The Boys season 1 established that Homelander is definitely not the hero he claims to be, and the plane crash was a big example of that – and it might have all been planned by him. As the superhero genre continues to be very popular in film and television, many comic books from different publishers are starting to expand to other media, and many of these are not the typical superhero stories. Instead, many have opted to adapt darker, more violent heroes, of which many end up playing a more villainous role than a heroic one.
Among those unconventional stories is The Boys, which touch of realism adds a lot to its darkness. The Boys is a comic book series created by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, published between 2006 and 2012. The comics were adapted into a TV series by Amazon Studios, debuting on Amazon Prime in July 2019. The Boys follows the title team of vigilantes whose target are the superheroes who abuse their abilities, especially those from the premier team known as the Seven. This team operates under the control of Vought International, a powerful corporation that markets and monetizes superheroes, which means that almost every one of their moves and the things they say in public is monitored by the company. The Seven are led by Homelander (Anthony Starr), a superhero believed by the public to be the face of hope and justice, but is in fact a very arrogant, sadistic, and egotistic man.
Over the course of season 1, Homelander showed how little of a superhero he really is, and one of his peak moments was not saving a hijacked plane as intended, instead abandoning the passengers and letting them die, most to Queen Maeve’s (Dominique McElligott) consternation. But taking into account the events before and after the plane crash, and knowing what Homelander’s goals had been, could it be possible that Homelander actually planned the accident?
How Homelander Caused The Hijacked Plane To Crash
As Madelyn Stillwell (Elisabeth Shue) continued her efforts to get Vought’s superheroes into the military, an opportunity to show that the world needs them arose when a plane was hijacked in international waters. Stillwell sent Homelander and Queen Maeve to stop the terrorists and save the passengers, but it went different than expected. Maeve and Homelander stopped the terrorists, but as the passengers cheered for them and Homelander rejoiced, Maeve realized there was something wrong in the flight deck.
Queen Maeve and Homelander found a terrorist there, who had already killed the co-pilot and was holding the pilot at gunpoint. The terrorist ended up shooting the pilot, with Homelander immediately killing him with his heat vision – but he also fried the controls, leaving him and Maeve unable to even try to pilot the plane. Maeve tried to convince him to carry the plane to safety or take the passengers and save as many as they could, but he refused. Her final attempt was convincing him to save a woman and her daughter, but Homelander used his heat vision to threaten the passengers to stay away, making it clear they were not saving anyone. Homelander and Maeve left, with passengers jumping out of the plane as it fell.
The Plane Crash Was The Best Outcome For Homelander’s Goal
Homelander’s goals through The Boys season 1 weren’t exactly saving as many people as he could, but acting according to his own agenda. This was clear from the very beginning when he attacked the Mayor of Baltimore’s plane as he tried to blackmail Stillwell and Vought about Compound V. As mentioned above, Vought’s plans were to get their superheroes into the military, thus having more control over every possible threat the country could encounter. Of course, getting that deal with the military was not going to be easy, and Homelander obviously knew it.
A crashed plane with no survivors was going to be a bigger motivation and discussion point among those involved than a plane full of rescued Americans, which is why Homelander could have done what he did. Homelander took a bit too long to stop the terrorist in the flight deck, and his methods weren’t the best as they caused the plane to crash. Homelander even had a speech prepared about how the incident would have been avoided if the Seven had the military contract, which judging by Stillwell’s reaction (who was very proud), wasn’t a speech prepared by Vought.
Homelander Is Deceptive – To Everyone
Homelander responds to no one but himself, no matter how much he claims to care about someone (such as Stillwell). He’s manipulative and can commit terrible crimes to his benefit, as is the case of the plane crash. With Queen Maeve sent to the mission as his partner, Homelander knew she would have never agreed with a plan of letting the plane crash and all passengers die just so the deal with the military could finally happen. Homelander then had to pretend to be careless and act as if it had all been an accident with no way out – he could have been able to save at least some passengers, but that was never part of his plan.
Other actions from Homelander support the idea of him planning the plane crash to fit with his goals. Homelander was the one responsible for leaking Compound V, and therefore the one who made the creation of “super terrorists” possible – which was all with the purpose of having Vought’s superheroes in the military, as they are the only ones capable of defeating terrorists with superpowers. Homelander is also particularly skilled at hiding his actions from everyone, even those closest to him, as was Stillwell, who clearly wasn’t aware that Homelander was going to let the passengers die and later use that in a speech to promote their alliance with the military.
If Homelander is capable of letting a plane crash and not save anyone, attack the plane of a Mayor because he tried to blackmail his boss (and not caring that the Mayor’s son was on the plane as well), leak an illegal drug to create enemies, and kill his boss in front of her baby son, he can do a lot more just to get what he wants, which more often than not will be for his own benefit, not that of the team. Homelander is not the leader he claims to be, and there will surely be more of him and his deceitful actions in The Boys season 2.
