When it comes to the most controversial TV shows on streaming, The Boys ranks at the top of the list. Throughout Season 4, the gore, nudity and profanity are at an all-time high. It makes the show’s satire of the world’s politics a bit more caustic, but it does so to illustrate the classism, elitism and societal divides existing today. It started out as superhero satire, but as showrunner, Eric Kripke, has said, it’s very much parallel to reality at present.

People in power will always have a god complex and participate in acts of debauchery while pushing those beneath them to violence. It’s a classic tale of capitalism, and the show holds nothing back in detailing this using the veneer of superheroes. Interestingly, the show mimics a very controversial arc from the original comic series. However, it removes a highly problematic element from that narrative, only to replace it with another very disturbing thread.

The Boys’ Most Problematic Scene, Explained

Title
Issue #
Arc Name

The Boys
3
Cherry (Part One)
Garth Ennis
Darick Robertson
Greg Thompson
Tony Aviña

The Boys’ most haunting sequence came with Annie January’s (aka Starlight) induction into the Seven in Issue #3. Annie met Homelander at Vought Tower. She was excited to join the Seven, the comic’s pastiche of the Justice League. However, Homelander was an evil Superman. He abused his power and influence, making it clear Starlight could enlist, but only if she performed oral sex on him. Shockingly, A-Train and Black Noir came into the conference room to partake as well. The “supes” were adamant she had to engage in sexual acts with them all.

It was a clear-cut case of sexual assault, which resulted in Annie throwing up in the bathroom after the three male members of the Seven had their way. It set the tone for the rest of the run, making it clear these heroes were terrible individuals. The first season of the show reworked this by having the Deep sexually assault Annie. He lied that he had authority from Homelander. This felt like the series pared down from the comics, but it was equally sadistic. Annie would expose the Deep on live TV, almost costing him his career. He bounced back, while she left, affirming that even in this show, the patriarchy would always win.

This incident was used to fuel Annie’s feminist arc, echoing the #MeToo movement of the late 2010s and early 2020s. The series displayed tact and didn’t lean too heavily on Starlight’s sexual abuse. It used the basis of the lore and created a more streamlined rivalry. It centered on Annie punishing Deep and the sea-hero realizing he needed to lose his ego and monstrous tendencies if he was to find absolution.

The Boys Season 4 Has Homelander Giving Horrific Orders

The Boys Season 4 has a more overt reworking of the group scene and the villain giving orders at headquarters. It occurs when Antony Starr’s Homelander looks for a mole in his camp. He hates that information has been leaked to the Boys, which led to him killing another employee earlier in the season. Homelander brings the Seven together, and surprisingly, doesn’t finger the true culprit. It’s really an A-Train seeking redemption. Instead, Ashley works with A-Train and plants evidence on Vought News Network’s anchor, Cameron Coleman, as the snitch. Homelander orders everyone to beat the reporter to death.

It’s Ashley’s way of punishing Cameron for dumping her, but it freaks A-Train out. The thudding sound of the blows, as well as the squishes, more or less indicate they’re bludgeoning this perceived traitor beyond repair. The crazed look in everyone’s eyes and the overall intent echo when Homelander arranged the Starlight ordeal in the comics. Here, he doesn’t want to partake in sins and crimes alone; others must bend their moral code and ethics with him. He thinks this is a community and that they are becoming a stronger family.

Furthermore, Homelander gaslights everyone, making them think they are actually taking out the trash, becoming heroes, and saving America for the children of tomorrow. But as A-Train continues to realize, it’s just them becoming monsters on a whole new level. Sex or murder, it doesn’t matter. Homelander incriminates his people, who know fully he will lord it over them. The thing is, the rest of them take pleasure in serving the boss. They don’t like disobeying him, but it will always help if it’s a fun outing at Vought.

The Boys Season 4 Makes the Best Creative Decision

Nixing sexual assault from the group activity is a solid creative decision. Not only is it a problematic plot device that trivializes sexual violence, but it’s also overused, as seen in Game of Thrones. Instead, this Seven killing fits the ethos of the series. It plays on the pervasive nature of these “gods” that Homelander keeps around, and makes them just as vile. He’s essentially a mob boss. Many gangster films, like The Departed, would have the mob boss killing a rat. The Narcos series is another show that riffed on this trope, so it’s understandable Homelander would want to remove any credible threat, knowing he can’t have leaks or corruption in his news department.

This is part of Sister Sage’s plan: manipulate the country through the news and turn more of America into an alt-right cult. He needs it to be picture-perfect. A white man like Cameron being a mole would break that image and come off as bad PR. Homelander can’t let his white supremacist vision be seen as having leaks and spies. Luckily, he has Valorie Curry’s Firecracker and her “Truthbomb” show to keep spreading propaganda and fascist philosophies as he builds his civil war against the left. To him, Cameron is expendable; nothing more than a broken toy that is past its shelf life.

The Boys’ Homelander Brings The Youth Into the Vought Gang

There is still a dark twist to the show with Homelander indoctrinating the youth. Sam and Cate from Gen V are making movies with Vought and act as the anchor for young capes to transfer from Godolkin University to the Seven. Homelander would only want cutthroat individuals who are willing to kill for the movement, and they do just that. They hate humanity to the point where their school was making a virus to kill “supes,” which angered them. It allowed Homelander to manipulate them in his supes-first plan. As a result, taking out Cameron is like squashing a cockroach.

As long as they worship Homelander and hinge on his every word, he can keep using them to bring in younger audiences. This overall arc illustrates a more primal side of Homelander, and he sees a bigger picture. Bossing around a woman doesn’t move the needle for him in a seismic way. He wants to embolden his movement, and that starts from within. In his eyes, the clan that murders together, sticks together. It affirms that it’s more than just a game or a trivial dalliance. His proclivity isn’t carnal; it’s something that transcends the flesh.

He wants control of everyone’s minds, but he wants them to be willing to give him access to it. In the process, he can create fearless pawns and not just lackeys that entertain him for a brief period of time. Ultimately, this makes Homelander a scarier manipulator than in the comics.

As Homelander actor Antony Starr puts it:

“We try and set it up so that I don’t know what’s gonna happen in the scenes. Like, I’m not sure what I’m gonna do. We set a framework that’s solid, and then I don’t know what’s going to happen. And if we don’t know what’s going to happen, then the audience isn’t going to know what’s going to happen. It keeps it very fresh for everyone involved. And it’s not exactly what you’re talking about, I know, but it does keep it very fresh and interesting and it keeps the desire to keep going back to this character week after week, episode after episode, year after year. And as far as the darkness, I don’t know. I’m not sure that I have an answer for that. I think it’s just something that you just get used to doing. But I’m not a method guy either. I know that there’s some really big famous actors that want to quit acting completely every time they do a film. And that ain’t me. I think there’s a healthy way of doing it. And I think the result can be as good. That said, one of the greatest actors, if not the greatest actor on the planet, Daniel Day-Lewis, gets pretty immersive. To each their own.

When people start getting traumatized or whenever they start using drugs to escape, they emotionally shut off at that age. And so we’re looking at a guy who’s physically the strongest man in the world, who I’ve always looked at as the weakest character in the show because emotionally, psychologically, he’s just completely deficient. He’s like a 12-year-old. And in some ways, less than. And I, that, we do, we look at that with a little more depth in Season Four. And I think that makes the character a little more empathetic, because he’s mentally ill. The guy’s damaged, he’s been through a hell of a lot, and I think the reality of that, trying to honor his way of dealing with it, and how that plays out in him, is very important. We’re in a heightened, very extreme universe, but it all ties back to something that I actually do personally care about and I wanted to try and honor as much as possible. And that is the damage and the mental health issues that come up from the kind of treatment that he’s had. And we all struggle. We all struggle … I’m interested in how we function, what damage does to us. And I think that’s probably why people strangely empathize with the character. Some people got it completely wrong at one point and were championing him like he was the hero and that was a bad thing. That was wrong.”

Of course, even Starr knows Homelander isn’t a figure fans should be placing on a pedestal.

He should not be anyone’s real hero, but I do get a lot of people saying that they have very conflicted feelings about him because he does all this horrible stuff, yet he’s desperately trying to be a good father. He genuinely loves the kid. He just doesn’t know how. Because how would he? He’s never been loved.

Homelander is extra cerebral and visceral, hinting at more terror to come from his squad of “patriots” in The Boys Season 4.

The Boys debuts new episodes Thursdays on Prime Video.