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‘The Boys’ Boss Breaks Down That Liberty Mystery, Homelander’s Homelander Issues

“To me, it’s a demonstration of how fragile he is inside,” Eric Kripke tells TheWrap

| September 11, 2020 @ 2:05 PM Last Updated: September 11, 2020 @ 2:22 PM
The Boys Season 2 Liberty

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(Warning: This post contains spoilers for Episode 204 of “The Boys,” titled “Nothing Like It in the World.”)

A new episode of “The Boys” Season 2 hit Friday and with it, even more big reveals than we got with the initial three-installment batch last week. For starters, fans learned that Aya Cash’s Stormfront, the newest member of the Supes of the Seven, isn’t just a racist superhero, she’s a super old racist superhero who was originally known as Liberty.

Annie/Starlight (Erin Moriarty), Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) and Hughie (Jack Quaid) find out Stormfront’s true identity when they go on a road trip to North Carolina seeking answers about Liberty and end up meeting Valerie (Dawnn Lewis), an older Black woman who tells them a story about the Vought superhero, who she says murdered her brother in the ’70s, simply because of the color of his skin.

When Valerie — who says Vought paid off her family to keep them quiet — asks the group not to reveal what she’s told them because she is afraid of what Liberty would do to her, they try to comfort her by saying no one has seen Liberty since 1979 and “she’s probably dead by now.” Well, Valerie doesn’t agree, pointing at a picture of Stormfront on a newspaper and informing them that that is Liberty.

And no, she’s not confused.

Also Read: 'The Boys' Showrunner on Weekly-Release Backlash: 'It's Not Fun to See Bad Reviews on a Thing People Actually Love'

“I think mostly they do believe the woman. I can spoil the amount that Starlight will be tracking Stormfront in the next episode and will get confirmation that it is, in fact, true,” “The Boys” showrunner Eric Kripke told TheWrap. “Stormfront is just much older than they thought. And with Compound V, anything is possible and she just doesn’t age like other people age. And it all kind of falls into this thesis with her, which is, she comes off as so modern and media-savvy and up-to-the-minute. But what she’s really selling is a very, very old evil and hate that’s been around for thousands of years. And so the idea that she is older than we think and has been pitching the same s–t for decades now, made sense to us.”

While Hughie, Starlight and MM were drudging up Stormfront’s past, in the present, Stormfront is working to get under Homelander’s (Antony Starr) skin by telling him his need for praise and adoration is kind of sad. This leads to him going to meet up with fellow supe Doppelganger (Dan Darin-Zanco), whom he has been forcing to transform into the deceased Madelyn Stillwell (Elisabeth Shue), and kill him when he takes on Homelander’s own image to try to please him.

“Well, first, give Antony Starr all of the Emmys. That was, like, the most amazing performance,” Kripke said. “It’s my Top 3 Homelander scenes, for sure. To me, it’s a demonstration of how fragile he is inside. And he never got any real love and so he has this veracious appetite to get it from every other person in the world, from anonymous audiences, right? He has this empty hole of approval he needs.”

Also Read: Fall TV 2020: All the Premiere Dates for New and Returning Shows - So Far (Photos)

“But also, at the same time he hates that part of himself because he knows it’s weak and human and he doesn’t want to be human, he wants to be human,” he continued. “So when Stormfront throws that into his face and is like, it’s all kind of pathetic, which no one has ever really said to him, I think he takes that into that last scene. And I think the Homelander that is coming on to him, for him, represented all that he finds weak and pathetic, but ultimately human. So he’s trying to kill that side of him but it’s impossible, because he can’t ultimately deny what he is as much as he wants to.”

And yes, while there are “no immediate plans” for Shue to make another guest appearance on “The Boys,” Kripke says “if there is a way to bring her back, I’ll bring her back” again.

As for where Homelander’s current mentality as a result of Stormfront’s needling will lead the pair, Kripke says “stay tuned!”

“I will say that if you look at Homelander as patriotic politics, or conservative patriotic politics, and you look at Stormfront as far right, White nationalism, sooner or later those two get together. So I’ll just say that and leave it at that.”

A new episode “The Boys” Season 2 drops next Friday on Amazon Prime Video.

Fall TV 2020: All the Premiere Dates for New and Returning Shows - So Far (Photos)

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Here’s when 145 broadcast, cable and streaming series debut and come back

Fall is in full swing, but not much has changed since this summer with many people still staying at home as much as possible to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Luckily, dozens of new and returning shows are premiering this autumn to keep you company. TheWrap has rounded up all the dates we know -- so far -- for Fall TV shows' debuts. We will continue to update the list as more become available.

For the purposes of this gallery, we've designated Sept. 1 as the beginning of fall rather than the official Sept. 22 start, since "Fall TV" is sure to be more loosely defined this year.

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