The fourth season of The Boys is essentially rehabilitation for Antony Starr’s Homelander.

On a professional level, he enjoys playing the political game and leveraging Vought International to take over America. However, he is exorcising personal demons after years of pain. He murdered the majority of the Vought lab personnel where he was raised and experimented on.

This provided Homelander with the ultimate vengeance against the scientists, who regarded him as nothing more than a weapon. In the sixth episode, “Dirty Business,” a liberated Homelander reconnects with his past through a breastfeeding addiction. In the process, the show revives a dark pastime of his while hinting at infighting inside his group.

The Boys’ Homelander Breast Milk Obsession is Explained

Homelander was obsessed with breast milk since The Boys Season 1. It was due to him seeing his boss, Madelyn Stillwell, after she got pregnant. He never had a mother of his own, so he kept fantasizing about breastfeeding with her. She weaponized this Oedipus complex and manipulated him to keep him in check. She was in charge of Vought’s heroes and carrying out sneaky plans to get military contracts, so she didn’t care about his emotional scars.

If Madelyn could use Homelander’s mother issues to control him, that could work to her advantage. Homelander even stole her bottled milk and hated her son, Teddy, when he was born. He was jealous because he wanted to be in Teddy’s shoes. Madelyn mixed in some 𝓈ℯ𝓍ual teasing, knowing Homelander had an infantile mentality as a petulant boy who was never loved. But when Homelander realized she was tricking him, he 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ed her.

The Boys’ Firecracker Becomes Homelander’s New Mother

Season 4 introduced Valorie Curry’s Firefracker as Homelander’s new media accomplice. He’s using her and her show, Truthbomb, to bring more people into his alt-right cult. Firecracker does have a crush on Homelander, but he’s all about business. Firecracker ends up cornering him in a room and letting him know she will do anything to show him how loyal she is. She knows about all of his kinks, so she has an idea what works and what doesn’t. Firecracker squirts breast milk onto his face. He’s shocked because she isn’t pregnant.

She admits she has been taking treatments to generate the milk. All she wants to do is pleasure and serve her overlord, which is what she promotes on TV, letting women know they ought to be subservient to their men. Homelander isn’t 𝓈ℯ𝓍ually attracted to her, up until this point. The scene ends with Homelander breastfeeding like a child. Firecracker is elated because this gives her leverage and a modicum of power over him. It’s a business transaction that is going to have big consequences.

Firecracker wants to climb the corporate ladder and gain respect. With Homelander in her corner, her mother gimmick can only continue to reap dividends. This devotion illustrates how clever Firecracker is despite being seen as a joke. Even Homelander didn’t think she was smart. He considered her a puppet. But now, she has a worth not even he could have predicted. This sequence continues to prove how The Boys’ showrunner, Eric Kripke, will push the envelope and paint Homelander as a child who just needed love growing up.

The timing couldn’t be better for Firecracker. Homelander will depend on Firecracker even more after learning from the lab his mother was someone random who they paid to make him. She died on the operating table when he unleashed his laser eyes. Thus, Homelander could seek affirmation with this replacement mother, all while trying to assuage the guilt and pain of it all. Firecracker is positioned to help him forget the past the more time they spend together.

The Boys’ Firecracker Needs to Fight Victoria Neuman and Sister Sage

A big part of why Firecracker entices and seduces Homelander is because she needs to steel herself up to combat Victoria Neuman and Sister Sage. Firecracker adapts after Tek Knight hosts a party for politicians in Episode 6, “Dirty Business,” so the elite can bring funding over to Vought and Homelander’s insurrection. At the gathering, Sage belittles Firecracker. She wants her to play her position, stay quiet and wait for orders. Even Homelander and the US Vice President, Victoria Neuman, don’t care about Firecracker’s ideas.

Firecracker watches Sage and Neuman plot, which makes her jealous. She knows they’re Homelander’s main cogs, and if they have their way, she could become very expendable. They have no problem disposing of dead weight. Firecracker is well aware they could find another anchor to replace her. She is but a face on the TV to spew rhetoric and speeches to build the racist groundswell for the Vought empire. She doesn’t feel as valuable. Conversely, Sage and Neuman are extremely important. Homelander has the muscle for a coup, but Neuman and Sage have the brains to help the wealthy get richer.

“Firecracker can always play the ethnicity card, elevate her standing in the team, and make Homelander remember he was meant to rebuild America for white people.”

Neuman knows how to fix industries such as oil and gas, deal with public servants, and handle all other facets of government. She will execute while Sage plans. Homelander can then claim the glory. As a result, Firecracker pivots to ensure she remains in the inner-circle. She isn’t as intelligent or has business acumen, but she figures out what else Homelander wants and what he needs. A taboo spin on a mother. Coincidentally, Sage and Neuman are women of color who have struck a secret pact. They will be the master manipulators for all these white supremacists in Homelander’s cult. This makes them dangerous.