The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke has detailed how Antony Starr transformed season 4, episode 4 with one critical alteration to Homelander’s plot, making the episode even better than before.

The newest episode of The Boys season 4 saw the Seven’s commander return to Vought’s lab, where he was reared, and confront the researchers who tormented him as a child. Throughout the episode, he is unnecessarily cruel to the individuals working in the lab, acting like an outraged child with the punishments he inflicts on them to express his wrath.

Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Kripke explained that most of Homelander’s plot in The Boys season 4, episode 4 was changed by his actor, Starr, who felt the original script was too harsh. The showrunner added that the actor wanted to approach the episode as if Homelander were regressing into a more childlike condition, which he felt worked better than the original script. See what Kripke had to say below:

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.’

Man, was he right. What makes that story is he comes down there and he almost becomes that kid again. So it’s really remarkable and it’s terrifying.

What Will Homelander Do For The Rest Of The Boys Season 4?

In Season 4, Episode 4, the Seven’s commander spent the entire episode torturing senior staff members who had subjected him to a series of physically and mentally taxing tests. This includes the lab’s director, Barbara, who confronts him in an attempt to stop him. However, plan fails, with Homelander leaving Barbara alive after murdering the rest of the staff members, locking her in the “bad room” with their bodies as he flees drenched in blood.

Now that he’s finally confronted his past, it seems the show’s main antagonist has finally left his humanity behind for good. This will make him a powerful threat to both the Boys and to the world, as it appears he no longer cares if humanity overall views him as a monster. This could help him and Sister Sage with their plans to get Victoria Neuman in the White House, giving him the push he needs to do horrible things in order to better progress their plans.

Homelander is already this dangerous halfway through season 4, and it appears he will be the most fearsome he has ever been from now until The Boys season 5. It’s likely that his most heinous crimes are still to come, as he finally comes to terms with how he wants to regard those without abilities. Now that he’s accepted the most dangerous aspect of himself, the rest of his time on the show is likely to be even more terrifying than it was before.