Note: This story contains spoilers from “The Boys” Season 5, Episode 4.
Homelander has grown his god complex from a small g to Big G God and he now is the figurehead of a new church – but it still isn’t enough.
After being visited by a vision of Madelyn Stillwell in the last episode, the halfway point of “The Boys” final season was largely taken up with Homelander’s (Antony Starr) belief that he was a legitimate second coming of God. Showrunner Eric Kripke explained to TheWrap that his push to be recognized widely as God or the Messiah comes from two specific things.
“Homelander is truly disgusted by his own biological humanity,” Kripke said. “He hates the part of himself that’s human, but he’s inescapably human, and that’s what’s really the biggest engine that’s driving him mad. So if he’s actually given the opportunity to legitimately transcend his biology and his mortality, I think that living forever piece is a very important piece that he has not had up to this point.”
He added: “That’s one thing, and two is, which I find so funny, is he doesn’t just demand loyalty. He demands it like in their brains and hearts. It’s not enough that you do what Homelander says, you actually have to love him. And for the guy who keeps saying from the beginning, ‘I don’t need love, love is weak, love is human,’ he ends up with the goal of ‘every human on Earth has to love me unconditionally, and that will finally be the thing that makes me happy, and if they don’t do it, they’re dead.’”
By the end of the episode, Homelander is set up as the new figurehead and leader of the Democratic Church of America. The closing moments of show him “drinking in the love” of his new adoring congregation, but the cracks in his move to claim himself as God are already showing. After Homelander explains his desire to be announced as God, Firecracker (Valerie Curry) is visibly shaken and in pitch meetings about the reveal tries to lessen Homelander’s claim for godhood to something lesser, and according to Kripke the push is going to cause more issues for Homelander’s base.
“She’s searching for the off ramp, because saying you’re God is gonna be a rough one,” Kripke said. “But, like a prophet? Maybe? You’ll see that’s not good enough for him. Nothing’s good enough for him. I think this might be the bridge too far for him, because I think people, by and large, are reasonable people.”
“The Boys” has always been touching on the topics of the moment but Homelander’s push to be recognized as a God synced up in a particularly timely way with President Trump’s viral image he posted on Truth Social last week of himself as Jesus and healing the sick with light from his hands. Trump later took down the image and explained he was dressed in the image of a Red Cross worker – white robe, red shawl and all. Kripke admitted to being tired at times that the show lines up so closely to what is happening in the real world as the series comes to a close.
“My main reaction is, I’m just tired,” Kripke said. “The way that the Homelander is God thing and the Trump image thing lined up – I don’t like it. I’d rather it not happen. One, it makes my job harder in terms of just presenting satire to the world. Second is it’s just bad for the world, right? So I would way rather that s–t didn’t go down.”
“The Boys” drops new episodes Wednesdays on Prime Video.
