The Boys season 4 episode 4: How Homelander story changed

The Boys season 4 episode 4 is going to be a story that lives on in some viewers’ heads for a while, and for good reason. After all, it has to be one of the more twisted hours we’ve seen in the show’s history! There was so much brutality and devastation, and through it all you had a brilliant performance from Antony Starr as he returned to the basement where he was raised — his “home,” if you will.

As violent as the story you saw was, know this — initially, it was even more bleak.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, showrunner Eric Kripke noted that the story changed largely due to conversations with Starr about Homelander’s state of mind:

“The original draft had Homelander coming down there and being just cruel top to bottom … It was very much like he was coming down there to torture those people and basically pull the wings off flies. Ant called me and he said, ‘That feels wrong to me. This is like my home. I think there would be moments where I would be very childlike and sometimes confused. I could be cruel, but then I could feel bad about being cruel and I could just be this mess where you never know how I’m going to react next.'”

The unpredictability here is actually what makes it work even better, largely because it feels like there is kindness with cruelty at every turn. Then, when Barbara arrives, it seems like he’s about to settle down … but she’s in the “bad room” at the end and it is hard to know when she’ll ever get out.

Will this experience change Homelander? He certainly seems to think it will, but we know that often, it is not always that easy for a tiger to change its stripes.

Related – Learn more about the next new episode of The Boys

What did you think about The Boys season 4 episode 4?

Do you think this story will stand out as an epic showcase for Starr? Be sure to share right now in the comments, and also come back for other updates.

This article was written by Jessica BunBun.