Homelander’s Final Act Of The Season Finale Sends A Bone-Chilling Message For The Show’s Future

(Spoilers from The Boys season finale will be found below.)

The Boys finale bid a proper farewell to Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott), who can now happily head into civilian life. Then there’s the not-so-proper ending for Black Noir, who was mercilessly killed by Homelander for the fatal error of deciding not to tell him that Soldier Boy’s his (bio) dad. Homelander did receive some comeuppance from Maeve, but that feeling didn’t last long for him. Because Butcher made the mistake of protecting Ryan, and now, Ryan is on Homelander’s side because, well, Homelander wants someone to love him.

After the whole tower confrontation, Homelander took Ryan out for a public introduction, and things went violently, of course. Some MAGA-esque follower chucked a can in Ryan’s direction, and Homelander exploded, lasering the hell out of a civilian. This, of course, caused a few initial moments of shock before a follower (Todd, who happens to be dating Mother’s Milk’s ex-wife) began cheering, which prompted the entire crowd to cheer for Homelander after he committed homicide in broad daylight. It’s no wonder that the show used him to send a satiric Fourth of July message. And as Antony Starr’s second-season finale warned us, he can jerk off all over everyone while declaring, “I can do whatever I want,” and it’ll come true.

Showrunner Eric Kripke confirms (to Vulture) that this was a Trump-esque moment, and Homelander’s late-breaking actions were inspired by January 6:

“Look, I fully admit to it being a little less elegant and more urgent than what we’ve done in the past. But I would argue that society is a little less elegant and more urgent. January 6 was happening while we were writing the season. We’re a product of the time when we write it. And January 6 scared the sh*t out of me. It scared the sh*t out of everyone but scared the sh*t out of me in ways that few things during the Trump Administration did. To have the scariest part be after he lost his election scared the sh*t out of me.

I read an interesting thing once, which is that people don’t love Trump in spite of his horrific behavior; they love him because of it. He’s an anti-hero. The wilder he acts, the more he bullies people around him, the more they love him. It’s the reason people love everyone from fucking Jesse James to Andrew Dice Clay. You love someone who’s a huge a**hole because they smash society for you. So we discussed that psychology where the worse he acts, the more fans he’s going to get. Just look at what Lauren Boebert is saying daily.

For that reason, social media notes the very Trump-like sentiment, given that the former U.S. president notoriously bragged that he could shoot anyone and get away with it. Yep, Homelander can truly do whatever he wants: