The Boys Boss, Stars on Firecracker’s Gift for Homelander: ‘The Most Insane and Deranged Season 4 Moment’

Warning: The following contains spoilers for The Boys Season 4, Episode 6. Proceed at your own risk!

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The Boys has done its fair share of crazy things this season — suped-up, flying sheep! a lobotomy-fueled hookup! everything related to Splinter! — but Firecracker’s unique gift for Homelander in this week’s episode takes the cake, according to showrunner Eric Kripke.

After being given the cold shoulder by Homelander and Sister Sage at Tek Knight’s party, Firecracker (played by Valorie Curry) later approached The Seven’s leader to prove her loyalty to him. She started to unzip her top, and Homelander replied that he’s not sexually attracted to her. But this wasn’t about sex: Firecracker had taken a long regimen of drugs that gave her the ability to produce breast milk (while also slightly enlarging her heart). After Firecracker squirted a stunned Homelander with the milk, she explained that she’d do anything for him.

“That’s my boy. That’s my good, little boy,” Firecracker cooed as she cradled Homelander in her arms while he drank from her bosom.

Homelander’s penchant for breast milk is a storied one, with former Vought exec Madelyn Stillwell previously providing the supe with the goods. And yet, the interaction between Firecracker and Homelander is still shocking and twisted in its own way.

“We knew she wanted to jockey for position ahead of Sage and try to become Homelander’s number two, and she’s really good at reading people’s emotional needs,” Kripke tells TVLine. “And so then the [writers’] room starts asking, ‘Well, what is Homelander’s deepest, darkest emotional need that he would be afraid to ask anyone and that no one else could give to him?’ and it’s a short hop, skip and a jump to his most secret desire is to actually breastfeed.”

“I remember [staff writer] Ellie Monahan, in the room, saying, ‘Well, if we do this, this is the craziest thing we’ve ever done,'” Kripke continues. “I mean, it’s not the biggest thing we’ve ever done… But asking, like, Ant [Starr] to simulate suckling on Val’s breast is just wild.”

Kripke singles out the precise moment when Firecracker squirts Homelander in the face with her breast milk as “hilarious and bizarre,” and any other show in its right mind probably wouldn’t have shown what comes next, he notes.

“Like, you know what’s going to happen. It’s time to cut away. But the fact that we show the actual breastfeeding and him being cradled in her lap and everything, it’s just so unhinged, like even for me,” Kripke says. “I don’t know why. Look, insanity is in the eye of the beholder, I guess. But for me, that moment could win the award for the most insane and deranged Season 4 moment.”

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Antony Starr, who plays Homelander, was also taken aback by the odd scene, which he “found the strangest out of everything [we’ve done], because it was just so psychologically weird,” the actor shares in the above video. “It was played like a love scene almost. It was like this beautiful, intimate scene. The absurdity of what we’re doing, it’s bonkers . I love it!”

Even though Curry is new to the Prime Video series, the actress was aware of Homelander’s unusual dairy preference before joining the show this season as the ultra conservative, conspiracist supe.

“Everybody’s aware of Homelander’s love for breast milk,” Curry says with a laugh. “It felt inevitable to me when Kripke told me that that was coming up. Like, of course that was going to happen eventually, and it totally makes sense that it’s Firecracker. I loved that scene. I love the way that it played. I love how vulnerable, intimate, and, like, totally sincere it is, which just makes it so much weirder. It’s perfect. I love that it’s such a sort of superficially sexualized character that does something really explicit that is not at all sexual. It’s just, like, the perfect [gift] that nobody else could give him.”

And now Firecracker finally has her way in with Homelander, which is “pretty effective, at least for a while,” Curry says.

“One of the things about Firecracker, especially at that point, is that she really isn’t afraid of him,” Curry continues. “That’s part of why I think she’s willing to go out on that limb and to be vulnerable in that way and to also, like, call out his vulnerability, because that’s a bold move. She really thinks he is the ideal in her mind. So it requires a kind of fearlessness to do it.”

But getting closer to Homelander may turn out to be a be-careful-what-you-wish-for situation for Firecracker. “Once she’s really in with him, she finds out who he is and why everybody’s so scared of him, and at that point, it’s like she’s caught in a trap of her own making,” Curry previews.

Press PLAY above to watch our interview with Starr and Curry, then hit the comments with your thoughts on Firecracker’s gift.

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