Prime Video series spins on the spot and heads towards its endgame

Warning! Spoilers for The young Season 4, Episode 6 below.

Despite some important revelations The young Episode 6 of season 4 is the series at its most stripped down, highlighting some of its weaknesses as it nears its conclusion. We get another classic undercover operation for the titular team, as Tek Knight organizes a gathering of wealthy right-wing extremists who are informed of Homelander and Sister Sage’s plan to take over the United States.

Elsewhere, Butcher is still at Victoria Neuman’s farm in the north of the state, torturing her lab technician Sameer to force him to create more of the Supe virus. He only needs one dose, enough to take out Homelander, but Sameer warns that the dose could turn into an airborne virus that kills all the Supes, effectively making Butcher an accomplice to genocide. He is forced to weigh the choice, and it culminates in a surprising revelation.

Butcher is much worse off than we thought

In addition to the V-related illness, he also hallucinates

Butcher’s world is turned completely upside down in episode 6 when Joe Kessler, the character played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, is revealed to be a hallucination when he directly addresses Becca Butcher, who has appeared to Butcher at key moments. It’s a reveal that’s been hinted at from the beginning – in the image above, Butcher’s perspective from the coffee cup suggests something deeper is happening in the scene – but that only dulls the surprise a little.

It’s now very clear that part of Butcher is willing to wipe out every Supe in existence if it means taking out Homelander, and that only confirms that the former leader of the Boys may already be too far gone. His attempt to save Ryan and take out Homelander has fundamentally changed him, and like the V in his body, acts like a poison as it moves through his body. Butcher may be preparing to make some major sacrifices in the final two episodes of season four.

So what the hell is going on in Tek Knight’s mansion?

The boys’ latest mission puts many of them in compromising situations

The celebrations at Tek Knight’s mansion are a simple preparation for a new mission. The goal: to bug the rooms so they can hear what is being said between Homelander, Nurse Sage, and various high-ranking politicians and billionaires. Hughie is to plant the bugs, disguised as Web Weaver, a drugged Supe who is incapacitated by Mother’s Milk in a particularly disgusting scene.

Unfortunately, Hughie only manages to plant a few bugs before being lured into Tek Knight’s sex dungeon and tied up for psychosexual torture. It turns out that Tek Knight’s desire for a sidekick is just to act out his sadomasochistic fantasies on someone in a superhero costume, and when Ashley joins the party, we’re treated to a lengthy sequence of Hughie’s torture.

The scene is meant to be laughable, but it is neither as funny nor as outrageous or shocking as The young seems to think so. That Hughie is essentially sexually assaulted is not an issue in the scene, and while that topic is not outside the show’s purview, it feels particularly odd in this case. Peppered with some vicious racism from Tek Knight (more “satire”) I’m sure), and the whole dungeon scene leaves a bad taste in your mouth. If it wasn’t so unpleasant, it would just be boring.

Elsewhere, it’s revealed that Homelander’s plan actually involves Tek Knight, as he owns an empire of private prisons across the United States. Homelander and Sage plan to lock up political dissidents, and Tek Knight is more than willing to help. As the only other revelation in the episode, it’s surprising and sheds further light on Homelander’s plan, which will presumably culminate on January 6, the date the finale is building toward.

Related

Behind the Pattinson Batman parody of the fourth season of “The Boys” lies a really disgusting joke

The Boys is clearly a parody of superheroes and comic books, but Tek Knight’s Batman parody is one of the most subtle and disturbing parts of the entire show.

Elsewhere in Tek Knight’s mansion, Annie confronts Firecracker, MM suffers a panic attack, and Kimiko and Annie are able to save Hughie with the help of Tek Knight’s chained sex slave. A-Train’s redemption continues as he takes MM to the hospital, while Neuman officially sides with Homelander in front of the billionaire collectors. In a final scene, Firecracker tries to get Sage out of the way by revealing that she can now produce breast milk, much to Homelander’s chagrin.

While The young Season 4 was entertaining at times, but it often felt like the show was treading water and slowly heading toward an endgame. The series ending with season 5 seems like a better idea by the day, as this latest episode confirms my fears – this show doesn’t have much shock value left to offer, and it certainly won’t be aiming more biting satire at audiences.

Much of the season’s (and this episode in particular) political commentary is copy-pasted from real-life situations – billionaires meeting in wood-paneled back rooms, a joke about one of those men who refuses to be alone with a woman who isn’t his wife, Tek Knight’s explanation of the prison industrial complex and his gleeful complicity, Firecracker’s Q-Anon-esque podcast and their brain-dead supporters. There are no jokes or commentary here, and it’s certainly not shocking – we’ve seen it all before.

I believe that The young has some juice left in it. Butcher and Homelander’s inevitable showdown, Butcher’s reunion with Ryan (in whatever form that may take), the various fates of all the characters we’ve come to know over the last four seasons – these are all things I can’t wait to see.

But as it stands now, it feels like the show is holding its cards too close to its chest in terms of plot, while throwing around trenchant commentary that is as sharp as an overused knife. This latest episode solidifies those fears and The young has to take big steps to get out of this rut ​​before the end of season four.

The young Season 4, Episode 6 is now streaming on Prime Video.

The Boys is a superhero/black comedy satire series created by Eric Kripke and based on the comic book series of the same name. It is set in a “what if” world where superheroes are worshipped as celebrities and gods who face minimal consequences for their actions. However, a group of vigilantes led by a vengeful man named Billy Butcher will fight back against these superpowered “heroes” to expose them for what they are.

Per

• Two big revelations drive the plot forward in season 4 of The Boys.

Disadvantages

• The boys’ sense of humor is slowly fading.
• Repetitive missions and superficial commentary mar the episode.
• Ultimately, The Boys loses some momentum heading into the final two episodes.