The Boys “Dirty Business”

It occurs to me here that, deep down, there are a lot of problems with this show’s protagonists.  That is, to a certain extent, to be expected.  But they seem a hell of a lot worse off right now.

To be clear, this episode has a lot of awful things happen to Hughie in the form of some really unwelcome BDSM as he poses as this universe’s version of Spider-Man to get some inside dope out of TekKnight, this universe’s other version of Batman (Black Noir also fills that role…sometimes).  Ashley was there as well, and the whole scene is just…foul  Really foul.  There’s no better word for it than foul.  I would also call it “not funny” despite the fact it was maybe supposed to be.  There’s a lot of dark humor typically found on this show, but the stuff that happens to Hughie here is at a level I am not sure should ever be found funny.

What was funny was Tek Knight’s old sidekick in the rubber suit showed how to really hurt a masochistic billionaire:  give his money away to causes he hates.

The problem here is that Homelander, despite being exposed in this episode as not having thought his plans through as much as he thought he had, still seems insurmountable.  The only thing that can stop him is maybe that virus, but as Butcher learns, even if it is recreated in a form strong enough to kill Homelander, it will also take out every other person with Compound V in their system globally.  Sure, the Supes of this world are all rather useless at best, but those are the so-called superheroes.  There’s still the likes of Kamiko, Annie, and Ryan, and Butcher theoretically likes all of them to one degree or another.  True, most of his affection is for Ryan, but that Becca he’s hallucinating is the better part of him, and she seems to be there to say he does like Annie and Kamiko.  Plus, Butcher is trying to save Ryan.  Maybe.

That leads to this episode’s big reveal:  Joe Kessler is another of Butcher’s hallucinations, representing his dark side.  The real Kessler has been dead for years.

And yet, Butcher is the most well put-together of all The Boys (or ex-The Boys in his case).  The others are all floundering.

M.M. had a panic attack and might have done really bad had A-Train not rushed him to a hospital.

Frenchie is in prison…maybe.  He’s not taking visitors.

Annie’s powers aren’t working.

Hughie just has bad luck, and his father just died.

It says something when the most well-adjusted member of the team is Kamiko, a woman so traumatized by her past that she can’t speak, but she seems pretty chipper most of the time.

And to think, Annie suggested that they try to bring Butcher back in to investigate Tek Knight’s party, the one where Homelander suggested rebellion against a dully elected American president-elect, and only got away with it because Victoria Neuman was there to take over when he started to flounder over questions of international finance and control of the military.

Though Sage was a bit amusing there.  Her brain, and only her brain, will always heal, so to watch a more child-like Sage sit there and look goofy as her brain heals after M.M. shot her in the head is a nice touch.