The Boys Season 4 Episode 6 gets down to ‘Dirty Business’, with Tek Knight channeling the spirit of Herogasm with an upstairs-downstairs party that goes nastily haywire – here’s a recap of what goes down.
After such a Homelander-centric fourth episode, Episode 5 took a break (excusing Ryan learning the joys of punishing a creep like Max) to focus on Butcher and co. as they tried to track down the supe virus from Gen V.
Things got messy. After getting Stan Edgar out of prison (who had a frosty reunion with Victoria Neuman) they ended up at a farm with V-powered sheep and chickens. They made it out in one piece… apart from Sameer, who’s now in Butcher and Joe Kessler’s custody (oh, and they cut off his leg).
If you thought Hughie’s dad phasing into the middle of a man’s body was crazy, The Boys Season 4 Episode 6 ups the icky ante – and there’s a big twist. Warning: spoilers ahead!
Butcher gives Sameer a deadline
“Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey, motherf**ker,” Kessler says as Butcher wakes up the stump-legged Sameer. Butcher’s patience has run out, and while Kessler threatens to “bash his f**king head in”, he gives Sameer a week to create another dose of the supe virus strong enough to take down Homelander.
Sameer is understandably reluctant; Victoria and his daughter Zoe have Compound V in their veins, and would almost certainly die if they caught it. Butcher doesn’t care, and tells Kessler to keep him awake while he’s away.
Meanwhile, Hughie scatters his dad’s ashes during a walking tour of Manhattan with Daphne, Starlight, Mother’s Milk, and Kimiko. Hughie tells Daphne about Frenchie turning himself in for all the murders he committed, but before she can even grasp that information, somebody shouts “Abortion is murder!” at Starlight.
Hughie tells him to go away, but Starlight doesn’t want to cause a scene, so they keep walking.
Kimiko also goes to the Vernon Correctional Facility to visit Frenchie… but he doesn’t want to see her (it makes sense, considering he confessed without telling anyone what he was about to do).
Firecracker takes over Vought News, and we meet Webweaver
After Vought News’ Cameron Coleman was (falsely) outed as the leak and killed by Homelander’s “wrathful gods”, Firecracker takes over as the broadcaster’s anchor. Her first story is predictably insane: “Are Jewish space lasers brainwashing you into joining their shuls?”
MM watches back at the office and tries to meditate, but he’s disturbed by a phone call from A-Train. He’s panicking about Coleman’s death and worries he’ll be caught. MM calms him down – but when he’s talking to Hughie and Starlight, even he admits the whole thing is “f**ked.”
However, he has a plan: Tek Knight, the Batman-esque TV personality first seen in Gen V, is holding a Federalist Society party at his estate. If they can sneak in, they might find out what he’s been discussing with Sister Sage.
With Butcher MIA, they’re forced to go to another superhero for help (whether he knows it or not): Webweaver, The Boys’ parody of Spider-Man. Instead of climbing walls, he shoots jizz-like webbing out of an orifice above his butt… and he’s also a drug addict.
MM pays him a visit, offering him a free fix for being such a “loyal CI.” Webweaver asks him to stick it up his ass, and after spurting some ‘web’ on MM’s face, he passes out.
Tek Knight returns
Homelander, Ryan, and the rest of the Seven arrive at Tek Knight’s party, welcomed as the “myth, the legend, and the symbol of America.”
After chatting to the House Speaker, Tek Knight floats the idea of a team-up with Homelander (after all, they’re kind of the Batman and Superman of their universe).
“Let’s get one thing straight: there’s no team up, we’re not equals. You’re pathetic… you can’t even fly for god’s sakes,” he tells him.
Ashley arrives, much to the surprise of Sage, but it turns out she and Tek Knight “go way back.” While he mingles with Firecracker and A-Train, boasting about his slave trade heritage and relentless pursuit of criminals, Hughie squeezes into Webweaver’s suit.
He looks daft, and the suit smells like “ass sweat and broken dreams”, but that’ll hide his scent from Tek Knight. It’s unclear why a “junkie like Webweaver” had an invite at all, but Hughie makes his way into the house.
‘Webweaver’ meets Tek Knight
After catching sight of Homelander and nervously placing one of his bugs, he bumps into Victoria. Fortunately, she can’t tell it’s Hughie under the suit.
Tek Knight appears, and things quickly become clear: Webweaver is set to become his next sidekick, and the party is basically an audition for the role. Tek Knight seems none the wiser to Hughie’s deception and takes him on a tour of his mansion.
Elsewhere, Homelander tells Victoria about a secret meeting with “the 1% of the 1%” to convince them to commit “a little high treason.” She’s worried, but Sister Sage points out she’ll need their support if they want to invoke the 25th Amendment.
Homelander also tells Victoria about Stan Edgar (who she saved from returning to prison in Episode 5). Thankfully, she keeps her cool and doesn’t give herself away.
Tek Knight reveals the Tek Cave
Tek Knight takes Hughie into his study and offers to show him the Tek Cave. They take a secret elevator and emerge somewhere that’s between Christian Grey’s Red Room and the bathroom from the Saw movies, with dripping taps, the sound of bats fluttering, and a lot of BDSM equipment.
While Elijah (his version of Alfred) cleans one of his cages, Hughie sees Tek Knight’s last sidekick chained to a wall in a red gimp suit.
He notices Hughie’s heart pounding, but thinks it’s because it’s all “too vanilla” for him. “Don’t worry, tonight we’re really going to push ourselves to your level,” he promises.
Black Noir speaks again… and he can fly
Back at Vought HQ, Black Noir sits with his feet up and mask off, drinking sake in Homelander’s chair. He’s sick of the whole “Black ninja” schtick and wants to quit.
He tells The Deep he’s going to Missouri to perform in a show, and they’ll even let him fly. He’s frustrated that he barely knows anything about the supe he’s supposed to be, so The Deep reveals that killing people made him really horny. “I don’t really like violence,” Noir says.
“Some people laugh at me. It’s crazy, right? But do you know what I realized? When I crush someone’s nose into the back of their skull or beat them so bad they’ll never walk again, they’re not laughing anymore. They show respect. Violence is power,” Deep tells Noir.
Victoria teams up with Sage
Back at Tek Knight’s, Starlight wants to know if Hughie’s okay, so she sneaks into the party with Kimiko and MM.
Meanwhile, Butcher vomits blood into a sink while the tumor writhes around in his skull. Becca (inside his head, remember) asks him if he needed to be so brutal with Sameer, but Butcher says he “can’t do what needs to be done while keeping you happy.”
“You’re gonna kill one Homelander and just end up with another,” she warns, before disappearing.
While Starlight, Kimiko, and MM split up, we see Victoria listening to the House Speaker as he talks about abortion and how women can “reject pregnancy” after they’ve been raped. Her head explodes… but it’s just a daydream.
Instead, she orders tequila and complains to Sage about cozying up to the worst people in America. Sage tells her a story about coming up with a cure for her grandmother’s cancer when she was a kid, but none of the doctors wanted to listen to her.
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“I could cure cancer, reverse global warming, but what’s the point? Humans are animals,” she says, and her point becomes clear: the only way they’ll “get what they deserve” is to put “one hand in their pocket while the other slits their throats.”
In a later scene, we return to Butcher, with Kessler telling him how hard it was to come home after his last tour. He couldn’t reconcile his traumatic past with the expectation of enjoying a normal life.
“That guy that was taking the trash out and watching sports wasn’t the real me… the real me likes to hear them scream. So tell me Billy, who’s the real you?” he says.
Hughie gets his cake out with Ashley
Downstairs, Elijah appears with a Belgian chocolate cake. Apparently it’s Webweaver’s favorite… because of the texture against his cheeks.
As Gerry Rafferty’s ‘Baker Street’ plays, Elijah loops a chain around Tek Knight’s neck while Hughie sits on the cake and starts to “moosh it.” Tek Knight asks him to fart, and Hughie manages to oblige his request.
Ashley suddenly arrives, so Tek Knight gives Hughie a piece of sandpaper and tells him to clean up.
Moments later, Hughie is bent over and fastened into position as Ashley starts tickling his feet. “I’m gonna sit my swollen clit on your stupid masked face and piss like a skunk… and I just had asparagus,” she tells him.
“I’m gonna bite your d*ck off and cook it, I’m 100% a cannibal,” she adds, but when Hughie asks her to stop, Tek Knight reveals that Webweaver has a safe word. He doesn’t say what it is, so Hughie tries shouting out random words like “spider web” and “tarantula” – it doesn’t work.
Starlight stabs Firecracker
Firecracker catches Starlight upstairs. Predictably, her powers don’t work, so Firecracker squares up to her. Starlight seems to offer her a genuine apology, taking responsibility for being a nasty teenager and saying all of those awful things.
Maybe she meant it, but she mainly needed an opening to plunge a syringe into her neck.
Kimiko and MM bump into Sage. He holds her at gunpoint while Kimiko looks for Tek Knight’s secret book (The 120 Days of Sodom), but when she tries to set off the alarm, he shoots her in the head.
MM collapses, so Kimiko goes to A-Train for help, using the words of books around her to convince him to take MM to the hospital.
Tek Knight cuts some shapes with Hughie
In the Tek Cave, Ashley climaxes and heads back upstairs. Hughie asks if he “got the gig”, but Tek Knight’s suspicions have been raised. He asks for his safe word, and when Hughie can’t answer, he rips off his mask.
Tek Knight brings out an assortment of scalpels, scissors, and other sharp things. “Everybody always has the same holes. Over and over again, it gets so f**king boring. Sometimes, you just gotta make your own… and then f**k them.”
He ties Hughie up and marks a spot on his stomach to cut open, but Kimiko and Starlight arrive just in time to kick him out of the way.
Tek Knight wakes up tied to a cross, promising they’ll all die when Homelander finds them. Kimiko starts stabbing him, but he’s a masochist, so he enjoys it.
The gimp in the corner (apparently his name is Laddio) manages to escape, but he doesn’t want to help Tek Knight. He opens his laptop and helps them access his bank accounts, before sending millions of dollars to Elizabeth Warren, The Innocence Project, and Black Lives Matter.
Tek Knight reveals he made a deal with Homelander and Sage to let them turn his prisons into internment camps. Elijah starts choking him and tells Hughie, Starlight, and Kimiko to leave, promising he’ll make his death look like an accident. “Zendaya… that was the safe word,” he reveals as they go into the elevator.
Victoria saves Homelander
Upstairs, Homelander gets ready for his meeting with the elite. Unfortunately for him, Sage is out of action, with the bullet in her head reducing her to a child-like state.
He tries his best to outline his vision for Victoria’s presidency and why Robert Singer is a threat, but he can’t answer any of their questions (how it’ll affect the justice department, the military’s reaction, the impact on the markets).
Victoria jumps in and assures everyone she’ll have a firm handle on things, and their plan hasn’t been flippantly conceived. “America isn’t a democracy. The word democracy makes people feel safe, but the founders never trusted the masses because the truth is, the masses are f**king stupid,” she tells them.
They’re convinced, but Homelander looks furious and embarrassed; his powers are no match for Victoria’s intelligence.
Homelander has Firecracker’s milk
After MM wakes up, the doctor tells him he had a panic attack. Kimiko goes back to Frenchie’s prison and asks if she can wait, despite him not wanting to see her.
Over at Vought, Firecracker reveals Tek Knight died at the party after Starlight showed up. “How do I know you’re not the leak?” Homelander asks her.
Firecracker says she’s spent her whole life “on the outside looking in” and she would never do anything to jeopardize her place in the Seven. That’s why she’s done something special for him: she took a long regiment of drugs so she could produce breast milk.
Moments later, she’s cradling him on the sofa as he drinks her milk. Homelander has a new mommy (if you want to remind yourself why Homelander is obsessed with milk, we’ve got you covered).
We also get a brief scene with Hughie and Starlight, who confesses he’s not okay after his father’s death.
Butcher learns the truth about Kessler
Butcher brings Sameer some science equipment, but he still can’t produce a virus strong enough to kill Homelander. It’s not because it isn’t possible: it’s because that level of dose would be too volatile and could go airborne, leading to a worldwide pandemic that’d affect supes everywhere.
Butcher doesn’t like it, but Kessler says it’s the “silver bullet” that could wipe out every supe on the planet. Becca says it’d be murder, and Kessler tells her to “shut her f**king cake hole.”
The penny drops: Kessler isn’t real, just like Becca exists only inside his head. “I killed Ezekiel for you, I am inside you, I am you… which is why when I tell you you want to do this, I am literally telling you that you f**king want to do this,” he says.
“Don’t you worry Billy my boy, daddy’s home,” Kessler adds, leaving Butcher alone.
Once you’ve watched Episode 6, check out our list of the most shocking moments in The Boys Season 4 so far, and make sure you know all the new supes joining The Boys. You can also keep up with the Season 4 release schedule and find other new TV shows to stream this month.
Or, you can skip ahead now and learn more abut The Boys Season 4 Episode 7.