Homelander May Have Finally Met His Match on ‘The Boys’

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for ‘The Boys’ Episode 4.

Even with the huge success of Marvel and DC, few superhero series have had as much cultural impact as The Boys. Created by Eric Kripke, this comic book adaptation presents how horrific a world with superheroes would actually be, astounding audiences for five years with its tales of twisted Supes and just how much control capitalism has on the modern world. While the series’ entire ensemble is exceptional, it’s truly the villains who make the show; each season has introduced a new kind of terrifyingly realistic antagonist that uses their superhuman abilities and social dynamics to gain power, often destroying the lives of countless innocents in the process.

The embodiment of this superpowered horror has always been Homelander (Antony Starr), the program’s resident Superman stand-in, whose unchecked depravity and thirst for ultimate dominance has created nonstop tragedy since he was introduced in the show’s pilot. Most of the series has been dedicated to the titular “Boys” trying to find a way to defeat him, with this newest installment continuing their search for something that could end his reign. Though, he might have just found it for them — because Homelander’s newest recruit is someone who appears harmless physically but has a mind unlike anything viewers have seen before. She’s the ultimate intelligence, always one step ahead of others, who recognizes Homelander as the all-powerful, extremely threatening, and fantastic tool that he is. Her name is Sister Sage (Susan Heyward), and if Homelander isn’t careful, she might take every terrible thing he’s worked for away from him.

‘The Boys’ Has Never Seen a Villain Like This

Viewers are constantly shocked by the disturbing depths The Boys will go to. The show is a satire of the over-saturated superhero genre, merging these fantastical stories with the often unjust society its consumers exist within to create a realistic portrayal of how a world with super-powered narcissists would actually function. While Homelander is the show’s main example of this, he isn’t the only one showing how destructive powers can be; there’s the (formerly) immortal Stormfront (Aya Cash) who used her 100+ years of life to plan a racist world takeover, and the politician Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit), the Vice Presidential nominee who pairs her shady governmental dealings with the power to pop the head of anyone who stands against her.

Each is petrifying in their own uniquely disgusting way, but no other villain has the physical prowess that makes everyone fearful of Homelander’s wrath. His twisted superiority complex and unabashed love for torturing others is inherently terrible, but it’s his invulnerability, super-strength, and variety of other abilities that make him a nigh-indestructible figure who backs up his twisted fantasies with the powers to make them come true.

The Boys Season 4 sees this all-powerful man disappointed with said power, lost in a world of his own creation where nobody dares disagree with him out of fear that they’ll join his long list of victims. He goes looking for someone brave enough to tell him the truth, who he considers “on his level”: Sister Sage. Her powers make her the smartest person in the world, someone with the literal ability to outsmart anyone and face the deadliest man alive. When he asked how she’d “hypothetically” take over the planet, she explained the vast historical precedent and societal statistics that would make world domination easy to achieve.

This earns her an invitation into The Seven, and though she’s initially reluctant — she isn’t scared to call out his fragile ego or casual racism — Homelander makes it clear that this position gives her the resources (and invulnerability)to enact whatever complex, cruel social experiment she wants. Sage is the polar opposite of Homelander in appearance and behavior, but based on the giddy smile that crosses her face at this offer, it becomes clear: the opportunity to turn the world around her into some kind of sick version of the scientific method is exactly what Sage has been waiting for.

Sister Sage’s Knowledge Makes Her More Lethal Than Homelander

Super-intelligence is unlike the many powers that fill The Boys, with Sage’s big brain lacking the bombastic flair of things like laser vision or super strength — though it certainly has much more terrifying implications. Of course, physical prowess is a huge asset, but the series shows how feelings and emotions can defeat even the strongest characters; whether it be Butcher (Karl Urban) balking at his one chance of killing Homelander because of love for his surrogate son, or the big man himself constantly undercutting his own malicious goals by tearing apart anyone he finds annoying rather than getting information out of them, people’s unreasonable sentiments never fail to derail whatever plans they may have.

Sage’s ability, however, seems to have granted her some distance from the pesky emotions that could halt the nonstop analysis occurring in her skull, allowing her to see the world through a purely intelligent lens — she sees other people as specimens, not human beings. Sage makes the throwaway comment that “people are f**king stupid,” which may at first seem like a funny (and accurate) comment on how everyone is dumber than her, but may hint at something much, much darker. Sage, in many ways, is the ultimate scientist, and what scientist would stop an intriguing experiment just to spare a few lab rats?

While Homelander has the ability to do basically anything he could ever want, the show’s first three seasons have seen him give into a variety of intense feelings (hatred, lust, greed, to name a few) that have stopped him from identifying and crafting the world he wants. Sage doesn’t have intense feelings stopping her from following plans, but she knows that everyone, especially Homelander, does. She combines her excitement over sickening studies of how to incite political unrest with a distinct lack of empathy, god-like intelligence, and unlimited resources, providing audiences with a villain who has every tool at her disposal to turn the world into an experimental playground. She may be serving as Homelander’s right hand for now, but it’s clear that Sage has her own secret ideas in play, ones that haven’t been revealed but spell something horrific for the world at large. It would be terrible if Homelander ever caught on — luckily for her, she knows exactly what strings to pull to never let him figure out her true plan.

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Sage, or as most of The Boys’ cast calls her, Sister Sage, is a terrifyingly capable villain, but she’s not the first “big bad” to appear unbeatable at the beginning of a season only to be defeated by its end. Sure, Homelander and Victoria Neuman have stuck around, but the fates of Stormfront and Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) make it clear that even those considered invincible can meet a satisfying end, or at least be put on rest until they’re needed again. A scene in Episode 3 implies that Sage may partake in some…questionable activities to relax, spotlighting her one mental vulnerability. All of this could lead to her downfall, but based on what viewers have seen, she studies the ends of the villains who came before her and is well aware of how to escape their fates.

It’s wrong to underestimate the confirmed smartest person in the world, and while The Boys has taught that truly nobody is invincible, it has never introduced an all-knowing, calculated evil like this before. Sage doesn’t care about Homelander, she doesn’t care about The Boys, and she most likely doesn’t care about any of the intense fighting that has filled this impactful show. All she cares about is having fun seeing her darkly brilliant thoughts come to life — if people don’t catch onto just how powerful she is soon, she may spell the end for everyone… and what a fun experiment that will be.

The Boys is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video in the U.S.

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