The Boys: The Insider
July 11, 2024 1:36 PM - Season 4, Episode 7 - Subscribe
Frenchie works with Sameer. Black Noir and The Deep visit The Boys HQ. A new shapeshifting supe joins the mix.
The Deep betraying the octopus doesn't feel too unearned. Having a supe gf, the smartest woman, I mean person, in the world, is going to mean more than his connection to an octopus (which the general public is not going to accept no matter how consensual it is). As a character, status is really important to him so not surprising at all he would do that when it's very clear Sage regards him the way he regards his octopus.
We did FINALLY get the reveal I was expecting, which is that Sage has been feeding the Boys info via A-train. So it's clear she definitely has he her own agenda. (This has been hotly debated on reddit. I'm shocked so many people think she is #teamhomelander and not #teamusehomelanderanddiscard).
Poor Hughie. Kripke needs to really check his desire to torture that character.
posted by miss-lapin at 2:11 PM on July 11 [1 favorite]
We did FINALLY get the reveal I was expecting, which is that Sage has been feeding the Boys info via A-train. So it's clear she definitely has he her own agenda. (This has been hotly debated on reddit. I'm shocked so many people think she is #teamhomelander and not #teamusehomelanderanddiscard).
Poor Hughie. Kripke needs to really check his desire to torture that character.
posted by miss-lapin at 2:11 PM on July 11 [1 favorite]
Hughie is being set up to be the "lone gunman." (Shapeshifter obtains forms through physical contact.) The finale does not look good for Hughie.
posted by SPrintF at 4:48 PM on July 11 [8 favorites]
posted by SPrintF at 4:48 PM on July 11 [8 favorites]
I was assuming that Starlight herself, in her very recognisable costume, has already been set up to be the "lone gunman".
posted by confluency at 12:35 AM on July 12 [3 favorites]
posted by confluency at 12:35 AM on July 12 [3 favorites]
I missed the chance to comment on last week’s post, but since Webweaver showed up in this episode, I think I can sneak this in: Knowing what we know about Tek Knight’s proclivity for holes from Gen V, I thought the whole reason Webweaver was tapped as a “sidekick” was that Tek wanted to violate his spinneret. I thought for sure that was how Hughie’s cover was going to be blown!
It was very satisfying watching Annie beat the absolute crap out of Deep. Also very funny when Deep realized that Sage didn’t have to lobotomize herself to have sex with Black Noir II.
The problem with writing a character who is the smartest person in the world is that even the smartest writer’s room combined probably isn’t at that level. So a lot of the writing winds up with the smart person saying they’d anticipated everything that the writers wrote in the script. I’m trying to think what disinformation Sage had A-Train feed to the Boys, because everything the Boys know seems to be corroborated by what we’re seeing in our third person view. I wouldn’t be surprised if in the finale it turns out Sage’s real plan was to get Homelander and Neumann to destroy each other because she wants to prevent the supe destruction of society, but since there’s still a season to go in the show, she won’t succeed.
posted by ejs at 5:05 PM on July 12
It was very satisfying watching Annie beat the absolute crap out of Deep. Also very funny when Deep realized that Sage didn’t have to lobotomize herself to have sex with Black Noir II.
The problem with writing a character who is the smartest person in the world is that even the smartest writer’s room combined probably isn’t at that level. So a lot of the writing winds up with the smart person saying they’d anticipated everything that the writers wrote in the script. I’m trying to think what disinformation Sage had A-Train feed to the Boys, because everything the Boys know seems to be corroborated by what we’re seeing in our third person view. I wouldn’t be surprised if in the finale it turns out Sage’s real plan was to get Homelander and Neumann to destroy each other because she wants to prevent the supe destruction of society, but since there’s still a season to go in the show, she won’t succeed.
posted by ejs at 5:05 PM on July 12
This season has been uneven. The acting throughout has been top notch, but the satire seems to have lost sight of the emotional core of what it satirizes. It just makes unaltered references to real political controversies and we're supposed to laugh in recognition and at how ridiculous they seem.
With Homelander, the satire has always aimed an emotional core, that so many would be so eager to support a charismatic psychopathic bully because they want to be him. But when Firecracker refers to both Sage and then later A Train as "uppity" it seems lazy, and as if the writers haven't shown us the workings of a racist mind, but only dropped the same term twice. Maybe they should put on the Hazmat suit and see what people are saying on 4chan. The show sometimes seems to want to both condemn callousness and stereotyping and engage in them, as in Hughie being sexually assaulted. Mother's Milk is nuanced in some ways, but am I the only one who finds the character's use of AAVE clunky and artificial?
posted by Schmucko at 8:52 PM on July 12 [4 favorites]
With Homelander, the satire has always aimed an emotional core, that so many would be so eager to support a charismatic psychopathic bully because they want to be him. But when Firecracker refers to both Sage and then later A Train as "uppity" it seems lazy, and as if the writers haven't shown us the workings of a racist mind, but only dropped the same term twice. Maybe they should put on the Hazmat suit and see what people are saying on 4chan. The show sometimes seems to want to both condemn callousness and stereotyping and engage in them, as in Hughie being sexually assaulted. Mother's Milk is nuanced in some ways, but am I the only one who finds the character's use of AAVE clunky and artificial?
posted by Schmucko at 8:52 PM on July 12 [4 favorites]
It is difficult to write the smartest person in the world, but it helps that the theme of your story is --people with super skills are dangerous and always making mistakes
Difficult, and yet, they ve done a good job. Sage has dropped clues to the Boys in the same way--conspiracies happening in the street where they can be photographed.
There s a kind of meta commentary on this, when she complains about having a public persona. It s easier to write for the Mastermind when they can fade into the background
Sage dropping her playbook on the way out is also something a Mastermind character would do, leaving the clues in plain sight.
posted by eustatic at 8:29 AM on July 13 [2 favorites]
Difficult, and yet, they ve done a good job. Sage has dropped clues to the Boys in the same way--conspiracies happening in the street where they can be photographed.
There s a kind of meta commentary on this, when she complains about having a public persona. It s easier to write for the Mastermind when they can fade into the background
Sage dropping her playbook on the way out is also something a Mastermind character would do, leaving the clues in plain sight.
posted by eustatic at 8:29 AM on July 13 [2 favorites]
The smart thing to do when Homelander is about to lay into you for not finding the leak is to claim you knew about it all along and that it was part of your plan.
posted by straight at 12:45 PM on July 15
posted by straight at 12:45 PM on July 15
Shout out to any Supernatural fans who recognized the shapeshifter concept from season 1.
posted by lilac girl at 9:01 PM on July 17 [2 favorites]
posted by lilac girl at 9:01 PM on July 17 [2 favorites]
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Not to mention the second episode in a row where Hughie get's sexually assaulted - this time unknowningly by a shapeshifter, but come on.
Clearly this was trying to set everything in place for next week's finale. It's all pretty messy now. I'll be surprised if they manage to make something coherent out of it.
posted by simonw at 1:39 PM on July 11 [1 favorite]