The following contains spoilers for The Boys Season 4, Episode 7, “The Insider,” currently streaming on Prime Video.

Throughout The Boys Season 4, it’s hard to deny that Antony Starr’s Homelander has been deploying a master plan. He has dialed back his more aggressive approach of burning dissidents on American streets. Instead, he has been playing the media game, opting for the more subtle machination of messing with people’s politics. A lot has to do with Valorie Curry’s Firecracker rallying insurrectionists to his right-wing cause. They’re forming a cult and groundswell in the hopes of taking back governance.

Interestingly, while it seemed like Homelander’s Vought International would be using one of his subordinates in the Seven to finish the job on President Singer, this secret weapon is actually someone not involved in the crew. Instead, it’s someone who has the stealth talent for the job, giving Homelander a massive victory, not via a big explosion or loud gunshot, but a silent knife in the back in the dark.

The Boys’ Surprise Assassin Is a Shape-Shifter

At the core of Homelander’s plans is the genius, Sister Sage. She has plotted his media campaign and how to expose salient secrets that harm what Starlight and her allies are doing. No matter what, they have had no response as Sage breaks their leftist Starlighter movement. They know they need to keep monitoring Sage for the next move. After spying, they get word of a gunman that Homelander will use to assassinate Singer.

Once this is done, The Boys’ Victoria Neuman can ascend from the Vice President’s chair and take charge of the Oval Office. Neuman is one of Homelander’s minions, so he’ll effectively run the White House. However, when the heroes track the gunman down, they find a woman tied up in his apartment. Shockingly, she turns out to be the foe. She’s a shape-shifter who, once she touches someone, can rip her skin off and become them. This “skinwalker” is very much a nod to the X-Men’s Mystique.

The heroes try to pursue, but she changes into a maid and flees through the crowded streets. They have no idea who she is, but it’s clear, she is their worst nightmare come to life. This stranger is the ideal black-ops agent who can go anywhere, anytime. The Boys Season 4 leaves the team scrambling to counter. They know time is running out. Homelander’s cult is getting more agitated. To top it off, Singer is restless, as he feels like a sitting duck.

The Boys’ Shape-Shifter Has Already Infiltrated the Crew

The Boys end up having a drink at a bar, needing to do damage control after all that went down. To make matters worse, they had a rough battle with the Deep and Black Noir. It’s a sign that Homelander wants them off the table, so he can pull the trigger. When Hughie gets home, he and Starlight have a heartfelt discussion about her future. She dons her gear and makes it clear, the world doesn’t need Annie January, it needs Starlight. Hughie is glad because he didn’t want her to abandon her superhero persona after Vought tainted it.

Hughie believes Starlight can be that cape in the public image who fights back against Homelander’s “supe supremacy.” They eventually sleep together after Annie jokes about Hughie’s Starlight superhero fetish. When he’s asleep, Annie drops a major bombshell. She sneaks into his safe and takes the files he has on Neuman. Hughie has been keeping these to blackmail or expose Neuman. It’s a smoking gun if she leads America, and this Annie is now in possession of the info. In fact, she isn’t Annie, at all, but the shape-shifter.

Flashbacks then reveal how she was the woman who took a selfie with Annie at the bar. She pretended to be a fan, touched her, and assumed her form in the bathroom. She knocked Annie out, replaced her, and had the real one taken to a lair for torture. The shape-shifter absorbs her memories, too. Now, she knows how to manipulate Hughie. She also has details on the Boys, both their strengths and flaws. The real Annie ends the episode in chains, realizing how bleak the scenario is. She is petrified of what this woman will do to Hughie, her comrades, and the anarchy that will ensue thanks to this spy.

The Boys’ Shape-Shifter Is the Perfect Weapon

This shape-shifter has taken the perfect form. Annie has been a focal point for all of Billy Butcher’s (Karl Urban) plans. Evil Annie will have insight into this, as well as other things in the works, such as the virus they are making to kill Homelander. Evil Annie can extract new intel as well to take to Vought’s evil empire through Sage. It flips how A-Train was a mole for the Boys. Secondly, Annie can get close to Singer. They worked together on political projects in the past. He trusts her deeply, even though he had to distance himself after she beat Firecracker down in public. Singer will always lean on Annie.

Starlight is still a media darling and someone who will convince liberals to stick with him. Thus, there’s minimal chance his entourage will screen her once she visits. With Singer paranoid and grateful for more bodyguards and firepower around, he’ll readily use her. The CIA chief, Grace Mallory, likes Annie as well. Mallory will vouch for her sticking near Singer. In other words, Annie has that all-access pass to come and go as she pleases. Once chaos breaks out in the streets or around Singer, she can perform the hit and get in and out without anyone sensing what she did. There will be no evidence or trail left behind.

There is also a stark possibility she could plant data and frame the Boys. That’s the kind of scheme Sage would run: kill two birds with one stone. If they can take out Homelander’s political obstacle and get the government to hunt Butcher’s team, that would be Homelander’s checkmate. Hughie doesn’t suspect Evil Annie and is all in. Part of it is him being blinded by his father’s death. He wants family around, so he might miss key signs and clues. Secondly, he wants to propose, so any red flags should be ignored with his rose-colored blinders on.

Lastly, the Boys are so preoccupied, it’s hard to see them picking up any hints that they have an impostor in their midst. It’s going to be very intriguing to see how or if this doppelgänger slips up. She’s quite cerebral and knows how to play the rebels like a fiddle. It compounds how essential Sage has been to Homelander’s council. She promised to destroy the Boys from the inside out, and she delivered. Once Sage’s agent succeeds, there will be wide-reaching repercussions to tip America into a new, scarier civil war that not even Butcher’s crew will be able to subside.