Warning! Spoilers for episode four of season four of The Boys below!
It might seem crazy what I'm about to say, but a scene from the latest episode of The Boys where Homelander (Anthony Starr) burns a man alive is one of his more sympathetic moments.
Let's not beat around the bush, the demented Superman of the Prime Video show is pretty much an irredeemable monster who's murdered plenty of people and just does not care about humans (f**king mudpeople as he'd say) at all.
At least not beyond their capacity to shower him with the praise he desperately craves.
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Still, as much as The Boys makes it clear that 'hey, f**k this guy' (and by extension f**k the real life inspirations for the show's Homelander) is very much in effect, there are times when the series makes it clear he too has been wronged.
Right from the show's first season, it's been pretty clear that he was raised in a lab and had all sorts of weapons tested on him to see how tough he is, resulting in one messed-up individual.
Then, of course, his corporate masters at Vought would rather pretend he was a wholesome American boy with a wholesome American childhood, making their test subject go around a house he never grew up in and pretend his childhood was anything like the one denied to him.
Homelander is a piece of s**t and it's taken some viewers of The Boys a disturbingly long time to figure this out, but then again.
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The Boys has never pulled its punches regarding the fact that Homelander is a monster, nor that he endured a monstrous upbringing; and in the latest episode, the character really confronts his origin story head-on.
Revisiting the lab where he was raised and armed with sweet treats for the people there to dine on, he soon set about working through some of his personal issues.
First on the list was Frank (Mark Charles Cowling), who was challenged to a game of throwing paper balls into a bin.
During the game, Homelander revealed that one time, when the lab was testing his durability by putting him in an oven and seeing whether his skin would burn off, Frank was not so concerned with the child being burned alive just metres away from him and was instead focused on nailing his throw.
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So when the time came for the third throw and Homelander made Frank get into the oven, many fans of The Boys were actually feeling sorry for the murderous superhero.
He explained that while his skin didn't burn off it was still agony to be cooked alive in the oven, and Frank not having superhuman abilities, was incinerated within seconds.
A gory scene it may be, but plenty of people watching said it 'make me feel sorry for Homelander' and that it 'broke my heart for him'.
Others said it was 'the only time Homelander was justified', whereas someone else said the scene was 'a perfect example of understanding but not justifying'.
Even if the latest episode of The Boys resulted in some people having sympathy for the devil, that's unlikely to stop them hoping that Homelander meets a grisly end.
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The Boys season four continues on Prime Video.
Topics: The Boys, Amazon Prime, TV and Film
Joe Harker