one of the boys' The show's biggest selling point is just how sick and twisted it gets, especially when it comes to sex. In Season 1, a female superhero accidentally exploded a man's head with her vagina while he was performing cunnilingus on her. In Season 2, we watched in horror as Homelander crushed another man's head while having public sex with a Nazi. The Season 3 premiere took things even more extreme, with the Ant-Man-inspired superhero crawling down his lover's urethra and accidentally expanding to normal size while inside him (with horrifying results).
It's understandable why the show keeps doing this, since it's rewarded with mostly positive (if disconcerting) headlines every time, and there's also the novelty that comes with capitalizing on the show's adult rating: the family-friendly MCU just doesn't allow a character like Ant-Man to explore how he uses his powers in the bedroom, so the boys We can fill that gap.
But there's always a risk of too much grotesque stuff, and season four finally the boys This week's episode, “Dirty Business,” sees our main character, Hughie (Jack Quaid), being tied up and sexually tortured for at least 30 minutes. Though the episode cut out the worst bits, we see and hear enough of Hughie's tormentors, the returning Tech Knight (Derek Wilson) and Vought CEO Ashley (Colby Minifie), assault him at one point and that Hughie is not enjoying it at all.
Order Technically Since Huey is in disguise, this is an extension of the rape joke; his tormentors assume he's a consensual, BDSM-loving superhero with a safeword they can use at any time; but the way it plays out, it remains fundamentally a rape joke, with the humor relying heavily on Huey's fear and obvious discomfort. It fits neatly into the ongoing pop culture list of male characters being sexually assaulted for laughs, and it's a cheesy, lazy approach to comedy that arguably wishes it were that way. the boys The above is the case.
Why did the writers do this? Why did they devote a large portion of the episode to such an uncomfortable, drawn-out scene? The answer is obvious: they were trying to make a sequel to “Herogasm,” a Season 3 episode that featured a literal super-orgy. the boys' With giant penises, flying dildos, sex with an octopus, and a scene where a germaphobe gets covered in a huge amount of cum, this episode went way beyond the show's standards. It was filthy, attention-grabbing, and the most critically acclaimed episode of the season. the boys It hopes to pitch this latest episode as its spiritual successor.
But the real appeal of “Hirogasm” is how much the marketing worked as fun misdirection. While the ads promised a bonkers sex adventure, the episode's real purpose was to give us some of the most important moments in the entire show. A-Train apologized to Hughie and killed Blue Hawk. Annie quit The Seven and went public about Soldier Boy and Homelander. Hughie and Annie appeared to break up. A beefed-up Butcher fought Homelander directly for the first time and almost won. This was one of the most jam-packed and exciting episodes of the entire show, and it came as a surprise thanks to all the sexual bait-and-switch stuff.
“Dirty Business,” on the other hand, has no such hooks. The rest of the episode features some fun storylines, like Sister Sage's ill-timed brain injury and A-Train's continued alliance with the Boys, but nothing much. Nothing exciting enough to wash away the bad aftertaste left by poor Huey being forced to sit naked on a chocolate cake. The episode mirrors many of the grotesque scenes from “Herogasm,” including one where MM gets hit in the face with Superman's bodily fluids again, but this time there's no real substance surrounding the storyline.
the boys I used to tell vulgar jokes for the sake of vulgarity, but this joke has become dated. The charm has gone, and all that's left is the realization of how childish this type of joke is. And even worse, the boys is a strangely sex-negative show, in which any non-vanilla sexual act is inherently associated with utter depravity. For once, I'd love to see superheroes have kinky sex. do not It's not about ruining someone's life or using it as visual shorthand for establishing superheroes as evil.
But what's most disappointing is how “Dirty Business” establishes just how aimless the show has been with this season's Hughie material. Hughie was once a main character on the show, someone with a satisfyingly simple storyline growing from a submissive young man into a headstrong ruffian. In season three, Hughie Too difficult, Too They sacrificed Huey's humanity for power. It was messy and clumsy, but at least it was something. It was a step up from Season 4's approach of making Huey suffer as much as possible. Just one episode after Huey watched his father succumb to dementia and be euthanized, “Dirty Business” finds Huey strapped down in a sexual torture chamber. At this rate, I don't even want to know what happens to Huey in the next episode.
What saves “Dirty Business” is that Annie (Erin Moriarty) and Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) don't laugh when they find out about Huey's plight, as is the case in many other lesser shows. They take Huey's suffering seriously, and then go out of their way to torture Tech Knight, ostensibly to get information but also at least partially out of a desire for karma. Tech Knight, whose deductive reasoning skills lead him to realize (or at least suspect) at some point that Huey was not a consenting sexual partner, is punished harshly by the story, just like most of the other rapists on this show. the boys or 5th GenerationSeeing Tech Knight end up being strangled by a servant at the end of the episode isn't enough to justify the entire story, but we'll take what we get.
“Dirty Business” should be a wake-up call that something needs to change in the show. No matter how many grotesque sex scenes they add, the jokes get old. There's a limit to how much Hughie can be tortured, and fans will wonder if they don't know what to do with him. the boys Hopefully, as we enter our fifth and final season, the show knows we're tired of “Herogasm”-style episodes, so please, please, don't watch round three.
