The Boys Season 4, Episode 7 Recap & Review
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Spoilers for ‘The Boys’ Season 4, Episode 7

As a set-up episode for next week’s season finale, “The Insider” is understandably all over the place. With so many characters and storylines, it’s hard to keep track sometimes. While that can hurt the show, and has numerous times this season, there is at least some sense of direction this week as they try to bring it all together next week. Or as much as they can, given where we are with this dysfunctional band of “superheroes.” 

Even with Butcher’s (Karl Urban) continued deterioration, Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) passes the torch of leadership back to him. He’s determined to save his life and his family, and the panic attack/fainting from the last episode pushes him to leave. Butcher, Annie (Erin Moriarty), and Hughie (Jack Quaid) go hunting down the man they think will be the assassin to take down the POTUS Robert Singer (Jim Beaver), leaving the door open for supe in hiding Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) to take over. It’s here we meet a horrifying and exciting new supe, a shapeshifter, who escapes the three Boys and leaves them wondering how to stop them from killing the President. 

The Boys have to thank A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) again for putting them onto the shape-shifting assassin in the first place. A-Train is getting some long overdue screen time and redemption arcs this season, trying to push away from The Seven and do some actual good. Ironically, he is the one to convince Mother’s Milk not to join his family in a safer, far away country, as Mother’s Milk was the one who slowly brought A-Train back to the side of good. No one ever thought he would actually leave, but the scene between the two characters was great, giving both actors some moments to shine. 

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Meanwhile, Butcher decides genocide is too much. After admitting what he did with Sameer (Omid Abtahi) and pulling strings to get a reluctant Frenchie (Tomer Capone) out of jail, they get Sameer to create a more focused virus to target Homelander and Neuman only. (Although they lie about their plans to use it on Neuman.).

Speaking of Frenchie, he and Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) clear the air, deciding that even though there might not be any redemption for them for what they have done in the past, they are better off facing things together. This season has treated both characters strangely, digging into their past and then dropping them for multiple episodes, so this was a nice moment to see.

Let’s give it up for The Deep (Chace Crawford), who has some great scenes. This includes his huge scene with Ambrosius (voiced by Tilda Swinton) and the team-up with Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell) to try and take down Butcher and Annie on orders from Homelander. Crawford doesn’t get enough credit for the wonderful and bizarre humor he brings to the show with his character. The Deep is also one of the characters seemingly always in the background but shone brightly this week when he had the chance. 

Homelander (Antony Starr) continues to unravel, repeatedly showing off his violent nature and unstable mind. To make things worse, Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) disobeys him on live TV, pushing back against the racist and horrific Christmas-themed puppet show they threw him on to make him more of a legit Vought team player. I’m still not sure which way Ryan is leaning. He hilariously addressed the gift of a family photo from Butcher, and his outright distaste for the Christmas show puts him leaning toward Team Butcher at this point. This, of course, is much to Homelander’s frustration and Butcher’s pride, who, after witnessing it on TV, collapsed again, with calls for 911 heard as the scene ended. 

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“The Insider” wraps with Annie being kidnapped and replaced by the shapeshifter, but not after shapeshifter Annie and Hugie have some fun, all while she is wearing the Starlight outfit. It’s a nice cliffhanger to a very busy episode that did as much as possible with many characters as it paves a solid and chaotic path toward the finale. It’s been a mixed bag of a season, to be sure, but there is no doubt next week will be deadly for some and bloody for all as everyone involved tries to bring it home to a satisfying conclusion. 

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