By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
I think I can safely say that there isn’t a man alive that left this episode without cradling his junk. It wouldn’t surprise me that afterwards many spent a long time caressing and comforting their wee man like a pet that has nearly gotten run over by a car.
We still have four episodes to go but Wisdom of Ages stands out as being the Empire Strikes Back of the entire season. No one comes out of this well . Mother’s Milk who is trying to hold everything together as things fall collectively apart. Even his and Butcher’s blackmail attempt on Firecracker fails when she reveals it herself. She manages to turn having sexual relations with a minor into a God given mistake just like the real life Evangelical preachers caught cheating on their spouses. It is a real echo of life that bad guys can so easily can make the good guys look bad to shine their own haloes. Again the fact people believe it without question is the real world.
Starlight’s biggest secret is televised by Firecracker and it isn’t about the childhood bullying. The Homelander folks have been portraying her as a child abuser so when Firecracker reveals Starlight’s abortion to the world then it is a step too far. Starlight pummels her to within an inch of her life in front of the cameras but it seals the rumours of her dark side and she loses her political allies. The Starlight movement crashes down.
Frenchie reveals his secret to Colin who rejects him leavng him a broken heap on the floor. Hughie makes a deal with A Train for Compound V to save his father’s life who suddenly shows signs of life. There is something not right with Hughie’s mother but we shall see. A Train risks all as the only place he can get it is Homelander’s apartment. In another mirror dance gorgeous piece of writing, Ashley and Kimiko discover what is going on. Ashley is also cracking, The only thing she can do is shit in Homelander’s toilet and not flush it but keeps A Train’s secret while Kimoko goes spare at Hughie. She has her own issues as she is faced with a dark secret from her past. Butcher asks Mother’s Milk to raise Ryan once he dies. Every performance sings off the screen as their lives crumble around them and the world sees them as the bad guys. However the uneasy alliance that forms betwen A Train and Hughie gives us hope in all this darkness. There are all these broken pieces on both sides yet none can come together to formualte a plan to destroy Homelander.
But this episode belongs to Homelander. I’ve been a fan of Anthony Starr since Banshee. Here Homelander sinks to his lowest and we see exactly what the world has in store if he has his way. This is a performance that is so dark and deranged that I couldn’t help but see shades of Heath Ledger’s Joker. While the Boys goes dark constantly this is a level that makes the audience recoil in shock.
And I mean shock.
We have seen him laser a woman’s brains out last week for just admitting she spoke to Starlight but when he returns to the Vought secret lab where he was raised and meets the people that raised him there again, it is an abject lesson into the mind of a psychopath. He has been traumatised as a child and never dealt with it so after his breakdown at the end of last week’s episode, it is time he began getting rid of these issues that haunt him.
You know something bad is coming when Homelander arrives in the lift totally calm and pleasant bearing an ice cream cake. He demands that Barbara, the big boss of Vought’s lab, come join the reunion while he reminisces with two of the men that raised him. Frank and Marty are his main targets.
Homelander begins his revenge by challenging Frank to a game of waste paper basketball. Frank used to play this while he put young Homelander into the furnace to see what effect it had on him. Homelander tells him it hurt his skin and he screamed in agony as Frank completely ignored his suffering with a game of waste paper basketball. He puts Frank in the furnace and burns him alive in front of everyone with a smile and threat that his family will burn if he refuses.
Marty’s death is even more sadistic. he had a nickname for Homelander, Squirt. It came from Marty catching the boy masturbating hence squirt and belittling him. Homelander insists Marty jerk off in front of everyone so they can laugh at him. Starr jumps between nice and shimmering threat effortlessly. When he lasers Marty’s genitalia off piercing a hole right through him every man in the world held his wee man protectively. Starr deserves an Emmy for this. His performance is terrifying.
When Barbara arrives she forces Homelander to face some home truths. Homelander could have broken out of the lab any time he wanted. He didn’t because he craved their love and attention. It was a love that was corrupted and why he has such issues with relationships now. Thematically Hoelander is a victim f child abuse which makes him a multilayered character even in this horror. He craves love so much ot is like a drug even though he denies it. So to that end Homelander reminds Barbara of the Bad Room where he suffered through all their tests. As the episode closes the full fury of Homelander is done off screen. All we see is the aftermath with the walls smeared with the bloody remains of the staff and Barbara standing traumatised in the middle of it.
Homelander takes the lift out again covered in blood and guts.
We are left to only imagine the deaths he gave the others given how sadistic he was to Marty and Frank. This is the turning point of the series, the episode where Homelander becomes the personification of the Devil himself. This is the best piece of drama I have seen all year. I will watch again because the nuances of the storytelling and performances are beautifully subtle.
To make your audience squirm, recoil in terror, laugh and end the show with a stiff drink is the mark of great storytelling. Just bloody brilliant.
The Time Warriors and Beyond 