The Boys are primarily known as a comic book series, but Amazon Prime’s streaming adaptation of the comic book – which contains a lot of changes and additions – has helped the series become a global phenomenon. Now, The Boys are full of mysteries and questions, regarding both specific characters and concepts. In this article, we are going to discuss a scene from Season 2 of the series where Homelander finally snaps and kills a bunch of random protesters. We are going to tell you whether he actually did it or not.
In Season 2, faced with a crowd challenging him, his ego, and his deeds, Homelander snaps after not being able to calm the crowd down. He uses his Hear Vision and kills all of the crowd members in public, thereby completely destroying his image of a noble superhero. Sadly for the world – and luckily for the crowd – it was just a fantasy and the scene did not actually happen outside of Homelander’s mind.
In the remainder of this article, we are going to talk about the scene in which Homelander seemingly kills a group of people simply because they thought he wasn’t all that. The goal of this article is to answer the question that’s been bothering fans since the episode premiere and to give you some facts about the character as well. Be careful, as there are going to be spoilers.
Does Homelander really kill a crowd of people in The Boys?
The scene we are talking about happened in Season 2 of The Boys and before we continue, you can check it out for yourselves:
Homelander visits Stan Edgar, where he asks to be consulted regarding further additions to the group of The Seven. Homelander threatens Stan that he might decide to on after his contract expires at the end of the calendar year. Stan then asks him what he knows about Frederick Vought, the founder of Vought.
Stan explains that Homelander feels like a superhero company when in reality, it is a pharmaceutical company and that Homelander is not their most valuable asset, but Compound V is. He accuses her of distributing Compound V to terrorists around the world and says that Homelander isn’t as important as he thinks.
Frustrated and angry, Homelander flies off to Becca’s house to see their son. As Homelander and Queen Maeve were discussing things during a break in the film, Ashley shows Homelander footage of her fight against another super-terrorist, which leads to Homelander killing the super-terrorist with her heat vision, but also killing an innocent teenager who also has the heat vision of Homelander succumbed.
Homelander ignores her and asks Ashley how many views the video got. He then goes to a demonstration where people are protesting Homelander for his war crime. Homelander gives a speech about freedom having a price, but this escalates the protest. Homelander then has a morbid vision of him using his heat vision on protesters and killing many people.
Still, then he decides to leave the protest and walks away. Troubled by the results of the protest, Homelander travels to Stormfront to help them regain popularity. Stormfront helps by spawning memes like “Better there than here” and denying the images as fake. Homelander enthusiastically returns, ending the confrontation between Starlight and Stormfront.
In one of the rare moments of gratitude, Homelander thanks her for her help, and Stormfront joins in asking how he can repay her. The two return to Seven Tower and have hardcore sadomasochistic sex. Homelander and Stormfront’s relationship becomes official as the two even engage in public sex in the same area moments after killing a criminal.
As you can see, Homelander did not actually kill a crowd of protesters, no. He fantasized about doing it because his ego couldn’t handle all the negative reception, but he still had enough self-control to just leave, rather than do what he actually wanted to do. That would, of course, confirm everyone’s suspicions and make it like the protesters were right about him, which would further his demise at that point.
Why does Homelander fantasize about killing a crowd of people?
In order to understand the answer to this question, we have to analyze Homelander’s personality. For a superhero, Homelander is pretty brutal and aggressive. He throws a bank robber in the air, drops him to his death, and brutalizes A-Train. He is highly intelligent as he put together a meticulous plan to get superheroes into the military. He is also charismatic and goes out in public to give him support.
Vought and the Seven have always been his home, so his worldview consists almost entirely of what Vought has built around the superheroes. So Homelaner has long since given up his civilian identity and is always called “Homelander” even by those closest to him. dr Vogelbaum was one of the last people who still knew him by the name “John”.
As that worldview begins to crumble, he shows signs of losing his temper. Homelander struggles to understand love and humanity because he grew up in a lab. There he was educated and taught. At a young age, for example, he “crushed” several teachers in whom he was looking for a mother while hugging.
This made Homelander sociopathic and amoral, he also intimidates the members of the Seven into keeping them informed while also killing anyone who stands in his way. This act of murder is also used to his advantage, as after Flight 37 crashed and all passengers died, Homelander believes he was destroyed by terrorists, thereby pushing both Vought and himself the superhuman gun control agenda.
He is sadistic and takes pleasure in the people he hurts or kills. Homelander also suffers from an Oedipus complex, which is projected onto Madelyn Stillwell, who is the closest thing to the mother. However, when she confesses her feelings of anxiety to him, his relationship with her doesn’t stop him from burning her eyes and skull.
When Queen Maeve joined the Seven, she and Homelander had a relationship of unknown duration, which probably ended when she recognized the personality behind his facade. Though people fear and love him, Homelander seems to have respect for Butcher. When the two finally confronted each other, Homelander was both intrigued and impressed that Billy Butcher isn’t afraid of him, but hates him passionately.
He wants a relationship with his son Ryan. He seems to be the only person he really likes and shows empathy as he pulls Ryan out of a crowd that is overwhelming him. When Ryan is taken away by Butcher, he causes a bloodbath as he kills the Vought units sent to pick him up.
As you can see, Homelander is a narcissistic person. He is a brutal superhero aware of his superiority, but he still lives on the popularity he has among the people. He feeds on it and it allows him to function normally; normally for him, that is. But, the issue with Homelander is, as is with all narcissists, that he despised when he is being challenged. The crowd did that, they called him a murderer and a villain, and his bloated ego simply couldn’t take it. That is why he fantasized about killing them although he had enough self-control to not do it really.
