The Boys season 4 episode 7 recap and review: "The Insider"

Did you think things couldn’t get crazier than BDSM storylines at the Tek Cave in The Boys season 4 episode 6? Well, you thought wrong! The Boys season 4 episode 7, “The Insider,” ups the ante again! We'd expect nothing less. After all, this is the penultimate episode of season 4! 

“The Insider” is a Christmas episode, a surprising first The Boys. Yes, there are some things they still haven’t done on this show, but they’re ticking the boxes. 

The episode begins shortly after the events of episode 6. Homelander and Firecracker have grown closer while Sage, fresh off embarrassing herself at Tek Knight’s, is on the outs. Homelander and Firecracker are now working together to find the real leak after it’s revealed that Butcher and the Boys planted bugs at the event and recorded Homelander and Victoria’s speeches to the donors. 

Meanwhile, Butcher goes against Kessler’s wishes and reveals that he kidnapped Sameer and is using him to build a virus to kill just Homelander and Victoria Neuman. He also gets Grace Mallory to let Frenchie out of jail to help Sameer create a dose strong enough to kill Homelander and Victoria Neuman. Frenchie really doesn’t want to help.

MM asks Kimiko and Frenchie to work with Sameer, while the rest of the gang deals with the mystery person that A-Train photographed working with Sage. MM also turns over the Boys to Butcher because of his panic attack. MM sends Janine and Monique to Belize because things are about to get hairy with the virus plot, Sage’s plan, etc. She asks him to ditch the Boys and go be a family. She asks him to meet at the airport in the morning, but we know he’s not going to go. 

At Vought Tower, A-Train meets with Ashley, who is drunk at 11 a.m. She just fired her assistant to get him away from Vought. She’s having a meltdown, feeling responsible for Cameron’s death. She asks A-Train to run away with her. He gives her a reality check and tells her to button it up. It’s only a matter of time before Sage realizes she’s the weak link. 

During the Boys-certified split up, Butcher takes Annie and Hughie to find this mystery man, but his health is failing him. Kessler’s voice in his head is getting stronger and more frequent. Annie, Hughie, and Butcher find a map of where Bob Singer is having a rally in the apartment of the mystery man, the one who Butcher called Lee Harvey Oswald earlier in the episode. In the closet, they find a woman who is battered and bruised. At first, it appears that she’s a victim, but then it’s quickly clear that she or he is a shape-shifting Supe as she rips her skin off on her way out of the building. Sage chose the perfect assassin to take out Singer. Hughie gets cut in the chase and splits off from the group to go to the ER, but he doesn't really go to the ER.

At MM’s apartment, A-Train is waiting for him. He knows that MM is skipping town, but he doesn’t want him to. They’re in this together. A-Train convinces him to stick around and see things through. We all knew this would happen. There's no way out of this for the Boys.

At the lab, Sameer asks Frenchie if the virus they’re making is for Homelander only, and Frenchie nods. Uh-oh!

While they wait for Sameer to finish the virus, Frenchie tries to talk to Kimiko, and she opens up to him about her past. She reveals that in her training, she was forced to kill many girls without speaking or making a sound. Then, when she was allowed to speak again, she couldn’t speak. She tells Frenchie that she looks in the mirror and hates what she sees. Frenchie says that she shouldn’t hate herself, and she tells him that he shouldn’t hate himself, either. What. A. Moment. There's so much trauma here, self-inflicted and otherwise, and it's great to see my favorite pair from the Boys together again. Not only that, but they're supporting each other again.

At the end of their conversation, Kimiko and Frenchie make a plan to set Sameer free once the virus is ready. 

Batch at Vought, Homelander and Firecracker question Webweaver about being an informant for Butcher and MM, but Webweaver can’t keep it together. Literally, he's too nervous and doesn't offer any important information. Annoyed, Homelander rips Webweaver in half.

In Deep’s room, Deep and Ambrosius are fighting about Sage. Her suckers can smell Sage on him, she says. Ambrosius asks Deep to leave her, but they get into an argument. Deep breaks the glass case and lets Ambrosius suffocate in his closet. What a monster, man.

Shortly after, Homelander gives Deep a mission. That mission is to attack Butcher and the Boys, which Sage specifically told them not to do. Deep says he’ll kill every fish in the ocean for him. 

After Hughie leaves Annie and Butcher, he visits Victoria Neuman. Hughie brings all her favorite snacks and tries to convince her to stop working with Homelander and Sage to kill Singer. She didn’t know about the plan to use Tek Knight’s prisons, but she’s going to continue to forge ahead. She tells Hughie that she’s sorry about his dad as he leaves. 

When Annie and Butcher return to the Boys HQ, Deep and Black Noir emerge to dispose of Butcher on Homelander’s orders. Butcher tells them to leave, but Deep gives a little speech before punching Annie. And, the fight is on! Deep and Black Noir gain the upper hand in the fight, but then A-Train arrives with MM! They beat up Black Noir and Deep just in time for the rest of them to escape. 

Knowing Deep and Black Noir, who can fly now, know he’s the leak, A-Train goes back to Vought to tell Ashley to leave, but Ashley chooses to stay. She tells A-Train to take out his tracking chip so they can’t find him. 

Homelander is crying over A-Train being the leak. Firecracker comforts him until Sage storms in. Sage reveals that she knew A-Train was the leak the whole time, but she was saving that for a better time. Homelander sends her away. She leaves a notebook on the table as she leaves the room. 

In the hallway, Black Noir and Deep realize they were both hooking up with Sage the whole time, but only Deep was lobotomizing her beforehand. It will be very interesting to see how Deep responds. He thought that Sage was really into him, and now, he knows that she wasn't.

At the lab, Sameer stabs Kimiko in the leg with the virus! Frenchie is forced to cut her leg off with a saw to save her life! I had to look away for a while. They keep Kimiko’s leg, and Frenchie is going to extract the virus from Kimiko’s severed leg to make it strong enough to kill Homelander. 

During a live Christmas special with Vought puppets, Ryan stands up for himself. He tries to bring the country together. He’s close to a big revelation but steps aside before revealing it. Butcher watches Ryan’s little speech before he collapses in a bar. 

Back at their apartment, Hughie admits to Annie that he lied about going to urgent care. During their chat, Annie puts back on the Starlight suit that she wanted to throw away. Hughie saved it. They hook up, but it’s not Annie! Instead, it’s the shapeshifter! She steals the laptop out of the safe in Hughie and Annie's apartment. Likely, that's the device with Homelander and Victoria's speeches on it, but we can't be sure.

The episode ends with Annie chained up in an abandoned house. She can’t use her powers. How are the Boys going to find her? Does this mean that the Starlight impersonator is going to be the person who assasinates Bob Singer? This all seems bad, bad bad! 

Heading into the finale, Homelander is as lonely as ever. Sage and Victoria are ready to make their move. A-Train is fully a member of the Boys and on the run from Vought. Deep and Black Noir are licking their wounds after failing to stop Butcher and the Boys. 

Meanwhile, Butcher is potentially removed from the equation with his illness. Kimiko and Frenchie are trying to extract the Supe-killing virus from Kimiko’s severed leg. Will they do it in time to kill Homelander or Victoria?

That’s where things stand heading into The Boys season 4 finale!