REVIEW: ‘The Boys’ Season 4 Episode 6 — “Dirty Business”

By the end of The Boys Season 4 Episode 6, it’s hard not to wonder where the series will draw its line regarding shock value. “Dirty Business,” perhaps evident by the name, is gross. Most of The Boys is gross. But there’s a casualness to some of the sequences that are demonstrative of a show that is almost at the point where it needs to reign it in a bit. Because shock value only really works when we aren’t expecting it, and it becomes tired and forced when all we’re doing is waiting for the next head to pop.

The Boys Season 4 Episode 6 is the weakest of the season. It all feels like more of the same, especially after the highlight that was Episode 5. Instead, “Dirty Business,” aside from a genuinely earned last-moment twist, retreads familiar territory. And, more than anything, it has its characters making objectively dumb decisions when they shouldn’t, all of which comes across as forced narrative padding.

The series is at a bit of an impasse because the Boys in question are actively ineffective. It says something when even the audience is beginning to realize that Butcher (Karl Urban) kept things moving. He’s an effective leader, even if he’s frustrating to watch. It’s made more frustrating considering how disinteresting his current plot is despite its integral nature. The virus that could wipe out all supes is pivotal, but Butcher is always his best when acting off his teammates.

Instead, he’s warring versions of himself, something he realizes at the end of The Boys Season 4 Episode 6. While he knew Becca was a figment of his imagination spurned on by the Temp V-induced tumor, he hadn’t realized Joe Kessler (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) was. This ramps up his horror as he realizes that everything Joe has been suggesting regarding the virus is borne from within him. He’s still just as capable of hearted atrocities, even if it works against all that he’s achieved in being a better person.

It’s the only significant emotional moment that works. Hughie (Jack Quaid) still grieves for his dad, though it’s only given a small beat after he’s thrown through the wringer at Tek Knight’s (Derek Wilson) lair. The only amusing thing about this entire gratuitous sequence is the realization that Knight is a parody of Batman. From his orphaned beginnings, the servant who raised him, his want for sidekicks, to his “Tek Cave,” it’s a hilarious juxtaposition against Homelander (Antony Starr), who is a Superman parody. Even in the powers, with Knight’s being observational based, with Homelander delivering the droll, “You can’t even fly” as an insult.

The rest of his storyline is relatively drawn out. There’s a good bit there where they learn the only way to torture him is to spend his riches on charities, but it all is a prolonged bit to get us to the next story. Perhaps that’s why the episode feels so much like filler despite so much going on. We learn Knight gave Homelander prisons he owns to use as internment camps. It’s a startling, unsurprising revelation that could’ve happened without all the fanfare.

But if you thought that the Tek Cave wasn’t enough, the ending seals the deal. Homelander, thus far, has rightly been put off by Firecracker’s advances. However, she promises him something he can’t refuse in the final nauseating moments as he reverts back to his Season 1 self. The act itself is repulsive, but it promises something even more sinister now that Firecracker has wormed herself into the good graces of the most powerful man alive.

Other moments shine through, such as a good A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) save and the realization that Frenchie isn’t allowing for any visitors while incarcerated. But all in all, The Boys Season 4 Episode 6 is a bit of a letdown. Yes, it pushes boundaries, and yes, it causes us to wince or look away at least once during an episode. But what does it matter if, by the end, we’re bored and fatigued rather than entertained?

The Boys Season 4 Episode 6 is out now on Prime Video.