A major aspect of The Boys Season 4 is Homelander strengthening his alt-right movement. He made it perfectly clear in Season 3 that after taking over Vought International, he wanted to build a nation based on white and superhero supremacy. This is why Homelander hires Sister Sage for the Seven.

Homelander wants people who have the intellect to help him achieve this goal. Another key component in the mission is Valorie Curry’s Firecracker. While she might not have her full-blown powers, she is still a huge asset as Homelander tries to prey on vulnerable minds.

Why Does Firecracker Join Homelander in The Boys?

The Boys Season 4 finds Sage deciding she needs to improve Vought’s optics. She wants to keep using an integral weapon: the media. However, she needs someone to embody this cult of personality. Sage attends TruthCon and brings in a vlogger named Firecracker — a new character who wasn’t in the comics. Sage knows Firecracker isn’t a physical threat, as her ability to create flames from her hands is on the fritz. But Sage wants to use Firecracker’s beauty to keep riling men who espouse racist views, and pull them into buying Homelander’s fascist vision.

Sage admits she felt like she had no purpose, but this job is all she’s ever dreamed of. Even if it’s just a persona she puts on. She wants to make money, develop a following, and gain power and influence via the show Sage puts her on: Truthbomb. Her character speaks to so many media personalities on TV and online who don’t believe what they say on-air. But they monetize the pulse of the zeitgeist, capitalize and exploit people by spinning certain narratives. Once they establish lucrative careers and become famous, they see no problem with their actions.

The Vought propaganda machine is already in full-swing by appropriating A-Train’s story with the fake Coach Brink. Firecracker, however, is the kind of person Sage needs on a more serious front. She wants angry white men on the streets, defending Homelander for murdering a protester in cold blood, and ready to fight the social justice movement known as the Starlighters. As a Black woman, Sage isn’t that public face who can manipulate them. But once she uses Firecracker as a puppet and feeds her what to say, she’ll be able to produce skewed news and get more members over to Homelander’s reich.

Homelander has embraced his Nazi side fully. The deceased Stormfront told him he needed to step up his media game. Through Firecracker, it definitely is going to be extreme. She is rattling off conspiracies and scandals, evoking a lot of what happened during and after the COVID-19 pandemic in America. It’s what the showrunner, Eric Kripke, wants to use to have art imitate life, creating some very uncomfortable moments as Firecracker runs her fake news on the program.

Why Does Firecracker Hate The Boys’ Starlight?

Firecracker leans into Erin Moriarty’s Starlight a lot. But it’s apparent she doesn’t just hate her for leaving the Seven. Firecracker has deep malice for Starlight’s civilian identity: Annie January. Fans would recall Annie being emotionally and physically abused by the Seven, and was made to do depraved acts against her will. Since her orientation, she wanted out. But the fear of Homelander was too much. Annie was stuck with the group after her indoctrination, but since then, she cut ties and has been outing secrets to paint Vought as an evil empire.

Firecracker admits to Annie in a confrontation that this is not just business. Firecracker has a personal and professional rivalry with the hero. It turns out, Annie bullied Firecracker at a beauty pageant when they were teenagers competing on the circuit. Annie lied and spread rumors that insinuated Firecracker was sleeping with a judge. It ruined Firecracker’s future and plunged her into a depression. Since then, she harbored hatred and hoped for a chance to strike back at Annie.

Firecracker has a point in that Annie is a hypocrite. Half of America treats Annie like an innocent sweetheart, but Firecracker has seen her vindictive side. She confesses Annie is a monster, so she has no right to smear Homelander’s name. This hits Annie hard. She knows she is responsible for this villainous origin story. But she was young, immature and didn’t understand life. Annie apologizes but Firecracker is far gone. She wants to show Annie isn’t a feminist. And she wants to crush the group Starlight has built. With all this information at hand, Firecracker is going to be weaponizing everything to taint Annie’s reputation.

Starlight doesn’t have much of a response. She’s scared, vulnerable and stricken with anxiety, sensing her past has come back to haunt her. Starlight has worked hard on her brand image and identity. Furthermore, she wouldn’t want the heart and soul ripped out of her movement. As fate would have it, Firecracker intends to do just that out of revenge. She also has eyes for Homelander, so it will be a win-win.

Firecracker Has Already Dealt the Boys a Major Blow

Firecracker’s lies are already doing damage. But as the fourth season of The Boys unfolds its three premiere episodes, she gets evidence to back her accusations up. Firecracker’s team tussles with the Boys, which spills over into a bar mitzvah. It’s bloody, gory and syncs up with the graphic nature of the show. Firecracker holds her own as well. She eventually films the scene and escapes once Karl Urban’s Billy Butcher arrives to save the day. She knows the PR game because getting there first in an America polarized by media friction means this impression will be viewed by the public as the gospel that happened.

Firecracker claimed she had to bust a pedophile ring, which the Boys was part of. As a bonus, she throws out some anti-Semitic remarks, as she knows it’ll curry favor with her boss. The Boys flee, knowing they are losing this media war. Firecracker’s livestream causes a man to almost shoot a children’s home Annie worked at. Firecracker’s “truths” are spreading like a virus, infecting and empowering white men who think they are saving the country. They buy into Homelander’s America-first policy, thinking the children are going to suffer at the hands of the Starlighters.

The Boys had no idea this brand of populism could infect the masses that quickly. But they watch= Firecracker condition at least half of their beloved nation in real time, even if it counts as sedition or treason to educated individuals. Ultimately, Firecracker is dividing America in a massive way. Thanks to her, The Boys Season 4 is on course for a civil war. The powder keg has been lit, and once the Starlighters keep getting slandered, it feels like all hope will be lost. Annie senses the momentum shift.

The Boys don’t have the resources to combat this, not even with the CIA’s backing and the soon-to-be President in Robert Singer on their team. Firecracker might not be powerful in battle, but she is proving to be a capable and deadly symbol whose putrid philosophies are creating more villains by the minute with each view.

The Boys Season 4 debuts new episodes Thursdays on Prime Video.