Dirty Business – The episode opens with William/Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) and Joe Kessler (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) pushing Sameer Shah (Omid Abtahi) to put a rush on the virus and make it strong enough to douse Homelander (Antony Starr). He assures them this will take months but Butcher’s incessant coughing clearly indicates he won’t have that long. Elsewhere, Hughie Campbell Jr. (Jack Quaid) and Daphne Campbell (Rosemarie DeWitt) continue to bond while spreading Hughie Sr.’s (Simon Pegg) on a Manhattan walking tour. Kimiko Miyashiro (Karen Fukuhara) is also with them and appears depressed about Frenchie (Tomer Capone) turning himself in. It doesn’t help when she learns later that he’s refused visitors.

Vought has already capitalized on Cameron Coleman’s (Matthew Edison) disappearance by putting Firecracker (Valorie Curry) in his position. Marvin T. Milk/Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) has seen all he wants and shuts off the news to relax. This is very shortly interrupted by a frantic phone call from A-Train/Reggie Franklin (Jessie T. Usher), who is in a tizzy about being discovered as a rat. Shortly after this, Marvin relays what he’s learned to Starlight/Annie January (Erin Moriarty) and Hughie. Marvin also tells them about a Tek Knight (Derek Wilson) cocktail event scheduled for later that evening. Much to everyone’s surprise, it is Annie who suggests that bringing Butcher in on the operation might be a good idea. As for securing an invitation to the party, Marvin already has a plan, Webweaver (Dan Mousseau).

The cocktail party is well underway by the time Homelander and Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) show up. Although Tek Knight gives them a hero’s welcome, Homelander doesn’t hide his disdain for him later during the event. Sister Sage (Susan Heyward) doesn’t hide her displeasure with Ashley Barrett’s (Colby Minifie) attendance either.

The Boys get a good laugh out of Hughie’s portrayal of Webweaver before Marvin reminds him of Tek’s super senses and his goal to plant the bugs. Starlight appears hesitant with Hughie’s participation but it’s merely minutes after this that he is greeted at the front entrance of the party by Elijah (Tyrone Benskin). According to Elijah, Tek has been specifically awaiting Webs’ arrival.

It doesn’t take Hughie long to bug the main room but there is a moment of extreme tension when he accidentally bumps into Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit). She appears to be fooled by the costume and smell but doesn’t get too long to think about it due to the abrupt arrival of Tek. This is when it is revealed that Tek and Web have some kind of sidekick deal in the works. While Tek gives Hughie a tour around the estate, Victoria briefly meets with Homelander and Sage who inform her about their later plans. Homelander also asks her about Stan Edgar’s (Giancarlo Esposito) release from prison. She tells him that she is surprised it didn’t happen earlier but he can’t hurt them.

Hughie’s tour eventually leads him to what Tek refers to as the ‘Tek Cave.’ This not only cuts off Hughie’s contact but he finds himself in what appears to be some sort of sex dungeon. Starlight immediately freaks out and The Deep/Kevin Moskowitz (Chace Crawford) does the same when he finds the fake Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell) not only sitting in Homelander’s chair at Vought HQ but chugging sake with his mask off. Noir not only reveals that he doesn’t like violence and he’s done with the Noir gig but he’s already made arrangements for other work. Much to Noir’s surprise, The Deep, in his roundabout way, convinces him to stay by regaling him with tales of what violence really meant to the original Noir.

By this time, Starlight is in full freak-out mode and recruits Kimiko to help rescue Hughie. At nearly the same time, Butcher’s condition worsens and Victoria has a troubling discussion with Senator Calhoun (David Andrews) about abortion. The discussion is so bad that Victoria is nearly ready to jump ship on their plan but Sage convinces her otherwise. Things in the Tek Cave reach a new level of awkwardness when the German cake comes out and Ashley shows up. She’s directed to the bathroom where Tek supposedly has a surprise waiting on her.

Sameer proves to be a much tougher nut to crack than Kessler or Butcher imagined. Hughie, on the other hand, is ready to submit before Ashley and Tek even start on him. Lucky for him, Starlight, Kimiko, and Marvin aren’t far behind but have gotten separated for the moment. Starlight unexpectedly encounters Firecracker and tries to apologize, which fails horribly and forces her to dose her with a shot of Halothane.

Political discussions continue downstairs as Kimiko and Marvin make their way to Tek’s library, where they are surprised by Sage. Marvin is ready and holds her at gunpoint while Kimiko searches for the entrance to the Tek Cave. Sage won’t leave well enough alone and leaves Marvin with no option but to shoot her in the head when he lunges for the alarm. Marvin’s stress becomes too much and he faints, which ultimately segues into Kimiko secretively recruiting A-Tran to take him to the hospital. Starlight just happens to join the part just as A-Train speeds away with Marvin in a fireman’s carry. Although Ashley has climaxed and is in the process of getting redressed for the party, Tek has discovered that Hughie is masquerading as Web.

Homelander becomes concerned when he realizes that A-Train, Tek Knight, and Firecracker are all missing. His fears are only substantiated when he shortly learns that Marvin’s bullet has temporarily taken away Sage’s intellect. With no other option, it falls on his shoulders to convince the elitists to invoke the 25th Amendment on Robert Singer (Jim Beaver), citing him as the greatest threat to America. Despite most of those in attendance agreeing, Homeander’s lack of intellect shines through when the tougher questions about policies and reactions are brought to light. Victoria seizes the opportunity.

With Hughie safe, Kimiko and Starlight turn their attention to interrogating Tek Knight, which proves to be much harder than imagined, being that he enjoys pain. If not for Tek’s previous sidekick, Laddio (Reid Miller), they probably would have never discovered that money is his weakness. After Hughie cracks his bank accounts and begins transferring millions to various organizations, Tek tells them about Homelander and Sage using his 4 private prions to house their dissidents. This is apparently all he knows and they believe him. Much to everyone’s surprise, it is Elijah who puts Tek out of his misery.

Marvin learns from the Doctor (Devon MacDonald) that he had a panic attack. At the same time, Frenchie turns down Kimiko’s visit again. Firecracker continues to build trust with Homelander by telling him about Starlight being at the party. She doesn’t receive the gratitude she was expecting but everything changes when she squirts him in the face with milk from her tits.

The episode ends with Butcher’s interrogation leading to two major discoveries. The first is that in order for Sameer to create a virus strain strong enough to kill Homelander, it would result in a global pandemic for anyone with Compound V in their systems. This means it could possibly kill Ryan as well as Zoe Neuman (Olivia Morandin). This is why Sameer held out so long. The second discovery is that Kessler is a figment of his imagination. The real Joe Kessler died during their last deployment.

 

The Boys Review

The Boys gets its ‘Fight Club’ moment. It could have come at a better time because this episode certainly wasn’t the best. That’s at least the way I felt, and I think a lot of it had to do with the unnecessary runtime. Everything significant that happened could have been summed up easily in 30 to 40 minutes. Don’t get me wrong, I do ‘sometimes’ enjoy the comic skits, advertisements, and side plots but there are times when they are a bit much.

The entire dungeon bit I could have done without as well as Webweaver farting web in Marvin’s face. Cutting all that could have nearly cut the runtime in half. The cocktail party, however, was an interesting subversion. I can’t say that ending took me by complete surprise. Other than this, the episode wasn’t so bad but I would like to see more from Butcher. I feel like he’s taken a backseat this season. That said, the episode gets a 5.5 out of 10.

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