Season 4 of “The Boys” gives Homelander his most disturbing moment yet, and we have actor Antony Starr to thank for the gruesome debauchery. The moment occurs in episode 4, when the supe visits the Vought lab he grew up in and confronts Marty (Murray Farrow) for giving him the nickname “Squirt.” To avenge his humiliation, Homelander orders Marty to pleasure himself in front of everyone and laughs maniacally before castrating the scientist with his laser eyes. That wasn’t how the scene was originally envisioned, though — Starr’s improvising forced some changes.

While speaking to TVLine about the scene, showrunner Eric Kripke revealed that Homelander’s sadistic, meme-worthy laugh wasn’t in the original script. He was just supposed to blast his old tormentor and be done with it, but the actor chose to make the scene more terrifying and uncomfortable. “When Ant is playing that laugh, when I saw it in the dailies, I just was like, ‘Jesus Christ, that could be the scariest I’ve ever seen Homelander, and I’ve seen hundreds of hours of Homelander film.’ That to me was just such a terrifying and brilliant performance, and I would like to announce my campaign entitled Give That Guy an Emmy Already.”

Although Marty is the primary subject of this scene, it has much more to do with Homelander’s dark history. Starr believes that his character has understandable, albeit warped, reasons for removing Marty’s member.

Antony Starr believes Homelander’s horrific actions were cathartic

Homelander isn’t exactly a morally upright hero. In fact, you could even argue that he’s a complete monster. At the same time, the leader of The Seven believes that he’s in the right, and his antics in the Vought laboratory stem from a place of wanting to hurt the people who tormented him in the past. In the aforementioned interview with TVLine, Antony Starr said that the massacre was a cathartic moment for his character — and one that could lead to some growth in the supe’s own twisted imagination.

“It was a little messy, particularly for other people, but I think, at the end, he comes out of it really thinking he’s done the right thing and done something great to move forward, and he can be a better father now for the kid,” the actor said.

Of course, Homelander’s actions in the episode probably won’t win him any parenting awards. However, the sequence ranks among the most disturbing scenes on “The Boys,” which is no small feat. That’s worth celebrating, and it seems Starr had a blast grossing everyone out.

Antony Starr had a good time on the set

Homelander’s visit to the Vought lab brings up some dark memories from his childhood. It’s very clear that the experiments conducted on him back in the day had a profoundly traumatic effect on the supe, and there’s a lot to unpack. However, despite having to work with some challenging material, Antony Starr loved filming the disturbing scenes — especially the one involving Marty’s final moments.

“As dark and f**ked up as that seems now, that was probably one of the most enjoyable sequences I’ve had on the show,” he told Variety. “I had a ball doing it. It can’t get weird enough or dark enough for me and I love that. We get to do things on-screen that we never get to do in real life so it was a huge amount of fun.”

During the interview, Starr praised Eric Kripke for allowing him to have the creative freedom to take risks and create memorable moments. It’s good to know that everyone involved in its creation had a good time on the set, as it will take viewers a while to recover from witnessing all of the carnage.