hand, it is revealed that the shapeshifter assassin supe has successfully beguiled Hughie with the appearance of Annie and has stolen the confidential information Hughie had regarding other supes as leverage. As the episode ends, the real Annie remains captive in a warehouse, and an unseen presence enters the room, leaving her fate uncertain as well. The Boys are in a vulnerable state with two of their vital members cornered, and with crisis knocking at the door in the form of Singer’s possible assassination, they are miserably outnumbered. A-Train’s redemption arc, which was the highlight of the entire season, might get a bloody end, as we suspect that he will be engaged in a battle to save the president’s life and sacrifice himself in the process. Alternatively, the makers might choose to keep him up to the final season; after all, his actions started all this in the first place. With the supe killing virus not yet prepared and most of the confidential data getting stolen by the shapeshifter, it will be interesting to see whether the boys can manage to level the battlefield in the fourth season finale and save the president, or whether we are going to see America as a supe-controlled dictatorial state in the next season.
