With The Boys Season 4 premiere featuring a reference to Madelyn Stillwell, a question has come up that takes us right back to the beginning: why is Homelander so obsessed with milk?
Homelander is one of the best villains in TV history. The maniacal leader of The Seven likes to present himself as a powerful god, but behind the scenes he’s nursing some serious issues (pun fully intended).
From the very beginning, Homelander’s penchant for milk has been made clear through his uncomfortable relationship with the late Vought boss Madelyn Stillwell.
But even after she died, this theme has continued throughout, right up to Season 4 Episode 1 when we see him stashing an empty bottle of Madelyn’s breastmilk. So, what exactly is his milk obsession all about?
Why is Homelander obsessed with milk?
Homelander’s milk fetish is a byproduct of his never having had a mother figure in his life. Being brought up in a Vought lab, he’s developed an Oedipal Complex, confusing this need for maternal love with sexual desires.
It ultimately suggests he has some form of developmental arrest, whereby his emotional and psychological development has been stunted.
Not only is this the reason he’s so morally corrupt and sociopathic, but it’s also why he’s unable to move past certain early childhood stages.
We see this phase of his character continue throughout The Boys. In Season 2, after murdering Madelyn, he grabs hold of a thawed bottle of her breast milk. But before drinking it, he sniffs it, sticks his tongue in it, and laps it up like a cat.
There was a fan theory that Madelyn injected herself with Compound V to enhance the powers of her baby Teddy (who Homelander was, of course, jealous of).
The theory goes that while Homelander initially drank her milk due to his mummy issues, he eventually became addicted to it due to the traces of V.
But later episodes prove it’s not Madelyn’s milk he’s obsessed with: it’s any milk.
There’s no better example of this than in Season 3 when, during a rally, Homelander sees a vision of his enemy/father Soldier Boy in the crowd, causing him to spiral.
As a way to destress, he heads off into a nearby barn and intimately milks a cow before greedily drinking straight from the bucket.
Sometimes he drinks cow milk straight from the bottle, and he even offers his son Ryan milkshakes in Season 4 in an attempt to win him over.
Rather than Compound V addiction, Madelyn – and her milk – offered a source of bonding for him. After killing her for lying to him, he continues to self-soothe with the white stuff.
In Season 4, he keeps an empty bottle of Madelyn’s breast milk in a hidden cabinet alongside his graying hairs.
This indicates these are his deepest, darkest secrets. And like the sinister facets of his personality, he wants to keep them hidden from the world.
However, Homelander’s milk obsession isn’t included in The Boys comics. Eric Kripke came up with the idea, while actor Antony Starr helped to make it a running theme.
Speaking to GQ back in 2022, Starr explained, “Yeah, the milk thing has really taken on a life of its own.”
Referencing the moment Homelander drinks Madelyn’s thawed “juice,” he continued, “It was one of those moments where I was like, ‘Oh, we just gotta go for it.’ … So I email Kripke: ‘Buddy, that was so much fun. It was so funny. I think we gotta do more.’
“It just became this little motif and it’s really demented, which actually in a weird way opened a lot of doors into the character and how weird we could go.”
For more, check out our The Boys Season 4 Episode 2 and Season 4 Episode 3 recap. You can also see how the Gen V timeline ties in and explore The Boys Season 4 theories. Or, take a look at the TV shows streaming this month and the best TV shows of 2024 so far.