For those who’ve saved up with the web response to the fourth season of The Boys, you will have observed a little bit of a shift. It’s not simply that the essential evaluations have trended extra blended than in seasons previous; it’s the viewers response, too. Some viewers have criticized the season for leaning more durable into its (already apparent) leftist political commentary, which I perceive to a sure extent; this has all the time been a present missing in subtlety, and I’m undecided we want the message to get blunter and blunter every year, particularly mixed with drawn-out torture scenes aiming for shock worth greater than anything. However I’m much less sympathetic to those that declare the present all of a sudden went “woke” — the kind of viewers who’ve review-bombed the present, ensuing on this amusing response video from the Vought Worldwide Twitter account.

“The Insider” doesn’t essentially do something that will sway that sort of fan again to the present; the catchy fascist ditties from the Avenue V scenes, particularly, lean into the identical Fox Information messaging the present has been satirizing the entire season. Nevertheless it additionally simply works very well as an episode of TV, particularly main into the finale. We’ve recognized the place that is all heading for a number of episodes now: an rebel led by Homelander and the Seven on January 6. However what precisely that appears like stays unsettlingly ambiguous, and there are various different elements at play, from the supe-killing virus to a shapeshifter murderer to Butcher and Neuman’s crises of morality.

In fact, I made the same level final season about all of the variables, and that finale turned out fairly anticlimactic. Nonetheless, it appears like this finale might be a special case. Not each character arc has labored this 12 months — each Frenchie and Kimiko have been caught in holding patterns — however most of them are literally coming collectively actually properly at this level. If we’re due a Butcher heel flip second subsequent week, for instance, the present has completed a good job avoiding contrivance to get him there. Right here, we see him combating the data that Kessler is simply an imaginary pal representing his personal bloodlust, however Kessler doesn’t reach taunting him into forgetting about Ryan. He’s extra a sounding board to remind us why Butcher cares about defending the child — not simply to maintain a promise to Becca, however as a result of he genuinely admires Ryan’s gumption in resisting orders from Vought on stay TV.

The Homelander-ification of the Deep has additionally been a gentle, strong ongoing character story this season, after a minimum of a season or two the place the character hasn’t had a lot time to shine. For those who informed me a few months in the past that Deep’s new storyline would contain him dishonest on his stigmatized octopus girlfriend with a supersmart supe he usually lobotomizes as foreplay, I most likely would’ve rolled my eyes; it appears like simply one other half-baked comedic subplot. However “The Insider” neatly connects that love triangle extra on to Deep’s rising ego, displaying all of the methods Sage’s manipulative encouragement has pushed him to embrace his worst qualities.

It’s legitimately disturbing to look at him impulsively smash Ambrosius’s tank and let her slowly suffocate to loss of life, particularly with the unbearably lengthy interval of choking and pleading adopted by her ultimate phrases: “I really like you.” As we see shortly after, he didn’t simply kill his girlfriend; he killed the final remaining piece of himself that was able to love or loyalty to anybody aside from a monster. He even tells Homelander he’d kill “any fish within the ocean” for him — a chilling line supply by Chace Crawford, who actually reaches new heights right here.

However these twisted tales of individuals changing into the worst variations of themselves wouldn’t work with out the mandatory counterbalance of A-Practice and Ashley’s parallel journeys. The present isn’t arguing that both of them are totally “good guys” now — look what Ashley and Tek Knight have been as much as simply final week — however it’s refreshing to see some characters truly turning on the Seven management. Ashley hasn’t been a remotely sympathetic character since her publicist days (if that), however I respect the best way this episode lets her remark instantly on how simple it’s to turn into a monster. When A-Practice tries to take her up on the provide to flee Vought, she finds that she will’t bear to go away this sick place, even when it kills her. No less than she reminds him to chop out his monitoring chip.

This season has additionally productively paired up A-Practice and Mom’s Milk, and I really like that the previous will get to be the mentor for as soon as on this episode. Sure, we’ve been to this properly earlier than, with MM struggling to decide on between his household and the mission to take down Vought. As soon as once more, Monique and their daughter are headed abroad, and as soon as once more, MM is reinstating Butcher as chief of the Boys. However this time we’re a little bit privier to MM’s inner journey. This man grew up witnessing the methods Vought killed his father and grandfather, each spiritually and actually. Now he can really feel himself slipping away, too. What convinces him to remain is A-Practice’s emotional monologue about how saving MM allowed him to momentarily cease hating himself — alongside together with his level that Vought received’t cease at America. They’re coming for the entire world; nowhere is protected.

With the massive rebel day developing, Homelander nonetheless doesn’t know whom he can truly belief. Sage is on his shit record proper now as a result of she by no means informed him the reality concerning the leak: She all the time knew it was A-Practice, however needed to make use of him as a strategic “misinformation supply system.” (I’m not completely certain that squares with every thing we’ve seen, however it makes much more sense than Sage being silly sufficient to not see via A-Practice.) When Homelander fires her from the Seven, she’s upset, however she additionally mainly noticed this coming. Of course he’d develop to desire the sycophantic Firecracker over an ally who actually challenged him. Even that new partnership is rapidly on the decline. He’s not even that enthusiastic about her pharmaceutically induced breast milk anymore.

Relating to the precise Boys’ missions on this episode, there are two objectives: determine the murderer employed by Sage to kill Dakota Bob Singer and additional refine the supe-killing virus to create one thing able to killing Homelander and Victoria Neuman. The latter subplot permits Frenchie to reenter the story after his temporary jail keep, launched by Grace Mallory to lend his experience to Sameer. Sameer has his personal plans, in fact — he manages to flee after sticking Kimiko within the leg with their new cocktail, nearly killing her if not for Frenchie’s disgustingly speedy amputation expertise — however by the top of this episode, there’s a viable weapon to take down a minimum of one of many Boys’ largest threats.

We be taught early on this episode that the Singer murderer, who’s already geared up with Secret Service assignments and blueprints for the upcoming rally, can be a shapeshifter. From the second she(?) escapes her hideout, we (together with Hughie and Annie) know that she’s misplaced within the wind; from that time ahead, anybody we see might be a shapeshifter in disguise. However the episode neatly places that storyline on pause for a lot of the episode, spending time elsewhere and sprinkling in that nice, cathartic battle scene with Annie, Butcher, Deep, and Black Noir. That makes the ultimate reveal — that the Annie whom Hughie simply fucked is definitely the identical shapeshifter who slashed his hand earlier that day — all of the extra surprising.

Look, I’m all the time a sucker for an evil doppelganger plot (give or take the ultimate A reveal in Fairly Little Liars), so that is all very enjoyable stuff, even when the character was solely simply launched. And it gives yet one more intriguing variable heading into the finale, with our heroes as soon as once more at the hours of darkness concerning the precise menace they’re about to face. The occasions of subsequent week’s finale will possible matter in a manner that the final one didn’t. With just one season left and a violent rebel on the horizon, the stakes are increased than ever.

• It’s good to see Frenchie and Kimiko lastly open up to one another about their guilt over the individuals they killed previously. The most important revelation right here is that Kimiko initially misplaced her voice as a result of Shining Gentle compelled her to maneuver in silence throughout fights to the loss of life, murdering different younger women with out making a peep.

• I actually just like the scene when Hughie informs Neuman concerning the internment camps and pleads together with her to place an finish to this. Once more, this dynamic actually received brief shrift in season three, so I respect that we’ve gotten to see extra of them interacting this 12 months.

• Possibly I missed one thing, however how did Annie’s mother know that Hughie pulled the Starlight go well with from the trash?

• Apparently Noir has had his personal off-screen situationship with Sage, and she or he doesn’t even make him lobotomize her first, in order that’s fairly humorous.

• Very gnarly however inventive results for the shapeshifter shedding her pores and skin to don a brand new id, ripping flesh and tissue off her personal physique. I do really feel like there’s been a little bit bit extra ripping this season — the Splinter clones come to thoughts — whereas the sooner seasons featured extra exploding.

• Talking of which, RIP Webweaver, whom Homelander sloppily rips in half after a number of minutes of nonstop web-farting. Can’t say I’ll miss that.

• Sadly the “see one thing, say one thing” tune from the Avenue V Christmas particular is not going to go away my skull.