Antony Starr’s decision to turn Homelander’s weakness into a running joke gave us the most disturbing scene in S4E6.

It’s not that uncommon to see superheroes devouring milk, is it? Or maybe it’s just a Homelander thing. If it sounds bizarre then it’s surely just confined to Antony Starr’s The Boys character. Well, being a superhero figure, there’s nothing wrong with a healthy dose of calcium.

But certainly, Homelander’s penchant for milk is somewhat odd. It seems his strange obsession hints at a deeper psychological need, while Antony Starr reveals how it all started. Stating how one scene with milk led to another, Starr claimed to be the reason behind Homelander’s weakness. Eventually, audiences were served with the most disturbing scene with Firecracker in S4 E6.

The Origin of Homelander’s Milk Fetish in The Boys 

With each season of The Boys, the show seems to be peeling layers off of Homelander’s damaged psyche. This gave audiences a glimpse into his unresolved childhood issues, through his weird milk cravings. But why exactly was milk his weakness? Season 4, Episode 4 Wisdom of the Ages, thus exposed Homelander’s deep-seated desire for milk, stemming back to the beginning, when he spent much of his childhood as a lab rat for Vought.

Nancy Lenehan’s character Barbara is seen explaining how Vought psychologically manipulated Homelander to have a deep-seated need for love and affection, as a way of controlling him. This seemingly introduced milk as a kryptonite for Antony Starr‘s character, since milk allowed him to experience a mother’s loving touch and nourishment that he lacked as a child. However, Vought didn’t anticipate the impact of his penchant for milk, as an adult.

Baby Homelander in The Boys season 1 episode 6 | Amazon Prime Video

Now, since Homelander was ironically programmed to connect milk with love and affection that he never received as a child, it explained why Antony Starr’s character kept obsessing over milk throughout the series. This also explained why Homelander stores milk in baby bottles and why he kept Madelyn Stillwell’s now-empty bottle of breastmilk, along with other keepsakes.

But while the milk fetish initially started as a one-scene joke, it eventually ended up being a repeated gag throughout the show, because of Antony Starr.

Antony Starr Doubled Down Homelander’s Penchant for Milk 

According to Antony Starr’s interview with Rolling Stone, the actor initially explained why he believed that Homelander’s penchant for milk deserved to be repeatedly referenced throughout the series. Although it was initially supposed to be the one scene in season 2, where he gets caught drinking Madelyn Stillwell’s breast milk from the freezer, Starr believed it could be a running joke.

Homelander’s obsession with milk from The Boys season 2 | Amazon Prime Video

I think I sent Eric an email after that scene going, ‘Dude, we gotta get as much milk in this show as possible. This is gonna be like a little motif or a signature thing. Like, we have to do it.’ And he was like, ‘One step ahead of you, brother. I’m putting it in everything.’ And so now every opportunity we get, the milk thing comes out.

Once again during another interview shared via Instagram, Antony Starr is seen explaining how the milk scene from Season 2 was meant to be one scene, but finding it hilarious while shooting, Starr explained emailing Eric Kripke to make it a repeated gag. Throughout the show, Starr mentioned asking Kripke through almost every scene if he could drink milk.

Take for example the milk, it was meant to be in one scene and that was it. It was just meant to be done. But then when we were shooting it, it was so funny and got so weird like I went to Eric and I said oh my god dude we got to have… there’s gotta be more milk. So this became a thing where every email that Eric and I had… every scene that I had, I was just like ‘do you think I can sip or drink milk in this scene?’

So, after Antony Starr found it funny while shooting, his urge to have more milk, alongside Eric Kripke’s twisted look at the show, ended up offering Homelander multiple scenes where he expressed his milk fetish.

Homelander and Firecracker’s Disturbing Scene in The Boys

However, although The Boys turned Homelander’s penchant for milk into a running joke, where he was repeatedly seen sipping and drinking milk, none of the scenes were as disturbing as season 4 episode 6. In that very episode, Valorie Curry’s Firecracker came with an internet-breaking moment where she was seen giving a new meaning to her relationship with Homelander.

While discussing Starlight’s escape and Tek Knight’s death, Firecracker is pushed into a difficult situation where she has to prove her loyalty to Homelander. Therefore, going into an extended rant about how much Homelander means to her, Firecracker suddenly unzips the top of her costume, to the shock and disgust of many viewers, and shoots breastmilk at Homelander’s mouth.
Homelander and Firecracker’s disturbing scene from Season 4 Episode 6 | Amazon Prime Video
Telling Homelander that it wasn’t about s*x but rather “about loyalty,” Firecracker revealed undergoing a “regimen of drugs” to make herself able to produce breastmilk because she would do “anything” for Homelander. The scene then becomes even more disturbing where Homelander gives into his addiction and starts feeding on her breastmilk.

The Boys is available on Amazon Prime.