(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 literally 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:
don’t know what’s more terrifying… the fact that homelander can now truly do whatever he wants or the fact that there are people out there who fully support him… pic.twitter.com/5RxwcdKaPT
— – (@myvillaneve) July 8, 2022
homelander fans accepting the shit he does honestly must be the scariest and most realistic thing there is,it could literally happen in real life and that's terrible pic.twitter.com/mHQKLOn1CS
— gus 🦇 (@Guslivesagain) July 8, 2022
the fact that the crowd really liked how homelander blew up the head of that poor bastard who threw a can of soda to his little psycho is pretty fucking scary, Season 4 will be savage. It's all open for Homelander to have his own dictatorship. #TheBoysFinale #TheBoys pic.twitter.com/72J9AA3kbR
— bbbauer (@tzilacatzinnn) July 8, 2022
Uh oh, looks like Ryan may be turning into a mini homelander 😬 #TheBoysFinale pic.twitter.com/8boNryPF2r
— niamh👽 (@acklesbitch) July 8, 2022
https://twitter.com/Smoked2Much/status/1545220611596660736
Ryan's face after seeing his own father killing someone. He ENJOYED it. Damn. This little guy will be another homelander #TheBoysFinale pic.twitter.com/ysvT5bB37R
— Aldi ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@madlyrk) July 8, 2022
thats how you do a season finale. so excited to see where this all goes. they set up so much in those last 15 minutes. that moment with homelander and ryan at the very end was terrifying and can only lead to terrible things. 10/10 season cant wait for season 4. #TheBoysFinale pic.twitter.com/14I4G9pMgY
— 🇵🇸🇸🇩🇨🇩 (@infnite_void) July 8, 2022