Season 4 of The Boys ended with Homelander effectively ruling the United States. He didn’t achieve this incredible feat through a military coup or over-the-top carnage. It was the help of a carefully orchestrated political takeover by an Uber-intelligent Supe with some good old-fashioned propaganda.
Enter Sister Sage
For three seasons, Homelander has worked towards consolidating power and expanding his influence. The only problem is he’s too impulsive, narcissistic, and not very strategic. He’s great at intimidation and murder, but pulling off a coup is out of his league.
That’s where Sister Sage comes in, the smartest person on the planet. Literally, that’s her superpower. Homelander visits her in the episode “Department of Dirty Tricks” for advice on alleviating the emptiness in his life. When Sage suggests he let humans tear themselves apart so he could swoop in to save the day, Homelander is impressed enough to invite her to join The Seven.
Sage’s introduction resolves every issue standing in Homelander’s way. He gets his victory, while someone else has to do the thinking.
What was Sister Sage’s plan?
The plan was to assassinate President-elect Robert Singer, so that Vice President Victoria Neuman could become president. Neuman was already under Homelander’s control, so this would hand him the White House with a puppet leader who could give him anything he wanted.
There were some setbacks along the way, many of them stemming from a reformed A-Train sharing intel with the Boys. Despite A-Train’s betrayal, everything was going according to plan.
Until Victoria Neuman decided she was done being Homelander’s puppet after he outed her as a Supe. She met with Hughie and the rest of the Boys for help, only to be ripped apart by a rogue Billy Butcher.
Instead of trying to salvage the original plan, she weaponized the chaos. Sage orchestrated events so that footage of President Singer telling The Boys they should have killed Neuman was leaked to the media. With Neuman’s body as evidence and Singer’s words on tape, he’s forced to surrender the presidency as he’s charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
Speaker of the House Calhoun was next in line to be President and pledged his allegiance to Homelander. Calhoun invoked Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution to declare martial law. He deployed hundreds of Supes nationwide who will report directly to Homelander.
While he’s not technically the President of the United States, the influence he has over Calhoun means he can get away with virtually anything now.
The authoritarian playbook Homelander uses
What makes Homelander’s coup even more terrifying is how closely it mirrors real-world authoritarian takeovers. Democracies rarely die from tanks roaming the streets. They die from corrupt politicians weaponizing legislation and crises are exploited. Any opposition is presented as existential threats.
Here the crisis (Neuman’s assassination) is an excuse to use emergency powers. The “enemy within” narrative of Starlight’s supporters infiltrating the federal government justifies crackdowns on anyone Homelander views as his enemies (in this case the Boys). Using the Constitution to limit the powers of Congress makes it harder to wrestle control away from Calhoun, and by extension Homelander. Finally, replacing traditional law enforcement with Supes is Homelander’s Gestapo, a police force that only answers to him.
The brilliance of Sage’s plan is that individually, each step seems reasonable under normal circumstances. Of course you should arrest someone caught on tape discussing the assassination of the Vice President. You should deploy additional security during a crisis. It’s only when you step back and see the full picture that you realize democracy was dismantled through its own rules.
The ending for season 4 was inevitable
The Boys has been building toward this moment for a while now. For four seasons superheros were a satire on how celebrities and politicians use their power irresponsibly. Season Four Finale takes the concept to its ultimate conclusion: what happens when corrupt superheroes become the enforcement arm of the state?
Homelander won. He controls the government, commands a military force of super-powered loyalists, and has successfully framed his opposition as terrorists. Most superhero stories end with the hero preventing the villain’s plan. The Boys are giving us something different. The fifth and final season will revolve around the heroes trying to undo the villain’s victory.
That’s a harder story to tell, but it’s also more interesting.
