REVIEW: The Boys – Season 4, Episode 7, “The Insider”

Television Reviews

***SPOILERS***

In “The Insider,” Sage is surprised to find Firecracker in her seat next to Homelander. Butcher has had Malory free Frenchie from prison to help Samir with the virus. MM reinstates Butcher as team leader, then meets with Monique to send her and Janine to Belize. Monique reconciles with him, moved by the gesture. The Boys break into an apartment and find government files and a shapeshifter. A-Train confronts Marvin about leaving. Frenchie brings Samir food to help him with the virus. Firecracker frames Webweaver as the leak. Homelander kills him. Kimiko tells Frenchie why she can’t talk. The Deep’s octopus knows about his affair with Sage, and he smashes her tank, killing her. Hughie begs Victoria to stop the madness. Deep and Noir come to the Boys’ headquarters, and a fight breaks out with Butcher and Starlight. When all seems lost, A-Train and Marvin come in swinging and shooting. A-Train asks Ashley to leave with him, but she stays at Vought. Homelander fires Sage. Samir injects Kimiko with the virus and runs away, and Frenchie cuts her leg off to save her life. Starlight wakes up in Starlight House with a woman she met at a bar, dead. 

I’ve been worried about A-Train this entire season, and when I saw the title “The Insider,” I thought he would surely die this week. The show’s writers and directors have done an excellent job of making A-Train sympathetic despite his previous actions and creating tension with the Seven. You can actually feel the constant threat of discovery whether A-Train is with the Boys or at Vought trying to play it cool. I have mixed feelings about his escape, as his duplicitous role has been one of the most entertaining parts of season 4 for me. I’m genuinely relieved he’s alive, especially since I went into this episode fully expecting him to die. And I think he’s made up for his past wrongdoing in helping the Boys both personally and in the fight against Vought. But I will miss him; it was great to see his growth and the lengths he would go to make amends. They make it clear in “The Insider” that the kids at the hospital were random, which makes sense. I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t remember what A-Train’s nephews looked like at all and thought it might have been them. But it would be contrived and silly if they just happened to be there, so this is better. Plus, now he’s a hero for them and his brother by getting them away from Vought’s reach. 

I know a lot is happening, but it’s weird to see Hughie go from actively mourning his dad to not mentioning him from one episode to the next. I think it’s jarring because most of his story has been about his dad this season. And is this just the end of Daphne, Hughie’s mom? It’s bizarre to bring her in and focus a lot on her past and mental illness just for her to disappear. I guess it would also be weird for her to care about her son just now and want to be in his life, but as it stands, what was the point? I think they wanted us to feel sorry for her and sympathize with her depression. It didn’t work on me; I have experience with depression and anxiety, both first-hand and second-hand. I admit I’ve never had postpartum depression; I hope I never have postpartum anything, as I don’t want children. But I have strong feelings about personal responsibility, and being a parent is one of the biggest responsibilities in the world, the biggest one most folks can ever have. I do not think mental illness or disability is an excuse to do whatever you want, to abandon your family and obligations. Frankly, if Daphne wasn’t up to having a baby, why did she do it? Being depressed isn’t a pass to ditch your husband and young son any more than anger issues give you leave to murder people. For some reason, this idea always troubles me. Plenty of people struggle with their mental health, and if we all went straight for our worst impulses, I fully believe society would collapse. I’m all for promoting greater understanding and empathy for mental health, but it rubs me the wrong way when it’s used to excuse or justify bad behavior. It’s harder to do the right thing when your head’s not right, but that’s precisely why you have to push back harder. Challenges aren’t a pass to give up and run away. I realize Daphne isn’t a main character, and you’re probably not supposed to care this much about her. But she truly disgusts me, and I’m surprised the show seems to support her crappy decisions. She could at least comfort Hughie in the wake of losing his one decent parent, but this sack of crap can’t even do that right. If you feel depressed or overwhelmed, please ask for help. Don’t throw away the people who depend on you. 

With his dad dead and his mom nowhere to be seen, Hughie has surprisingly little to do in “The Insider.” The Boys started with his ire at his former hero for killing his girlfriend. It’s strange now to see A-Train go and Hughie relegated to the background. Although he tries to talk Victoria Neuman out of colluding with Homelander, that goes about as well as any of us could have expected. She’s a murderer; I don’t know why anyone would expect her to be better than Homelander. It’s nice to see Ryan stand up to his dad and the BS jobs Vought is having him do. The idea of the Avenue V Christmas Special is funnier than the execution, but either way, I’m glad the kid said no to the blatant propaganda. Vought isn’t even clever or subtle in its political maneuvering. Speaking of Homelander, he fires Sister Sage, replacing her with Firecracker. This plot has been kind of circular, hasn’t it? Homelander sought out Sage because he was tired of the yes-men (Ashley, Deep, etc.) and wanted someone to stand up to him. But now, Homelander dismisses Sage for the ultimate brain-dead yes man… Firecracker. I guess the point is the lack of growth, but it’s unsatisfying and frustrates me. The Deep also has a weird story in “The Insider.” He kills his octopus for Sage, who ends up getting fired anyway. I bet he’s rethinking that now. He also claims that Annie falsely accused him and that she can’t cancel him. This guy is so far up his own ass he can’t see the sky. He is very funny, though. 

After Frenchie and Samir create the super virus, Samir turns the tables on his captors by injecting Kimiko’s leg with it. He hobbles off, leaving Frenchie preoccupied with his injured bestie. Frenchie amputates the infected leg and, of course, Kimiko lives, leading to a Deadpool-esque scene of a baby leg growing in its place. I fully expected Kimiko to scream when her leg was sawed off, allowing her to speak again. That would be cheap, so it’s probably for the best that I was wrong. Evidently, at some point, Annie is replaced by the shapeshifter assassin Neuman is using to kill the President-elect, and that’s why/how she wakes up in Starlight House. Frankly, I admit I’m just confused about all of this. After the initial confrontation with the shapeshifter, I forgot all about them/her/it and didn’t even consider the possibility of her swapping places with Starlight. This aspect will likely play better on rewatch, but in the meantime, eww. This person just had sex with Hughie under very false pretenses. 

“The Insider” is entertaining, if underwhelming in some respects. I don’t hate this episode, but it may be my least favorite of the season so far. Am I the only one who feels kind of bad for Webweaver? Let me know in the comments.